Top Ten Tuesday: Thanksgiving Day

Haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday in a while and I thought this would be a good time to write one out. With Thanksgiving here and now gone (too quickly might I add), I wanted to take the time to reflect on what I enjoyed most about this particular Turkey Day. These are in no particular order :)

Carving Knife - I have never seen, nor held for that matter, a carving knife in action. Not only did I get to see my Dad work the carving knife while slicing up the turkey, but I actually own one now since he and Denise bought us one for the house!

Stuffing - Denise, my step-mom, made her world-famous stuffing (at least in my world now). I still don't know everything that was in it, but I do know this - it contained bread and sausage. Winning.

Hosting - This was the first Thanksgiving that Mandi and I hosted at our home. We usually head down to Tucson, but with my Dad and Denise in town, we thought it would be a perfect time to have Thanksgiving at our house. It was awesome to be able to use our kitchen to it's full capacity and put our dining room table to good use :)

Family - Like I said before in previous posts, my Dad and step-mom Denise are in from San Antonio to visit with us...and Mckenna :) I love spending time with family, and I love spending time with family even more around the holidays.

Apple Pie - We made an apple pie from scratch (as long as you don't include the crust) and as long as you don't judge a book by it's cover, it turned out really well! It was very very tasty and to be honest, I'm looking forward for another holiday so we have an excuse to make it again.

Gravy - This one really doesn't need an explanation. Gravy. That's it...Gravy.

Relaxing - Don't know if it's the turkey, the company or my comfy couch, but whatever it was, I had a very relaxing Thanksgiving. It was so nice to be able to relax and hang out with family after a fantastic meal.

Football - Thanksgiving and football really go hand-in-hand don't they? I wasn't able to throw the pigskin around like I usually do, but being able to watch it on TV was almost just as nice...and less tiring.

Fire - It was a bit chilly out, so just as we always do, we found our excuse to make a fire. Granted, we didn't sit next to the fire as we had an alternate heating source (more on that in a bit), but it was sure nice to look at.

Heater - Mandi's parents bought us a heater for our back porch and it really came in handy on Thanksgiving night. We sat on our outdoor furniture with coffee in hand, pie on lap and heater turned on. It was glorious.

So what would be on your Top Ten Thanksgiving list?

Thankful Thursday: Thanksgiving & Mckenna

It's thankful Thursday time! We all have so much to be thankful for and we love to take this opportunity just to write down each and everything that comes to mind. Please take this time to share with us what you're thankful for as well. If you have a blog expressing your thankfulness, please share the link! Without further ado, here's what we're thankful for:

Mandi's List:

I'm thankful for smiles. Mckenna has started to smile AT US. Not just smiles in her sleep or randomly during the day because she didn't know what her face was doing. We're talking SMILES. Real ones. You have to give her the scariest, biggest, so-big-it-looks-like-a-painted-on-clown smile to get her to smile back, but I smile at her til my cheeks hurt...and it's worth it!! I am so thankful that she's growing and developing. I am SO thankful for her smiles. I am a bit partial, but I think they may be the cutest smiles in the history of smiles.

I'm thankful for family. Ronnie's dad and step-mom are in town for the week, and it's awesome to have them here. It's great to get to hang as a family and spend time together.

I'm thankful for our first Thanksgiving as a family. We've never had a Thanksgiving at our house, and it seems so perfect to have our first Thanksgiving at our home the same time as our first family Thanksgiving. With that said, I'm REALLY thankful that Ronnie's step-mom is here to help make Thanksgiving dinner...I'd be in trouble if I had to try to cook it on my own. I could figure it out, but it wouldn't be pretty.

Ronnie's List:

I'm thankful and excited that we're going to be able to host our first Thanksgiving as a family at our house. Like I mentioned yesterday, my Dad and step-mom are in from San Antonio and we thought it'd be the perfect time to host a Thanksgiving meal. We usually go down to Tucson, which I'll of course miss somewhat, but starting some of our own traditions is very important to me. We may not do Thanksgiving here every year, but proving we could have the ability to do so is exciting!

I'm so thankful that I have my special time with Mckenna. Like I've said before, and no I'm not extremely proud of this, but I'm just a tad bit jealous that Mandi gets to spend a bunch of quality time with Peanut while breast feeding. In order to get some special time of my own, I "called" tub time with Mckenna. So far she has taken to the water very well and it has been an enjoyable experience for us both.

 

I'm thankful for the reactions we're getting from Peanut lately. She's getting real good at tracking with her eyes, turning her head to find us and smiling when we're silly. Granted, she still has her biggest smiles before barfing or pooping, but the smiles she gives to us just because, are quite special.

Lastly, a very very happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. I hope that no one is actually reading this because of family time, but if you are, please take a moment to reflect on all that you have to be thankful for.

So, what are you thankful for today?

Thanksgiving Visitors!!

This week and into the next, we have the pleasure of having my dad and step-mom hang out with us and spend the holidays in our home. They came in from San Antonio to see Mckenna for the first time and we all thought Thanksgiving would be a great time for the visit. It's especially nice to have them here for Thanksgiving since this will be the first Thanksgiving dinner hosted in our home and to be frank, we really wouldn't know where to get started. Thankfully Denise is here to show us the ropes in the hopes that we may be able to do this on our own someday :)

We hit up the grocery store today to make sure we had everything we needed for the big meal on Thursday. Just off the top of my head, it looks like we'll be having: Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, cauliflower, cranberry sauce, corn and pumpkin pie. Think that's enough for the 4 of us (and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm forgetting a thing or two)??? I seriously can't wait as the Thanksgiving meal is one of my favorites, although I always must remember not to eat myself to death...almost literally. Have I told that story on RSBR before? The time that my Thanksgiving meal almost killed me? That's a good one.

Anyway, the whole point of this blog is to welcome my dad and Denise to Arizona and let them know I'm extremely happy they are here (as I know they'll get the message since they read this everyday). I look forward to the next 8 days and can't wait to see what trouble we get ourselves into. Thanks for the help with the yard today and please, don't hesitate to think of other projects we can knock out while ya'll are here. I mean, we can't sit around and stare at Mckenna all day every day right? Right???

Rondi's Recipes: The Hamburger Cake

For our cousin bake-off on Thanksgiving, Mandi and I decided to make a hamburger cake. It turned out well...if by well you mean looked awesome but not tasting great :)

The ingredients.

Any vanilla cake and brownie mix will do.

The set-up.

The cakes.

The destruction.

Fondant burger toppings.

That seriously looks like a piece of meat.

Rockin' and Rollin'.

That's one good looking burger.

Serve with french fries (sugar cookies).

50% is not going to cut it

Out of all my goals that I set out to accomplish last week, I'd say my rate of success was about at 50%. That's simply not going to cut it. If my ultimate goal is to be the absolute healthiest I can possibly be, knocking out half of my mini-goals will have me falling short every time. Good thing is that I'm able to look back and see what I can adjust from last week to try and make sure it doesn't happen again, bad thing is I can still feel last week this week. So let's go through my goals and see how I did and why I came up short:

I refuse to miss any treatments. My middle day treatments always seem to get caught in the crossfire when things get busy. When this happens, I generally feel like dookie at the end of the day and my lungs get super tight. Even with that foreknowledge I'll still put off my middle treatments for some reason. Doesn't make sense. This week, I can't afford to do that. I need to stay on my game by staying on top of my treatments.

I'd say I was 3/7 (42%) on this one. I REALLY wanted to do all 4 treatments every single day (which did happen Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday), but I ended up only doing 2 Thursday, 3 Friday, 2 Saturday and 2 Sunday. I wish I could tell you that "life got in the way" but I can't put it all on that. I did have the opportunity to squeeze in another treatment each weekend day, but I decided to put other things first. I could have brought my vest and compressor down to Tucson on Thanksgiving day, but I chose not to. Excuses 1, Ronnie 0.

I will go for a run everyday. My runs have been going well for quite some time now and I refuse to let this crazy week derail the train. Lately I've been running every other day to let my legs rest, but have been going on long walks or bike rides on my "off" days. This week, I want to run every single day. I want to run every single day to make sure my body knows who is in charge and even though he's not going to feel like lacing up his shoes and hitting the road, he's GOING TO DO IT!!

You'll see a reoccurring theme happening here. First three days of the week were good, last 4, not so good. I did not run at all after Thanksgiving until today. I still got in some bike rides and my morning walks, but that wasn't my goal. My goal was to run and that I did not do consistently. I can feel it this week as my mucus is thicker, darker and generally harder to get up and out. Excuses 2, Ronnie 0.

I will not forget to remember all that I am thankful for. This shouldn't be too difficult to stick to as Mandi and I have made this part of our daily lives, but out of any week of the year, I want to make sure this isn't the one I forget to be thankful. If I started listing everything I had to be thankful, we'd be here until next year, but I definitely want to be more vocal about it his week. I want to make sure the people in my life know how thankful I am for them.

I'd have to say that I nailed this one. I don't think a day goes by that I don't voice how thankful I am for my wife, family, friends and life. I was able to reflect even more on that this holiday weekend, but in general, I'm a very thankful guy. Excuses 2, Ronnie 1.

I will not overeat on Thanksgiving Day. Now, I don't want you thinking that I'm watching my weight (although I probably should be); Thanksgiving Day and I have some history. I had my first ever full intestinal blockage in 2003 on Thanksgiving Day and it was not pretty. I won't go into details right now, but I'll try to write about it this week. Long story short, know when to say when when it comes to turkey.

I'm proud to report that I did not overeat. I had seconds, but they were a small seconds. I even managed to throw away some dessert after I started feeling full. With my history of stomach blockages on Thanksgiving, overeating is not something I can afford to do. Excuses 2, Ronnie 2.

They say a tie is like kissing your sister, but I'd rather that than be shut out 4 to nothing versus Mr. Excuses. It looks like I'll have something to work on for this next holiday week coming up shortly. I can only hope that I do better.

Thanksgiving 2010 (in pictures)

We had a great Thanksgiving celebration with family and probably both ate more than we needed to. Here's Thanksgiving 2010 in pictures:

We roll deep!!

Mandi looks focused and ready!

We almost ran out of food...

Feast!!

Here's 2 of 3 tables

Seconds.

Some of the desserts this year

The judges for the 2010 cousin bake-off

Hanging out afterwards

Where'd everyone go??? Video games!!

We Sure Do Have a Great Life Don't We?

I know that Thursdays are the days to be thankful around RSR, but I've felt so blessed this week that Monday is the new Thursday...at least this week. Here's a little look into all the great happenings this last week that I am so excited about.

One HUGE blessing this week was the opportunity to spend some time with my dear friend and maid of honor, Lenore. Lenore and I went to high school together and we have remained great friends through college. We went to school just far enough apart (I went to Syracuse and she went to America) that we never saw each other. I saw her for a few hours last year, but that wasn't nearly enough. As you can tell, this visit was much needed and we had a great time catching up. She is one of the most amazing people and it was so incredible getting to spend time. She also had her boyfriend, Mo, with her, and it was awesome to get to meet him. He might be one of the only people I've ever thought was good enough for my Lenore :)

Another HUGE blessing this week was the launch of CysticLife and the incredible support we've received. We had a great week in terms of numbers, a ton of unique visitors, tons of page views, and over 570 new members signed up. The numbers are great, but I can honestly say there was

something else I noticed and realized that just warmed my heart. I haven't been a part of the CF community for that long, and I knew that it was a great group of people, but this week brought my understanding to a whole new level. The feedback and support everyone offered us was incredible. We didn't have too many glitches, but any issues we had people were willing to work through with us. Some people had spent hours on something, and then lost it due to a glitch, and instead of being frustrated and upset, they just tried again and told us it was ok. I can't tell you how much anxiety we had over releasing the site to the wolves and I can't tell you how incredible it has been thanks to this great community. I know a lot of you were over on the site, and some of those people that just hung in there with us through the kinks, so I wanted to say thank you. I feel so blessed to be a part of this community!

The wedding plans are coming along also, which is obviously exciting and feels like a huge blessing. As you know, I have the dress and we had the venue picked. This week we have met with an invite person and have samples on the way, looked at bridesmaid dresses, set up an appointment with the florist, got the contract signed for the venue, so we can move forward with tastings. It feels like it's all coming together, and the best part is, I've been so wrapped up in launching CL, I haven't even really been stressed about it (which if you knew me, and my affinity for worrying you'd know that was HUGE).

Life is good. Plain and simple. Sometimes I get caught up in all of the "stress" and to dos, but this week I sat thinking about how grateful I was for the last week and just life in general. Apparently Ronnie was feeling the same way, as we sat in my kitchen, he gave me a hug and said, "we sure have a great life don't we?" So, so true...Life is good!!

Cousin Bake-Off 2009

So I may or may not have taken about a "two hour walk" yesterday to spend some time with the family. I made sure to bring the camera so you guys could witness the craziness that goes on when we all get together. In total, there was I believe 36 people there to celebrate Thanksgiving. Last year we started a "Cousin Bake-Off" where cousins who choose to participate enter a dessert to be judged by moms, aunts and grandma. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my Easy Bake Oven with me to the hospital so I wasn't able to partake in the competition this year.

The competition is about to begin.

Can you feel the anticipation in the air?

Here's (part of) the panel of judges: Aunt Pat, Aunt Janna, Aunt Ruth

This is some kind of french chocolate cake entered by my lil' brothers.

How creative is that? It's a corn on the cob made with cupcakes, yellow frosting, yellow jelly beans and a yellow starburst!

My family is Dutch (if you couldn't tell by the cake model after a wooden shoe)...and yes, it says Congrats Ron & Mandi! Of course, this was my pick to win :)

Looks a lot like Mandi & I don't ya think??? This was baked by my cousin Jon.

Little turkey cupcakes submitted by my cousin Janee (who also did the corn on the cob).

Let the judging commence! That's my grandma on the far right and my mom on the far left.

Alright! Dig in!!!!

If you didn't think that my family takes this "bake-off" seriously, this video will change your mind...in fact, it may change your life.