FaceBook

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Kobo Arc Giveaway!

I'm so excited about this prize! I'd love to win a Kobo Arc myself, so when I received the chance to be a part of this giveaway I joined right up! I'd love to see one of my readers win this one!! Good luck everyone!

Welcome to the Kobo Arc Giveaway!

Organized by Mom to Bed by 8

Hosted by: and Capri’s Coupons, Spaceships and Laser Beams, Stay a Stay at Home Mom, The Penny Hoarder, Powered By Mom, Baby Costcutters and Iowa Mom.

KOBO ARC – READS YOU LIKE A BOOK

The Kobo Arc 64GB offers booklovers a competitively featured Android 4.0 multimedia tablet with a new way to discover content – books, movies, TV shows, music, web pages and more. With a Kobo-developed interface called Tapestries, Kobo Arc gives consumers an exciting new way to discover content. Using an intelligent cross-media recommendations engine, Tapestries responds to the user’s “pinned” content to recommend related videos, movies, books, webpages and other related content. Tapestries makes it easy to discover new personal multimedia recommendations with little effort as the engine learns what consumers love – and brings them more.

The 7” high-definition display delivers crisp, sharp text and with 16-million colours bring photos and videos to life. With front-facing speakers with SRS TruMedia, a built-in microphone and high-resolution 1.3 MP camera to take photos and videos, the Kobo Arc offers up to 10 hours of continuous reading or video play, and two weeks on standby. With Google Play, Kobo Arc users have access to more than 600,000 apps and much-loved pre-loaded apps including Facebook, Twitter, Rdio, Zinio and PressReader.

One lucky reader will receive a Kobo Arc 64GB.

Giveaway ends April 15th at 11:59pm, open to US & Canadian residents, ages 18+. To enter please use the Rafflecopter form below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received no compensation for this publication. My opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. The Fibro Frog is not responsible for sponsor prize shipment. Please contact teri@mompoweredmedia.com with questions or to see your business or blog featured on the next big event!

Friday, March 22, 2013

Friends Help Friends Sleep Better Contest

Who better needs sleep then those of us with Fibromyalgia, right?!  This is one contest that I'm happy to bring to you, in hopes that one of you will be a winner!  Insomnia is the one thing that's completely killer to me with having Fibro.  If I could get more (and better quality) sleep, then I'm sure I wouldn't be in as much physical pain as I'm in.  

Bedtime Network is a site that's chalk full of articles and tips on promoting better sleep.  Not only is the site a wonderful resource, but they're also sponsoring a wonderful giveaway to help you start getting better sleep!  They're hosting the Friends Help Friends Sleep Better Contest!  Check out these awesome prizes!

One grand prize winner will receive a free personalized consultation with six bedtime network experts!

They'll help you create a personalized bedtime ritual that will help to promote sleep!  Bedtime Network isn't stopping there though, check out the awesome first and second place prizes they're also giving away!


They're going to give three lucky first place winners a Bedtime Beats iHome and Clock Radio, and they're going to give five lucky winners a copy of the award-winning music series, Bedtime Beats - The SEcret To Sleep, along with a pair of bedphones -headphones that are designed for sleep!

This contest is open to U.S. residents ages 18 and over!  Enter on the form below, and goodluck!!

*The Fibro Frog is not responsible for choosing winners or for shipping and/or distribution of prizes.  




a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Almost A Year Later, And A RAOK Challange


As Easter quickly approaches, my mind keeps wandering to a year ago.  Last year starting on Good Friday, my world came crashing down.  I remember hearing my husband's alarm clock going off, but I was too tired to rouse.  He had the day off of work, and was heading about an hour and a half South of us, to look at some public hunting ground.  He'd always loved to hunt and fish, and he said he heard there was a lot of wild turkey at this particular spot.  With turkey season fast approaching, it didn't seem odd to me at all, that he'd be going to check out hunting land. 

I laid there with my eyes closed, trying to stay enveloped in my warm, cozy, state of sleepiness.  I heard him get up. I heard him go into the bathroom and come back out.  I heard him get dressed.  Just as I was drifting back off to sleep, I remember hearing him come into the room and stoop down on my side of the bed.  I felt his breath on my face, and his soft lips touch mine in a kiss.  He whispered "Good bye, I love you".  I whispered "Bye, I love you too.  Be careful". Little did I know, that would be the last time I'd ever hear him say those words to me.

The previous night, Jason had told me he'd be home by 1pm.  Around 11:30am or so, I tried to call his cell phone knowing he'd be on his way home.  He didn't answer.  I figured he must just be delayed on starting back home, and that he'd be returning my call any moment.  An hour past, and my phone hadn't rang.  I tried his cell phone again, and the same thing.  No answer.  This time, I left a message.  This scenario went on for another couple hours.  After that, his cell went straight to voice mail.  He'd turned it off.  I was bewildered, scared, anxious. You name the emotion and I probably felt it. 

Late that afternoon, I checked our bank account online and it was empty!  I honestly started hyperventilating and crying uncontrollably.  I knew this meant he was gone.  He'd taken all the money we had, and he'd left me on a holiday weekend.  We'd been at the grocery store earlier that week and I suggested we buy what we needed to make Easter dinner, but he'd told me no.  He said that we'd go shopping for our Easter dinner on Saturday, that way we wouldn't have to freeze the ham, or have it taking up refrigerator room.  At the time, I thought that was reasonable.  In reality, he'd just screwed us out of having an Easter dinner.  -Not that I could eat much anyway being so upset, but it was screwing my kids, my family, out of an Easter dinner.

Hope.  What a small word, but one that can mean or bust anything in life.  I kept up hope that he'd show up and we'd go buy what was needed and have Easter as a family.  I kept up hope that he wouldn't be cruel enough to leave me over a holiday.  That even if he wanted to leave me, and was going to leave me, that he'd at least come home and buy what we needed to make a holiday meal for our children and us.  Our family.  

None of my calls were answered Friday or Saturday.  Our then 16yr old daughter at the time, kept sending him text messages to which he wouldn't reply.  Finally, on Easter morning at 11:30am he sent our daughter a text message that said "I'm leaving your mother but not you.  I'll be home late tonight to get my things".  He'd been cheating on me with a woman he'd met online on some game site.  I couldn't believe it. I couldn't stop crying uncontrollably.  I felt like I couldn't breathe and I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack and just die.  That's no exaggeration.

I hastily typed a facebook status saying something about what a jerk of a guy I was married to, that he'd left me completely out of the blue, wiped out our bank account, and didn't even care that our family wouldn't have an Easter dinner this year.  Then, I ran sobbing to my bedroom and laid down in bed, not knowing or really even caring, if I'd ever get back out of bed again or not.  I laid there sobbing and gasping for breath, and must have fallen asleep without realizing it. Before I knew it I heard my dog start barking.  Then, I heard a knock on my front door and my daughter talking.  I heard her say "Oh my gosh, this was so kind of you guys.  I can't thank you enough".  I tried to hurry and get out of bed to see what was going on.  In my state, I was fumbling around and it took me a minute or two, to walk out of my room.  By the time I got out to the dining room, my daughter was standing there with grocery store bags on the table, and holding one in each hand.  

"Courtney, what's going on?" I asked.  She started lighting crying, as she'd been crying and upset about our circumstances too.  She said "Mom, that was Joe.  He said that Mandy saw your facebook status and said that no one should go without an Easter dinner.  They went out and bought everything we need to make an Easter meal and brought it to us.  All the way down to pie and whipped topping for dessert".  Once again, my tears started flowing.

What's even more amazing?  This beautiful young woman didn't even "know" me.  Her fiance, Joe, and my oldest son met in drivers ed class years before, and he'd been a friend of the family ever since. Joe wasn't living near us anymore, he was living with Mandy whom I'd never met in person.  To this day, Mandy and I talk on facebook but I've still never met her in person. 

This beautiful young woman is Mandy.



When I'm super upset, I can not eat.  I hadn't eaten anything since early Friday morning, and this was Sunday afternoon.  Knowing I was too upset to even cook, my youngest son and his fiance took the bags of food to the kitchen, and they started making us a meal.  With everyone coaxing me to eat, I managed to get a few bites of everything down.  

Although embarrassed and ashamed that I couldn't buy the stuff for our dinner myself, I was so so very grateful for what this lady did for my family and myself.  I honestly couldn't wrap my mind around it.  I couldn't believe the lengths she went to, just out of the kindness of her heart, to bless a family she'd only heard about, and read about online.  

In all honesty, which you all always get from me whether you like it or not lol, I was worried how the approaching holiday was going to affect me emotionally.  I was afraid that I'd feel my heart being ripped out of my chest again.  That the pain would come flooding back.  But guess what?  The thing that I actually keep thinking about the most, is the random act of kindness that was showed to my family.  Yes, writing this made me a little emotional.  I've blinked back tears a few times while typing this.  A year ago those tears were because he left me.  Because of the hurt I felt.  The way he left me.  Wondering what I was going to do.  This year though?  Even right tonight, while typing this, most of the emotions I'm feeling are due to Mandy and Joe showing us the unexpected love and humanity that they showed us.  

No matter how many words I write, or how hard I try to convey how grateful I am for what was done, it won't be enough.  I just can't find the words to describe how it made me feel and how thankful and grateful I was (am) for it.  I vowed that I'd always try to provide RAOK's in return for the one done for me.  I still don't have any money.  I hadn't worked in years due to my health.  I'm fighting appeals with social security to receive disability.  Our one saving grace is that I don't have a mortgage or rent payment. My house needs a lot of work, but we bought it outright with cash when we bought it.  I'd love nothing more then to be able to surprise a struggling family with a complete Easter dinner this year, but since that's financially impossible for me to do this year, I'm trying to do as many free RAOK's as I can.  


I challenge you all to provide as many RAOK's between now and Easter as you possibly can.  It doesn't have to cost you anything. Since I struggle financially so much right now (yeah, that part about not leaving his daughter?  He went from June 10th until mid-January without seeing his daughter one time, and is $5000 behind in child support.  He DID leave her too) I do what I can that's free.  For example, while grocery shopping late one night, the store was almost empty.  There was a very elderly lady in there shopping.  She met my eyes with a smile on her face and I smiled back.  She paused and said hello.  I spent over 10 minutes just standing (which oh my gosh just kills me pain wise) in one spot, talking to this poor, lonely old woman.  By the end of our conversation, she thanked me for listening and asked she could give me a hug.  Well of course!  Being hugged is honestly one of the TOP things I miss about not having my husband any more.  Another time, an elderly woman looking at something on the bottom shelf at the store. She had her eyebrows knitted down and looked genuinely concerned.  I stopped and asked her if she needed something on that bottom shelf.  She did.  I almost didn't make it back up, but I bent down and retrieved the item for her. She was oh so tickled, that I still felt good about doing it a week later.  Heck, even today it still makes me happy.  The other day at the dollar store, a lady was in line behind me and only had two items.  I told her to go ahead and go ahead of me in line.  <----That one I do a lot of the time.  Once, a man and woman were buying several packs of hot dogs.  They were on sale.  I had a bunch of coupons that when doubled, made the hot dogs free.  I approached them and told them how I had coupons to make them free, and asked them if they'd like a couple.  They were so tickled up.  -I'll admit, I kind of felt like a freak approaching them an asking if they'd like the coupons, but I'm glad I did as they were so happy about them.  My most recent RAOK, was just last week.  I again was in the Dollar General store in my tiny little village.  I have a bunch of coupons for $1 off kids Colgate toothpaste.  My store has it priced at $1.  I picked up four of them that trip for free (well ...close enough to free.  The sales tax was $0.07/ea).  A lady was in line behind me and looked pretty hard up.  She had two sweet little kids with her.  A little girl that looked around 5, and a little boy that appeared to be around 3.  I asked her if she'd like a couple tubes of kids toothpaste.  I explained to her that I got them free.  She acted bewildered, and said sure.  So I took them out of my sack and gave them to her.

I may not be able to do much, but I hope and pray that the little things I do, heck ...even by having The Fibro Frog, is making a difference to someone.  Both this blog and the facebook page ...which I'm completely guilty of posting way more there then here on the blog, bring me joy every time someone tells me "Thank you for his page.  You're page is what helps me make it through a day sometimes".  I hope that sometimes when I smile at a very elderly man, or woman, or couple in a store, that the warmth and love I have shows through my eyes and somehow touches them.  I'm not a Saint by any means.  I still have days where I sit and cry, and feel sorry for myself.  I still can get mad and have a quick temper.  Sometimes I have to really watch my mouth.  Over all though, I feel like I'm a good person, because my heart honestly is filled with a love and passion to help people.  In any way I can.  I'd always heard about RAOK, but I'd never been the recipient of one.  Until last Easter.  It completely changed me.  The pure joy it left me with, drives me to keep trying to give back.   Would you join me and possibly help change someone else's life, like Mandy did mine?  Do a RAOK.  Try it, it's fun and will leave you with a wonderful feeling inside.  





Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Tired ....and Not Just Physically, Mentally Too

In fact, I'm more then tired.  I'm exhausted both physically and  mentally.  I'm going to put a disclaimer here, that this post is not a happy post that's filled with fake "rah-rah my illness doesn't define me" crap.  It's going to be the truth.  The truth of how I feel.  If this may offend you, then please don't read.  If you do read and it offends you, then I'm truly sorry but that's on you, because I've placed a disclaimer warning you not to read the post in the first place.


A lot of people across the net doesn't like me.  Or my blog.  Or my correlating facebook page.  They say that as an advocate I'm supposed to do nothing except to "support" people.  I'm supposed to never post anything negative.  I should always sound upbeat and peppy.  Well, that's not who I am.  That's not what Fibromyalgia, arthritis, and whatever my still un-named autoimmune disease is.  When I have a good day, I'm extremely grateful for that.  I post on my facebook page about it.  I always have words of encouragement for anyone who posts on my facebook page that they're down or having a hard week ...or day.  Some times my encouragement may only be "I'm so sorry that you're having such a hard time right now.  I truly know how you feel, you're absolutely not alone.  I'm here for you, and so are almost 6000 other people on this page.  I'm sending you a huge, yet gentle butterfly hug and I'll pray that tomorrow is a better day".  I will never lie to someone, and if I don't know any answer to a question I'm honest about that as well.  I'll say something along the lines of "You know, I'm not sure but that's a great question.  I'm going to go research that and see if I can find the answer.  In the meantime, I'm going to copy and paste your question to make sure all of our community sees it and maybe others will be able to chime in while I'm searching for the answer".  A lot of fibro facebook pages have 10,000 members.  Some have 12,000.  I've even seen some with over 20,000!!  That's great and wonderful.  I "only" have close to 6,000 but I'm beyond thrilled with that, because those almost 6,000 people allow me to be myself.  To not compromise my integrity by conforming to socialization standards of trying not to show weakness.  To lie or sugar coat something, instead of telling the truth about the situation.  


All that said, I started this blog to have a place to journal my feelings.  To vent.  To scream and cry.  It was for me.  It was mine.  When I started getting followers, I truly was in a state of awe.  I didn't really know what to do, or how to feel about that.  My now nonexistent because my sickness was just too much to handle husband didn't "get it".  He didn't understand.  I couldn't talk to him about it.  When I did, he'd keep staring straight at the tv and mutter a "yeah" every now and then.  Until I'd ask him a question about what I'd just said, then he'd look mortified and say "wait, what?".  Ugh.  To keep my sanity, The Fibro Frog was born.  

Shew.  I guess that was a rant all of it's own, wasn't it?  Anyway, I'm tired.  I'm sad.  I'm depressed.  I'm not going to lie about it.  Life is feeling as if it's too much lately.  I've had cellulitis in my right leg.  It wasn't pretty.  Now, the doctor says the infection is gone, but my leg, foot, and ankle is still so swollen that it isn't even funny.  To try and flex or point my toes even a cm, feels as if my skin is in some sort of skin stretcher, that's going to pull it right off my body.  It hurts.  It looks disgusting.  The skin is bruised and peeling from all of the swelling.  I'm just tired of it.  I'm over it. I want it to go back to "normal".  

I'm tired of being in such physical pain every single day.  I'm tired of not being able to stand longer then 5 minutes at a time to do dishes or to cook, without it causing so much physical pain that I either gasp or cry.  Sometimes both.  I'm tired of not being able to sit in my living room and watch a movie with my family, because the furniture I have hurts me too bad to sit there.  It's too hard for me to get back up from.  It makes my neck, back, and knee pain excruciating if I sit there longer then 10-15 minutes.  Since I'm an honest kinda person, I actually hate it.  I'm so damn isolated all of the time.  I absolutely love a full house. I love people around me.  I was always a very social and fun person, and I've always had the knack to talk to people I've just met, like we've been old friends from years ago.  Today, I had a full house.  While everyone was in my living room laughing and talking, I was sitting in here at my computer (since my computer chair is the ONLY place I can sit half-way comfortably) all by myself.  I HATE this so much, that I have to stop typing every few minutes, to wipe the tears away that are stinging my eyes while typing this.  

My body is in a pain flare.  A huge one.  Last Thursday, my daughter in law was here and she went into labor with my first bio grand child.  I was so dang excited.  I couldn't believe that I was finally going to get to "meet" my grand daughter.  Her, my son, and I jumped in his car and went off to the hospital.  When we got there, she was already a 7!  We were only at the hospital for less then 4 hours before baby Sophia came into this world.  As the nurses cheered and the doctor was exclaiming that she was a "beefy one", I had a split second of joy.  That joy quickly turned to me chanting over and over and over again in my head "Cry.  Cry baby, cry.  Cry. Cry".  The cheers quickly turned to silence and chaos as three nurses rushed my limp, dusky, cyanotic, so purple she was almost black, first apgar score of 1 (yes ONE) granddaughter to the warmer and was trying to suction her with all of their might.  As a stat page for respiratory and the unit manager was going through, they were practically running with our new baby from the delivery suite to the nursery.  We were in a small town, podunk hospital that doesn't have a NICU.  No ped's or neonatologists on sight.  -Who would've ever thought we'd need one anyway, with a 39 week, text-book pregnancy delivery?  This was all at 7:46pm.  Three hours later, my son and I were still being told by the on-call pediatrician that they called in, that my granddaughter may not make it.  It could "still go either way".  We were told that life flight was on standby, that they may have to transfer her to Toledo, to a NICU.  For the entire first two hours of my granddaughter's life, I stood, in more physical pain then I think I've ever been in, in my entire life, plastered to one single spot infront of the nursery window watching 3 nurses, 2 respiratory therapists, a unit manager, and a pediatrician work on this little baby. All I could do is stand there and watch.  Watch while they put her on oxygen (50%).  Watch while they inserted an NG tube down her throat into her stomach, to release all of the air in her little tummy.  -See, she wasn't "beefy" at all.  Her stomach and chest was huge from all of the water and air trapped inside her little body.  Watched while Xray rushed in with a portable machine to take a chest xray.  Watched while she was given an EKG.  Watched while respiratory used suction down her throat and sucked 2cc's of extremely thick crap out of her.  Watched while they started an IV.  Watched while a repeat xray was done.  No matter the physical pain I was in, I couldn't move.  All I could do, was watch. Watch, and pray.  And try not to allow myself to fall apart because my youngest son was standing next to me with tears filling his eyes, and saying "but she's going to be ok, right mom?  You know a lot about medical stuff from going to nursing school and having four kids.  She's going to be ok, right?".

As much as I tried to keep a lot of the horror thoughts and images I had in my mind, out of my mouth to try and keep my son from crumbling, the ped didn't pull any punches with him.  She flat out told us that they don't have a NICU (which was quite obvious) and that even if she was transferred that babies can decompensate so quickly, that this could still go either way. That she wasn't going to give us false hope.  We were trying to keep some of the worry off of my daughter in law.  Because of the epidural they wouldn't even allow her to be wheeled to the nursery window to see her daughter. She went from 7 to 10 so quickly, that she was already between an 8 and a 9 when she got her epidural. Of course, it didn't have any time to work at all.  All of this mess with the baby, happened because she came so very quickly that the fluid didn't get squeezed out of her, as she was coming down the birth canal.  Her little lungs were almost filled all the way up with fluid.  In an essence, she was drowning as soon as she came out.  

By the time I left to come home, my feet hurt and burned so bad that I couldn't stand it.  My back hurt so much, that I felt as if it was honestly broken.  I couldn't raise my feet to take a step.  I was kind of shuffling and limping,  My head hurt.  My heart hurt.  I was so stiff when I got home, that I wasn't sure if I'd make it out of the car, and into the house.  My everything hurt and was swollen.  Especially my damn leg that I had cellulitis in.  At the hospital, I'd moved one time while my heart was standing still.  That was to shuffle away from the nursery window, a little farther down the hall so my son wouldn't hear the call I was making.  I quickly called my mom and when she answered the phone, I told her that the baby had been born, an hour earlier, but that it wasn't good.  I started choking back tears while I whispered to her to pray.  To please, please pray that God didn't take our baby from us.  Then, I wiped both of my eyes, sucked in a deep breath, and took my spot infront of the nursery window, once again.  I'm thanking God, and I believe in the power of prayer.  My granddaughter ended up COMPLETELY off of oxygen (after starting off at 50%), by 2am in the morning.  She's just fine.  She's absolutely perfect. In my dad's family, every generation seems to have one red head born.  It looks like my granddaughter is going to be the one for this generation.  Here's a few photos of her that I've taken.

She gagged the NG tube out lol

Well, I was going to add a couple more from the day after she was born, but blogger isn't cooperating with me.  It keeps throwing the photo at the top of my post.  *sigh*  I'll give it another try, since I've typed between photos now.

Yay. It worked.  This is my youngest daughter holding the baby and my step-granddaughter, the baby's 1/2 sister.  


Look at her red hair!!  She's now getting some blondish-red in with the red, but she totally has the skin coloring of a red head.  Her scalp, face, belly, etc. is very red-colored.  One more.


Long story short, my body is still paying dearly for the abuse and stress from the birth of Sophie.  

So, now that I've taken you through the terrifying birth of little Miss Sophia, I can tell you the next thing I'm tired of.  I'm tired of being broke.  My lazy, selfish, POS soon-to-be-ex-husband is in perfect health, yet he refuses to work since leaving me last April.  A week here, two weeks there.  Usually just long enough for child support to catch up with him, and get me a check ...maybe two, then he quits.  His "girlfriend" supports him, so that he "isn't working just to give HER money" ...of course, talking about me.  

I'd give anything to work.  Not even for the money aspect, although it's desperately needed, but also for the social aspect of it.  I've already said how tired I am of being isolated all of the time.  I'm lonely.  I'd love to make friends.  I'd love to meet new people.  I'd love to have a reason and purpose to crawl out of bed in the morning, and to put on make-up and do my hair.  Not only would I love to be able to buy things for both of my granddaughters, but I'd like to buy things for my 17 year old daughter and myself too!  I never go anywhere to do anything fun.  I can't afford to.  I rented four RedBox DVD's last week for Courtney and I to watch.  Then, I could only watch one of them, because it hurt me too bad to sit in the living room.  That's it.  That's what our entertainment is.  I'd love to take Courtney and Leah (my 20 month old step granddaughter) to Cedar Point when it opens in May.  -And they have the electric scooters so I could totally do it without having to walk all day and night, but no money.  I'd really love to take my daughter, Leah, and Sophia to the Toledo Zoo.  Again, they have electric scooters.  Oh the photography shots I could get too (remember, photography is my passion).  Again, no money.  

I'm tired of feeling like a pharmacy from taking so many meds.  Meds that doesn't even help me.  I take them out of desperation, hoping that at some point maybe I'll be able to get even an hours worth of reprieve from the pain by taking them.  What I'm really tired of though?  The pound after pound weight gain that all of these damn meds are packing on me.  I'm to the point now, that I'm truly embarrassed to go into public and have others see me.  I don't have an ounce of self-esteem left at this point.  I'm also tired of the looks people in public give me. As I'm limping along pushing a cart in a store, I can almost read people's minds while they stare at me going by.  I feel like they're looking at me judging me for being fat.  I feel like they think I'm lazy.  -That one really hits home for people that I actually know in person.  I feel they think I'm just too lazy to want to work.  If people only had any idea how desperately I'd love to work.  I need to work to have any self-respect and dignity.  To meet people.  To have money.  I've gotten so fat from the newest meds I've been put on, that I don't have a single pair of jeans that fit me.  I only have 2 or 3 shirts that fit me the way they should.  I need new tennis shoes.  Again, no money.  No money to buy new summer clothes for my daughter either.  I'm tired of it.  I'm to the point that I honestly hate my body.  -That it has so many things wrong with it that I can't be a productive member of society.  That I don't have any life outside of the walls of my house.  That I can't sit anywhere 1/2 way comfortable, except for an old computer chair.  My body has completely failed me.  Throughout my life, I'd sometimes work a couple different part time jobs.  At one  point I carried 18 credit hours in nursing school, while working THREE part-time jobs and caring for four children ages 6 years down to 3 months old, all by myself.  I'm far from a lazy person.  I was a cheerleader all throughout school.  I loved and played softball.  I took Jazzercise.  I had a great, friendly, outgoing personality.  I was brimming with confidence and self-esteem.  I truly felt that I could accomplish anything in the world that I wanted to accomplish.  Fibro, arthritis, autoimmune disease, and COPD has stolen all of that from me.  It's reduced me to what you "see" today.  And I hate it.  I'll leave you with one last quote that I love.  That I need.  That I wish more then anything could happen for me.  I so desperately wish someone was there to hold me and let me "feel" that things someday may be "ok" again.
















  



Monday, March 18, 2013

Blogger's Wanted!

Kobo Arc Button

Kobo Arc Giveaway Event

Hosted by: Mom to Bed by 8

Prize: Kobo Arc 64GB {RV$400}

Event dates: 3/25 – 4/15

SIGN-UP HERE!

Make sure you put down that you were referred by Amy from The Fibro Frog

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Who Wants To Win A $75 Victoria's Secret GC?

I've joined up with some other great bloggers to bring this great giveaway to you! Good luck!
Hosted By NYSavingSpecials




Come and join us on these great flash giveaway!

3/07 to 3/10

One lucky winner will win:
$75 Victoria's Secret Gift Card

This giveaway is open to US only



Disclosure: The Fibro Frog is not responsible for prize. If you have any questions about this giveaway please send an email to nysavingspecials@gmail.com.  All entries are optional, if you do any of the tasks with the 10 extra entries, even if you do one entry you can get the extra 10 entries  but if the winner tasks is a tasks you did not complete, a second winner will be chosen. If the winner tasks is the one you did you will be the winner.




Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Looking For Ways To Eat Healthier & To Lose Weight



I'm a Bzz Agent, and I had the opportunity to get in on a campaign for MorningStar Farms veggie burgers.  I'll admit, I was slow to actually follow through with trying these, because the idea of eating a veggie burger just wasn't very appealing to me.  Due to all of my health problems though, I really have been trying to eat a little healthier.  I've gained over 30 pounds in the last 4 months or so, due to my fibro meds.  Gabapentin just seems to be packing the pounds on me!

My daughter, Courtney was really excited to try these though, as she doesn't like very many kinds of meat.  Usually, she skips whatever meat dish I make for dinner, and just eats the sides and the vegetables.  I sucked it up and made them one night for supper, along with a tossed salad.  I fried them, like I would a regular hamburger.  I seasoned them with a little bit of Season All, some pepper, and a little bit of Worcestershire sauce.

They smelled great while cooking, which led me to get a bit more excited about taking that first bite of the burger.  I have to admit, the taste wasn't too bad at all, although I found the texture a bit different!  Courtney, on the other hand, loved everything about them so I'll keep buying them.  The next time, I'm going to look up some recipes off of the MorningStar Farms website.  They have some recipes over there that sound really, really yummy!  Take a look at some of the recipes, and give one a try yourself.  You might just be surprised with how good a veggie burger can taste!