One Week Down!

from Jane's Instagram page

Oh my goodness! I swear I have not fallen off the face of the earth again. I’m around; life has just been rather chaotic these past few months. Dealt with a basement flooding, which let me tell you it’s not fun walking out of your basement bedroom stepping down onto the carpet and having water rise up around your feet. After that there was a dryer issue – which fortunately appliance insurance covered. Beyond there have just been a few family emergencies and me enrolling for GED classes.

I am excited to say that today has completed week one of attending. It’s really nice being in the class. It’s been so long since I have been in school – let alone, actually applied myself. So a lot of what I am looking at is information that was either not covered before I left school, or has just been a long time since I looked at it. My first subject to study for is Social Studies. The instructor for the class provides a pop quiz everyday though. On one side it’s math and on the other grammar. Okay… clearly one side of this daily pop quiz I adore. Not to say I pass every single bit of it, but grammar and writing are (no surprise) something I’m rather passionate about. However on the other side of the pop quiz… well, let’s just say talk about new information.

See I dropped out of school before things like Algebra and Geometry were gone over. Fortunately at class there are a couple guys who’ve helped me out a lot! Slowly, even just after a week I think some of this is actually clicking into my brain and making more sense. Now I still firmly believe math is a pretty evil subject, but none the less I embrace learning it as best as I can. LOL!

No matter I have awhile before I will be studying for the GED Math test. Social Studies is indeed my first subject to study for and I think I’ll move onto Science afterwards. Another evil topic, but I’m going to take this one topic at a time. I just pray I am able to accomplish my GED by the end of the year, because come 2014 they are changing the GED program and I would have to start all over if I’m not done.

Well aside from feeling like a zombie, I do believe this week has overall gone okay. I’m just such a night owl by nature and flipping up to waking at 7-7:30am four days a week is a big change for someone like me.

Alright folks, that’s it for me today. I hate to end this abruptly, but there is a lot to get done today. Hopefully I shall be back tomorrow with more information – like the changes on the blog. LOL!

--XOXO, Jane

Three Year Anniversary

As I sit back and attempt to blow the dust off this blog, let me assure you I am not blowing it off with smoke. Today (February 18^th) marks the three year anniversary since I quit smoking. It still amazes me to think I went from a pack a day to absolutely nothing. Oh yes, I quit cold turkey. It helped that at the same I was dealing with a severe sprain, was on crutches and the outside world was a little too nasty out for my clumsy butt to even attempted hobbling up to a store to buy a pack of cigarettes. I regretfully smoked off and on for ten years. More on than off, naturally as I can say from experience it’s a rather difficult habit to break.

Now to this day, three years after I stopped smoking, I still have the occasional craving. Sometimes bad enough that I almost want to climb a wall. I also still have the occasional dream that I am in fact smoking again. Sometimes those dreams will be so vivid that I wake up smelling my hair, just to make sure I didn’t actually smoke. It’s amazing the kinds of tricks our minds can and will play on us when we’ve let go of a filthy habit.

Don’t get me wrong, I won’t sit here and preach about how everyone should quit. Come on, we all read the labels and warnings with smoking. It’s your choice if you want to harm your body. I will sit here though and say it’s simply amazing how much my own personal health has improved over the past three years. It’s quite nice being about to move around more without getting winded so easily. I could go on, but then it might very well seem I’m border lining preachy and that is far from what I want to do here.

I will end though, on a little message to any potential smoker. I don’t care how young or old you are… if you are thinking of starting or just started up? Stop. I know it’s the cliché thing to say, but seriously stop while you are ahead. It’s considered one of the hardest habits to break and it really can cause a lot of major health issues and illnesses. I thank God every day that I do not have lung cancer, emphysema or anything else along those lines because of the years I spent smoking.

--XOXO, Jane