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.

Christmas 2008

Wow I cannot believe that Christmas has passed! I have no idea where the last four months of the year went. Starting school threw my little world for a spin, which I enjoyed immensely, and I am still trying to figure out how to catchup on certain things and with people. I am not as good at juggling things like I used to. But I also have found that school opened up so many other doors that I am having a hard time not walking thru them all at the same time.

But let me back up just a little. To Christmas. Christmas was small and simple. I was not able to shop until the 23rd and the 24th. Which I do not recommend. But Star and I had a greed not to exchange gifts this year so I focused on stocking stuffers and then I did have to shop with Scott for gifts for both Star and I and also aunt Evie. Which is funny how quickly things add up. So I finished up the shopping along with grocery shopping and we started Christmas Eve around 7pm.

As usual Eve and this time Janice as well, managed to find the perfect gift for Scott. They both made him a cameo outfit. Badges, pins, hat, socks, shoes, belt, you name it they found it or made it. He loved everything! Eve managed to make and put together cameo pj's. That all just made his Christmas.

Having managed to wrap all the gifts earlier in the week(when there aren't that many gifts it makes it very easy and quick) we had no need to stay up really late. Scott of course woke up early. Shocker there. But we fiddled around until8:15 and decided to wake Evie and begin our morning. We quickly downed breakfast and began the unwrapping part of the morning. It was all very simple and quite. Unusually quite with out Ammon here.

We spent the rest of the day playing games and watching Mama Mia! Which currently has a cult following in our house. We tried to focus on the call from Ammon but by 5pm Eve was getting pretty antsy and threatening to call the Mission president. Finally around 5:15 we got a brief call letting us know that he would call in about an hour or so after his dinner apt. Which gave us time to get our dinner over with. When we finally got the call we were able to talk to him for a really long time. I would say at least an hour or so. It was so nice to hear his voice.

I am going to wrap up quickly here and try to throw up some pictures. I am currently on Star's laptop and with my long nails makes it hard to type.

A quick catch up....

Ok, I cannot believe a month has passed since I last posted. I swore that I would not let that happen. Well true to form in trying to catch up with Dad's passing, birthdays, and school it has been a tad overwhelming. Star was layed off for two weeks while transistioning to another account and has returned to work this week. I will shortly post some pictures from Scott's first birthday party, guess what theme that was? Yeah you guessed it Pirates.

Stories of Starford Leroy Churchill Jr

These are some stories that my husband Star has put together about his father.

Starford Leroy Churchill Jr.
June 25, 1927 to October 7, 2008

Dad’s Stories:

When Star was still a baby (about four to eight months) his family had a dog named Expert Tippy King (German Sheppard, I think). One day while his mom (Dorothea) was doing some ironing in the laundry area, Star had rolled out of bed, between the bed and the wall, pinning himself there. The dog heard the noise and trotted out to the kitchen and began tugging at Dorothea’s dress, then went back to Star’s room with Dorothea following. As she entered the room she saw that Star had fallen between the bed and wall and was having difficulty breathing. She was able to move the bed and get Star untangled from the sheets. King was a hero for saving Star’s life.

When Star was in school (somewhere in the middle grades) he was harassed by a group of kids that were always chasing him home and/or beating him up. Star did everything he could to avoid this group, taking different routes home, leaving as soon as the bell rang and running all the way home or staying late after school helping his teacher with odd chores. One day as he was running home and being chased by the group of bullies, he was spotted his father, who was out with his crew from the fire house. When Star Sr. got home, he called Star down stairs under the house (away from Dorothea) to find out what was going on. Star explained what had been happening and Star Sr. registered Star in a boxing training program at the local gym. After several weeks of instruction and training Star was once more on his own. Once again Star was being chased home by this group of kids, when he rounded a corner into lot and discovered that his father and the squad were there. Star was caught between a rock and a hard place. He decided to turn and face the oncoming group of kids and to take on the leader first. With a few well placed punches he managed to quickly eliminate the threat of a beating, not of the group of kids, but from his father, who was watching from the fire truck.

As a teenager in high school, Star had a very eventful life with his school buddies. There are several stories that I will try to tell:

One such event was the story of the pipe bomb, which as I remember happened during the early years of WWII. The boys had made a pipe bomb and decided to blow it up, so one night they got together and buried it in a large field near a movie theater. A few nights later they decided that it should be detonated, so they went to the movies (with the exception of Star, because he had been grounded that night), at intermission, one of the boys snuck out, wired the bomb to a detonator, and set it off. As it turns out, it had been buried between an Anti-Aircraft Gun and a Barrage Balloon; the resulting explosion put the Pacific side of the Canal Zone on Red Alert and the Atlantic Side on Yellow Alert. Fortunately no one was injured in the incident, but somehow the culprits were found and taken before the Military Commander of the Canal Zone for reprimanding.

Along with the previous story, Star was making a pipe bomb of his own in the back of the family garage. It was not something he was in a hurry to do and he had been working on it for weeks, slowly. One day as Star was messing around in the garage, a police officer walked up the sidewalk and stopped in front, calling Star out of the garage, he asked the office if something was wrong, the officer replied simply, telling Star to dismantle the pipe bomb and dispose of the components. Star looked puzzled and asked the officer, what are you talking about. The officer replied: would you like me to tell your father. With that Star said that he would take care of the issue and the officer left.

In High School, in Study Hall, Star and friends were watching Anti-Aircraft Guns test firing and decided to attempt to plot their locations. They were able to get a map, a compass, a thermometer and a stopwatch. Using their education in sciences, they would await the firing of a gun emplacement. One boy would plot the direction using the compass. Another would start the stopwatch when the gun flashed and stop it when he heard the report. The two other boy using the time and temperature would calculate the distance to the gun and mark it on the direction line already marked on the map, plotting the location of the gun. One of the boys’ Father was in command of the guns for the Pacific (west) side of the Canal Zone. This boy took the map home to show his father what they had done during Study Hall. The Father about freaked out at seeing the map. After reprimanding his son, he explained that they had missed one of the guns, but that was only because it was not firing that day, because it was (down for maintenance) being overhauled.

Star and his friends rigged a camera on a board with a trip line so when the camera was raised to the back seat window of Star’s car (just as the lens made contact with the window) a picture would be snapped. So as the boy drove around on base and saw something of interest they would raise the camera (as fast as the board could be raised and lowered) to take a picture. They did this on all the Canal Zone Bases (Army, Army Air Corps and Navy). These pictures went into an album that was presented by the boys to the Military Commander of the Canal Zone as he was leaving the Canal Zone.

Star and his friends spent a lot of time in the jungle hunting and at sea fishing. One time, Star and a couple of buddies were driving through the jungle hunting (they had rigged seats to the front bumper and side fenders of the car. Star had also read in a magazine, that if you grab a snake by the tail and snap it like you would a rope, it will break the snake’s neck region killing it) when Star spotted a snake sunny in the oath ahead. Signaling the car to stop and handing his gun off to his friend, he run ahead without any forethought to want he was doing, grabbing the snake by one end and giving it a snap, like a rope (which fortunately worked, killing the snake), because at that moment Star thought about at which end of the snake had he grabbed, turned out he had the snake by the head. LUCKY!

Star and friends had designed spear guns that used compress air canisters to launch the spears which had fifty feet of lightweight rope attached so the speared fish would hang below the diver in case sharks came by to investigate. One time they took this so call expert diver from Florida with them for some spear fishing. On the way out to a favorite fishing spot they instructed the diver on how to use the spear gun. During the adventure and after having speared some fish, a shark showed to investigate. Seeing the shark, this expert diver promptly placed the gun down between his legs and pulled the trigger, propelling himself to the surface like a ballistic missile fired from a submarine.