Get the Toxins Out!

Investing in your health is an easy investment you can make for yourself and your family.  Reducing the toxins in your home and body is something we should all be striving to do. The tips below will help you in this effort. That was my goal when starting doTerra.  I knew I couldn't swap out all my products  all at once, but I could add a few each month, just a little at a time.  It will make a huge difference in the long run.  Here's my top four suggestions.


1.  Throw out all those chemical cleaners!! Toxic City!
DoTerra makes a great cleaning agent called On Guard Concentrate.  You can use this for just about anything.  Use it to clean bathrooms, kitchens, windows and you can replace most of those chemical cleaners under your sink today!  On Guard kills more germs than bleach!  There is also On Guard Laundry detergent.  Find out more about On Guard Concentrate and other On Guard products HERE.
 
2. Replace candles and artificial air fresheners with essential oil diffusers.  Of course we all like our homes to smell clean and fresh any time of the year.  Burning candles using air fresheners or scent warmers really aren't the best way to do this.  It's not too difficult to realize that what you breathe in can effect your body's health.  Make sure what you are breathing is safe and natural.  Essential oil diffusers are a great way to accomplish this with many fun diffuser recipes online and on pinterest you will have many options picking just the right recipe for your home and family. Here are some of my favorite DIFFUSERS.   I have the petal diffuser shown.



3. Moisturizers, anti-aging creams, shampoo, conditioner and other beauty products.
Think of all the things you put on your skin, when we wash our faces, wash our hair, moisturize our skin.  The toxins in our daily beauty regimen can build up over time in our bodies.I started with replacing my tooth paste with On Guard Toothpaste, then each month added a new product from the skin care products.  DoTerra products are all natural safe and effective. I use the Essential Anit-Aging Skin Care line.  Check out some HERE.

4.  We are what we eat...and drink!
Consider using cage free eggs and meat without antibiotics. I drink mineral water every day with doTerra LEMON essential oil.  It has dramatically improved the lymphedema in my leg from the chemo and cancer surgeries.   Using a water filter is a good idea.  They remove the toxins and leave the good.  Our bodies are made up mostly of water but we give little thought to what we our building our tissues and blood with.  Think again.  Drink from a stainless or glass cup and avoid plastic cups and bottles. 


These are just a few tips to detoxify your home and body.  Do a little at a time and set a goal like I did, just trying to change one thing a month.  You will be surprised where you are at in your efforts after one year. You can order any of these products and more at My DoTerra.  Have a great toxin free day!

I'm Still Here and Starting Over!

WHOA!  Four, count them four years since posting on the blog.  Once you become a FaceBook addict it's hard to leave that quick way of posting and checking up on friends.  Those who used to follow my blog will know I had a very scary fight with a horrific disease, that usually has dismal prospects for it's victims:  Ovarian Cancer with metastatic progression.  That included over 60 rounds of chemo, 5 surgeries, including the original hysterectomy, then gall bladder removal, two intestinal resections, appendix removed, a second debulking surgery with several more intestinal resections,  uterer tumor removal with stent, and many lymphnodes removed.  Mayo Clinic had said in 2010 after recurring one month after their  six month grueling chemo treatments, that there was nothing else they could do for me.  I guess to make me feel better and to insure me they didn't fail me, my doctor said he could count on one hand his patients (out of 100's) that had made it to 10 or even just 7 years.

I changed doctors and Cancer Centers! But even there things weren't going well.  End result

I wasn't responding to chemo, my liver was saturated with tumors to numerous to count and given a prognosis of only 4 months survival and only a 3% chance of making it a year.  That was May of 2011.  AND I'M STILL HERE!!  Yeah!!  There were a lot of supplements I took with my last rounds of chemo as well as essential oils.  I figured I had nothing to lose at that point.  Well, the treatments with the supplements and oils started reducing the tumors.  It took 18 months to clear my liver.

I moved to the mountains near Las Vegas in 2010 during some of the worse treatments.  I knew if my life was short this was where I wanted to be.  And I am still here!  Peace and Love and really my Zen Garden is here!

Last year after feeling depressed and still going to my regular 3 month visits to the oncologist, is just a reminder that any time I could recur.  I recognized I was falling back into some bad habits with my health, drinking too much coke, eating too many candy bars and seeing and feeling the difference in my body.  Here I had been given a miracle and felt I was not taking advantage of this new chance at life.

I started taking my supplements again.  Taking my Frankincense oil again.  And then I became a doTerra Wholesale Advocate.  I share doTerra Oils with my friends and family because I believe in them and have a testimony in their power!

In this journey my goal was to detoxify by body and house.  I gave myself a year to do that.  I'm not quite there, but I now use oils instead of pain pills.  I now drink mineral water with oils instead of coke (well, I slip a coke in once in a while!). I use non-toxic doTerra skin products, tooth paste, muscle rub, cleaners and deodorant.  I diffuse oils in my home instead of toxic air fresheners  And I make my own air fresheners with oils and water.  And do lots of other stuff with oils.

Yes, I am still here and hope to use this blog to share some of my doTerra oil recipes and things I do to detoxify myself and my home.  Stay tune for these posts that I plan to share here!  And if you want to buy doTerra  and if you want to save on the costs let me tell you how to get them wholesale!  Check out my doTerra site HERE.  Click on SHOP to purchase at regular prices or click JOIN & SAVE to find out how to get the wholesale prices. 

Desperately Seeking Normal!

Just want to rant today.  I have totally neglected writing on this blog.  Seeking My Zen Garden is truly my quest these days for sure!

 I have had good news that I received over a year ago but thought if I "announced" it I might be jinxed.  After 3 years on chemo of various types and combinations, 3 recurrences the worse to my liver, I was declared NED in December 2012 and have been off chemo since the end of that month.  In October 2013 a couple of "spots" returned to my liver, but after scans and MRI's every 3 weeks for 3 months they didn't grow and the last scan showed they were reduced in size.  So everything should just be good and happy for me, right?  Except it's not.  I keep waiting for the next big blow, it's out there and will hit as we all know there's not much chance after 3 recurrences.  And I feel guilty.  I think why have I survived almost 6 years when others go so quickly, young mothers with kids are especially difficult to understand why they were taken.

Today as I read the "News this week from OCNA" ( a forum for those of us with Ovarian Cancer ) there were so many notices of those from this sight who have passed on.  It makes me so sad. 

It seems there is always this demon following me around just waiting to attack.  I try to remember my past life before OVCA.  My normal happy, carefree life.  I want it back.  I am happy, but not care free anymore.  I still work,  I play tennis several times a week--which has improved greatly since being off chemo this long! :) I work in my yard--which is much easier and I can work most all day now. Life is better for sure off chemo.  But I'm not the same carefree, fun-loving person I used to be.  There is so many changes to my body, so many parts missing after five surgeries I am truly amazed that our bodies can still function at all when so many parts are gone!!  Everything I eat goes right through me.  I give myself injections weekly.  I take a boat load of supplements (when I remember) my hair is finally growing but is so very thin, but that's so much better than bald! And at some of my happiest moments, those times when I can truly forget I have cancer and that the demon is lurking behind every corner, the thought can just crash in and ruin it: This won't last, you have cancer, there will be no cure. And then sometimes I feel myself getting angry with my family and friends who thinks everything is all better now.  They don't get it.  How could they? They don't have to worry about being close to a restroom, or what they eat and when they eat, etc. They don't see the demons shadow lurking in the corners.

It's such a roller coaster down a path I know none of us chose.  I just want to find my way back to who I use to be, traveling down the path of the life I choose and not being dragged down this hellish road.

So, normal, mine has disappeared.  Yes, I know, we have to get used to the "new normal."  But I don't like it!

Remembering a Friend

I just found out this morning that the 47 year old women killed by her ex-husband in Henderson was a friend.  My dentist Renee Bassett.  She was shot with her son in the house who was the one who called 911.  The Ex then went to the car and killed himself.  This was a wonderful woman, mother, dentist who truly cared for her patients whether their insurance could cover them or not.  I will never understand the senseless, cruel actions of someone taking another person's life.  Her two boys are now without either parent. What will become of them, what will their life now be like?  How can the one who saw and/or found his dead mother ever get that vision out of his head and know his own father did that to her and to him and his brother? Renee was just a beautiful person who loved her sons. It's times like this that makes me wonder why we need even one gun in this world.  Guns equal violence and that is all. My heart just hurts.

Turn Facebook Teal

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.  As many here know I have been battling Ovarian Cancer since May 2008.  There is no test to detect Ovarian Cancer as there is for Breast Cancer and Colon Cancer and many others.  The symptoms are so minimal and many would be associated with monthly PMS.  70% of women who are diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer will die.  I am asking all who read this to PLEASE change your cover on your Facebook page to Teal.  Google Ovarian Cancer Symptoms.  Share them with the women in your life.  Help bring awareness to this silent killer.

My Olympic Dream

Since I can remember watching the Olympics I dreamed of participating and knew one day I would be there with all the other athletes from all the other countries, the excitement, the pounding hearts, the winners taking their place on the podium, the medals.

  I knew my sports weren't currently included, but I was confident as the years went by that someday at least one of them would be included and I would finally be able to compete and make my family proud.  Other sports were added throughout the years, but not the three I had long awaited. Alas, I had to come to terms to the fact that perhaps, even those who were ordained for greatness may not have the chance.  So, today, I give up my dream to finally compete and win an Olympic medal, to march in the opening ceremony, to be an Olympian.  But, if anyone ever hears that Baton Twirling, Hula-Hooping and/or Pogo Sticking have been added to the lineup of Olympian events, please contact me immediately!

A New Day

After 17 and a half full time years and tack on another 7 years part time, I am saying goodbye to the College of Southern Nevada as their Performing Arts Center Director.  I absolutely loved working at the college.  Starting as a student production assistant, to lighting designer, to lighting director, box office manager, house manager, assistant director and finally director for the past 10 years, I'm retiring.  I loved working in theatre and at an educational institution. The vibe around a college is just very high energy every day.

 So many friends called to ask how I was doing, was I second-guessing my decision, was I sad?  No!  I have accomplished everything I ever wanted to at the center.  I was on more committees than I can count on both hands and feet. I took work home everyday. I loved every minute. But the last four years on chemo, five surgeries, my administrative assistant removed and not refilled adding to the daily responsibilities, took its toll. It was getting more difficult to put in the hours that I was used to doing. And once the facility was everything I had hoped to accomplish, with equipment and more importantly compliant to all safety regulations (which took three years!) the challenge just wasn't there.

Then there is the family.  Parents are getting older and medical issues occur with a little more frequency. Husband is retired...well sorta! Grandkids are growing quickly. I want more time for family. More trips to Disneyland with the kiddos. I used to keep track of my hours at work.  After I had accumulated over 800 days (not hours!) of overtime (time over eight hours, I was salary so no OT) I realized those were days/hours that really should of been spent with family. You can't get any of that time back. I was committed and very dedicated to my job.  That's how I was raised.  Work hard. But at the same time, sacraficed time that could have been spent with family.

Sure, their are many, many friends I will miss, my staff and particularly the two theatres I managed. But I walked out of the doors yesterday, filled with joy, sans a huge key ring, felt the sun on my face and a whole new world before me.  Yee Ha!