Healthy Me

Anybody know anything about Oil of Oregano? I'm hearing some good things about it but I don't know enough about it. I think I'll order a few books from the library and read up on it some more. I've only read one book on it so far and there are several other books on it I want to read.

Anybody else ready to take the tree down? I am ALWAYS ready to take it down as soon as Christmas is over to get it out of my living room and make space (we're cramped here with six of us). The family wants it left up until after New Year's.

One of my girls is asking for a Luna guitar for Christmas. She saw one at the music store (I think it was called Starry Night) and she loved it. It's a possibility.

I don't know what my husband plans on doing for my stepkids. He hasn't said. I found this m-audio bx5 d2 studio monitors at musicians friend online that I think he'd like, since this would help with equipment for him. He's going to school for music production.  He also does some stage stuff. It's an idea.

I'd say I am a little more than halfway done with shopping, though I've not received it all yet (online shopping so we wait for shipping). Maybe I'll be done by week's end.

My weight yesterday showed me 3.7 pounds away from my goal! Not bad for being after Thanksgiving.  I didn't hold back on eating everything I wanted. I just made sure I didn't overdue the fattening stuff because of my gallstones. I enjoyed SO much food regardless and didn't disappoint myself with the scale.  Bonus!

I've been reading about detoxing lately. I just read an article this morning about detoxing your pineal gland. I don't even know where that is! Should I know where that is? I will do some research and see because I have no clue.

I'm trying to online shop right now for Christmas and my dogs won't stop barking outside. How can I price saxophones and reeds for alto saxophone while my Shepard is barking her fool head off?

I just LOVE the day when we got new neighbors (a month ago) who brought two dogs with them, who don't leash them so they run into our yard and get my fenced dogs riled up.

Ugh.

I better get back to shopping. I'm trying to come up with things that aren't junk. That won't get discarded two days after Christmas like so many things. I'm trying to make this a smart Christmas (huh, I'm assuming that I, myself, am smart enough to do that).

Anybody know how to teach dogs to only bark a warning and then keep their canine mouths shut when I tell them to?

I really need to update this blog. I haven't changed my weight ticker in a long time. I think I should change the layout and theme.

Maybe I will change them all just for the holidays and change them again afterward - keepin' it fresh.

I have not needed my asthma inhaler in at least a year.  It's been great...you know, being able to breathe.

Then this week happens. I've had problems breathing every day this week. I grab an old rescue inhaler (expired).  I try it anyway because breathing is sorta important to me. It works a little but not enough.

Trip to the doctors this morning and I come home with an Advair prescription. Crap. Do you know how expensive these things are WITH insurance? Too much money for our large family but what can I do?

I don't know why I've not had any issues with my asthma for more than a year but it looks like I go back to inhalers again.

I am in the process of making hair accessories out of flowers for my girls.  My kids always ask me to buy then when we go to the hair salon, but I don't like spending $3-$5 per piece when I can make them so much cheaper.  I bought the flowers in bulk and am going to go to town on them this week.  I might even sell them too (for less than the hair salons and Wal-Mart charge for them).

My girls like to add hair extensions into their hair for fun so that is next on my list of things to hunt down.

Back to school time is a busy time getting everything ready (and talk about the money hemorrhaging - supplies, clothes, sports fees, sports clothes, pictures, etc.), but it gets quiet here during the day.  Making hair accessories will be a fun thing to do on the side.

Do you know how Raggedy Ann (created by Johnny Gruelle) came into existence?

According to wikipedia:

Gruelle created Raggedy Ann for his daughter, Marcella, when she brought him an old hand-made rag doll and he drew a face on it. From his bookshelf, he pulled a book of poems by James Whitcomb Riley, and combined the names of two poems, "The Raggedy Man" and "Little Orphant Annie." He said, "Why don't we call her Raggedy Ann?" 

Marcella died at age 13, shortly after being vaccinated at school for smallpox without her parents' consent. Authorities blamed a heart defect, but her parents blamed the vaccination. Gruelle became an opponent of vaccination, and the Raggedy Ann doll was used as a symbol by the anti-vaccination movement.

My husband is in the middle of selling a bunch of his stuff (music stuff, bike stuff) to buy a few things for protection.  Once he gets what he wants, I know he is going to miss all his stuff.  He's going to want another electric guitar, he's going to want an amp, he's going to want his mics he sold.  I was looking at the Shure SM58 Mic at musician's friend for him but after reading how it can take abuse, I think I'll buy it for my two youngest daughters to use.  They abuse their microphones like crazy - dropped, knocked into things, left out.  This might make a great Christmas gift.

Have you started Christmas shopping?  My youngest daughter literally has PAGES of things written down on hers and then hundreds of things in her wishlist online.  It's CRAZY!!

Have you ever wondered if the radiation in mammograms can cause cancer?

Think about it.  If you get a mammogram every year starting at 35-40 years of age, will the radiation over time give you breast cancer?

Many people think it can.  Here's one article here. There's many more.  Google it.

Curious. More research for me.

I have been reading about the success people have had curing their cancer, diabetes and epileptic seizures using cannabis oil (this is legal...you can buy it at Amazon - not sure of the quality but you can buy it from there).

See:

I have been reading a lot about vaccinations.  I had my babies vaccinated as babies.  I went along with what the doctors said and never thought any different.  It wasn't until my own LONG path to thyroid wellness and the pediatrician trying to push Gardasil on my kids that I realized - doctors don't know everything and they may not be prescribing things in a person's best interests.  Sometimes, Big Pharma wins.  (Ok, usually they win...but should they win at the expense of our own health and that of our children?)

At that point, I started doing a lot of reading about Gardasil and reading about the teen and pre-teen side effects.  If they would push THIS vaccine on my children, after all the side effects reported (and you know they aren't all reported), why would I trust any other vaccine without research first?

Have you checked out the ingredients in your child's vaccines?

Why are babies given a Hepatitis B vaccine for something transmitted through body fluids (babies don't have sex)?  Unless their mother has Hepatitis B, why?  Sorry, but test mom for Hepatitis B rather than give a newborn baby a shot they don't need if mom doesn't have it.  As my eight-year-old would say - DUH?

I am curious to know what the rate of diseases are in vaccinated vs. unvaccinated children.  I was researching a bit and came across this article. This article talks about how the rate of asthma in vaccinated children is higher in comparison to unvaccinated.

Another article talks about the global perspective with vaccines found here.

I also recently read about how Gardasil is causing infertility in girls (among other things like seizures, deaths). I am really glad I didn't allow that vaccine.  I would not want to be responsible for causing that side effect in my daughter. Guess if somebody wants to control the population, that would be one way to do it.  Japan is withdrawing its support of this vaccine.  Read about that here.

I have also heard about how the foundation that Bill Gates runs was responsible for mass paralysis of kids in another country with vaccines they gave.

Will I never get another vaccine for my kids?  I don't know.  I am still researching.  Would vaccines for things like Tetanus be a good thing?  Maybe.  I just don't know enough yet to make a good decision. So, I research.

A few days ago, I was grocery shopping and came across this little old man grocery shopping.  He looked lost.  He explained that his wife had died awhile ago and that she had done all the shopping. He didn't know what he needed or where anything was. I felt so bad for him. I helped him find what he needed but felt guilty that I couldn't do anything else for him. I didn't know what else to do!

I wonder - does this man have any children who weren't helping their dad? Isn't there a neighbor or friend for him?  What a sad thing to have happen - live your entire life and then have nobody to help you towards the end of it.  It was incredibly sad.

For me, I do not get along with my dad.  Years of dysfunction will do that. My childhood - I remember the dysfunction (fighting, tears, anger), the money problems, the tool that looked like c clamps bolted to his workbench in the garage (why would I remember that?).  I don't have any good childhood memories.

I don't want to end up like this poor older man in the grocery store when I am older. I hope we are raising our kids better than that. I hope that we have been good parents to them that they are around when we are older.

I am almost 42 years old and done having children.  So, that "time of the month" is just an annoyance anymore.  Imagine how annoyed I was when it came two weeks early this month! I just got off it the week before.

This tells me the recent adjustment for my Nature-throid for my thyroid disease might be off.  I might be getting those blood tests a little earlier than I planned.  No way do I want periods every two weeks!

Yikes!

If your periods are not regular or if you are having a hard time conceiving, this can be a thyroid disease symptom.  For me, it means my thyroid medication dosage treating my hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's Thyroiditis isn't right so my hormone levels are off.

I have these two guitars...one is a Yamaha acoustic and the other is a red Takamine acoustic-electric.  I haven't played them in a long time.  They hang on my wall and collect dust.  They're so pretty...they're art!  That bugs my guitar-playing husband who is always trying to get me to give him one of them.  Um, no.  He has his own!  I know he doesn't like that I just admire them on our wall rather than play them, but I love them.

Now, if he wants to buy me one of these exciting gibson j 200 at musicians friend, then we can talk. Probably not.  I still wouldn't give up my other guitars, but I wouldn't mind this beautiful Gibson!

There are some great deals at Avon this week here.

First there is FREE SHIPPING direct to you today only.  Use COUPON CODE: TODAY SALE

Some good sales that I am taking advantage of that end today:

• True Color Eye Color Quads are $1.99 each!  I am ordering mine in Caribbean colors.  So pretty. 
• Perfumed Skin softeners are $1.66 each (Fragrance Bath & Body is 3 for $5 under their special offers).  I thought this was a good way to try out all the different fragrances they are offering on sale so I can see what I like. 
• The Fergie gift set is on sale for $9.99.  I've wanted to try to Fergie perfumes for a long time now. I'm going to grab them now while the set is on sale to try the different Fergie fragrances (Viva by Fergie, Outspoken by Fergie and Outspoken Intense by Fergie).

I changed to NDT thyroid treatment 6-8 weeks ago.  I updated about it here.

My days of Insanity are over. I'm a 41-year-old mother of four hoping to see some signs of a body again. Insanity was a challenge that I was intent on meeting.

Now that it's finished, I am thinking I might try the new Shaun T T25 (or is it T-25?) exercise program when it comes out or my older sister does Les Mills Combat.  Perhaps I'll try that. I don't want to stop and get lazy again.

I am the type of person who needs variety apparently with exercise (which is weird because generally I am predictable) or else I get bored so I definitely am ready for another program to try.

Day 2 of Beachbody Insanity exercise with Shaun T. Today was the Plyometric Cardio Circuit. I am wishing I had a jacuzzi about right now.

Wow - intense and I even took it slow compared to the people on the DVD. I didn't want to pass out (or yak). My daughter's dog watched me the whole time.  Too funny.

I woke up sore this morning from yesterday's FIT test.  I can't imagine how sore I will be later and tomorrow morning.  Too bad though - tomorrow is Cardio Power & Resistance.  Woo hoo!  Go Insanity!!

Monday is my beginning to a workout that I hope will get rid of the flab and give me a body I haven't seen in years! I am starting Insanity by Beachbody and Shaun T on Monday - and it's April Fools Day.  It's not a joke either!

Three is a survey here that says unvaccinated children get sick less often. All the results for asthma, allergies, ADHD, autism, migraines, autoimmune disorders, sensory, speech, etc. can be found here.

Something to definitely do more research on. Interesting.

I was looking at this list on the NIH government page (http://www.ott.nih.gov/about_nih/FY2012top20.aspx) and saw the inventors listed. The inventors can make a ton of money off inventing things, correct? NCI (http://www.cancer.gov/), NIAID (http://www.niaid.nih.gov/), NIDCD (http://www.nidcd.nih.gov), NIEHS (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/), are shown as some of the inventors. These are ALL government web sites shown under "inventors". So, the government makes a ton of money off pushing medications and vaccines that aren't proven to not cause harm? Really, how many times has a drug or vaccine been given to the public, only to find out later it causes harm or death? 

So, it's not just that Big Pharma is in bed with the government with money changing hands, etc. I would look at this more as government IS A PART OF Big Pharma.

Can you trust drugs where the person requiring their use is making money off of them?

A couple weeks ago, I purchased Hip Hop Abs from Live Core Fitness (my Beachbody coach). This is an exercise program by Shaun T.

I started it last week and I love Hip Hop Abs.  It isn't boring (where you are counting down until it is over), probably because I have always loved to dance and I love Hip Hop dancing (I call it street dancing...come on, who DIDN'T like watching Channing Tatum street dance in Magic Mike?).  In the last few years, I've definitely lost my groove (who has time to go out dancing with a huge family) but I am starting to feel like I am getting a little bit of my groove back.

If you are getting back into fitness and looking for something to hold your interest, Hip Hop Abs can be done by the very beginner (believe me, my asthma would take me out if I didn't start at the very beginning at my fitness level).

From Monday morning to this morning (3 days), I have lost 3.8 pounds. Yeah me!!

...and unknown inches. I haven't taken the measuring tape out yet but I want that "thick" look to go away! Here I go!