Ultimate Savory Pot Roast w/Gravy

Back in February Me, my sister Jessica, my mom Heather, my cousin Kasey and a good friend of ours Barb went to see The  Addams Family play here at our local performing arts hall. We love going to musicals its kind of our "thing" we like to do with just the girls! Here is a picture from the matinée we went to.

The night before the play my mom and sister came and spent the night at my house so they could attend church with me and my husband in the morning before we went to the play. But before my mom and sister were to get here we had planned on "spring cleaning" our downstairs bedroom. I knew that because of this I wasn't going to want to cook a huge meal that night because I would be tired from cleaning so I planned on making a roast in the crockpot. 

I found one I had never used before on the Crockingirls website and thought it was pretty interesting since it included a can of coke in its ingredients!! It was super simple to throw together and super delicious to eat. I served it with rice, green beans and a dinner roll!! 

Ultimate Savory Pot Roast w/Gravy

Ingredients

• 4 Pounds Chuck Roast (any beef roast will do)
• 1 Package Savory pot roast seasoning
• 1 Can Coke
• 1 Cup Water
• 1 Package Au Jus gravy mix

Directions

Step One

Mix the pot roast seasoning with the cup of water in slow cooker.

1. Step Two

   Place roast in mixture, then pour coke over top 
   
   

   Step Three

   Cover with lid and cook on LOW for 8hrs. DO NOT LIFT THE LID!
   
   

   Step Four

   After it's done cooking take the lid off (depending how lean your roast was at this point I skim the fat off) and sprinkle the AuJus packet over the top of roast and replace lid for about 5 mins. Take roast out of slow cooker then just slice, serve, and enjoy. :)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   And of course here is my final plate!! 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Hope you guys try it and like it as much as we all did! I have many more recipes that im gonna try and post soon so check back later for more!! 
   
   

Lunch Time: Soup and Sandwich!!

Prior to my transplant in 2010 I woke up every morning starving and ready to eat breakfast. Since then I don't know if it is due to all the medications I now take or what but I just can not eat a big breakfast. If Danny and I go for breakfast with his parents on the weekend sometimes the most I can handle is a bowl of grits and maybe a bagel but not much more.

Thats why I am pretty big into lunch and of course dinner! My usual standby is some sort of soup and sandwich combo with a little variety every once in awhile. I love making homemade soup but I haven't done that in awhile (I have actually been looking recently for a good ham/bean soup) so its the canned version I have been eating lately. 

The sandwich that I made for myself the other day is a sandwich actually made for me YEARS ago by my Aunt (my dads sister.) I think she just made it up....remember a few days ago me telling you how good my grandma was at cooking something out of nothing? Well my Aunt got that same awesome gift! Me.again.not so much....

Ingredients:
2 slices bread
Mayo
Cream cheese
Deli meat (ham, turkey, etc.)
1-2 Slices American cheese
2 Slices tomato
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1. Toast Slices of bread.
2. Take a few slices of deli meat and top with the slices of cheese and heat in the microwave for about 30 sec. or just till the cheese is melty.
3. On the toasted bread, spread the cream cheese on one slice and the mayo on the other slice.
4. Place the meat/cheese on the slice with the mayo, then top that with the slices of tomato, salt and pepper to taste and then top that with the bread slice that has the cream cheese on it.
5. Slice in half and enjoy! 

I know it might sound a little strange but I love it and its something out of the norm of just a regular grilled cheese sandwich (which believe me I eat a lot of!)

YUM!!

And just because I think its cute, my owl soup bowl I got from my Mom for Xmas! 

Well, I am off to make dinner. Look at me with TWO blog post in one day....YAY!! :) 

I'M Back....

I know, I know....I have been a BAD blogger! Its just I have had so much going on through the holidays and going through my back pain issue (which thankfully is better!) I literally had no time to blog or was in so much pain I wasn't even able to get out of bed and when I did get downstairs to cook I certainly wasn't in the mood to take pics of everything for the blog. But I feel better and ready to get back to cooking! :)

Let me give you a quick version of what I have been doing while I wasn't blogging....

I hosted my very first Thanksgiving at our house we had about 30 adults plus children. It was wonderful and stressful all at the same time because I was working very hard to make it PERFECT. We had two turkeys (one traditional in the oven which I made and one smoked that my BIL did) and a ham that my MIL made. Then I made 4 pies from SCRATCH for dessert and everyone who came also brought a dish anywhere from an appetizer to a side dish. It was a great Thanksgiving filled with lots of family and friends! Certainly beats last Turkey day by a long shot since last year I was eating Thanksgiving dinner in the hospital attached to a vent!

I had my one year anniversary of my lung transplant on December 2, 2011 and I celebrated in style by not only having a wonderful party at my house with family and friends to celebrate....BUT I also got to spend 4 amazing days in NYC with my sister and cousin. We walked EVERYWHERE, by the time it was time to go home parts of my body that I didn't even knew existed hurt! But I could do it and I didn't have to stop/rest/or hold anyone back because I could BREATH! It was an amazing feeling!

Christmas kinda snuck up on me this year. I am usually that person who in October is usually done shopping and this year I don't even know what happened but I was way behind and still shopping the week of Christmas! That will never happen again believe me because all the millions of people who were also shopping reminded me why I don't go to stores or malls in the month of December is because of all the other crazy shoppers out there! Christmas Eve was spent with the in-laws and Christmas day was spent with my family by going to church in the morning and then dinner late afternoon.  It was a great Christmas all around.

New Years Eve we had a little party at out house like we usually do. Danny doesn't really care to go out on New Years and worry about who's gonna drive home and then navigating the roads with all the other people who are possibly driving drunk. He thinks its just safer to stay home. So we have had a New Years Eve party every year we have lived in our house except last cause I was still in Gainesville recovering.

So that brings us into January. I just had a check up last week that included a bronch and yesterday my coordinator called me with my results which I am proud to say were NEGATIVE for rejection!! I was a little worried this time because I have been having major sinus issues and I didn't want that negatively affecting my beautiful breathers. Oh yeah I almost forgot to mention I got a early 30th birthday present yesterday (my bday is 2/3!) a NEW CAR!! Its so pretty, I will have to post pictures next time I blog! :)

Well that's all I got for today. I have to go meet my little brother at his college cause he needs some money for gas...aren't I a good sister or what? LOL

Till next time....XoxoX

Its been WAY to long...

I don't even know where to begin! Its been so long since I wrote a blog and everyday I tell myself ok I am gonna write one and then I just don't.

I have been feeling SO great lately and am hardly ever home during the day anymore and thats when I usually wrote my blog post! But tonight I was like ok this is getting ridiculous, sit down and write something....so here it goes! :)

In the last month, I had my 6 month transplantaversary, my 4 YEAR wedding anniversary, been to Orlando twice (once for a the weekend with Danny for a Disney trip for out Anniversary and once for a week with my parents at there time share) both trips were awesome and I had a blast!

I think the best part for me about Disney was the fact that we got there at 8:30am and didn't leave the park till 10:30pm and I walked ALL day with out being out of breath, tired or needing any breaks besides when we stopped for food/drinks. My brother-in-law who is a firefighter actually started complaining about his feet hurting around noon...by the end of the day I told him if I had to hear about his feet one more time I was gonna punch him in the eye!! LOL

A few weeks ago I joined the gym around the corner from house. I started with just doing the treadmill for 30 minutes and now am up to a little over an hour there doing both the treadmill and weight machines for my arms and legs. I go pretty much every other day and I really enjoy it. At first I was SO sore but now its much better and I can feel myself getting a little stronger every week! I have finally gotten brave enough to try a spin class so I think my SIL and I are going to try a class sometime next week. The only sucky thing is the class is usually at like 9am and I am SO not a morning person and neither is my SIL Stephanie! But I am willing to get up and give it a try because everyone who takes the class just loves it.

I think I mentioned before that Danny was re-doing the downstairs bathroom and guest room. Well he has been working so much that its taken awhile to get things done but the bathroom is FINALLY done and the bedroom is almost done so I will try and get pictures up of the final product....I just LOVE my bathroom! :)

On a sad note a good friend of mine that I met last year past away this past Sunday. Sara lived in my town and had 2 tx's in Gainesville where I had my surgery. About 3 weeks ago our Dr sent her home with nothing else he could do for her chronic rejection and after being home for a week they called in hospice. On June 17th, Sara and her boyfriend Jesse were married in a little ceremony outside there home and on the following Sunday (June 19th) she passed away. I got to see her and say goodbye on Saturday and I have to say it was very heartbreaking for me but I am glad she isn't suffering anymore. Nobody should have to go through that...the person or their family. Its very sad. She was such a loving, caring and kind person and if you knew her and were lucky enough to call her your friend then you know just how special she was. No matter how sick she was she always took the time daily to text me to see how I was doing and was truly 100% happy for me that I was doing well and living life to the fullest...and I honestly don't know how she did it cause I don't think I am that type of person....but hopefully I can take a little piece of Sara with me and strive to be more like her. The world would be a much kinder place with more people like Sara in it.

On that sad note (now that I am crying once again) I think I will end my post for tonight and I will really try to update more often! Tomorrow I will try to get some pictures up of my 2 mini vacations when I get home from the gym!! :)

Good Night!!

XoxoX

Last Week...

Well last Monday my SIL Stephanie took me back up to Gainesville for an x-ray to see how my little lungies were doing and he ended up scheduling a bronch for that afternoon and I was admitted again! :(

Steph spent the night with me and then headed home the next morning after we woke up. I am so lucky to have a SIL like her...she is ALWAYS there when I need her no matter what!

Unfortunately, we aren't entirely sure what is going on with me. When he does an xray and bronch it looks like pneumonia in the left lung but I have had no fevers at all (knock on wood!) and my biopsy's keep coming back negative for rejection but for some reason I don't think he is happy with those answers and thinks something else is going on! He said infection/rejection can look the same in a bronch so sometimes its hard to tell. So at the moment I am on IV cefipime twice a day and while I was admitted into the hospital I did 3 days of high solumerol IV and now I am on a prednisone tapper. Oh I am also on coumadin for a month (hello bruise city!) because I had a CT scan last week that showed a small blood clot so they are treating me for that as well! I tell yeah if it isn't one thing its another! :(

Easter was great. Dinner with my family was awesome and I am glad I wasn't in the "Get Well Hotel" as one of my friends calls it! I was there for 4 days last week but was able to leave on Friday to join my parents and little sister in Panama City Beach for the weekend to visit my Aunt and Uncle! It was a nice but WAY to short of a trip....next time it will have to be a longer

visit and maybe Danny can go too!

Our little family at Easter!

Me & Danny! :)

Me & Jessie in Panama City Beach!

Speaking of Danny...while I was away my awesome husband checked some things off his Honey-Do list and painted/added chair-rail to the living room and dining room. I am so thankful to have a husband that is handy AND motivated to actually do the projects that I think up in my head! :)

boring living room from when we first moved in....

slowly getting there...

Dining room from when we first moved in...

Now! :)

Well, thats all I got for now...I am on IV's for the rest of the week and have to go to a clinic appointment on May 11th so we will see what he says then. I have a meeting tomorrow for Jen's Kids so we will see how that turns out. The hospital unfortunately hasn't done a darn thing while I was away so we are meeting to decide where to go from here. I am kind of disappointed in them that they dropped the ball so we will see.

Anyway....have a great week everyone!! XoxoX

Lesson Learned...

Never go up for a "routine bronch" without an overnight bag just in case....that is the lesson I learned yesterday the hard way!

So Wednesday I called my coordinator to say I thought I needed a bronch because I was feeling a little congested as I still have a little hole in my neck and it makes it VERY hard to cough anything up if need be. My energy has been fine, my O2 has been fine it was just at night when I laid down to go to bed did I feel kind of crappy. So they scheduled me for a 8am bronch Thursday morning. I thought ok I will go get cleaned out and then head on home just like I did last time. NOT. SO. MUCH!

After doing my bronch, Dr. Baz talked to Danny saying that something just didn't look right so they were admitting me and that we would know more (whether it is rejection or infection) the next day. Because we weren't expecting to stay we had NOTHING with us...no clothes, no phone chargers, no toothbrushes....all I had was a pillow and blanket from the car ride up and my laptop and thank goodness I thought to have Danny take it so he had something to do during my bronch! So I sent Danny home last night so he could go to work today and pack our stuff and then he was gonna go back up to Gainesville when he got off.

Well, this morning came and luckily I don't have rejection but I do have pneumonia in my left lung. But the good news is its very treatable and my dr let me go home today and do IV's at home! YAY! Shortest hospital stay ever! :)

I do have to go back to Gville on Monday for an xray...if it shows improvement I can go back home and continue my dose of IV's if its not improved he will readmit me and do another bronch on Tuesday to see what else is going on!

Im just glad to be home for Easter weekend and spend time with my family. Let me tell you last night sucked being by myself in Gainesville....I think I cried for like 2 hours after Danny left just because I wasn't expecting to have to stay so I was thrown off...I felt like such a baby after I was done being emotional! lol

Anyway, I will let you all know what happens next week!! Have a great weekend everyone! :)

XoxoX

Twelve days just FLY by...

I just looked at blogger and realized I haven't updated in 12 days!! Geez-louise!

Where to start...well I got my biopsy results back from my bronch a couple weeks ago and it was NEGATIVE for rejection!!! Woo-Hoo! I love hearing those results! :)

We had and awesome time at our friends wedding on Sanibel. It was so nice to "get away" for a night even if it was only an hour away from our house. Lounging by the pool with a RumRunner in my hand is the way to relax in style! Unfortunately, we didn't get to do the parasailing thing because my doctor said NO until my sternum is "completely" healed...bummer! But one day I will...

Us and the Newlyweds!!

Me, Danny, his brother Troy & wife Stephanie

Me & Danny <3

View from our room! :)

The next few weeks are jam packed for me. We have Easter next weekend, next week I think I am going back to Gainesville (I swear I am always there!) then the following weekend me and my family are going to Panama City Beach to see my Aunt and Uncle. Then May 4th I am riding up with my dad to Ohio to pick my little brother up from college. Then that following weekend is Mother's day....and in the middle of ALL that I go to physical therapy for 2 hours three days a week!! Im telling ya I am a busy girl!! :)

Man I am exhausted just thinking of all I have to do! LOL I just got home from PT so I am gonna straiten up my bedroom a little bit and then jump in the shower. I need to have dinner done a little early tonight cause we have to go to the grocery store after dinner and I don't want to be going super late!

Have a great Monday everyone.....

XoxoX

One Month Anniversary!!

Today, I have had my wonderful new lungs for an entire month! And while nothing about this transplant has gone easy (but what with me ever does?) I am thankful everyday to be able to sit here and blog to you all, or hang out with my family all while being on no oxygen and not fighting to breath.

Friday was the first day that I ventured out of the apartment/hospital radius and went to the mall. Boy was it nice to not have to lug O2 around with me! :)

The only thing that still really hurts me is my foot and I plan on bringing that up with my doctor tomorrow morning because something has to give. It hurts so bad its holding me back from fully enjoying my new breathers and thats not a good thing....

In case some of you are scratching your head wondering why my foot hurts when I had a lung transplant I will tell you! Before my surgery I was put on an ECMO machine (I was REALLY sick) this gave me a big cut on my thigh where they attached the tubes. This caused there to be no blood flow to my left leg for 24 hrs. So fast forward to after my surgery and now I have horrible pain in my foot!

Other than the painful foot I had a wonderful Christmas with my family and a good New Years too. I can't wait to see what 2011 brings my way!

Out of the hospital

For the first time in 65 days I slept in a bed other than a hospital bed!

You would think that it would have been the best night sleep ever but unfortunately that was NOT the case! I still am not able to sleep flat and since I obviously don't have a bed that can sit up I had one heck of a time trying to get comfortable on a stack of pillows propping me up.

Plus I think that coming "home" for the first time in such a long time along with my whole new regimen of meds was a little overwhelming. Plus not having the security of being able to call a nurse if something was wrong was also a little scary. Although I have to admit I haven't really dealt with my meds myself yet. When we got home yesterday my mom was the one who got them all out and in the pill box for the first time...she's so organized with the whole thing I swear she had pie charts and graphs of all that I was supposed to do! LOL

I think its just going to take me awhile to fully trust my new lungs and know that yes I can breath now and yes I am going to be ok. There are just so many emotions that I feel all at once it feels sorta like a roller coaster ride sometimes.

But I made it through the hard part now I just have to do my physical therapy and get strong so I can go home and live my life again. Cause that is what this whole thing has been about to live my life with the ones I love.

Danny and my sister are coming up tonight and the rest of my family will be here tomorrow night so we can spend Christmas together. I am just so thankful to be here and out of the hospital! I hope everyone has a great Holiday and Merry Christmas!! XoXoX

Disney on Ice!

My sore throat is gone! Yay! It took about 2 1/2 days to go completely away but now I am fine. I am still on Cipro and have noticed my cough improve a little bit so thats good.

Yesterday, I went with my SIL and niece Delaney to see Disney's Princesses on Ice! It was such a cute show and I was glad Steph asked me to go with them. :)

Princess Delaney!

Today Danny is working in the yard again putting up a fence to block off the area where we keep out trash cans and stuff. I swear we will NEVER be done....

Next week I have a Shands appointment. All the usually test have to be done six minute walk, Pft and labs. So it will be a long day! I will let you all know how I do when I get home.

Have a great week!! :)

Not feeling to hot

Yesterday I woke up with a sore throat. I haven't had a sore throat in years and it all came rushing back to me on how painful they are! I can't swallow, cough, talk or eat with out being in pain. Hopefully it doesn't last much longer.

I called my doctor and told him I was feeling a little under the weather and he started me on 14 days of cipro so hopefully that helps.

I am hoping I feel better by Saturday because I am going with my SIL and niece to see Disney's Princesses on Ice. :)

In a couple of days it will be a whole month since my "dry run." I kind of thought I would have had another call by now. I just hope I don't have to wait to much longer I am ready to get this show on the road!!

weekend update!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Wednesday I went to see my CF Dr and of course he didn't see anything in my ears that looked out of place. So he gave me the card of a ENT that I go to on Monday for a hearing test and office visit. Hopefully I will know more info then.

I got a call from Shands Thursday afternoon and when my phone rang I thought I was getting my call but no such luck! They were calling to tell me that the last appointment I went to I guess something funky showed up in my sputum culture so instead of my Nov. 17th appointment they want me to come back Sept 29th. I was in my car when they called so thats why I don't know exactly what they found (cause I couldn't write it down) but I wanna say its some kind of Aspergillus but don't quote me! If it was Aspergillus, I would think they would know how to treat that with out me coming back in that's why im not sure I heard that correctly. But I will let you know for sure once I get back from that check-up!

We rented a bobcat this weekend and Danny and his 2 brothers and his best friend Curt have been outside ALL day today digging up these nasty root systems that are in front of our house left over from some Australian Pines we cut down. The one stump in particular is being a real pain the butt and not wanting to come out! He will be back out there tomorrow working on it too.

The yard is all torn up right now but when its done it's going to be BEAUTIFUL!! I took some before pics this morning so I will post before and afters when the whole project is complete! :)

Went to the flea market this afternoon with my mom, aunt and sister and then we had lunch at a yummy Irish pub. I love some fish and chips and if its on the menu I usually order it. I love seafood but Danny doesn't so I rarely get it at home.

Tonight is my GNO dinner! Its been awhile so I can't wait to see some of my favorite ladies! I am sure I will have pictures to post later. Have a good one everybody!

Ringing, Ringing and more Ringing!!

The ringing is still coming from my ears!!! AAAGGGHHHH!!!

I have been off the Revatio for a week now and no change. I talked to my TX center yesterday and they want me to go to my local Dr so they can look in my ears and see if they notice anything and if he comes up with nothing then they want me to go to a ENT.

I am really concerned that this is gonna be a permanent thing and while its not painful at all its still VERY annoying.

I had posted something about this on Facebook the other day and Piper commented on how she had the same problem and that it was from Tobra.

I used to do inhaled Tobi every other month and then when I was sick I would get IV Tobra. But I stopped doing everything nebs and IV well over 2 years ago because I was starting to show signs of resistance to Tobra and my TX Dr wanted me to become sensitive to it again. So I don't think that is was my problem because my ears just started to bother me this last admission when the Revatio was started.

Well, I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend! We are going to dinner tomorrow night with friends and then I think my parents and siblings are coming on Sunday for a BBQ but thats up in the air so we will see!

Goodnight All...

feeling better

Monday afternoon I was re-admitted into the hospital after trying home IV's at home for 2 weeks without much change in the way I felt. I did 10days in patient and two weeks at home and I still didn't feel up to par so I decided to come back in because clearly what I was on wasn't doing the trick! At home I was on Merrem, Fortaz and Amikacin.

On Monday when I got to the hospital my Dr switched my IV abx to Merrem, Cipro and Azactam. Plus I am doing Colistin breathing treatments twice a day.

On Tuesday some of my lab work came back saying that my liver enzymes and my eosinophil levels were high, which he thinks is from the Merrem so he discontinued that all together.

On a cool side note...the first room that Jen's Kids remodeled was finished today so they moved me into it and I am officially the first patient to use it! Its SO nice, I can't wait till they finish all the rooms its such am improvement! :)

Other than that I am just trucking along trying to get better. Oh yeah, my family is coming up here tonight so I can say goodbye to my little brother. Him and my parents are leaving on Saturday to take him up to Ohio for college. I am probably gonna cry cause I am a big fat baby but we are all going to miss him! :(

Bye Jordan I hope you learn lots and I can't wait to see you at Christmas! I miss you already....thank goodness for Skype so at least we can keep in touch that way! Love You!!

Sweet 16

This past week my baby sister turned "Sweet 16." I can't believe she is 16 already, I remember just like it was yesterday when my parents told me I was going to have another little brother/sister. I also remember praying it was a little sister because I already had 2 little brothers and did NOT want another one! LOL I was there in the Dr's office when mom had the ultra sound and we found out together that I was gonna have a sister and we both were thrilled! So, I hope you had a great birthday my Messy Jessy...I love you! :)

Danny & I

Opening a little Blue Box from her Big Sis!

Me & Jess

On a side note I definitely think I will be going back in the hospital on Monday. I would rather go back in for a week and be good and healthy then stop my antibiotics and have to be re-admitted in a month anyway because I stopped to soon.

Also, I think part of my problem why I haven't felt better while being home is because my home nebulizer compressor hasn't been working properly so it wasn't smoking like it should have been! I just realized that yesterday...jeez! I am all good now with a new compressor but its like I have been doing no treatments for the last week and half. Ridiculous!

Tomorrow I am going shopping with my mom. Hope everyone has a great Sunday! :)

One more week...

Boy did I call it. One more week of abx for me!

My doctors office called me this morning and said that yes I was to continue with home IV's and oh btw I needed to get to a lab by 4:00 to get drug levels and a bmp done.

Well that's all fine and dandy except Danny took my car to work with him today because we thought I didn't need to go anywhere (my Honda gets WAY better gas mileage than his Ford Lightning SVT!) today and oh yeah he had his keys too!

So I had to call my super awesome SIL and she came and saved the day and took me to get my blood drawn. When it comes to SIL I have to tell ya I got lucky in that category! Stephanie is there every single time I have needed her and I don't think I will ever be able to "re-pay" or give back all that she has done for me, even though I will try! :)

Anyway...I hope this last week of abx does the trick. I need to start feeling better already!!!

Im Home!

After all day of trying to get home health situated because of an apparent Amikacin shortage I was finally discharged at around 7:00pm to go home. Lets just say they are lucky I got to come home because I would have been one unhappy camper if I didn't!

Tomorrow is my mom's birthday so my whole family is gonna come up for dinner and cake! :)

On a little side note...the nurse who gave me the wrong insulin resigned today. I feel kind of bad that she is now out of a job, I didn't want anybody to lose there job but at the same time what she did was VERY serious...I am very lucky I woke up!!

Can you imagine after all these years of having CF, being compliant with all my meds and taking care of myself, waiting for a double lung transplant and the thing that finally does me in is a nurse who can't read a chart? I don't think so!!

80's Party

Saturday night our good friend Jimmy had his 30th birthday party...which was 80's themed! Now I love me some 80's (pop) music but Danny really LOVES the 80's. LOL

Whenever there is an opportunity to dress up 80's style my husband is the first one in line to ride that train! If you knew Danny you would know that he loves 80's hair bands with his favorite band of all time being Motley Crue. I myself have become somewhat of an expert on all things hair metal not because I want to but because what choice do I have when I have been dragged to every Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses and countless other bands concerts that come to our area? I do have to say though that over time I do find myself enjoying them too! :)

Anyway...I digress. So my husband who also suffers from a bad case of pack rat syndrome, doesn't throw ANYTHING away. So when it came time to dress up for the party and my little sister needed something to wear Danny pulled out his box of t-shirts and found his 4th grade Poison t-shirt and VOILA Jessie had a costume and believe me he had a lot to choose from! Now that's what I call vintage!! LOL

We had a blast but it was SO hot that night that my bangs that I worked so hard to stand up (I barely could remember how I used to do them) were flat by the end of the night. :(

Me & Danny

My cousin John...he is hilarious!

Me and Danny again

Danny and Jessie (his jeans are tight-rolled at the bottom too!)

Sunday, was our nieces birthday party. It was fun but Danny hurt his back. They had the party at this indoor bounce house place that kids AND the adults could go in. They have this obstacle course where two people can race and needless to say Danny and his brother were racing and he thinks he pulled something in his back. I asked him what he was thinking....he isn't 20 anymore and probably shouldn't be running around bounce house obstacle courses! LOL Oh well, I think he learned his lesson. I just hope he feels better soon he keeps walking around like he is an old man and only one of us around here can walk around like an old person!! :)

Busy Weekend

Last weekend was pretty busy for us. Danny's brother Sean had his 30th surprise birthday party Friday night. It was a "Vegas" style party with poker and blackjack tables set up along with a DJ that played great music along with a karaoke machine for all those who dared to get up and sing! That alone was worth going for! LOL :)

Then Saturday night, Danny and I went out to dinner at my one of my favorite restaurants for Father's Day with my family. I was STUFFED by the time we left I could barely move! I do that to myself every time I go there I just can't help myself! I must have eaten 3 loaves of bread alone not to mention my seared tuna appetizer and my dinner, I had no left overs to take home! I am SUCH a little piggy!! Oh well...hehe.

Sunday was Danny's dads day to see us. We went over for brunch and ended up staying over there most of the day. We swam in the pool a little bit and then proceeded to play a game of Phase 10 that NEVER seemed to end! All in all it was a good day though.

Here are a few pics from Sean's party and dinner with my parents:

Mom & Dad

Me and Mom

Me and Danny

Likness Family 2010

Me and my friend Cat

Me and my love :)

Nothing really to report on my end. Still no call. More and more everyday I feel myself getting a little more discouraged with not getting my call. I mean I am doing EVERYTHING I am supposed to. I go to yoga, I try and take the best care of myself that I can, I try and live my life to the fullest everyday despite having to lug an O2 tank with me and I thought I was doing all this with a positive attitude knowing that my time is coming soon but after 2 WHOLE YEARS of waiting and seeing countless CFers be put on the list after me and receive there lungs before me its really hard to not get discouraged and feel like this is never going to happen.

Even though I am over the moon at how well my Cyster Piper is doing (which I had know doubt she would do so well she is a fighter) I can't help but be a tiny little bit jealous because I so badly want to be over that hurdle and also be working on my way to getting my life back! I feel horrible even putting it in writing that I feel this way but its true.

I know that when my perfect set comes I will get the call and I know it WILL happen its just hard waiting. OK enough of the poor me section of this post! I am going to go eat dinner now and watch some boob tube with the hubby....thanks for listening to me pout for a minute! :)

Graduation/Birthday Party

This past weekend my parents threw Jordan a combined Graduation/18th birthday party. My dad roasted a whole pig in the backyard (a very redneck but YUMMY thing to do) along with sweet corn on the cob on the grill and a ton of other fabulous food. It was all really good...believe me I had like 2 plates of food and 3 ears of corn!! I was stuffed!! LOL

They had a great turn out with lots of family and friends coming to celebrate Jordan's milestone. The kid made out like a bandit too....to bad my mom is making him save all his money for when he goes to school! I know I know its the responsible thing to do....try telling that to an 18 yr old who just got a load of cash and gift cards!! :)

Good Bye Bears, Hello Yellow Jackets...

blowing out his candles

Jordan and I

So excited to be getting a laptop

Me and my BFF since 6th grade! :)

and of course the old self portrait!

The rest of the week I haven't really done much. I was feeling kind of crappy yesterday and was hoping I wasn't getting a cold that has been going around. A few people I know haven't been feeling good. Even my dog Brodie was sick yesterday, he threw up twice and when he went #2 it was not his normal #2 (dont want to give tmi its kinda gross!) But he seems to be doing better so far today. If he still wasn't acting right today I was gonna call the vet.

Pool day tomorrow with my fab sister-in-law and some old girlfriends (love that I am finally getting some color!!) and then yoga on Friday!!

I also wanted to mention my Cyster Piper who after many dry runs and one "damp" run as she likes to call it FINALLY got her lungs and she is doing great just like I knew she would! She is a real champ and I can't wait till she is fully able to enjoy her lungs and let us all know how great it can be post-tx. Now if I could just get my stupid phone to ring we would be in business!! :)