Retiring the Old Gal

Nope, not me. I mean, I'm old. And feeling older by the day. But no, I'm sticking around for a while still. I'm sure you are all relieved.

We've officially retired our rocking chair. It might not seem like a big deal to many of you. But this sentimental mom is remembering the past 14 years of snuggles, middle-of-the-night feedings, spit up and more. All in this $100 Toys-R-Us clearance bargain I scored when I was expecting LadyBug. Who is now 14. Sigh. Four.Teen. Again, with the sigh. But it was long past time for a change. A quiet, smooth-riding change. This late 90's model has seen better days. Its contributions to the noise quotient in this house have exceeded Momma's limits.

I've mentioned before that I have purposed to cherish and use Mei Mei's naps and night time routines for all that they can be. But since Mei Mei's surgery, we've really been struggling with some hard night time issues. Sleep irregularities and deprivation have taken a toll on us all. She's taking MUCH longer to settle for both nap and night time. And that longer time has translated into raucous, grating, obnoxious squeaking and creaking from this old rocking chair. No amount of WD-40 has consistently worked. No tightening of bolts or screws has stood up against the steady rhythm of comfort that I have had to engage in twice a day for my girl. And the terrible noises have made me tense. Oh, so tense. Which, of course, has NOT contributed ummmm, positively, shall we say, to the process of soothing and gentling my girl to her rest. Rest that she desperately needs to feel in order to heal, both physically and emotionally.

So I bit the bullet and started shopping around a bit. True to form, the glider rockers that I really wanted to purchase were ridiculously, insanely crazy expensive. You know the ones that look like lovely recliners and "real" furniture for the family room? Yeah. Those are really gorgeous. But out of The Gang's budget by hundreds of dollars!

I wanted something that would do a great job playing its part in a quiet and peace-filled bed time routine but that also would fit seamlessly into the decor of the downstairs of the house when our rocking-Mei Mei-to-sleep-days are over (sigh, sob). I found a great deal on W@yF@ir, and scored a good price on a special sale day. A couple clicks and my new chair arrived on Monday.

In the process, I may have developed a teensy tiny addiction to their website. And to their giveaways. Maybe.

OH! ALL! THAT! FURNITURE!

OH! ALL THAT REDECORATING I'M DOING IN MY HEAD!

Mei Mei isn't too sure how she feels about it yet. She keeps patting it and saying "Soff, Soff," but she isn't totally embracing it yet. She kind of watches the cushion warily while I'm settling us in. But me? Heh. I might take my next nap there. It's quiet. And soft. And quiet. Oh. SO. Quiet.

Winning!

Oh, shameful. I know. So sorry for the pop-culture, outdated Ch@rlie Sh**n reference. I couldn't help myself.

My thoughts have been consumed since about 5 a.m. with the fun of announcing the winners of the three great gifts to thank my readers for hanging around here for 1,000 posts. You are all such treasures to me and I'm very excited to have the chance to treat you!

And may I say, I'm also super excited that I chose to extend the give-away deadline. Not only did about 18 of you take advantage of the additional time, but I got a chance to lay down on the couch and rest. This cold has hit my sinuses and particularly my left eye pretty hard. Working on the computer with one eye closed is really hard on the already pounding head-ache. I'm feeling better today; or I should say, the head-ache is subsiding. The other symptoms are still a pain but I can get a ton more done without a thumping head-ache. Ya know?!

Without further ado, here are the three winners

of my 1,000th post give-away celebration:

Winning the $25 Mary Kay gift certificate is my dear friend, Emily (comment # 27). I'm especially excited about this treat for Emily. She just had another lovely little baby and could really use some pampering right now.  I've know Emily since she was a newly-wed. She married one of the young men that was in the youth group where The Boss and I served as volunteer leaders. It's so amazing to have the privilege of watching these young people grow up together and in Christ and begin raising little ones of their own. She's a great example of steadfast, diligent mothering over the treasures God has brought to their home and I LOVE that she is one of my very first readers here at The Gang's All Here! It's a fitting gift for her and for me to share this little bit of luxury with her.

The winner of the lovely Sparrow Fund necklace and earring set is known here as "Viking Clan En Mass" (comment #11). It's my very clever sister's user id - referring to their large, growing (1/2) Norwegian brood who used to live in Massachusetts. Cute, huh?! The first time she commented on the blog with that identity, I was in China for Li'l Empress's adoption trip. I was so jet lagged and wiped out that I had to read it twice or three times to figure out who was commenting. I'm excited to share this gift with my sister - she is a  creative and selfless momma to her clan and rarely buys "pretties" for herself. This set will look so great on her!

Finally, I'm thrilled to share that the $50 gift certificate to Wild Olive tees will be given to Jen (comment #26)! Jen is a brand new reader here at The Gang's All Here! She and I are part of a local on-line support group of adoptive moms in our region, and on some of the local yard-saling sites together also. Turns out as we got "chatting" via F@cebook one day that her sister used to work for my cousin in his restaurant in upstate NY. So her sister actually knows many of my cousins. Jen, her hubby, and their son are waiting to bring home a darling little guy from China. I KNOW she'll enjoy the tees she'll be able to get with this gift certificate!

I think it's kind of cool how the numbers came up for each winner. I love the wide range of experiences that brought each of these gals to The Gang's All Here! - it really is so representative of the "persona" of this blog. And each gift is such a perfect fit for these ladies.

Thank you, to all my readers, new and old. Your feedback and your support for all the crazy things I share here is so appreciated. YOU are to be celebrated, whether you won something here or not. Thank you. THANK YOU!!!!

********************************************

Before you go, here's a little housekeeping for you:

1. Please don't forget, if you are interested in purchasing any Mary Kay products, sweet Joslyn is offering an additional 10% off each order if you mention my name.
2. Wild Olive Tees are still available for our fundraising efforts by using WHITNEY407 in the coupon code at check out.
3. Our Holiday Open House is this Sunday, November 11th from 2-5 p.m. If you aren't local and want to participate, you can find the public event on F@cebook by clicking HERE or by contacting me by email! The on-line shows will close one week after the event.
4. Finally, if you won, contact me by email so that the necessary arrangements can be made to get your prize to you.

Pinning It for Wild Olive Tees

Those crazy amazing gals are at it again, over at Wild Olive Tees.  First they announced the release of several GORGEOUS new tee designs. My word, where DO they come up with this stuff... The beauty of the designs alone give awesome glory and honor to The Father.

But then, their hearts! Their sweet, giving, over-the-top generous hearts are SUCH a tribute and honor to God, don't ya think? I mean, did you SEE this brand new give-away they just posted?

It's up and running through Sunday, Sept. 30th and you can win some beautiful new tees. And don't forget, we are still partnering with them to raise funds for our adoption expenses. So while you are entering to win free tees, you can pick up a couple tees to help us wrap up our fundraising. (Details are on the left sidebar, if you are interested.) That'd be nifty.  Go. Enter. Good luck to you :)

Wordless Wednesday {refresh}

Waiting with bated breath.

That little button is gonna see a lot of action today.

For more Wordless Wednesday fun,

head over to 5 Minutes for Mom.

To find out if I was chosen as one of the three

GRAND PRIZE WINNERS of the 

2012 Mary Kay Get Beautiful and Give Back

make-over contest, come back here.

*Update: I didn't win. I'm sad. But I'll get over it.

Sigh. I really did think my story was more compelling

and very focused on the "Give Back" part of the contest.

Why I've Taken To Begging

I thought this might be a good time to tell you all just what it is about this contest that has reduced me to humiliating acts of exposure and begging for votes.

Of course, there's the possibility of winning $2500. That's a nice chunk of change when one is scrimping, saving, and selling whatever isn't nailed down while working a part-time job to pay for all the documentation of an international adoption. So obviously, there's that.

But what really reeled me in, hook line and sinker; what really convinced me to bare my nekked face to the whole interwebby world was the opportunity to win FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS to donate to the charity of my choice.

Stop. Think about it.

FIVE THOUSAND SMACKEROOS.

That's a whole lotta moula.

And when I heard the big dineros being tossed around in the conversation, I knew I wanted to go for it.

Even if a teensy, tinesy part of me was cringing at the thought of ya'll seeing my splotchiness and "uneven skin tones" (say that last part in a somber, Mary Kay consultant's voice, please).

But I NEEDED to try.

Today I want to tell you why.

Living Hope International is a ministry dedicated to providing wonderful care to orphans in China who will likely never be eligible for adoption. These are children who have some kind of family in their lives but cannot be adequately cared for by that family. So Living Hope International takes children in, in agreement with their families (often grandparents too old or sick to care for the child, distant relatives who cannot manage the care of another family member, etc.) and sets about the business of educating them. They also work hard to provide a family-like atmosphere, and on many occasions, they are able to set up apprenticeships and vocational training for their students. All of this is done with the goal of helping the students become productive, respectful members of Chinese society who know how to work hard and give back to their community.

Here is their purpose, in their own words:

Living Hope International (LHI) exists for one specific purpose:

to operate Children's Homes and Training Centers
that offer a safe and loving environment
in which our children can develop to their full potential.

When we traveled to China in 2008, we had the privilege of traveling to the Beijing home and visiting for several hours. If you've been reading around here for a long time, you might remember me mentioning a certain young lady named Lois who stole my heart.  Our tour through the facility revealed such a warm and loving atmosphere. The classrooms were all decorated brightly and the students were all so incredibly polite and helpful. We had a lovely visit and came away humbled by the fact that we are part of something so incredible.

You see, Living Hope International is a sister organization to our adoption agency. It's a completely separate, stand-alone charitable organization that was created by the directors of our agency. Operating with its own board and accountability team, LHI is focused on it's stated mission with a clarity and a purpose that we respect and admire greatly.  You can read Samuel Fang's heart for this ministry here. It came out of a desire to do something for the children who will stay in China, for China's future, for the future of the children who will make up tomorrow's China. In fact, we often tell people that one of the "tipping points" for us in our decision to partner with Living Hope Adoption Agency was the existence of Living Hope International. Knowing that they were working to build families here all while working to strengthen and build healthy children from within China confirmed to us that this was the agency for our family.

We are incredibly proud to be in a relationship with an organization that works so hard and so creatively to help the children in their care become all that God created them to be. It's why I'm NOT to proud to beg for your votes. And obviously NOT to proud to bare my nekked face all across the interwebby.

So now that you know all that, won't you please go and vote 5 times each day, now through June 15th for my "Before" and "After" makeover? Using every email account you have in your home? And would you please consider sharing this post and this information with your friends and ask them to vote too? I'd so appreciate it. And I know the children of Living Hope International would too.

To register your votes, head to the picture of me at the upper left of the sidebar. Click on that and you will be taken right to my make-over gallery. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Thank you for caring for the children of Living Hope International.

Get Beautiful And Give Back {Correcting The Error}

My deepest apologies to anyone and everyone that has been trying to vote for me in the 2012 Mary Kay Makeover contest to "Get Beautiful and Give Back."

If you click on this link HERE, it should take you right to my gallery. Yeah, I'm the one with the splotchy red skin and red nose. And no, I was not drinking. Sigh. It's just me. And my rosacea.

Please be clear, you will be asked for your email address and to enter a verification code. Even if the instructions might say to leave a space between the "two words" in the verification codes, there is only one word, do not leave spaces.

I am so very, very sorry for the inconvenience. I've contact Mary Kay and my consultant and we are trying to track down the source of the other post's technical problems but this should be the fix you need for now.

Don't forget, you can vote 5 times a day, per personal email address. And you can share this post and the one I did earlier with folks to help them understand what I am doing. I'm working on making sure all the links work.

Thursday, I'll tell you about the charity I will be giving the winnings to, should I win. I think you will all agree it's worth fighting through the link failures to get to vote!

Again, my apologies. This is the link you need:

Get Beautiful and Give Back.

In Which I Humble Myself and Beg... Among Other Humiliating Activities

Those of you who are fortunate enough to know me in real life (ha, I'm feeling cheeky today!) know that I'm not really a glamour, diva, high-fashion kinda gal. I stick to a fairly simple routine of drying and pasting up the hair, medicating the rosacea (ugh), brushing a little bit of color on my eyelashes. I throw on my jeans and a tee, slide into my Nike flip-flops and I'm a happy gal. A happy gal with a minimalist's attitude about skin and make-up routine. But recently a bit of an opportunity dropped into my lap and I just have to share it with you.

Remember me telling you about the F@cebook yard-saling that I've been doing? Well, a gal saw some of my stuff and came over to purchase things for herself and her sister. We just clicked. She was intrigued by our adoption journey. When she heard about our "actual" yard sale, she donated a bunch of baked goods to the efforts. Man, did she make the baked goods! They sold out by the middle of Saturday morning, and I think Shaggy and Dr. D were her biggest customers.... as if I never feed them around here or something.

She contacted me to see if I'd be interested in a somewhat humbling creative opportunity to raise  funds for our adoption expenses. Seems that she is a Mary Kay consultant and thought I might enjoy entering their "Get Beautiful and Give Back" Annual Make-Over Contest.

Heh. See, she's a new friend and didn't really know about my aversion to a make-up routine.  But you know what? I did something pretty out of character. I said, "YES."

I said "Yes" to a make-over. I know. What on earth? I almost NEVER wear more than a touch of mascara. Occasionally I add a little eye-liner. But always, always, I stick to the browns and olives. Simple. No fuss. No muss. Matches everything. So I said yes.

THEN she gave me the rules. (She's a smart cookie, this new friend.) Allow her to photograph my "Before" look and my "After" look for the contest and write out a little description of why I enjoyed the Mary Kay make-over session. Then spread the word to win the most votes.

So. Now, I'm entered into the contest.

And now you have to vote for me.


Vote 5 times using your email address.
Then vote five more with another email address.
Or your mother's email address
(Kidding, I'm kidding... I used my husband's!)
Voting runs from noon (CST) on Tuesday, June 5th
through June 15th at noon (CST).


You can vote up to 5x per person, per day.
Click away, my friends, click away!

It's amazing to me the things we will do for our kids. I actually agreed to allow my completely-naked-of-any-products face appear on a nation-wide website. On the internet. All for the chance to win $2500 for our adoption journey. And $5000 for our favorite charity. Wow. What can I say? I love that little girl God is picking for us.

You have to help make the unveiling of my splotchy red embarrassed face and invisible eyelashes count for something. You have to. Please. I'm begging. Yes, that's right. BEGG.ING. I ain't too proud to beg. For heaven's sake, I've already bared my nekked face to the whole interwebby world. There's nothing left to be proud about.

Go. Vote. Tell others to vote, too. Just don't look too closely. Please?! Thankyouverymuch.

The Mother of All Give-Aways... Just For Mom!

Ever since I discovered blogs, even long before I started writing a blog myself, I've been following the goings-on at 5 Minutes for Mom. I love their sister sites, their efforts to educate and inform their audience and their regular introductions to all manner of things new. But what I love most of all???  (And don't mess with me, I'm betting you love this, too!) Is their Mothers' Day Give-away.

Each year it seems to get bigger and better. More cool products that I'd never buy for myself. New trends in jewelry and clothing that I'm totally not "up" on. Gift cards to places I love to shop. Or would love to try out but have never just jumped in to. Tickets to shows I'd love to see. The list of prizes this year is growing by the day.

Really. You need to head over and check it out for yourself. It served as my little "stop and dream indulgently" moment today. And don't we all need that a little more often these days?  Who knows? You might even win something for yourself that is truly indulgent. Wouldn't that be totally fun?  Go. Surf around. And have a few minutes of fun. It's my treat.

Wordless Wednesday {or not....)

During our church's season of prayer and fasting, The Gang decided to give up television together. And when I say "The Gang decided," we all know that I really mean "The Boss and I decided for us all." In the interest of putting aside some of the "noise" of the world around us, we've been encouraging the kids to find other pursuits.

Here's what they did Monday night for a while.

I can't believe no one called Li'l Empress for cheating

by hanging on Shaggy's neck for help!

Let's just say that Shaggy is not nearly

as flexible as he'd like himself to be.

Which suits Dr. D just fine.

He emerged the victor!

For more Wordless Wednesday fun,

wordless or not,

head over to 5 Minutes for Mom.

And please, stop lurking!

I see you there in the stats, you know.....

One Last Giveaway To Share

I have one final giveaway to spotlight for you.  This, too, is a great way to invest in someone else while shopping for yourself or entering to win the goodies. As the mom of a former China Care girly, I'm especially tickled that China Care's partner organization, Half the Sky, will be one of the recipients of the blessings of your investments.

Here's the fancy-dancy button on which to click.

And please, click away - there's some truly great stuff in store for this giveaway. Read all about it in this post and get to clicking and commenting! The first post of the giveaway went live earlier this week and has already been awarded, but you should be able to get in on at least day two or three and go from there.... Have fun!

Huge

I LOVE a good give-away.

But more importantly, I love a good give-away

that is meant to support a good cause.

Really, I'm not a big fan of the word "cause"

as I've used it here but it's early

and I'm having a tough time finding another word

that works.

Just a little hang-up of mine....

So. One of my all-time favorite sites

is hosting a HUGE give-away contest.

HUGE. Like, 15 winners huge.

That, I think we can all agree, is awesomely huge.

Heh. There's my "finding another word" thing

cropping up again. Meh. I need more coffee.

Here's the skinny on how to get yourself entered 

to be one of those 15 winners. Once you read all the details,

I think we can all agree that the "cause" is also awesomely huge.

I think we can all agree

God's name is going to be glorified

and His hands will have lots and lots of extra opportunities

to work His Good in lots of little hearts.

Quite literally.

And that? Is HUGE.

It's Not Too Late

at least, it's not too late THIS TIME!

It's been ages and ages since I entered one of the fun contests over at 5 Minutes for Moms. Mostly cuz my computer is so slow and reading up on the many cool things they offer over there ends up taking me so long to do.  But that's EXACTLY why this particular contest looks so perfect for me.

Click on this button and check it out. They are giving away some really great stuff. NOT the least of which is a very sleek, compact, and FAST notebook. (I had to ask my sons: apparently a notebook is no longer a spiral-bound mass of lined paper waiting to be filled with pretty words! It's a little mini-laptop. Who knew?)

Head over for yourself and see the other stuff they are giving away. Maybe you'll get something great out of the partay?

So Loved. Sharing The Love.

My bloggity crush is hosting two really big, special giveaways, to help raise funds to bring home her TWO precious girls from China.  You really need to check out the fun going on over there.

The first give-away is called SO LOVED. You can ready about it by clicking on the adorable button strategically placed here in my post. It'll take you straight there, like some kind of super-duper high speed magical transporter. Give as generously as you can to help bring home little Poppy and Esther to their waiting family.

You automatically get entered with every donation for some pretty sweet prizes.  And even better?  It's an investment in two sweet little girls who need to come home to their Mommy and Daddy. It's an investment in a family that is heeding God's plan  to build their family through special needs adoptions. It's an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy way to DO the Love Of Jesus. Cuz we're all supposed to be DOING that stuff.

The second give-away is called SHARE THE LOVE.  You can enter that by posting on Facebook and/or your own blog about the SO LOVED give-away. Literally, you will be "sharing the love" by telling others. And if you do that, you can be entered to win some purty stuff.  Click HERE to see what you can win. 

Purty, huh?

So, there ya have it. Some bloggity clicking to keep you busy and to get the word out about cool prizes, a really cool family, and some fun stalking.

Ooops. Did I say that out loud?

And don't forget, when you click there,

tell her The Gang's Momma sent ya.

A Give-Away!

Who doesn't love a little bit of free these days?  Especially if you've been stuck in the house with cabin-fever washing over you in waves of icy wet, antsy, ickiness.

Not that I'm feeling any of that.

Ha!

Head over to my friend's blog. It's brand new, encouraging, uplifting, and a great read.

And today?

Today she's hosting a give-away.

I think you might really, really like this one.

Go on. You know you want to.  Really. Go.

Extending the FUN!

The Christmas Give-Away over at 5 Minutes for Mom has been extended till this Saturday, December 4th. How cool is that?  It sure allows slacker moms like me a little bit of time to still get in on the fun... I'm always happy about extensions of deadlines, especially this time of year!

Head over here and join the fun. You can find all the rules and details to enter.  And pick yourself up one of the cool buttons for the event, like the new one on my sidebar. You never know, you might win something really cool.

Oh, and One More Thing Before I Go

. . .before I go enjoy the food and fun with my family for tomorrow's feast, that is. . .

I know I'm late to the game on this one, but so my whole last month goes..... But apparently there's a cool give-away going on over at Ni Hao Y'all.  And you all know how much I love me some giveaways. Add to the fact that Miss Stefanie is spearheading the effort and I'm over that.  Late, I know. But all over it now. :)

So, head over to her post today. Join in the fun. And tell her The Gang's Momma sent ya. Cuz she's not already scared enough of my stalker tendencies.

You Might Want to Click Through For This

If you are used to reading me in a reader or subscription service, you might want to re-think that in the coming days.

Remember that blog make-over contest I told you all about a while back?  Do you remember that I won that contest?  Well, Miss Christie and I have been swapping emails back and forth for quite a long while now and she's helping me figure out what I want. In fact, she's been inordinately patient and kind through the last few weeks of crazy, busy here at The Gang's house.  And she's getting ready to roll out my new look soon.

So, you should keep an eye out for the changes we've been brewing up together and start clicking through the subscribers to land directly here on my page. You know, in order to view the loveliness that she is cooking up for me. I'm quite pleased with the look and I think you all will like it, too.

Don't forget that she's doing all this as a celebration of the launch of her new blog design business. You can find out more about that by heading over to Bushel & A Peck Designs.  She's really quite talented and I'd love for you to support this mommy-business of hers if you are in the market for a new site or a new look for your existing site.

Can't wait to see my new digs go live!

Do You Need a Little Grace?

Hey guys,

There's another "Yay! Free Friday!" 
over at Baby Be Blessed today.

Today's prize is an adorable little doll named "Grace"

that would make an excellent gift for any little girl in your life.

I especially like the verse on her Scripture patch:

"He has made
everything beautiful
in its time."

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Head over HERE to join in the fun.

I REALLY Wanna Win This One!!!

It's no secret to any of you regular readers just how crazy, flipped-out I am over the lovely Miss Stefanie. 

And I think it's safe to say I've made myself perfectly clear just how amazing I think those Wild Olive Tees are.  (Gosh, did you hear how "Mom-ish" I sounded there?! I feel like I was channeling Harriet from Family Matters there for a  bit!)

And not to be forgotten in the amazing awesomeness of the lovely Miss Stefanie's tri-fecta is No Hands But Ours. Really, if you aren't following their blog, you must. You really must. 

But I digress...

So when I tell you that there's a big deal give-away going on over at Wild Olive Tees, and that the grand-prize is a visit with the lovely Miss Stefanie (and her co-hort in WOT's amazingness, Miss Amie), well, then you pretty much can guess just HOW! STINKIN'! EXCITED! I am by it all.

Right? You could guess that, right?

(I must be excited. I hardly ever use pink.
But it works here, doesn't it?)

So. The give-away.  They are celebrating the re-vamp of the Wild Olives Tees website. And they absolutely have a ton to celebrate. It's a beautiful new site. Classy. A pleasing bit of eye-candy for the loyal WOT shopper. Like me. Very celebration-worthy. (Speaking of which, I'm in process for a bit of re-vamp here, myself.  Can't wait to see what my new blog will look like. Keep checking in. It shouldn't be long now...)

Here's the scoop:  Get yourself over HERE

to check out the details of the give-away.

But, please. Don't enter. Because you love me and want the very best for me. And I promise you: the very best for me would be that grand prize. Really. It would. Cross my heart.

And just in case you might ever doubt the pure delight that IS a Wild Olive Tee, I submit the following evidence:

Delightful, no?

(Said in the most humble manner possible!

The delightfulness for me resides in the fact that

my lovely daughter actually deigned to sit

and POSE with her Momma

without an ounce of tween angst!)

Do You Need a Make Over?

I've never really been one to spend too much time thinking about the facade of this blog - the free templates and backgrounds that are available "everywhere" have sufficed for the most part.  Occasionally, I get an itch to have a new look that defines "me" here but I've never really done much about it, beyond the free stuff that I change out, usually seasonally. I figure that I already spend way too much time coming up with wonderful, witty, meaningful dialogue. What excuse could I possibly come up with to explain MORE time spent combing through sites to find just the right look? And frankly, I'm just too darned CHEAP to want to invest any. money. at. all. on this here little hobby o' mine.

But.... my friend, Christie over at Bushel and a Peck, is hosting a new contest. A free blog make over that will give your blog (my blog?) its own unique feel and "first impression" for anyone who stops by here.  You, too, are eligible to enter this make over contest. To do so, click HERE and check out the rules.  And if you win, I'll be very, very happy for you.

If I win?  Well, then I'll have to come up with something that makes this blog scream "THE GANG'S MOMMA DUMPS HER BRAIN HERE!"  I'm starting to feel a little stressed at the idea of it... But that's what the look of a blog is supposed to say, right? That's the point of a make over, right?!

Right?!