I Got Some Blog Awards!

I'm way behind in posting the awards I got from On The Verge. I am honored to get these awards. I love her blog! I am a regular reader there so it is such a compliment that I would be given them. I have been so busy with Gabbi and I having bad colds. Then I got busy planning her birthday. Now that it is all done and Gabriella is tucked safely in her bed I am ready to get my awards posted! So here goes.








The Rules:
1. Each player starts with eight random fact/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. A the end of your blogpost, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their name.
4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged and to read your blog.


So I guess I am supposed to write 8 random facts/habits about myself. These are always hard. I have a hard time thinking of anything. Here goes.

1. I have four sisters and no brothers, just like I have four daughters and no sons.

2. I like to stay up waaaaay too late.

3. I am a chronic insomniac. I wasn't until I was prescribed prednisone for an allergy in 2004 and then never could get my internal clock right again.

4. I like to sing loudly in my car to the radio. Sometimes I am even listening to my daughter's Chipmunks CD! haha

5. I absolutely love to dance. It's hard to get me off the dance floor.

6. I watch the same TV shows every night to help me sleep. Frasier and the Golden Girls! lol

7. I like to read while watching TV.

8. I have sat here for 10 minutes and can't think of anything else. lol

OK. I have to pass these awards on. So here goes.

1. Life 2.0

2. Comedy Plus

3. Happy to Be Called a Mommy

4. The Virtual Dime Museum

5. Pink Stinx

6. Random Ramblings

7. Health Nut Wannabe Mom

8. I Kicked Cancer's Ass

I'm Featured Today on

I found this site through Entrecard and have loved it. I relate to her so much and enjoy reading all of her posts. If you haven't, go check out her blog and be sure to read the interview I did for her site posted today.

Happy Birthday to My Little Girl!!!

It is finally here! Gabriella turns one today. I love my baby girl! My little lady has grown so much. She's a big girl and has made such an impact on the lives of everyone in our family. We love you Gabbi! Happy Birthday my sweetie!



Yesterday we decided to let her open ONE present for practice. hee Maybe we just couldn't wait actually. So here she is....learning to open her very first gift.















I love this one. Her first eyes closed pic. lol

Entrecard for Traffic to Your Site

I have been using Entrecard now for about 2 months. I joined it not really sure what it was. I was simply trying to increase traffic to my site. I wanted people to see my blog. I enjoy writing and I was doing it before anyone really knew it was here. Still it would be nice to know others were reading and getting to know my story. So, I joined Entrecard as just one of the many things I found to increase traffic. It has so far been the one thing that increased my traffic the most. I have this Blog of the Day widget to the right here. It says "Get One" if you don't have an account under the picture. Well basically this is a buisness card. You go to other sites that have a card and you drop yours. They come here and drop theres. It's any easy way to find new blogs. Lots of the time people just drop and run but I can't tell you how many people say they found me through entrecard and stopped because they liked what they were reading. I try to keep content good. I thought I'd share with all my readers about entrecard. Dropping cards earns you credits on their site and others dropping on you earns you more credits. You then buy advertisements such as the one on this page to put on others sites. It gets your site out there. People click on your card. My traffic pretty much doubled when I joined. So give it a try. I recommend it. You'll hear differing opinions. You do need to make sure you keep the widget on your page. Don't have music on your page because honestly that irritates some people and I believe it can get you deleted from Entrecard. Read the rules. Some have gotten deleted and didn't know why. I also use Blog Catalog, Blog Log, Twitter, Digg, Technorati, among others. Yet Entrecard has really been the best for me. Hope you all have success with it too!

More of Gabriella's Birthday

To continue what I was writing yesterday, my water had broke and I was on my way to the hospital at 3 a.m. last November 17th. I got to the hospital in my town and they checked me and monitored me for a short time before calling in Life Flight. I was doing fine and so was baby thus far, but with my risk situation we'd planned long before to send me off to a hospital about 2 hours away that specialized in births that were high risk. They had the proper facilities for a preterm baby. I just felt safer there. So off I flew. I have never flown in an airplane but this was my second trip on Life Flight. It was a beautiful cool morning. I was bundled up like a burrito on the gurney. I felt warm and hadn't had any contractions yet. I was pretty worried about having them on a cramped helicopter!

They positioned me so I could see out the window. The sun was just creeping over the horizon. It was beautiful. The helicopter is very loud. They said I could put some headphones on if I needed to, but I kind of liked just looking out that window, the hum of the helicopter blades in my ears. I looked out across the flat beautiful land and watched the sun come up, wondering what was in store for me. I felt peace. You wouldn't think going through all of this you'd have such a strong peace. I did. I knew she would be ok. I just knew it. It was all a new beginning for me and a start for Gabriella. I had just finished chemo and I was bringing a new life into this world. Her life was like a symbol for me. She symbolized strength and getting well...new beginnings. That sun just coming up over the horizon just made that feeling stronger. A new day. No mistakes yet. No bad news. Just hope.

I got to the hospital. I was alone of course. The hubby had to take the kids 2 hours the opposite direction to my parent's house. He had to take our dog to the kennel. We weren't ready for any of this! We expected it to all be organized when I was induced. That wasn't what Gabriella had in mind though. She was coming when she wanted. I got to the hospital in about 20 minutes. It was around 6:30 a.m. when I got in and hooked up. My contractions were just starting to feel bad enough that I had to breathe slowly through them around 9 a.m. I was worried that by the time my hubby got there that I'd be in a lot of pain. It wasn't bad yet...but since I have done this 3 times before I knew it could get bad in a second. Finally around 10 a.m. the hubby got there. I had the epidural literally seconds after he walked in. My mother was there too. My dad was watching the kids. I loved having my mom there with me. She was really excited as well.

We had a whole lot of docs. There were regular docs and the nurses and docs for the NICU. None of us knew what to expect. Four weeks early and months of chemo. It was so uncertain. I progressed pretty quickly from there. I pushed for maybe 10 minutes tops, and Gabriella was born. I wanted to hear her cry, to know she was ok. She did. I heard her crying and that was it. Mom and dad were crying too! We were looking at her, and just seeing how perfect she was. There were still tests to be done and the docs needed to examine her but she looked perfect. She needed no NICU. She was doing great. She was born 6 lbs. 2 oz. and 18 inches long at 2:10 p.m. on November 17th, 2007.

I felt good too. I didn't take my eyes off of her. I really couldn't. I loved her so much and we'd been through so much together. Her life and mine will always have a bond. She won't possibly understand how much of a miracle her life is for a long time. She won't understand what her life meant to me and my husband for many years. I will always tell her and make sure she knows. We beat cancer together.