Gall Stones and Protective Services

As some of you read on my facebook page recently, I spent the last few days - Saturday July 28 through Wednesday August 1 - in Dallas, Texas for the annual Mary Kay Seminar. What an experience!!! I'd like to share one experience in particular that really made me step back and realize what an amazing company Mary Kay is.

Sunday morning was our product pick-up day (we get a bunch of free product for attending), and after being in the gigantic Dallas convention center for maybe 45 minutes, I started having a pain in my stomach. Now I had had this pain before...This was the third time I'd felt it, and I wasn't really worried because the pain usually went away after about half hour or 45 minutes. So I kept walking around, checking out the expo and all of the new products coming out. They had a tour bus taking consultants to the Mary Kay HQ. I was so excited to see the corporate offices.

This is where it got bad.

There I was, with my 3 other unit members (one being my fabulous director, Adrienne Babbitt) sitting on a nice air conditioned bus. Ten minutes or so passed on the bus, and the pain in my stomach got worse. And it got worse. And worse. It got to the point where my face was flushed, and I was starting to have a hard time breathing. And all of a sudden words were getting trapped in my throat. I started to get scared. My friends and I contemplated asking the bus driver to pull over and drop us off, or take us to a hospital, but we were nearing the MK headquarters, so I just tried to keep breathing. We hustled as fast as a sickly hard-to-breathe gal could, and asked the very helpful people right inside the headquarters where the nearest hospital was. Lucky for us, they had a medical staff on site.

I never got to take my tour.

I was taken back to the medical room, and a nice fellow named Roger was helping me. At this point, the pain was so bad, I was bawling. Which made it even HARDER to breathe. This was the first time I'd ever really been scared for my life. Roger helped me focus on getting my breathing in check, or at least better than it was, and informed me that he was going to call an ambulance because I needed to get to a hospital. I did not want to pay for an ambulance, and I told him I couldn't afford to have an ambulance pick me up. He then notified me that it would be taken care of.

The medics came, hooked me up to oxygen, did an EKG (I think that's what it was called), stuck an IV in me, and wheeled me out to the ambulance. I made sure to try to keep my sense of humor throughout the whole thing. Commenting on how my face and hair looked great an hour prior. Or when I had to take off my bra with an underwire with only hand because they were doing tests with my other arm and saying "How does my husband do this one handed?". I hope I helped brighten their day.

I spent the next few hours in the Emergency Room, having x-rays, blood tests, and and ultrasound. All the while having my director Adrienne with me. And the culprit? Gall stones. I am grateful that I went to the hospital because the pain during this particular episode lasted well over 4 hours. Luckily the pain was only at a 10 on the pain scale for the time on the bus and shortly after.

This next part of my story made me feel like a million bucks. Have any of you ever been accompanied by a body guard or secret service? Well Mary Kay sent the Mary Kay Protective Service over to the hospital to take me back to my hotel. They came complete with a black Chevy Tahoe - fully tinted windows - and cute uniforms. They opened doors for me, helped me in and out of the car, and were so wonderful.

Oh, did I mention that I'm just a consultant with only one team member?

Luckily, the rest of Seminar was gall stone episode free. I watched what I ate (for the most part), stayed well hydrated, and felt fabulous the rest of the time. Now, not only did I already feel like Mary Kay bent over backwards for me, but I received a couple of phone calls throughout the last couple of days of Seminar from Mary Kay Corporate....making sure that I was ok, and that I felt good. Ok, seriously? How awesome is that?

I really wanted to share with you what a caring company Mary Kay is. How they take care of their consultants, even if they haven't done a whole lot with their business. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you something else. The last time they called me, they wanted to know if I still wanted to take a tour. Unfortunately, my flight left soon after the closing ceremony, so I didn't have time. But I bet if I had had time, Mary Kay Protective Services would have picked me up and given me the tour.

I seriously love what I do.

Heart Healthy!!!

I've been seeing a doctor for a bunch of different messed up things that are going on in my body. Well, she's a nurse practitioner, and she is wonderful. I actually went in to see her on Saturday. When I told different people that my plan for the weekend was to go to my doctor appointment, everyone felt bad for me. Why?!?! I love going to see her. She's this super cute Scottish woman with such a great attitude and loves sharing information on why my body is doing what it's doing.

One of my issues from my blood work back in April was high cholesterol. I didn't really care that my cholesterol was high...I figured it just ran in my family and that was the way it was. She got me eating better (sometimes.....) and exercising, and I had more tests done a few months back. My levels were lower, but still high. On Saturday, she had fabulous news for me. I didn't realize that my levels meant that I had a high risk of having a heart attack within ten years. I'm only 27 for crying out loud! Well, my levels are currently well below "heart attack" range, and I'm happy to say that Tim won't be collecting on my life insurance policy any time soon.

High cholesterol can be really serious! So if you know yours is high...please take your omega 3 and get exercising!!!!

Things That Depress Me

My swollen right foot. Why is it swollen? I have no clue.

Worthless people. There seems to be an abundance of worthless people lately.

No matter how much I try, I can't quit sugar. Or carbs.

WHERE IS MY BABY!?!?!?!?

Not having my dog inside. I hate that she's out in the cold. I love her.

Credit Cards. Why did I get you again?

Boobs. I hate them. Let me specify. Big ones.

Cell phones. Why are they so expensive?

And on that topic....tv. And internet. Those 2 things are ridiculously priced.

Frizzy hair. I just want normal hair.....

Bad Tacos....

My work neighbor is eating what smells like bad tacos. Awesome. I'll be smelling this all day.

The above picture was taken at my last job, and it seems forever ago. I can't remember the occasion, but there was a piñata, which later turned into my awesome dragon costume. We stapled it to my shirt. I'm awesome. Today, I'm going to tell you a few things about myself. Enjoy!

• I'm a terrible liar. You'd probably want to play poker with me. I also wear my emotions on my sleeve, which means if I'm having a bad day, I'm not very good at hiding it. It's a terrible flaw.
• My memory is slightly better than that of a goldfish. Silver lining: Every time I re-watch a movie, it's like it's for the first time!!!
• I've been working two jobs for 7 months now, and I'm so tired. But I've made wonderful friends, and I will miss them greatly when I quit this week!!!
• I'm a whopping 5'2. Tim is 6'6. There are pros and cons to marrying a tall lad. I love feeling so short next to him, but unless we're on a two-stair difference, it kinda hurts my neck to kiss him.
• I have a huge variety of music on my ipod. Enya one minute, and then.....Nine Inch Nails. Music gets me through the day!
• I own my own (that sounds funny...) rock crawler. '79 CJ-7. And I'm hoping to paint it white with pastel colored polka dots. It's currently too tall for me to get into without looking dumb, so we're working on that. Unfortunately, we can't fix my looking dumb.
• I love my in-laws. I'm so blessed to have married into such a wonderful family! They would do anything for me and I would do anything for them!
• I am allergic to cats. But I hate mice. So we have 2 cats. Luckily, they are short-haired, and I have built up an immunity (?) to them and they don't bother me. I love them. Wiley's our zombie look-out. 
• Not only do I have great in-laws, but Tim does too! I love my parents, my sisters, and my brother, and also my in-laws on that side! I wouldn't trade them for anything!!!!
• I can't STAND it when I have to re-do and/or fix things because I wasn't given correct information or all of the information I needed. Once is plenty for me, thank you.
• I want to sleep on a lake under the stars. Probably not the safest ideas, but oh, it sounds heavenly.
• If I could meet any three celebrities, they would be (not in any order): Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails), Paavo Lotjonnen (of Apocalyptica), and Dave King (of Flogging Molly).
• I want to be alive when we're inhabiting other planets. And I want to live on a spaceship. Like Firefly. And have Malcolm Reynolds be my captain. I'll even call him "sir". 
• I grew up playing the piano and am in the process of re-finishing a piano that my parents had when they were first married. I also learned to play the violin, but for some reason gave up on that, which makes me sad. I should re-teach myself.
• I despise baking cookies. The finished product is amazing......but it's getting there that I hate. I hate scooping the cookie dough, rolling it up into a little ball, and plopping it on the cookie sheet. Cupcakes come in a close second. It's annoying to fill the little cups. I inevitably get batter all over the muffin tins, which SUCKS to get off if it gets baked on. I'll stick with brownies. 

Now you know me a little better, by me telling you these often useless facts. Until next time.............

A Slideshow: Peppermint Oil is bad in the sun.

When it comes to things medically, I have odd things happen to me. Things that normally don't happen to normal people. And this is one of those things. Last September, Tim and I spent a wonderful time jeeping in Moab. I have a favorite chapstick that I used the entire trip. Burt's Bees. Heard of it? It feels wonderful! It makes my lips nice and soft. Here's the thing. It has peppermint oil. Which is great if you're not going to spend 2-3 days in the sun ALL DAY LONG.

So a few days after we got home, I was at work. And my lower lip started burning like I was getting a cold sore. No big deal...I knew I'd been exposed to the sun, and I usually don't get them too bad. Then I noticed my whole lip started to get big. Little did I know what I had in store....

 This is the first picture I took. It doesn't look too bad. Not really very big. Yet.

This is probably only an hour later. Still not TOO bad, but bigger. 

Side view. Same time as previous picture. 

So I'm home from work, and it's even bigger! So I take another picture. I don't mind the size here. Should I get lip implants?

This is right before bed. I suppose I should mention that with previous cold sores, I have used peppermint oil as a remedy. And it has worked. So all throughout the day, I had been applying peppermint oil. 

When I woke up in the morning, it was huge. I could barely talk. I started crying. And I called in sick. Because of a freakin' cold sore. Worst excuse ever. 

Side view. 

IT KEPT GETTING BIGGER!!!!

None of these are my best pictures, especially this last one. No judging, please. I went up to sulk at my mom's house. My sister who lives there, walked upstairs at about 9 or 9:30 and when she asked me what happened, for some reason I thought it would be funny to make a joke. So I said "Tim hit me." I immediately told her I was joking but she was pretty pissed.

Moral of the story: Don't use an oil based chapstick without sunscreen in it when you're going to play in the sun for days. Much hurt will come to you.

Zombie Plan

What's your Zombie Plan?

Oh, it's going to happen. Probably not exactly like the movies. But scientists have said that there is a chance for a couple of different zombifying scenarios. For example - brain parasites. Or neuro-toxins. Things that can affect your brain, essentially turning you into a zombie. Probably not to where you'll want to eat brains, and probably not dead people coming back to life. But hey...you never know.

Tim has a wonderful plan. I won't go into too much detail, because I'm sure he doesn't want his idea stolen. He wants to be the one alive, not some schmuck he doesn't know. He's gone into great detail about how he'll get around. What weapons he'll have. The team he'll have with him. Even a place for "headquarters" or whatever you'd call them. He's a survivor.

Unfortunately for me, my zombie plan consists of hiding in a closet with a box of Twinkies and then realizing that I don't have the fight in me. At which point, I will willingly give myself to become zombified.


The end.

What Have I Been Up To???

So glad you asked.

Since my post forever and ever ago, here are some things I thought you should know:

• I have never loved jeeping as much as I do now. In fact, I had to buy my own. She's still not registered because there are a couple of things we have to fix to make it legal. But I can't wait to take her out and get her dirty. I thought about doing "His" and "Hers" license plates, but I don't know if I wanna be "that couple". Behold. The Jeep I Have Not Named Yet:

 

          Along with this new-found love of Jeeps, I've started learning what a car part is.

• I'm coming up on 4 years at my company. I love it here. When I'm not having a bad day. Or getting annoyed by people's bad habits. I also acquired a second job encoding mail pieces at the US Post Office. I'm working my butt off, but somehow, it's still there in all its glory. I've made some amazing lifelong friends (unless they hate me when I finally decide that I'd look funny with no butt and quit) and I love them to death.

•  I've never loved Tim as much as I do now. And I'm so glad that he loves me for my goods (ahaha!) and my bads. Like when I told him his driving job has caused him to put on the pounds. And when I tease him that his little goatie looks like hair that belongs somewhere else. Or when I get upset that he didn't do the dishes even though he's been at work for 80+ hours so far in the week. Let's just hope it doesn't all go down the pooper when we actually start spending time together. 

• I still have my celebrity crushes. I will always crush on Paavo. But my new obsession is Timothy (good name!!!) Olyphant. He may look old and tattered in I Am Number Four, but hey. We all have our days. I just make it a habit to remember him in his Hitman days. Mmm...yummy. 

Until next time....