Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Friday, April 10, 2009

Thursday, April 9, 2009

So Thankful for What I Have

I really am thankful for my health and the fact that I wake up in the morning and get my Gabriella out of bed and am able to spend the day with her. I had mentioned previously that I know at least two other mothers online who were pregnant with cancer. One of those mothers has undergone a stem cell transplant. She has been posting how excited she was at the thought of being able to spend some time with her daughter (who is younger than Gabbi). She is under lock and key to prevent infection right now. She had been denied any time to see her daughter due to a fever from the way I understand her posts. Yesterday I logged on to see her status set to how happy she was because she got to finally spend the day with her baby girl. It brought tears to my eyes. I cannot imagine not being able to spend my days with Gabbi.

I could not imagine having to spend weeks in isolation in the hospital away from my children. It's easy to sit around and think of the what ifs and the fears involved if it came back. When you really sit back and think about it though, that is just inviting trouble. I think you have to enjoy today and quit worrying about tomorrow. Otherwise you aren't ever really enjoying today. I think it's easy to take the small things for granted. My thoughts and prayers are with my online friend. I hope she's home with her daughter very soon.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

A Good Night's Sleep and a Day Full of Sunshine

Sounds all bright and cheerful doesn't it? Well I complain enough when the weather isn't good and I feel grumpy when I don't get a good night's rest. So I figured I can jump for joy when things go well too! Gabriella ended up sleeping great last night. I am so happy because I hate when she wakes up crying. I sometimes wonder though if perhaps she isn't just a tad spoiled. Maybe sometime she's just waking up because she wants momma? Maybe. She has me wrapped around her chubby little finger though.

Finally the snow is gone and it's about 55 degrees outside. I am so ready for summer. I love the warmth. I am praying it lasts.

On another note I was going through some old pics again yesterday. I use Village Photos. I happen to love them. I pay $5.00 a month to use them but I don't get all these bandwidth usage errors like I see with photobucket. I have never seen it with village photos. I hope it lasts. It seems like just about the time I realize I love a website it CHANGES. Haha Anyway here are a few pics of my dear miracle baby when I was pregnant with her!







She liked to wave hello and dance inside me. haha




And while I am at it, here is a picture of my other three beauties in 2007.



And another of my husband and myself when I was about 28 weeks pregnant.




That's all for today! I love going down memory lane.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

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.

Monday, April 6, 2009

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!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

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.