When my husband and I moved to a new house, I knew that the outside was going to be my haven. I loved the big yard and I knew that it had tons of potential. I also knew that I wanted a Lantana hedge and I started reading everything that I could find about Lantana care.

After I had the hedge figured out, I started drawing up different landscaping designs that I wanted to be incorporating into the yard. The pictures that I had in my head of how it should look were so beautiful and I could not wait to have this oasis for myself.

I asked a friend, who has a beautiful yard of her own, if she had some landscaping design ideas that she could share with me. She came and looked at the yard and the ideas started to just flow out of her. We used a lot of her ideas, as well as many of my own, and I can honestly say that I have the nicest yard that I have ever seen.

Shortly after my husband passed away in a fatal car accident, I started looking into several debt diet plans. I knew that for the first time in my life, I had to take control of my financial future and that I was way too far in debt to keep up the pace and still support my kids.

The first thing I wanted to know was how to reduce credit card debt. As my husband had handled the finances in the marriage, I had no idea that we owed so much. I thought we may owe a little, but I was shocked at how big the number was. I was concerned that I was not going to be able to support my family.

I decided that I was going to do poor credit debt consolidation and stop using credit altogether. It made the most sense if I was ever going to get rid of the debt.

I would certainly advise any wife to know exactly what the financial situation is in their home at all times.

When my daughter was eight years old, she was diagnosed with leukemia. It was the hardest thing that we have ever had to face and reality set in when we were contacted by the Children’s Wish Foundation, stating that they wanted to give us Disney tickets, as that is where Shayden really wanted to go.

We got our Hopper tickets delivered to our house by registered mail and even the sight of the tickets seemed to make Shay feel better. She was very excited about the trip and I was happy that she was getting the opportunity to make one of her dreams come true.

When I would tuck her in at night she would ask me to read more to her about what she could expect to see when we got there. It was a great experience and it held us all together when things were difficult with her illness. She is better now, but I will never be able be thankful enough for that trip.

When my husband and I decided to renovate the unfinished basement of our house, I was very excited to go out and look at shower cubicles with him. He was finally going to have his own bathroom, which meant that the one we currently share was going to be all mine.

Not that I am greedy, but I am not really into taking showers and it gets rather tiring having to clean the bathtub every time I use it. He showers every day when he gets home from work and leaves the bathtub rather disgusting.

While we were browsing through the electric showers, my mind wandered to the freedom that was going to come with us each having our own bathroom space. I did not feel too guilty about it because I know that he was excited about having his own shower, too. I didn’t even blink an eye when he chose one of the most expensive ones. After all, he deserves it.

When my best friend asked me to be the maid of honor in her wedding, I was really scared. I was not scared to be her maid of honor, as we had planned this since we were little girls. What I was scared of, was the fact that she was getting married in South Africa.

I had never been out of the country at this point and I did not know what to expect. I was worried about everything, from getting sick to getting lost. I think that I watched more medical tourism videos while I was preparing for the trip than anyone has ever watched before. I was going to be prepared.

As it turns out, I was worrying myself sick for nothing. I was honored to be there for her and I had an experience that I will never forget. It has changed me in a way that I cannot even put into words. It was definitely the most outrageous thing I have ever done and I think that I have grown as a person.

I like to start my day with a bit of light reading.  Today, I slept in a little bit, but I still need to do this as it is the routine that I am used to.  I usually read for about an hour a day, and that is what I intend to do today.

Currently, I am reading Stock Split Secrets, by Darlene Nelson, and I have been reading it for the last week.  I have been looking for ways to make my investments work a little harder for me, and this book has been giving the answers that I have been seeking.

What I like about the book is that it details the same investing strategies that the pros use, so it allows me to take advantage of the same things that they do.  Add that to the fact that I will be able to retire sooner by following these strategies, and I feel that it is a cook book to riches.

Well, I better get reading - I have a lot of things that I need to do today.

When I was just a child, I lived through the most awful child custody case that I am sure every kid ever had to live through. My mother and father were at war with each other and my little brother and I were put right into the middle of it. I knew that they were angry with each other, but I was really disappointed that their respective lawyers did not take the kids feelings into consideration.

This experience scarred me for the rest of my life. I decided that I was going to become a lawyer someday and work with Utah family law. I wanted to be able to help the kids and I knew that living through it myself, I would know what was best for them.

One of the people I look up to most is Eric K. Johnson, as he quickly became my mentor. He always made his client quickly realize that hating their spouse was not productive to the well being of the kids. I made this my mantra and am doing what I always said I would do.

I remember vividly when 800 numbers came into mainstream use. My uncle John was stationed in Hawaii with his family, and I wanted to go visit them in the worst way. Well, okay. I didn’t want to see them as much as I wanted to visit Hawaii. When they were stationed in Germany I wanted to visit them there, too, but that wasn’t going to happen, and I had no way to research airfare efficiently. I had to mail the various airlines and ask for a booklet they published periodically with schedules and airfares.

With the advent of  toll free numbers, I availed myself of directory assistance to get the airlines’ contact information. This was 1967, the year I graduated from high school. The rest of my family had little to do with the phone. They didn’t seem to see the potential for gathering information that I did. And I’m still at it, gathering information, only now I do that on the Internet.

I never did get to visit my Aunt Rosie and Uncle John, but I gained a lot of confidence contacting customer service reps and airline travel agents. And that kind of experience went on to shape the person I have become. I’m not afraid to talk to anyone — well, except my Aunt Jane. Don’t even want to go there…

Someone asked on Twitter the other day how it is that June bugs know exactly when June 1st occurs. He said those hard shelled, reddish brown beetles or whatever species they are, started dive-bombing his front porch right after midnight on June 1.

For that matter, how do cicadas know it’s been 17 years and that it’s time for them to wake up and start making all that racket? The year before my daughter was born was the year of the cicada in Maryland. I’d never been around anyplace that had that many of them. When I was a kid the so called “locusts” came and went, but out where we lived, there weren’t that many. I never really learned why.

But in Maryland, hard-shelled bodies emerged from finger-sized holes in the ground, and attached themselves to anything that stood still long enough for them to climb up and molt, or whatever you call shedding their shell. They emerged, brilliantly colored, (some of them oddly deformed), and the males made their way to the towering oaks in the backyards of our neighborhood. There each sang for a bride, and the circle of life moved on.

How do June bugs and cicadas know when it’s time to come out and play? I guess it’s written into their genetic code. I can’t explain it any other way.

As my husband and I run our own business from our house, we are able to do a lot of traveling.  Our business is Internet-based and so as long as there is Internet we can work.  We spend a lot of the winters in Florida and Texas, as we know that we will eventually have children and we will not have the freedom of traveling when they go to school.

We ended up buying a fifth wheel trailer that we pretty much live in all winter.  In the summertime we use RV storage Philadelphia and we get a really good rate as this is when most people pull their RVs out of storage.

I really enjoy our way of life and the fact that we can just pick up and leave whenever we feel like it.  But, by the time we got home for the summer I am ready to just enjoy my house and my garden in my yard and am very content to just stay put for a while.