insert second loop then resume previous loop

The sidebar should not be part of a loop, I'm confused how your code it working. The way you describe it, the sidebar contains and entirely separate loop. You have to reset the default query if you're doing a non-default loop but that shouldn't affect something like your sidebar showing up.

My guess is you have syntax problems elsewhere.

That makes sense. However, in the theme I am working with, I specific a custom sidebar in the theme page itself. So I guess the reference comes from the page loop in this case. There is a conflict somewhere, I assumed it had to do with the loop stopping and starting.

I still don't think the sidebar should be part of a loop or else it would show up X number of times depending on how many items the query was returning. I'd have to see the theme code to really tell you how it's working exactly.

You should review the WP Query docs as it gives a good overview of how queries work in WP. If you're in a secondary query and you're using the_post() function, you do have to reset the query in order to use the_post() elsewhere on the page, but I still am not sure that's what's causing your issue.

yahoo! that worked! can't believe I missed that. wp_reset_postdata(); was all it needed.

Thanks Paul!

Great, just remember the_post() is only in reference to the active query object. If you use a secondary loop, you change that active query object and will have to reset.

Just to be safe I always reset every WP_Query anyway.