I woke up feeling pretty good this morning. Took my blood sugar level and it was 111. I am pleased again it was back into the normal ranges after such a stressful day yesterday. Losing over half of my post in Word Press is the pits. I added the Yahoo Shortcuts widget a few weeks ago and noticed one thing, you need to save your work before doing the Yahoo Shortcuts Review this Post. This is the second time in a few weeks, I have lost over half of a post. Luckily the previous time, I was able to retrieve and save my post. Last night, I was unable to retrieve all of my post and it added to my stress level for yesterday.

Anyway, today has been much better stress wise, though for some reason I am not feeling up to par. My stomach has been bothering me on and off all day. Maybe I just need to eat a very nutritious meal. Lately my daughter has been cooking and she is a very picky eater. She hates vegetables except potatoes and rice and pastas. She hates eating fruit. I have tried to explain to her able her unhealthy eating habits will have repercussions definitely later on in life by her bad eating habits.

I sure wish someone had sat me down and explained the consequences of my bad eating habits. I probably could have prevented my diabetes and other health related problems. Taking better care of your health is important, especially when you are young. Don’t wait till you are in your 40s or 50s to decide to get with it in taking care of your body through exercise and healthy eating.

I was reading and listening to a video on ABC about Queen Latifah making a decision to lose between 10 - 15% of her body weight to prevent diabetes. She is now the spokesperson for Jenny Craig after they approached her. Her family and relatives all joined the Jenny Craig program to lose weight also. Queen Latifah’s grandmother lost a leg, part of her sight and eventually her life to diabetes. I admire Queen Latifah for having the courage to do something about her health. Jenny Craig has given her the incentive to lose the weight she has chosen to lose.

I have also been working on my website adding more merchandise. I am excited as I move forward in getting more done with my website. My sales are starting to increase. I thank the customers whom have bought from me. If you have not had a chance to visit my Shirley’s Delight store, please take a moment and browse through my store.

Today started off very stressful. We had very high winds up to 60 MPH during the night and something kept banging on the outside wall. I thought it was the awning over my bedroom window on the front of the house. Found it was a star up on the house for the past 3 years had come loose and was the reason for the baning noise. Took the star down. Had to do some other repairs on the other large awning across the front of my front porch. One of the support arms came loose, because one of the bolt came loose from the column.

I just spent over an hour on this post and guess what somehow it half disappeared. Not redoing it again. More stress. Will write tomorrow.

Today, my youngest daughter is to take her driver’s license test. On the way to the driver’s license station, she was driving too fast and I ask her to slow down. When she was approaching stopped vehicles making a turn or a stop sign, it was like full steam ahead. I told her again, she was making me nervous and please slow down. It was raining and under those conditions, I advised her if she didn’t listen to what I was telling her she would get points off the test or fail it. Well, she flunked and the reasons mainly was driving too fast and when approaching a stop sign, plus she knocked over the orange cone in the maneuverability part of the driving. Knocking over the orange cone, automatically fails a driver.

I know she is disappointed as her boyfriend is too. Recently, her boyfriend has been experiencing seizures from epilepsy. His doctor has now advised no driving for 3 to 6 months since he experienced another seizure a few days ago. I know he was counting on my daughter to drive him to and from work with his car. It also affects me as I have to go and pick her up at different times of the night after he gets off work or she gets off work.

When I get back home, I found an upset family member. He was upset over trying to use TaxAct and the Ohio State Tax office not accepting two Form 1040A for his two different employers. He said he had filed this way for three years. He was also upset that he has to pay income tax and state tax.

Feeling the stress from both of them today has not been easy for me. A neighbor just came over and told me I left the lights on my vehicle. Guess dead battery. This is the fourth time this month I have left my lights on and had to get jump starts for three of them. This time the battery will not hold a charge. Guess it is time to buy a new battery. Will have to see about an adjustment since I bought the battery in 2005 and it is a 65+ months battery. The place of business that I bought it from is closed till tomorrow morning.

When it rains, it pours in my world about so much stress in one day. Just wish it would come all at once. Sure is making it hard to not go buy a pack of cigarettes. My blood sugar levels have not been that great today either.

Keep me in your continued good thoughts and prayers I get through these frustrations.

Today, I am feeling disappointed in myself. I had set my original quit date to stop smoking as Sunday, January 27th. I woke saying to myself that today was THE day that I would be smoke free. I did wake earlier to get ready to work on some projects that I had planned to do on the computer. Even though I didn’t accomplish much, I didn’t feel any craving for a cigarette.

I made it with not smoking till later in the afternoon.  My youngest daughter and I had a difference of opinion. I started feeling stress and anxiety. Then the craving for a cigarette hit me. I was looking for the feeling of something to comfort me, and release that stress.

I only had 3 cigarettes left. I tried smoking 1 of the cigarettes in a few puff stages. However the craving would not leave me. So I light the rest of it up and smoked it. I did light another cigarette about an hour later. I took a few puffs off of it, sat it in the ashtray and watched it burn away. I knew as long as any are in the house of my brand, I will smoke them. I am disappointed in myself for not making it through THIS day without smoking. Really, really wanted today to be the day.

There is 1 cigarette left. What am I going to do with it? Not sure at this point. If I smoke it, it will be a final farewell with a goodbye letter, because I am NOT going to buy anymore. This last pack has lasted over a 4 day period. The time has come for me to face myself in the mirror and tell myself I CAN DO IT because I love myself and want to be healthy again!

Dedicating this post to my friend, Mike, across the Big Pond.

It is hard to sometimes make time for my friends. Whether going to a Women’s Christian luncheon, writing emails, making a phone call or sending a card, it is hard to squeeze time each day into all I have in my day. I am trying to find balance in my life without adding more stress at this time. On top of trying to quit smoking that is sometimes stressful enough when my family is not very supportive.

Mike has been a friend for approximately a year and a half. Even though we have not met personally, we have become great friends. I met him through Disabled Online User’s Association (DOUA) when he became a student. We have shared memories of our lives and health problems. Even when I broke my leg and was in the hospital last year, he was so kind and concerned that he called the United States to check up on me and send flowers. Mike even made me an adorable rug with my website name and cute nicknames he has given over time. He remembered my birthday, even when he got the month and day backwards. The United States has month, then day, then year compared to most other parts of the world. He has been a huge supporter of my business ventures as a true friend. Though sometimes, I am neglectful in sending more emails to him across the big pond in merry ole England. My apologies to you Mike.

Having wonderful friends is important to me. Trying to balance time to keep in contact with each one of my friends is a juggling act between family and work. Some of my friends are very understanding and have patience with me. I thank all my friends for their patience.

I am still working on stop smoking. I am not going to give up! Each day the Chantix GetQuit support calls. Sometimes I listen to the suggestions they give to help me, i.e. writing a goodbye letter to cigarettes, wash ashtrays or throw them away, throw remaining cigarettes away and clean out my vehicle ashtray. These are all great suggestions. Sometimes I talk to a counselor about certain issues I am having. The other night I woke to a severe craving at 3 AM. Not sure why it happened. It took me till after 4 to go back to sleep, but not a deep sleep till much later.

I still have not written the letter. Guess I have never liked goodbye letters, reason is it is hard for me to write one. I have washed ashtrays. I have told myself out of the 12 places I normally would have smoked, I can’t smoke in certain places anymore. It is working for me.

Today, my Chantix pill dosage increased to a 1 mg pill twice a day. Previously, the dosage was 0.5 mg twice a day after the third day. I noticed the difference within an hour after taking the higher dosage. I had not ate my breakfast and my stomach was getting upset. I know better not to take medications without eating first. I talked to a friend of mine about it. He is so supportive and encouraging me to get totally quit. He was able to cold turkey over two weeks ago. I admire him for being able to do that method. However, it is not the method for me.

My blood sugar levels have been great since I have been on Chantix. This morning’s reading was 88. My afternoon blood sugar was 133. This is great to know the Chantix has helped with control my blood sugar also.

Today, I have only had about 8 puffs. Did let a cigarette burn away that I forgot in an ashtray outside while talking to a neighbor. I am very pleased with my overall progress. Today has been the best day so far!

I have noticed that a lot of bloggers are starting new blogs about making money online. Some have really great information and tips. Some are just beefed up blogs with very little postings.

Entrecard is designed to help bring website and blog traffic. However with people sitting daily “buying” ads or dropping cards on other blogs, how many really read a post in a person’s blog? With bloggers placing over 3000 ads a day on Entrecard, that is a lot of surfing. When do they have time to really read a person’s blog and leave a comment? I am sure they skim read to make sure they have a blog they really want to use their Entrecard credits on.

I read that Entrecard does their update after midnight on another blog. I wonder what time zone? Probably Eastern Time Zone. Apparently the “big boys” have figured out Entrecard’s system and go on and buy the lowest credit per day ads after the update. This leaves for the morning people the higher amounts of credits ads to choose from to spend their credits. It has taken me a while to figure out why I couldn’t buy lower credits per day ads on quality blogs. Guess I am going to have to stay up later to get those.

Would love to hear your opinion on this! Thanks!

I was reading an article about nicotine addiction and a program was mentioned in the article. The program is Nicotine Anonymous. It is a 12 step program like Alcohol Anonymous, which help people who want to cease from any form of tobacco. They share their experiences, strengths and hopes with each other. This kind of fellowship helps encourage people who are addicted to nicotine to stay quit.

On their website is a locator for a meeting in your area. If there is not one in your area, think about starting a group. Let’s help each other! We all can make a difference in some one’s life.

Went to my meeting last night and we watched two videos. One of the videos was about exercising, not only to lose weight but to have another source of distraction from smoking.

I thought about the lack of exercise in my life. I know I need to get up from this computer chair and go take a walk. The problem with that is it is too cold outside for me and my arthritis and Raynaud’s Phenomenon. I have to drive 20 minutes one way to go to the mall or Walmart or KMart to go walk around. With the price of gasoline back at near $3 a gallon for the cheap stuff and my van is 19 years old, it is a real gas hog. After this last snow day before yesterday, some of the snow is now ice. We have to be very careful walking outside to our vehicles. Anyway, the only exercise I am really getting lately is going up and down the stairs in my house. There are plenty of them including going up and down to the basement to do laundry.

I am noticing how much better I am breathing as I cut down more on my cigarettes. I don’t get so winded going up and down the stairs. I am not waking up in the middle of the night chocking to death for air. This is a great feeling.

I thought I wrote a post yesterday, somehow it disappeared. I had a pretty good day yesterday with my diabetes. I have been watching what I eat very carefully. My blood sugar yesterday morning was 75. I didn’t feel odd or strange. I felt good. I did wake up craving a cigarette though. I thought with the extra pill at night I wouldn’t be craving. I caught a family member smoking in the house. He thinks I don’t know he is smoking in the house, when I can smell it as I come down the stairs in the morning. He quickly sprays air freshener to cover the smell. Seems no matter how much I talk to him about not smoking in the house, he is going to do it anyway. This is making it very difficult for me. I really want to quit. I have cut down to a little less than a half a pack a day now from a pack and a half in 5 days. I think that is really good for me.

The Chantix Get Quit support line calls me each day. I have spoken to a counselor about the problem of having a family member who still smokes in the house. She gave me tips, however I am not sure it will help him or me. I like how the support line calls and checks on me.

I just wish that my family member would respect me and not smoke in the house. I have explained about my health problems and how continuing smoking is doing me more harm. Thought by now, he would understand and respect my wishes.