Happy Birthday To Me!

Well Halloween is tomorrow and today is my birthday.  I was born the day before Halloween a few years ago (ha – thought you could get me to say when didn’t you).

I have been sick for so many birthdays that I have not wanted to plan anything or do anything.  Either I was too sick or had just received bad news from some test or lab work.  I received news that it was possible I had ovarian cancer just before a birthday.  On another birthday I was told that I had to have a biopsy on my breast because the mammogram and ultrasound showed something suspicious.  My birthday month has been a month I want to just skip over.

This year I decided that I was not having a mammogram or any major testing until after the first of the year.  I am going to have a birthday month that is stress free.  Of course I did have some stress preparing for the wonderful book blog tour getting my posts ready and planning my book launch party for the release of Allergic to Life.  But that was a stress I didn’t mind having.  It has been an exciting and wonderful month for me.  I have reconnected with so many people as a result of the book and my story.  One of those that I have reconnected with invited me to lunch yesterday at an outdoor café that I have been able to go to.  There is one item on the menu that I do okay with.  It was a lovely hour and a half visit.  I am blessed to have some of these wonderful people back into my life.

During my many posts I have talked about not having my photos and haven’t seen my mother’s photo albums in years.  My sister and I sat outside my mother’s house a few weeks ago and she put photos out for my sister and I to see.  I managed to take a quick snapshot of three of them with my camera.  Mom has promised me she will get them scanned so I can have copies printed.  You have seen pictures of me sick and I thought I would share some pictures when I was little and carefree.

My baby sister, my handsome dad, myself, and my Revlon doll.

I love this picture – My mom made my sister and I these outfits. Mine was pink and hers was blue.

So what am I doing now that the blog tour is over?

I have had a great month with the book launch party and the book blog tour.  I am so very grateful for the wonderful  hosts that were willing to share my story on their blogs.  If you missed any of them, please check out the links below:

Book Blog Tour Day 1, Book Blog Tour Day 2, Book Blog Tour Day 3, Book Blog Tour Day 4, Book Blog Tour Day 5, Book Blog Tour Day 6, Book Blog Tour Day 7, Book Blog Tour Day 8, Book Blog Tour Day 9, Book Blog Tour Day 10, Book Blog Tour Day 11, Book Blog Tour Day 12, Day 2 of Book Blog Tour 12

Since the tour ended and the party has been over I have been busy with the Goodreads Giveaway and the Rafflecopter Giveaway.  The last few days I have been buried in my office trying to clean things up and make sense of everything that I have let go of the past month.

Today I just received my eighth review on Amazon and am very excited about that as well.

My goal is to get back to my regular posting next week.  I have some drafts saved and some new ideas for posts.  I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend.  I will leave you with a few more pictures from the Book Launch Party.

The handsome man in the photo is my wonderful husband.

Guests arriving, checking in, signing up for the drawing, and getting some free samples.

I am giving my speech after my friend gave a wonderful introductory speech.

 

I AM SICK!

Darn it.  All this gallivanting around from blog to blog must have made me sick.  (No not really).  But I am sick.  My sinuses are so swollen I can’t breathe out of them. I can’t even irrigate because the water just runs back out.  I am making a trip to my ENT tomorrow at the early hour of 7:30 a.m.  I would love to have him squirt something up there to shrink the tissues so I can breathe.  The dilemma with that is that I react to it.  So do I suffer until they calm down or have the squirt of medicine and then take my histamine and Vitamin C until the reaction calms down.  What a horrible decision to have to make.

But I know I won’t put the stuff in my nose but I need a culture done and have him listen to my lungs just to make sure they are still clear.  As soon as my appt. is over I am coming home, putting on my yoga pants and a t-shirt and taking it easy.  I will still be around during the blog tour but maybe not as present as I would like to be.  I have to get better, my book launch party is less than two weeks away and I am making the goodies and still need to get some items purchased for it.

I hope you all have taken the opportunity to go to nonniewrites and  participate in Day 6 of Allergic to Life’s book blog tour.  If not, stop by and leave a message to let her know that you were there.

A Special Thank You Giveaway

This basket contains twelve slips of paper, each representing the twelve bloggers who are hosting Allergic to Life and myself on our first ever book blog tour.

My husband randomly picked two of those slips of paper for an additional book drawing in conjunction with the book blog tour.

And the first winner is:  Christine from Boredsick.

The second winner is Amanda from Celiac and Allergy Adventures.

I will be emailing each of you for your addresses.  Signed copies will be mailed to each of you.

The end of Book Blog Tour Day 1

I hope you all enjoyed visiting Sonda at sondasmcschatter today where she not only featured me as a guest blogger but made it Kathryn Treat Day.  All day long she posted blogs featuring me and the book.  I would like to thank Sonda and all of her followers and mine for making Day 1 of the tour a great one.

Tomorrow we will be Jen from Jen’s thoughts.  I will put up a blog post introduction to Jen and a link to my guest post for Day 2 tomorrow morning.

 

Book Blog Tour Begins Tomorrow

It’s Monday and in place of my usual Catch-Up Monday post,  I would like to introduce you to twelve wonderful blog hosts who are hosting me during the next three weeks.  Please follow along on the daily tour and as a favor to me sign up to follow these amazing bloggers.  I am very excited that this has finally come and am extremely grateful for their generosity in sharing my story with their followers as well as mine.  Each day here on my blog I will talk about the Book Blog Tour host and share a link to her blog.

Tuesday, October 1st will be Sonda at sondasmcschatter

Wednesday, October 2nd will be Jen at jen’s thoughts

Thursday, October 3rd will be  MCS Gal at sensitive to chemicals

Friday, October 4th will be  Lindsay at musings of a dysautonomiac

Monday, October 7th will be  Katie at connective tissue disorders

Tuesday, October 8th will be Nonnie at nonnie writes

Wednesday, October 9th will be Molly at based on a sprue story

Thursday, October 10th will be Christine at bored sick

Friday, October 11th will be  Cynthia at black lilac kitty

Monday, October 14th will be Amanda at celiac and allergy adventures

Tuesday, October 22nd  will be Tracy at adventures of an allergic foodie

A date has not yet been set for Rachel at do I look sick

Each of these wonderful hosts will also have a link on their blog for a Rafflecopter Giveaway.  I am also including a link here on my blog for an extra chance to enter the giveaway of three autographed books (US only) or a gift card to purchase a copy of the book if outside the US.

                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Book Blog Tour Starts Soon

WOW – Only six more days until my Book Blog Tour begins.  I am very excited to be hosted by twelve wonderful bloggers, some of which are ill with chemical sensitivity like me, others have different invisible illnesses, and some are fellow authors and writers.  As I was working on my introduction posts for the tour stops I realized that I had left Rachel off my list.  This has been corrected.  Sorry Rachel.

My wonderful eleven bloggers are:

Amanda from celiac and allergy adventures

Amy from an allergic foodie

Christine from bored sick

Cynthia from black lilac kitty

Jen from jen owenby

Katie from connective tissue disorder

Lindsay from dysautonmiac

MCS Gal from sensitive to chemicals

Molly from based on a sprue story

Nonnie from nonnie writes

Rachel from do I look sick

Sonda from sondasmcschatter

All of these women write beautifully and I am grateful that they are willing to allow me and Allergic to Life to be featured on their blog.  I will posting links to their websites and the dates I will be featured on their blog on Monday with a follow-up featuring each of them the day the tour stops at their blog.  There will be a rafflecopter giveaway of three signed books starting the day the tour begins and ending a few days after the last blog tour stop.  I hope you will take the time to not only visit each of these blogs along the tour but to also follow them as well.

It’s Party Time!

Well almost.  I just mailed out the invitations to the book launch party. I worked all evening yesterday addressing envelopes, stuffing envelopes, sealing envelopes and stamping them.  My husband took them to the post office this morning.  This afternoon I received a call from our friend whose back yard I am using for the party. I made a mistake on the address.  I have mentioned many times that I type as if I am dyslexic.  Well the address is 1012 and I put 1021.  I was panicked.  He said not to worry.  He would put a sign in the front yard and the next address jumps go 1040 or something like that.  UGH!

On the bright side,  I have been receiving some great donations from companies whose products I use.  I started soliciting samples to use in gift baskets for my party.  These companies have been amazingly generous with me.  Some of the products are sample sizes and some are full size products.  The companies are 7th Generation, One with Nature, Magick Botanicals, and the makers of Egyptian Magic.  As soon as I can get out from under all that I am trying to do, I will post pictures of what I have received.

Don’t forget the giveaway of 3 signed books (US only) on Goodreads.  If you haven’t already entered please hope on over and enter.

Allergic to Life’s book blog tour starts in a little over a week where 3 more signed copies will be given away through rafflecopter.  Of course he want an e-book they are available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  I hope to have the link up very soon to purchase signed copies through my website as well.

Allergic to Life is now live on Amazon and Barnes and Noble

I have been debating about when to announce this WONDERFUL NEWS.  As you all know I have ordered invitations and postcards to notify friends and family of the great news about the book’s release.  My original thought was to wait until I mailed out the notices to announce this followed by the start of the book blog tour featuring TEN amazing blog hosts that I can’t wait to tell you about. 

Today my intuition said just GO FOR IT!  It is okay to announce the news now and still send out my wonderful invitations and postcards next week. 

ALLERGIC TO LIFE:

MY BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL, COURAGE, AND HOPE

IS OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE

This weekend I will be setting things up for the autographed copies to be purchased from my website via Paypal for those in the US.  (I received word that the books I ordered have been shipped and I should have them any day now.)

Here are the links for Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  I will announce here on the blog as soon as the Paypal link has been set up.

The book blog tour starts Monday, September 30th, culminating on Friday, October 11th.   More information on that will be coming soon.  I will be giving away three autographed copies through Rafflecopter in conjunction with the tour. 

I am also giving away three autographed copies through a goodreads promotion that starts next week and runs for a month (I will announce it the day it starts.)

I am over the moon with excitement.  Today was going to be my day to finish the guest blog post and the interview questions for one of my hosts but I just couldn’t wait any longer to share this news!   The notes for the blog post and the interview questions  are still sitting here on my desk and will get done later today after my interview on slushheap.  I will post a link to that this evening or tomorrow when I have it.

OKAY!  I am off to eat some lunch and get my office clean from the webcam’s view at least.  Thank you all for your wonderful support.

So Behind on Posts Due This Week

I should have already had my post done for 9/11 but I haven’t done it and the day is almost gone.  My brain is fried from all that I am attempting to get done.  Here is last year’s post.

This is also Invisible Illness Week.  Have I written a new post?  No I haven’t done that either.  I wrote two posts last year.  They can be found here and here.

I apologize for being so neglectful in these two very important items.  So what has kept me so occupied?

• I have been working on my guest blogs posts and sample questions for the book blog tour
• I have been working on getting a seller’s permit and a business license so that I can offer my books on my website and sell them at my book launch party
• I have been contacting companies to get free samples of some products I use for the book launch party gift baskets
• I have been setting up the rafflecopter giveaway to run in conjunction with the blog tour
• I have just set up a goodreads giveaway to start running the end of next week through most of October (more later)
• I am working on getting links up on my website to buy the books from both Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and autographed copies from me
• I am getting ready to set up pay pal for the website
• I am constructing a very important blog post that I will be sharing soon – depending on my energy level it may get done tomorrow or not until Friday
• I am trying to figure out what food/drink to serve at the book launch party
• I need to clean up my office (or at least what you can see from the video webcam on my computer for tomorrow’s re-do of the Slushheap interview that didn’t get recorded
• Today I got a crash course in doing a video book trailer (more on that later as well)
• And I am still fighting the tail end of a sinus infection and dealing with a nasty cough that doesn’t seem to want to go away

My interview isn’t being recorded until the afternoon tomorrow so I hope to accomplish a few straggling things on my list tomorrow morning.  Because I am not sure if the interview will be able to be viewed live, I will post a link as soon as I have it here.

Okay, I am done here for the night.  Going to take my notes into the living room and right my last guest blog post while I wait patiently for the finale episode of Master Chef.  While I can’t eat a lot of what they are cooking, I do love watching people cook.