Cheriz: My life with Cystic Fibrosis

Lately, I have been posting A LOT about CF. Yes, this is a blog about my life with Cystic Fibrosis. and yes, CF affects almost every aspect of my life. BUT... It is not my whole life. So I wanted to take some time to talk to you about the non-CF stuff that has been going on. We have a lot of exciting news to share with everyone. First of all, we have been very busy lately updating our house a bit. We bought our bungalow in June of last year (2016). It had a lot of the rooms that needed a bit of TLC. The original wood, doors, windows, floors made it all worth it.  We tackled the living room & dining room first. Yes, we still have a few things to add & do in those rooms, but overall I'm very happy with how they turned out: BEFORE: AFTER: We are currently updating our bedroom and the bathroom this week! Pictures coming soon! I promise! Next, we will be turning our 3rd bedroom (from it's current laundry room state) back into a bedroom. Then we will upda...

We spend 5 wonderful days on vacation in Florida and come home to SNOW! It barely snowed all winter and today it decided to play a little catch up I guess. Well, we enjoyed our few days in the sun! The weather was perfect! (picture: you can see Andrew out swimming in distance)  I love taking trips & vacations, but having CF always makes it a little difficult. We make sure to pack all my meds in my carry on. I have a small portable nebulizer machine that fits in small spaces. We always call ahead to get permission to carry my vest on at no additional charge. We put all of clothes and my Wabi sterilizer in the big bag, which we check. We just make sure the Wabi is safely packed. They always pull my bags to look at them & check them, we make sure to have a letter from CF clinic too! As a kid I had feeding tube connectors & feeding to bring on trips. Which adds up weight wise. So flying was tougher. We typically always traveled by car when I was growing up. We even di...

Traveling to see Stacey: With the Holidays comes traveling and visiting loved ones. Don't get me wrong traveling SO well worth it AND we are lucky to only travel a few hours. It's just all the stuff I have to remember to pack is hard. Check out how much I had to pack for our Honeymoon HERE!  Last night was the 1 year Anniversary of Andrew proposing to me, make sure to read about it HERE . My college best friend/ roommate of many years came to visit the day before, stayed the night, and hung out with me during the next day (before Andrew got off work & proposed). Andrew had plotted knowing Stacey was coming, so in a small way she was part of the engagement (Which I LOVE). Stacey (Staceface as I call her sometimes) really REALLY helped me survive college. Now, I don't mean typical " Oh man, I'm hungover but have a final" surviving... I mean she helped make my meds when I was sick, she'd take my iv meds out of the fridge an hour before I had to h...

A Week to Ourselves: Things at work are settling down a bit for Andrew, so it was ideal for us to finally take our honeymoon. Deciding on a Honeymoon destination was really tough. I didn't want to fly anywhere, because it was a lot of luggage ( pic: 4 days worth explained on Facebook ), we only had 4 days, and would cost a lot more. We wanted to get far enough away it felt like a whole new place. We aren't big fans of resorts, beaches, or anything like that. Don't get me wrong, I understand why people like them. But, to me they are overcrowded and I get burnt after 10 minutes in the sun. If I spend 1 hour in the sun I will be sick for two days afterwards (I believe it has to do with my skin tone & the combo of all the antibiotics I'm always on). I started sifting through Midwest Living and they had a decently large article about the top "so-many" towns for get-a-way weekends. It told what the town was known for, along with recommendations for food and ...

Busy, But Amazing Weekends: This past weekend Andrew & I had a friend's wedding in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I actually really enjoy out-of-state weddings. Why? because Andrew & I make lil weekend trips out of them. See, we have never been on vacation together, Thesse wedding weekends are the closest we have been. And those are usually 1-2 night & 2-3 days. But long vacations are expensive, and most ones we find cheaper we don't have interest in going to those places. PLUS, traveling is BEYOND stressful for me. All the meds I have to pack, planning meds into the day, making sure I don't get sun sick or get dehydrated. Making sure I eat enough and keep my calories up. Andrew is pretty good at noticing when I'm slowly down and need a snack. But still the only way I would do more than 2-3 days away is IF the PLACE was worth it. Like out of the country or something... We went to the dells ( read about that mini-trip here ), during Amanda & Jake's Weddin...

T he Dells & Our CF Walk: I'm sooo proud to announce that Princeton, Illinois (my hometown) will be added to the list of OFFICIAL Great Strides Walks for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation! Make sure to mark your calendars for June 27, 2014!!!!! (for those who don't know, I decided to start this walk last year & thanks to my community it was a huge success!  Read about it here! Pic: Me giving a speech last year, wearing my Team CF2 shirt Here's the info I have so far:    Zearing Park, Euclid St. check in 9-10am,   10am the Walk.    Lunch & dessert is provided to those who registered online!   There will be lots of Raffles ($1 per ticket), Dj/Music, games, face painting! Make sure not to miss out on the fun! I will let everyone know when the online registration is ready! This year since we are our own walk site, we can now sign up numerous teams! This year (2014) our Team CF2 has raised over $14,000 for CF research! The Princeto...

Traveling and my weekend: I love visiting and traveling, but with CF it can be a little difficult. However, I still always enjoy it. Andrew and I traveled home this weekend to visit his family (especially his sister, who was also home to celebrate getting her Nursing Degree). We drove home on Saturday, but Andrew had to work on Monday, so he drove back sunday before the weather got too bad. However, my mom invited me to stay with her for a few days to Christmas Shop with her. Its boring shopping by yourself and I still had all my shopping to do for Andrew. So I was very excited to get to shop with mom Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday Night was my sister's (she is a music teacher Pre-K - 8th, including two bands and a choir-whew, she's a busy lady) student's Christmas concert. It was the bands' Concert and both bands did great. It's cute, cuz you can tell she is really proud of them (pretty sure you can see tears in her eyes after they finish) and of course, Mom an...

Been awhile: Update AKA.The Burbs :-) Well, its been a while since I blogged. I'm a slacker. Okay, really though I have been busy. At the end of July I went to Florida to help a friend move back to Illinois ( called it my mini-vacation).  Went to the ocean, did some shopping, and loaded a big moving truck and drove back to Illinois. (and, yes I know I'm really skinny here. I hadn't put back on the weight I lost after my surgery yet..) Then I worked my last two weeks at work, while packing up my entire apartment.  Moving was a big decision for me. Yes, I want to get my Masters and I could transfer my job at the video store. Plus, finish up my Real Estate Licensing to start a career in that. So, why would I stay in Princeton? Especially when Andrew is moving up to Dominican University to get his bachelors degree. I will miss my friends and family, and my babysitting kids; But, I'm not about to miss out on this chance, when there are so many perks to ...

Schedules and being an amzing multi-tasker! I don't make a schedule of everything I have to do during the day, but I do have a huge calendar at home with everything I have going on that day: school, work, show choir, play practice, parties, church stuff, etc. I try to get up (and usually succeed) 1.5- 2 hours before I have to be somewhere. I will shower and then do my therapies (albuteral, hypertonic, pulmozyme, and Cayston/Tobi) while drying/styling my hair and putting on my make-up. I pack my huge bag my mom made me, which fits my therapy machine, my textbooks, a change of clothes for dance practice, and my "lunchbox (I store my meds stuff in)." I needed a new lunchbox my old one was too big and I'm not sure where it went... oops. So I bought these: I put 2 small ice packs ( $1 each at most stores) and the cold meds in the tops zipper part and then put the containers on the left in the main part of the lunchbox. I put my albuteral & hypertonic med ...

I'm Back from Vacation and Ready to Blog! Yep, I'm officially home! I was gone for the last 5 days. That is probably the longest gap in my blogs in months. I was super busy before I left on Wednesday!! I had class(30 mins away), job interview, and errands to run before heading to my uncles.   I stayed the night there, since we headed out at 4am for the airport on Thursday. We arrived in Buffalo, NY and checked into our hotel! Then we headed off to Canada to view the falls from the Canadian side. We spent the whole day on there, walking, taking pics, doing different attractions. We went on the Maid of the Mist (on the boat you feel like your right under the falls) and we got soaked, it was such phenomenal views of the falls though (especially the horseshoe)! Then Friday we drove to Lockport, NY and took a tour of the Erie Canal (35-lock Canal). It was really neat hearing about the history and traveling up and down the canal. Being right up close to the gates, it felt a ...