Snow!!!

Snow...that's almost all we've seen this week. Even though I hate being cold and I hate driving in snow & ice, it has been fun to watch the white stuff fall. I took these pictures on Tuesday night around 10 pm. I stood just outside our front door and got these. I thought they turned out pretty good. These flakes were HUGE and very beautiful! Enjoy!

Christmas Concert Fun in Kuna

One of the many fun things to do this time of year is to go to Christmas concerts. Curtis and I had planned on attending 2-3 different concerts, but with being on IVs and other stuff going on, we've only been able to make it to one concert this year. Many people remember when I babysat/nannied for the Jensen family. Well, even though I don't do that anymore, we still keep in touch with them a lot. I use to watch the older girls when I was in High School....now Riley and Amanda are in High School. Ethan is now 6 yrs old and Aidan is 4 yrs old...where has the time gone??

Riley sings in the choir and invited us to her concert Monday night. Since I didn't really know anyone else singing in the choir, we sat by the Jensen's. It was lots of fun! Of course the boys were excited to see Curtis and I. They kept us entertained before the concert started and every moment after. Ethan was my little turtle friend for the night and Aidan was the bug boy or snake...I'm not sure which one? We heard all kinds of stories that only a 4 & 6 yr old can tell. Ethan sang along with several songs. (I told him we should have put a suit & tie on him and had him go up there and sing). Ethan also told Curtis (again) what it was that I wanted for Christmas...every girl wants jewelry and diamonds, so that is what Curtis is suppose to buy me. (He gets that from his sisters, although jewelry is not for his Mom...) At the end of the concert the choir sang the Hallelujah Chorus and invited Kuna Alumni to join them on stage to sing. Curtis, Ethan & I went up and sang. It was fun!!! Ethan is one of the youngest alumni ever and now Curtis is also a Kuna High Alumni...he finally switched loyalties and joined the best high school in the valley!! :o) Ok, really they invited alumni and anyone who wanted to go up and sing. But I can still tease Curtis that he is now a Kuna High alum.

Of course we took pictures. The boys wanted me to take pictures of them all night long...but here are a few of them. Enjoy!!

My Turtle Friend being shy

The snake & turtle finally smile....

Riley after the concert

Sing, sing, sing...

They sang Rudolph (a jazzy version) and the boy in the back row had a blinking red nose

Not from Monday night, but a nice picture of the boys with me in

August, aren't my little boys Cute!!!!

It's a full-time job...but someone has to do it!

So what have I been doing the last few weeks...I've been my own personal nurse here at home trying to get better. I have been sick now for over a month. My breathing test (PFT's, aka lung function test) have been down around 40%. Most healthy people have lung function around 90-100%. Sam, my sister w/CF who can run up to 16 miles or more a week, is about 85%...my normal (base line) is between 50-55%, so I'm definitely not as healthy as most people. Anyway, we did almost 4 weeks of oral antibiotics with my test only going up about 1% each week. So we decided to go to home IV's to help me get back up to my base line level. Well they are starting to work! This week when I went to the doctor my test went up 6 points!!! Yahoo!!! So if that happens again this next week I'll be back up to my base line and hopefully off of antibiotics for a while. Oh, on top of the one IV antibiotic, I'm also taking 2 oral antibiotics and 1 inhaled antibiotic....so with all of that something had better work! (this is what happens when you are resistant to most antibiotics and now allergic to some of them....having just one doesn't do the trick, but if you combine 2 or 3 of them it works great for me. This is not recommended for most people!)

The current IV antibiotic that I am on has to be given every 6 hrs! It's not very stable mixed up, so I have to mix it right before I give it. Normally I have my little "bottles" with my medicine in them that I can hook up and go. This one has to go in via gravity drip...so I have an IV pole at my house that I hang my medicine on. This one definitely isn't very travel friendly, so I stay home a lot. It takes about 45 min. to go in and then I unhook, flush and go until the next round is due. My current schedule is 8 am, 2 pm, 8 pm, and 2 am. Yes it would be so much easier to be in the hospital and have the nurse worry about this, but I'd rather be home than in the hospital. It's a good thing we have an alarm...Curtis has also been really good at helping me. He is my own personal nurse in training. :o)

On top of taking my IVs and other oral medications, I also spend a lot of time doing breathing treatments. Since I'm sick, I've been doing them 3 times a day. My inhaled medications take about 30 min. in the morning, 30 min. in the afternoon, and about 45 min. in the evening. I also use the Vest for 30 min each time I "smoke" to help loosen the mucus in my lungs and get it out. On top of all of this I'm suppose to eat and try to get as many calories in that I can. (easier said than done when you don't feel very good...but I'm trying!) I'm also suppose to take it easy and rest. This can also be very hard when you know there are dishes and laundry to be done...but I have lots of help. Sam helps when she is here and Curtis helps a lot too after work and on the weekends. The nice thing about all of this is that I've been doing a lot of reading...I've finished 3 books in the last 2 weeks. I also worked on my scrapbook for my Grandmother. It took about 2 weeks to do, but slow and steady wins the race.

Anyway, I'm starting to feel better and thought that I would take some pictures of what my day is like. I'm excited to be feeling better for Christmas. I feel very blessed to have all that I have, especially a wonderful loving husband who loves me and makes sure that I get the medical care that I need.

My medicine right before I mix it up

My best friend every 6 hrs.

The Vest and air compressor for nebulizer treatments

My favorite past-time...smoking, shaking, and reading all at the same time!

Family Scrapbook

For the past week I've been working on a scrapbook of my family for my Grandma Myers for Christmas. (I believe that there will be a page for all of the grandchildren (26) & great-grandchildren (27)...I was only in charge of my family so I'm not sure exactly how it will turn out). Anyway, I finished it up yesterday and I thought that I would take pictures of my pages and show them off...mostly because I haven't done any scrapbooking for a few years and thought they turned out REALLY GOOD! (No, the Myers family doesn't know about our blog yet, so it won't be ruined). Enjoy!!!

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we had dinner with the Curtis' family. It was fun because his sister Heather and her husband Ben and son Spencer came up from Utah. Dinner was of course delicious!!! I loved it for several reasons:
1-I didn't have to cook anything but rolls
2-Ben soaked the turkey in a brine overnight and it made the turkey ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!
3-Did I mention all the food was delicious?!!
4-It was fun to play with Spencer and to watch Curtis play with him
5-I ate all of my food...I know for those of you who know me that is a no-brainer, however, I've been sick and on antibiotics and I'm not eating much food because it just doesn't taste good. I was very excited to eat a plate full of food and actually enjoy it for the first time in a few weeks! Everything tasted sooooo good!

After we had dinner and pie at the Cahoon's we went to Nampa and visited with my Grandma & Grandpa Ward for a few hours. We also had some of Grandma's home-made apple pie...oh-so-good!!! Of course the weekend wouldn't have been complete without Football & Shopping! Curtis & Tim watched the games on Turkey day, went to the BSU game against Fresno St. on Friday, and watched the other games on Saturday. The only game I watched was the BSU game at my parents house, where I stayed warm while watching the game. It was pretty fun getting all excited during the game with Brenda...I'm surprised that my Dad was able to sleep through us yelling! Heather & Judie went shopping on Black Friday and again on Saturday. I decided to skip out on the Black Friday shopping and instead went to my parents home to help my sisters change rooms around & watch the game with them. I did end up shopping on Saturday with them and was able to get a few good deals on things for Curtis. (What I got will have to wait until Christmas to be known....) Anyway, it was a very fun family filled weekend. Below are pictures from Thanksgiving Day. Enjoy!!!

Spencer & George

He can play so well!

Grandpa Chuck giving Spencer a tour of the house

Ben doing what he loves....cooking!!! The turkey was sooo good!!!!

Heather

Tim...football anyone?

What a handsome movie star!!

Chuck & Judie...a VERY cute picture together!!!

It wouldn't be the complete Cahoon family without us!