Child Safety

One thing I love about my kids growing up is that I don't have to worry about child-proofing every place we stay or end up moving to. It always concerned me that they would get into something they shouldn't be once my back was turned. The thing I never understood is the people that have pools and choose not to use proper pool fences to keep their kids safe, especially when you hear about all the tragedies that happen during each summer. It would be great if it was set into law, in my opinion.

Picking Up Something New

I have always wanted to learn the ways of earning money online but some of it has just gone right over my head lol. I've never quite learned the tricks of the trade when it comes to PPC advertising. A couple friends and I have tried to figure out the ins and outs but it's not as straightforward as we thought it would be because of all the different methods out there.

I think I might have found a place that I think might be able to help me out though. They handle both the advertiser and publisher side of things and have a host of tools and services to help out with. There is even a community there so I know that I will always have someone to turn to and people to learn alongside. That's really what I'm looking for because when I learn something new I like to know every side of it that I can, which is normally why I will choose to start at the bottom of a company. You can never know too much about something.

Maybe a Christmas Miracle?

A friend of mine has been having kidney trouble for years and I think it's getting to where she may need a transplant. I felt awful for her this last week, it was her birthday and she had to spend it in the hospital. I'm pretty sure her problems are related to her lupus but I think she has acquired a host of other problems that have branched off into other things. I know she's been seeing kidney disease doctors for a very long time but I'm not exactly sure what they have told her.

I'm hoping the best for her and that a solution comes soon. She's younger than I am and it's hard to see her have to go through so much and stick to limitations that she tries to rebel against. She had tried to move off to college but had to come back due to a lack of people support. I think she's on the registry to have a transplant and there was a rumor there might have been kidney doctors in maryland that had a match, but it didn't end up working out for some reason. That was disappointing. Hopefully soon though...

Cost Effects

One of my friends is moving across the country for a new job. I don't think it will be too much of a change for her since she's used to being in larger cities now. We were wondering what the price differences will be since neither of us has traveled to the east coast. We figure that there should be some differences in transportation, water and electricity at the least. One would assume that since the energy crisis in California and the prices keep jumping all over the place that new jersey electricity would be quite a bit cheaper, but who knows. We pay about the same for our place as my parents do but our weather is a lot more extreme than it is there.

Almost Home!

I am SO excited! We're taking off on Thursday for CA. There are so many things I miss about home, even though I've only really been here for a few months, I've been back and forth since April. We'll only be able to stay for a week since the girls and my BF start back at school and work the first week of January, but the trip will definitely be worth it. It's likely that the one thing I miss the most is the food. There is a large lacking of diversity here and there's a world of cuisine in one black back home. I can't wait to get there already!

Saving Money

Guest post from: Von Wolfe

We are all about saving money in our household right now but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some of the things we want. My husband is really into sports so I found us some cheap direct tv packages so he could get all his games and in turn he planted me a vegetable garden in the back which has just been the most fun thing ever. I love going out there in the afternoon and tending to my fruit and vegetables and i even have herbs which has been GREAT for my cooking skills. I never bought fresh herbsbecause they were so expensive and I never used enough of them to warrant a whole pack but now that I grow my own I can just pick what I need when I need it. I think there’s something to be said for eating freshly grown produce and herbs and you know, I think my parents would agree! They’re all about doing your own thing when it comes to being a Locavore.

Recycling

I love gardening, that's one of the things I miss after having moved. Now that it's winter there isn't much I can do outdoors. I've grown a lot of things in my past garden; tomatoes, strawberries, basil, lemons, squash, pumpkins, melons, peas, beans...the list is quite long. It was a lot of fun but one of the things I always wished I had was one of those composters. We always had a lot that could have gone to good use in the garden and it really would have helped the poor soil we had. That's definitely the first thing I'll be getting once I'm able to start up another garden.