The Loss Of A Beloved "Dad" in My Life

I have shared over the years that I was an exchange student through Rotary International 38 years ago this month. 

I was blessed to go to New Zealand. I had a Host Liaison familly, and then four host families that had me for a few months each. They were varied family sizes and dynamics, but I LOVED each of them so much! 

My first host family was a wonderful couple with one daughter. I was one of 8 children, so moving from a crazy busy home with an active family, to one with only one child, was a bit of a change for me. 

I was so grateful to this family for "breaking me in" as I was dealing with jet lag, culture shock, homesickness, and missing the social aspect of my small religious community where I would see my friends weekly at school and church. 

I already had two younger sisters and a younger brother, so I was used to being a big sister. My host family was really easy to love. They were so gracious to allow me to stay there and to make me feel safe and allowed me to feel all the different feelings that came up those first few months. 

My first host father passed away unexpectedly this past week. He has stayed active and rode a bike on his last day. He was in his 80's and was such a active and buoyant person. 

He and my fist host mum came to visit me a few years back and got to meet all my girls. They came to visit many years ago when we lived in the East as well, but this time was so fun as they were able to meet my girls and grand-daughter. 

I was so sad to hear of his passing this week. Princess One actually saw a post on Facebook and then let me know. It was so unexpected and sudden, that it took everyone by surprise. 

There is a blessing in the world due to COVID, and that is that everything has had to go digital! With the resurgence of of COVID through the world, they had to limit the amount of people able to attend the funeral. With that, they were able to stream the funeral! 

It was amazing to be able to see my host sister paying tribute to her father, and hearing all the people share about their life tributes. They also did a video / music slideshow which was fun to see. He and his wife have traveled extensively and watching that video, it was even more evident how much they traveled. 

It was fun to hear about the awards he got for service as he received NZ's highest honor for service. He was in Rotary International leadership for years. He was a friend to everyone and that was something that was mentioned by every tribute speaker. 

I know that his family will take some time to adjust to life without his fun sense of humor and kindness daily. I have been praying for them, and pray that God will allow them to heal and adjust quickly. 

RIP Dad! I love you, and am so grateful that you allowed me to be your daughter!

Tee Pee and Hammock - Camping Fun

I am exhausted and have tried to get a few things done today since we went camping this weekend for our annual Easter Camp-out with my family. 

I haven't gone in five years now as my girls were all busy, or I didn't feel up to going and getting the trailer and suburban ready. I had LOTS of help from family getting things ready and helping with issues on the trailer. 

I helped a neighbor a few months back to clean out her basement. While doing that, she had a homemade tee pee she was getting rid of and I thought my grandchildren would enjoy playing in it. I decided to take it camping and it was a hit with the kids! 

I ordered a hammock for my father for Christmas a few years back and that was also a hit with the grandchildren. They would climb in and beg for someone to push them. 

I am hoping I feel better tomorrow. I am still exhausted and finished cleaning up all the coolers and other food items today. It was nice to be able to sleep in as I have had the grand-kids and love them when they are around, but I also love to be able to catch up on sleep when I can. 

I found a similar tee pee online and it is $100. It's more authentic being light in color, but I like that mine is darker in color so I don't worry about it getting dirty camping and think I will leave it in the trailer for our reunion. 

Here is a link to the similar tee pee in case you are interested in getting one.  

Here is a link to the post where I share about the Hammock I researched and bought for my father. 

I would recommend both of these items for camping. Both are easy to set up and are enjoyable for all ages. 

Have a blessed day!

I Recognized The Person In The Mirror - It's Been A Long Time

Over the past few months, I have been dieting and releasing some weight. I did well for the first two months, plateaued over the third month and have started losing slowing this past month.

More than pounds this past month, I have noticed inches around my middle leaving at a faster rate.

I was complaining to Princess Five this week that I wasn't having the best week as I had some fatigue and stomach issues this week, and was frustrated that I wasn't losing more weight each week.

With the exception of one week, I have lost at least some weight every week since starting this on January 31, 2020. I weigh myself every Friday and just put it on a paper to keep track of how I am doing.

I went all out for three months and lost and then didn't lose and was starving hungry by the third month. I shifted around some vitamins and supplements, and I think that helped me where I am losing again slowly.

When I was complaining, Princess Five said, "I think you losing a pound or two a week is a good way to lose weight. You look healthy and are glowing and have more energy. My reply was that no one even notices that I have lost weight, or if they do, they aren't saying anything about it. It was a day or two later when I know what she said was true.

I have a friend I have known for many years, and she has always had a weight issue. I ran into her at a store this week the day or so after I had that conversation with Princess Five. I almost didn't recognize her. I did a double take and was in shock and how drawn she looked. Her skin was hanging off her.

I asked her how she had lost the weigh,t and she said she and her mother had gone to Mexico and had stomach reduction / stapling surgery. I asked when she had the surgery, and it was the end of January which is when I started my diet.

She had lost 50 lbs. but her skin was just hanging off her. She said that she threw up for months and can only eat a tablespoon of food at a time. She said she can't tolerate many foods anymore and we compared what we could eat finding that it was many of the same foods that we could both tolerate.

My thought was she could have saved herself so much money and body stress if she would have just gone on that diet anyway, and not had the surgery.

There is a lady in our congregation at church who has lost over 110 lbs. eating better and walking each day. She is looking so healthy and glowing. Today at church, she had all her kids and grandchildren in the pew with her, and she looked so cute in a adorable dress and happy being surrounded by her family. I ran into her walking tonight and shared with her how proud I was of her doing it in such a healthy way and how she was an inspiration!

I was wearing a pair of capris today while walking that I have had for a few years, and I kept having to pull them up as they were sliding down and hanging on my hips. I had just gotten them out of the wash but they were loose. I then was looking at a picture of when we went to the airport to pick up Princess Four from her mission to Japan just over 2 years ago, and I was wearing those capris in the picture at the airport. They were tight on me in the picture, and I realized that I have lost more inches in the past week or two because I wore those capris recently as I had to retire a few pants I was wearing at the time that were falling off me while walking. Several times, I had to catch them before they were at my ankles. I started wearing a belt with them, and then finally went into some smaller sizes and raided my closet for the pants that used to be tight or not fit well.

If they were stretched out, I would have thought maybe I wore them gardening and stretched them, however, pulling them straight out of the laundry pile, I realized that I may have not lost much weight last week, but I did lose inches as those pants are now loose and baggy. I had Princess Five take a few pictures and you can see the pants are rippling in places. There is lots of fabric at the hip and side seams to the point I can take a fist full on both sides.

I will need to go through my closet and remove some of the clothes. I tried on about six different dresses for church today. A few I can take in to help them fit better, but others are in a 'give away" pile since I didn't wear them when they fit.

It feels good to be releasing weight and getting thinner. Yesterday, I looked into the mirror and thought, "Oh, there I am!" like I have been staring and someone other than myself for the past few years. It reminded me of Robin Williams in "Hook" when they are squishing up his face and then say, "Oh there you are!"

I hope I can continue to release the weight and feel better. Now, I just need to figure out a cure for the parasites so my gut and body can heal! Won't that be a beautiful day!

Have a Blessed day and stay safe!

Parasite Psoriasis Cream and Ointment Tried - Didn't Help Took Another Thing Off The List

I haven't tried any new oral medication or herbs to try to get rid of the parasites recently. 

I did, however, purchase two new products used on psoriasis to try to get the parasites out of the skin / glands over the past week or two. 

I bought two products from MG217 Psoriasis. The first was "2% Coal Tar Ointment" which is very greasy and smells like you are putting gasoline mixed into Vaseline on your skin. It wasn't very good in the fact that I felt like I was toxic. I wanted to wash the smell off my skin. 

When I purchased Coal Tar soap, it smelled like a camp fire and I had no problem using it. However, this ointment smells just like gasoline, so if you don't like that smell, you will NOT want to use this ointment.

The second product from them was Sal - Acid cream. This had no smell and went on like a hand cream and dried clean and not waxy or oily. I had no problems using this product. I didn't feel like it did anything other than a bit of tingling the first time I used it. It could have been that my skin was wet after a shower so the acid made it tingle or something. 

I didn't try both of them on one spot at the same time, so perhaps I will try that for a week. I won't post about it if it doesn't do anything. I also have some Sulphur powder that I may try with one of the products and see if mixing them together does something. 

It is so frustrating to keep trying new things and not having anything working. I just keep researching and trying new things. 

At some point, I am hoping that I will stumble onto something that works so I can be done with this nightmare and help my children through it as well. I'll keep studying and praying for guidance on this! 

Stay safe and have a Blessed Day!  

Life Update - 40 pounds down and More Parasite Stuff Tried

I spent a few minutes yesterday making an update video on my life, my weight loss, and a few new things I have tried to cure me of the parasites. 

I want to tell you to NOT try doing or taking anything that I am sharing in this post or video because they are not medications made for humans. I had people share on my YouTube, or comments here, saying that they tried these medications for parasites and other health issues. 

I did LOTS of research and decided to try taking these two medication that are for animals, but have worked for other people.  I tried "Corid" and Fenbendazole. Corid is for sheep and Fenbendazole is for dogs. 

I gave Corid two different trials with one at a lesser dose with no results and then a higher dose with no results. 

I tried the same with Fenbendazole. I tried a smaller dose first, and then a larger dose, and then a medium dose a few days after the larger dose. I had no die off of the parasites and they were as active as they ever are. NO death that I could tell of any kind on either medication. 

Along with the Corid, I was taking Black Walnut, Graviola, Wormwood (artemisia), Andrographis, and Ashwagandha. I took them regularly for days and had no die off of the parasite. I know that this parasite just burrows out of the gut when I take stuff it doesn't like, and then when the stuff is out of the gut, the parasite burrows back into the gut. 

I need something that will kill them off in the lymph, brain, organs, and muscle. The only thing that I have taken that made them move further than just out of the gut, was Pyrantel. 

However, they just burrowed into the larger muscles and stayed until the pyrantel left my system, and then burrowed back out. It caused terrible and painful muscles spasms, and horrible pain in the smaller extremities as they would feel like drills in my finger tips which caused fingernail damage growing out for months after taking it.

I want you to know that I appreciate people sharing with me what works for them, as it gives me other things to study and try. I have quite the list now of things I have tried, so that when Scientists start studying this in humans, I can share what didn't work and what I have tried.      

Pray that I can find something soon that works as I am not getting much sleep with them burrowing out of my teeth and lips, and going in and out other areas of my body all night long. I know there has to be a cure at some point, I just hope it is sooner than later! 

I don't want my children and their children suffering with this their entire lives. 

Have a blessed day!          

Life Update - Lost 34 Pounds in 2 Months - Quarantine - Princess Five in NY

I have been weighing myself every Friday to keep track of my progress in the dieting I have been doing for the past two months. 

With February being a short month, it wasn't a full week, so instead of weighing in on Friday and going by weeks, I decided to weigh in on the date, rather than the week day. 

I started the diet on January 31, 2020, and I decided to weigh in on March 31, 2020 to do an update. I have lost 34 pounds in those two months. At first, I dropped lots of weight fast not eating any sugar and fasting. However, since those first two weeks, I have been fairly steady in losing 2-4 lbs. a week. 

I am not exercising, but have been changing up the diet using many different diets, and it seems to be working, but I am hungry much of the time. I have noticed my stomach shrinking, and I get full more quickly, which is good. 

I also share an update on Princess Five and on quarantining, and what I have been working on while in quarantine. I blog about this stuff, but I don't often make videos on that type of thing, so I just did a general update on the video. 

I think I am going to keep doing updates on the weight loss at the end of every month. 

Have a Blessed Day!  

I Lost Over 30 pounds in a Month and a Half - Still Going Strong

I have been working on getting myself more healthy in the past few months. I haven't done as much about figuring out a cure for the parasites, as I have been researching ways to get myself more healthy while I have the parasites. 

I made this video a few weeks ago and wanted to share it with you and let you know that as of today, I have lost or "released" over 30 pounds! It is hard work, but I am NOT exercising at all as that has made me gain weight, and I share all of this in the video. Since March 11th when I made this video, I have lost even more weight, and I find that by alternating the way I eat each day or two, I have been releasing more weight than when I stayed with just one type of diet. 

I will try to do a monthly update video on this to share where I am going through this journey. I made the video, and then all the Corona stuff happened so it got pushed to the back of the line. 

This is part of the reason I haven't been doing parasite update videos as I have been more focused on this for now. Hopefully, me getting healthy will help me with the parasite as well. 

The photo at the top is me at my all time heaviest. I started this fast Jan 31st 2020 at 269 lbs. after gaining over 10 pounds over the holidays. As of this morning, I am at 238.5. That is over 30 pounds in just over a month and a half.

It isn't easy, but I am hoping it will help with my health and the parasite problem. 

Have a Blessed day!