Christmas 2009 letter to family and friends

Dear Family and Friends,

Can I just say WOW! I love this time of the year! I love that we have a time of year that is specfically set aside for a time to remember how special family and friends are. A time to remember Christ and to give gifts of love to those we hold dear and to neighbors we appreciate. A time to catch up with those we may have lost contact with thru the year. Wether in good times or bad times I really enjoy this time of the year. As the years pass and I find myself older (approuching 40in January) and as I see my family spread out, I truly look forward to and enjoy getting together with my family. Although most of my family is still in the state of Utah we have spread out over the Salt Lake Valley and we have to travel farther to get together which does not make it easy sometimes.

2009 as usual found changes for our family. When is life not filled with its challenges? In October of 2008 we lost Star's Dad adn it made celebrating the holidays a little different for us. It was a happy time for us when he past as he had been in declining health for some time and he had no quality of life. None the less it was weird not to have him around and I still miss my weekly visits to him. Every now and then again I pause like I have forgotten to do something ans realize that I no longer need to make those visits. I love Star's parents and miss them both. We also lost my Aunt Sue this past year and I miss her as well!

2009 started out alright. I had finished nail school in mid December and took a breather before taking my state exams. That breather turned into fear and it was May before I took my exams. Which I passed with flying colors much to my surprise but not my instructor. I do enjoy doing nails! By May we found out what had been giving Star so many problems for months. He had a bad gall bladder. Since it took months to come to this diagnosis it had eaten up all his health benefits so we had some scrambling and a lot of out of pocket expenses to bring about his surgery. With his diabetes it took a little longer for him to recover and so by September he has exhausted all his medical leave and was left with no option but to leave employment until his health was in a better place. Now continues the search for employment.

Scott started second grade this past September. This alone was a challenge for us. For some unknown reason fear took over Scott's life and he spent the first two weeks of school either home sick or coming home sick. After a trip to the doctor's office for his annual exam and after sage advice we headed back to school. That sage advice was a little tough love. After that it only took three days to get him to go to class by himself. We started walking him to his class and handing him off to the teacher, then we waked him as far as the front office, and then as if by magic, drop him off at the curb.

This past week brought an unusual experience for Scott. He was involved in a fight at school with which he ended up with bloody nose. I guess having a boy I should have expected this to happen on day but still it was a bit of a shock when I got the call. Apparently had been trying to break up a fight he turned to the boy who threw the punch and asked him why he did it and then gave him a bit of a shove. Now, for those of you who have not seen Scott in a while he stands nearly five feet tall and over a hundredd pounds. He is our little linebacker and he does not know his own strength. So I am sure what Scott considered a little shove was most likely out and out a good hearty push. Well the boy retaliated by punching Scott. So all three were hauled into the school and calls home made. then began the lectures on where the situation went from being good to bad. Oh well. Some lessons are just learned the hard way. Being an only child does have its disadvantages. No other sibling to put you in your place or beat up on you, however you see it. Scott continues to grow like a weed. We just had him into the doctor for an eye infection and he grew two inches in th past two months. He is taking after his dad, uncles, grandfathers, and his cousins for the height.

Star's sister was married in May and this prompted a move for us. I spent the summer taking care of Star and stressfully looking for a place to live. I have never had such a hard time trying to find a place to live. On the first day chool we looked at a twin home on the east side of State street and found where we wanted to live! What a relief! Thanks to our good friends the Wilkerson's we were able to get moved. We left with a lot more than we moved in with as Star had inherited a few things from his father. Thank heavens for having a garage. As it has been a few months now that we have moved in we are finally feeling more settled. Unless we miraculously can qualify for a house this summer I believe we will be here for some duration. We enjoy our neighbors and our church ward. It is small but ever so nice. We have had sme choice experiences in the few months we have been here!

I truly wish that this beautiful season finds you in good health, good spirits, and good company! May the light of Christ shine in your lives this season.

Love to All,

Star, Jenn and Scott

ps: please forgive the typo's :)

Blue hair

Two weeks ago we died the top of Scott's hair blue. He has been asking me for two years to die his hair blue. What I did was bleach all of his hair and then just the top of his head blue. It turned out totally cool! I used Scruples Urban Shock brand and the color Azul.

We have had so many people comment on it. What amazes me the most is that it is elderly people that comment the most on it. They love it! It certianly is a great conversation peace. We were sitting at the food court at Costco when a lady came across the registers to us and asked us how I did it. A lot of people at first think that it is cool aid and will wash out. Then they are really surprised to find out it is a permanent color.

He started swim lessons today and the color is fading quickly so I may redo the blue color once or twice before school starts then I will bleach out the blue so he can start school on time.

Here are a few pic's.

Eve's wedding, Star's surgery, and a little trip

The past three weeks have been a blur of activity! On the 23 of May my sister-in-law, Eve, got married to Randy Bird. The wedding turned out beautiful! As with all wedding's there is much chaos but in the end it was great!

Then on Tuesday the 26th Star had his gall bladder surgery. What I found ironic about this was when the surgeon came out and showed me a picture of his gall bladder. He told me that all the yellow spots in it is where the gall bladder was becoming infected. When we met with the surgeon he was like, well your not displaying the symptoms that would require we remove the gall bladder, so it is totally your decision as to whether you remove it or not. Ya, after the surgery he was telling me it was a good decision to have it removed. Ya think! I kept telling the surgeon that Star does not display typical symptoms that most people do. Oh well it is over and done now and his follow up is on June 17th. The cost is amazingly out of control and with sucky insurance we will do our best to get this all paid off sometime in the next four years. I truly believe that part of the issue of Star not having as much pain as he should have with a gall bladder that was infected is because of IsAgenix. The health properties of these products are absolutely amazing! www.jennandstar.isagenix.com

The really nice part out of the past few weeks was our little trip to Layton for four days. As a thank you gift from Eve she paid for a hotel room for us for four days. So we opted to go North and visit with my family. We enjoyed days of hanging out at the pool, hanging out in the hotel room doing gel toes, and hanging out at my sister's houses and my parents. It was layed back and we got to see the Thunderbirds fly over in preparations for their performance at Hill. We loved it. We also got to see our friends the Wilkersons when we got back. They had been in California for a funeral and they got home and we left. So we hadn't had a chance to hang out together for two weeks.

Does life ever stop for a breather?

Well, k, here is the latest and greatest with us. One week till Star's surgary and he comes down with Bells Palsey on the left side of his face. So that means that we spend several days making and taking calls from his regular doctor and his surgeon. To top it all off we have maxed out Star's benefits for the year so we have to pay for all of this out ofpocket. Fun, huh! Well after days of calls back and forth Dr. Duros and Dr. Rasmussen decide to put the surgary off for two weeks while the steriods leave Star's system. Well, they schedule it for the 21st and that is two days before his sister gets married so that wont work. So now it is scheduled for the 26th. At least he will be able to be at the wedding and enjoy Memorial Day before hand.

I do have to say that if it was not for the health benefits of IsAgenix that Star would be far worse off than he is. I know that people are like ya, ya. But until you experience the health benefits for yourself don't turn your nose up at the product. After being sick for so many years I am finally able to function and am so happy about it. I am growing the business side of it as well and if I call you about and your not interested in building a second stream of income in this economy just tell me no and I will not be upset or offended. But do do do take a look at the health properties of the products!!!!

Does anyone know of anyone who would like to buy a 2001 Ford Taurus for around $4000.00? Call me or leave a comment.

One down & one to go & an update on Star

For those of you following this blog and wondering if I finally have gotten around to taking my test's-I finally took the first one. This was the practical exam which means it was a demonstration of my knowledge. I sat in a room with four other ladies, the instructor and the examiner. The examiner watches your every move! It is very nerve racking.I felt confident that I would pass the exam but by the time you get into the room, sit down, and they start reading the instruction I found that my cheeks felt like they were on FIRE! How embarrassing! I mean after all I know my stuff, right? Right! Then by halfway thru the exam I found my hands shaking! How embarrassing! I mean after all I know my stuff, right? Right! But it sure doesn't stop the nerves from wreaking havoc on you.

After the exam is over you haul all your stuff out to the waiting room where you wait for about 10 minutes while they calculate whether you have passed or failed. I tried to engage the other ladies in conversation but to no avail, there nerves obviously make them clam up while mine make me want to talk. Oh well.So after about 10 minutes the interviewer walk’s out and hands you a paper with your score. At first I thought I would wait until I was in the car and then I just couldn't. I turned down the flap and there it was the score.......PASS!!! I mean after all I know my stuff! I am good at what I do.

I walk out to the rear of my car and dig out my purse and then fish out my phone and call Star. He was not surprised to hear I had passed but it didn't stop the tears of relief that sprang to my eyes anyway. What a stress reliever to finally have it over. I have literally made myself sick over taking this test. One down, one to go. The next test is all by computer and I feel will be less stressful to take, which is next week.

Side not on Star, Star has been sick for a month now. Throwing up and constant nausea. So about two weeks ago I made him go to the doctor and this started a string of test's, medications, and more test's. He had an MRI done yesterday that showed he has gall stones. Tomorrow he has another test that will constrict his gall bladder and show how serious the problem is. So it looks like we are looking at surgery sometime in the next week for Star. He has started to process of taking a medical leave to help protect his job and health benefits.

As for me I believe that I have finally kicked the bronchitis! My word it took long enough, 6 weeks was definitely long enough!

Vday cookies

The Sunday after Valentine's day I finally got around to making the cookies that I had promised Scott we would make. What started out as just a mom and boy time quickly turned into a family event. We had so much fun. I had made the dough two days previous from a Channel 2 news recipe and it made a bucket load of dough. So Scott and I cut out

hearts, stars, lips, flowers, hands, and eagles. Eve had recently bought a new stove so we got to break it in. Fun! By the time the cookies had all finished cooking they were cool enough to start frosting. Once again using the recipe from Channel 2 news we made up several different colors from what we had at home. As you can see from this group shot we really got into it.

This one came about from a broken finger on a hand cookie. Very creative of Eve if I do say so. One of my favorites.

Star and Scott a little creative with the whole stars and stripes thing.

Scott is very into flags right now. Well one of many things he is into but he seems to be focused on what the flag symbolises and how it differs from state flags. Can you tell which ones Star did and which ones Scott did?

2.5 inches lost

Quick update, in one week I have lost two and half inches. I feel better most of the time and my skin is starting to look better than I have seen it years. I am way excited about IsAgenix!

Tirade on Medical Dr's

Ok, it has been a while since I updated. Sorry for that. I have simply allowed life to get in the way. But I have several thing happening all at once and I find myself excited about it. I am going to test at the beginning of next month for both state test's so that I will be licensed as a nail tech in the state of Utah. I had to delay for two weeks when I found myself stressed out to the point that I climbed into bed for 2 days and then I got the stomach flu yesterday so needless to say I rescheduled my exams for two weeks out.

The other thing that we did was we decided after many many many discussions on how frustrated we are with modern medicine and doctors to try IsAgenix. We feel there is nothing that doctors seem to be able to do or want to do to assist you when you hit a wall in your health care. Star has done just about everything the doctors have asked him to do in order to control his diabetes with no success. They put him on more med's, no change. They take him off all but one and still no change. Go on special diets/fasting still no change. As for me, after having C-Diff and Scott I have struggled with memory problems and losing weight. When I talk to doctors about my memory problems they just make a note and start asking questions about other things. I cannot get any of them to take this seriously. I know that I am in my 30's but it does not make it normal for me. Same thing with my thyroid and hormones. I can't afford to see specialists so what do you do? You start researching and Star and I came across some friends who introduced us to IsAgenix. Not only did I fall in love with thier products but we joined the company.

Other than having the flu yesterday I have noticed an increase in my stamina level for my daily activities. I noticed the same thing for Star. He started a day after I did, so while I lay in bed sick, I noticed his energy level. Very frustrating when you want to puke. He had a little more stamina than he normally did after spending the day on the phones with customers. I could hear it in his voice. That is what amazed me. Especially since the day before all he talked about was how tired he was since we had gotten to bed late for the past week.

I will be honest that this was not a cheap investment that we made. Neither was it terribley expensive. But it has replaced what I normally eat and thus not increasing my monthly grocery bill. I think that was what impressed me the most about the product was not only was it a live food and not filled with the fillers that you get when you buy over the counter but that this is not taken on top of your daily food as a supplement but it replaces two meals a day. I don't know if I am explaining this correctly but this is how I looked at when I got involved. After all the health issues I needed to find another route in order to help my family. First and foremost this is not a weight loss program, it is a natural side affect as you get your body back into its natural harmonic state. We all know this, we used to be taught this at an early age. These days there are so many lawsuits out there that doctors and people in general are afraid to talk to people any more about what real nutrion is because it is hard to find and almost impossible to get at your grocery store. IsAgenix is backed by some of the top nutrional experts/doctors in the US. What sold me was when Dr. Weil who was the nutrionist for 2 US presidents backed this product I was done. I joined and started the program.

Ok ok I will quit gushing about the product. But I will keep posting on our progress with the product. Because for the first time in 8 years of health problems I feel I have found the light at the end of the tunnel. Scott has even joined us.

So now you have the two biggest items in our lives. The other thing is that we hope to buy a house this summer. Will keep you posted on that as well.

If you want to know more about isagenix, with out feeling like you have to sit thru a presentation, which I wouldn't do to you!, you can go to www.jennandstar.isagenix.com and look around and read up on some of the products.