Happy 21st Birthday Sam!!!

I've been meaning to post this all week, but we took pictures on Sam's camera instead of ours, so I had to wait until they were downloaded. (It's so nice now that Sam has her own camera to take pictures with!!) Monday Jan. 19th was Samantha's birthday. On Sunday the family come over and we celebrated, Parley even brought his dog Molly over-which totally made Sam happy! We had a yummy dinner of spiral glazed ham, potatoes, baked broccoli & peppers, and french bread w/melted butter and Parmesan cheese...all of her favorites. Mom, Sam, Nicole and Brenda all enjoyed playing with Molly (who was surprisingly well behaved, at Parley's place she jumps everywhere and barks a lot, but there are also 2 other dogs there. When she was by herself she listened and hardly barked. I loved it!) I enjoyed watching Sam open presents, mostly because we wrapped hers several times and used duct tape (I know that will come back to us on our birthdays, but it was soooo worth it!) We gave her the book "Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants" because she is a Gospel Doctrine teacher in her ward and she said it's a lot harder to teach than the Book of Mormon was. The whole time we were lighting the candles Brenda was taking deep breaths and blowing them out while her hand was over her mouth. Brenda absolutely LOVES to blow out the candles and she knows that she can't blow them out unless its her birthday. We used to cover her mouth, but now she does it herself. (it's really funny) Anyway, right when Sam went to blow out her candles Parley put his hand right in front of her face and in the process it blew out most of the candles....so she only got to blow out about 3 or 4. (Don't worry, she got to blow them all out on her cake that her friends made on her birthday). Hope everyone enjoys the pictures below...yes, mostly of Sam, but hey, it was her birthday so we gave into her vanity....next birthday in the family...Sara's!!! :o)

opening her gift from us :o)

Parley's dog Molly

Isn't she cute!!

She finally made it through all layers of paper & tape!!

Lighting all 21 candles

Enjoying the attention of us singing to her

Because of Parley she only got to blow out a few candles

Christmas 2008

It's been a while since I've posted anything. So, what have we been up to? Lot's of things! Curtis had the week of Christmas and the week of New Year's off, so we were able to spend lots of time together doing things. The week of Christmas we spent a lot of time driving around in the snow to finish our shopping, going to my doctor appointments, and running other errands. I was especially grateful that Curtis was home so that he could drive in the snow and not me. (Thank you honey!!!) Christmas Eve we drove around a few of the subdivisions by us and looked at the Christmas lights. Then Sam and I made a gingerbread house. It was pretty fun! We first made a replica of the Temple...we both thought that it looked pretty good (there is a picture below). Since we had a ton of candy we then turned it into a log cabin sort of building. We probably ate more candy then ended up on the house and we sure felt it afterwards. The best part of our house was the structure, it was very sold and there was no way it was going to collapse unless someone dropped a book on it or something. When we threw it away, Curtis finally saw it and was VERY impressed that we came up with it ourselves. I now can't wait until next year to see what we come up with....

Christmas day was fun and very busy. My Dad came over right after he got off work that morning (he works nights and gets off around 6:45 am) My family was all at our house by 7:15 am. We made breakfast and then opened presents. They didn't stay past 9, so that Dad could go home and get some sleep. After a few quiet hours we then traveled to Nampa to have "lunch" with my Grandma & Grandpa Ward and other extended family. We stayed for a few hours, came home long enough for me to take my IV medicine, and then we went to Boise to spend the evening with Curtis' family. There we opened more presents, ate dinner, talked to other family members on the phone, and played some games. I think we got home around 9:30 pm and boy was I tired. I very much enjoyed the day with family, which made it all worth it!!!

Other things we did: Went to New Plymouth (in between snow storms) to visit my Grandma Myers. Went to Mountain home to visit my best friend Shasta & her husband, took Grandma & Grandpa Ward out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse (That was fun because they had never been there & Grandpa LOVED the food!!!). We cleaned the carpets in the dinning room & living room (this took about 4 days to do because we moved furniture around, but we got it done!!!). I spend some time with my friend Jackie Hayes before she moved down to southern Utah. (she is a friend that I met when I did my internship in the disability office at BSU. Our favorite thing to do together....laugh!!!) We played games and went to bed early on New Year's eve, mostly because we were both pretty tired from all of our running around. Curtis and I also sang a duet at the Stake Baptism last Saturday. All in all, it was a great two weeks. Even though it was really busy, I was extremely excited about spending all of that time with Curtis. It was time that we BOTH needed together. Now that the new year is here, its back to work and still being as busy as ever. Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Our Temple

the finished product

top view...very cool with the "snow" on top

Curtis was VERY excited about his new backpack for camping!!!

Jackie & I

Grandma Myers & I

A fun & goofy picture of us on Christmas day

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!

Happy 25th Birthday Nicole!!!

Today is my little sister Nicole's birthday. She is now the BIG 25! (Wow, that makes me feel old!!) We celebrated yesterday at our house with the family and ate some of Nicole's favorite food...lasagna and pumpkin pie. Instead of making "real" lasagna, we made a Rachael Ray "fake-out" lasagna which was soooo much easier and faster to make. (Basic idea: cheese filled ravioli, cooked & layered in a baking pan with meat and spaghetti sauce, topped with cheese.) Watching Nicole open presents is soooo different than Brenda opening them...Nicole took FOREVER to open, making sure she got every piece of tape and wrapping paper off before tackling the box. (Brenda on the other had rips stuff off so fast and throws it so that she can quickly get to the gift inside. I think she has opened things in under 8 sec. before...now we use LOTS of tape!) Some of the things Nicole got for her birthday: a few necklaces, a book, a picture for her room, and her 1st ever BSU T-shirt! (she's never really asked for one and I just realized this past week that she was the only family member w/o a BSU shirt...she was VERY surprised!) Below are pictures of everyone, except Parley who was sick and opted to stay home to avoid getting the rest of us sick.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE!!!

The Birthday Girl

We just love the camera!

I'm not sure I know who this goofball is...

A rare picture of Dad

Mom actually smiling!

What a CUTE sister picture!!!