Navigating Anxiety with Humor and Self-Care

Transform your approach to anxiety and personal growth with insights from Andi Byers, a decorated Air Force veteran turned holistic wellness practitioner. Andi & Jen dive in on the My Spoonie Sisters Podcast to share their incredible journeys, the hurdles faced in being recognized for achievements, and the vital role setting boundaries plays in managing anxiety. Andi's ventures, like Chronic and Iconic Coaching, are reshaping the chronic illness and wellness community, offering hope and strategies to those navigating similar paths. Together, we explore the strength found in community and the power of self-awareness in professional spaces.

Have you ever felt like anxiety had the upper hand during a public speaking engagement or a bustling conference? You're not alone. Jen recounts her own nerve-wracking experience at the American College of Rheumatology conference, where the atmosphere was nothing short of overwhelming. From the embarrassment of visible sweating to the lingering effects that spilled into the next day, managing anxiety is a battle we know all too well. But with grounding techniques, staying hydrated, and unwavering support from loved ones, there's a way to navigate through it. It's about self-care, embracing vulnerability, and sometimes, laughing at the exaggerated worries we concoct in our minds.

Social media and chronic illness present their own set of challenges, particularly when it comes to authenticity and health concerns. Our conversation touches on the evolution from seeking external validation to speaking with our own voices, underscoring the importance of prioritizing health, especially for those with compromised immune systems. From potluck food safety to the cleanliness of church communion, we humorously unpack the often-overlooked aspects of hygiene. Join us as we embrace personal growth, self-compassion, and the responsibility of caring for others, all while sharing a few laughs about faith, food safety, and the "five-second rule.

Hi, Jen here! We are so glad to have you back. I want to personally thank those that have signed up with Rare Patient Voice recently. We love your support of the podcast, and this is another way that you can by signing up with Rare Patient Voice through our referral link. Remember, we're here to support you every step of the way. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Navigating Anxiety and Coping Strategies
• 9:05 Anxiety Recovery and Self-Care
• 15:03 Embracing Self-Compassion and Growth
• 23:14 Navigating Social Media and Health Concerns
• 27:59 Wacky Tales

Transcript

Jen: 0:08

Welcome back to my Spoonie Sisters Podcast. Today we're thrilled to introduce the one, the only, andi Byers. She is a true powerhouse in the chronic illness and wellness space. Andi is the founder and CEO of several impactful ventures, including Chronic and Iconic Coaching, iconically Holistic, the Upside of Down Life Coaching, invisible Apparel Company and Iconic Business Solutions. Not only is she a decorated Air Force veteran and registered nurse, but she's also a holistic wellness practitioner, business alignment expert and a published author. Andi is deeply passionate about empowering women. Workshops, her courses and retreats have helped countless individuals rediscover their authentic selves while embracing balance and well-being. Whether it's through coaching or creating safe spaces for growth, andy is dedicated to transforming lives. Let's dive into her incredible journey and learn more about her vision for uplifting and empowering women everywhere. Hi Andy, how are you today?

Andi: 1:19

Hello, I am well. How are you?

Jen: 1:20

I am good Now is it weird when people are sitting there talking about you? I know it's weird for me. Is it weird for you?

Andi: 1:27

Yes, it is very, very weird it is. I don't know that I will ever be used to it, even after being in the military, and it's one of the things that they do as part of the awards and decorations process as you're changing duty stations. It was weird for me then, still weird for me now.

Jen: 1:44

Yeah, I was hoping you would tell me that it gets easier over time.

Andi: 1:48

I would be lying to you. To say that it gets easier would be a lie. To say that you learn to navigate it differently as you do it more would be more accurate. It's not easier. I learned how to hide whether or not I was anxious in big spaces better, but I also learned how to advocate like I don't feel comfortable, this isn't for me. Or I learned to stand in my no, and sometimes my no means I'm not going or I need to leave. So does it get easier? No, do you learn how to navigate it in the boundaries you set for yourself so that you feel safe in the spaces you walk in?

Jen: 2:27

Yes, that's good to know. That is good to know. Good to know, that is good to know. No, is my most difficult word in my vocabulary, is one I'm working on and I'm learning.

Andi: 2:39

So, jenny, recently you've had some big things, some big shifts happen. Man, you're going to bring that up? Ooh, I am. So, jenny, recently you had some big shifts happen and you talk a lot in the community, in the community about managing anxiety and what that does to your body. Since change is scary, how have you been managing warding off flares, stressing over the things you can't control, and how have you been managing your anxiety? Going into the new chapter of the whoa, something new is happening and it's bigger than I could have imagined. But here we are. Don't get your spoons. How are you?

Jen: 3:21

managing. Oh, can I even begin to say that is like a big question, and I should not be surprised that you're asking me. Oh, my answer to that would be some days are better than others. Some days it is so much easier to control all the feelings, all the things right. But I'm not going to pretend I have not had some really bad anxiety. In fact, recently well, sort of recently, last month, I had the pleasure of attending ACR for the first time.

Jen: 3:52

For those that are listening, acr is brought on by the American College of Rheumatology and they refer to it as where rheumatology meets, and there was roughly give or take almost 15,000 professionals rheumatologists, researchers, occupational therapists, et cetera, et cetera in one space. No one can prepare you for how overwhelming it is. Many people told me ahead of time how overwhelming it is. But to get there and to be there for the first time feeling like a little old me I'm nothing special, but I have to get up and speak it's terrifying.

Jen: 4:33

I had to wake up early, fly all the way across the United States from one side to the other and when I arrived I was doing okay in the beginning and slowly I started to feel for any of those that have experienced anxiety. You start to feel that palpitation. You start to feel your palms sweating. Your heart is kind of feeling fluttery or your body's feeling strange. You're starting to feel sweaty.

Jen: 4:59

You know, depending on the kind of anxiety people have, I get full on panic attacks and that's how it starts. That first night I kept going okay, jenny, you have to be up and ready by 9am to do a walkthrough. You have to be up and ready by 9am to do a walkthrough. That's 6am your time, but you can do this. You're not an early bird, but you can do this. And the more I was stressing about it, the more that I was getting anxious. The more I thought about it, the more I was getting anxious. So I spent that evening talking to a few of my close family and friends just trying to settle myself down, because I was afraid to sit in the hotel room by myself and sit in the feelings.

Jen: 5:40

Because, if I sat in the feelings, I was worried it was just going to continue to spiral.

Andi: 5:46

Yeah.

Jen: 5:46

And it did, it did, it spiraled the next morning, no matter what I did. The whole time I was in DC. I could not cool my body down. I was overheated, sweating through my clothes, sweating profusely. And let's talk about the fact that no one ever talks about how anxious sweat is worse and smellier than regular sweat yep, it's your stress, response it crazy.

Jen: 6:11

And nasty and smells so bad. As soon as we got done with the luncheon and our speaking, I booked it across the street back to the hotel to get a shower because I felt so disgusting. And I took a nice cold shower, put on nice clean clothes, got myself all fixed up, stepped outside of the hotel, got into the convention center and boom, hot flash all over again and I was shaking and my body just still did not want to tell itself to calm down. That was pretty much how I was the entire time. Granted, I was only there like a day and a half, but it was a day and a half of feeling like that. It was awful. I got home and it took me a whole, probably another day and a half, to get my body back to where it needed to be and evened out. But then, of course, I ended up getting really sick. So I mean this could have been coupled with the fact that I was getting sick.

Jen: 7:04

I don't know, but we need to talk about it more. We need to talk about what it's like to live with anxiety and all the feelings that come with it.

Andi: 7:11

It's like a flood of them and it happens all at once, which is why we feel hot. But I don't think that the average person who doesn't deal with anxiety, like severe anxiety, understand that in the midst of a panic attack or a near panic attack, that hot feeling that we feel is a flood of a lot of emotions that we're trying to cover up or uncover, that's trying to come to the surface all at of emotions that we're trying to cover up or uncover. That's trying to come to the surface all at once and we're trying to quickly categorize where they need to go and whether or not they're valid. You can't do it when the world is still moving slowly but what seems to be very fast around you, everything's slow motion for you. Everything around you is moving super fast but they're not, and I don't think that a majority of the people understand that that don't deal with anxiety.

Andi: 8:02

It's like, oh, just you can calm down. I wish I wish that even me as a stress wellness coach. I'm a stress wellness coach that battles anxiety. There are days where all of the CBT tools that I know, all of the deep breathing exercises, all of those things do not always help me self-regulate immediately. I have to do them sometimes all day, to calm me down enough for me to hit the next phase of. Can you calm down enough to sleep now and then hope that my body is so exhausted from fighting my mind that I'll be able to sleep, and sleep all the way through without thinking about the thing that I just spent my entire day obsessing about?

Jen: 8:47

That's a really good way of explaining it. For me, I always feel like if I can just cool my body down, that's going to help me immensely. And at home I have a million ice packs that I dig out, you know. You put one on the back of your neck, maybe one on the forehead, some in the armpits, if you need to, whatever you need to to help cool your body down. You know and I run through we all talk about the tips that are out there of look around, what do you see?

Andi: 9:12

Okay, Use each of look around.

Jen: 9:13

What do you see? Okay, use each of your senses. Smell. What can you smell? What? Can you feel?

Andi: 9:18

That's one of my favorites.

Jen: 9:19

Yes, and I run through it all the time. I even have a favorite song that I'll sit there and sing. Yeah, I can run through every single one of the tricks that I share with other people, but that doesn't mean it's always going to work, and it was one of those situations where I was so noticeably anxious that those that were with me, could tell and were asking if I was okay.

Jen: 9:41

It made me more embarrassed and I felt terrible. It was so bad because in my mind, I had no reason to feel anxious. None. First of all, the speaking at the function went great. We did a great job. We did what we were there to do. It went great and it was done. So why wasn't I feeling better? I was still anxious and all I could think of is it had to be because I was still having that adrenaline come back down.

Jen: 10:12

There's so many people. I'm not normally the kind of person that shuts down when you're around a ton of people. Normally I can handle it decently. This was not like that. This was oh my gosh. My body was so angry there was nothing I could do.

Andi: 10:26

I was honest.

Jen: 10:27

I just told everyone I was with. I have anxiety. I've had it since I was 12. This is what's going on, and it doesn't help that, because of my anxious, my gut got upset and then I didn't want to eat, so I barely ate while while I was there, which that fuels. It makes it worse I stayed hydrated.

Jen: 10:47

Don't get me wrong, I made sure I stayed hydrated. I had ale, water, all the things constantly Food not so much. I ate a light dinner the night I arrived, next morning, a banana, and the only reason why I had the banana was because Sheryl Crow gave it to me.

Andi: 11:04

You know, every time I hear her name, it makes me smile.

Jen: 11:06

She's such a sweetheart, I love her. At the luncheon, I barely ate. I don't even know if I ate a fourth of my food. It was so good too. There was a delicious salad that had cranberries and pecans, and it was so good. The main dish was salmon and chicken, which I was actually kind of surprised, because in my mind I'm like, ooh, there's a lot of no seafood people out there. I'm surprised that they would serve a dish that has salmon and chicken on the same plate. But it was delicious. What part of it I did eat. And then there was an amazing tart looking thing for dessert in front of me. Didn't even get to it, didn't even touch it. People were passing around rolls asking if I wanted one, and no.

Andi: 12:50

You passed on bread.

Jen: 12:51

And salmon is my favorite. I barely touched it. I basically sat there and drank water and tried to just breathe the whole time I was sitting there. All I could think is I must smell so bad, I must smell so bad and I'm sitting next to people and I do not want them to smell me. That's all I could think about because of how sweaty I was.

Andi: 13:11

Or perhaps maybe you were just moist. You didn't smell nearly as bad as you had told yourself. No one else noticed but you, because you're the one that's sweating. And yeah, I've been there. I have been there, and you get like so hyper paranoid that you're like trying to sneak smell to see whether or not anyone else notices that you're sweating. What I realized, though, is all it does is make people look at us like why did they keep smelling themselves? And I don't think that we ever in the moment, put that into perspective that we look very strange. What appears to be a sneak smelling ourselves like it's not, like it's a stranger. We're trying to like what kind of perfume are you wearing? It's you creepily smelling yourself and hoping no one caught on to it? But I've been there like man. Does anybody else notice that I feel very steamy? No one else notices.

Jen: 14:11

Absolutely yeah To answer your question. I've given you the longest answer ever, but I'm working through it and once I got home, life didn't stop. I wanted to spend that whole next day recovering because I'm sorry, even though it's only three hours a three hour time difference can throw a person off, so oh yeah bad, especially when you're having to get up at 6 am and I'm not a 6am person. I'm just not. I can do it.

Andi: 14:38

I like it yeah.

Jen: 14:41

The next day. I took it easy, I took it slow, I slept in the best I could, but I still had I had a like a conference call thing with a lady from WebMD for an article and I was shaking through the whole thing. I thought, oh my gosh, are you still? Are you still feeling this way? Yep, it took a whole. It took a whole nother day to get all of that out.

Andi: 15:04

Do you think perhaps maybe you were shaking in these situations, these recent ones, because there are growth opportunities but you can't control the outcome, so they're kind of scary, like when you're networking. You can kind of control who you're networking with, what opportunities you align yourself with. Do you think that being in those spaces perhaps overwhelmed you in a way that you don't know? You network with a lot of people in those spaces, especially at the ACR. You don't know what happens next after that. Do you think that walking into the space and seeing all those people that you may have talked to, is it the what? Next aspect that was making you feel overwhelmed, because your body's response was similar to the WebMD? Is it the scale and how quickly it scaled? For, I'm going to assume, someone that looks at themselves as, and refers to herself as, little old me.

Jen: 16:08

I think so. I think so, and I think there was a little bit of this too. All these people that we meet on Instagram or however else most of them Instagram are at this event and I finally get to meet them in person. It's exciting but it's also terrifying. Are people going to still like me when they meet me in person? That is a hard one for me.

Andi: 16:30

Yeah.

Jen: 16:31

Am I going to look okay that day? I mean, how silly is that To sit there and think, am I going to look okay, am I going to look like me? Am I going to look like me? Am I going to look like trash? Like right now I look like trash. I seriously rolled out of bed for us to have this conversation.

Andi: 16:45

I did brush my hair, though, full disclosure. As did I, okay, as did I. I got, I got wild hair, and it was just going to be whatever it was.

Jen: 16:56

You know what, though? I think you have amazing glowing skin and you are absolutely beautiful. I feel like I'm one of those people where I have to really put in a lot of effort to not look like trash.

Andi: 17:08

No. So it starts with how we talk to ourselves, because I did nothing to my skin. I did nothing to it today. Um yeah, and it's everything to do with our stress levels. So here's the thing I have been for the last I don't know several years trying to figure out what celebrity is your doppelganger. And I just figured it out. And it is. I just figured it out. It's freaking drew barrymore. What it's freaking. Drew bar, seriously, yes, that has been driving me nuts.

Jen: 17:41

Um, I would love to be Drew Barrymore.

Andi: 17:44

Oh my gosh, that's been driving me nuts.

Jen: 17:46

I cannot even tell you how much I love her. We watch so many movies with her. Yes 50 First Dates. Yes Is my favorite movie. That is, oh my gosh, have you seen blended?

Andi: 18:00

I love blended. It's one of my favorites.

Jen: 18:01

We love it because we are a blended family. Granted, we didn't meet in Africa or any other weird situation, but it's one of our favorite movies and, fun fact, if you ever go to Oahu, go to the Kuala Lumpur ranch, because at this ranch, I mean, a lot of people refer to it as Jurassic Park Ranch. So if you go there, they actually do movie tours and so any movie you've ever seen that is featured Hawaii or anywhere that's supposed to look like that has either been filmed there or Kauai or both. Okay, they do movie tours. They will show you all the sites where movies have been recorded. We got to go and see the restaurant where they would meet and meet again and meet again and meet again.

Jen: 18:48

We got to go see where he would park his vehicle to try to meet her.

Andi: 18:53

And where his friend was chasing him through the field.

Jen: 18:55

We got to go see it. Yeah, all that fun stuff.

Andi: 18:59

Well, it's my favorite place on earth.

Jen: 19:01

Those beautiful mountain, the mountains. We actually want to get a huge picture of those mountains to hang up in our kitchen, because it's our favorite place on earth.

Andi: 19:09

I love that. I love that I mean me too.

Jen: 19:12

So that's your fun fact for the day.

Andi: 19:13

I love it.

Jen: 19:14

I would like to say these scary hard things that we do get easier, but it really depends on who. We are right and again, I don't know that they get easier.

Andi: 19:23

I think that I think we become more prepared to accept the opportunities in the now, not so much that it becomes easier, that we're just more willing to accept opportunity as we mature. With less, this is going to fail. I think we hit points in our lives where we're just like, okay, something else has got to give, like we can't want one thing and then do the thing that's counterproductive to the thing that we said that we wanted. So easier again. It's like for me. I don't know that it gets easier. Every time I get ready to do something hard, I still panic, like every single time. Every time I do something that requires me to be publicly vulnerable, my anxiety is through the roof. It doesn't get easier for me per se. It's just like I learned how to deal with the aftermath of doing the scary thing of talking myself off the ledge. I think that community is huge in that I didn't always have community, and so now when I'm spiraling and I know I'm about to spiral I know I have people that I can go talk to me off the ledge. My feet are just sitting over here swinging. They go. Okay, let's logically talk through it.

Andi: 20:34

I think that there's a beauty in that. I think there's a beauty in that we're becoming more understanding that everybody is carrying something. Being less judgmental of the. You're not perfect. No one is. So the phrase that I think, at one point in time, I hated the most is give yourself grace. Okay, I understand it. I would replace that Give yourself grace. Give yourself the same compassion and understanding that you are giving everyone else, not grace. Give yourself the same understanding and empathy and compassion that you're giving everybody else. The grace will come. It takes a lot of grace to sit with you and give yourself the same thing that you're giving others.

Jen: 21:17

That's a really good point. I think we need to get better at loving on ourselves the way we do other people.

Andi: 21:24

Mm-hmm.

Jen: 21:25

Yep, because in any given situation I don't know, maybe somebody forgets that they're going to do a podcast episode I'm super go with the flow. I mean, yes, sometimes it can be a little bit frustrating. Sometimes I'm doing a happy dance because I was feeling overwhelmed and overbooked anyway, but I always am looking at this person saying it's fine, it's fine. Why would I not be compassionate towards somebody that is living with a chronic illness? Because I want you to have that same compassion for me. And then we go and turn around and what do we do to ourselves?

Andi: 22:02

quite often, Beat ourselves up.

Jen: 22:03

Because our body didn't cooperate that day, or things didn't turn out that way, or something unexpected happened. We are not as kind to ourselves.

Andi: 22:12

We have higher expectations, higher limits, higher everything, hear everybody else on, but when the good thing happens to us, we will quietly celebrate and then we'll do the weird. Don't talk about it because it's so embarrassing, but tell everyone else they deserve the good thing and they should celebrate it, and they should be so loud and be celebrated. And then, when it's time for us to step on the big stage, we don't want to be celebrated because that big stage is scary too it's scary, it is, it's a lot of eyeballs.

Andi: 22:46

It's a lot of eyeballs.

Jen: 22:48

Yeah, it's always great chatting how in the world did we get to where we are today? I don't know I still remember when we first met right craz Craziness. Wow, Should tell people how we met right.

Andi: 23:01

I feel like if they want to know how we met, they could go back to the previous episodes, because I feel like we've told the story of how we met. We did some cyber stalking of each other. Then you know. Now we're besties.

Jen: 23:15

I think what's funny to me is we were both just starting our chronic illness Instagram adventure. I still remember getting on one day and I have not heard from Andy in a while. I haven't seen Andy in a while. Where is Andy? Is she okay? Did something happen to Andy? What happened to her account? Why am I not finding it and having to make sure you were okay?

Andi: 23:38

You know, that account disappeared literally the best thing that ever happened to me on social media space. I don't even know who I was okay, or who I was trying to be at that time of entering the social media space. I don't know what that like. I look back. I'm glad I didn't delete the stuff, but I archived the posts from when I initially came to Instagram and outside of the ones from when my account got deleted for me. I was just looking at the older posts and I'm like man evolution's crazy, because I can tell that just based off of the posts that I was not posting, based off of how I interpreted or felt or coached or whatever I was posting, based off of instruction of someone else that told me I should have posted that thing. And I'm like man, I don't even agree with that thing. So that's cool that I've come this. It's interesting how we look back and we go man, I'm not even that person anymore.

Jen: 24:44

We are ever growing, ever changing, ever becoming better people through time. I mean most of us, I would surely hope we're all striving to become better people, right?

Andi: 24:53

You would hope, so One could hope.

Jen: 24:56

What's funny to me is way back when we first met I think it must've been my username. At the time, everyone that ever had a conversation with me thought my name was Grace and they all called me Grace, and I think you might've at the very beginning too, and I never corrected anyone because part of me was so afraid to really put myself out there, because that meant drawing attention and I wasn't sure I was ready for that.

Andi: 25:23

That's weird. It's so weird, it's so weird. And I still tell myself, man, this skinny buck, tooth girl from Illinois, the quiet, bullied, very awkward little girl, people assume that I'm an extrovert and I'm really not. I love sports. That gets me out of my. She's quiet, but I really don't talk.

Andi: 25:48

Talk, like you may see me in rooms and spaces with people, and I'm in rooms and spaces with people. I'm not the person that's chat, chat, chatting it up. It's not me. I am in the room, I am in the space with people. That was not the person that's chatting it up. It's not me. I am in the room, I am in the space with people. That was a lot for me. So kudos to me. You got me in a room, in a space with people who may want to talk to me or touch me or do all the things I honestly am not a big fan of. People touch me, it's because I have a chronic illness, several. It's because my immune system's zero, it's because I don't want whatever you may accidentally give me. Because you just hugged a thousand people and I am person a thousand and one and person number a thousand had the flu and now I got it. I don't know. People call it paranoid, I call it safety.

Jen: 26:35

I'm right there with you, though I can think of a thousand situations where even my own husband has told me I'm paranoid or hypochondriac.

Andi: 26:45

You know I'll be a hypochondriac.

Jen: 26:46

Until you live inside of our bodies. It's hard for you to understand and I think you and I breezed over this yesterday but things like going to a potluck, you don't know where that food was prepared, where it was touched if they had cats on their counter, if they washed their hands, you have no idea At all Did the meat sit out? Did the mayo sit out? Did they cross-contaminate the things they're putting together? You don't know.

Andi: 27:10

At all Yep.

Jen: 27:11

And okay, I'm a Christian, you're a Christian, we go to church, but do you ever secretly think about how disgusting it is?

Andi: 27:19

Communion. Here's the thing I was very happy when they went to the individual cups of juice, the communion kits, with the cracker on top of it, so people weren't in their finger and all the communion. It's because I know people don't wash their hands. Okay, it's not that they were. It's not like they were given the squirts of the hand sanitizer that would be in sanctuaries while people were coughing or sneezing in their hands. Covid still exists, the flu is still there. They're wiping their nose, they're coughing, sneezing, and then they're touching stuff. And then there's this line. It's an assembly line of people that now just got whatever you have, okay. It's an assembly line of people that now just got whatever you had, ok.

Andi: 28:00

And while I am a woman of faith, I also understand that I can't pray this cold away. For real, I also didn't need to get the cold because you didn't have to do that. So, yeah, yeah, I get. I just can't it. Just, it makes me feel ways. Potlucks just make me feel ways. I'm like oh, your hands, they clean. I've had dysentery three times. I am very paranoid about potlucks. It's crazy. I've had dysentery three times. Ok, I had it in Elementary school. I want to say it was fourth grade, square pizza elementary school, I got it again. My first deployment in 2001. And then I got it again in 2003, my second deployment.

Jen: 28:50

Okay, I just got to start by saying I didn't even know dysentery still happened.

Andi: 28:56

Yes, dirty hands.

Jen: 28:58

You picture the Oregon trail. You picture that, as that is the timeframe in which we had these things.

Andi: 29:05

Dysentery still exists. Dysentery still exists, and it is awful, it's awful. So let me just explain dysentery to you. Take food poisoning the flu, make a super bug, super baby, then sprinkle in a little bit of you got some COVID, okay, and if you've gotten the shingles vaccine, sprinkle in what that felt like oh my gosh, and that is. That's that. Yep, it's awful, it's awful.

Jen: 29:31

Every single one of those, on their own, trying to mix that up into a nasty Like all of the side effects and what your body feels like.

Andi: 29:39

That is that it is awful. Your body's confused. You got the hot cold like you got the flu slash covid. Your body aches like you have the flu slash covid. You're nauseous. You got diarrhea. You got stomach cramps.

Jen: 29:54

It is horrible horrible wonder in the Oregon Trail they all die.

Andi: 30:00

Yes, it is awful and it's like the amount of antibiotics that they give you, but also it just has to run its course. They give you enough to, let's say, I guess, keep you alive Because they were dying in Oregon Trail, because they didn't have any penicillin, I suppose. But other than that, it's got to run its course out your body, which is trash, horrible. 10 out of 10, don't recommend.

Jen: 30:25

Well, I'm going to throw myself under the bus and tell you a fun fact. I think you probably already know the fun fact that I used to be a church secretary. Well, when you're the church secretary you see the inside of the church building a lot more than a regular person and you kind of see all the weird things. Like you see that contraption that they use to fill the grape juice.

Andi: 30:49

Mm-hmm.

Jen: 30:49

And you see it in the kitchen and you wonder if they rinsed it out or if they washed it. Or you sometimes see people using these things and see that all they did was rinse it. Same with the trays. Okay, my husband and I started doing communion prep pretty much every week. He didn't work on Fridays. He would come meet me at the church building when I was finishing up printing the bulletin and we would go prepare communion together.

Andi: 31:20

Pair communion together and we part of it was.

Jen: 31:22

We discovered mold growing in the trays because it had fallen down in the grooves and people didn't know. And so we, we deep, deep cleaned. We also eventually ended up replacing the trays. But he and I filled communion and that gave me the ease and the calm of feeling safe and not disgusted. Luckily he didn't call me out on how weird I was, because I think he was. I honestly think he was kind of grossed out too, and so if you ever go in a church building and you see in the kitchen like that container, if it's stained or if it looks like it's not cleaned and stuff y'all, it might not be.

Andi: 31:56

That's a real thing. That's a real thing.

Jen: 31:58

Yeah, so that's my fun fact. We used to put out a calendar every month of different tasks that were going to be done and people that had volunteered to do it we stopped including communion prep and stopped asking people to do communion prep.

Andi: 32:15

And we just did it ourselves. Yeah, because sister Sarah might not have watched it. You guys are building penicillin. It's just like you won't have dysentery because you're making penicillin on the containers, so it works and you know it goes to show.

Jen: 32:32

At home there's weird practices that people do. I mean, how many times we drop something on the floor and still eat it? I mean, I don't. I think it's absolutely disgusting. Our shoes touch that. What's on the bottom of our shoes?

Andi: 32:42

I'm not dogs pee on the floor outside and we come inside and we walk around, so literally dogs peed on our floor inside. I just really people need to understand that, like you walked on nature's toilet and then you came inside and you essentially just ate from nature's toilet every single time with the five second rule, it's good. Why don't you just go outside and open your mouth and go hey nature, give me my nutrients directly from your source. Go, lick the sidewalk.

Jen: 33:14

Disgusting exactly and recently, what two months ago, october? Our son. He's engaged. They they bought a dog and they had my mother-in-law and I helping out with the dog when they were working, taking the dog to go out and go to the bathroom, all that fun stuff. But they were wanting us to be very careful where we took this dog, because it still needed its next round of shots.

Jen: 33:40

And they were paranoid about it getting parvo. I wish I would have thought of at the time to say to my son you are so paranoid about your dog getting parvo, Yet you I've seen you eat crap off the ground.

Andi: 33:52

You know it's when you have to care for another being something else. Then we go wait, let's not do that, that's not smart. Like's not smart. Like we have kids and we're like don't you eat that off the floor and sinks.

Jen: 34:04

Sinks are just as disgusting yes, sorry if I, if I drop a piece of raw onion in the sink that I've been cutting, I'm not going to pick it up and stick it in my mouth because they're so people or whatever.

Andi: 34:14

I agree. People assume when you wash dishes and it's clean sinks, areinks are the dirtiest place. Swab your sink and put it under a microscope. Sinks are disgusting. They're disgusting and if you have a garbage disposal they're twice as disgusting.

Jen: 34:28

Unless you are heavily scrubbing, sanitizing, cleaning it daily or in between each use. Because, like I I said, people are dealing with raw meat and and a lot of times, like you know, my husband loves to grow meat he'll take the, the container that it was in and he's throwing all of that into the sink as he's prepping everything. So if I'm cutting a raw onion and I drop it in that same it's just gonna stay.

Andi: 34:53

It's going in the trash.

Jen: 34:57

Okay, we just went a weird direction. I did not anticipate, but you know the struggle's real for a practice. How did this go for you? I?

Andi: 35:05

had fun. I had fun I can ask questions, I can, I can keep a conversation going.

Jen: 35:11

I think you are going to pleasantly surprise.

Andi: 35:13

Now could I do it full time? I don't know. I don't know if I could do it full time but I could do it full time.

Jen: 35:22

But I could. I could have a conversation. I think that is why I intentionally invited a few of you to be co-hosts. That way I have somebody doing this with me but I'm not overwhelming and making it a full time for for just one person.

Andi: 35:35

It's like I. Just how do you not run out of things to talk about? Like that's the thing. How do you not run out of things to talk about? That's the thing. How do you not run out of things to talk about?

Jen: 35:42

I think it really honestly depends on the guest true you know, wouldn't it be fun if we all just picked family members to talk about us and see what they think?

Andi: 35:59

Yeah, I would only pick like my immediate family. I wouldn't pick my siblings or my mom, because you know my mom, they can go left.

Jen: 36:07

I don't even know if I have a single relative that would be willing to do it.

Andi: 36:12

Yeah, it'll go left. They might want to tell something from my childhood that I want to.

Jen: 36:16

My husband's joked about it.

Andi: 36:19

He should. I feel like the chemistry would be hilarious. I feel like it would be so funny oh gosh.

Jen: 36:27

I mean. First of all, he would make up so much crap about me just for fun. He's one of those people that you go with him to the bring your spouse to work. Here's what I experience. In fact, I have an entire folder on my phone called Jeremy, for anytime. I need to show anyone a funny anecdote of my husband, so I have clips of him in the grocery store grabbing bags of like pecans to show me any and one time he was joking around and he's like hey, record this, I want to send this to my friend Kenny.

Jen: 36:57

And I was like what, this is not you, you never asked me to do this. And it's a funny little clip. And he looks at me and I was like what, this is not you, you never asked me to do this. And it's a funny little clip. And he looks at me and he's like hey, kenny, you want to see my nuts? I mean just weird random stuff. He went through this phase of growing like a nasty, handlebar mustache. I told him he looked like he was like an old man, porn star or something. We're sitting out to dinner one night and like this is a time frame where he actually bought wax to help shape it to help shape it.

Jen: 37:23

So we're sitting out to dinner and he's sipping on a beverage and he's playing with it and making it go in more of a circle and shaping it and I just thought he was so funny that I got out my phone and started recording him, and so he started doing it more and I'm looking around going how many people are watching us. How embarrassing are you being right now yeah, I mean he's the guy that'll walk through the grocery store and say I know you've been having these anal issues.

Andi: 37:48

I just found this product that you really, really I'm like your husband, because I do stuff like that, like yo. It's so itching because they have different types of anal creams. It's which kind did you need? We've been in three stores. Guys like we have to figure it out. I'm that person, I'm that friend. Let me feel safe around you. You will feel embarrassed in the store if I feel safe around you, because if I can't find you, it's marco polo. I don't believe in going. Let me zigzag through the aisles and discreetly and quietly look for you. If you and I are in the store and I can't find jenny, I'm gonna go jenny and I'm just gonna keep doing it until jenny says huh, then I'll stop.

Andi: 38:32

Found you like I'm not gonna do that, I can't find so, and so I'm just gonna scream your name until I find you, yeah I don't know what is more.

Jen: 38:39

Embarrassing, because my husband does this like dog whistle to get our attention.

Andi: 38:44

It gets your attention.

Jen: 38:45

If he's walking out of the aisle but he is wanting to get our attention, or if he's wanting to show us something, he will do this dog whistle. Every time. I'm like I am not a freaking dog.

Andi: 38:55

But it works every single time.

Jen: 38:57

Exactly.

Andi: 39:10

Mostly I'm doing it to shut him up because I'm afraid he's gonna do it again, but it gets your attention every single time. See, chances are he's tried to get your attention using something else and it didn't work. So he was like see, I tried to deviate from the thing that you said that you hate it, but you weren't paying attention when I deviated. So back to the whistle. Now you're irritated, but you're paying attention. Hey, look at this thing you get him.

Jen: 39:26

You really do. It's like I don't even have a uterus. Okay, I don't. I haven't had one since I was 27. But oh yeah, he'll walk down the tampon aisle and talk loudly about these giant tampons, or he'll talk about diapers but at least he's talking about tampons.

Andi: 39:44

There are several men in this world that just don't want to talk about the fact that women bleed. So the fact that he will skip through the the aisle and talk about all the products probably do an infomercial and say all the things wrong. Just reading off the box. You know it's mildly entertaining to me. So never be a dull moment in your life when you get old, old. Okay, you're just mediocrely old now. We're just mediocrely old when we get old, old. It just means that there won't be a dull moment. But I really do think that you should do a bring your spoon to work episode and your spoon being you, you know your husband and it'd just be a quippy episode to get to know the person. That's your balance, because you're the introvert and he's clearly way more extroverted in personality.

Jen: 40:31

Oh, definitely. I feel like I'd probably have to have somebody there to ask questions to at least get us going in direction. But I don't know, maybe someday.

Andi: 40:39

I'll host that episode.

Jen: 40:41

Only if you let me do it back to you, man, we could have some fun in the future. You know he has passed on some of this fun attitude to the children.

Andi: 40:54

Yeah.

Jen: 40:54

Our daughter Jessica. Granted, I think she gets embarrassed when some of this stuff happens, but I I remember there was a time she thought she was walking up to her dad at a grocery store calling him out for picking up all these different cheeses and putting them down. She thought she was gonna be funny. She's like I see you manhandling all those cheeses, put those down, or something like that.

Jen: 41:15

Right, it was not her dad this guy looks up, he's like up and he's like sorry, okay, I'll take this one. She was so embarrassed I don't even think she said anything.

Andi: 41:25

I'm like you have all the cheeses you want, so I'm sorry you're not my dad. Yeah, alright, go run your errand at the bank in the other village that you have to go to.

Jen: 41:37

You bundle up and stay warm, okay.

Andi: 41:39

Yeah, I gotta go make cookies.

Jen: 41:42

Yes, Hopefully yummy ones.

Andi: 41:44

Yes.

Jen: 41:45

I mean they're all good right.

Andi: 41:46

I love cookies.

Jen: 41:47

Well, until next time, don't forget your spoon.

Andi: 41:50

Bye.