Day 14

A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.


My boys.
They are my world.

Gardening & Citrus Tree

A few weeks ago, I finally finished putting together the garden. I was so excited about finally getting to plant a garden.


Just over a week ago, I finally planted seeds in the garden, in plastic pots, and in peat pots. I planted fruits, vegetables, and herbs. I then got a hanging basket to plant strawberries, I painted ceramic pots to kind of match the house and planted herbs in them, we got a grape plant and planted that, and we got a blueberry plant and raspberry plant that still need to be planted. I have planted cucumbers, scallions, yellow onions, red onions, zucchini, bell peppers, hot peppers, parsley, basil, cilantro, chives, dill, rosemary, thyme, oregano, mint, grapes, and strawberries. Like I said before, I still have the blueberry plant and raspberry plant to plant in our yard.

I am not the only one in this house that has planted stuff. The boys have planted banana peppers, tomatoes, parsley, basil, and watermelons. I think it's very important to teach them about gardening and planting stuff. Everyone should learn and know how to take care of this planet, and gardening is a great way to do just that. My children have been enjoying gardening and seeing their plants already grow. To see Michael and Brayden get excited about their plants sprouting and seeing what has come from a seed makes me so happy and makes me feel like I am doing my "job" as a mom properly.

Yesterday, we bought a citrus tree to plant in our yard. The tree has grapefruits, lemons, limes, and oranges.

Today, all four of us got involved in planting a tree in our backyard. We had a rotting tree that was leaning, so Mark and I chopped it down and dug the stump out of the ground. The boys helped Mark and I dig the hole even bigger for our citrus tree. They even used their own shovels that we had gotten them recently. They had fun helping us dig a large hole, and I had a great time teaching them about what we were doing and why.

Now our citrus tree is planted in our backyard, and I can't wait till it starts producing fruits! You have no idea how excited Mark and I are about this tree. In about 3-4 months, our tree will be fully producing grapefruits, lemons, limes, and oranges. I can't wait!


I am so excited about all of the fruits, herbs, and vegetables that we will have in our very own yard in about a month or two!

Day 13

A picture of your favorite band or artist.


Journey

If you didn't know that Journey is my favorite band, then you have been living under a rock. Journey has been my favorite band since I was 11 or 12 years old. Not only has Journey been my favorite band since I was 11 or 12 years old, but "Don't Stop Believin'" has been my favorite song since then, too. I love Journey and their song "Don't Stop Believin'" so much that I got a semi-large tattoo about them.


Oh, and I am a fan of Journey when Steve Perry is in the band. It's just not Journey without Steve Perry!!!!

Day 12

A picture of something you love.


I love my family.

Day 11

A picture of something you hate.



Animal Cruelty. Unbelievably disgusting. People who abuse animals need to be severely abused themselves. Whatever they do to animals, they need to have that done to them ten-fold.

Day 10

A picture of the person you do the craziest things with.




Mia

Mia and I have been doing crazy things together since we were little. As we've gotten older, the things have gotten crazier and more hilarious. When we were little, we stole her mom's dentures while she was sleeping and we hid them from her. A few years later, we rode in the "trunk" of the Purple People Eater [her mom's purple station wagon] and would give people "the bird." LOL.

When we were juniors in high school, Mia's dad would often take us to one of his friends' house, and we would go four wheeling. I honestly do not know how we ever survived any of those trips out there because you get me driving one of those things, and I go all out. LOL. We tipped over, went zipping through pricker bushes, went as fast as we could up hills so we could go flying over train tracks, and dumb stuff like that. We got in trouble with her dad for every dumb thing we did, but that didn't always stop us from acting like fools. I miss those spring, summer, and fall days of going four wheeling. That was so much fun!

We've done some small crazy things, and we've done some major crazy things. Last year was a fun year for us. When Mark was in Haiti, the boys and I went home for a little bit to visit family. While I was home, Mia and I hung out quite a bit. One night, we went to a Journey tribute band concert in downtown Cleveland. [The two bottom photos are from that night.] On our way home, we got stuck in some kind of traffic on the highway. We were sitting there for a while. That resulted in boredom and getting out of the car and dancing in the middle of the highway...while wasted. HAHAHA. Mia took some photos of me dancing. They're blurry, but I laugh whenever I see them because that was one hell of a night! Then a little bit later, we went back to downtown Cleveland for St. Patrick's Day. It was a good time from the get-go. When she came over to pick me up, I had a birthday cake for her since her birthday was just a few days beforehand. [FYI, I made her a penis-shaped birthday cake, used a peach colored frosting, put vanilla pudding filling inside the cake, and then brown sprinkles on the balls. LOL.] The trip downtown, the time we spent downtown, and the ride home, it was all hilarious and ridiculous!!

That's all I will say about our crazy times. Not everything is blog worthy, nor blog appropriate. LOL. But yeah, we've done a lot of crazy stuff together.

Day 9

A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.


[This is a photo of my mom and me taken on Christmas Eve 1987.]

My mom has helped me get through just about everything in my life. Most people will say they "had it rough" as a teenager, but I envy those people because from the time I was 11 till the time I was 17, I went through some incredibly serious crap in my life - and that's not including getting pregnant at 17 and having a child at 18. I can't even begin to tell you how bad it was from age 11 to age 17. If you know even 5% about me, then you have a very tiny glimpse into the stuff I went through during those years. My mom helped me get through everything as much as she could. When most of my friends would come and go because they didn't know how to help or didn't want to be bothered, I always had my mom there to let me know that I'll get out of the situation just fine. I never believed her then, but I got out of those situations more than just fine.

I am now at a point in my life where things are going pretty darn well. Sure, there are obstacles every so often, but everyone has obstacles to overcome. Luckily for me, my obstacles today are much easier to overcome than the ones I had to growing up.

Day 8

A picture that makes you laugh.



You know those photo booths that take four pictures and print them off on a strip? Well, this picture is from one of those. This was taken back when I was in maybe 5th grade. [I can't remember exactly what grade I was in, I just know it was 5th or 6th grade. I'm thinking 5th grade though for some reason.]

The two girls in the photo with me are my very best friends from childhood. We cheered together on an all-star team, and this was taken at a competition. We were inseparable when we were little. I am not even kidding, we would sleep over one person's house one night, then go to someone else's the next, and then go to another house the following night. There would even be times when we would all stay at one person's house for 2-4 days straight. We would go shopping and get matching outfits and wear them to cheerleading practice...and we even did that at school. LOL.

I don't always get to talk to them very much - mainly because I live so far away from our hometown - but I still do consider them very good friends of mine. I think about them very often, especially because we had so many "inside jokes" growing up that it's impossible to go a day without something sparking a memory about one of them. HA. We really were the female version of The Three Stooges as kids.

Day 7

Okay, so I know I haven't done this since the 15th, but I have been very busy [mainly with school] and don't spend much time on the computer. But I should get back to doing this 31 Day Photo Challenge. I am not going to make up for all of the days I have missed and do multiple posts of the challenge till I'm all caught up to where I "need" to be, I am just going to continue where I left off and only post one entry for the challenge each day. So here it is, DAY SEVEN.

A picture of your most treasured item.


I have a lot of items that I treasure, but this one means a lot to me.

I consider myself very fortunate because my mom's parents never divorced, and my dad's parents never divorced. I consider myself even more fortunate because I got to grow up with all four of my grandparents around. When I was 20, my Grandpa Mike passed away. Brayden was barely three months old and Mark was about 1-2 weeks away from coming home from his second deployment. It was a very difficult time for me, especially moving 600+ miles away from home right after my grandpa passed away.

I carry around a little card that was at my Grandpa Mike's wake and funeral. It means so much to me. My Grandpa Mike is the only grandparent I have lost. By carrying around this card with me, I just feel like he's still here. I miss him so much!! It's been just over three years since he passed away. It feels like he just passed away last week; yet at the same time, it feels like he's been gone for an eternity. I miss playing card games with him.



[BTW, I kind of feel that this was so appropriate as my 100th blog entry. My grandpa still means so much to me. I'm glad my 100th post is about him. I miss you and I love you very, very much, Grandpa Mike!!!!]

Day 6

A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day


Natalie Portman

She fucking rocks!

Day 5

A picture of your favorite memory.

I have two favorite memories: The days the boys were born.


Michael

[I don't have any of Michael as soon as he was born on my computer. I have them all on an external hard drive that is somewhere in this house. This is the earliest one I have of him. It's the day he was born or the day after, but it'll just have to do for now.]


Brayden

Day 4

A picture of your night.




How about a picture of what I got tonight? I think that will do since we spent about three hours at the dealership and then three more hours playing around with the car.

After spending a few days of going through the pros and cons of ten different things, Mark and I decided that we needed to get another vehicle since we have only had one. [Yeah, we've been stuck with only one car for almost four years now.] Around 3:30 PM today, we went to a Ford dealership. We knew that we wanted a Fiesta hatchback in red or lime with black cloth seats and absolutely no leather anywhere. I had checked online earlier today and the dealership had eleven Fiestas listed, but when we got there, they only had five or six. There were only three hatchbacks - two red and one lime. One of the red ones needed to be inspected still, so we couldn't get it. The lime one had leather interior, so we refused. The other red one is the one we ended up getting. What I love about the one we got is that it was the only Fiesta SFE there! Compared to an SE and SES, the SFE gets more gas mileage. It may only be a few miles more per gallon, but I'll take it!

As you can see, she's candy apple red. The interior is black/dark gray and the seats are cloth. The inside is so nice and comfortable. It gets 30 mpg city/40 mpg highway. Not too bad! I love this car! It's a little beast and it's awesome!

I have a sticker to put on the bumper already, but it's been raining, so I don't want to try to put the sticker on a wet surface - that's kind of stupid. Seriously though, this car is kind of going to be my little hippie mobile. I am trying to figure out a name for her, and I want it to be hippie-inspired. [If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave it/them as a comment!]

Day 3

A picture of the cast from your favorite show.



My favorite show is "Criminal Minds". It's on Wednesday nights at 9 PM/8 PM central on CBS.

I have been watching this show since the very first episode aired back in September 2005. I decided to give the show a chance because I saw in the commercials for the show that Thomas Gibson and Shemar Moore were a part of it. I loved Thomas Gibson in "Dharma & Greg", and I remembered seeing Shemar Moore on "The Young and the Restless" when my mom would be watching it. So I gave the show a chance, and I am so happy that I did! I have been hooked since that first episode, and I later got Mark hooked on the show.

If I could be on any show on TV, "Criminal Minds" would be that show. I would go on the show even if I died within the first three minutes. That would be good enough for me! But if I had it my way, I would be a regular on the show. With the way they're getting rid of some cast members, they could write me into the script as a new member of the BAU team. And, in my perfect world, I would become the love interest of Dr. Spencer Reid [played by Matthew Gray Gubler].

[Now please excuse me while I giggle like I little girl.] I cannot lie, I am definitely attracted to Matthew Gray Gubler.

I think the people over at "Criminal Minds" need to get to work and get me on the show STAT!

Day 2

A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest.



There are actually two people I would say I've been the closest with the longest- my mom and my dad. My mom carried me for a few days over 9 months and gave birth to me; my parents raised me, supported me no matter what my decisions were [and they still do to this day], were there to help me with Michael after I gave birth to him and went to cosmetology school, have helped move the boys and I a few times, and just everything! My parents are the best! I love them so much! I hate living so far away from them.