What's in a Google?

I thought I'd share with you guys a great way to pass time when watching paint dry is your only other option. I call it "What's in a Google?". It's simple really; type one word into Google and see what the magic bot suggests for you. Once in a while, you can get some pretty funny suggestions. What's crazy, is I'm pretty sure that it means these are the most common searches.

Word: Why

Top suggested searches:

why is a raven like a writing desk

why did I get married too

why is the sky blue

why

why is my poop green

why do we dream

why did I get married

why do dogs eat grass

why do dogs eat poop

why lyrics

I've highlighted my favorites. What exactly were they looking for? Better yet, what did they think they'd find?

Flash Me Friday - "The Daddy Chair"

This week's addition of Flash Me Friday call for pictures of our favorite piece of furniture. I picked this piece because I use it everyday and I probably experience the most joy while sitting it. Now, before you let your mind wander, I'm talking about the chair I sit in every morning for breakfast. Mandi and I make it a point to sit at our dining room table for breakfast, and dinner, everyday (lunch is generally a free-for-all). Sitting in this chair, which we've coined "The Daddy Chair", is pure joy cause it generally involves my first cup of coffee and a freshly made breakfast sandwich.

Are you interested in also participating? This brainchild of Jen over at The Groettum Family blog is going to be a weekly series in which we have to take a picture of her choosing without any cleaning up whatsoever. If you want in on the action, please visit here for the "rules".

Thankful (again) for Clinical Trials!!!

It's been long overdue and I think it's time for a Thankful Thursday...

I'm thankful for the advances in CF medications. Yesterday I had the opportunity to be pre-screened for a clinical drug study for a new anti-inflammatory. The hope is that this new drug will have all of the benefits of other anti-inflammatory medication with none of the drawbacks. I for one am really crossing my fingers that I get the drug. I have a 66% chance so the odds are in my favor, but you never know. Nevertheless, I'm just thankful for the opportunity to do the trial and hopefully be a small part of something much bigger. I've heard from other fibros and cysters in the community who feel that they were randomized the drug, that it kept them healthy for longer and made it easier to breathe. I'd love a piece of that.

I'm thankful for the rainstorm I drove through on my way to Tucson. As we made our way to Tucson, it was raining kittens and puppies. I had my wipers on full speed and it barely made a dent (that is rare for these parts). I was saying to Mandi that this was the first time I've seen a rainstorm first hand for about 5 months. Now, I'm a clear blue skies and a bright orange sun kind of a guy, but I must admit, I'd love for the skies to open up again and let it rain. We haven't experienced a rainstorm together in our first house and it's something I'm definitely looking forward to.

I'm thankful I'm not a landscaper. I have SO MUCH respect for the guys and gals that choosethat profession here in Arizona, heck, anywhere. I may have sweat 15 gallons of sweat while mowing the lawn yesterday. Here's the problem though, it was slightly overcast, with a breeze and the coolest it's been while the sun is going down for at least the last 2 months. Still,

I was barely able to open my eyes to mark out my path because of the mixture of liquid and salt pouring into my eyes. I made it through the torture and even had the courage to edge using the weed whacker, but then the old trusty blower wouldn't start. Now I have grass clippings kicking it all over my sidewalk. I can't tell you the level of frustration I felt on my 135,009th pull to try and get that stupid blower started. I finally gave up and swept all of the grass clippings off with my sandal. I'm so thankful I'm not a landscaper.

What the _____?: July 21st, 2010

About a month ago we started a little contest on this blog in which I post a picture and whoever comes up with the most clever/funny/witty/etc caption gets put into a drawing for prizes at the end of the year. Still don't have everything figured out as of yet, but we do know a couple of things 1) There will be multiple prizes 2) I love the participation so far 3) If you think your submission is inappropriate for others to see, you can always email your answer directly to me at ronnie@cysticlife.org :) 4) I've literally LOLed both weeks so keep it coming!

This week's picture:

Alright, what do ya got!?!?

Last week's photo with the winning caption:

Winner: "Look babe! I manscaped."

submitted by Karen

2nd: "The tortoise called it wants it hair back"

submitted by Michael

3rd: "Wow!! I didn't know that Cf'ers coughed up hair-balls!!"

submitted by Carolyn

How I REALLY Feel!!!!

I wanted to follow up on a great post that Mandi did yesterday with my thoughts on the subject. If you didn't read her post, make sure you click here. It was basically about Mandi, for the first time, really exploring how CF really felt for me. First thing I want to make sure you guys know, is that Mandi is very attentive to my every need and she has asked me time and time again how I feel and what my lungs feel like. The fact that yesterday was the first time that she felt she got a deeper look is completely my fault. As she eluded to, I'm not one to really think about how I feel and if I do, I usually the last one to verbally express it. A fellow cyster put it well today when she said

"imagine u cut your finger pretty deep while chopping veggies one morning. u would notice it alot at first but if , say , you've got into a really good show on tv u would stop noticing as much quickly. probably u would think about it more in the commercial break..etc i think cf is like that and things have to be newly or excessively bad for us to REALLY notice"

I think that's a really good analogy. Often times when I'm not feeling great, I just try to distract myself. I don't sit around thinking about all of the parts of my body in pain or the fact that my lungs feel like they weigh 400 lbs. No, I choose to either do things that can possibly help that pain or sickness go away or I simply don't acknowledge it. Actually, I shouldn't say that, I'm very in tune with my body and generally

know exactly what needs to be done. So, I acknowledge my pain or sickness within myself, but I rarely verbalize it. It's of course important not to ignore our bodies and pretend nothing is going on. That's how we can crash and burn pretty quickly (just look back to the beginning of 2009 if you want to see that in my life). Yes, it's important to acknowledge what's going on, but then it's equally important to respond in the correct manner. If you're felling bad this usually means increased activity, treatments or a trip to the doc. One thing I will say, as I've gotten older, I've learned to respond better.

Which leads me to my next and most important point- just because I feel this way from time to time or sometimes often DOESN'T mean your child feels this way. I repeat, I may have lung pain almost everyday, your child may NEVER have lung pain. I saw too many comments yesterday that led me to believe that parents were freaking out that their children felt horrible all of the time and just didn't know how to express it. While this could be the case, chances are, it's quite the opposite. Your child probably feels absolutely fantastic most of the time.

I didn't "feel" CF until I was in my early to mid-20's. That's not to say I didn't see the affects of CF. I've been doing multiple treatments every day from the first time I was able to form a thought. I've been in and out of the hospital for tune-ups since I was 8. I've been consistently coughing up blood since I was 12. I

"died" when I was 17. This isn't to scare you, this is to show you that although that stuff was going on, I still felt FANTASTIC. I often said that "I don't really know I have CF unless I'm in the hospital or doing my treatments". I was too busy hiking 10 mile hikes every Sunday at the age of 8. Too busy playing football, baseball, basketball and soccer at the age of 12. And most importantly, graduating from high school and figuring out what college I would attend at the age of 17.

It wasn't until I was out of high school and started blowing off taking care of myself that things started to change. I must stress however, I've always been faithful with hospital stays and treatments. Here's what I wasn't though, flexible. I thought since I only had to do 1 to 2 treatments a day in high school to feel awesome I could pull off the same thing in college. (Sound buzzer) I was wrong. When my activity level dropped, my treatments should have increased. They didn't. Then I got sucked into the faulty thinking of, "well, I'm getting older, lung functions will drop as I get older". Seriously, screw that! I'm so mad that I fell for that crap. My lung functions didn't drop because I was getting older. They didn't drop because I had CF. They didn't drop because "that's just what happens". They dropped because I was immature and didn't adapt to my circumstances. They dropped because my favorite bar to go to was full of smoke. They dropped because I stopped working out. I didn't start to "feel CF" because I had CF, I started to feel CF because of me and the choices I made.

I'll leave you with this quote from our sermon this past Sunday as I feel it really speaks of my CF journey these past handful of years:

"Being mature isn't how much you know, it's what you do with what you know"

You feel like WHAT?

The other day, in the mist of another conversation, Ronnie made the statement, "I know I am carefree and happy, but many days I don't feel great." We continued our actual conversation (what is was about is irrelevant to the story, so I will not bore you...perhaps I'll save that for another Mandi Monday?) but that statement resonated with me.

Now, some of you might be thinking, "DUH!" And I get that that does seem like a "DUH" moment. But for me, the statement didn't sit with me as a "DUH" this time. I "get" CF in general. I get that CF can make you feel bad. I work with CF 40 hours a week and live with it "around" the house 168 hours a week. I feel like I have one of the best handles on CF as a non-CFer because I just see, hear and talk about it what feels like most of the time.

But his statement all of a sudden made me realize I maybe didn't get it as much as I thought I did. I guess I didn't know how it REALLY made people feel, and on top of that, I realized that I really didn't get how Ronnie feels. Ronnie is ALWAYS carefree and happy. I wish that was an exaggeration, but it's not. It's hard to find Ronnie having an emotionally "off" day. As I've said many times before, he's my steady-eddy. So it was hard to imagine that he may actually be feeling bad from time to time. Somehow I knew that people with CF can feel bad, but I guess I thought Ronnie was the exception to the rule.

After letting these words run around in my head for several hours I decided to just ask..."So what do you feel like if you don't feel good?" I'm sure he was a little blind-sided, since I was asking a follow-up question hours after a statement made in the midst of another conversation. "Uhh," he looked at me, initially puzzled where my question came from. "what do you feel like? What do your lungs feel like when you don't feel good." I repeated again. "They feel heavy. Sometimes with shooting pains across them or sometimes it feels like I'm being stabbed. Like right now I feel like I'm being stabbed here and here," he said as he pointed to two places on his lungs. That rocked my world. I guess in all of my talking about CF, I never stopped long enough to get some real details. I must say, I got a little choked up. "I don't like that you feel like that." Ronnie quickly jumped back to his usual self, "well it's not all the time." "I have learned how to not focus on it." "I only really think about it when I think or talk about it." "I don't want you thinking that I feel really bad all the time." "I don't like talking about it because then I think about it and when I really think about it, I can feel pretty bad."

With that, I took my cue and figured I'd stop asking a ton of questions but just said, "Well I like knowing how you feel. I don't like not getting it. I don't like not understanding or being able to feel what you feel. So can you tell me how you're really feeling sometimes so I can kinda get it?" And with a smile and a few kisses (EWWW, lovey dovey newlyweds, I know I know) that was that.

The point of my story? There is none...which Ronnie will tell you is the case with most of my stories. I feel a little silly that in 2.5 years I never thought to ask what it REALLY feels like.

Dad Life- This is my dream...

Great Results for Fellow Cyster on Denufosol

I asked Katie if I could share her encouraging blog from CysticLife about her experience with the clinical drug Denufosol. Check out what she had to say!!

So I headed to the Adult CF clinic at Northwestern/Children's Memorial today for my first study visit after starting on the actual drug in the second phase of the denufosol trial. I was so psyched . . . after hearing about the fantastic PFTs people were having on the drug . . .

So I blow and blow and blow (I have the "honor" of being one of the patients who can blow out ALL of the candles on the computer screen during my PFTs. I swear it's from years of blowing up balloons and practicing with so many PFTs and really has nothing to do with my lung capacity . . . ha ha. . .). And look at my numbers . . . and my FEV is exactly the same . . . and my FEV1 is 3 % predicted higher - which is actually within my "range."

My reaction: "You've got to be freakin' kidding me . . . .a whole year of blind study and now three times a day for the last three months with the real thing, and this is all I've got?" Granted, my PFTs are relatively normal, but still . . . I wanted some bang for my buck . . . The research team really didn't know how to respond . . .

So I saunter upstairs for my clinic appointment, my disappointment apparent . . .

And then my doctor comes in and shows me a chart of just my FEV1 in actual numbers, not percent predicted, for the last two years . . . it looked like this:

That big jump being today's FEV1 in actual numbers!!!! Two docs were confering as to why such a jump in actual numbers only calculated out to a 3% difference in predicted? They decided they were going to have to look into how predicted is calculated for this study . . . it's based on height, age, as well as "results" so they wondered if something in my combination was making the predicted "off." We may never know.

Needless to say, I was much happier seeing the actual numbers! Screw predicted . . .

So after about 30 minutes of saying denufosol was not worth my time, I changed my tune and will stay on it. It's obviously doing something good. If nothing else, it is containing any exacerbations . . . I've haven't been on oral antibiotics for about 9 months and I'm usually on Cipro 3-4 times a year for three weeks at a time.

It does irriate my throat -but my throat gets irritated if a piece of dust is in the air. The stuff I cough up is undeniably more slippery - so thinner. I still find it to be a pain for 15 minutes three times a day, and quite honestly, once I'm off study and am prescribed it for real, I'll likely do it twice a day more often than three times . . . I've even proposed that to be a study after it gets initial FDA approval. But the proof was in the numbers . . .so I'm a believer.

To be continued . . .

You can find the original post here.

Flash Me Friday - Stunning "Art"

This week's addition of Flash Me Friday call for pictures of our favorite piece of art. This was actually very easy to figure out considering we only have ONE piece of "art" in our entire house. I actually picked up this "stunning" piece at a CFF auction. Still not sure what it is, so if you recognize it, please fill me in :)

This is what you see immediately upon entering the guest room

Thank you to my aunt Mary for the dried up sticks coming up out of the pot over in the corner of the room!

A close-up of the who-knows-what

Are you interested in also participating? This brainchild of Jen over at The Groettum Family blog is going to be a weekly series in which we have to take a picture of her choosing without any cleaning up whatsoever. If you want in on the action, please visit here for the "rules".

Enzymes are No Challenge for this CF Toddler

I have to share this video of Radek, the star of the Radek Loves To Breathe blog, just owning the enzymes that were put down on his tray. If you'd like advice on how to get your toddler to take their enzymes you may want to reach out to Shane or Jamie (the Rockstar's parents) and see what tips they may have!!

What the _____?: July 14th, 2010

A few weeks ago we started a little contest on this blog in which I post a picture and whoever comes up with the most clever/funny/witty/etc caption gets put into a drawing for prizes at the end of the year. Still don't have everything figured out as of yet, but we do know a couple of things 1) There will be multiple prizes 2) I love the participation so far 3) If you think your submission is inappropriate for others to see, you can always email your answer directly to me at ronnie@cysticlife.org :) 4) I've literally LOLed both weeks so keep it coming!

This week's picture:

Alright, what do ya got!?!?

Last week's photo with the winning caption:

Winner: "This is NOT what I meant when I said we should spice up our love life!!"

submitted by Jen

2nd: "Saucy Squared"

submitted by Suzanne

3rd: "Aww Ronnie, all you brought on our honeymoon was A1? I think the stuff we need is called KY. Crap, now what???"

submitted by Kellie

tie

"Ronnie! I said I was sick of covering your meat with this crap!"

submitted by Sarah

We have quite the sexually charged crowd when it comes to making up these captions. Wonder what you'll come up with this week??

The Evidence of Blood Splatter

I don't really know how to say this without it sounding really strange, but if I turn up missing tonight and they suspect foul play, Mandi is not involved. Strange enough for you? Maybe I should take it from the top...

So this probably all started last Monday as Mandi and I recommitted to working our butts off in the gym. This includes morning walks, lifting weights at the gym, running and increasing our overall activity. This is good for us on two fronts: one, for obvious reasons, it's a good thing for my health and two, it gets us out of the house in which we seem to be in all day. Not that I mind, since it's actually what I prefer, but I must admit, we can get a little bit of cabin fever after working out of the house every hour, of every day, of every week, of every month. We've actually found a little local coffee shop, called, wait for it, "The Coffee Shop" which Mandi LOVES to hang and work out of. It is definitely a cool place to get some stuff done, but obviously at 1.85 a cup, we can't make it a daily habit. So anyway, I'm getting a bit off track, so let me get focused again...

...and I'm back. Last week I had a bit of hemoptysis before my clinic appointment. My doctor and I weren't very concerned however cause I'm doing well symptom wise on all other fronts and was just starting my Cayston, so we figured, if there was a bug going on, the Cayston would kill it. Now fast forward a week or so after that appointment and I had another bout with hemoptysis. And then finally, let's bring it all of the way to tonight, another episode. What's a little strange is all of these episodes have happened while I've been standing straight up. You say, why is that strange? Well, because 9 out of 10 times I'll start coughing up blood while laying flat on my back and usually in the middle of the night. So, it's a little strange that these have come while either walking around, or like tonight, making my nightly vanilla latte. I assure you, I'm not overly concerned, it's just a bit strange.

There could be a very logical explanation however, actually, could be a couple of them. First, I really think my rib injury set me back a bit and may have led to the irritation that has caused the bleeds. I know at times, I'll take a deep breath and can actually feel my lung rubbing up against my ribs. Can that cause hemoptysis? I don't know, but I wouldn't bet against it. Here's the other and most likely scenario though, it's probably the exercise. We've been hitting cardio hard and that's made me open up parts and use lobes that probably haven't been worked like this for a while. Today in fact I absolutely went all out on the elliptical and haven't challenged myself like that physically for quite sometime. So, if I were a betting man, I'd blame it on the exercise. That's not to say anything is going to stop, but it will certainly change tomorrow. I'll have to back off just a bit and make sure everything is all healed up before I push it again.

This brings me back to my first statement, Mandi is not guilty! I say this because we are big "murder show" buffs. On our DVR, 90% of it is First 48, 48 Hour Mystery, Primetime Crime, Dateline, etc. On most of the shows, what dooms the husband or wife when their significant other turns up missing is microscopic blood spatter. We just got done watching one in which they convicted a husband that was totally and obviously innocent, so it got me thinking...If I turn up missing, the cops are going to find a ton of blood splatter all over our bathroom. You may even find some on her clothing because she was standing right next to me and rubbing my back as I was coughing my brains (or my lungs) out. So, if you're reading this, she didn't do it, she's completely innocent.

Mandi, if you're reading this, don't get any ideas just because I've given you an alibi :)

You want me to do WHAT??

**Do not eat before or during reading - you have been warned!!

This weekend was yet another CF-related first for me...bathroom scouting. Huh? You're thinking. Let me back up and start from the beginning.

Ronnie and I woke up a little late for church yesterday, and knowing that we were meeting some friends for lunch after, didn't eat breakfast, but did house a few cups of coffee. When we got to church, there were bagels, so we both happily devoured half a bagel to tide us over, but because we were eating on the fly, Ronnie ate his half sans pills. This combo (and who knows what else, maybe the pizza from Saturday night) resulted in Ronnie having a really upset stomach. As we were leaving church he was debating if he should go back and use the bathroom before trying to make the drive to meet our friends, and on top of that, his stomach was so upset he thought maybe he was going to have to call off lunch. Being the trooper that he is, however, he decided that he could hold it and that he could still hang out.

BAD IDEA!

By the time we arrived at the restaurant to meet our friends Ronnie had worked up a sweat clenching through the many waves of death. I know you know exactly what I'm talking about, so I won't say more! Another wave was hitting him as we pulled in the parking lot. He looked at me, sweat on his brow and looking a little tense and said, "Do you think this place has an ok bathroom?" Now let me explain, Ronnie's not usually bashful, but the restaurant is SUPER quaint and tiny, and if he can stink up 4/5 of our house on a good morning, he can certainly ruin most patrons' meals in a small restaurant. "I don't know" I responded. "Will you go look?" he asked, "If it's not, I'll drive somewhere else". I began wondering how this was going to go down. Our friends were inside. I knew if I went in, they'd see me, and I've have to say hi, but dart to the bathroom, which would require me outing Ronnie. "What do you want me to say??" "That I have to go to the bathroom and you have to scout the bathroom." DUH MANDI - obviously the man that still makes fart noises when he watches someone bend over wouldn't have a problem letting people know he was about to totally ruin this unsuspecting toilet!!

This wasn't a covert opp AT ALL. I ran in, gave the obligatory hugs, threw my purse down and said, "Ronnie's in the car and wants me to scout the bathroom to make sure it'll be a suitable environment..." AWKWARD! Luckily we were meeting with another CFer and her husband...so they get it.

Anywhooooo, just thought I'd sure that first. Needless to say, this is yet another lesson in never eating without enzymes!

Good ol' Family Fun...

It's not Monday - but it's Mandi here..

Ronnie and I saw Despicable Me, starring Steve Carell, with some friends last night. We were going to see Knight and Day, but Chrissy, my sister in law, had her little sister (not real little sister, but little sister through big brother, big sister), so we decided to go to a kid-friendly movie so they could join us. BEST.DECISION.EVER!! It is an adorable movie, perfect for kids, hilarious for adults. We laughed quite a bit through it and I absolutely fell in love with a little girl in it. Steve Carell did a GREAT job. You could barely tell that it was him. I wanted to share a clip, to hopefully convince you to spend your hard-earned money on some good ol' family fun!

**Please note, the little brunette is my FAVORITE character. I wish she was real, because I would adopt her!

Enjoy!

Flash Me Friday - Outdoor Space

This week's addition of Flash Me Friday call for pictures of our outdoor space. The backyard and outdoor space was actually the determining factor when Mandi and I purchased the house. We knew the neighborhood that we wanted to live in, but we were disappointed with the backyards in many of the properties. Just when we thought the "perfect" house wouldn't come available until after we were married, this one showed up on the listings...

Outdoor fireplace which is perfect for making Smores!! Also, it's a perfect holder for that dead plant I planted a couple of months back :)

The old owners actually built on the arbor which definitely comes in handy on hot summer days!

My two girls playing around :)

Look right into the garden...

...and look left into a lawn that requires mowing :)

Are you interested in also participating? This brainchild of Jen over at The Groettum Familyblog is going to be a weekly series in which we have to take a picture of her choosing without any cleaning up whatsoever. If you want in on the action, please visit here for the "rules".

What the _____?: July 8th, 2010

A couple of weeks ago we started a little contest on this blog in which I post a picture and whoever comes up with the most clever/funny/witty/etc caption gets put into a drawing for prizes at the end of the year. Still don't have everything figured out as of yet, but we do know a couple of things 1) There will be multiple prizes 2) I love the participation so far 3) If you think your submission is inappropriate for others to see, you can always email your answer directly to me at ronnie@cysticlife.org, as Andrea R found out two weeks ago (which by the way was hilarious) :) 4) I've literally LOLed both weeks so keep it coming!

This week's picture:

Alright, what do ya got!?!?

Last week's photo with the winning caption:

Winner: "And I thought the need for extra calories was for better lung function!!"

submitted by Lynsey

2nd: "Mandi, meet my best man. He's a real "stand up" guy"

submitted by Teresa

tie

"Maybe we shouldn't have waited..."

submitted by Amara

3rd: "I said I wanted chipolatatas on the wedding menu. Not my wedding night..."

submitted by Helen

There was a definite theme in last week's submissions...get your mind out of the gutter guys!! Just kidding, leave it in there, it's usually funnier that way :)

The New "Sort Of Detailed" Workout Plan

Alright, so I was asked what my new workout plan consisted of and I will try my best to lay it out for you. As we all know, sometimes these things can be flexible, but we are going to try our very best to make sure we get done what we set out to do every week.

M, Tu, W, Th, F- Wake up between 6am-7am to walk at least 1 mile at a decent pace to get all of the junk out that's been kicking it my airbags as I slept. We always will take Jezzabel on this morning adventure and it usually turns into closer to 2 miles. We will usually go for a walk on Saturday and Sunday also, just the waking up at 6am part doesn't hold true.

M, Tu, W, Th, F, Sat, Su- I will do AT LEAST 3 treatments a day and hopefully 4 barring in legit excuse. My treatments consist of Albuterol/Atrovent (3-4 x a day), Pulmozyme (2 x day), 7% (1-2 x a day), Cayston (3 x a day) and the Vest for 30 minutes a session. This is an absolute vital part of my workout plan. If I mess up on this, everything else goes down hill.

M, Tu, Th, Sat, Su- This is the tentative running schedule. We're still trying to figure out when leg day will be at the gym and we don't want to run that day plus we get one rest day. So the days could change, but the goal is to run five days a week. We'll start slow but then get back into a plan similar to the first running plan I ever tried.

Monday, Thursday- Bench Press, Incline Bench Press, Dumbbell Bench Press, Dumbbell Flys, Pinwheel Curls, Standing Barbell Curls, Cable Preacher Curl

Tuesday, Friday- Deadlift, Barbell Rows, Lat Pull Down, Seated Cable Row, Seated Calf Raise, 45 Degree Calf Raise

Wednesday, Saturday- Seated Barbell Press, Seated Arnold Press, Barbell Front Raise, Dumbbell Lateral Raise, Close Grip Bench Press, Seated French Press, EZ Bar Skull Crusher, Cable Tricep Extension

Friday Only- Squat, Leg Press, Front Squat, Leg Press, Leg Curl, Romanian Dead Lift

Sunday- Long Run, No Gym

We also ride our bikes to and from the gym and usually find an excuse to ride them around again at some point during the day. It's usually to get the mail, but then sometimes we just end up cruising around.

So there it is!! If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Did Anybody Get....

...the license plate number of the mini-van that just ran me over?? Wow, I hurt (and I expect it to feel like a truck in a couple of days). Something told me that it wasn't the brightest idea to play tackle football/rugby/murderball in the pool for six hours yesterday if I wanted to get back on the workout horse today. That person's name was Common Sense and I didn't listen. I knew it was going to be a rough one today when it felt as if I had walked on sandpaper for 36 hours straight the minute my feet hit the carpet as I "hopped" out of bed. I use that term very loosely as I'm sure it looked more like a beached whale trying to roll his way back into the water. But, because of my amazing determination and commitment, I was able to push through it and get ready to face the day ahead. Ok, I just lied to your face right there. Mandi's determination and commitment to get me back on track was the SOLE reason we got up so early and hit the pavement. And, of course, I'm so glad we did.

We've actually been good about riding our bikes and going for walks, but this morning was different. It was like walking with a purpose. And if that purpose was to decorate the sidewalk and all surrounding areas with my mucus, then mission accomplished. I coughed up so much junk this morning it was CRAZY. I was getting out plugs, followed by green, yellow, white, clear and repeat. Admittedly, during the walk it didn't feel like I was King of the World, but man, it sure set the tone for the rest of the day. I felt so clear and like I was actually using all five lobes today. My lungs were open and ready for business.

My body was actually holding me back on my other workouts today more than my lungs were. Now, don't get me wrong, when we went on a run/walk after the gym, I was really pulling for air. It wasn't the "oh my, I'm going to faint" pull for air, just the "seriously, this really stinks" pull for air. So, in my mind, I'm ahead of the game. The last first time I got back on the workout horse, I would have bet you money that I was about to faint. Now, having been through that experience multiple times, I've learned that it's just my lungs lying to me. It's almost like they want me to fail. Like there some school yard bully who just gets gratification by picking on me. Well, today was the day I started to fight back again. Fighting back is the only way to do it.

If anybody is actually reading this, I want you to know the reason why I'm writing this post today. I want you to know that it's hard. It sucks. It's not going to feel good. Just a few short months ago I was running for almost an hour straight. Now, the thought of that almost makes me puke. But, I have a goal. I have a mission. I have an opponent. I'm going to get back on the horse that got me to the point were I could lace up my shoes, turn on my ipod and just run. This horse has a name: it's sacrifice, hard work, sweat, tears, pain, agony and no excuses. I know what I need to do and I know what's going to get me there. Now I just have to stay on this horse and ride him until he dies.

**If you have some extra time today, please check out Jesse's blog CF Fatboy. He wrote an incredibly touching blog about Mandi and I that really put a smile on my face. We're both married to incredible women who keep us going and pick up our feet when we feel we can't go anymore. Thank you Fatboy!!

The Honeymoon is over...

I absolutely love Monday Holidays. I totally get that having a Friday off is just as long as having a Monday off, but somehow having the day off added to the end of the weekend makes it feel so much longer. Am I alone in this? Truthfully, I'm not quite sure why I don't have to work today -the day AFTER a holiday - but I'll take it!

We very much enjoyed our 4th of July. We spent it with our brothers (Josh, Grant, Andrew), sister (Chrissy), cousin (Steven) and friends (Mike, Brittany, Brendan and Julie) in the pool; playing any game we could make up with a football. It was a good time, but man-oh-man, it was also a good reminder of how out of shape we've gotten. I mean, I just thought my new scale ran a bit heavy....but unfortunately I don't think that's the case ;-)

So hence the title - the honeymoon is over. Tomorrow is the day we get back into our normal workout routine. Between the wedding, honeymoon, new job, hot weather, family trip, settling into married life, etc etc etc, (insert more excuses here), we haven't quite settled back into a good workout routine. We rode our bikes daily and took short walks, but based on our performance in the pool today, it's not cutting it. SOOO it's back to morning walks, the gym, and runs daily. It's not going to be fun, or comfortable for that matter, but we're going to have to force ourselves to do it until it feels natural again.

We've decided that we're going to take a Day 1 photo of ourselves and hop on the scale to get our starting bodies well documented, and then take weekly photos of ourselves to chart the progress. We'll also keep track of what kinds of weights we're throwing up at the gym, as well as how far/long we're running each day. There's no better way to see progress than to actually SEE the progress.

Anyone want to join us?? It's not gonna be pretty, but it'll be worth it!

Happy Birthday Brother!!!

So today is the 4th of July and I plan on spending it with my wonderful wife and family. My brother Grant has been staying with us all week and was joined yesterday by my other brother Andrew. We're going to be having a BBQ at Mandi's parents' house and hang out by the pool. 4th of July is cool for fireworks, independence and all, but I think what really makes it special is that it's my brother Grant's 18th birthday!! I'm so proud of the man he has become and I can't wait to see what life has in store for him. I love you Grant with all of my heart and I'm so happy that I can spend today with you in celebration of the big 1-8!!!