Sometimes you just need a quiet weekend getaway to unwind and recharge the batteries. And that is what my wife and I are doing. Dropping the kids off with my wife’s dad and hitting the road. Heading to the mountains for a long weekend.
Have a great weekend and try to make time for you and your spouse and take a long weekend getaway. It is worth it.
It is that time again, the dreaded Tax Season. I really don’t know, other than some CPAs that enjoy tax season. For most, they just try to do what is right and pay what they owe. Some like to try to get as big of a return back as possible, but for me I like to break even.
So with that, you have less than 1 month before taxes are due. Plan ahead, if you are doing your taxes yourself, see what changes have been made to the tax codes. If you are like me and can’t be bothered or even comprehend the tax codes, pay a good CPA, in the end it is worth the money.
I’ve been in constant contact with my CPA for the past several months, ensuring that we had everything together, but more importantly, I’ve really focused for the last year on giving more. I really want to plan on giving more and more each year. My family has been incredibly blessed and there are a lot of suffering families out there, so if we can give to the Food Bank, to a local charity that the money will be given to help others, then that is what I want to do. So for 2014, I’ve increased our giving by $100 in our monthly budget, this does not include the $40 a month that I give through automatic withdraw in my paycheck bi-weekly.
As we pay down debt and move closer to those magic words of being DEBT FREE, we will increase our giving. Because there is no greater feeling, than helping someone else.
Ok, enough is enough. Seriously parents, this isn’t cool and in the end will back fire of you. I saw this video, ok, I saw the first 10 – 15 seconds of this video and I was embarrassed. Parents, stop embarrassing your kids.
This isn’t cool and is only going to tear your children down at some point, because they will find out that you recorded them throwing a fit or getting upset. Here is a crazy idea, let’s build our kids up and help them have a strong self esteem. I’ve read time and time again that people find video funny. What is funny? Watching a kid cry? Watching a kid get upset because the player that he looked up to is no longer on his favorite team and the whole time, the father is egging it on.
But, and this is pretty cool, the person that stepped up, was Steve Smith, now with the Baltimore Ravens. There isn’t much known thus far about the meeting that will take place between Smith and this young boy, but regardless of what happens, Smith is doing the right thing.
Parents it is our responsibility to raise our children to see themselves as what they can become, not their failures or moments of getting upset. Steve Smith, thank you for taking time out of your life and your day, to comfort a child.
Growing up in North Carolina, I UNC Basketball was a way of life. And the rivalries in Tobacco Road with NC State and Dook, these were things that we lived for. But being a die hard UNC Basketball fan, you learned by watching the legendary coach, Dean Smith. Because, it was not about the individual or the individual awards, but it was about the team. It was about pointing to another player if they give you a pass to score, as a way to say thank you. It was the words of encouragement to lift a team up that is trailing to come back and win the game.
Dean Smith was not a fan of the lime light. He did not want the Dean E. Smith Center to be named for him, because he wasn’t the one the won the games, the team did. That was how Coach Smith was, he didn’t want the attention on him. I was fortunate to meet Coach Smith on a few occasions and he could not have been nicer. He always looked you directly in the eye and made it a point to ask what we wanted to do with our lives and the importance to school. Looking back on that, it is really exactly what I would expect from a teacher.
Coach Smith has been in the media a lot lately, not for his coaching, but for the loss of the man. Not physically, but mentally. Coach Smith has dementia, which in my opinion is one of the worst things that can happen to a person. Dean Smith could remember players names, games, plays, the team managers, but now that is long gone. I found this article yesterday and I couldn’t stop reading it, not because of the way the article talked about how Coach Smith is doing today, but because of all the games, the things that he did for the university in breaking the racial barriers, etc. Coach Smith was a pioneer in many ways, but he was a coach that cared for others first.
I have a DVD that was produced a few years ago for Carolina Basketball and it highlights Coach Smith, so I am able to go back and watch highlights of games that I remember from growing up. I just hate that my boys will never get to see him coach or meet him, because there will never be another Dean Smith.
The weather man was right, it is another snow day. I’m fortunate that I get to work from home on days like today. And I’m really fortunate that my wife is at home today so that I can stay upstairs and knock out a few reports.
But as I watch the snow fall, I think about my excitement of watching with anticipation and going to the town commons and going sledding. Well today, hopefully after lunch, the computer goes away and I’m taking the boys out to play.
Another snow day, is just one more day to make lasting memories with my boys.
Childhood memories are a wonderful thing, most of the time. There are a lot of things from my childhood that I have blocked out, but there are some memories that I have that will last forever. This past Saturday, I got to do something that I have not done in a really long time. I went to a college basketball game with my Godfather.
I can not tell you how many times growing up, my Godfather and his son Matt and I went to see UNC play. I remember going to basketball games at the Dean Smith Center as a young boy and watching in awe of the teams play and more importantly how Coach Dean Smith was on the sideline. I remember how my Godfather was with his son and myself, he took us to places on campus, always paid for our meals, told us that we could never repeat the bad words that were used at the game. These are the childhood memories that I cherish the most.
This past Saturday, my wife and Godfather went to the UNC vs. Wake Forest game at the Dean Dome and it was like I was a kid again, relieving so many childhood memories. My Godfather and I were high fiving, booing the refs and just having a blast. We talked about games this year and games that we saw years ago. These are the things that I’ll never forget. These moments of being a kid and relieving my childhood memories and one day very soon, I’ll get to take my sons to the Dean Dome for their first game and they too will begin making their own childhood memories.
Last night the boys and I were driving the nanny home and I made the mistake of driving past the Chick-fil-A. Rookie mistake, I know, but it was too late once they saw the red sign. So as we drive past, the boys start asking to go to Chick-fil-A, but they have both been having stomach issues and I just didn’t think that going for dinner was a good idea.
Well for the next 20 minutes, Baby B, now mind you, this is the one that only said Ma and Da about 8 months ago. And he is in the back seat saying “I go Chick-fil-A” and “go to Chick-fil-A me?”. Man, that got me. But then I got thinking about how the boys could really eat there every day. They love that place and so do I for that matter. A Spicy Chicken sandwich and let’s not even talk about how good the waffle fries and sweet tea are. Crap, now I want Chick-fil-A.
But as we are driving home, I thought about how the media really went after the Chick-fil-A corporation and the picketing, etc after the comments about same sex marriage. And mind you, we are talking about the media, making comments, that a private business owner said in expressing his views. But, when just a few weeks ago, the snow storm that hit Atlanta, Ga and there were thousands of motorists stranded on the side of the road and a Chick-fil-A manager, fired up the grills and started making sandwich for stranded drivers so that they could eat, that received very little attention in the media. It is sad how our media focuses on such negative stories, but the ones that they should give the most attention to, the one where thousands of stranded drivers were given a free sandwich, even when many attempted to pay, they received the My Pleasure statement in return, that is not the lead story on the evening news.
So, I could easily substitute the beginning of this song from I Could eat to My boys could eat and it still works, but I think that Tim Hawkins got it right with this song.
I believe that you learn something new everyday, whether you choose to or even admit it. And sometimes I think that it takes a few days or even longer to realize that you’re learning something new.
I’ve had a rough week. Some would consider it to be a helluva week, compared to what some go through with cancer or the lost of a loved one, I would consider it to be a light week. But I got home, I was tired, physically, mentally and emotionally, emotionally. I didn’t really want to talk to anyone, I just wanted to see the boys.
I got home, took a deep breath and just smiled at the boys. They each got down off the sofa and ran over to me and hugged me. The day started getting better right there. The day, which was close to 7pm, changed.
And as we are walking upstairs to put the boys down, they both looked at me and said Thank You for carrying up their trains to bed for them. And I just smiled, because really, I should be the one saying thank you to them.
You see, my life is better today because of those two little boys. My life has more purpose and focus than every before. My life today, is centered around raising those little boys to be good young men. My life is complete, because I have them.
So kids, thank you for being you.
Growing up in the south, we didn’t get snow very often, maybe a few inches a year and that was if we were lucky.
So snow was something that I always looked forward to seeing as a kid.
But now, as an adult, it stinks. There is nothing worse than shoveling out cars and sidewalks. Snow is supposed to be fun. Snow ball fights and snowmen, these are things that are fun about snow. Not shoveling.
Sometimes in life, we get sunny days. Sometimes we get rainy days. And sometimes, we get snow. And it looks like this winter, we have gotten a lot of snow and we still have several more days of it.
I miss the days of watching snow fall to the ground. I remember the anticipation, running to the window to see if it had started yet. Now, though I still love watching it fall, it is the after effects that I dread. But today, I watch it snow and love watching the boys stand at the window and point to it with excitement. I hope that they will grow up loving it the way that I do.
Every night before it is time to get in bed, the boys sing songs with either my wife or myself. But Baby A will usually get in our laps, sing and when it is time to go to bed, in the cutest voice, he says “Rock a Minute”.
One day soon, I know that “Rock a Minute” will turn into me asking him if I can rock him to sleep. Before today, “Rock a Minute” turns into rocking 10 minutes.
So tonight, after a long day at work, dealing with traffic, feeding the boys, getting them ready for bed, I look forward to Baby A asking to “Rock a Minute”.