Looking Back On 2009

With 2009 about to be at an end in a few hours here on the east coast, I thought before the family and I headed out the door to my Aunt Ju*lia's for good food, board games, pool, and watching the ball drop that I would reflect back on 2009. This year has been on of turmoil, chaos, growing, changing, adapting and grief for me on a whole. Coming into the year I had such high hopes to lose weight, conceieve #2, make more time for myself, and many other things. Overall I accomplished slim to none of the things that I set forth for myself, but I did have some huge changes, life altering events, I walked a familar traveled before path, and had that all to familiar heartache, as well as new found joy and remarkable relief.

In rewind, my year started off parenting two boys. My own handsome little man *B*, and my nephew *H* whose parents can be summed up as being called twits to put it nicely. This was a rewarding experience, but mostly definitely got my maternal wheels a turning and longing for #2. Then there was finding the unusally large cyst on my ovary that could of halted all chances of TTC until the later half of this year, but thankfully enough for me and *B* being horribly sick and medical technology no surgery was done b/c the cyst reduced in size on it's own. After that was a huge life changing event when we moved into our very first home that we're buying. I love this place and it's a great starter home that so far (knock on wood) hasn't needed any fixing up. Fast forward to *B*'s 2nd birthday bash and my sister coming home from KY all in the middle of summer while stabbing and jabbing myself with needles and popping pills in the hopes of seeing that BFP that so far has never happened. Then there was *B*'s first set of stitches and with him being all boy, I'm sure not his last set of stitches. I quit seeing my current reproductive Dr. and bounced around trying to find my place in this modern medicine world for awhile, all while having my fair share of breakdowns, meltdowns, and tantrums. I was deceived by more family members than I care to count, I had more fights with DH than I care to mention, I lost my patience with *B* more times than I can remember. But, nothing was as big in 2009 as my breast cancer scare when I found the lump on my boob with the lactating to accompany it. Needless to say that after some testing the diagnosis for that was Intraductal Papilloma/Papillomatosis, but it still scared the bejesus out of me, and I shed more tears than I ever want to in my life again.

This year was one twisted rollercoaster ride, and while it was fun while it lasted I don't want to experience it again if I can help it. I also want to say "See ya 2009, don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya on the way out!!" I'm looking forward to 2010 and all the new possibilities and high hopes that it will potentially hold for me. And, rather than making a resolution just so that I can break it like I did this year (oops... LOL) I am just going to let whatever happens in 2010 happen and life to tell the tale (God willing) at the end of it like I have done at the end of this year. Happy New Year Everyone!!

And last but not least I want to say Happy Birthday to my Dad, since today is his birthday. Love you old man... LOL! xoxo

4 Christmases: 2 Days

In true Baby Dream fashion I'm late on yet another holiday post... LOL. I will say that my lack of blogging is due to my insane ambition to keep my mind busy while I tried not to drive myself crazy waiting on my mammogram diagnosis (check out the post below this one on those results). Any how, around this family since my parents are divorced and my mother is estranged from her side of the family while I am not, it means we have 4 Christmases in 2 days time. Most time it works out well as everyone schedules their get-together on a different day at a different time, but this year I ran into a little conflict that I quickly resolved by moving DH's side of the family to another day and time. Everything turned out GREAT for the most part except for missing family members that weren't able to be or choose not to be present. I got to see my little brother for the first Christmas in 5yrs... HUGE plus. There were no family squabbles, and I didn't gain any weight... MAJOR plus. The only things that didn't make it feel like Christmas was it's wasn't snowy outside, instead it was raining and melting of the snow. H*attie and her family, B*lu and her family, and my step-sis A*manda and her family weren't able to/decided not to attend the family gatherings. Otherwise it was the best Christmas in a long shot.

In the Baby Dream household this is how our Christmases went down this year. On Christmas Eve around noon we combined my Dad and little brother with DH's side of the family. Here are some pictures from this event:

Later on Christmas Eve around 4pm we packed up the vehicle full of all the yummy cookies I had been making, the cheesecake, and presents and headed out to my Aunt's house. There we enjoyed lots more family, good food, unwrapped Christmas ornaments from our annual ornament exchange, and then played board games in true family fashion. All this before leaving a little after 9pm to head home and put out cookies and milk for Santa. Here are pics from this gathering:

On Christmas morning was our third Christmas and that was just the 3 of us. Nice quiet and quaint. *B* opened his loot from Santa, we had sticky buns for breakfast, we cleaned up, and then got ready to head out to my Mom's for our fourth and final Christmas. Here is pics from our Christmas of 3:

Our fourth and final Christmas was at my Mom's. More food, more family. Pics from it:

Breast Cancer Scare... No More

I went to the Dr. today and I FINALLY got my mammogram results. They are not the most optimal results, but they could be a whole lot worse. My diagnosis is intraductal papilloma or papillomatosis (meaning multiple growths/papillomas in the breast). Basically long story short is, I have two wart like tissue growths in a milk duct in my breast. Mine happen to be in the same duct. I have swollen lymph nodes, b/c these growths are foreign bodies in my breast that aren't supposed to be there and it's my body's defense mechanism of trying to fight it off. The course of treatment can be evasive to nothing. My course of action per dicussing ever option available with my Dr. is as follows. I will be getting another mammogram in 3mths as well as a ductogram/galactogram (this procedure scares me... a needle is inserted into my nipple while a mammogram is being performed... OUCH!). At this time if there is no negative growth then if I choose nothing will be done and I will continue to have mammograms done every 3mths for the first year and every 6mths to a year following to keep an eye on it. If at this time there is still no negative growth, but my breast is still painful then a surgical procedure will be preformed where I'm cut around my areola and my nipple area is removed in order to go in and remove the affected duct. If there is negative tissue growth then I will still have to have the surgical procedure done, and my long term options and prognosis will be discussed with me at that time. However I guess I can't really title this entry "Breast Cancer Scare... No More" b/c since I do have more than one growth I'm at an increased risk of breast cancer later in life, but it's doesn't totally indicate that I will have it. All women already have a 5-10% breast cancer risk, my risk is just hightened an additional 5-10%, which really isn't that high of a percentage if you think about it. I know receiving this diagnosis was like having a 50lb weight lifted from my chest, I'm just not really looking forward to all the additional testing that comes with it in the year to follow. Here is some reading for you on my diagnosis if you would like to further research it. (It's ALOT of reading actually.) It is also the 25pg printout that my Dr. reviewed with me and gave to me at my appt. today.

Non-Cancerous Breast Conditions Reading

Under Construction Again (sigh)

The designers of the template I had for Christmas will no longer be offering templates (sniffle, sniffle), so I'm under construction again as I strive to find the perfect background that just suites me and this Baby Dreams blog. Please bare with me, as I'll get up and running in full function soon. In the meantime you may experience times that the site goes down as it's easier to make changes that way. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation during this time.

Potential Hope

I had my mammogram done today. It wasn't all that painful really. My right side (the one with only a couple of swollen lymph nodes on and no lumps) wasn't painful to get done at all. The left side was a bit tender, but not unbearable (this side has numerous swollen lymph nodes and 2 lumps) and I guess the scan isn't supposed to hurt at all. It just felt like a little pressure squishing except for on the problem side. Any way, I asked the tech if she could tell me if she saw anything, and her response was I needed to talk to my Dr. Right then and there I lost it, everything I had running through my mind, all the stress, and the built up worry came pouring out in the form of an hysterical cry. I proceeded to tell her that I had to wait until after Christmas to know any results and it wasn't fair and I just knew that I wasn't going to be able to enjoy the holiday b/c of it. I told her that I've been worrying myself sick and not getting sleep b/c my mind runs a million miles a second about what's going on when I lay down. I then said I was hoping maybe just maybe you would of been able to tell me something so I could enjoy Christmas with my family. She couldn't believe that since they would have the results in about an hour that they were making me wait until after Christmas. I told her there were no opening and double bookings with the holiday and they took an extra day for it. So, she said words to me that felt like a ton of brick had been lifted from my chest and gives me hope. She said "I'm no Dr. and I'm not the radiologist who gives the Dr. the image results, but I have done this scan on numerous women that have came in and did/does have breast cancer and your images look nothing like theirs do." Insert my huge sigh of relief right here. I just hope and pray she's right and really does know what she's looking at and not just giving me false hope.

Baking Bliss

In the past few days I've been on a mission. I've started my baking for Christmas. It's helping to keep my mind off my Dr's findings and off the fact that time seems to be creeping by to get the my mammogram appt. tomorrow and then I won't get results until the Monday after Christmas. Any way, it's helping but at the same time I think I've taken on a whole other form of stress...LOL! Cooking and baking are my passion, but when you have to do it in abundance you may just get to the point that you hate it. Not to that point YET! Can't say that I won't be by the time Christmas is here and over though. Any how, I always make one cookie platter to take to my Mom's side of the family's Christmas Eve celebration, but since all the other madness has come upon my life and I needed a distraction I offered to make not one, but three more cookie platters. I'm also trying out some sort of new recipes this year. I've made them before but I'm putting some twists on them. I'm trying to stick with just one theme of cookies and I've decided to make Hershey's kiss cookie/candy recipes. You can get some of those type of recipes here. I've also tried my hand at hard-tact candy, which turned out to be super easy. So, I went overboard with making it and bought 9 different flavors, and made two batches of each. Meaning I made 18 batches and now have about 10lbs of hard candy. I should of stopped there, but it was so fun and stress relieving breaking up all that candy with a rubber mallet... LOL! I just kept going with candy making from there though. I've made 5 dozen buckeyes and a pound of fudge. I'll start my cookie bake-off probably Tuesday, and I still have a strawberry brownie cheesecake to make, as well as no-bake cookies, a PB cream pie, and a pumpkin pie. If I don't end up gaining weight for Christmas it'll be a miracle. Can you tell I'm in charge of dessert at the 4 dinners/places we host/go to? That would be why I've made so much. I can't wait until the big day gets here. I'm looking forward to it and nibbling on all these goodies. In the meantime I'm being a good girl and not eating any of them. Promise!

PS: If you would like the recipe for anything I mentioned just leave me a comment and I'll get it to you. Happy Holidays!!

Blog Design Giveaway

The very creative FabulousK is having a giveaway running until Sunday that will give your blog a face-lift for the New Year. So head on over to her blog by clicking --------> HERE for your chance to win. Good Luck!!

Dr. Appt For The "Weird" and Scared To Death

I got a phone call from my Dr. yesterday after getting my routine thyroid levels checked, and on the current dose I'm on my TSH level is no where near the normal range or high like I had originally thought (since I have hypothyroidism) it was zero. He said this was indicative of possible thyroid failure or it turning around to be hyperthyroidism now. So, then I went on to tell him that out of the blue on Monday my boobs started leaking, and it's been a little over 2yrs since I've had anything like this happen. I'm not talking a tiny bit or anything like that. I'm talking my shirt front wet like let down leaking, and it happened 3 times that day. Plus, I had had a couple of knots in each breast and tenderness. I asked him if this could be related. He told me that he wasn't to for sure but it was possible and he wanted to look up somethings and scheduled me for an appt. for this morning at 10:30am for more testing.

So, I went to the Dr and I'm back from, and I feel as if I have been punched in the gut. He did a breast exam on me after I explained to him everything that had been going on. He found two lumps that were hard and non-moveable in my left breast (the one that has been leaking), and I have swollen lymph nodes under my arms pits, in the fatty tissue hanging from my arms at my muscle, and on my neck. He started mentioning pituitary gland tumors, but made most talk of breast cancer and family history of it which I have. I asked specifically about a breast infection and a molar pregnancy after researching symptoms I have and coming up with these diagnoses and he said he wasn't ruling those out, but that wasn't what he was concentrating on as a big picture at this point as everything doesn't fit now that he's found other things (the swollen lymph nodes). He ordered a whole battery of bloodwork and a mammogram for me. I got my bloodwork done at the lab at the hospital already, and I'm just waiting for the scheduling manager from the hospital to call me back with an appt. time for the mammogram. I'm really scared. I'm always on DH's case to quit doing this or not to do that b/c his parents both died from cancer and now my Dr. is throwing that as a diagnosis at me. I can't believe this is happening, it feels like a nightmare and I can't wake up from it.

Weird, Just Weird

I really wish I knew what was going on inside my body. I'm telling you if I had the money and the medical knowledge to operate and know what I was looking at, I would buy me some high-tech medical equiptment for my house to keep track of the goings-on in there. So I mentioned my body was toying with me.... well it's REALLY toying with me now. My emotions are all over the place. Mostly they are of the teary-eyed variety, but I have some raging bitch moments in there.

(PLEASE BE PREPARED FOR TMI FOR THE REST OF THIS ENTRY)
Then there was see spot, see spot go away, and come again the next day. Now there is AF which graciously arrived in all her glory last night, but is really lite and unusual for me. Amongst the weird that's been going on was my boobs were looking and feeling larger than life and really sore to the touch especially the nips. I've also been twingy/twitchy crampy versus the normal saw me in half cramps, and there has been no PMS that I normally have just headaches. So, then the weirdest of everything that's been going on was what happened this morning when I was starting a load of laundry.... my boobs were hurting just like they have been then all of a sudden the pain went away and the front of my shirt was wet. My boobs are leaking, like I'm lactating like when I had *B*. It's happened two more times since this morning too, and I'm not talking a little bit but like let down type of wet, and I haven't breastfed since *B* was 15days old.

I've peed on all of 6 HPTs and they were all BFNs except I thought I saw a faint line on the last one to which DH said he saw nothing, and I tore it apart to try to prove my point. He then peeled it from my clammy white grip and trashed it in the kitchen trash that was all nasty and gross. To which I feel to the floor and bawled. I've NEVER had this happen before, and I've been looking online (and only coming up with things that make my head swirl) for answers as to what is going on. Looks like I'm going to have to call my OB/GYN that I hate to see if I can get in ASAP, b/c I can't wait until the beginning of January to see the RE to see what is going on, why I sit and wait, wonder, and worry.

Anyone have this happen or have any answers for me on what might be going on that are totally overwhelming and scary as hell?

More Giveaways

I came across another great giveaway just by chance, and thought I would pass it on to all of you Dreamers out there. It's your chance to win a $25 American Express gift card from another blogger that did a product review on Hellman's Real Mayonaise. Head on over to 3 Chicks and A Rooster for your chance to win by clicking --------> HERE!

And The Winner Is...

First let me say thanks to all those that entered. I had so much fun doing this giveaway and it surely will not be my last. So here is the randomly drawn winner from random.org:

This is the post from the 12th commenter on my giveaway:

Brit:) said...
Hm.well i could not live without my wonderful husband and my son.My husband for taking care of my while i am so very big and prego.lol.And my lovely son for putting a smile on my face every time i am having an emotional pregnant breakdown!But i shuld deff. win bcus i could sip on hot chocolate while i got the pink slippers on and be cozy on days i can't get outta bed!hehe!thanks for being there threw my pregnancy and bfor!Hope things look up for you at the first of the year!

December 8, 2009 9:23 PM



Brit has been a very good friend of mine for quite a few years despite our ups and downs, and I'm very happy she won. Any way, this is Brit and her happy little family that they are about to add 2 more (boy/girl twins) too in early January. Aren't they cute?:



CONGRATS Brit, I'll be getting ahold of you to claim your prize, and rub that baby belly for me.

More Amazing Giveaways

BlogHer is having another amazing giveaway. This time for a HP Touch-Smart 600 computer. These are the 5 amazing bloggers that are offering this giveaway listed below. Check them out for your chance to win.... or don't b/c I really want one of these computers.... LOL.

Mckmama

Kelly's Korner

A Year of Slow Cooking

NieNie Dialogues

Boo Mama

A Few Of My Favorite Things Giveaway

CONTEST IS NOW OVER!

***I'VE REVISED MY RULES FOR THIS GIVEAWAY, PLEASE CHECK OUT THEM OUT!! THEY HAVE ASTERISKS BESIDE THEM!!***

After happily blogging for over 3yrs and this being my 150th entry, I decided that it was time for a giveaway. Oh, and what better time of year to do it than winter and right around Christmas. I originally wanted to do 12 days of giveaways, but as I love so many things this time of year it could of gotten really expensive, especially since this was kind of spur of the moment. (Perhaps I'll do that next year and plan ahead so that we have the extra money to do so.) Any way, here a pic of the things I'm giving away:There is Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate Cocoa b/c I love sipping on a cup of this made with warm milk to warm me up on a cold snowy day. There's Bath & Body Works Vanilla Bean Noel body spray and body cream b/c it's simply an irresistible smell and is only a seasonal item and I love it. There is regular candy canes b/c what is the holidays without this scruptuous peppermint candy, and there's chocolate dipped candy canes as well b/c I just found them this year and they are oh so good and delectable. There is chocolate covered cherries, b/c this is one of my favorite Christmas candies that my DH puts in my stocking every year. There are two bottles of nail polish in brownish beige and dark red cinnamon color, b/c I love to have my nails painted and these are a couple of my favorite colors for doing so. There is Strawberry Chapstick, b/c we all know how our lips dry out and get cracked in the cold winter months and this always helps keep them moist for me. There's GermX, which I've always had handy since being on my own but is my new best friend this cold and flu season with the H1N1 and we all know how good it is to have some of this handy. And last but certainly not least is the 2 pairs of fuzzy pink slipper socks, I have a pair similar to these ones that I love and they keep my feet warm and are in my favorite color. I'm hoping that the lucky winner of this giveaway will enjoy my favorite things as much as I do this season.

***Here Are The Rules In Order For Your Chances To Win!!***

• You **NO LONGER HAVE TO BE** be a follower of this blog unless you would like to be. If you're wondering how to do so, please scroll down and on the left hand side you'll see a button to click that says "Follow". Click it and follow the directions from there (you may need to set up a google account with your email address if need be). **(The reason for this is alot of people are either new to finding my blog and don't want to follow just yet or they're having problems figuring out how to do this, so I'm not making it mandatory to enter to win.)**
• You MUST leave a comment at the bottom of this entry by clicking on the "Comments" link, and then tell me something that you love or just can not live without this season for one chance to win. In this entry you MUST leave your e-mail address so I can get back to you IF you do not have a blog that I can link back to or I don't know any other means of getting ahold of you. You may make it non-search engine friendly if you'd like.
• For another chance to win you can post about my giveaway on your blog. If you do this, you MUST leave the link to the post about it in a separate comment saying that you have done so.
• For another chance to win you can snag this button below and post it in your side bar, (just copy and paste the code below the pic into an HTML/Java gadget in the Layout section of the Dashboard you can also do this for the post about this giveaway as well if you would like) and then leave another comment saying that you have done so. If you do this then you MUST leave a link to your blog in the comment if I can't link back to it.
• **BASICALLY JUST LEAVE A COMMENT SAYING YOU'D LIKE TO BE ENTERED AND TELL ME SOMETHING YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT FOR THE WINTER/CHRISTMAS SEASON AND MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IF I DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET IN CONTACT WITH YOU AND *PRESTO!* YOU'RE ENTERED!! GOOD LUCK!!**

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Contest ends at 7pm EST on Thursday, December 10, 2009. Winner will be drawn by random.org and e-mailed. You'll have 24hrs to get back to me with your mailing information, if you do not do so then I will continue to move on to the next person drawn until I have a winner with mailing information. Good Luck to you all, and please remember to follow the rules or your entry will be discarded. Happy Holidays!!

My Body is Toying With Me

It seems the hag is late. Which is no surprise to me, b/c well never in my life has she came as planned. So, to add insult to injury I put a HPT in my cart yesterday while I was picking up wrapping paper to start wrapping *B*'s Christmas presents. I rushed straight home (b/c as my body likes to play tricks on my mind I could swear that I had sore boobs and uterine twinges which for me are a common sign of pregnancy) to pee on that stick. I was hoping so desperately to see two blissfully wonderful pink lines so that I may have my Christmas miracle and not feel left in the dust while everyone around me seems to be reproducing like rabbits. Of course BFN. I hate it that even after starring at so many of those sticks looking like that, that it never fails I have hope while I see the pee move across the window. AF will be a happily rolling in though as I've been an up and down hormonal bitch all weekend. Guess I'll still be looking ahead to my new RE appt. in January. I can't wait!!

Giving Thanks

I'm always so behind on posting about holidays. I used to be on top of things before I was a mother to my own child (you know when I was mothering H*attie the teenager). Any way, I wanted to right my entry for what I am most thankful for. But first I'll share how this holiday went down in the land of Baby Dreams for all you dreamers (alas that is what I'm going to call you readers now.... dreamers!! YAY!!) So, where did I leave off? Oh yeah, I was stressed to the max, and I didn't want to even be making a Thanksgiving feast let alone dealing with the possible baby name stealing H*attie... that's where.

So, any way I ended up having to do my food shopping for the meal the day before. I had to struggle through the crowds, but I got everything I needed to make a delicious and delightful meal... well everything except cherry pie filling which I ended up substituting to strawberry filling, but no big deal. I got home and I still had a semi-sick boy on my hands, but he was definitely doing alot better than just a few short days before hand when we did a rush trip to the ER at 2am, so I got to work on dinner prep. I made all my desserts, rolled out noodles, boiled chicken, made cucumber salad, put all the casseroles together and in the fridge, and around the stroke of 1am on the day of got my turkey dressed and put in the oven. DH even helped me in the kitchen when *B* went to bed which was simply incredible. Then finally I went to bed close to 2am exhausted and with throbbing feet.

On the day of H*attie, J*ordan, and H*unter showed up early, but it was no big deal we had already been up for about an hour. She came on in and acted like nothing had ever been said between us, and as if she had never done anything wrong. She still doesn't know if she's pregnant, but says she thinks she is as she's over a month late on her AF. Whatever. She did the same old same old that she's done every year since moving out.... sat on the couch and was lazy not offering to help out in the kitchen one bit, and *H* broke through his first 2 teeth and she didn't even want to take care of him really; she just let him cry and cry. (More on her bad parenting in another post... I'm trying to stay positive in this one and be thankful.. right?) So, any way, *H* is still so tiny but he's the tiniest little walker I've ever saw.... it was adorable!! However he was scared to death of us now (being as they haven't been here since *B*'s birthday party on July 5th) and pretty much fussed and shyed away from us the whole time. We ate dinner, everyone got stuffed, and everyone left for me to clean up the mess. (Maybe I should change the title of this entry? I'm sounding unthankful.)

After this we headed to my Grandma's where I figured things would be hugely overwhelming as my Mom's side of the family just seems to keep falling apart and not getting along. It ended up being a great time, except for my cousin's pregnant girlfriend going on and on about how fragile her belly was after wanting to pick up *B*, and him trying to climb her. That was really the only down side for me... I could of done without that. I loved filling my belly for a second time with different types of food there, and I loved sharing all the laughter and love. Just like all the holidays before this one, a tradition I hope to continue on in my own home with my own family in years to come.

So, now to what I'm thankful for:

• I'm extremely thankful to have such a loving, understanding, caring husband who is also an amazing father. He doesn't always make the wisest of decisions and they don't always please me, but he only has everyone's best interest at heart. And even though I wasn't getting along with his sister, he knew that I would of regretted her not being here had I decided to keep my heart of stone.
• I'm thankful for my son. B/c without him I wouldn't have anything to help me get through the day on some days. He filled the hole I had in my heart that infertility left there. He is the light of my life and by far the greatest blessing I could ever ask for.
• I'm thankful for family. Especially the fact that I got to see my little brother for the first time since Halloween'08, which was amazing. They may not always be supportive, and we may butt heads all the time, but I know that they care for me and are always there for me. They help make the holidays bright, and definitely keep the laughter alive when there are times that you just feeling like crying or feel like you're dying inside. They are what have give me the firm and steady foundation of the person that I am today.
• Last but not least I'm thankful for all the things that some people over look such as food, a home, my bills being paid, and all the material things that help make everyday living a little easier. And even though I sometimes think my health is really crappy and I hate my body... I'm even thankful for that.

So, lastly I'll leave you with some pictures of the day that I hope you'll enjoy. (PS: Don't mind the fact that *B* had no pants on in a couple pics... we're still potty training and he thinks that he only needs on underwear or a pull-up with no pants. We're working on the whole it's getting really cold out you have to wear pants too thing, it's just taking awhile.)

PSS: For those of you checking back to see when I'm doing the Christmas Giveaway, I'm going to start it this coming Monday.

Big Changes Around The Blog

For those of you that frequent my blog as you've noticed I've made many big changes to the Baby Dreams blog. I love designing things and being able to tweak things just to my liking. I searched for what my DH would say was endless hours on different template designs, font designs, "how-to" tutorials, and downloaded an editing program.... FINALLY I have things just where I want them.

For those of you haven't looked past the top post, please do. There is a place for you to become a follower of this blog on the left side bar. This is VERY important as I plan to do a Christmas giveaway later this week or early next week and it will be my very first giveaway and YOU MUST be a follower. On the right side bar if you're dealing with infertility there is a button that links you to a common thread that ladies and even men dealing with infertility wear as well as a link to
Stirrup Queen's Completely Anal List of Blogs That Proves That She Really Missed Her Calling as a Personal Organizer.
(She calls it this herself, I actually have it listed as Stirrup Queens List of Blogs but whatever... LOL.) Plus, on the left side bar I've given love to the template designer of this blog... The Template Mama (her button is clickable as well so you can check her out if you'd like). And if you really, REALLY love my blog please show me some love by snagging one of my buttons on the left side bar or right here in this post. All you have to do is add a HTML/Javascript widget to you layout and copy and paste the code below the button, and please make sure you let me know if you snag it by leaving me a comment with your blog address so that I can come check out your blog as well.

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Last but not least if you would like to re-design your blog and you're having problems feel free to leave me a comment or email me at the email address I have listed in the right side bar, and I'll try to help you as much as I can. (FYI: I've made it non-engine search friendly and/or non-bot friendly so at is really "@" and dot is really ".", so on and so forth.) Much love to ya'll and I hope you're enjoying the new makeover as much as I am... Happy Holidays!!