Blast from the Past 42 - New Note

This series consists of notes that I wrote on facebook in the past. Enjoy reading my thoughts during my college years. Please comment but please be nice! Also please feel free to check out my other Blast from the Past Posts.


From June 2009


Well I just spent my morning reading through all of the notes that I wrote and posted on Facebook in the past. I have come to several conclusions. 1. When I went to [my first college] I had way to much free time. Or I spent too much time procrastinating by writing notes. 2. I have not had enough free time since I left there. Or I just realized that most of my notes were inane and weren't worth writing. 3. I miss writing notes about nothing. It is fun and I enjoy doing it. I don't know if anyone else enjoys reading them but I enjoy writing them. 4. It is fun to read people's response to my craziness. Sometimes it is fun to be crazy just to see people's responses.

Once again I am writing a note about nothing, I love it! I'm back!

I am watching Gilmore Girls. [Mr. Random] and I bought all 7 seasons when we got married. I have watched through all 7 seasons 5 or 6 times since we got them. I am on the 5th season right now I think. I love this show. And so far I have not gotten tired of it. I think that is because by the time I finish watching the 7th season it has been a month or two since I watched the first season,and the first season and the 7th season are vastly different. So it works.

I am taking a class this summer. This is the first time in my life that I have had to do school during the summer. I suppose I don't have to, I could wait to take this class. But I only have four classes left before I can finish my degree and two of them have to be done in different semesters. So it is either take the class during the summer or take another semester in the spring. At this point if everything goes as planned I will be finished with my degree in December. I am looking forward to being done. I have been in school a long time (as have most of you :) and I am ready to be done. I am not sure what exactly I will do when I am finished. I have several options. I could take another nanny position. I could apply other places and try something new, I have thought about applying at a wedding dress shop or something similar. I could work on getting a degree for wedding planning. I could start a summer childcare program that I got the idea for this past semester. I have several options and we will just see which one happens when the time comes.

Well It is now 12:46 and I have wasted all of the morning and now a little bit of the afternoon on this so I should probably sign off and get some lunch and then do something meaningful, or at least necessary. So I will talk to all of you later. I will try not to let 2 years go by before my next note. I love you all! Please comment!

How I Planted My First Vegetable Garden Sponsored Post #MiracleGroProject

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Miracle-Gro for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.


I am not a gardener, or at least I didn't used to consider myself to be. As a matter of fact as a kid I used to detest gardening in any and all forms (I have never been a huge outdoor person, I don't care for the bugs, and heat, and getting dirty). My mom on the other hand was a huge gardener. She actually enjoys gardening; I think she finds it therapeutic or something (I don't get it). And of course she forced us kids to help her in her gardening endeavors (which we all hated). Which is why I was surprised this summer when I decided that I needed to grow a garden. When we bought our house a couple years ago I planted a few tomato plants (I eat tomatoes like they are candy, so it was a necessity for me, worth the inconvenience and work). Last year I didn't get any tomatoes planted (despite the fact that I had some free plants given to me) because I had a young baby, and I am a procrastinator, and I didn't find the time to get around to it during the tomato planting season. I really missed out, but my mom being the good mom that she is did share some of her bounty with us :). Well this year I have been reading some books on saving money and trying to cut down on our grocery costs and I decided that I need to save some money on produce (without cutting down on our produce consumption, I am not willing to cut out the healthiest category of food). So I decided to try out this gardening thing for myself (I think my mom might have fainted, not really, she's smart, she knew I would come around eventually :)).

This year I have planted squash, zucchini, tomatoes, pumpkins, watermelon, green beans, and peas. I also planted some fruit bushes, but that is a different post. I know super ambitious, possibly too much for getting started, especially since I am pregnant, but oh well. A lot of people recommend starting with herbs, but I really don't use that many herbs and spices, so that would be a waste of money for me, not saving money. The reason that I chose those vegetables to plant is because they are my favorite veggies and I want to be able to eat plenty of them without worrying about the cost. (And with the squash and zucchini, Mr. Random doesn't like them at all and I feel bad about spending our family's precious produce money on veggies that only I eat, but I didn't want to have to live without them). The pumpkins and watermelon I am doing because someone gave me free seeds a couple years ago so I thought I'd give them a try.
Here are the steps that I have gone through in my ambitious project of planting a garden:

1. Pick my seeds. I had some free seeds that I got at church at few years ago, but there were several other plants I wanted to try so I picked up some seeds on one of my Wal-Mart runs. I read the backs of the packages and looked for ones with good descriptions, that didn't require too much work, and didn't cost too much. I don't have time to start plants inside then transplant them outside (also we have almost no sun coming in our windows so it is almost impossible for me to do so, I did try with tomato seeds last year) so I made sure to avoid any seeds that needed that. For the tomatoes we bought plants at a local farmers market. I am not sure why, but my mom always buys tomatoes as plants instead of seeds, so that is what I do too.


2. Prepare your garden area. There was an asparagus patch already here when we moved in so when I planted the tomato plants a couple years ago we expanded that area. This year we expanded that area again. Mr. Random, wonderful man that he is, took on the task of digging out all the grass down past the root. Trust me, trying to do that while 6.5 months pregnant with my back and hips acting up would not have been good, so he was very, very nice and did it for me.

 Yes, the dirt is still piled up beside the garden killing off our grass, did I mention that we are procrastinators? Maybe the dead grass area will join our garden plot next year :)

3. Plan where to plant your plants. We only dug a small garden plot and I didn’t want to use it all up with trellises so I planned a little creatively (I had some help with the creative planning by my mom :)). By the time I got around to planting (procrastinator alert!) it was a little late in the season to be planting peas, because they can’t handle the heat (my mom told me that, I have no idea when things should be planted, other than what the little map on the back of the seed packet says :)). So I started thinking about whether there was anything I could do to still have them grow well. The front of our house is shaded by two huge trees and is always several degrees cooler than the back yard. Unfortunately that means that it is also full shade, but the side of the porch is partial sun and still has the benefit of being cooler (I think) so I decided to plant them there. It also has the benefit of the poles that the peas can climb up (although when taking the pictures I noticed that there is a decent stretch of concrete between the ground and the porch poles, hopefully the poor little plants will be able to find it, I will help them out if I can :)), and will be fun and easy to pick from. The green beans also needed something to climb and can tolerate the heat so I started looking for a good spot for them. As I was looking around the yard I noticed that there was plenty of chain link fence that would be great for plants to climb. So we planted the green beans along one side of the fence. The rest of the seeds we planted in the garden plot in rows or hills or whatever you want to call them.

 The side of the porch where I planted the peas

 The chain link fence where we planted the green beans

 The garden plot - squash and zucchini in the first two rows, tomatoes in the back right corner, pumpkins and watermelon in the back left corner

4. Dig holes and plant seeds. I have to admit that we did not completely follow the directions as to how far apart they were supposed to be planted. Hopefully that won’t cause a problem, if it does, oh well.

5. Water like crazy. There were several days that we had rain, I didn’t worry about watering those days, but if it had been a couple days since it rained or I watered I tried to get out there and water again.

 Little Man likes to help me water, he stole the hose from me :)

6. Watch plants grow. I enjoy going out there and seeing intentional plants coming up out of the soil. At first I wasn’t for sure if the plants I was seeing were intentional but now I am pretty sure (and my mom confirmed it :)).

 Squash and Zucchini plants, I cannot remember which is which, I guess we'll find out when they grow :)

 Tomato plants

 I am pretty sure that the plant in the middle is a green bean plant

 I am pretty sure that these are pea plants

7. Weed. I wasn’t sure which of the plants were my plants and which were weeds. My original plan was to just let everything grow and see which ones produced fruit and vegetables (I think my mom just about fainted when I told her that, I could practically hear her thinking that she taught me better than that, but all she said was something about picking the weeds so they wouldn’t take all the nutrients, oh yeah, that’s why you weed, totally forgot that :)). So since I didn’t know for sure which were which I asked my mother-in-law (who is also an expert gardener) when she was here the other day.

 The bigger intentional looking plants are not weeds, the smaller plants that are mostly in the back left are weeds

8. Fertilize. I don’t remember if my mom fertilized her plants or not. I know she had a compost pile so she probably used that. For me I would normally not worry or even think about fertilizing (I don’t know if I should think of it, but I wouldn’t). However last year we had a pretty bad drought that seemed to leave our soil not very nutritious for our plants (the reason that I think this is because several of our bushes did not do as well this year as in previous years). Also I am worried about this year with the planting is that the plants will wait too long to produce their fruits and vegetables. Since I am expecting Little Man 2 at the end of August I would like for the plants to produce at least some before then, and I will try to keep up with picking them after he comes. Because of those reasons I think I might try using some fertilizer in the garden to kinda help it along (we’ll see if it works :)). I also found out by reading the fertilizer bag, that this step probably should have come after preparing the garden, before planting the plants, but oh well, live and learn, this whole process is a learning process.


This is my gardening project this year, and I am really excited about the possibility to eat produce that I have grown (yes, mom, I did say that, go ahead and say “I told you so” :)). It seems that I am not the only one who is embarking on this growing adventure this year. Miracle-Gro has organized a community of gardeners to share their wisdom and stories and show their green thumbs. They have started The Gro Project to encourage those of us who are beginners to try a gardening project and enjoy the benefits of plants in our lives. If you are stuck for inspiration you can check out all the fun garden projects on Miracle-Gro’s pinterest page. You can follow them to keep up on the new inspiration.  You can also check out other tips, videos, and advice from other gardeners on the Miracle-Gro website. You can see what The Gro Project is about with this video: .

For my project I would need to use a fertilizer formulated for the outdoors like LiquaFeed All Purpose Plant Food Advance Starter Kit, but if you are growing plants in a pot (most of these plants could be grown in a pot if you don’t have garden space) you can use Shake’n Feed All Purpose Plant Food and Moisture Control Potting Mix.


What do you think? Are you going to grow a garden this year? Any plant related projects on your to-do list?

Blast from the Past 41 - Wedding Plans

This series consists of notes that I wrote on facebook in the past. Enjoy reading my thoughts during my college years. Please comment but please be nice! Also please feel free to check out my other Blast from the Past Posts.


From June 2008


Ok, for all of you who haven't heard or are totally out of the loop :) The official announcement. [Mr. Random] and I are getting married in August. August 9 to be exact. As you can imagine things have been a little busy around here, what with all the planning to be done. But those of you who know me well probably know that I thrive on change and I love weddings, so this is actually a pretty fun time for me :) But anyways, just thought I would let you all know, so there you go :)

Blast from the Past 40 - I am engaged to the most wonderful guy in the world!

This series consists of notes that I wrote on facebook in the past. Enjoy reading my thoughts during my college years. Please comment but please be nice! Also please feel free to check out my other Blast from the Past Posts.


From February 2008

It is now official. [Mr. Random] and I are engaged! The day started when [Mr. Random] came to my house at 8:30 this morning. My parents let him in quietly and then my mom came and woke me up and told me to come out and look at something. So I stumbled half awake down the hall after her. As I'm rounding a corner after her I hear [Mr. Random] behind me say my name. I seriously jumped and then turned around and there was [Mr. Random] holding a dozen roses and saying good morning. We talked for a little while then he had to go to work and school and I went back to sleep. After class I came home and got ready for our date. All I knew at that point was that [Mr. Random] was planning a romantic surprise date for Valentine’s day, and that it was going to be special because he wanted to make my first Valentine’s day with a boyfriend special. His mom picked me up at 6:40 to meet him at Indiana Tech right after his class. We drove over near the ice rink and I thought that we were going ice skating, but actually [Mr. Random] had arranged for a horse and carriage to meet us there. We got a scenic tour around downtown [big city near us], and soon after we got started [Mr. Random] handed me his Valentine’s Day card. In it were two tickets to the bridal show this Saturday at the Grand Wayne Center. When I looked up [Mr. Random] was down on one knee in front of me with a ring box open. He asked me if I would marry him and of course I said yes! After that we finished the carriage ride, it was really romantic! Then we sat in the back of his van and exchanged gifts (yes he did get me something besides the ring :). Then we went to Takaoka for supper, the food was amazing and the chef was fun to watch. After that we went to Taco Bell to get a caramel apple empanada for desert (which is a joke between us because I am totally addicted to those things :) Then it was time to go home and tell my parents. My parents were thrilled and we talked late into the night. I also called my sister to let her know. I am soo excited! I am going to marry the man of my dreams! I love you [Mr. Random]! Oh and pictures to come, sometime :)

Let's Talk: What does it feel like when the baby hiccups?

This weekend my younger cousin asked me if it felt weird when Little Man 2 has the hiccups. I told her that it felt kinda like if you swallowed a Subway sandwich whole and it started kicking you from the inside. The hiccups are like hard flicks or bumps but rhythmic. The really weird thing is when he flips over, it is like if that sandwich turned into a big fish and squirms around inside you.

Have you ever had anyone ask you what hiccups or baby movements feel like? How would you describe them?

Linked Up To:
The Frugal Girls, The Thriftiness Miss, The Foley Fam, Fun-a-Day!, Blissful and Domestic, While He Was Napping,

Blast from the Past 39 - To my wonderful guy, Mr. Random, and any other guy who does this

This series consists of notes that I wrote on facebook in the past. Enjoy reading my thoughts during my college years. Please comment but please be nice! Also please feel free to check out my other Blast from the Past Posts.


From January 2008


To every guy that's said, "Sex CAN wait"

To every guy that's said, "You're beautiful."

To every guy that was never too busy to drive across town to see her.

To every guy that gives her flowers and a card when she is sick or down.

To every guy who has given her flowers just because thats how he rolls.

To every guy that said he would die for her.

To every guy that really would.

To every guy that did what she wanted to do.

To every guy that cried in front of her. ....

To every guy that she cried in front of...

To every guy that holds hands with her.

To every guy that kisses her with meaning.

To every guy that hugs her when she's sad.

To every guy that hugs her for no reason at all.

To every guy who would give their jacket up for her.

To every guy that calls to make sure she got home safe.

To every guy that would sit and wait for her for hours just to see her for ten
minutes.....

To every guy that would give his seat up...

To every guy that just wants to cuddle.

To every guy that reassured her that she was beautiful no matter what.

To every guy who told his secrets to her.

To every guy that tried to show how much he cared through every word and
every breath.

To every guy that thought maybe this could be the one.

To every guy that believed in her dreams.

To every guy that would have done anything so she could achieve them.

To every guy that never laughed at her when she told him her dreams.

To every guy that walked her to her car and opened the door.

To every guy that gave his heart.

To every guy who prays that she is happy even if you are not with her.

Pregnancy Week 25 Update - Little Man 2

This post is very late, I am actually in the 28th week now, but I typed this up a couple weeks ago and never got around to posting it (forgot the camera cord when i was going to post it). But I figured since I had it typed up I should post it, so here it is hopefully I'll get a more current one up soon :)

Week 25 Pregnancy Update Little Man 2

The nausea is still hanging on tenaciously. It is gone most of the time, but it still crops up occasionally. I think it is probably related to being overheated. When I was a child I got extremely nauseous at night if I got overheated, and I think that this may be related to that. Crackers and sitting still until it passes helps. So does not waking up in the middle of the night (but I can’t always affect that :))

The stress/ anxiety hormone has really been hitting me hard this week. I have been crazy busy setting up for our garage sale this weekend, and planning for our vacation next week. And my body has taken that stress and turned it into constant worrying and mini panic attacks. I am normally a very go with the flow, low stress person, and this worry and stress is driving me crazy. The best coping mechanism I have found on the really bad days is to just put on Gilmore Girls, work on what I need to, and not think about anything serious.

My hips are starting to ache more (I’m not talking about round ligament pain, I have that too and this is different). I had horrible aching hips when I was pregnant with Little Man 1 so I assumed that I would have to deal with that again this time. I found out the first time that I can’t sleep directly on my side, if I do I won’t be able to walk the next day. My solution is to sleep partially on my side. I sleep propped at an angle with a pillow behind my back, a pillow under my stomach, and pillows under my legs. When I am sick I put a large wedge pillow under me, and another pillow under my back. I use large pillows from a couch we used to have. The couch was the type that had a hard back with pillows instead of a soft back. We got rid of the couch after Little Man 1 was born but I kept some of the pillows because they were so useful for sleeping on.

Another thing that helps is having a Prenatal Cradle (I got mine off of Amazon or Ebay, I forget). If you haven’t heard of it, it is a contraption that helps hold up your baby bump and helps relieve the stress from your back and hips. It really does work well. The only downside is that the straps around the top go really high so you have to wear shirts with a high neckline or your straps will show. When I was pregnant with Little Man 1 I wore it a lot for work (I was working at a daycare and constant lifting of other children when pregnant can be very hard on hips and back). These days I mostly use it if I need to walk a while or if the pants that I am wearing are not supportive enough. But I am very glad that I have it for when I need it.

One new tip that I found out this time is that softening the bed also helps with the hip pain from sleeping. We have a sleep number bed so I am blessed to be able to just soften or harden my bed whenever I want. If you do not have that luxury you can use a thick mattress topper or a pillow if that works for you.

The baby is moving like crazy. I am starting to wonder if this little one will be more active than Little Man 1. It is hard to tell because I don’t remember exactly how much he moved, but it feels like this one might move more. One night when I was laying down to sleep I felt him flip his entire body, and then flip it again.

We also have a name for him! (sorry, I won’t share it on here, so you will know him as Little Man 2 unless I can think of a better name for here, but if you are one of the few readers who knows me in person you can ask :))

The doctor appt last week was very short, basically everything is going well, no questions, we’re good. I found out the next appointment is the 28 week appointment where they do a bunch of labs including the gestational diabetes test. This is just the 1 hour test and I really hope I pass it this time. Last time I had to do the 3 hour test (I passed it) and it may have been one of the worst things of the pregnancy (and that is saying a lot).

I am starting to get more excited about meeting this little one. I can’t wait to cuddle a newborn again!



Linked Up To:
The Frugal Girls, The Thriftiness Miss, The Foley Fam, Fun-a-Day!, Blissful and Domestic, While He Was Napping,

RoadTrip 2013 Conferece and promo code ($400 off!)

I have seen other bloggers talking about various conferences that they have gone to and I have to admit that I have been a little jealous. Those conferences look like so much fun and have such great information, I am sure that I could benefit from them. But so far they have not worked out for me.

Then I found out about RoadTrip 2013. It is not just a blogging conference, it covers everything from leadership to social media to photography to technology and much more. And one of the speakers is one of my all time favorite bloggers Money Saving Mom.

For me the location is also a big plus. It is being held in Cincinnati, OH which is only a couple hours away from me. If it is further for you all of the tickets include transportation to and from the airport. Most of the ticket options include hotel accommodations as well. You can see the different types of tickets available here. There are different levels and all of them include awesome benefits!

Oh and the conference is October 10-12.

And the best thing for you is that I have a promo code for you! If you use the promo code Random53 you will get $400 off of any ticket purchase. The promo code is good through July 15, 2013. They are expecting to sell out by July 15 so make sure you get your tickets purchased early! Here is the link to purchase your tickets.



Disclosure: I am not getting paid for this post, but if a certain number of tickets are bought using my promo code I can earn a free ticket to the conference! I would love it if you would support me by purchasing your ticket using my promo code. What could be better than getting $400 off and helping out someone else?

Blast from the Past 38 - 21 about my #1

This series consists of notes that I wrote on facebook in the past. Enjoy reading my thoughts during my college years. Please comment but please be nice! Also please feel free to check out my other Blast from the Past Posts.


From January 2008

1) Who is your number 1?
[Mr. Random]

2) Have you ever met their dad?
lots of times

3) Where did you first meet your number 1?
First met – courtship class through local home school community
Second First met – on facebook through a friend :)

4) How long ago was it when you first met this person?
First – 6 or 7 years ago
Second – about a year ago

5) Is this person one of your best friends?
yes

6 ) Do you ever fight with this person?
yes, we do fight sometimes, but we get through it and love each other

7) Is this person older than you are?
yeah, a little over a year

10) Have you ever eaten with them?
yup, plenty of times

11) When will you see them again?
either tonight or tomorrow

12) Does this person have a cell phone with text messaging?
yes, but I don’t have text so we don’t text

13) Are you this persons g/f or b/f?
yup!!! :)

14) Do you have pics of this person on your myspace/facebook?
yup, a lot on facebook. A few on myspace

15) Do you think the person will repost this?
maybe, if he has time

16) Could you stand to live with this person?
yes

18) Do you love this person?
YES

19) What was the last thing you did together?
hung out at my house last night after a youth group pizza party w/ my sister

20 Do you know their birthday?
yup, it was Easter last year, I think, or really close to it, umm, yeah I think it was Easter

21) Do you know where this person is right now?
at work