archive template problem…

I’ve been playing with my archive template – thanks to some of the info I’ve found here – but I can’t quite get it looking the way I want it.

What I want is:
archive
{monthly archive here}

categories
{category list here}

What I have is this: http://www.bflomama.com/archives/

I haven’t been able to figure out how to—
1. Get rid of the “recent posts” section (everything I’ve tried has given me a syntax error so clearly I’m taking out something vital when I do it)
and 2. Get rid of the “* Categories” at the beginning of my categories list (beneath the heading that matches the archives heading)

If it helps, this is what my template looks like:

[Code moderated as per the Forum Rules. The maximum number of lines of code that you can post in these forums is ten lines. Please use the pastebin]

Any help would be greatly appreciated…
Cheers,
meg