The Worst Food in America

Food Kills!! Like literally. Check out this website it's a total eye opener!!
http://www.menshealth.com/eatthis/20-Worst-Foods/index.php

Randomness and Happiness

Ok I thought this was really cute. A co-worker sent this to me. :)
how do I love you let me count the ways. 1. you are a great organizer 2. you are kind 3. you laugh at my jokes 501. you help me with my non-organizing skills 1007. you help me with my new job

Isn't that nice? That just totally made my day. Compliments go a long way and I think a lot of people don't know how to use them enough!! I did my part this morning and sent an email to Officemax complimenting their courier! Seriously if you ever feel the need to tell someone they are wonderful - DO IT!

Work is going well and has picked up quite a bit. I have been very busy lately - today I was actually sweating! That's when you know you're working too hard. :P It's kind of funny my hours are supposed to be 0800-1630 but I always come in early every day (close to 0730). Well, I never asked anyone if I can work 0730-1600 but I guess it kind of worked itself out.. because the lady that does the scheduling acknowledged my hours as 0730-1600. LOL. I was like, cool!! This job really rocks sometimes. I get so many privledges and benefits it's unbelievable.Sometimes it's SOOOO hard to be here but other times I can't imagine myself NOT being here. My 2 bosses (yes 2) are really cool too. I can just email them and go "I'm not going to be here next Wednesday" and they're like "OK!" lol. Once I told them I need a day off so I can take my cat to the vet lol and they were totally fine with that. I mean holy crap, am I lucky or what??! :P

Well, I haven't smoked for *9* days now and I was expecting myself to be in total agony and grumpy and everything, but you know what, I'M HAPPIER!!! 3 people today alone told me I am cheery and my face is lit up. YAY! It's true, I do feel way better about myself! I have been smiling and laughing ever since I went on Chantix. I just feel like I'm free finally. The doctor also gave me Wellbutrin so I am taking both right now to help with the cigarette cravings. They are both working GREAT. I still have slight cravings from time to time but I just tell myself "no" or distract myself with something else and the feelings usually pass. I have been snacking like crazy though because the physical part of smoking is still kind of there.. so guess what's next on my to-do list - DIET.

I had a mole removed on my back last week and now I have 2 stitches. :( I'm going to ask a nurse around here to pull them out for me soon - probably Anna because she loves doing stuff like that out of the norm of her everyday job lol. Once I had an infected scraped knee and she was more than happy to drain it for me. She was actually excited to do it! LMFAO. Only in a hospital. It's such a unique place to work at LOL I love it. Yeah but I have to go back in to dermatology AGAIN to get 2 more moles removed - on one my palm (of all places) and another between my toes. They are in complicated spots so I have to have a surgeon do it and get a local anthesia. UGH. The moles have to be sent to be biopsed and if they find that it's cancer I guess they have to do more tests on me and crap. I almost told the doctor I'm going to donate my moles to Bodies Revealed LMAO. I was actually giggling from thinking about it as he was removing the other one from my back- lol. The doctor was probably like wth?? lol. For those of you that don't know what that is, check it out here http://www.bodiesrevealed.com/ and find out! It's a really neat human body exhibit. :)

OOOh so excited, my package is here waiting for me at the post office. I ordered new charms to make earrings out of so I will probably be doing that tonight. I got a bunch of Disney stuff and other misc. goodies. :) I am definitely going to be working more on Jennlee this weekend too. I have a Heart Walk to go to on Saturday morning (walk for cancer) but after that I am going to hunker down!

Peace out until next time - :) <3 <3

Chantix and Medical Issues

Well it's day 4 that I have started taking Chantix. You can smoke up to a week on this stuff so I've been trying to smoke as much as I can before I have to stop lol. My official quit date is May 19th. So far I feel very strange. I can't describe the feeling but it's almost like I'm floating in water. My brain feels weird too.. like I'm half asleep or something. Yesterday Staci (one of my bosses - I have 2-aren't I lucky lol) looked right at me and asked a question and i just looked right at her and didn't say anything. Like my brain just temporarily stopped working lol. And someone else tried to ask me something too and it went in but went right back out. I was like "Huh?" I'm supposed to be on this for 12 weeks too lol... not sure if these are normal side affects or what but hopefully everyone can put up with me for that long while I'm taking these. I heard a lot of bad things about these pills and a lot of good things, too.. there is a lot of mixed feelings. I guess that's with every drug though. Everybody reacts differently to different meds. My only complaint so far is the PRICE - It's very expensive ($120/mo) so I'm just hoping it WORKS! So far my cravings have gone down a little bit. yesterday I was lighting up cigs and taking two puffs and then putting them out. So I guess it's starting to work. But we'll see.
If anyone is worried or wondering - my home is SMOKE FREE! I do NOT smoke anywhere indoors, not even my own car!!

I have a dermatology appnt on Tuesday. The doctor noticed more suspicious/dark moles on my back that could be cancerous so I have to get them checked out. She was even more worried when I told her I DID have one that was melanoma (skin cancer) a few years ago and they had to remove it. I do have quite a few moles that are almost black looking. I don't understand why because I'm barely in the sun that long?? Why do I have skin cancer? She told me I better start wearing sunscreen and I think she's right. I have way too many medical problems for being 29. I seriously have a mile long list of all these crazy things that have happened to me over the years. Maybe I should make it into a blog entry lol. My poor mom I was always freaking her out going to the hospital and stuff lol. Aww she's so sweet though, she was always with me helping me out. God I love my mom. I can't wait to see her in July.

Anyways I will write again soon with more Etsy shop finds! I think next I will feature plushies and felt critters. :) <3

Food for Thought for Etsy

Mmmm!! Yummy "Where's The Beef" cookies by The Fetching Hound's shop http://thefetchinghound.etsy.com/. Aren't these awesome? They are made out of cookies, peppermint patties, shredded coconut, and topped with seasame seeds. Lol. She also has these neat suishi rolls that are made out of rice krispie treats. Yummy!!

Another of my favorite food Etsians is DoubleDippedSweets (http://doubledippedsweets.etsy.com/). She makes WONDERFUL popcorn in all sorts of great flavors like cookies and cream, caramel, peanut butter, smores, and cinnamon roll. I sent a batch of the caramel corn to my mom and she LOVED it! Please check out her store. She is a wonderful lady and very very nice to work with.

The best snickerdoodles I have ever had are from Sassy Grace Boutique (http://sassygraceboutique.etsy.com/) . Omg, they were so soft and full of flavor! They were all gone in just a few days. I also bought some Braziallian chocolate truffles from her that were TO DIE FOR. This seller is amazing and such a nice person to talk to. She has a very large store full of fun and interesting items for just about anybody on your shopping list!

Yay Going to California to Visit Family

Yay I'm so excited, I just bought plane tickets to go see my family in California for July 4th weekend AND Christmas! It's been a year since I've seen my brother and sister, and at least 2 years since I've seen my dad. Yikes!! I can't wait. Somebody better take me to Disneyland and the beach is all I've got to say lol! And I better eat an In n Out burger while I have the chance.

ROFL my cat is burrowing underneath my bed covers like a burrito, and making these funny noises while he's doing it. He's so cute. My little 13 pounder of love. lol!

David Cook was in town Friday. It was HUGE NEWS around here omg. They were following him around like the papparatzi. I didn't go to any of the events. I wanted to see him live, but not like that.. like some little groupie. I get really uncomfortable in huge crowds like that too, so I just sat at home and watched from the tv. He was literally only like a few miles away from my house. lol.

I haven't been making much jewelry for jennleejewelry lately. I just haven't had the energy. :( I've been working a lot on my other store http://dvrdown.etsy.com/ and making a few things there. Most of the time I have just been sleeping.

I went to the doctor yesterday and got a Rx for CHANTIX, which is a stop smoking aid that has a high success rate. It was $120 because it's not covered by my insurance, BUT think of how much money I will save in the long run for not having to buy cigs!! I am going to start Chantix in a few weeks. They said to make a quit date and I think I'll wait until Memorial Day to stop since I won't be at work that day. I hope this works. I am so tired of smoking.

Some Interesting Stories About Me

Who doesn't like reading about some interesting stories? :)

The Jar of Acid
I remember this one very clearly. I think I must have been about 5 or 6 at the time, and I was wandering around my dad's shop (he owned an electronics manufacturing company for many, many years). I stopped at one table where there were two large jars filled with clear liquid. For whatever reason I dipped my hand into one of the jars. Later on I found out I had chosen the jar full of WATER. The other jar was full of acid that would have burned me in a second!

The Train
One day I was driving to school and stopped at a red light. As I was waiting the train signals starting flashing for an oncomming train approaching. I looked to my right and saw the train, and as I looked at it all of the sudden I felt this sickening feeling that something bad was going to happen on that train. I actually heard screeching metal and people screaming. Shuddering, I went about my day. The very next day I had learned the alarming news that a man had died THAT SAME DAY at that VERY SAME INTERSECTION by a train crashing into his car!

The Scary Scuba Diving Incident
One fine morning I went on a scuba diving trip with my sister Kristi in Catalina. It had been awhile since I had done scuba, and I had lost a bunch of weight recently, but of course I didn't think about those things and packed my weight belt as I had BEFORE LOSING WEIGHT. On our first dive, I completely sunk like a stone! Luckily I was able to inflate some air into my BC vest (bouyance compensator) so I could compensate for the weight. On our next dive, I took out some of my weights from my weight belt, but I ended up taking out too much, because I was literally struggling to stay down in the water. I actually had to hold a large boulder rock (about a foot long) to stay down lol.. Well, you can only hold a rock for so long and it must have slipped out of my hands or something, but I lost my grip and up I flew! From 30 feet to 0 in literally a few seconds. For those of you that don't know, this is EXTREMELY dangerous! Going too fast like that from being underwater can put nitrogen bubbles into your blood aka "the bends" and paralize you or cause death if you don't get treated right away. And treatment - the hyperbaric chamber - is NOT cheap, and not many people have them readily available! Well luckily as I was bobbing at the top I could still feel my arms and legs.. no tingling.. just felt shaky and tired and SCARED out of my mind. Needless to say I still love scuba, but omg I am so much more careful now. You HAVE to be with diving!

The Near Death Experience
This has been the scariest moment of my entire life. In the summer of 1999, I was experimenting with drugs (I was 19 at the time). Uneducated and totally oblivious to any danger, I decided to snort some cocaine with my friend Lee. I did 3 lines. Then later (about an hour or so), he hands me a joint. I take a few LARGE hits. All of the sudden I felt like my breathing was getting extremely shallow and I was going to die. I know with pot you get hallucinations and paranoia, but NOT LIKE THIS. Lee for some reason or another was getting mad at me complaining about my chest hurting and refused to take me to the hospital. I kept pleading with him to take me. He said I was fine and ended up driving me home. I was dropped off at my house and I crawled upstairs to my room. I remember looking at my face in the mirror before I laid down in my bed - it was ashen and gray. I laid down and I remembered not being able to breathe - like my breathing had stopped completely. And that's when I saw God.

God came before me as a white figure, with gold stars circling around his waist. He was telling me it was my time to go. I said NO I don't want to! And then I found myself in a tunnel. At the end of this tunnel were peaceful blue skies and puffy clouds. It felt warm and so inviting.. and I knew if I went there all my pain and suffereing would go away instantly. But I kept fighting to stay back.. to stay away from the tunnel. I kept pleading for my life. Somewhere as I was pleading I was given glipses of my life. But it was strange because it wasn't "my life flashing before my eyes" but future events. And they did flash in front of me. THey started out as yellow/black images, to full color, to fade away into nothing. I saw myself getting married, having 2 kids running around in the grass, me being in front of a bunch of lights, a baseball player (my son maybe?) and 2 old people smiling and waving (me?). THEN everything faded to black and I saw a blonde haired boy sitting on a fence. He looked like nobody I had ever seen before in my life, but he smiled at me. I asked him if he was my guardian angel and he just smiled and told me everything was going to be ok. Then he faded away and I was in the tunnel again! I kept begging god to let me live please please please and suddenly I felt a tremendous pressure, like I was being pushed, and the tunnel started going backwards and it was then that I was able to open my eyes and take a breath. I had literally stopped breathing. I have no idea how long I was unconscious for or what, but my mom did take me to the hospital that night. Fearful of going to jail, I didn't tell anybody about the cocaine, so they didn't do any blood checks. But later when I told my story to the doctor, he believed I had smoked pot laced with LSD. The fact that I mixed was why I just completely shut down. In my body that night was alcohol, lithium (misdiagnosis of bipolar), creatine, epehdra (when it was legal), cocaine, pot, and possibly LSD.

Lee is not my friend anymore. I also found out you cannot go to jail simply for having cocaine in your system. I had trouble going to sleep for years after this happened to me, fearful that I wouldn't wake up. I used to ask my mom to watch me go to bed to make sure I was breathing. I was so afraid I was going to die in my sleep!

This experience has brought me closer to God and has made me more spiritual of a person. I was extremely lucky I didn't die. I am here for a reason. I was saved. And that feels pretty good. :)