I Love My Post - Blog Hop

When I found out that I was going to be this weeks Featured Blogger for the "I Love my Post" Blog Hop, I was extremely excited! I'm a fairly new blogger and I can't believe how fast things have been going.  I LOVE IT! Let me tell you alittle bit about how I started blogging and then I'll let you start hopping!

The name of my blog was actually a mistake! I was trying to make an introduction post for my blog and ended up naming my blog 'My Kind Of Introduction' instead of naming my post. After I realized what had happened, I decided that I liked the name and I stick with it. I've thought about changing it a few times but then I realize that I really like the way it sounds... I'm introducing people to new things everyday, the name fits!

I created my blog a little over a year ago so I could post freebies that I would randomly find while searching through the web. I knew nothing about what I was doing and didn't really post that often. My blog was getting hits but I had other interests and like I said... I didn't really know what I was doing. Throughout 2012 I posted every now and then. For some reason, in January 2013, I decided that I wanted to be a blogger that posted everyday and rarely. Next thing I knew I was a full-time blogger with more information in my head that I could of dreamed about learning in such a short period of time! Being a blogger is wonderful! The beginning is always slow and I'm okay with that. My blog is growing each and everyday and I couldn't be happier!

I have met some wonderful women that have helped me so much along the way and I owe a BIG Thanks to all of them! I also want to Thank all my fans and followers! I wouldn't be here doing what I love without you all!! My favorite things about having a blog is that I can help people out in ways that I was never able to do before! And I'm not just talking about with the Reviews and stuff like that. I'm talking about promoting Small Business and helping out other moms who are just trying to make it from one day to the next. I enjoy spreading the word about what my friends and other awesome people can do for others and if someone needs their help or products then everyone is happy! Helping others when I can is what puts a smile on my face, even if it is simply giving a mom a new craft idea to do with their kids or telling a mom about an awesome business that makes Bows for little girls. Every little bit helps and I understand that more than ever now.

I believe 2013 is going to be an Awesome year for My Kind Of Introduction!

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A MOMMY BLOGGER!!!

Now on to the Hop!

I want to give a SUPER BIG THANKS to Sarah, One of the hosts for this Hop. She's one of those wonderful women that I have met throughout my blogger experience and she is such a great person.

Super Sweet and Super Helpful!

**Thank you Sarah**

If you want to receive a reminder each week when the hop goes live - please sign up to our brand spanking new mailing list: 

Just click here!

And remember if you want to be a co-host give Sarah an email.

 

Welcome to the I Love My Post blog hop where we invite you to link up your favourite post of the week, to show it off and hopefully receive some love from the others partaking in the hop!

If you are yet to participate in a hop they are really simple to get the hang of all you need to do is 'hop' around, hopefully finding some new great reads!

The Rules are simple.
1. Check out and follow the hosts and co-hosts. Leave them a comment if you would like them to follow back.
2. Choose at least 3 other blogs and hop on over and leave them some love, plus let them know how you found them - I'm sure they would love it if you followed as well!
3. Have Fun and come back next Saturday.

Please just don't link up and click off to make this successful everyone needs to hop around!

Your Host’s this week are:
Sarah from Life in a Break Down
Bex from Futures
and our lovely co-hosts are:
Lauren from Simply Free
Jo from Jo, My Gosh!
Fiona from Dolly Dowsie
Autumn from My Kind of Introduction

I would love it if you would tweet, share on facebook or place our button on your blog, the more sharing we can get happening the bigger this hop can become!

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This week's Featured Blogger is: Autumn from My Kind of Introduction

Autumn is lovely, I first came across her blog in a Facebook group and it's one I now visit most days (most as me doing anything daily just doesn't happen) her blog features all sorts from reviews to giveaways. She's a craft, photography mad Mum so make sure you check her out ~ Sarah

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If you fancy being next week’s featured blogger make sure you follow all the rules give you hosts and co-hosts a follow and Sarah could be calling on you next week to come and feature with us.

My Daddy Paw and his Cancer

I'm happy to say that I'm part of a wonderful Blog Hop that's going on right now called 'Blog Hop for a Cause'  For the month of March the hop will be about Cancer.
Cancer can be hard to talk about sometimes but affects so many family's, including my own.
For this hop, I'll be telling you my story of how I've dealt with cancer with my family and friends.
At the bottom of the post you will find more posts from other bloggers participating in the Blog Hop for a Cause.


My Thoughts about that scary 6 letter word

The thought of cancer has always terrified me. It had always meant death to me and made me feel extremely sad. I'd never been real close with anyone who had cancer and I tried to not think about it much. When I was in the 7th grade a boy in my class who I was friends with missed alot of school that year and no one knew why. One morning, Danny and his mom walked into our classroom. Him and his mom told us that he had Leukemia and was going to be out of school the rest of the year. Everyone cried.... even the teachers. But being the tough and rambunctious boy that he was, it didn't take long before Danny was cancer free and was back at school with us the next school year.

Years past and I only heard of Cancer once more while still in school, when a distant aunt got Breast Cancer. I'm not real close with her so it didn't really bother me too much. I'm sure it would of if she would of passed away but she is now cancer free and has been for years!

That's why I'm not sure why I'm still so terrified of Cancer as an adult when all the people I've known who has had it are still here with me today. But I was never able to overcome my fear.

2012 was full of surprises, some good and some not so good.

My youngest daughter started Kindergarten and her sister went into 1st grade.

My aunt is pregnant with her 2nd child and it's a BOY! (When I got pregnant with my 1st daughter, it wasn't long after that both of my aunts became pregnant too! We all had girls, then I got pregnant again and along came another girl. This time my aunt is adding a boy to the family. Now my brothers, who are 14 and 12, won't be the only boys in the grand-kids/great grand-kids generation.) Everyone is excited!

That was a good part of the good news of 2012.

Some of the not so good news was that one of my good friends from high school was diagnosed with Cancer, Hodgkins Lymphoma to be exact. She worked at my daughters' school and had been doing great. She just had hand surgery from where she sliced some nerves on an aluminum foil box during the first week of school. It wasn't long after her surgery that she got the news that she had cancer. We were all surprised! Lots of fundraisers and benefits have been held to help raise money for her and more are to come. (She has a 3 year old daughter who needs her mommy to live a long and healthy life) She's still doing treatment right now but doing good.

The News

In between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my daddy-paw was diagnosed with Lung Cancer. They had found a mass in his lung a few weeks before at a regular doctors appointment and sent it off for testing. The tests came back positive for Cancer.

The sad part is that I found out about all of this on facebook from a post my aunt wrote. She was telling everyone to pray for her family because her daddy had be diagnosed with Cancer. I was stunned! My mama got intouch with me later on that day but I was mad! Noone had called me and let me know, I found out about something THAT important over FACEBOOK!

I know that I don't go visit my family much, and I'm not just talking about my grandparents... I stay home 90% of the time and I don't see or talk to alot of people but I would of liked to of known about something so important. 

I was mad for a few minutes but I got over it fast and now I'm perfectly fine. I'm very sensitive and get upset very easily these days and I'm working very hard on that aswell.

Growing Up

My daddy-paw has always had a big influence on my life. I never had a very good relationship with my dad or my step-dad so my daddy-paw is all I have when it comes to a good father figure. He's a wonderful man who will give you the shirt off his back if you needed it.... and if he was wearing one lol, He's a mechanic who works in the hot sun all day, so he doesn't wear a shirt often :-) That's one of the main things everyone knows about my daddy-paw. He doesn't wear a shirt often, his hands are always black from grease and his skin is so dark and leathery from working in the sun all his life. He'a also a very funny man! Always cracking jokes and making someone laugh. If we got fell and scraped our knee, he would just look at us with a straight face and said "Does it hurt?" We would always reply with a YES and he would just simple say... "It'll feel better when it stops hurting" Such a joker and LOVES playing his guitar. The song "Daddy's Girl" always brings back memories of dancing on the porch while daddy-paw sang and played his guitar.

My Daddy-Paw and me when I was just a few months old

I bet some of you are wondering why I keep saying Daddy-Paw, I always get weird looks when I say it.

Well it's pretty simple to explain...

When I was a baby, my daddy-paw was trying to tell me what I was to call him. He would hold me in one arm and my aunt in the other, my aunt is only 5 months older than me so she was a baby as-well. He looked at Lynn and said "Daddy" and then turned to me and said "Paw". I guess he wanted me to call him Paw but I had other plans. Being the smart baby that I was, I'm not conceded I promise, I put the 2 words together and came started calling him Daddy-Paw. It stuck! Both of my brothers and my daughters also call him daddy-paw, my little cousins call him Papaw. Since my aunt and I were so close in age, we would always hang out together and end up at the shop with Daddy-Paw. We would bring bags fulls of notebooks, crayons, music, make-up... everything that 2 young girls would need to keep them busy all day. Lynn and I would blast music on our little radio and dance on the flat-bed trucks that would be parked at the shop or we would sit on a blanket and work on our magazine that we made called The Butterfly Club. Just girls being girls while hanging out with our favorite man in the world! I was a bit of a tom-boy when I was younger but I still had alot of girly-girl in me. I remember when daddy-paw would take Lynn and I fishing and I wouldn't put the worm on the hook. It grossed me out and I couldn't get it on the hook like Lynn and daddy-paw could and the fish would eat my worm before I had a chance to catch him. I finally caught my first fish in the creek below my Paws house (Daddy-Paw's daddy) when I was about 8 years old. The fish was a medium size goldfish and I was super excited. I remember the look of happiness on his face when I finally caught a fish. I can picture him sitting on that rock with his fishing pole in his hand, laughing while saying "Well take it off the hook!" and that was another thing I just couldn't do.... Holding a slimmy fish while jerking a hook out of his mouth was not how I wanted to celebrate my first catch! But I did throw him back in the water after Lynn got the hook out of his poor little mouth. The creek was always FULL of goldfish and some of them were HUGE. My uncle use to stock his pond with fish so I'm thinking that some of them made it to the creek but I'm not sure how... I don't know much about fishing except that I use to have alot of fun fishing with my daddy-paw and Lynn. I'm sure that all those fish are still swimming around in that creek but I haven't been there in many many years.

My fear now is that I will lose my Daddy-Paw. He'the one that I want to walk me down the isle one day! He's my daddy-paw and I couldn't picture my life without him, I can't picture my family without him.

The Benefit

The auction tables, overflowing!

On March 9, we had a benefit at a local Lion's Club and the turn out was wonderful! There were lots of donations given for the morning yard-sale and LOTS more for the auction. The Donations really amazed me! I wasn't there for the yard-sale but when I showed up for the Dinner and auction, I was amazed! So many people showed up, I didn't know alot of them but I knew they were supporting my daddy-paw and that made me happy. You could buy raffle tickets and/or get an auction number. Some of the donations were things like gift cards to local businesses, Mary Kay and Avon bags full of products, Clothes, knifes, lots of tools! They even had a four-wheeler and a dirt bike that they auctioned off! Both in almost new condition! I was shocked that so many people wanted to show their support and raise money for my family. I held back my tears more than once! 

They even had live music by a local Blue Grass band called 'Lester Grass'. They were great and showed their support with a very touching speech and wonderful music. All the kids danced in their seats and had a really good time.

This video don't show much of the music but I got a little bit of it.

They had a BBQ dinner that only cost $5 and you got double the amount of food that you would of gotten anywhere else. It was so good that my fiance bought 3 to-go plates for us to take home! You could also buy a gallon size bag full of BBQ! It was awesome! At the auction I was able to get my daughters a couple new toys and some baby clothes for an upcoming baby shower and my fiance got some good BBQ... his favorite food!

The girls opened their toys before I got a photo of everything I got from the auction at the benefit.

Overall the Benefit was a BIG HIT! I'm not sure the exact number of what was raised but I know that it really eased my daddy-paw's mind alittle bit and the money is really going to help out with all the doctor bills.

Right now my daddy-paw is taking it day by day and everything is going pretty smoothly at the moment.

Cancer still scares me but I'm working on that. It will take me a while to come to the realization that cancer has truly hit my family because it's still hard for me to believe. Only time will tell how things will go and we will figure it all out when we get to that point but the only thing that matters to me is that we are still together on this earth.

I'm hoping to have more benefits and fundraisers for my daddy-paw in the near future and if you have any ideas, please let me know. I've been a lost for words for a few months now and have been trying to come up with ideas but I'm not getting very far. If anyone wants to help you can comment on this post or email me at

AutoFaerie@gmail.com

Please make sure you add a catchy Title to the email so it don't get deleted on accident. 

My Daddy-Paw and my youngest daughter.

That's whats important.

I want to thank all the people who were involved with the set up of my Daddy-Paw's Benefit. Including The Erwin Hills Lion's Club, Lester Grass and all the businesses and people who donated money, wonderful stuff and their time.
Our family really appreciate all your time and effort
Aswell as all your care and support!

My Story of Pre-Partum & Post-Partum Depression. You are NOT Alone!!

Depression is NO Joke, and You Are NOT Alone!!

Almost everyone has heard of or know someone who has suffered Postpartum depression. For those of you who don't know what it means : 

Postpartum Depression is when a woman feels moderate to extreme depression after she has given birth. It can occur right after the baby has been born or up to a year later. I personally believe it can happen after that 1 year mark as well, it depends on your personal situation.

Not many people know about Pre-Partum Depression, that's when you get some sort of depression while you are pregnant. Some cases can be mild and others can be full blown extreme depression. Alittle bit of worry while your pregnant is normal but if you start to slip into deep depression, the thoughts you have can be dangerous and the stress can be too much on the baby and cause problems. If you realize you or someone you know is going through depression while pregnant, talk to your doctor or your friend and get help. 

Here are the symptoms of Pre-Partum Depression

• Feelings of guilt, anxiety or worthlessness
• Fatigue or loss of energy
• Impaired concentration
• Changes to eating habits
• Weight gain or weight loss
• Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much
• Lack of interest in activities that you usually enjoy
• Recurring thoughts of death or suicide

I had no idea there was a name for what I was going through. I also had no idea how common it was for a woman to "not want her baby" for a while when she was pregnant. Let me explain.

My boyfriend and I got together in October of 2004, I had just turned 17 and was still in my "Party Girl" teenage years. We were together for almost a year when I realized that I hadn't had my period in a few months! On my 18th birthday, I looked at my mama and told her I was proud of myself because I made it to my 18th birthday without having a baby or being pregnant! Everyone around me was having babies early and I always wanted a baby but never really thought about when I would have one. Come to find out, by the time I made it to the doctor, I was 4 months pregnant. That means that I was pregnant on my 18th birthday but didn't know it. My first pregnancy was wonderful! I didn't have morning sickness, I didn't blow up in size like people were telling me I would, I only got the basketball-belly. I did have to start going to the doctor twice a week due to my belly deciding to stop growing during my last couple months. I had to be hooked up to a NST machine and press a button everytime I felt my baby kick. Other than that, all was fine and dandy. The only problems I had were the fact that me and my aunt didn't get along for a few months while I was pregnant. Both of my aunts were also pregnant and sometimes it was hard to be around another pregnant woman. After I had my daughter in June, I realized it was tough being a mom. My boyfriend was working alot so it was normally just me and the baby. I'm not for certain, but I think I was starting to get some of the postpartum depression symptoms. My daughter wasn't even 4 months old yet and I realized that I was once again, pregnant! Already stressed about my first baby, I was horrified! I cried and cried! I went to the doctor and they confirmed it. I was 3 months pregnant. Finding out that I was about to have another baby was not what I wanted to hear. My daughter was very young and so was I. It didn't make me feel any better to know that we were barley able to afford living as it was. A few weeks after I got the confirmation from the doctors that I was, indeed, pregnant again, I quietly broke down. I didn't want another baby. My boyfriend already had 2 sons, other than our daughter and we was getting his youngest boy every other weekend. It was very hard for me to handle both my daughter, Loran, and his son, MJ, both at the same time, by myself! Like I said, my boyfriend was working all the time and it was 2nd shift from 4pm until 2am or 3am so when he was home, he was sleeping. I got to the point where I would would do nothing but get out of bed - take care of my baby's needs, and stay on the couch. I didn't want to move, I didn't want to eat, I couldn't sleep. I would stay up at night until Alan would get home and then hang out with him and our best-friend until they would wind down from a night at work and then I would try and get some sleep. Most of the time I would lay in bed wide awake until I got frustrated and would get up and find something to do. (I'll admit that normally it was video games... Fable on XBox is wonderful) I sat there, in my house, day after day wondering how I was going to take care of this new baby? Could I love it like I loved my daughter? Would I be able to care for 2 kids at my age? Would we have the money to care for 2 kids, not just kids... 2 babies? My due-date for my 2nd child was set for the month before, Loran's birthday! I wasn't even sure if my babies were going to be a year apart or not. My neighbor's son and his wife had been trying to have a baby for years. They had one son but it was her son from another marriage so they wanted a child together. They had tried everything but they couldn't get pregnant. I was so terribly close to giving them my baby. I wouldn't of actually just handed my child over, but I was thinking about letting them adopt.

One of ultra-sound pictures from the day I found out I was having a another baby girl

Once I found out I was having another daughter, it made me feel a tiny bit better. I was worried that if I was to keep this baby, I wanted it to be a girl. I never had the want for a son. Don't get me wrong, I love boys! I have 3 little brothers and 2 step-sons and love them all dearly. I just don't know how I would handle the differences between the 2. I have wanted a baby girl for aslong as I can remember and I always told myself and everyone around me that I did not want a boy. Of course, if I would of had a boy, knowing that I can't choose what sex I want my child to be, I would of loved him just the same. But knowing that I was having a girl made me feel a bit better, but not completely. I still wasn't sure if I wanted the baby that was growing inside me. My boyfriend was pretty supportive, he wasn't happy that I didn't want the baby but he understood why. Noone really knew exactly how bad I was suffering. I was going through this pregnancy alone. With my first daughter, both of my 2 closest aunts were also pregnant with girls, we were only a few months apart. Everything I went through, it wasn't long that my aunts were going through the same thing, all with our first babies! Loran was born in June, Alexandra was born in July and Jane came in September. All right after one another. Noone was pregnant with me this time. Both my aunts were getting use to being new mommies while I was breaking down inside. I wouldn't tell anyone how I felt due to people thinking bad of me. How could I explain to my family that I was spiraling out of control and I felt like it was the baby's fault?! I felt horrible for feeling the way I was feeling. I wanted to love my baby. I didn't want to feel nasty thoughts about her. I couldn't even tell my mama, I was afraid to tell the doctor even though I'm pretty sure that I should of said something because I had a mix of Post-Partum from my first baby and the Pre-Partum with my 2nd. Once I started feeling my daughter move around in my belly, I slowly started loving her more and more. I knew she was coming and she was mine. The closer I got to her due date, the more I wanted her. By the 6th month of pregnancy, I had to do the NST visits twice a week again. It was the same ordeal, my belly wasn't growing like the doctors wanted it to, but my babies were always healthy. I don't remember how many times my doctor asked me of I was suffering from any type of depression but I was never alone with my visits and didn't wanna say anything and for my family to not understand. By the time Jade was born, at the end of May, I loved that little blonde baby girl more than ever! I was now 19 and extremely glad I didn't make the decision to give her up. If I would of put hope in that couple's mind's, that they were about to get a baby of their own, I would of had to of broken their hearts and kept her. Jade was mine and I wasn't giving her up. I loved her just as much as I did Loran. After we got home and I was a new mother of 2 babies, life was hard. I had 2 daughters that were under a year apart. Both in diapers, both with bottles, both in cribs. My oldest, Loran, would cry everytime her baby sister would cry! It was so pitiful and cute all at the same time. It was also very stressful! I wouldn't only have one screaming baby... I had 2. I would have to feed one while making the other happy. I was stressed and since we had a new baby, Alan got a new job and worked even more. I've always been the type of girl that if I had a problem, I dealt with it. I didn't like going to the doctor and complaining so they could give me something to make me feel better. (That's how asking the dr for help, felt like for me) So once again, I started getting symptoms of Post-Partum depression again. I kinda knew I was going through Post-Partum but I kept quite and worked myself through it as best as I could. I took care of my babies and rarely ever felt so bad that I couldn't or didn't want to go on with my day. On the bad days that did pop up, their father took over very well. He helped me out the most he could with him working all the time but even he didn't know it was depression that was making me feel that way. I believe he just thought I was not happy with him and my life and I'm very sorry that I didn't let him know what was going on at that point. My daughters are now 5 and 6 and I love them dearly. Yes I still deal with bad days where I am very moody and nothing seems right. I have lots of days where I think that this is not how my life is suppose to be. I never thought I would be almost 25 years old with 2 kids in school. My main thought is that the only dream that has came true for me is that I would have a child. I wanted to travel and now that seems impossible to me but I always remind myself that it's okay for now. Things will get easier as the kids grow and I remember how hard it was when my girls were smaller. My depression is getting alot better as days go by and someday I may decide that it's to hard for me to take and I'll goto the doctor and see what they say, but for now I'm doing great. My life is good and I'm happy. I love my daughter's with all my heart and I wouldn't trade them in for anything in the world! <3

Anyone who had dealt with this, has their own story about how they went through or is currently going through Post-Partum or Pre-Partum Depression. If you believe your going through any of this, know that YOUR NOT ALONE! Here is another story about a woman who is pregnant and is going through the Pre-Partum Blues. (The Blues is when it's a mild case and hasn't made it to the not eating, sleeping and full blown depression) She is having a real hard time coping. The video is from Ricki Lake's new show on the ABC channel called The Ricki Lake Show.

Watch Below

 

I hope my story helps someone. Even if it's just one woman who reading this and realizes she may be suffering through either Pre-Partum or Post-Partum Depression and decided to get help, I will be happy. Extreme depression can be harmful to you and your unborn child. It can also cause your relationships with people around you decline. If you need help, don't be afraid to ask for it. The help you need is just one question away. Please share this post so we can spread the work on Pre-Partum Depression, almost 70 percent of pregnant women today feel some sort of depression during pregnancy ~12 percent suffer from extreme depression! And even fewer realize it and get the help they need.

Post written by Autumn B

References - Other than Me:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

http://www.allparenting.com

http://www.encognitive.com
 http://therickilakeshow.com