Category: Family Issues

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What I am wearing

One thing that I am pretty fussy about is the clothes that I wear. I like what I like and will not wear anything else. Anyone who tries to buy me clothes for a birthday or Christmas knows that there is a good chance I will not wear them. That’s just the way it is. That’s why I was surprised when I opened a present from my wife that had clothes in it. I knew this would be interesting.

It turns out that I actually liked these clothes. There were two pairs of mens lab coats that looked really cool. I could tell they were of high quality and would be comfortable to wear. I was surprised that they fit so well as she usually gets me they wrong size. I asked her where she had gotten the clothes and she led me to the computer and showed me a site called http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/Scrubs-for-Men/. It truly was a Christmas miracle.

I have decided to make a rare exception and keep the clothes I was given. I think I would still prefer to purchase my own clothes but I guess that I could use a little help now and then. I’ll just have to see what the future brings on this sensitive subject.

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Boats and water

One thing I love to do is to get out on the water in a boat. I like to fish, but I don’t necessarily have to. Just being on the water and seeing the sunlight on the waves as we make our way down the river is a joy to me. Being with the family is another aspect I like. The kids enjoy the outdoors and I like the fact that I am helping them learn to appreciate Mother Nature.

I would like to get a bigger boat sometime in the future, but for now I am happy with the one I have. It’s never left me stranded and that’s something that I like. I hope we can spend many hours on the water this year.

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Spring cleaning

Today is Saturday and I have a problem. I have been promising to clean up the garage and it looks like the day has finally come. I can put it off no longer. I am not looking forward to this as I know there will be some debate with my wife over what items to keep and which ones to throw away. She doesn’t seem to understand the importance of keeping items that we may need in the future.

Anyway, I guess I’ll get started and do what I can to get the garage clean while limiting the damage done to our inventory. Maybe I can distract her later with a shopping trip!!

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Thanks internet!

The power of the internet is pretty awesome. With just a few clicks and keywords, you can find information on just about anything. Even if the information you need is in another country. This happened to me recently. I was talking with my aunt who still lives in the UK. She has been planning to move and wanted me to help her find a low-cost removal company to move her things.

She has lived in the same apartment for many years. She has always dreamed of living near the water and now she has her chance. She will be moving at the end of the month. The problem is that with all the expenses of her new home, she has to keep her house removal costs to a minimum. I thought I could help and so I did some research online.

I found out that moving can be costly. The good news was that there are many companies out there who can do the job for less. It’s important to have as many moving quotes as possible in order to make a good decision. The site I found above does just that. My aunt is happy to know that she can move to her new home without a lot of worry. Thank goodness for the internet!

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Appeasing the Sweet Tooth

Some days I want a candy or something sweet, and other days I want something salty or crunchy. I wonder what makes us crave one thing over the the other? The time of day for me to crave candy seems to be after dinner. Did the invention of dessert have anything to do with appeasing a sweet tooth after a big meal?

I know that I used to love chocolate as a kid, and the Halloween and Easter holidays were two of my favorites because they are both big days for candies. I couldn’t wait to go trick or treating and bring home a huge bag of candy to sort through and eat as much as I could before my mom got alarmed and cut me off.

Nowadays I try to hold out for good candy, not just grocery store checkout impulse purchases. I like a quality chocolate and try to measure the good ones against the taste of the famous Sees candies that I used to have as a kid. If its not as good as Sees candies, then I don’t want it.

When my grandparents retired and moved to Arizona, they started mailing a box of Sees candies to my mom and dad for holidays and gift occasions, like birthdays and anniversaries. Since they lived out West, they could buy Sees candies anywhere, but back East we couldn’t buy them anywhere. Of course, now we can order Sees candies online have them delivered. But getting them as a gift from my grandparents was always a big part of the special occasion. Any time I see a box of Sees, it makes me think of my grandparents and their little adobe house out in Arizona.

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Jump and Climb

The neighbor came by this morning to warn me about this weekend. They are having a kids birthday party and the place will be noisy and busy with a couple dozen kids running and screaming across the yards. I remember how it as last year, and can’t believe its already been year since that birthday party.

There is just something about 20 eight and nine year olds running around that gives me a headache just thinking about it. That is way too much energy and noise for me. But for a lot of people, throwing kids birthday parties is like a competitive sport. They hire Party and Event Rentals companies to handle all the details for their kid and the friends, and then the parents don’t have to do much but run the video recorder and chit chat with the other parents who come to the party.

The smart ones hire out the Food Catering, the entertainment and the clean up. The parties in my neighborhood have come a long way since the days when I was a kid and thought that a couple hours in the mall arcade with unlimited tokens was the ultimate party. Nowadays they have
Bounce House Rentals, clowns, face painters, carnival games and all kinds of entertainment options. Its good to be a kid.

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Free Sounds Good

My niece and her husband are tightening their belts since she is pregnant again and isn’t going to be able to work for awhile. So thinks that they will be OK with bills if hey cut back on a few things and if she takes advantage of coupons and free samples by searching online for deals.

We talked about the real math of what she was earning after expenses and she was really shocked to see how little real money she was bringing home in her paycheck. She took 30% off the top for taxes, then had to take off child care, her car payment/car insurance/gas, oil, tires and then a lot more things she hadn’t thought of. Like the true cost of lunch away from home, the cost of convenience foods for dinners when she was too tired or too rushed to cook, the cost of nice clothes, dry cleaning and pantyhose. The actual net cash she was seeing was less than $50 a week.

We all believe that she could save that same net amount by looking for Free Stuff online and using coupons, and being more budget conscious if she stayed home with the kids instead of working outside of the home.  Finding Freebies is even fun – it is like a treasure hunt. She gets online in the living room while her daughter plays and finds ways to save money. I wish it were that easy for the rest of us!

 

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Home on the Range

Today I called my mom to wish her Happy Mother’s Day since I found out she won’t be home tomorrow. My sister was there with her kids, so she got on the phone to say hi. Since she is a mother, too, I wished her happy Mother’s Day and we chatted for a few minutes. It seems like we never talk much anymore since she moved to Florida a couple of years ago. But it sounds like Florida isn’t working out – she might be moving again.

When my sister told me she is thinking about moving to Texas, all I could think of was the song, “Home, Home on the Range.” Visions of cowboys and cowgirls and horses sprang to mind. While I was processing the visions of dusty trails, she was rattling on about Dallas Homes for Sale and how much she wants to move west.

I’m the first one to admit that I know nothing about Dallas Real Estate and I couldn’t help with much except showing up a day or tow before she gets a moving truck so I can help her pack and move her stuff.

I asked her if the Dallas Homes For Sale were anything like the one she used to have in Virginia, and she says that they have plenty of nice neighborhoods all around the Dallas and Fort Worth areas like her old neighborhood. It’s just a matter of knowing where you are going to be working, so you can focus on finding something nice near the office or job site. Sorry to say that I can’t help with that, either. But it sounds like she has got the ball rolling and everything is under control.

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Mother Day Wishes

Wish I could see my mom this year for Mother’s Day, but work is crazy busy and they wouldn’t let me have any time off for a quick trip out of town. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to go, I decided to send her some flowers and I found a good deal online.

Thanks to my sister who gave me the tip about checking for online coupon codes before ordering anything online. I typed in flowers discount code into the search engine and I got a deal that saved me money off the cost of the flowers and also gave me free delivery.

Turns out that I saved so much money with the coupon code that I was able to upgrade the arrangement I had picked out and sent her an even bigger bunch of flowers. That worked out great, and I’ll call her on Mother’s Day, too, to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day on the phone.

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Easter Ham

My family has always enjoyed a nice ham dinner for Easter. As long as I can remember, we have made as much fuss over Easter Sunday Dinner as we do over Thanksgiving Dinner.

My mother used to prepare all kinds of great side dishes to serve with the ham. I personally liked her scalloped potatoes best, but my dad used to ave about the sweet potato casserole.

Dessert for Easter Dinner is always cake. Sometimes it is carrot cake, but most times it is a layered yellow butter cake with white frosting sprinkled with grated coconut. One year my mother made the cake cut out in pieces and put together to look like an Easter rabbit. Us kids thought that was the greatest cake, ever!