Happy Birthday.... I got you a.... VACUUM!

In anticipation of my birthday, Tyler had begun to ask what I wanted.  I am almost embarrassed by my answer, because to be honest I can't decide whether or not it makes me "little miss domestic" or just plain boring....probably the latter.  But since Tyler knows me so well, he just had to laugh when I told him I thought a vacuum might be a nice gift.  What... I am practical! But in case you don't know Tyler, he is not. And that always makes gifts exciting and quite unpreditable. I must brag though, he is a great gift giver so I never really worry. I know he hears my practical requests and that they go in one ear and out the other.  I must say, I am especially glad my vacuum request did just that!

Since my birthday fell on a weekday, Tyler planned a whole day for us to celebrate.  So we both took off work and started off on our day full of surprises. My first surprise was my birthday gift. I think he let me open it first because, well, he couldn't keep it a secret anymore!  When I woke up, he had a little note posted on our bedroom door that sent me on a scavenger hunt. It was precious. The end of the hunt led me to one of the closets in our house and I opened it to find....

A VACUUM! I was honestly very surprised... not disappointed by any means.... but definitely surprised. I couldn't help but crack a joke, "Just wait till I tell those girls who complain about getting a blender for Christmas, that I got a vacuum for my birthday! HA!"  To make it even more strange, I pulled the sheet off the vacuum and then realized he had taken it out of the box?  I just died laughing....he got me a vacuum and he opened it for me?  But Tyler, being the scheming guy he is, knew just what he was doing!  I then realized, this isn't a new vacuum, it's a trick! Tyler then gave me the last clue which lead me to a very pretty wrapped gift. When I opened the box, I was floored.  He got me a camera!  I had lost my camera several months ago during one of our many travels and had been heart broken over it.  What a sweet husband! I love that he brings so much laughter to my life and that he is so thoughtful. I am truly blessed!  Well since I had my new camera, Tyler planned out our day of fun around where we could take neat pictures....so the rest of this post will be more of a slide show :)

We went to lunch at Brent's Drug Store

On a side note... the camera also video tapes... here is the first video...it really captures a cute side of me...NOT! But it's pretty funny :)

Then we headed to the Museum of Art (this is where we had our wedding reception)

Love this picture!! 

My turn!

I took a picture of this piece of art at the Museum and it turned out so neat! I LOVE it!

Then we headed to a CANDY STORE!!

And then to the Reservoir... 

If this wasn't already the most perfect day ever.... we came home, took a quick nap, and he took me out to dinner! We went to an awesome Mexican restaurant and took more pictures in the historic Fondren area. This is where we took some of my favorite pictures!

Let's just say we ate good ALL day!

Tyler trying out an "action shot"

My favorite shot of the whole night! 

We had such a blast!  I am one lucky girl to have such a sweet husband and so many others who celebrated with me on my 25th birthday!  I can hardly believe I am already 25. Luckily for me, a little boy said this to me just the other day... "You're married? I thought you was a kid!" ... So apparently I still look about 12.

Call me Crazy... It's a Hole in One!

Tyler and I love hanging out with our friends Allen and Jessica.  We actually all went to college together, but didn't really become close friends until just last year.  It's actually interesting that we were never friends before, because Allen and Tyler have a lot in common and so do Jessica and I! So thankful for them and for their precious friendship! Anyways, that is a side note :)

We were just recently out on a double date with them and we decided to go putt-putt golfing.  Since I bantered a bit before we started playing, they made me go first.  It took me 8 tries on the first hole...my lesson about bantering was obviously quickly learned.  I won't give away Tyler's score, but he didn't play too hot on the first round either.  Because of this, Tyler and I changed our game strategy and started focusing more on what we call "showmanship."  If you can't play well, then at least try and look good doing it! Am I right?

At about this time, Tyler thought it would be funny to video a few of our shots on his phone, for memories sake.  And I am so glad he did!  This was pretty funny, I hope you can hear it on the video (you will probably need to pause the music at the bottom of the page).  Tyler was getting ready for a pretty difficult shot, and just when he was about to swing, a little boy stepped on the course to check it out.  I quickly, in my most mothering voice, told him.... "Oh sweetie, you better move, he (referring to Tyler) isn't that good."

I will let you watch the rest for yourself...

I guess I was wrong about him not being that good? Unfortunately not even that hole in one could save our scores!

DIY? Yes, please!

Call me picky, call me high maintenance, call me whatever, but let me be real, sometimes, despite all my best shopping efforts, I am convinced that manufacturers just do not make what I am looking for. Okay, or maybe they do at a price I am just not willing to pay. Either way, I have a new love for DIY projects, especially since we are in our new house.  Something about a DIY project makes a home feel personalized and unique and it's that touch that I love.  I can't say I am the most crafty person out there, but so far, so good!  Here is one project I just completed and I am sure I will post more in the near future.

I love texture, color, and patterns in my house.  It makes me happy.  I do not love water stains on new furniture. Been there, done that! So when shopping for coasters, I definitely had an idea of what I wanted in mind and unfortunately I just couldn't find ones that I thought were interesting enough. I felt like they needed a certain look since our coasters were not going to be the type that you just pull out for that occasional party, they are pretty much mainstays on our side tables... so I just couldn't leave out something that didn't look cute!

I have seen A LOT of people try these tile coasters and they made it look pretty easy, so I went for it!  I won't go into all the details of how you can make them, you can find those on this site.  But here are my results...not expensive at all...and cute, right?

If I can do it, anyone can! Seriously :)

Love When They Visit!

I am so lucky that my sister, Amy, and her family live close by. Her friendship is such a sweet gift to me and her family is a blast to hang out with.  Because we live so close by, it is great when my parents come for a visit because it is automatically a big family affair.

My parents came for a quick visit over Labor Day and it was so great to see them! It was also wonderful that my Grandma was able to come with them too! I am just sorry they had to make the 11 hour drive to get here! But we were so glad they did. It was fun to get to show them our house for the first time and to get to treat them to a little southern hospitality. We love to eat around here so most of our plans revolved around good eating :) All in all, I think we had a blast!

On our way to church! (Dad had to stay home with my nephew who wasn't feel so good... what a good Daddy Bob!)

She is the best Grandma a girl could ask for!! I appreciate her more than she knows!

Tyler's parents are always so wonderful when my parents come to town. They always go out of their way to host all of us at their home. Here are a few shots from dinner at their house.

Sisters and Best Friends!  We missed you Meg :)

Daddy Bob and Daniel.  This little guy loves his Daddy Bob!

Robby has so much personality!  He wanted me to take a few pictures of him on my phone and this was our favorite. What a funny guy!

My birthday isn't actually till the end of the month, but my parents wanted to take us all out to celebrate before they left.  They took us to my favorite, local restaurant Julep.  I am in love with their honey glazed fried chicken and mash potatoes... it's true I am definitely a southern girl these days!  We even had birthday cake (ice cream cake of course, a regular Baker tradition).

 Yummy!!

He wanted to give me a birthday kiss!

Thanks Dad, Mom, and Grandma for coming to visit! Can't wait for us to all be back together for Christmas with the Sapp clan too! 

Couldn't Ask for a Sweeter Guy

If you were wondering, or couldn't tell by my previous posts, I thought I would just come out and say it...  I just could not have asked for a sweeter husband.  This post won't be long, because there are probably very few out there who want to listen to this crazy lady go off on how great her husband is. But I just must give credit where credit is do!

After our  little IV adventure, I came home to a pretty wrapped box (Tyler can wrap gifts way better than I can!). I opened up the card which had the most thoughtful note and then the gift. This is what he got me :)

These plates are so cute! I happen to love birds, they are kind of my thing. And he picked them out himself!  They look great with my kitchen table.

He always finds a way to make me feel appreciated. Couldn't love that boy more if I tried!

Simple Savings

It's a little known joke around the Blount household that I would make an awesome stay at home.... wife.  It is definitely a joke and I won't be leaving my job anytime soon!  But because of this joke, and well, for other obvious reasons, I love to save any dime I can and use it as "supportive evidence" for why I should stay at home :)

Anyways, since Tyler had to work late the other night (tax extension's are due soon!) I had the chance to do some research I had been wanting to do.  For those of you who are learning about CF as you read my blog then you may not know that people with CF have to have A LOT of medicines. Because of this, many people with CF are a part of government programs that help with the hefty costs of these absolutely mandatory medicines.  Like all government programs, to receive this type of help, you must meet certain eligibility requirements.  If you don't meet these requirements, there are other options out there that might be of help! We just learned about these options and definitely wanted to share just in case anyone else out there had no clue about these programs (as was the case for us!).

Tyler has to take these three medicines which can be rather costly: Pulmozyme, TOBI, and Cayston.  Turns out, that each of these medicines have a co-pay program where the manufacturer helps pay for a portion of your co-pay costs, if your co-pay is above a a certain amount and if you are not on government funded insurance or assistance.  Here are the websites I found that helped me through the process:

Pulmozyme 
Website: 
http://www.pulmozyme.com/insurance/copay-card.jsp

Phone Number: 1-877-794-8723

New Co-payment: ONLY $30.00

TOBI 

Website: 

http://www.tobitime.com/info/co-pay-card-tobi.jsp

Phone Number: 1-877-999-TOBI

New Co-payment: ONLY $10.00

Cayston

Website: https://www.cayston.com/assets/media/pdfs/Patient_Reimbursement__CC4389_ENG_10_27_10.pdf

Phone Number: 1-877-7CAYSTON

New Co-payment: ONLY $25.00

All I did was call the numbers I have listed and ask for more information about their co-pay programs.  Each person I spoke with was very helpful!  The Pulmozyme representative gave me all of my card information over the phone and said he would mail the card to me immediately. But in order to start using it today all I had to do was go to our pharmacy give them the information (ID Number, BIN Number, etc.) and they put it in the system for next time we pick up Pulmozyme.  The TOBI representative did almost all of the work for me.  She faxed a copy of the card over to the pharmacy and so when I arrived there today to take care of the Pulmozyme, the TOBI information was already up to date and ready to use.  Then the pharmacist gave me the faxed copy of the card.  Cayston has an additional approval process, they contact your insurance to make sure that you are not receiving any government funding, but after we hear back from them I am sure the process will be much the same as the other two.

If you have any questions, I would be glad to help! Happy Savings!

We're Breathing Easy!

It has been a LONG three weeks!  Much more so for Tyler than for me, but we made it!  We headed back to Birmingham last night (our third trip in about 8 weeks) to be there for our 8:00 a.m. appointment this morning.  Our hope was the Tyler's lung function would have increased and that all of the craziness of the last three weeks would be worth it.  But what would be the fun in telling you the end of the story, without telling you the whole story!

Like I mentioned before, this is the first time in eight years since Tyler has been on IVs.  He is so blessed with great health and this was definitely a reminder that we need to be doing everything we can do to keeping his lungs in tip top shape (which means sometimes I am going to have to be the mean one who pulls him out of bed long before the sun rises so that we can get in a nice run before work.... he hates to run!) Tyler was put on three different antibiotic IV treatments for two weeks and it sure seemed like the poor guy could not catch a break.  As soon as we made it home, after the PICC line had been put in, Tyler began to feel a tight pressure in his chest.  At first doctors thought maybe the PICC line was in wrong and so they sent us on a late night trip to the ER. Turns out, Tyler was just having an allergic reaction to the meds.  Rather than stopping the IVs though, the pharmacist just diluted his dosages which meant the IVs ran for 4 hours, two times a day.  Not fun. Luckily, I do not think he was aware of much of what was going on since the doctors put him on Benadryl to help with the reaction. I am pretty sure I have been married to a zombie for the past three weeks.  Amidst all that, he had fever and several other not so fun reactions.  All that said, when we went into the doctor's office today, I just wasn't so sure Tyler could handle it if the doctor said the PICC line was staying.

Luckily, it was taken out!  And it was like sunshine on a rainy day!  Tyler is back to his normal self and I am so, so glad.  His lung function went up 10% and it is exactly where we want it to be.  For all of you who have prayed for us and put up with our constantly change plans, we so appreciate you and really couldn't make it through times like these without you.  Let's hear it for at least eight more years of no IVs!