Over a Decade Of Halloween In One Blog Post

I have always LOVED Halloween. I enjoy the season changes, the smell in the air in fall, the temperature change, and being able to dress like someone else for the day. 
 
I LOVED decorating and having parties for all our friends every year, I would do a costume couples party and a Valentines couples party annually. I don't know that I missed many years of parties and I really enjoyed dressing with "themes" for the parties. 
 
For many years, I would make costumes for the entire family that matched the kids "collections" and we would get a family picture done each year in our costumes and use them for our Christmas Cards. One year our family were "The Wizard of Oz" characters. Other years we were, Snoopy, Pooh, Sesame Street, and Warner Brothers Characters. 
 
Once our family had done all our "collection" costumes, it was really a "free for all" when it came to Halloween. 

As you can see from the past 11 years of pictures, some of the themes have passed around like "fifties," hippies,or the feather boas, but for the most part, the girls would come up with whatever their creative process called for at the time and we went with it.   


It is interesting to see the girls tastes change as they got older but I love that they are so cute and happy in all the pictures. The only one where there isn't a smile is from Princess Five when she went as "Wednesday Adams" and was being in "character" with the grumpy face! 


It didn't take me as long as I thought it would to find the pictures to post on here as I started to organize my pictures into files and upload them but got side tracked about 2010. I would really like to get back to that but you know how my life is presently. 


Sometimes we have picked up stragglers when the girls would go out trick or treating, and all are welcome to join in. 

For the past few years, Princess Five has not gone out but has gone to a friends and made doughnuts but I think she is contemplating actually going out with some friends this year. I know she has realized she has grown up and is graduating this year. 


Some of her friends parents won't allow them to go past age 12 but we know the neighbors and have lived in this neighborhood since she was born and they love her so I figure they should get to go until they graduate as I enjoy seeing my friends kids in costume every year. 


One of my favorite memories of Halloween was when I was a senior and I went out with friends in the neighborhood I lived in most of my life and I had SO much fun going out with the group of kids I did. 

I don't know exactly what she has chosen to do tonight but whatever it is, I hope she creates a memory that will carry her for many years to come as this is the last night she can really be a kid for Halloween as things shift after graduation even though we may not want them to.
 
I am going to do what I did last year and give out jewelry or candy, their choice. It was SUCH a hit last year I may get more than normal visitors due to the uniqueness of my "treat" which is fine with me as I have about 50 lbs of jewelry bagged and ready to go. Here is a post about my handing out the jewelry last year. 

I love that Princess Four will be home with me this year helping to hand out the candy and jewelry and we talked about dressing up so I'll have to share what we decide on that.   

I hope your Halloween is a safe and happy one! 

I Am Cured - Healing Finger and Toenail Fungus in 10 Seconds a Day

I am so excited to have this day come! Many of you that read my blog have seen the horrible toenail fungus that I had for years. 


When I got the parasites and discovered that soaking in hydrogen peroxide helped, I also discovered that the soaks cured the toenail fungus. 

Then, my life got crazy with my mother living with me, her death and then Princess Five's car accident etc that I couldn't always do the soaks. That was when I started to just use a drop of "thieves" oil from young living oils under my nail each night before bed. 


Just that one thing that took about ten seconds a night cured my horrible toenail fungus! As you can see by the last video and pictures, it is nearly all the way grown out. I didn't dare wait to post the last video or blog or there wouldn't be anything to see but clearly, just by even looking at the pictures of the first, second and third videos on this blog, you can clearly see the fungus down to nearly the nail bed in the bottom video picture. 


Then, the second video, you can see the dark area which is where the fungus had grown out to and see that it is halfway healed at that point. 

Now, in the top video, you can see that there isn't much left and soon, I will have a healthy and full big toenail! I am so excited that I can finally paint my toenails again without hiding the fungus under the nail! 


I will wait until the fungus is all the way grown out and hasn't been around for a few weeks just to make sure and will then be able to paint them again. 

It has taken a VERY long time to grow out but in reality, it only took a few seconds a night and about $30 in one bottle of thieves oil. If you had a horrible infection in more than one toe, you may need more than one bottle of oil or need to do more of the peroxide soaks but one bottle worked for me! 

You can link to the first post about this here. 

Click here to view the second post about this. 

I am so grateful to have come across this and finally have a healthy nail again. Truly a blessing in my world as that nail just kept getting worse over the years! Feel free to ask any questions.....    

A Wonderful Day - Retreat from the Crazy

I recently had the opportunity to be a driver for a 4-H camp. They had lots of kids attending and just needed drivers to get places. I willingly offered to go as I get to spend time with Princess Five and travel with no cost to me. 
 
This event was fun as it was near Princess Three's work. We arrived and were surprised to turn around and find Princess Three standing there. She knew we would be coming and I guess Princess Five let her know we were in town so she found us. 

She also lives and works in a small town far from any major cities so it was fun to be able to get to slow down the pace and visit with her.  

That same afternoon as I was walking Princess Three back to work, I looked down on the grass and found a quarter. I pointed to it and she said, "Of course." That weekend I found $0.42. 

After getting back to the group, I was making a call and looked up to see my niece. She worked for 4-H this past summer as an intern and was there visiting the workers. 

She had run into Princess Five and was told I was around and just as she left the building, I was finishing my call so I got to visit with her for a few minutes. It was a wonderful surprise as well. The day was full of them. 

The next day, I took a break from the classes and workshops to visit Princess Threes office and talked her into meeting us for lunch at the all you can eat buffet which was great. 

I then talked her into taking some time off and going to get the birthday present I gave her a gift card to purchase two years before. She just didn't want to spend the $60 the game would cost but I gave her a gift card to cover it and she never went to get it. 

We talked about how she could have played that game for two years and instead, the gift card sat in her wallet doing no good. The money could have taken her to five movies with treats yet could have given her hours of fun with friends. So, she let me get the game for her with the gift card while we did some other errands. 

I wish I would have had time to play it with her but I was happy to get to see her new apartment and was also happy to notice the Nintendo NES gaming system being used in the new place that I gave her for her birthday this year. Here is a post about that.

I truly enjoyed my time with two of my girls and hopefully, they enjoyed it as well.

Golden Eye - HIDA Scan - Sounds Like A James Bond Movie

Over the past few months, Princess Two hasn't seen me often. She sees me and then it will be a few weeks until she will see me again. 

Over time, she noticed that in the natural light, my eyes have gotten yellow. I have noticed that my eyes look redder and that using the red out eye drops hasn't been working as of late. I mentioned in past blog posts that my eyes are red and goopy often with the parasites but the Visine Red worked great to turn them white. Here is a link to that post.  

I noticed it is true and my eyes are "golden." I had some blood tests run to see if my liver function tests were high. They were all on the high side of normal and one was high. 

I have been having gall bladder problems since getting the parasite. A few years back it was so bad and it was one of the main reasons I went in to see one of the first Dr.'s saying I felt I had a parasite but things calmed down some but now I am wondering if my gall bladder and liver are full of parasites and getting clogged.  Here is a link to the post about the gall bladder issues. 

I read about hook worm and thread worms setting up shop in the gall-bladder area causing problems so I wonder if this parasite being so similar is causing problems for me as it was one of the first symptoms of the infestation.

On a good note, some people asked if I had lupus thinking some of my symptoms could be related to that. The test for that came back "no" so that was good. 

My TPO and another thyroid test are still high but lower than they have been. Since my turning yellow, I went off my thyroid medication completely wondering if I was toxic on it as it causes me to swell and with the other meds I took this past year to try and rid myself of the horsehair nematomorpha parasites, my liver could have damage. 

I had an ultrasound of the gall bladder last week which was "normal" and today I had a HIDA scan and will find out this week how that went. I have constant pain in that area so the small amount of cramping during the test was no big deal but the yellow eyes are a worry and I pray I can get to the cause soon. 

I need to get Princess Four off on her mission and then can focus more on my health. There are so many things going on right now. I pray my life can be more peaceful soon.

Days Inn Redemption - You Get What You Get

Near the beginning of the summer, I went on a trip with some 4-H students to a National Park. On our trip, one of the places we stayed was a Days Inn. Here is a post about that stay. 

The place we stayed had me worried for safety, roaches and / or bed bugs. I had never had that experience at a Days Inn before so when I found out that I would be staying at a Days Inn in another city for another 4-H event, I was really worried. 

My worries were not necessary. When I walked into the room, I smiled. It was super clean, smelled great and I was VERY grateful this time to have a room to myself. 
 
Last time, I had two other women in the room with me and both snored. I had my ear plugs in, shoved them in deeper and put in a second pair and then ended up putting a pillow over my head before I could fall asleep.   
 
The fridge was turned on and cold and very clean. The bedding was clean and white. There was everything one would need including an iron and ironing board with a coffee maker, (not that I drink coffee) but they had free coffee and all the fixings in each room. 
 
The lock actually worked and was in great shape. The bathroom had a spa tub, not that I wanted a bath in a hotel but it was clean! There was a sink in the bathroom and outside which was much more hygienic. 
 
The breakfast was HUGELY different. They had all sorts of teas, coffee, juice, coco, fruit, fresh made waffles, toast, eggs, meats, yogurt, bagels, etc, etc. The ice machines worked.
 
The room didn't have the newest of fixtures or counters etc but it was clean. Someone wrote a comment about how critical I was about the post of the other Inn saying that that is how the lower class lives, but truly, I don't mind old. I just want clean and safe. 

It had a huge TV but that doesn't matter to me as I don't watch TV anyway. There were only two small things I noticed but one seems to be a problem at many hotels. 

The heater and air conditioner blows straight up into the darkening curtains and it makes it hard to cool or heat the room at night. I couldn't turn the blowers angle to try and aim it straight out rather than up so I had to have it on high both nights to keep warm as the blanket on the bed was thin. 

The other was that there were stains on the couch and the cushion was turned backwards. Neither of those caused me a problem and I am sure they probably clean the cushions regularly on the fold out couch so it wasn't a big deal. 
 
I shared with the manager / owner how pleased I was with his place and how clean it was. He grinned ear to ear telling me they were independently owned which explained why the one I stayed in before was so vast in difference to this one. Maybe I should write Days Inn and offer to be a secret sleeper! I could report on them all over the country!

My Mother Would Be SO Happy - Grandmas Jewelry Box

A few weeks back I posted about fixing up the water damage on one of my mothers jewelry armoires. 
 
She had two and my niece took one but no one wanted this one and I  figured I could paint it black and use it for myself. When I started working on it, I changed my mind and left it oak as I really don't care much about the color as I have oak and black in my room.

With that, I just did a bit of re-finishing on the wood similar to what I did on my kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Here is a link to refinishing the chest.
 

I had more of choice deciding where to put it over the color as I have LARGE furniture in the bedroom and didn't want to move it and don't have much options as one wall has two doors, the other wall has two windows and another wall has a door and only one wall is solid. 

 
I chose to put it in a corner where I could open both sides of the chest as it has lots of necklace holders on the "wings" which is nice. When I moved the item that was where I was going to put it, I found two pennies and LOTS of dust! 
  
I have a small jewelry box I haven't used in years. I have my jewelry packed in containers I sewed that I used to keep colored items together and make them easy to pack.

Since I haven't been traveling as much, they got stuck in different spots and I have been moving things around and for the past six months to a year, they have been in a box which isn't the best for finding what I need. 

Also, I buy lots of jewelry bags from second hand stores and I have added some pieces that I think I may like to wear and have ended up with some piles of stuff I have never worn. 
 
It was SUPER nice to be able to put things in the case and I found that I had three of the same / similar rings and I just didn't know it or it was such a mess with my mom living here etc, I never had time to organize or sort it so I am very happy to be having the time to get some things off my "list" and getting back to being organized. 

I found this piece my mother gave me and I pulled it out for her to wear while she lived with me. It isn't anything great and has stones missing but what I love about it and why I will always keep it is it is so my mother. It has stones glued on all over that don't belong and don't quite fit but she would find stones she liked and glue them on even though they don't match. Many times, she would chew up a red cough drop and glue on a piece to make it look like a ruby on one of the costumes she rented out from her costume rental business. She was just full of "fixes" and this piece is just her. 

I didn't get it all sorted and done because I want to go through and pull out stuff I don't want or wouldn't really wear but for now, I just threw like colors in and will do a better sort later because I am so tired, I will have to get to that another day.Yahoo for getting things off the list and for finding the two pennies! I always need reminders to Trust in God as my life is so crazy presently!

Thank You Hugh O'Brian - RIP

It amazes me how at one point in life, you can have an experience of meeting someone and having some type of exchange. Then, many years later, that person can do something that impacts your life.
 
My mother was a national beauty queen. She traveled the world and met many famous people. One of the famous people she met was Hugh O'Brian. 

Hugh played the character "Wyatt Earp" on television for many years. He was very famous for the time and decided to do some traveling. 

He traveled and met a man that changed his life. He met Dr. Albert Schweitzer and that exchange changed his life. Meeting him gave Hugh direction and a mission. Hugh decided to change young lives through leadership camps for Jr.'s in High School. 

Nearly all of my girls went to HOBY their Jr. year and several were able to go back as Jr. Staff the following year and help out.
 
Princess Four took advantage of their scholarship opportunity and got a $10,000 scholarship out of it. Here is a link to her event a few years back.

Princess Four chose to do only some of the required events needed for the scholarships so she was awarded a scholarship but it wasn't one of the larger scholarships. It was actually to the college she wanted to attend so it all worked out.

I love seeing how our lives are circles and how something we do today can impact those of tomorrow in unseen ways. 

Due to Hugh's vision, millions of youth around the world participate in HOBY for 50 years now and I love that my girls have some personal ties to him through their grandmother. 
 
We may never know what impact Hugh has had on the world due to his generous contribution through setting up HOBY and for maintaining it for so many years.

He never had children of his own but I believe that sometimes people sacrifice having children of their own so that they can make a difference to many more through their work. I thought it was interesting that Hugh and my mother passed away within months of each other. I for one believe that when he died, my mother was there waiting to escort him into heaven with those he loved and the many people that he influenced on the earth through his kind work.

THANK YOU Hugh for your impact on the world!