LaLa Land…….At least that is where I feel like I have been since Monday. I am on several medications right now and I can not wait till I’m done taking the antibiotics and steroids for the breathing issues I was having. These med’s on top of my everyday med’s, I have felt “odd” over the last 5 days, more like lost, but is some ways that’s nothing new for me lol. Throughout the day, I’ll take moments where I don’t know what to do with myself, I’ll go in circles, or get overwhelmed when I state thinking about what I want to do next. It’s all very frustrating!!

After seeing and hearing my lungs while at Urgent Care, I decided then and there I was at the very least going to cut back on my smoking. I would love to be able to quit cold turkey, but the last time I tired, I turned into a raving bitch from hell! So to spear myself and my Hubby some sanity, I’m going to take baby steps. On average I was smoking a pack to a pack and a half a day (20-30 cigarettes) sometimes more.

If I allow myself to sit outside (we don’t smoke in the house) and read, or bring my laptop outside, I can easily chain smoke and not really realize I’m smoking as much as I am. Anyways, I have cut back to 12-14 cigarettes day for the time being. Yesterday was hard for me for some reason so I had 17 cigarettes. I know to some, cutting back to 12-14 cigarettes still sounds like allot of smoking, but when your used to just grabbing one whenever you fill the need, and used to having 20-30 in your system, cutting back to half does take some will power. My breathing has not been an issue since starting the med’s and cutting back on my smoking, and I am already feeling a BIG difference in how I feel. I’m going to go with a 2 week schedule on cutting the number of cigarettes, every 2 weeks I’m going to go down at least 2 a day till I eventually will be able to give them up all together. So wish me luck!! Oh, and so far we have saved about $50.00 this week on the cost of my habit!!! So that’s always a plus.

Anyways, I wanted to give everyone an update on the Steam Mop/Cleaner my parents got me for my birthday. I LOVE this gadget!!!! Thursday I decided to get REALLY motivated and clean. Since I was having the breathing problems, I was unable to get up and do very much prior to Tuesday. Wednesday I took it easy, just piddling around the house, but by Thursday I was ready to get up and get moving or go mad!

Hubby has used the steam mop a few times, but the living room floor was in bad need of a good cleaning. Normally the floors just get swept and mopped like anyone else would do, but at least twice a month, the hard wood floors need scrubbed, which I would do by hand! That was killer on my back let me tell ya!! Well NO MORE!!!!! The Gruene steam mop is AWESOME!!!!!!

Here are some before pictures….

And the after….

Can you see the difference? It’s almost like looking at new flooring!! They don’t look that good when I do it by hand!!!!!

And before you think it, yes my wood floors need sanding and new polyurethane. When we first moved into this house, it had white carpet throughout. Remember, I have 5 house pets, so needless to say I got tired of shampooing the carpet every month, sometimes twice, and we ripped it all out. Well with having Capone and Dakota, our late Rotties, we decided to wait on refinishing the floors. Capone was a 225lb Male Rottie, who shook the house when he would run through it, and left scratches on the floors as he went. So we did not see a point and sinking all the time, money and effort into refinishing the floors just so they would get messed up. Now that my big babies are in heaven we can redo the floors, well once we are done with the bathroom anyways. At the same time though, I like the “rustic” look of the floors, least when they are dust free, so it doesn’t bother me at the moment to not have them all new and shinny looking.

Anyways, more on the steam mop….

With the wood flooring being the original flooring, it is uneven in some areas, so I will have to go in both directions with the steam mop. As for using the attachments for the steamer, I love those too!! This baby is AWESOME on windows!!!! Yes you still have to whip up a little water here and there when using the squidgy attachment, but you won’t here me complain!!

If you do not have this steam mop, I HIGHLY recommend getting it!!!! After using this steam mop through out the house, I can walk around barefooted!!! I NEVER go without having some kind of shoes on, I can’t stand anything being stuck to the bottom of my feet, or my feet being dirty. And after using this mop, and this may sound stupid, but it felt GOOD to walk around barefooted!!! at least till the dogs came in the house lolol.