Customizing Sidebar/ Menu Buttons

I installed a new customized theme. (a becca) (yeaaa!!!) I want to customize my side bar and create menu buttons.

Right now, The side bar has a long nested list of things I don’t want to show. I created link categories: “home” “contact” “favorites” “quotes” , etc.

1. I want them to be in a certain order on the sidebar. I entered them in randomly. I would like to custom organize them and activate them as menu buttons.

I tried using sort order. I’m not sure how to get that to work for me. I appreciate your help. 🙂