No real title here

Wednesday was my first time teaching Operation Space and I think it went pretty well! A friend at church and I both taught together. We only had 6 kids... but I think that was just the right amount to be able to handle. There were different activities during the hour we had the kids, including a memory verse, an "action cube" game where the kids rolled a action cube and whatever picture it landed on a story was read and the kids had to determine if the people in the story obeyed God or not, 2 craft projects, and snack time. One of the crafts was pretty simple, just coloring the planets, cutting them out and gluing them on black paper, but one kid was super creative and instead drew a sun, cut it out, and then glued all the planets on the sun to signify the "planets orbiting the sun." I was so amazed at the creativity! The kids were pretty good and attentive, but at times it was difficult to get everyone to listen so I can't really imagine what it would have been like had there been a lot more kids! I might have had a meltdown or something, although lets hope not. Anyways, next Wednesday we are teaching again, so keep us in your prayers! :)

In other news, I bought a new lamp today. I have a real and truely almost sick but totally amazing obsession with lamps. I bought it at Annie Laurie's Antiques in Cape Girardeau.

Tomorrow is one of my friends wedding in Ste. Genevieve, MO. So, thats exciting! Not much else is going on in my life at the moment. Hope it stays that way for a little while... it's kind of nice!

Pets help us deal

In a recent article I read online by Reuters, a new study shows that pet owners with chronic diseases tend to have healthier hearts than people living without animal companions. Read the article here!

In 200 Japanese people, scientists found that those who had a pet, any kind of pet, had higher rate variability than those who did not. This means that their hearts responded better to the always changing bodies needs. As in the heart needs to beat faster in stressful situations, etcetera. When the heart does not change to the surrounding environment features, this causes a higher risk for dying from heart disease.

Erika Friedmann, one of the professors at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, said that this particular study is a step forward from what is already known about the connection of pet owners having better heart health. Although no one is quite sure why there is such a big connection.

Although, yes, having a pet can make you feel better and have a healthier heart, but it is not going to cure you or make all symptoms go away, but it sure can help!

I think a lot of us have heard before how much pets help us live longer and be happier people. Who knew they could also help us deal with chronic diseases? Actually, me, I did! I was diagnosed at 21 with Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD), which includes Lupus and also diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I never understood how true it was that pets can help you cope. My family had just gotten a puppy in March of that year, and I was diagnosed in October. My dog helped get me through the absolute hardest time in my life! I was pretty depressed about being so young and being diagnosed with something that I would have to deal with the rest of my life and he helped me get through the day. Truly. I started a blog during this time, although I didn’t do many posts, but if anyone wanted to read it, go here. Also, just to clarify, I actually have been about 70% better than I was when I was first diagnosed. I don’t know what happened, maybe it was the big cocktail of drugs they put me on, maybe it was the love from my puppy, but I do very well now and live a pretty normal life! Something I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to be able to say again! Read more about MCTD.

Lovely Days!

What a week. And what I mean by that is, "Wow! What an awesome week!" I had a snow day, a class cancelled on Thursday, didn't have much due... pretty easy week!

Let me fill you in on what I did on my snow day, which if I might say so myself... it was a pretty productive day!

It all started on Sunday after church. I asked a crafty lady, Teresa, at church if she would like to go to the antique mall that afternoon. We had talked about it a few weekends ago, but hadn't went yet. She was all in, so after we ate lunch, we headed to the Old Timer's Antique Mall in Dexter, MO. When we got there, I gave her and my mom the low down on the kinds of things I was into, what I was looking for in my apartment, and had them on the lookout. I needed an old small vintage vanity mirror tray for my bathroom, was looking for a clock or something decorative for above my TV to put between the two paintings I have up there, and almost jokingly, that I was in the market for a new vanity/desk.

Going around the store, I found so many amazing things that I loved. I found so many larger vanity trays, but couldn't find any smaller ones. Finally, Teresa found a small vanity tray! I was so excited. It was just want I wanted, with the gold coils around the edges. Perfect. Although, at this point, I had already almost decided that I just had to have a larger one as well. I wasn't exactly sure where I was going to put it, but I had to have it. Here is the larger one I bought!

and the smaller one...

Anyways, so we were just about through the entire store, which I think at this point we had been there about 2 hours... (an awesome 2 hours I might add.) And I spotted it. An older desk, so sturdy, almost perfect although painted pretty crappy colors, but a perfect frame and exactly what I wanted to use as a desk/vanity area in my bedroom. More so a vanity, let's be honest. I loved it, I knew I wouldn't love the price though. Furniture like this isn't in my price range, usually ever. Everyone else always finds the deals on furniture, I never seem too...

But I did! The going rate for the desk was $69.50. If I had the money, I would have paid much more than that. It was too good to be true though, that is an extremely low price for such a well-made piece of furniture. My first question, what in the world is wrong with it? I couldn't find a single thing... I mean c'mon, it even came with a free chair. The desk ended up being an old sewing machine desk, but I guess whoever owned it previously had plastered in the part where the desk would open for the sewing machine, so now it's just a flat top instead. Lets just say, I definitely purchased it! The man that helped me carry the desk outside to the car said that the piece actually came in only 2 hours ago. I am pretty sure this piece was meant to BE MINE. Here is the desk before I got my hands on it...

And I forgot to take a before picture of the chair, but the picture on the left is the seat cushion before and the entire chair after I recovered the cushion and painted the chair high gloss black!

And then... after about a 10 hour day of sanding, painting, repainting, and touching up... here is my almost entirely finished product! I am on the market for some new to me vintage hardware for the drawers!

Up close picture. This was while it was still in progress though!

(Please excuse the crappy iPhone pictures)

Anyways, I ended up doing a lot of productive work on Monday for the snow day, and I absolutely loved every minute of it! Now I'm excited about my next great find!

On another note, just in case anyone is really into my life or something, my busy weekend ended up going very well and really smoothly. I did, however, miss seeing the movie, Courageous, so that I could make it in time to my friend's engagement party but hopefully I can borrow or rent it and watch it sometime soon! The Meeting at church was a lot of fun and great fellowship. We learned a lot about each other that many didn't know before, and the different ages that were there enjoying each others company was great!

Great things are going on in my life right now and I just seriously could not be more excited or happy! YAY LIFE! 

Much Ado About Nothing

While scanning the internet for an article that caught my interest, just that I did find. And I actually find it quite appropriate with the recent passing of the holiday that some absolutely loathe and some cannot get enough of, Valentine's Day. I am on the fence about the holiday. I am single... so I don't too much love it when it rolls around, but I might love it if I had someone to share it with. Can't really say.. anyway. I found an article about America and it's obsession with single people. Read it here. It's called "Singled Out."

On Valentine's Day, I tweeted about it being Singles Awareness Day. I also tweeted that the worst question you could ask a single person would be "Why are you still single?" What kind of question is that anyways? What do people expect a single person to say?... "Oh, I don't know, I guess I have too many flaws" or I guess the single person could get all defensive and say "they do better on their own anyways." Back on the subject at hand though... well wait, here are some fun facts about Valentines Day!

In the article, written by Katie Roiphe, she asks the question of "why is this relatively ordinary or banal mode of life even worth commenting on?" I agree, what is so taboo about being single? Or living alone, but mainly, why is anything you decide to do in your personal life such a big and interesting topic to everyone else? That question may never be answered, people are so consumed with what everyone else is doing and what is considered normal that they get so wrapped up in other peoples lives to sometimes make them feel better about their own.

Again, back to the article.

Roiphe talks about Helen Gurley Brown's feminist classic, Sex and the Single Girl, which made a groundbreaking observation: that a single woman's biggest problem is coping with the people who are trying to marry her off. Brown wrote the book in the pre-awakened, pre-sexual revolution, time in America. She wrote about about the singles experiences, and pretty much said that it is okay if you do not decide to get married, although you may have to deal with consequences from society.

Pretty true. I think that it's true for many other aspects in life to, besides if you want to be single or you want to be married. It goes for how you decide to dress, what kind of music you like to listen to, religion, having children or not having children, having children on your own, and even the person you decide to be with, plus countless others. All in all, I think we all should try to make a conscious effort to stay out of other people's business, whatever the issue.

Big Weekend's Ahead

"Busy" has become part of daily life for me since I started the dental hygiene program. Honestly, I guess I pretty well like it, though. If I ever do get some time off, I'm really at a loss for what I should do and then if I do just sit down and watch television or something, I feel like there are one hundred other things I could be doing that would be more productive. Anyways..

This week I attended lobby day in Jefferson City at the State Capital on Wednesday the 8th with the dental hygiene girls. The trip up there was probably the most fun out of the entire outing, singing and dancing to songs and growing our relationships with each other further. We had a blast. The State Capital is so beautiful! Also, it makes me almost wish I was destined to do something that required business attire everyday instead of scrubs because it's so much fun to dress up and look nice!

I have tons of events going on in the next few weeks. This weekend I'm working for my mom's friend at her Jumpin' Jacks business there is a party from 6-8 on Friday. My mom and her friend that owns Jumpin' Jacks have been friends since they were very young and so whenever she goes out of town she asks my mom to help her out a lot. However, my mom said she could work the party and then realized that it was my little brother's senior homecoming at his school, so I offered to work for her so she wouldn't miss that. She would definitely regret missing that if she were not able to make it! After the party, my friend is playing an accoustic show at the Boat House Wine Company that I am going to try to make... but that isn't looking too great!

Saturday, I have "The Meeting" as my preacher calls it at church. Actually, we are going to watch the new movie Courageous. I have heard great reviews about the movie and am really excited to get to watch it. Many people that have seen it says it can definitely change your life! I will let you know my opinion next time! The Meeting starts at 5. We are also using The Meeting as a "get to know you better" type meeting, and we are going to share with each other something about ourselves that most others may not know! I bet its going to be a great time. Starting at 7, which I am ultimately going to be a little late for, is one of my friend's engagement party. That will probably go into the night, so I think it should be okay if I'm a little late. Anyways.. should be fun regardless!

The weekend after that is one of my best friends birthdays, which not sure what the plans are yet, but I'm sure we will be doing something for that. The weekend of the 25th is my friends wedding in Ste. Genevieve. A lot of events that are looking like some pretty rememorable times and I'm excited about the upcoming adventures!

New studies may find a treatment for Alzheimer's in upcoming years!

In a recent article, provided by HealthDay, and titled In Mice, Cancer Drug Shows Effect on Alzheimer’s Symptoms (read article here), I read some pretty interesting news. Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects people all over the world, and can be one of the hardest diseases to deal with as a family member. (Read more about Alzheimer’s here). The article talks about the drug, bexarotene, which quickly eliminates Alzheimer’s disease related amyloid beta from the brain and reverses memory problems in mice.

The article states the results suggest that the drug could possibly help the many Americans (about 5.4 million!) that have Alzheimer’s disease according to the neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Although the studies of using the drug bexarotene, which is a drug that is used to treat skin problems caused by cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, to lessen the effects of Alzheimer’s on animals, a lot of times they fail to produce similar results in humans.

                When the body is unable to clear amyloid beta from the brain is a big risk factor for the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Research has showed that the main cholesterol carrier in the brain, apolipoportein E, plays an important role in the clearing amyloid beta proteins. Bexarotene increased the release of the apolipoprotein which then boosted the clearance of amyloid beta from the brain. Six hours after the mice received bexarotene treatment, levels of amyloid fell by twenty five percent.

                Even though at this time, studies have not been conducted on humans, the study is still very promising because it says that there just may be treatment for the devastating disease!  I have not personally had anyone of my family members affected by this awful disease, but I have seen friends go through this disease with their family members, and it is just awful to see and hear how much Alzheimer’s in someone you love. After doing a little outside research, I found this website that talks about how to cope with Alzheimer's when a family member has the disease. Read that website here.

McDonalds, Pink Slime, Sounds Good Right?

I just read an article (click here to read), that states that Mcdonald's has confirmed that they are no longer using 'pink slime' chemical in their hamburgers. First off, thank God. Second of all, THANK GOD I DON'T EAT MCDONALD'S! Wow, I am disgusted that a company would use anything that resembled slime, especially when colored pink, in something that so many people across the globe eat on a daily basis.

The pink slime is actually called ammonium hydroxide. Ammonium hydroxide is a chemical that is used in fertilizers, household cleaners, and even homemade explosives. And come to find out, McDonald’s has been putting it in their hamburger meat.

Todd Bacon, McDonald’s senior director of quality systems wrote: "At the beginning of 2011, we made a decision to discontinue the use of ammonia-treated beef in our hamburgers. This product has been out of our supply chain since August of last year. This decision was a result of our efforts to align our global standards for how we source beef around the world." (You can read that statement here, on McDonald’s website)

To put this is more disgusting aspects, there are many other types of chemicals in the foods that are eaten everyday; such as propylene glycol (used in ice cream, it is a type of anti-freeze), carmine (which is commonly found in red food coloring and is basically husks of the cochineal beetle), shellac (which is the chemical used to finish wood products, and is used on candies to give them their shine), plus many others!

Although, the U.S. Agriculture Department says that the chemical that has been used in the hamburger meat is generally considered safe, I still do not think that it should have ever been used in their mass production of hamburgers over the years. A St. Louis based dietician, Sarah Prochaska, says that the component in a production procedure does not have to be stated to the consumers. McDonald’s says that they discontinued the use of the chemical several months ago, but however, deny that they decided to make the change after the popular public campaign against the chemical by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.

Jamie Oliver, now has his own show called Food Revolution. I have not ever personally watched it, but have seen clips of the show and do find it interesting. You can read more about Jamie Oliver, his television show, and what he stands for here.

All I know is, even though McDonald's says that they are not allowing this particular chemical to be put in their hamburger meat anymore, doesn't mean that they aren't allowing other random chemicals in other foods that they serve in their resturants all over the country. And let me be honest here, I'm not some food advocate or someone that is a big "Go Green" person that eats entirely organic foods and whatnot, but I do not support not having a valid statement of what goes into the food I do eat. I think that we deserve the right to know whats in our food cause I mean, we have to eat... just hopefully not pink slime!

Operation Space

As I spoke about last week, at church we had our first "Operation Space" meeting. We had a pretty small group come, but we expected a lot less so it ended up being pretty good. I found out more about what "Operation Space" really is, and it’s pretty much just a vacation bible school, but broke down into lessons for Wednesday nights instead of a week-long event. We had about 10 or so kids show up. We had a carnival to get the kids interested, which had different stations set up. My station was the "asteroid belt" which had a bucket of hacky sacks that the kids threw to try to get into the asteroid belt. There are decorations of space everywhere, it looks really great. I hope the kid count continues to grow and that the kids continue to learn about Christ. We all had a great time and I am so proud to be apart of it.

It has been a while since I have been apart of anything really concerning the church or church functions. I grew up in church, and then all of a sudden, I turned 16, got a job that had me working on Sundays and just fell out of worship. I always knew I would be back in at some point because I always knew I wanted to raise a family in church and whatnot. I didn’t know, however, that I would be back in before I started a family. I started dental hygiene school last semester, and was feeling very overwhelmed and as if I had no one that understood what I was going through, even though there were 8 other girls and a guy in the program with me. So I just turned back to God. It was the best decision I have ever made!! I am now able to get through the day, even the toughest of days, because I know someone is on my side, no matter what. It really is encouraging. Not to say that I never have those feelings anymore, of despair or being overwhelmed, but it is just nice to know that someone is looking out for me!