The Sun Will Come Out....

Today! YAY, for the first time in about 2 weeks, the sun is out. It's not overcast, it's not raining, it's sun shiney! We are going to venture out into the world today on a walk, since it is beautiful! That is if I get all of the laundry done and all of R.'s clothes layed out for the weekend while I am gone. Well not a very long post, but will leave you with some fabulous pictures of my babe when she was just a little thing!

Today's Tidbits

Again, not much of a blog worthy day here, but a random tidbit of information basically about CF and our little family.

Tidbit #1
I hate CF. I guess, if you have read any of my previous blogs, you probably already have gotten the idea that I hate CF. And yes, Hate is a very strong word and I don't use it often, but in this case, I HATE CF (me yelling it). Although I hate CF, I am very thankful for a lot of things that have become to our family because of it.

• I am thankful for my little girl. She is the love of our lives and the most important thing in the world to us. I can't imagine a day that we didn't have her in our lives, nor a day that we won't have her in our lives.
• I am thankful for the doctors, nurses, and medical people that take care of my baby when it is needed. We don't have to make the trip often and I am also thankful for that, but when we are in need of medical help, they are always there. They never seem annoyed that I call at least 1 time per week, or sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. They are always very helpful and understanding.
• I am thankful that I get to stay home and take care of my baby. Although I believe that daycare and social interaction is very important in a childs development, I am very grateful that I have the opportunity to keep her safe from germs/bacteria/infections.
• I am very thankful for the cystic fibrosis foundation. Without them, the life expectancy would not be increasing each year. Their would be no new treatments, and they wouldn't be as close to a cure as they are. We will see a cure within my daughters life. I know it.
• And finally, I am thankful for all of my family, friends and aquantances that donate to our cause and other causes to help research continue for all of the nasty and horrible disease out their that affect little people and big people the same.

Tidbit #2

Well speaking of donations, I am beginning to think about all of the fundraising we will be doing for our Team Roses for Rylee. We have set a goal of raising $10,000.00 this year and believe we are very capable of meeting this goal. Here are a list of our fundraising efforts that will be taking place this year.

• Roses for Rylee bracelets - These are the typical rubber/silicone bracelets (like the livestrong ones). They are purple and say Roses for Rylee on them. We have size Large (adults) and size Small (children). We have been selling them for $3.00 each or 2 for $5.00. - The thing I find amazing about this is how far they can travel. I have a friend in Tuscon that ordered 10 of them. She said she was going to give them to her coworkers as she see/assists with a lot of Lung Transplant patients. Well on her facebook, she was tagged in some pictures and as I was looking at them, I noticed a purple bracelet on someone I didn't know. I asked if it was a Roses for Rylee bracelet and they said it sure was. I was amazed at how someone who doesn't even know my dear R. would wear a bracelet in her honor. We donate 100% of the profits (so every penny we recieve for a bought bracelet) to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We have lots left so let me know if you would like some.
• $10,000 from 10,000 people. This will be a letter that we will send to everyone we know. We will ask people to send $1.00 to us and then forward a letter with our story to 10 other people. We are hoping we can get to $10,000 through this. The thing about this, is it only costs $1.00 plus 11 stamps. Easy peasy huh. Usually families do writing campaigns asking for donations. We have a very hard time asking for money, however this form of a chain letter may make it easier. We will be sending them out with our christmas letters this year. If we know you, expect a letter asking for a $1.00 donation.
• Rock for Rylee Carnival. We are planning to do a carnival in the spring however with the economy it is looking a little tougher then expected. Our plan was to get donations of money, prizes, supplies, etc. from local businesses and then all profit would go to the CFF. Well, many larger business have a lockdown on all donations/giving due to the economy. Sad but understandable. We will see how this works out later on when we here back from some businesses.
• And finally, we will be partaking in the Great Strides Walk. This is the walk that raises money for the CFF. Last year we walked and the total raised at this local walk was over $91,000. It's amazing how 24 teams of people can raise that much money. We love it!

Tidbit #3

CF has changed our lives. I was never a germaphobe but am now. My hands are raw from washing them and using hand sanitizer, I am paranoid about tap water, and anytime I hear the words bacteria, flu, virus, swine flu or bugs I get freaked out and run and hide in my house. We have quarintined our little R. to the house for the flu season. She goes out when she won't be around anyone, like for drives in the car, pumpkin patch, swinging in the back yard, but she does not go into any stores, restaurants, businesses, etc. She did go to the clinic to get her flu shot and I about had a heart attack taking her around all of those people with flu symptoms. However, I love my life, and I love my little girl, CF and all.

Tidbit #4

Non CF related - I am going to go shopping this weekend! I am so excited and plan on getting R's winter clothes, shoes and some other little things for me maybe. And we are eating at a yummy italian restaurant and it's all girls going. I can not wait!

Well again, a lot of randomness and nothing to exciting, but none the less, important to us.

And one last push - Get your Roses for Rylee bracelets TODAY!

The House Makeover

The makeover is done. Well, not really. I still have lots of stuff to do yet. But I thought I would post a couple pictures of the before and afters.

Before

After. Mr. Crafty Husban made the Coat Hooks, and I painted an old bulletin board brown along with the mail holder. I used stickers to put the words "Bills" "In" and "Out" on each of the slots. I also sprayed the basket red, and the pumpkins a metallic gold and silver color. The jars/vases are filled with candy corn, flowers and topped off with some simple ribbon bows.

The Before - just after we painted. I forgot to take a picture before we took everything down.

The after - I switched out the pictures on the wall. They used to be wedding pictures and are now all of miss. R. I also added the word family above it. I have yet to fill our boxes on the right side with trinkets!

The Before - actually this was the during. Before there were some pictures of Miss. R.

The after. The picture frame will get pictures of R. in them but for now, we just hung it up. The quilt is one that Rylee got for Christmas from her grandpa. It has a picture of her in the middle of it and the white squares have roses in them. "65 roses" to be exact. Click here to read the story of "65 Roses".

And this is finally a close up of the neat looking jar after filling it with candy corn and adorning it with a brown, tan and red ribbon. I love how it turned out.

Well today the plan is to move the toy corner and declutter the book area....And if time permits go through R's clothes. Out with the summer (even though they still fit) and in with the fall/winter wardrobe.

Enjoy the day! and as always, BREATHE EASY

Chili and Cornbread

You can deffinately tell it's beginning to feel a little fall like! It was chilly here today. So after my not so nice night of rest last night, I woke up bright and early to start the day off. I did R's, nebulizer, fed her breakfast, started a load of laundry, and off to the great WalMart for groceries and some little decorating supplies. When I got home we made some Yummy french toast, eggs and bacon for a sunday breakfast lunch. Then I through the ingredients for chili into the crock pot for supper. Boy was I glad I did that. To not have to worry about supper after spending the day decorating was a relief. All I had to do was quickly throw together some corn bread and Walla! It was so scrumptious and warming, especially on this chilly fall day.

So on to the decorating. I don't have any pictures quite yet, but I will give you a little idea of what is going on in our household. Well I took all of my pictures and decorations off of the wall in the entry way and put up a bulletin board, mail organizer, wooden sign and coat rack. I also cleared the stand off and put up some very fall looking decorations. I took a big glass jar and filled it with candy corn - not only the yellow, orange and white stuff, but the red and tan, the brown and tan, the yellow white and brown and the normal stuff. Then I tied a ribbon around it. I also filled two small pillar vases with this candy corn mixture and stuck some very pretty fall flowers in it. Then I spray painted some pumpkins, added a little ribbon and placed all the above items on a red placemat. My crafty husband is still working on the shelf for the bottom, and I also spray painted a basket red to go on the shelf. This will house R's shoes, hats, mittens and winter stuff.

On to the living room - So I decided to paint the wall. We just made it a couple shades darker brown. So as of now, that's all that is there. a brown wall. We have yet to put up the shelves/pictureframes/pretties that go on the wall.. I also sprayed a couple more baskets to house R's books and some toys. Right now we have 4 bright foam mats where we keep her toys and books. It is kind of an eye sore. So i am hoping to move the mats and the majority of her toys to the toy room/scrapbooking room. At this point we don't play in the toy room much, but eventually she will be in there all the time. I'm hoping this will declutter the living area a little.

Well off to finish the remodel/redecorations! Happy Fall everyone!

Insomnia

It is officially 12:36am as I sit here typing this. What does that mean you may ask? Well it means that I cannot sleep. :( Sad, considering it is my day of the weekend to wake with the little one and that could very possibly mean 7:30am but still I sit here, my mind wandering and pondering little thoughts.

Today was fairly productive and this may be adding to my insomnia tonight. I keep thinking about all that is on the agenda for tomorrow. Today I painted a mail organizer/key holder deal, a bulletin board, and a coat hook board. My awesome and fairly crafty husband whipped out the coat hook board in like 10 minutes. Edges routered and everything. I have been wanting to do a little something to my house to dress it up a little/organize it alot and declutterfy the entire thing. Well I finally started.....in the entry way. I will be taking down the candle holder wall pieceamajig and moving it to the bedroom (we do not light the candles in it so no fear of us burning the house down from a fire in the bedroom from candles). I am going to hang the bulletin board and mail organizer above the nice table that my husband made for me a couple years ago - See....he is a very crafty guy. I am also gonna put the coat hook board up on the wall behind the door. This will hold R's coat, the diaper bag, my purse, Daddy's coats and hats, etc. Mr. Crafty also made a shelf for the bottom of the forementioned table that I am going to put a couple baskets on to house rylee's winter hats and mittens, and other misc. items that will end up there.

So this is what brings me to the no sleep thing....The baskets. As I crawled into bed tonight, I was thinking about how I really didn't want to go and buy new baskets/totes. I have a ton already. So I decided I was going to spray paint a couple of the ones, and now get this.....I am going to try my hand at sewing the fabric liners for them. So all I will need is a little spray paint and a couple yards of fabric....Way better then spending $20.00 or more on baskets I would say. So as I was contemplating this, I decided how nice it would be to give the living room wall and fresh coat of paint. This led me to decorating the livingroom, which eventually took me to decorating and painting the bathroom and finally moving things into the bedroom/cleaning/hanging pictures/reorganizing. So here I am, sitting in the dark on my computer still thinking about all the possibilities for tomorrow.

I will deffinately be posting some before and after pictures of at least the entry way tomorrow or monday. Another thing I would like to do tomorrow is make it out to the pumpkin patch, and also work on getting my photography business going. I need to make the postcards to send to people. And as I was thinking about that, christmas letters/card came to mind and it reminded me how I was thinking about sending out our $10,000.00 from 10,000 people letter along with christmas letters this year.

I feel like the pig in the book "IF YOU GIVE A PIG A PANCAKE". What more can I think about that will remind me of something else tonight.

Well I suppose that is enough random rambling for the night. I am going to do some list making and hopefully get tired enough to crawl back into bed without waking the hubby or the little one. Good night to all.....Happy sleeping!

Relax and Replenish

Yay for Friday. Happy TGIF everyone. I still can't believe how much I truely enjoy the weekends even though I'm home all week. It just seems that having R's dad around makes everything a little bit easier and more relaxing.

We don't have much planned this weekend except for laundry, some simple projects and sleeping and relaxing. I have a busy week next week, so I do need to prepare a little for the week and next weekend however.

My dad is coming down for a meeting for work, so he will be here overnight again. I am also suppose to have a meeting with a Hockey Team about the fundraiser that they are doing for CF. We are very excited that they are willing to do this fundraiser. However, with all the preparations for being gone for the first time over the weekend and my dad visiting, I'm not sure if I can make it to the meeting. It was so nice of them to invite me to come, however my friend may have to tackle this one herself. I hate to spread myself to thin and then not be able to enjoy my weekend away. We will see what the week brings though.

I am really beginning to think about some easy projects that I can do to get a little more organized around here. We have bills, medical bills, appointments, etc. on top of all of our other every day clutter. If anyone has any great ideas, let me know.

We might venture out to the pumpkin patch later this weekend to see if it is not so muddy. It has been raining here or drizzly all week so I'm doubting it will be good pumpkin pickin whether but I would really love to get just a few more pumpkins.

On a positive not on the excercising - I hopped back on the elliptical again, even though it was rainy and yucky out and I could have layed down with Rylee during her nap. I rode it and felt way better after doing it. We will see what today brings, but I'm hoping I can continue to push through the first couple of weeks and get into a routine with this.

Well this post was very random, and not much interesting things in it. I have lots of little things going through my mind about shopping, fundraising, organization, and paying bills. I should sort through my thoughts a little.

Well TGIF everyone. I hope this weekend is relaxing for all and we can start the week Replenished! Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Always, Breathe Easy!

Flu Shots and Yummy Granola Bars

So yesterday Rylee had her first flu shot. Too bad we have to go back to get another one in four weeks since it was her first time getting one. The hubby and I had ours two weeks ago and R. was going to get hers last week but the fever put a minor glitch in the plan. So off it was to the yucky germy clinic to get her shot. We barely got in the room and she saw her normal nurse and burst out crying. The other nurse was like, geez, I haven't even got the needle ready. I told her that it's a mixture of shots, blood draws, and nasal suctions that have happened in the last 6 months that makes her not like nurses. Luckily the crying was short lived and it was off to get icecream.

Now on to today. R. had a rough night last night and was up for like 1.5 hours in the middle of the night. Every once in a while she gets in her mind that this is ok. Well she slept in till 9:00am this morning due to the nice little hour and a half play time at 3am. So we got up and fought through the nebulizer and CPT and then it was time for breakfast. I swear that she is a little piggy. She ate a whole container of yogurt (of course it was the little ones that I mentioned a few days ago), a 8 oz cup of pediasure and an entire granola bar. It just amazes me how much she loves the yogurt and granola bars. And for her to eat the granola bars like such a little woman. She no longer crumbles them on the highchair tray. She nicely bites little pieces off. So cute.

And as for me, I am on about day 3 of the workout. I skipped the second day as we were very busy but I got back on the horse yesterday and did a workout video in the morning while R had her breakfast and then last night I jumped on the elliptical for a while. Today I am thinking I will try and work out during Rylee's nap. They say it takes 28 days for a new thing to become a habit so wish me luck on this one. only 25 more days to go until I actually maybe won't mind working out. On a positive note...my legs were sore today so I can tell it somewhat worked a little.

I am also going to do a little decorating for the season. I spray painted some pumpkins and they are sitting outside waiting to be centerpieces on the island. I also brought up a couple of pumpkin decorations I have collected over the past few years. I need to dig out the window clings and get those up on the windows. I have been in a redecorating mood lately and can't wait to change some things up in our house. I really would like to have a little command/organization center somewhere in the entryway or kitchen so if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Well that was a lot of rambling and if you made it this far, thanks for reading. IT's thrusday today and that means, one more day till the weekend. :) Even though I stay at home all week, I love my sleep in saturdays and my time with my husband on the weekends.

Happy Thursday everyone!