Friday, February 27, 2009

Update on the garden

Well, I had been trying to figure out how I was going to get my garden tilled so that I could get my garden really started. Little did I know that my husband's uncle that lives about 15 miles away has a really nice garden tiller. I was talking to him last week and he offered to come till for free! So on Tuesday, he came and tilled it and also tilled a small area in my front yard for me to plant some strawberry plants too. So, this weekend, I am going to be out and raking the area to get rid of the grass and roots. I have some plants in my window sill right now growing (watermelon and green beans and also started strawberries too). But I just can't wait to start the whole thing. Gardening is so addictive, I have even started thinking about planting some Wildlife trees.

Getting a fence!

One of the things that we are going to get when our taxes come back is aluminum fence installation. I personally can not wait to be able to just let the boys out in the back yard and not have to worry about them running out in front of cars or something else creepy like a neighbors dog coming over (never know if they are friendly or not). I think that having a fence is a must if you have active kids like mine. Not just for their safety but also for the parents sanity!

Word to the wise about Skype

Okay I will be the first to tell you that I do love Skype. BUT I do have one problem with them. When I signed up for the unlimited service, they sent me a code for $30.00 off of an online number. So I thought that was the total amount. So I went ahead and picked a number and then it said thanks for purchasing and showed that they took $30 out of my PayPal account to cover it. Nowhere on the site did it say that the number was $60 normally and that they were taking 50% off... and there never was a confirmation page either just went to thanks for your purchase. I feel that is false advertisement. I have emailed them numerous times to let them know that I did not want the phone number and to try to get them to refund my money. I just keep getting these form letters sent to me which do not address anything at all like what I have emailed them about. So customer service is really awful and I think that they are overseas which makes it even more fun:/

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Switching careers?

In this economy it is sort of hard to keep up with what career is best to go into if you are thinking of changing directions or just starting college. One job area that seems to be going well is IT jobs. There is a great demand and more will be coming back to the US as well with incentives for companies to hire US based employees instead of someone in India or somewhere else off shore.

Starting your garden on the cheap

I went to the feed store the other day and bought 50 starter pots for my garden. It cost me about $4.00 for those. I started thinking about it and thought you know? I can pretty much do the same thing for free. I had been collecting some egg cartons so I just used those to plant my strawberry seeds. I mean if you are going to have a large assortment of plants, then it's worth it to save a few egg crates. Because after all, one of the biggest reasons for starting a garden is to save money not spend more right?

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Traveling

You know, I really love my cute little town. But one thing that I have noticed is there really is not too much to do here. And to prove that, I do not think that there is a hotel in the whole county! I am sure that sounds kind of funny to think about. It does to me too. I sort of wish there was one. I remember when I was a kid going with my parents and they would pay for us to just use the pool to go swimming. Now, it wasn't one of those nice ritzy hotels though but it was still fun:)

Free $25 Restraunt.com certificate!

Okay, on this deal you are supposed to be able to get a free resteraunt.com gift certificate. All you have to do is go to
http://www.travelzoo.com/vip/signupfs.aspx?sod=1&cm_mmc=email-_-email-_-20090209travelzoo-_-travelzoo&cm_em= and fill out the first page and submit. Make sure to fill it out using an email that you will check because they should send the certificate to you with that email.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Great New Mail Box!


I have been thinking about doing something about our rather drab mailbox. I started surfing the net looking for mailboxes that were different but not too expensive either. I found this really cool site called Mailbox and Beyond. They have so many nice mailboxes. I really like the painted birdhouse one personally, but they also have some others such as some with flowers and even a gingerbread man one. I thought that would be really cute around the holidays.
But that is not all that they have. They also have some really cute
address plaques. I would love to replace the ones that we have with something maybe to match the mailbox? And would also love to get some new house numbers as well.
And if those are too flashy for you, they also have some really nice whitehall products as well.
So check them out and see if you can find your perfect item as well.

Garden seed exchange

I have bought a bunch of bulk seeds from our feed store to start my garden. There are still some things that I would like to grow that I don't have seeds for. I am really thinking about creating a seed exchange so that small gardeners like me can plant an inexpensive garden but still have lots to choose from.
Has anyone else done this? I would love to hear from you!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Loosing weight

I have actually lost a lot of my baby weight already but I am still not quite happy with the way that my body looks after having 3 babies in 5 years. I have thought about getting some weight loss pills to try. I figure anything that I can take along with eating right and exercising will probably help me loose a little faster.

Great deals on diapers

I don't know how many of you order diapers through diaper.com. If you haven't though, now is the time. They are having a deal where you get free shipping and $10 off of your order. All you have to do is use the discount code of mom6. So again, if you haven't tried them before now is the time. It is a lot cheaper then buying at your local store especially with the $10 off right now.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Looking to go back to school for a certificate?

Those of you that know me, probably know that I am trying to go back to school. But I really have not made up my mind yet what I want to go for. I know that it has to be something that is not really going to take up too much time (preferably mostly or all online) and something that has a great job outlook as well as good pay as well.
I have been looking at the St. Joseph University Online Management Certificate Program. They have a great Project Management certificate program. They offer anything from Engineering Managers, Construction Managers to Natural Sciences Managers and more! And it is all online! And I think the thing that blew me away was the median wage for these jobs they are anywhere from $76,000 a year to $111,000 a year. That would be worth going back to school for definately. The job market for these jobs according to this site looks very promising as well.
So, if you are thinking about going back to school, you really should check out this site.

Magic Jack

As I have talked about before, we have gone to bare bones local only calling on our home line to save $50 a month on our internet/phone bill. We also have skype but I was thinking about trying Magic Jack and I have heard mostly good things about it. They have free calls in, long distance throughout the world and even voice mail all for about $20 a YEAR not month but YEAR. As soon as we do our taxes and get the money back...I am going to through out $20 for this and try it out and see what happens. But would really love to get some feedback from others that have used it.

Great site for game reviews

If you are into games like my husband is, you should really check out this cool new site. They have a bunch of really cool Game Reviews. I mean who wants to spend $50 on a game that is going to be well, lets just say not exactly what you thought it was going to be? My husband is really enjoying reading all of the Action Game Reviews since that is what he plays. They also have Movie and Music reviews as well. So check them out and see hat all the hype is about. I am sure that you will find something to help.

Made my own baby food!

Well money has been really tight lately, so I bit the bullet and bought some frozen veggies and made my own baby food. I still can not find my steamer so had to make it on the stove top. I made sure not to put too much water in it though, as I did not want to pour out too much of the nutrients. I made my first batch out of peas and I left it a little thick so I could add water to it if needed and I always mix either baby rice or baby oatmeal with the food as well. I am happy to report that Seth loved it! He actually fell asleep not too long after eating it too which really made me happy. I calculated the cost and it is about 1/5 of what I would be paying for the store bought baby food. I also bought a big jar of apple sauce for breakfast and I am going to freeze what I don't use in the first day or two in the ice cube trays the say way that I did with the peas and then I can just mix that with oatmeal in the morning for him. That is $1.75 for 32 oz of apple sauce instead of 8 oz of the same thing but in the baby food containers. I also have frozen mixed veggies and squash and carrots that I need to prep for his baby food too. But just wanted to make sure that I did it right first with the Peas. I was able to fill up 2 ice cube trays with one 16 oz bag of veggies. All you have to do is cook (either steam or in water on the stove top) and then blend to the texture that you want and then freeze in the ice cube trays and then put in a Freezer bag. So easy and save soo much money!