Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Blooms, Blooms, Blooms!

Last year my mother-in-law was a huge help getting my flower garden started. Actually, she was the driving force! Without her I would just have had a bunch of weeds in my front yard. I've learned a lot about taking care of flowers and to pay attention to what types of conditions they need from her. This year, I've managed to not kill anything on my own! Things are blooming away!

I've planted some annuals already and the perennials are doing great! I have actually planted quite a bit this past spring. We transplanted some wild honey suckle (not sure if that is what it is or not), forsythia, and jasmin (I think, I never can remember) around our creek bank. My Aunt also gave me some perennials so I'm hoping they will grow back next year big and healthy. Some are looking a little puny. That's not all I have in store either!

We are planning to take out the flower box that is directly under our big, picture window. The cement is cracking and we're afraid it is letting water stand by the walls. Water seeps into our basement terribly so we are trying to get rid of every source we possibly can. Once we get that out of the way, we're going to plant some hydrangeas and I'm also thinking about day lilies. They are so pretty and seem to be very hardy, which I need! I would love to put in a window box, too, and fill it with bright, red gardenias and some sort of hanging flower. Won't that be beautiful?! I'm so excited! We may get to work on it this weekend. If we do I'll be sure to share pictures!

I planted these last spring before Patrick and I moved in. They have done wonderfully! The buttercups doubled! 
We have several visitors who just love all the blooms!
Here are some of the annuals I planted.
Here is the flower box we are going to replace with these hydrangeas.
I never can remember what these are called but arn't they gorgeous?!
I just love these petunias hanging from our porch.
Here is a picture of our vegetable garden this year. Things seem to be growing very well. I've labeled what things are but in case you can't see them very well, here is what we're growing: lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, sugar snap peas (which I need to stake up terrible!), beans, tomatoes, corn, cabbage, onions, ocra, and watermelon. We're also grown pumpkins, more watermelon, and cantaloupe up on top of the hill. 
How is your garden doing so far?

Jess

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Cracked Heels Annonymous

Hi, I'm Jess and I have dry, cracked heels. It's awful! The worst part is when you're laying in bed. When you move your feet they pick at the sheets! For those of us who have this problem, I've found a solution. My sister visited a dermatologist and he recommended a product called Exuviance Heel Repair.
I decided to give it a try and have used it twice so far. I really like it! It's a cream you rub into your heels and any other affected areas. This will keep them nice and moisturized all day long! You are supposed to use this cream once or twice a day for three weeks. Then your heels will be transformed!
The cheapest place I have found it is on Amazon. The seller DrSkinSpa carries this product and ships it out fast! I got mine within two days of placing my order! Including shipping, this item will cost $33.49. So far, it has been worth the money. A little goes a long way, too. I won't have to buy any more for quite some time.

What works for you?

Jess

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Let's Make A Difference in CF

 
Gilead Sciences is donating $15 to CF organizations for every person who takes their Cystic Fibrosis quiz! It is consists of 10 questions. You have four choices for for each one. A timer begins when the next question appears and the faster you get the right answer the more points you get. Once you guess the correct answer you move on to the next question. There are no penalties for wrong answers and it doesn't matter how many points you get. $15 will still be donated once the quiz is finished! 

The only personal information you have to give is your name so they can accredit you for taking the quiz. It only takes a couple of minutes and you learn some stats about CF! 

Give it a try! Click HERE to take the quiz!


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

65 Roses


This is unprecedented. Three posts in a row!! I'm usually a once-a-week girl (if that) but I've just been so excited about stuff lately that I must share it! Today's topic is one that I am very passionate about and the more people who know about it the better it will be. I'm talking about 65 Roses. What's that you say? Let me explain.


In 1965, a woman named Mary G. Weiss joined an organization called the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation after learning all three of her sons had Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Her role for the foundation was to call every civic club, social, and service organization for financial support for CF research. Her middle son, Richard age 4, listened closely to every call she made. After several calls he told her, "I know what you're working for." How could he know? He's only four years old! Shocked, Mary asked, "What am I working for, Richard?" He answered, "You're working for 65 roses." Since then, 65 Roses is what young children with CF call their disease.

So what is Cystic Fibrosis? It is a genetic disease affecting the lungs, pancreas, and digestive system. Mutated genes cause disturbances in the salt and water distribution creating thick, sticky mucus. This mucus causes two sever problems:



First in the lungs. In a healthy person the CF gene (a.k.a. CFTR [Cystic Fibrosis conductance Transmembrane Regulator]) is found in cells that line the lungs and pancreas. It allows particles found in salt (such as chloride and sodium) to pass in and out of the cell. With a defective gene occurring in CF patients, the salt balance is disturbed. The faulty genes let salt and water escape causing the mucus that naturally lines our lungs to protect them from germs become thick and sticky. The mucus is so hard to dislodge and cough out that it often clogs the airways and leads to infections which damage the lungs.


The second problem is in the pancreas. This organ produces enzymes that break down food so that their nutrients can be absorbed. The thick mucus prevents the pancreas from secreting these enzymes to the intestines. If our body cannot break down food it passes through and it's as if we ate nothing at all. Children with CF are often smaller than others even though they have healthy appetites. Since they cannot get the nutrients they need for a strong body, they are even more at risk for infection.

The predicated median age of survival for a CF patient is in the late 30's. However, this number is growing all the time thanks to all the hard work of the folks at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. They work endlessly on finding a cure and treatments to better patient's quality of life. A new drug called Kalydeco was approved by the FDA this past January 31st. It is the first drug that targets the underlying cause of CF (the faulty gene and its protein product). With medications like this and diligent treatment, some patients are living up to their 60's!

This is Emily. She was 6 months old when she was diagnosed.
 Why am I so passionate about this disease? Almost seven years ago, we found out that my little niece, Emily, has CF. It was devastating. I had never even heard of this before. For a patient to develop this disease both parents have to carry the gene. One our of four children will have it. That was exactly my sister's conditions. She has four children and only Emily was CF. This was a complete shock since we didn't know of anyone in our family who had this strange disease. It was a very scary time at first. Everything was new and we all had to learn her treatment schedule. My sister is the strongest person in the world. She has accepted this as part of their lives and incorporated it into everyone's daily routine.

Wonder what it's like for Emily everyday?
  • She has to wake up at least 30 minutes before everyone else in the morning before school to take her breathing treatment and wear her vest. The vest fits snugly around her chest and vibrates increasing how hard it beats every few minutes. This helps loosen the mucus from her lungs so she can cough it up. She has to do the same routine before bed.
  •  She must take several medications for the other symptoms caused by CF in the morning and before bedtime.
  •  Before every meal she must take enzymes to help her digest the food.
  • If she has a particular bacteria growing in her lungs she has to take her breathing treatment and vest compressions after school.
She has to do this every single day. If the family goes on a trip, all her meds and treatments go with them. If she comes to stay with Mamaw and Papaw for the weekend, all her meds and treatments come with her then too. Most CF patients will have to have several bronchoscopys (lung wash) in their life and most will have a lung transplant. Emily had her very first lung wash this past winter. What a trooper! It sure didn't slow her down any. She had to stay home for three weeks after that for intense IV therapy but kept on playing as if nothing had happened.

She also has limitations to what she can do or be around. She will never be able to go to an indoor pool, cave, or get in a hot tub. These are damp places where bacteria thrive. She cannot be around other children with CF because they can catch bacteria from one another. She cannot take certain medications such as decongestants. These meds dry up the mucus. She has a hard enough time as it is coughing it up when its moist.



But life is not all bad for her. She is spunky, energetic, and full of life. Nothing will slow her down. Emily acts as if nothing were wrong with her. If you just met her you would never know. She lives happy everyday and we all thank God for every second he grants us with her.

Me and Emily planting peppers for Mamaw

May is National Cystic Fibrosis Month. Spreading awareness is the key to a cure. Currently there is no cure for CF. Only the symptoms can be treated. I believe that one day they find one. Until then we will continue to raise awareness and keep funding research. There are all kinds of different ways to help CF patients. Get involved by:
  • Making a donation to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for research
  • Volunteer (Great Strides walks are happening all over!)
  • Get your company involved to make donations
  • Fund-raising
  • Write to your congressmen to support CF research
  • Shop!! Certain shops offer discounts and some are giving big percentages to the foundation for every item sold.
Together we can make a difference. We can help give these kids and adults the chance to live better, healthier lives. I'll leave you with this video from the CFF. It really shows you what fighters these people are and how much we love them.


All information came from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and all pictures came from Google images.

Jess

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

SLPS Recipe Collection

Last week I received the recipe collection I've been eagerly awaiting from my sister-in-law. She has been collecting recipes from all over since she was married 10 years ago. Let me tell you: it is huge and fabulous! I haven't even covered half of what's in there yet and already tried something out of it last night (brown sugar rubbed chicken, yum!). She sent me all the pages so I needed to put them together to make a book. I'm so happy with how it turned out. Take a look!

I printed out the cover and side cover from Prudent Baby on some card-stock and slid them into my 1 1/2 inch binder.
I printed these tabs out from Maia The Bee, laminated them, and then cut them out. Then I taped them to a blank piece of card-stock to serve as my dividers. It works great!

I'm so thrilled with my SLPS Recipe Collection! Thanks so much Jenn for sending it to me!

Here is the recipe for Brown Sugar Rubbed Chicken if you're interested:

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp paprika
2 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder

Directions:

1. Preheat grill to medium-high. Combine sugar and spices in a resealable plastic bag. Wash hands. Add chicken to bag, one piece at a time, shaking to coat. Transfer to plate. Spray on both sides with nonstick cooking spray. Wash hands.

2. Grill chicken, turning frequently to avoid burning sugar, 10-12 minutes or until done (internal temp 170 degrees).

3. Tip: if using frozen chicken, rinse off ice glaze and pat dry before placing in bag with spices and increase cooking time by about one-third.

Jess

Monday, May 21, 2012

The Best Day of the Year

My favorite dessert of all time is chocolate chip cookies. I have learned just in the past week that there is a national holiday devoted to them! How have I gone 26 years not knowing this?! The first thing I did when I got home was drag out my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe (with margarine and all!) to pay homage to this glorious day.


In other news, Pat just finished building a reloading bench for ammo. I think it's the first thing he has made from scratch and it turned out great! He did such a good job. Now I'll have to put him to work building things for me!

He did have some help. Hannah also gave him the will to continue working by shouting, "I am the boss princess. Now get back to work!"
All finished! 
Now I'll never see him again except when I enter into the depths of his man cave.

Happy belated National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day! It's May 15th if you want to mark your calendars for next year. I already have!

Jess

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Our First Anniversary

One year ago yesterday Patrick and I finally tied the knot! Ten years in the making and here we are...married and happy as can be! We have loved every minute of our married life. Everyone told us that the first year would be the hardest. If that's true then the rest of our lives are going to be a breeze! Sure, we've had our share of difficulties but we always worked through it together. We celebrated our first anniversary by going to Mammoth Cave National Park. It's somewhere we've both wanted to go and it's not too far away (perfect for a newlywed pocket-book).

Heading off to Cave City




The Native Americans were the first humans to enter the cave. Can you imagine heading into this with only a flaming stick?

I've always heard of Fat Man's Misery...
It wasn't so bad
Slaves took people on tours through the caves. To make some money they would let people sign their names on the cave walls for 10 cents. People would hold candles up to the ceiling and use the smoke from it to write their names. Notice how neat their hand writing is? Mammoth Cave was a week's ride away from Louisville so people who came had to take a lot of time off. The only people who could afford to take such lengthy vacations were wealthy, white people so they were highly educated and could wright very well.
Gypsum Flowers
Bare Cave: Interesting how this cave got its name. The man who discovered it could not fit with his clothes on, so he went through without them!
The top of the Snowball Room
This is one of the only three underground dinning areas in the world!
Heading through some passageways named after Daniel Boone. They were pretty narrow but you could look up and see about 50 feet above you!
See where the arrow is pointing? Before our nice, smooth pathways were created, tours were given on these ledges! Cliff sides even! BY LANTERN LIGHT! It's a good thing they couldn't see over the edge or they probably wouldn't have any customers. Those dinky, little pegs in the ground had a chain through them and that was the only sort of safety net they had. Miraculously, there is no recording of anyone falling.
This is the exit for a tour called the Wild Cave Tour. I would be up for this cave if I wasn't afraid of getting stuck. Plus you have to go through the Birth Canal and the Cheese Grater so that puts the brakes on for me too. These are the kind of tours you have to pull yourself through because they are too small for to crawl through.
The Frozen Niagara
Look up
We went through some pretty short passageways
But for short people like me, that's not a problem
We topped our great trip off with some year-old cake and Ale-8. It was still delicious! Funny story about the glasses. I bought these for the wedding but we couldn't find them in time. We used some glasses there at the reception and was going to use Ale-8 to toast with but we were in such a hurry I just grabbed the first two glasses I found and poured some water in them. About a week after the wedding was over we found the glasses. After one year, we finally got to toast our Ale-8 in our fancy glasses.
It's been one great year and we're looking forward to many, many  more!

Jess