Homeowners!!!

Tim and I have had a very exciting weekend! Yesterday morning, we closed on our first home (check that off the list of my goals!)!!! We're super excited to not be renting anymore and we're looking forward to calling something 'our own.' I'm looking forward to not having to move after another year again & that this is more permanent than a year-long lease. After we closed on the home yesterday (which only took about 45

minutes), we loaded up Tim's Mustang onto a trailer that he borrowed from his boss and brought it over to the house. Then we came back and filled the truck & trailer with another large load. Unfortunately, we had to stop there because it was raining...plus we were exhausted. After a short nap and shower, we treated ourselves to dinner at Red Lobster, yum!

This morning Tim's dad arrived bright and early to help us move a bunch more of our stuff. I'm so glad that he came because he was able to help Tim with all of the appliances and large, heavy things - he was a huge help!!! After two trailers and three truck-loads full, we called it quits for the evening. I'd say we have about 80% of our stuff moved over to the new house now. All that's left here in our rental is all of my treatment equipment, our bed, TV, whatever's left in the pantry and a few odds & ends. We'll be bringing the rest of the stuff over in the morning and spending the rest of the day organizing & unpacking - making it look like a home, not a random collection of furniture! :-) We plan on doing some renovations (hopefully just one room at a time) and adding a carport to the right side of the house this fall. It'll be a work in progress for a while, but it's just cosmetic and to our liking, the house really looks great on the inside right now. It's starting to set in a little more that that's our house now that most of our furniture is in there, but I think it'll set in even more after we spend our first night there, which should be tomorrow night. Yay!!! :-)

Positive Thoughts Thursday

I've been slacking on my positive thoughts over the past couple months, so I'm really going to try to get back into looking at all of the positives going on around me & in my life. What is at least one positive thing that's going on in your life right now?

• One week from tomorrow we're scheduled to close on our first home! I'm super excited to finally be able to move into a home and not feel like we are only living there temporarily. And I'm excited that it's one more thing to check off of my life goals! :)
• Later today I'll be making a 4 1/2 hour trek up to Wisconsin for Country Thunder! I'm a huge country music fan and so the next four days are going to be heaven for me. Country Thunder is four days of many different country artists performing back to back. Here's the line up! The main reason I'm going is because I've always wanted to see Keith Urban live, super pumped!
• I'm also looking forward to spending this long weekend with one of my awesome friends, Karissa! Her and I worked together as assistants for a couple years before we both got our first teaching jobs this past fall. I'm thankful that she's allowing me to stay with her family at their cottage all weekend while we go back and forth each evening to dance & sing (and people watch) at CT!

3:30am

It is currently 3:32am and I just started a treatment. Why? You might ask...because I woke up around 3:00am with this nagging cough that wouldn't go away, which is not typical for me in the middle of the night. So I tried changing my sleeping position, coughing it out, sitting up for a while...anything to avoid having to get up out of bed to get a drink. So while I was laying there trying to think about why I have this annoying cough that won't go away, it hit me - I FORGOT TO DO MY EVENING TREATMENT! I did my normal morning treatment, then later I did a mid-day treatment and was planning on doing my evening one a little later than usual because I threw that extra one in there. But Tim and I went out to dinner and by the time we got home, we sat on the couch and watched Ozzie go nuts play for a while and then both went to bed...I completely forgot about it! I don't remember the last time I forgot to do a treatment! So, of course I got up and I'm doing it right now! I can't throw away 130-something days of compliance! Plus, it's exactly what I needed to get rid of my cough (well this and a little sip of Gatorade).

I just really hope I'm able to go back to sleep at 4am when I'm done...

Clinic Day & Positive Thoughts Thursday

I had my CF clinic appointment today and number-wise it wasn't the best, but feeling-wise it went well. Everything's pretty much the same as my last appointment - my lung function is still hovering in the high 70s which I really don't like to see, but I've been feeling really great lately. My weight is about the same - today it was 108.5. Thankfully I have a wonderful relationship with my doctor and I was able to explain to her how I was feeling and she understands that sometimes the numbers don't reflect that. She just told me not to worry or focus on the numbers which made me feel better...as long as things don't keep going down, that's what matters. Of course I'm still trying to increase my weight and lung function (always!), but for some reason it's just sticking where it is right now, so I think I'm going to really have to take advantage of the next month and really kick my butt into gear. I need to make sure that I'm consistently exercising and consuming at least 2,500 calories per day, especially before I head back to work.

We did discuss the possibility of adding Kalydeco into my life if I can't seem to get out of this rut which really makes me excited. When Kalydeco first came out I was honestly a little hesitant about going on it. In a weird way, I felt like if I started taking Kalydeco, then I was "giving up" on fighting CF myself. After typing that out, it sounds totally strange, but that's the way I felt. I feel like I've been doing a really great job keeping myself healthy and I didn't want to....I don't even know how to word it... I was also concerned that 'What if I was taking it for several months, saw a great increase in lung function, and then for some reason I had to stop taking it and then my lung function would go back down (to the 80s which is still 'normal') and I would feel like complete crap.' I was nervous that once I started it, it would be something that I'd never be able to live without, something that I'd rely on forever.
But after a great discussion with my doctor today, she put it in perspective for me. Everything that I'm doing now -Vest twice a day, six-eight nebulizers a day, countless amounts of pills, etc -I'm going to rely on those forever to keep me healthy, so what's another pill? Especially if it's going to change things for the better, increase my quality of life, and possibly reduce the amount of medication/treatments I do now...duh! What was I thinking?! So the plan is to see how the next few months go and at my next clinic appointment in October we'll make the decision on whether to start the approval paperwork, or to keep it on the back burner.

And finally, I've totally been slacking on my positive thoughts Thursday posts over the past few months, honestly, because we've been completely stressed...which is probably when I should be doing it, but either way here's some recent positive thoughts:

• We are 15 days away from our scheduled closing date on our first home! As long as everything keeps going according to plan we should be moved in before August! Yay!
• The possibility of Kalydeco entering my life is starting to get me really excited it. Of course it may not be until the end of this year, it's something that I'm looking forward to. :)
• I love summer break! Not a huge fan of summer weather, but the time off is amazing! I've been able to do way more this summer than I even thought I was going to do and there are still several more fun things planned...next one on the list: Country Thunder! One week from today! Oh yeah!
• Our new little guy, Ozzie, is adjusting very well to life in our home. He has an enormous amount of energy and he's hilarious to watch when he's running around! Archie is also doing a wonderful job being patient with him and playing (usually) gently with him. 

Can you tell who's who?! Haha...Archie's (4 yrs old) a big hefalump, but
Tim thinks Ozzie (3 months) might get to be about his size...we'll see. :) 

Holiday Weekend

We had such a fun and busy 4th of July weekend! We spent Thursday during the day hanging out with all of Tim's family and then that night we enjoyed fireworks together. I have a soft spot for the fourth of July because that was the night that Tim proposed to me, four years ago. :-)

The following day, my 25th birthday, a bunch of us went together to see Despicable Me 2. It was so cute, during the show, our three year old nephew, Cole, would tap us on the shoulder and say, "Tim, Tim,(or Coyeen, Coyeen) shhhhh!" when we weren't even talking, haha. :) That night they also surprised me with a delicious Reese's ice cream cake!

On Saturday, Tim's other sister, her husband & their son came up for the day to visit. We hung out at Tim's dad's house where some went swimming while I was on baby Liam watch. :) Then we visited Tim's mom so she could see all of the boys. Finally, on Sunday, I drove up for my friend Catie's bridal shower while Tim stayed to hang out with his sister, her kids, and his grandma.

When I came back from the bridal shower, we packed up all of our stuff from the weekend, headed out to Tim's dad's house to pick up our kitty, Ozzie (which we finally agreed on the day before we got him) and finally bring him home! He is so adorable and FULL of energy! I've never had a kitten before so this is a totally new experience for me. Archie is being very patient with him and they even were playing together for a little bit today without Archie being totally overbearing -- he means well, he's just super friendly...which is kind of scary to a tiny kitten. It's been an interesting (and exhausting!)
couple of days having him home, but I love it. It's going to be so fun when him and Archie are comfortable with each other because I think they're going to get along very well.

Next on my summer 'to-do' list is my CF clinic appointment which is tomorrow. I'm planning on heading up to stay with my parents this evening to make the drive more bearable tomorrow morning. I'm hoping for a slight increase in my weight and lung function. I've been trying to do my medicine ball workout video a couple times a week and I'm at 131 days of 100% compliance with all of my treatments. I've been feeling good, coughing out a lot of nasty mucus (but not anything more than usual, which is good), so I'm hoping that shows tomorrow. If not, at least I know that I'm feeling well and that's what matters.

And hopefully in the next week or two I'll finally be able to share with you something that I'm totally proud of...as for now though, my lips are sealed. ;) Stay tuned....

Enjoying My Summer

Linda & I after the musical :)

This is the first summer that I haven't worked since I was sixteen, and I'm loving it! I love that I'm able to create my own schedule (even though I'm pretty good about sticking to the one I posted about) each day and really do whatever I want. For example, I was gone from Wednesday-Sunday seeing friends and hanging out. Tim's aunt Linda & I went to see The Book of Mormon musical in Chicago on Wednesday night - hilarious! Then on Thursday we stopped by the sidewalk sale at the teacher's store to pick up some things for my classroom. Thursday evening I was able to hang out with my great friend Jessie and her fiance Jeremy (who has CF), who we met in college and Jessie was one of my bridesmaids. On Friday, I was able to see another one of my bridesmaids and great friends since middle school, Amanda! Her and her fiance just closed on their first house last week so I helped them remove some wall paper and help prep their home for lots of painting. Finally I finished up the weekend Saturday with my maid of honor, Catie's bachelorette party! :-)
It was so much fun to be able to see all of my awesome friends and spend some time with each of them! That's the hard part about living at least three hours away and the fact that we're all teachers.

This coming weekend is also going to be filled with fun and family. We're heading up to stay at Tim's grandma's house with his sister and her two little boys, and Linda & Roger, Thursday through Sunday! I'm so excited to be able to spend more time with our nephews this summer.

Then next week I have my next CF clinic appointment, where I should be able to try out the TOBI podhaler for the first time. And the week after that I'll be gone for another long weekend with my friend Karissa, at Country Thunder! Then...if all goes according to plan, the following week (the last week in July) we should be closing on our house and moving!

Looks like this month is going to fly by! I cannot believe that pretty much as soon as we close on our house, I'll have to get back into "school-mode" because I'll have to go move my classroom down the hall and start setting up for first grade! I cannot believe there's really only about 6 weeks left of my summer break...which sounds like a lot, but with how busy we'll be, I know it's going to be over before I know it.

Oh, and to follow up from my previous post, I finished the first Walking Dead compendium (issues 1-48) in about three or four days. It was awesome! Totally different from the show, but still wonderful! I'd recommend it to anyone...not children though, it's pretty graphic and raunchy at times. Now I'm on to Compendium Two (issues 49-96) which I started last week Wednesday when I got it from Linda. I had been reading it all weekend while doing my treatments and I have one more chapter to go which I'll easily finish today. Anyone know when the third one is coming out?! I think I have a problem...