settings api options page, help please!

Hey guys, Im hoping i can find somone here to help me with a few problems i am having in getting my settings page up and running??

I am using thesis wordpress theme so i am using custom functions.php

1: When i add this code

function mytheme_option( $option ) {
	$options = get_option( 'mytheme_options' );
	if ( isset( $options[$option] ) )
		return $options[$option];
	else
		return false;
}

at the top of my custom functions.php i get a white blank page.. im not sure why, if i change the function to “mytheme_options” from “mytheme_option” it seems to work, well my website doesnt crash at least… is the code at the top definately right or am i making a mistake? It is definately this code that is making it crash but i cant work out why?

2: I notice that i havnt added the id code into this section:

$this->settings['example_text'] = array(
            'title'   => __( 'Example Text Input' ),
            'desc'    => __( 'This is a description for the text input.' ),
            'std'     => 'Default value',
            'type'    => 'text',
            'section' => 'general'
        );

should i add this manully like

'id' => 'mytextarea1'

How would i add this into a field in my functions.php file, This is the section i want to add the above text area into:

function top_bar() {
?>    <div id="#awesome_top_bar_container">
    <div class="awesome_top_bar_in">
            } ?>
    </div></div>
    add_action('thesis_hook_before_html','top_bar');

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! sorry for a Newbie questions but i have been struggling with the settings api for so long..

Thanks again
Alex