Entering a contest

OSCBB has a contest entry up for a blog makeover... (And I am putting the details in in case anyone else who follows me wants to enter it too!)

http://oscbb.blogspot.com/2011/01/giveaway-of-community.html

"Here's how you can win:

Write a post on your blog that tells us all about you. Who you are, why you blog, what your blog’s main message is, and why your blog needs a makeover. Leave me a link on here and I will come visit you! Then we will pick the top 3 that need a makeover and WE WILL VOTE! Blogs have to be linked up by Sunday night (Jan 9th) at 11:59 pm CST so we can look around this week and pick our top 3. And we all will vote on Friday, Jan 14th."

Alrighty then...

I am a 38-year-old (will be 39 in October) Mom to an 8-year-old son (will be 9 in July), a going on 10-month-old daughter (she'll turn 1 in March) and a step-mom to a girl who will be 11 in March.

My son has high-functioning autism, my step-daughter has ADHD.

I have been over 200 lbs since 2001.  The lowest I've been was 206 and change in the year 2006.

I was 286 lbs on April 4, 2010 (I had Baby Girl on March 24th).

I was 278 lbs on July 23, 2010 when I got fed up and started this very blog.

My lowest weight was 222.0 on Dec 29th but being out of our unit for 5 days due to smoke damage from a fire next door = stress, lack of sleep, lack of exercise and crappier eating.

I'm 223.6 lbs today and my next short-term goal is to be 219 lbs by the anniversary of the day Hubs and I first met in person (Feb 2nd).

That being said, we celebrate our anniversary on Jan 26th because that's when we first starting communicating with one another on a dating website called Plenty of Fish.

I started this blog, at first, to be a place for me to hide in anonymity because I didn't have much faith in myself at the time that I could make a dent in what felt like an insurmountable task.

That being said, I've done a damn good job so far and I am proud of myself.

As I began to read more blogs and interact with more bloggers and even make some friends out here in blogland -- I began to open up more.

Now I post pictures, and when people email me directly, I reply using the first part of my real first name (the whole first name is still really uncommon) but I think that as I get closer to 100 total lbs lost, I will provide links to my other blogs (or import them into ones connected with this one maybe???) and let people get to know me even more.

I occasionally make TMI Tuesday posts which really do reveal a LOT about me.

The main message of my blog is that if I can do it - anyone can do it.

I am not on any specific exercise or weight loss plan... but if you look at my "How I am doing it" page - that sums up what I have been doing.

I am making reasonable and achievable changes for my life, rather than participating in a short-term uber-strict DIET which is different than in my past.

And I comment and share things about myself on other blogs as well.

I've stopped drinking to excess, once I got together with Hubs I stopped with the abusive relationships and the reckless flings, I've made huge strides re: stopping my negative self-talk and now I am getting control of my issues and my long-kept pattern of eating my feelings.

I could use a blog makeover because -- well, just LOOK at my blog.

I have no talent for html - heck, I just learned how to add pages the other day.

My image is one of me holding up my late, great HUGE cat who died in Jan 2004 because he was the most lovable fat cat EVER!

But I'd like my blog design to be more unique because that's what I am.

Thanks!