Show Us Your Life - Your Favorite Things

Kelly at Kelly's Korner Blog is holding another "Show Us Your Life - Your Favorite Things" this week.  I love this topic!  Visit her link for more entries.

After 23 years of marriage, I can honestly say that this year has been THE happiest year of all.  We have worked so hard and achieved almost miraculous results.  I just beam from ear to ear and pure joy is in my heart.  Imagine 23 years of prayer and having it all come true.  That is my life with my amazing husband.  Sometimes, even when things don't appear to be working and some days you wonder if it is even worth it, God can work what seems like miracles in your life.  He has in mine and I am the happiest 23 year married woman I know EVER.  I hope to share more details in a future post!!

This is our most recent picture and I wish we had centered the camera a bit better to get a full shot of Andy!  He's a great man, that's all I gotta say about that!  Love of my life!

My 2 boys, 21 and 17.5 - we've had some rough years but a mother's love never ceases.  I hope they know this and never forget.  As mother's, we love our kids no matter what.

Now, for the rest of this post, I have to share again my newest obsession.  These products are a MUST TRY.  If you want to take 10 years or more off your appearance, order the sample packs from Simply Divine Botanicals.  My own mother cannot get over how much younger/better I look in photos.  (We live 8 hours apart and I can't wait until she sees my skin in person!!)

I cannot remember now how I even heard of this company, but Barbara's products are beyond incredible.  I could go on and on and may.  lol  She recommends you order samples as she only accepts returns if something is wrong with the product.

Here is a link to the main sample pack:  Sample Set   Or order different things individually as samples - some are as inexpensive as $1.50!!  Here is a photo of many of the containers in my makeup area  (all the smaller white containers on the right)-

And whatever you do, you MUST try the seaweed products - Seaweed Sample Set

Let me tell you how incredible the seaweed products are - I was in the sun last weekend and got inadvertently burned on my forehead.  It was bright red and SHOULD have peeled.  It did not!  These products are so healing, filled with such pure ingredients, NO chemicals - my husband has just been almost speechless.  

My lines and wrinkles are almost entirely gone.  My skin GLOWS.  Truly radiant.  And if you read my blog, you know my life is full of stress right now.  lol  My skin should be showing that stress, but instead, I look like I've been on a 6 month vacation to a blissful place.

Some stand out products:

 Black Velvet  Fabulous Foaming Facial Cleanser.  You will not be able to find the word to perfectly describe the pure heaven your skin will feel like after using this product one time.  Velvet surely comes close.  Amazing.  Check out these ingredients!

INGREDIENTS: Unconditional Love & Gratitude, Organic Whole-leaf Aloe Vera, Oils of: Jojoba, Avocado, Coconut, Sea Buckthorn, Almond, Palm & Carrot. Papaya, Banana, Cocoa Tree extract, Outer Body Experience, Seaweed, MSM, Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium. Essential oils of: Frankincense, Myrrh, Lavender, Helichrysum, Blood Orange, Pink Grapefruit, Rosewood, Patchouli & Geranium.

If you have acne-prone skin, try the You Can't Zit Here - Banishing Blemish Foaming Face Wash.

 Next, use the Gypsy Rose Tea Toner/Astringent. 

INGREDIENTS: Unconditional Love and Gratitude, Bulgarian Rosewater, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Witch Hazel, Lemon Balm, Rose Petals, Calendula, Chamomile, Comfrey, Rosemary, Sage, Cranesbill, Lavender, Horse Chestnut, White Oak, MSM, Rooibos, Alkanet Root, Jojoba Oil, Essential Oils of Rose Geranium, Myrrh, and Lavender.

 

I could go on and on.  Don't miss Barbara's first baby and favorite product, Creme de Rose Heavenly Facial Moisturizer.  I read her testimonial letters and started putting this cream on some eczema I've had over 5 years, on random pimples I get and other blemishes that don't go away easily and they are all disappearing!  Hubby is impressed.  

I am madly in love with her Skincredible Sandalwood Revitalizing Elixir.  This is actually a creme and the smell is just ........WOW!!  I use this on my rosacea, or should I say my FORMER rosacea and just whenever I desire additional moisturizer or just want to smell this amazing scent. 

Honestly, the product I think that has taken the most years off my complexion is probably the Honey I Shrunk the Pores - A Biologically Active Skin Polish with Fruit Enzymes.  You put this on for 15 minutes and then wash off.  It looks and smells like raspberry jam but wait until you see what it does to your skin!!

I ordered the Pure Rose Distillate and spray it on my face multiple times a day for hydration and the scent is so calming.   The Melon Medley  (with Omega 6 and Omega 9 fatty acids) is unlike anything I've ever seen and does not cause breakouts.  It just soaks in your skin like nothing else you've ever used.  Light as can be!

Oh no!  I see she has a new product I haven't even tried, and she says it's her best product yet!!  Crossing my fingers she offers it in sample form.  lol    YES!!!  She has it in sample for $4.95!!  Baby Face Energized Oxygen Treatment -  here is what she says about it:

Product Description

So new it doesn't have a label but we couldn't wait to make it available to you as we believe it may be one of our best products yet!

Baby Face will be viable for ten plus years but must be kept refrigerated at all times!

Successfully used on: Wrinkles, Blemishes, Skin Viruses, Skin and Nail Fungus,Burns, Bruises, Discoloration
 

APPLICATION: Gently but deeply massage into skin that has been thoroughly cleansed and toned every other night or as desired. May be layered over any Simply Divine treatment or moisturizer.

INGREDIENTS: Unconditional Love and Gratitude, Organic Rose Hip seed oil, Organic Avocado oil, Organic Olive oil, Sea Buckthorn oil, Essential oils of: Lavender, Rose Geranium, Chamomile, Rose, Bergamot, Rosewood, Palmarosa and Vitamin E., Infused with Energized Oxygen for six weeks.

Gosh, I could go on and on.  Almost all these products come in the sample pack.  Now, I will point out - If you go to her sample page, not all her samples are listed there (individual products).  Be sure to check the main product pages to see if it comes in a sample size if it isn't listed on the official sample page. You don't want to miss out on trying these samples.

With my next order, I am going to add her Foam Pump Bottle for the Black Velvet Foaming Facial Cleanser - think I will use less product with each use.

I know her prices seem a tad high (my "top" price I have ever paid for anything else related to face if $10, so this took me a while to bite the bullet), but ladies - TRUST ME.  Take a look at that photo of me above.  I am 43, have grown children putting us through the wringer right now, have chronic pain, you don't even want to hear all the crud in my life........trust me, I shouldn't look that young and I didn't  just a few months ago.  I promise you!!

Request this for your birthday or another holiday or special occasion.  Save your pennies.   I've had other online friends order the sample pack and contact me incredibly excited by what these products are doing to their complexions.  I have no connection to this company, although I sure wish I did - I could use a discount.  lol  I just sincerely love these products and have to tell you all.   I am scrounging through my house finding all kinds of things to sell to fund these investments in my health, IMO.  I've been avoiding chemicals including sulfates and parabens for almost a year now, and these products have just been an answer to prayer, truly.

You will throw out EVERY other product you have ever purchased for your face after you try these.  And start with the samples!!

Have a glorious day!

I've Been Sprung!

 Image Credit

 

I was released from the hospital this morning due to my fast recovery, also "as usual".  lol   My surgery went well, and it was in fact a stone blocking the entrance to the appendix.  Total fluke thing - not related to my health or lack thereof.   They caught it early before the appendix was completely blocked off and started to swell.  I was very anxious to get home because of the substandard care I received, a few items detailed below:

• I was in my room over 6 hours before getting an IV AND pain medicine.  I had been NOP (nothing by mouth) all day and very dehydrated, so my veins were not cooperating.  Why no one cared for 6+ hours that I was in appendicitis pain, none of us know.
• Once the IV was placed after 6 painful tries, I was NOT given a bag of fluids.  This proved to be a problem when I got down to surgery.  (I was just THAT much more dehydrated.)
• Some meds that were ordered by the doctors were not given to me.
• I had noted with the staff that I do NOT ever take Levaquin, as it is black boxed for nerve damage and I have plenty of nerve damage, thank you very much.  So how unhappy was I when I learned that Wednesday night while I was sleeping, I was given Levaquin by IV?? The fact that I should NOT have received it was documented all over my chart.
• You know how the hospitals refuse to allow you to take your own regular meds?  Well, I was in this hospital from Tuesday afternoon to Thursday morning, and I was give ONE DOSE of my "home meds" and that was last night (Wednesday) night at midnight..  Needless to say, if I hadn't taken my own meds, there would have definitely been a medical crisis.  Nurses knew I was doing this but ddn't mind because they couldn't figure out what to do with my chart.
• When I was in Post-Op, I was so under-treated for pain that I cried hysterically for 1.5 hours until a nurse yelled at someone on the phone long enough to get me appropriate levels of pain medication.
• When I came back from surgery with those leg compression things to prevent blood clots, NO one plugged them in or turned them on.  Well, I take that back, my nurse last night brought some news ones to put on me and turn on, but was shocked to see I had been wearing the first pair all this time.  I was completely out of it Wednesday, sleeping all day, so was not aware that they had been plugged in.
• Although my pain was decreased actually in the Post-Op room via IV meds, once I got to my room, the nurses tried to figure out what to do based on my whacky chart.  They ended up putting a long-acting patch on my arm, a patch that slowly releases meds for 72 hours.  On the manufacturer's literature, it states to NEVER use that patch for acute surgery pain.  
• Every single nurse just stared at my chart as they come on shift, having no idea what to make of it.  Nothing made sense, orders that looked like a doc put in were either not fulfilled or not detailed that they were, several starting points didn't have an ending.  It took 2 nurses last night to sit down on the couch in my room and slowly turn page to page to try to figure out what all had happened.  My release was even delayed because my chart had entirely disappeared and the head charge nurse was even running around trying to find it.

Needless to say, I wanted out of there and am feel so much safer now that I am home.  I am pursuing legal advice for this visit plus the one from December, 2008, which was so upsetting I won't even repeat the details.  I didn't act then out of PTSD and shock, and honestly thought how I was treated then was a fluke.  It was not.  This hospital and staff have no idea what to do with chronic pain patients.  At the very least, I will demand they provide sensitivity training to their nurses and education for the physicians who don't know any better regarding the patches.  For those regular folks, giving the patch to me was like spraying your tummy with lidocaine after surgery and hoping you feel better.  

But I'm home now, safe and sound, and trying to be good and not overdo.  

Thanks for all the well-wishes and prayers!

Unplanned Appendicitis and Surgery!

Ugh!! I was admitted today with "smoldering" early appendicitis and will have surgery in the morning to have my appendix removed.

As of right now, Andy has declined to put me out to pasture and put me out of my misery, lol. For those aware of my medical history, this is just almost unbelievable. But like always, I will do fine and come out kicking. Just so unbelievable. I was hoping it was gas or constipation. Ha!!

Note to readers: Do not ignore right lower pelvic pain. Even though my doc was skeptical since I was smiling and joking AS USUAL (I have an almost unmatched pain tolerance that freaks medical professionals), he KNOWS me and wanted to be safe. Sho' nuff, the CT scan showed appendicitis even though my bloodwork was clear. Of course. If something is almost medically impossible, then I will get it!!! Ask all my docs in 4 states with new facilities thanks to patients like me! HA!!!

Andy is amazing, telling me this is so much less scary than my 12-day hospitalization for acute pancreatitis (twice) and gallbladder surgery in 12/08. That trip included many hills and valleys that almost left him a widower thanks to substandard care. Don't ever fear dialing the "if you feel you are being medically mistreated" number on the bulletin board in the hospital room. Saved my life!!!! And then months of therapy helped with the post traumatic stress disorder-PTSD (seriously), but I digress! Lol

After 6 IV attempts, the needle guru was called in and he saved me, enabling my first pain dose 7 hours after admittance. Yes. NOT fun.

At this point, my best friend suggested asking the doc to take out any and everything I might not need in the future. Lol. Probably a smart idea if it were possible. Lol

I will now try to sleep although my neighbor is yelling "Help Me" over and over now for 3 hours. Sadly, she has dementia but is fine. This will just be our reality tonight. I have my sleep mask and ear plugs, so hopefully that will help!

Thanks for any thoughts and prayers!

P.S. Post entered at 12:45am. Surgery is Wednesday morning. Ima night owl, even in the hospital. LOVE my iPhone!!

Show Us Your Life - Your Kid's Names

Today at Kelly's Korner Blog she is doing "Your Kids Names" through the Show Us Your Life series.  

Growing up, I had to spell my first name AND last name every where I went.  And to this day, I must spell my first name no matter what, if I want it spelled correctly.  I love it and definitely prefer my spelling over the common one for my name, but it is completely annoying to have to spell it and never see it written correctly.  I vowed my children would not have to spell their names.  And I promptly married a man with a top 5 most common last name in America.  lol

With my husband, Andy is his middle name and he commented to me early on that he wanted to call a child by their FIRST name only.   Going by his middle name has caused some legal hiccups as well.   And not only that, but his name is one of a VERY famous musical artist and it gets old with all the jokes and comments.  I just laugh along and say I married him for his money.  lol

I had always dreamed of having 2 girls and had tons of girl names I loved.  I grew up with only a sister and just never considered for a moment I'd have a son.  Let alone 2.  So to my surprise, we had to agree on 2 boy names.  lol

When pregnant with our first, we struggled to find a name we both liked.  We did not find out what we were having ahead of time.  This was 21 years ago, but my memory is that my favorite names were:

Holden

Forrest

Garrett

He was much more into "normal" names if I recall.   Hubs liked Benjamin Matthew, but another family member pointed out his initials would be BM and that was not cool.  (That family member's initial were very inappropriate when used just the two of them, so I understand his point.)   For a girl, we both liked Elise and Brooke. 

I remember calling my mom and telling her if it was a boy his name would be Jordan and she said "What would you call him?"  I was like, mmmmkkkk, lol, so that became his middle name.  Jordan quickly became a popular girl name in his class, so I was glad we changed that!

Ryan Jordan was born that year and we loved his name for about one month.  Until we realized EVERY ONE ELSE was naming their child Ryan.  Ugh.  I did consider changing it, but could not get the hubs to agree.  To this day, I wish we had picked a more unique name.   His name is so common that even in the category of golf, there are quire a few HIS AGE with the exact same names in the US right now playing golf in college.  ACK!  Note to self:  With a super common last name, choose wisely on first names.

When we found out we were pregnant again with another son, we wanted another 4 letter first name, but more unique.  But not weird.  You know, the perfect combination?  lol   I wanted to put a full court press out on Holden (another character from ATWT)  but that violated the 4-letter rule, so we fairly easily agreed on Holt.  We LOVED that name and so did everyone else.

His middle name would be named after a favorite soap opera character, Phillip Chancellor.  lol  Holt Phillip came late that summer.

It is such an uncommon name and if one doesn't strongly enunciate the "t" at the end,  almost everyone "hears" Hope.  Or Colt.  My poor 2nd son spells his name everywhere he goes, just like I vowed NOT to do to my children.  lol    But he is a Holt through and through and we get excited when we see someone name their child that.  I think there are now 10 people in America with that name.  LMBO

We did try to have more children, and as time went on, we settled on another boy first name - Camden.  LOVE that name!  Alas, never got to use it.

Looking back, we did consider family names, but nothing jumped out at us.  I'm not sure we would change anything going back.  Should we have ever been blessed with a girl, the last name we agreed on was Avery Elizabeth, but I'm sure that would have changed.  We're talking 21 and almost 18 years ago!!

Have a glorious day!

Had to share this

You know how sometimes you are just living your life, toodling along browsing on the Internet perhaps, and you run across something that stops you in your tracks?  Just out of nowhere, a message from God that just grabs you and won't let you go?  That just happened to me a moment ago and little did I know I'd be crying tonight.  This promo video for the book "Plan B - What To Do When God Doesn't Show Up The Way You Thought He Would" by Pete Wilson, pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN.

What do you do when life doesn't go as you planned, when your dreams didn't become a reality, when things happen in your life that you never in a million years thought you'd experience.?  Some of us have one small thing, but it is making a huge impact.  Others of us are struggling with a reality that is so far removed from what we ever thought was "fair" yet won't go away, won't change, it just "is".  Others of us are so slammed by so shattered dreams collapsing in our life some days we don't know we hang in there anymore.

But I will share that if we keep our eyes focused on Him, on God.  HE will never leave us.  I personally believe that for every struggle I am given, there is a lesson to learn (and I know this upsets some folks, but it is honestly my feelings on the subject, no offense to anyone.)  With what I have gone through and continue to go through as a child of God, as a wife, as a mother....I have grown as a person.  I wish I could have skipped some of these heart-breaking experiences, but I do believe God doesn't give us more than we can handle.  Sometimes this feels like a cruel joke and I want to yell 'OK, God, ENOUGH already".  But I don't have to.  He knows my heart, He knows my pain.  And His arms hold me even when I don't think anyone understands.   I can honesty say that without my faith, I don't know how I would have made it the last 5+ years.  My heart is burdened for the lost, for those who have no faith to sustain them.

This promo video touched me deeply.  I hope it does you too.

PlanB Promo from Cross Point Church on Vimeo.

Have a glorious day!