Fall Update

The Wine Tasting was a big hit! Our food definitely was a crowd pleaser! Chuck Metz, who we met from a family friend, donated and prepared the majority of the food. This kind of donation allows for us to be able to cut down on our expenses and donate more money to CF. I know Chuck and his wife Birdie hate thank-yous but these acts of generosity are what make Sal's Pals what it is today. So from the bottom of my heart...THANK-YOU!!!! Sal's Aunt Nikki, my best friend, motivator and ridiculously passionate sister is the other driving force behind the Wine Tasting. Nikki chairs the event and handles everything from tickets to sponsors and everything in between. Without Nikki's efforts there would be no wine tasting. So thanks Nik for making your vision a reality! I can't forget all of our friends who get all the people there, volunteer their time and stay late to celebrate, You Guys Rock!

On another note I recently went to this beauty seminar. I dragged Nikki there with me so we could get some deals on products. We were there to get discounts on the products I love but the seminar was about becoming representatives to sell their products. The woman shared with us how she left her career as a teacher and has never been happier, making her dreams come true as a beauty rep. After sharing with us, she had some questions, "Do you feel like you could be doing more for your life?" "Do you feel like you could be happier doing something else?" "Do you feel rewarded in life by the things that you do?" Pretty deep for a beauty seminar. But I think the message was trying to get you to think about being beautiful from the inside out. As I sat there listening to the woman ask these questions I was shocked how many women in the room were unhappy with their lives. As I sat and reflected on my own thoughts on the matter I realized how happy I am with my life. So often we get caught up with the things that we want to do, that we forget what is right in front of us. A great quote that I saw recently said,"Live life how you imagined." I always imagined that I would get married and have a family, though, I never imagined that I would have a child with a terminal illness; what I did imagine was that I would be a part of something bigger than myself. I just never imagined it would be for cystic fibrosis. When Sal was first diagnosed I had mixed feelings about how I would handle the situation... Do we tell everyone... do we talk about it? Rick and I had talked about having a big family but after Sal we knew that we couldn't imagine having another child with CF. I knew how badly Rick wanted more children and he never talked much about Sal's diagnosis. One day I finally told Rick that if he wanted to leave I would understand. I loved him so much that I wanted to make sure that he would be happy. Rick looked at me completely shocked and asked if I was crazy? I explained that I wasn't crazy but that this was going to be our life and it wasn't going to always be easy and it was important to me that he was always happy. From that day on, I knew that we needed to do something to make a difference because we would never forgive ourselves if we didn't. Our life may be crazy but I am living it the way I imagined...and couldn't be happier!

Sal had his appointment this week and is still doing AWESOME! Keep your fingers crossed as we approach cold and flu season! We have our H1N1 and flu vaccines so we are ready!

One last thing. Since I am having such a difficult time posting on a regular basis (I finish school in Dec!) I thought it would be cool to have a guest writer. So I will have different committee members give some insight into what Sal's Pals means to them and anything they would like to add about fighting CF!

Turn up your volume we have new songs!