30 Days of Blogging: Day 13

Day 13 - A few of your favorite quotes, mottos, or verses

I previously did an entire post of quotes that I like, so several of these may be repeats from that, but I'll share a few of my favorites.

Obviously one of my favorites is 'Live, Laugh, Love' and I've added 'Breathe' to the end of that for this blog. It's also something I'd like to eventually get a tattoo of, but I'm trying to figure out where to place it on my body that's professional yet where I can still see it. (Any ideas would be appreciated).

"You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it." - Unknown
Sometimes when CF gets tough, or just life in general, I need to remind myself of this quote because I think it is absolutely true!

"Do what makes you happy, 
Be with who makes you smile
Laugh as much as you breathe
And love as long as you live." - Unknown
This one is similar to 'live, laugh, love' but I still really enjoy it. Again, another thing to keep in your mind to keep yourself happy.

'It means no worries for the rest of your days' :-)

"Those who have a reason 'why' to live, can bare with almost any 'how'." - Victor Frankl, author of Man's Search for Meaning - Yes, it's tough living with CF sometimes, but I have many amazing people/opportunities/reasons to live, so I suck it up and make the most out of my life!
This was a book I read in high school and I've always kept this quote in mind. I'd really like to read the book again. I remember I enjoyed it, but I think it might have a different meaning to me several years later.

And finally: ------->

30 Days of Blogging: Day 12

Day 12 - Your current relationship status

Well, as you all know, I am very happily married! :-) We've been married for one year, three months, and three weeks now and it's been great. Tim is a wonderful husband - he's very supportive and he makes me laugh all the time! And because you haven't seen enough wedding photos from my other wedding blogs (here and here), here's one more.

30 Days of Blogging: Day 11

Day 11 - What's in your make-up bag/purse
Well, I'm not a big make-up person, so everything in there is probably really old and is rarely used. Now my purse, on the other hand, is full of crap all the time! I hate carrying a purse - if I didn't have to carry my enzymes with my everywhere, I would love to never carry a purse. But since I have to have it with me pretty much everywhere I go, I fill it with anything/everything. Yesterday, I went down with some family to Tim's cousin's fifth birthday party, so my purse is even extra full this morning.

• Wallet
• Keys
• Bottle of enzymes
• Snacks (an apple and cheese & crackers - for the four hour round trip we had yesterday. It's not very unusual for me to have a snack or two in there even if I'm not traveling.)
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (also for the car ride)
• $0.20
• Several receipts 
• A coupon for Johnsonville Brats
• Chapstick
• Little pack of tissues
• Little notepad
• A purple pen, a blue pen and a mechanical pencil
• Hand sanitizer
• Tweezers
• My watch

30 Days of Blogging: Day 10

Day 10 - A photo of your favorite place to eat
Well, as many of you might know, I love to eat! I've always had a huge appetite and I can pretty much eat as much as an adult man...and of course I've always had trouble gaining weight. I know, I know, it's 'not fair' - but there's gotta be at least one positive to CF, right?! I enjoy going out to eat with Tim, friends, family, anyone. One of my favorite places is a place called China House in our town. It's a Chinese buffet and recently they added sushi (which I don't eat) and a Hibachi grill (which is awesome!). It's by no means very fancy, but I've always really enjoyed it.

I'm also a big fan of Chili's. They, of course, added one near my parents house right when I moved to college, so anytime I went back to visit friends, we always went to Chili's. There's also one near the Geneticist's office, so whenever we had to go see him, we'd stop there for dinner. Again, it's not very fancy, but their food is always good, and in my opinion, it's much better than Ruby Tuesdays or Applebees. There are very few places that I won't go to eat at, but these are the two that are sticking out as my favorite places to go.

30 Days of Blogging: Day 9

Day 9 - A photo of the item you last purchased - Sorry, this one isn't very exciting.

The last 'item' I purchased was gas for my beautiful little car :-)
Luckily I only drive about 4 1/2 miles to work everyday, so
less than 10 miles a day round trip - definitely
saves on the amount of times I have to go to the gas station.
I love my car! :-)

Gas was $3.39/gallon when I got
it last night after work and I filled 3/4 of my tannk

30 Days of Blogging: Day 8

Day 8: A Song to Match Your Mood

Well I woke up this morning with Luke Bryan's 'Country Girl (Shake It For Me)' stuck in my head. As soon as I started my treatments, I played it and it just woke me up. So I guess I'd say my mood is peppy and ready for the day. I'm glad it's already Thursday, plus it's spirit week at school and today's PJ day, which is awesome!

Lungs, Workouts & Great Strides

I'm a week into my 30 days of blogging and I hope you've been enjoying the different posts. I'm going to keep going with it, but I thought I'd throw in a 'regular' post. There hasn't been too much excitement here really. A few weeks ago I posted about having some lung bleeding problems, so I was put on an oral antibiotic for two weeks. Well about 10 days into it, I started coughing up blood again. It was totally out of the blue, but not as much as the first time. So, I emailed my nurse again to let her know and see what her suggestions were as to why it was happening and what the next step was.

She discussed with my CF doctor, looked at my vitamin K levels, and told me they have no idea why it's happening, and that I have normal vitamin K levels, but they decided to put me on a small amount of vitamin K for a little while to see if that helps. I've been on that for about a week now and I've had no bleeding. I'm finished with the oral antibiotic now, and my mucus seems like it's back to normal.

I returned to the gym last Thursday and completed 3.3 miles (~5K) on the treadmill with a combination of walking and running. It took me about an hour, but I'm so glad I did it. It was tough, but it felt so good know that my body can handle that much exercise at a time. Yesterday, I did my first "Insanity" workout. The PE teacher at our school has them on DVD and instructs the staff through the workouts everyday after work, so along with about 15 other staff members, we suffered (I mean, worked) through a cardio/balance routine. This morning my legs are killing me, but it was nice to switch up my work outs instead of just running all of the time. I'm going to try to do the Insanity workouts on Tuesdays and a 5K on the treadmill on Thursdays, and ultimately, I'd like to get that 5K going outside once the weather warms up to train for a real 5K race.

I've also been focusing a great deal of my time to getting my friends and family pumped up for Great Strides this year (April 14th). I've decided on purple shirts for our team, so now it's finally time to start taking orders. Also, one of my awesome friends from work is starting staff team called "Colleen's Cortland Crew" -- I'm very excited and thankful for that!! I love that I have so much support in my life!! Thanks everyone!!! :-)

30 Days of Blogging: Day 7

Day 7 - Your dream wedding
Today, Tim and I have been married for one year, three months and sixteen days.

This is a tough one because there's not one thing that I would have changed about our wedding, unless someone told us we had an unlimited budget. Sure I would have loved the sunset on a beach thing, or a huge outdoor venue with a fancy dinner and a big DJ -- but that's not us. We're simple, we enjoy the outdoors, good food, good music and a fun time with family and friends and that's exactly how the day was. It wasn't stressful or uptight, it was so relaxed and fun!

Our photographer (Brown Eyes Photography) created this collage
of pictures while she was editing our photos. I absolutely love it
because I think it captures how much fun we had!
*And yes, that's the 'Village People'*