Trying NOT to Pull My Hair Out!

As I have stated previously in this blog, Gabriella (my little miracle baby) has acid reflux. She has issues and it has come down to a science to get her to sleep comfortably. She cannot have anything to eat or drink for about an hour before bedtime. I make sure she has no formula for at least a couple of hours before bedtime because she tends to get a lot of acid from it. It's kind of a silent reflux thing. It never comes out but you hear it in there. She swallows a lot and sometimes coughs. It's hard for her but worrisome for me. I do not like seeing her in any discomfort.

Well I have been doing things just right and she has been sleeping better. I give her her Zantac about an hour before bed and after all foods and fluids and it seems to work. Well I was getting ready to put her down for the night but wanted to go talk to the hubby for just a minute. I asked my oldest daughter to watch Gabbi for just 5 minutes and I'd be right back. They were sitting together on the couch watching TV. So I figured I'd be right back. I was and when I returned Gabbi was drinking a bottle full of formula made by her ever so considerate big sister. Quite literally I was gone for 5 minutes and big sister thinking she was doing a good thing, made her a bottle. *sigh* So now I cannot let Gabbi go to sleep or she'll be up with acid the whole night. I must wait for it to all settle. I hope she can stay awake that long. I hope I can stay awake that long!

Not Feeling too Bad Except Thyroid Pressure

Usually the closer I get to a checkup I feel worse. I realize it's probably mostly mental but seriously I feel the symptoms. I feel ok right now. I think one huge benefit to me is that I have accepted that all the pressure in my throat is not gone. I think I was in denial for so long. I felt it had to be all gone. If I felt any pressure it scared me. Well I do have thyroid nodules and I realize the pressure from those are going to cause some discomfort. I do wonder though if anything can be done about those. My thyroid thus far is functioning normally, but one particular nodule is actually visible on the front of my neck. You might not notice it if I didn't point it out but you surely would if I said something. I haven't really done much research as far as what would be done for a healthy thyroid with nodules causing uncomfortable pressure. I need to see an endocrinologist. If I could do something about the nodules I feel that I would not have the occasional worry and concern that I get. How am I to differentiate the pressure? How will I know to worry or to blow it off? I don't. So the scan coming up on my chest and neck area should give me some answers I think. Hopefully if something can be done I'll find out soon.

Family Game Night and Give Me Your Links! :)

Last night was a good one with the family. We had bought the new game of Life for my daughter's Christmas present. The new one uses "credit cards". It took a little getting used to but pretty soon we were flying through the years. I managed to win the first two games. We played a third game and my daughter Mikayla came out the winner. One thing I noticed that is different about this version is that it's not who has the most cash who wins. You earn cash, but Life Points as well. Those points are earned by marrying, having children, going on vacations, etc. She was actually in the hole a good million. LOL Of course she was living in a mansion with 2 kids, a husband and a dog she adopted. Ha! All this and she is 9. It was a really fun time. I think we over did it with the snacks though.

As for links, well with Entrecard being SO very uncertain right now I am trying to build up my blog rolls with those who visit me on a regular basis. I don't want to lose anyone. So if you would, please add your link here in a comment and I'll add you to my blogroll. I only ask that you add me to yours as well. Pretty soon I think perhaps Entrecard will be pointless other than to paid advertisers. Time will tell!

Entrecard Paid Ads...It's Not Personal

I will be rejecting some of the paid ads through Entrecard. I am by no means rejecting them all but I simply cannot go through and approve all 20 I have this morning. I am getting NO ads paid for with EC coming through. I want to let regular advertisers have their shot at getting their ad on my page without having a paid ad rotate through most of the time. What I don't get is that they say it will be paid ad 50% of the time and a regular EC ad 50% of the time. My question is if I have 20 paid ads, are they all rotating through as well? If so how does that leave 50% for anyone? I don't know. I don't get it. I am rejecting some paid ads at least until I can understand this more. I don't want most of the ads on my blog to be paid. I would like for some of these ads to be bought through just using the hard earned EC like I do. I feel like my own ads will never show up anymore. That's irritating. Until I see this whole paid ad thing kind of work out the kinks I'm going to just sort of pause with the whole paid ad approval. It might just be sitting there waiting for me to approve for the next week. I need to make sure no one is being treated unfairly (namely advertisers who aren't paying cash) before I go accepting all these paid ads.

Again, as I stated on my other blog, I do apologize to those who do not use Entrecard. I know this is confusing. I guarantee if you read many blogs this topic is huge right now.


*EDIT in reply to a commenter who said ads are automatically approved after 24 hours just sitting on my dashboard. Well I have the box checked specifically stating "Allow paid ads only if explicitly approved by you". That is under advert settings. I would think that should stop them from being automatically approved. I am just rejecting paid ads. There are entirely too many. They have taken over Entrecard as a whole. I don't see with how many paid ads that are coming through that the regular EC adverts will ever show. I'll reject until I see something change. I will approve your ad through the old fashioned EC way. And just to note, until now I have NEVER rejected an ad.

Rabbit Food? No Thanks.

After having cancer you really start to hear all the advice rolling in on how eating right will either cure it or make it never come back. I have had many comments about not having chemo but just eating strange health foods to get well. Those comments are frankly silly to me. This cancer was invasive and killing me. I didn't have 3 weeks left to live according to the specialist I saw. I had not only my husband and myself to think of but three children and one growing inside of me. I knew there was no magic cure. There was no special food that would make this cancer go away. Honestly I found it insulting that someone would endanger my life just to promote their diet.

Now I didn't get many of those bits of advice but they are out there. Do I believe in eating right? Yes I do. I also believe that you live once. You can't go through your whole life eating roots and leaves and twigs. I need substance. I will try to give up things that are terrible for me. But you know what? Every now and again I may eat something fried. *gasp* I eat red meat on occasion. I will enjoy it. I don't want to get to the end of my days and not have enjoyed it. I don't believe you should live on those foods and I think you need to incorporate the good things into your diet. I believe you should get more of the good stuff than the bad stuff...but you know I truly do not believe that any food is bad in moderation. I think it's not the food that is bad but our own greediness that is bad. We can't have just a little portion we need more and more. That's the problem. I am trying to give up my diet Pepsi and not doing too bad mind you! I am getting more and more and water. I'll never totally give up the diet Pepsi. haha I'll reduce and have the occasional splurge.

In a nutshell I basically feel these restrictive diets to prevent cancer or to cure it are unrealistic. If I had a terminal cancer perhaps I might feel differently but you know, even then I think I would just be content to live out what I had left of my life as happy as I could. I am an advocate of eating healthy but I am also an advocate of everything in moderation.

I Say Drink Up!!

I am a coffee drinker. I have become more of a coffee drinker in the past couple of years. I used to drink it on occasion and now I have it every morning. I sometimes feel guilty about about having all the caffeine and I do force myself to drink more water. I am not much of a water drinker at all. Now I have heard the occasional good thing about coffee. I want to point out though that anything in excess can be problematic so don't go over board or anything of course. Still I have heard good things and now this one takes the cake. Coffee may help keep skin cancer away. You read that right. According to MSNBC caffeine kills off human cells damaged by ultraviolet light. Rather than quote the whole article I'll link you to it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29409056/.

This is interesting to me. I like the idea of coffee fighting off cells damaged by the sun. I know there are all kinds of ideas out there on how to fight cancer. There wasn't a thing I could do about mine. We still have no idea what causes it. If I had some clue maybe I could feel like I was doing something to prevent it from recurring...but really what can I do? There isn't a thing and it's a helpless feeling. So in the mean time I do like reading about how to just take care of my body and preventative measures I can take to prevent cancer in general.

Penmanship Tag and Awards!! Lots of Them :)

OK. I am going to try and post all of these. I get behind. I want to do them all at once, then I lose track of some of them. So here goes. First off is a Penmanship Tag that I got from Jess over at Me, Myself and Jes. You must know first off that my handwriting is awful. I used to have decent handwriting but over the years and scrawling out checks and signatures for kids papers and signing permission slips etc, my handwriting has become more of an illegible doctor's signature sort of deal. Regardless, be kind at my cursive/print combination disaster! haha

Instructions:
1. Write down who tagged you.

2. Answer these:
- your name / username / pseudo
- right-handed or left-handed?
- your favorite letters to write?
- your least favorite letters to write?
Write “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

3. Tag five persons.




Now as for those I tagged I will type those, since there is a good chance you have NO idea what it says. haha

1. The Chickenista
2. I Kicked Cancer's Ass (Meaghen)
3. Confessions of a Female Hockey Fan
4. Jiggety Jigg
5. Racing for a Cure!


There you go! Whoever WANTS to do it, go on ahead. If not, well it will not hurt my feelings. I thought this tag was a fun one!

Now for the awards. I got a few from Me, Myself and Jess. First off I have the Smart Blogger award!

Accordingly, The recipient of this award is not your everyday blogger, if you visit their blog, one thing for sure, you will learn something that is really worth the time you spend reading their post. Their post is always well-written, with good grammar, very insightful,inspiring,thought provoking and you always wish that you've written it. They always have a great stories to tell,either about life, about themselves, or their family. Once you read their blog, there's one thing that will stuck to your head, that they are absolutely, no doubt, a Smart Blogger!

• Link the one who gave this award and let them know you posted it.
  
• Pass this to as many Smart Bloggers as you can think and make sure to write something about them, like what makes you think they are Smart.
• Let them know they have an award.

There are many Smart Bloggers that I know out there! Since I already tagged 5 people in this post I am just going to repost the awards but am not able to pass them on right now. It's just going to take too much time as I am sure you all understand. Gabriella is keeping me on my toes. She just tried to throw the DVD player on the floor. So I must get through this quickly. haha


Next award also from Jes is the 2009 Friendly Blogger Award! I like this one. Sooooo cute! I love it. Thank you again Jes!



"Let's Spread the Spirit of Friendship to all the Blogosphere all over the World."


Here is the rules for this award :
1. Take a Photo or install one now .
2. Do not change clothes,do not trim the hair,the main image is to be captured (we want to see the real you...he..he..) .
3. Post a picture that is in edit .
4. Post this instructions (required).

Now I guess I am to post a picture of myself. I am definitely NOT taking one now. lol I am in my pj's still...so I'll post a good, clear, unedited pic. Not that this is unusual for me. I post pics a lot! haha




Next up is the Perfect blend of Friendship Award. I love these awards! I haven't seen any of these ones before. This is from My Little Angels.







I didn't see rules with this one so I am just saying thank you so much!!!


Next is the Sisterhood Award.


This one is from My Little Angels as well. Thanks so much again for this wonderful award.


Next up is this AWESOME award from PrettyFireFly.com. I am a Certified Queen of Blogs. haha I like this one. So cool.

I think that's all for today. I do get behind on these things and look what it becomes! haha I love them and thank you all to who thought of me. I appreciate it more than you know.