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I was asked yesterday by a co-worker what types of gifts for twins that she could get her friend, who is a single mom. So here were 2 that quickly came to mind:

1) Diapers & Formula – you can never get too much of that.
2) In 3 months, take her to dinner. By then, the kids should hopefully be getting into a routine and she will need a night out with adults.

Most people immediate think of buying clothes, picture frames, and other things that are great, but maybe not practical.  Think not just today when buying gifts for babies, but think 3 months from now. Everyone is buying gifts for today, do something original, be different. And I promise, a night out, might be the best gift ever. I know that when my wife and I went out for our first night alone, we sat in silence, because really didn’t have anything to talk about, but the kids. But, it was great just to get out, if even for only an hour.

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Today, which is referred to as Super Tuesday, marks one of the largest primary days for the upcoming Presidential election and there are some key battleground states that could really determine who the Republican Presidential nominee is going to be.

Virginia – Only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are on the ballets, and with 46 delegate votes at stack, Mitt Romney should be able to take this state pretty easily.

Ohio – According to many polls (Real Clear Politics) – Mitt Romney has a slight edge. And if you follow politics, Ohio is always a key state, because usually whichever way Ohio goes, so goes the party that gets the White House.  But, Rick Santorum, who had been leading Ohio in previous weeks, is still within the margin of area.

Tennessee – This state is always tricky, because this is one of the few southern states that Mitt Romney has a good shot at winning. According to Real Clear Politics, Rick Santorum has a slight 2.6 point favor over Mitt Romney.

The New York Times does a great job of breaking out the number of delegates that are in play and how close some of the races truly are, especially Tennessee.  Super Tuesday this year is taking on a new look, as it is truly showing the division between the Republican party and the uncertainty of who will be the nominee to run against President Obama.

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As important as it is to be home and spend time with my family, I find it equally important to occasional meet up friends for a guys night out. If nothing else, it is a break and a chance to hang out with the guys, have a beverage, some wings and just laugh, talk about sports, life, politics, etc. Being a dad is hard work, but also a lot of fun. But, you also need a little down time too.

So find a good group of guys, hit up your favorite eatery, my buddies and I are fans of Buffalo Wild Wings.  Great food, great atmosphere and a great place to just hang out.

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Guys, it is time to accept certain facts, we are getting older. We usually do not go to the Dr unless we are on our death bed or our wives nag us enough. But look at it from a different point of view: your child’s. What would their life be like if you aren’t here?  And I don’t want to scare anyone that they will get bad news from going to the Doctor for their annual physical, but what if there is something wrong that they are able to diagnose and treat and ultimately save your life.  And let’s be honest, your annual physical takes about an hour, then there is blood work, but that short amount of time is well worth it for the long term benefits.

I for one, hate going to the Doctor. My blood pressure shoots up every time that I even make an appointment, but last week I went for my annual physical. Overall, the visit went well. I was told that I needed to lose weight, which I knew, but when I heard the dangers of not making a change in my life, I realized for the first time, that my kids could grow up without me if I don’t make some changes. Here were some of the dangers that the Doctor explained that could happen if I didn’t get my weight down and kept it down:

Now, in saying that, I’m about 20 pounds over weight. But, it is enough that if I don’t make some serious changes to my life, that I could really be in trouble. So, what am I doing? I am looking at this at a 2 phased approach:

Phase I – Make the initial changes
This will probably take me a few weeks & this should get me down 5 – 10 pounds.

  • Cut down on eating carbs and starches
  • Breakfast now consists of  1/2 cup of egg beaters, 100 calorie bread, 1 container of greek yogurt
  • Snacks now consists of almonds and sometimes adding dried cranberries
  • Limit alcohol intake – and for the next few weeks, I am basically cutting out alcohol altogether
  • Eat more chicken and meats that are higher protein
  • Eat more salads
  • Exercise more

Phase II – Maintain
This will be the for the rest of my life.

  • Limit Carbs and starches
  • Maintain the same breakfast combination
  • Maintain snacks & introduce fruits into the mix
  • Continue to limit my alcohol intake, but occasionally have a glass of wine  or a beer.
  • Continue to eat chicken and meats
  • Continue to eat salads at least 2 -3 times a week
  • Step up my exercise routine by adding in a daily walk of at least 1 mile, if not more, focusing on at least 30 minutes of cardio a day.

These are just a few of the things that I am doing, as I want to make sure that my boys grow up with me being around and more importantly, I want to be able to set a good example for them by showing them the importance of getting their annual physical and the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

So guys, do the responsible thing, get your annual physical and more importantly, set a good example for your children.

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As I have mentioned in previous posts, my wife and I are very focused on getting out of debt. To help speed up the process, we have both started doing some extra work to help us meet our goals of reducing our debt as quickly as possible. That being said, the last two Saturdays have meant that the boys were spending Saturday with Dad, while Mommy did some side work.

There were a few things that I had hoped to do today:

  • Stay in our pjs all day – DONE
  • Enjoy breakfast – DONE
  • The boys take a nap – They took a 2 hour nap.
  • Watch Field of Dreams – Watching it now & the boys seem to really be into it.
  • Watch some reruns of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives with Guy Fieri – DONE
  • Play with the boys – DONE
  • The boys take another nap – DONE
  • Enjoy dinner – We had Chipotle
  • Let the boys watch a little of the 1st half of the UNC vs dook game – The boys actually watched almost the entire game.
  • Put the boys down – Were down in 5 minutes after laying down in their cribs.

I don’t remember much when I was a kid spending a Saturday with my Dad, but I hope that there were days like this. I look forward to Saturdays when I have the boys and I hope that the boys will look forward to their Saturday with Dad.

 

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Happy Texas Independence Day to everyone out there.  I was fortunate to spend 7 great years in the great state of Texas and consider Texas to be home.  And, I would move back tomorrow if I could convince my wife.

There is just something about Texas, that I don’t know if words can truly be put together to describe the state.  But it is definitely a place like no other. And I consider it home. So today, as I miss home and the festivities, I started off listening to  Pat Green’s Texas On My Mind and made a breakfast burrito.

But what is Texas Independence Day? Well, I think that this sums it up pretty well:
“Texas Independence Day celebrations are held in many cities and towns throughout the state. The day is celebrated by festivals that include children’s activities, re-enactments, band music, and chili cook-offs. Other activities include story-telling sessions about how Texas won its independence from Mexico and became a republic during the 19th century.” And feel free to read more about Texas Independence Day here and the history.

God bless the Great State of Texas!

 

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When it comes to taxes, I like to leave it up to the professionals. But, he sent me an email the other night with two links to look at as it pertains to Child and Dependent Care Credit and these both are from the IRS website:

With twins, we need all the help that we can get and since we have two kids, we can claim $6,000 for the Child and Dependent Care Credit. But make sure that you talk with your CPA or a tax specialist if you have any questions about using this deduction.

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Now that February is over, I have a chance to look back at our financial statements for January. A few quick highlights:

1) My Jeep is paid off now, so that will save us close to $400 a month.  I am deferring $250 of this savings into our Money Market and taking $150 a month and putting it towards my wife’s SUV. By making the extra $150 a month, this will cut 6 months off of the loan and that is if I add nothing else to principal.
2) We have 3 credit cards that have a $1,000 balance, so those are being attacked first. We are currently putting $100 a month towards these, but will increase that to $150 a month to reduce the monthly fees.
3) It also looks like one of my wife’s student loans will be paid for, which will free up another $50 a month that will be put towards credit cards.
4) There were a few unexpected bills that popped up, but I think that for the first time, that we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It is a long crawl to get closer to the light, but at least we see the light.

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I was raised in an Army home, enough said right? I was raised to say sir and ma’am and call adults Mr. or Mrs. and then their last name. So to say that raising our kids with manners is important is an understatement.

In this day and time, I feel that our society has gotten away from manners. Children walking around calling adults, including their parents, by their first name. To this day, I still say sir to my father and I am 35 and a father of two little boys. I still say yes ma’am to my mother. Come to think of it, I say sir and ma’am to most everyone that I come in contact with and I do it, because I really do not know any difference.

Will I ask my children to use good manners and sir and ma’am, you bet I will.

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While doing some research on Alltop on Twins blogs, I came across this blog post that will help you save money today! Some of these ideas we have already started implementing. Here is the article: 10 Ways to Make Ends Meet on a Constricted Family Budget

Based off of their list, here is what we have done:

4. Restructure your debts –

We are actually following the Dave Ramsey approach and have listed our debts from lowest to least and have started making extra payments just to get them down the quickest.

9. Cancel subscriptions that you no longer use –

We just canceled 3 magazine subscriptions that we have no longer been reading as much. And since there is so much free content available and most of the magazines have their content free anyway. Saves money and saves space, because I often collect all of my magazines and read them all in one day.

10. Watch free movies and television through legal online sites –

Even though I have to say that I haven’t really gotten into the free movies, I do need to call Comcast now that our contract is up.  We don’t need all 5 of the movie channels now that we have the kids and honestly, we can save the extra money to use toward paying down additional debt.

We are probably more focused now than ever before to save money today. In order for us to reach our financial goals, we have cut out a lot, but still need to do better to have everything paid off sooner than later. And then we can put more money in our 401k and our boys college funds.

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