Can Being In A Rut Be Fun?

February 3rd, 2010
4 Comments »

Ever feel like you are in a rut…digging and digging to get out, but getting no where fast?

Ever since Momma started staying at home with Ace instead of going to work, we have really had to watch where our money goes.  And now that we are living in a recession it almost like a noose around our necks!

We pay all of our bills on time, but what’s left over leaves little room for much entertainment or extra curricular activities.

The added stress and lack of doing things hasn’t really helped my blogging much. I mean, do you really want to hear about how we do the same thing every day?  I didn’t think so…  :D

I know that the recession has hurt many families much more than it has hurt ours and I am very grateful that we have done as well as we have throughout these tough times.

I have friends that have been laid off for over a year, depleted all of their savings, and ran up their credit cards.  Now they are living on a shoestring budget struggling to make ends meet.

So how has the recession put unwanted stress on your family?

What have you done to alleviate this stress?

What are some fun (and inexpensive) things that your family does for entertainment?

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Posted in: Entertainment, Family, Money |
Views: 726
4 Comments »

How Kids Change Your Life…10 Things No One Tells You About

October 19th, 2008
19 Comments »

I remember back when we were expecting Ace.  Everyone kept telling us how much it would change our life, but all they told us was, “Diapers and formula are expensive!”…or, “You’ll be getting up every couple of hours every night to a crying kid!”.

So I’m going to let out the secrets…what are some of the things that change…that no one tells you about. :D

1. You venture into areas of your TV volume meter that have never been explored…(No I do not watch the fashion show shown on the TV…that was all Momma’s doing.)  :D

TV Volume Before Kids
TV Volume Before Kids

TV Volume After Kids
TV Volume After Kids

2.  You must now share cabinet space with brightly colored sippy cups.  Be glad you did not install those fancy clear cabinet doors…because I guarantee the neon rainbow does not go with most kitchen decors.  :D

Sippy Cups Share A Cabinet
Sippy Cups Share A Cabinet

3.  Other cabinets are completely taken over…  What used to be there?  Hell, I forget (loss of memory is another thing they don’t tell you about) :D

Hikacked Cabinet - Baby Stuff
Hijacked Cabinet – Baby Stuff

Hikacked Cabinet - Baby Food
Hijacked Cabinet – Baby Food

4.  You find it financially necessary to buy a digital camera.  I have taken over 2000 pictures in the past 19 months.  You know how much it would have cost to develop 2000 pictures? Most of them blurry, off center, or otherwise not visually pleasing…

Digital Camera Needed
Digital Camera Needed

5.  Your computer wallpaper can no longer be some cool scenery or your favorite sports team.  It is, of course, a picture (or even slide show) of your kid…

Ace Wallpaper
Ace Wallpaper

6.  Hearing a kid crying is no longer like nails on a chalkboard.  It still bothers you, but you are extremely desensitized compared to it’s pre-kid effects…

Ace Crying
Ace Crying

7.  Other people’s kids crying doesn’t bother you like it did before you had kids either.  It has other effects on you, like…chuckling quietly because you know exactly what the crying kid’s parent is going through and you are just glad it is not you this time…but you know your turn is coming. :D

8.  No longer does your back yard look like a golf course green.  Now it looks like the playground at the park…

Golf Course Green Backyard
Golf Course Green Backyard

9.  Your refrigerator will now be a major source of entertainment for your little one.  A little side effect? Coming down in the middle of the night to get a drink and busting your ass on refrigerator magnets that have been left lying on the floor. ;D

Refrigerator Magnets
Refrigerator Magnets

10.  It is not only recommended, but often necessary to change your disgusting habits.  Those little people are like copy-catting sponges… :D

Kids Picking Their Noses
Kids Picking Their Noses

But even though you have to deal with the noise, the cabinet rearrangements, the wallpaper hijacking, the buying of a digital camera, the crying, the loss of your beautiful backyard, the refrigerator decorations, and the nose picking…it is all worth it…because of moments like this…

Why It Is All Worth It
Why It Is All Worth It

Posted in: Entertainment, Family, Fun Activities, Funny Stuff, Growing Up, Ignorance Is Bliss, Like Father Like Son, Looking Back, Money, Pictures |
Views: 3,944
19 Comments »

No Naked Lights? Or Smoking?

February 4th, 2008
16 Comments »

No Smoking or Naked LightsDamn it!  Now I have to go buy clothes for all of my lights!  All of my lights are exhibitionists and just hang out in the nude all of the time.  They are going to be pissed!

No really.  In all seriousness.  I am quitting smoking! (Or at least going to give it one hell of a try!)

I’ve smoked since I was about 16.  The first few years were pretty light, but once I got into college it was full on…a pack or more a day.

I’ve tried to quit multiple times.  As you can see none of them have worked.  The best I have done is quit for six months.  I used the nicotine patch, and it worked quite well.  But, when a stressful event occurred…I was right back to a pack or more per day.

I’ve tried quitting cold turkey before and that just doesn’t work for me.  Most non-smokers always say, “Just stop buying them!  That’s all you gotta do!”  Easier said than done.  It is hard…extremely hard.

In the past when I have tried to quit cold turkey, it doesn’t last long.  The nicotine withdrawal does weird things to the body.  I get jittery. I get moody.  My vision gets blurry at times.  I get headaches.  My teeth hurt.

The thing that bothers me the worst is my teeth hurting.  Well, they don’t actually hurt.  My front two teeth on the bottom of my mouth ache horribly the whole time.  It is so weird and doesn’t make sense, but that was always my sign that it was time to smoke again.  So aching teeth is the hardest symptom for me to overcome.

I woke up this morning and put on a nicotine patch.  I did good…really good.  I went all day long at work without losing my mind.  I got home and had one cigarette.  I shouldn’t have smoked it, but damn it sounded good.  After smoking it I wasn’t too happy with myself.  I did good all day long and had to break down, didn’t I?

The thing is, that even when wearing the patch my teeth still ache.  I’m not jittery or too moody, but my teeth still ache like I was quitting cold turkey.  I know that if I can hold on for about 3 or 4 days the aching teeth sensation will go away.  I just have to get most of that nicotine out of my body, and then slowly wean my body off with the lower dose patches.

Hopefully tomorrow will be as easy as today was. 

Stress and boredom are two of my triggers to have a smoke.  I’m trying like hell to avoid stressful situations and to keep from getting bored  these first few days. 

Other triggers are getting into my truck, after eating a meal, and break time at work.  Smoking consumes everything you do.  Everything you do reminds you of how bad you want a cigarette.  Sometimes I wish a doctor would put me into an induced coma and wake me up a few weeks later to cleanse my body of the nicotine so that I would be unconscious during the withdrawal period. :)

So, wish me luck!  I hope I have the strength this time to beat the money hungry health destroying habit…once and for all!

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Posted in: Misc Ramblings, Money |
Views: 1,018
16 Comments »

Turning Trash Into Cash

January 12th, 2008
5 Comments »

A while back I wrote about how we save aluminum cans and I crush them with the old Blazer that sits in the driveway. Remember that?

Well, we have been saving cans for a while now. The bags were piling up in our backyard. Every time we had a storm or high winds I would have to trek across my yard and my neighbors yards to gather up all of the bags of cans that had been blown away.

I finally got a chance to take the cans in to get them recycled. Here is a pic of my truck loaded up with all of the cans…

Aluminum Cans Loaded Into The Truck

Well, after driving to the recycling center, unloading the truck, the cans were weighed…

86 lbs of cans!

My engineering mind has got the best of me and I really want to know just how many cans make up 86 lbs?

  • I weighed one empty aluminum can and it weighed 0.5 oz
  • and there are 16 oz per lb.
  • This means it takes 32 cans to make up 1 lb
  • So 32 cans/lb x 86 lbs = 2752 cans in 86 lbs!

Two thousand seven hundred fifty two cans!  Holy cow!

It’s hard enough to save money for ourselves, however we want to be able to put some money away from time to time for Ace’s future.  Recycling cans is one way we decided to get this done.

Anyways, I received $55.90 for all of these cans.  This money is going straight into Ace’s savings account. Don’t spend it all in one place little man!

Not too shabby for something that we would have usually thrown away, eh?

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Posted in: Money |
Views: 362
5 Comments »

Working Dad

December 19th, 2007
10 Comments »

As most of you know, I am a working Dad.  Sometimes I work more than I would like, but it is necessary to support my family.  Here lately working has consumed most of my life.  I think I worked over 70 hours last week, rode on 6 different airplanes, stayed in two different hotels, and stepped foot in Ohio, Colorado, Georgia, and Alabama.

Right now I am sitting in the airport waiting to go on my way back down to Alabama.  I usually do not work weekends, but I volunteered to work the next two weekends. (Who can pass up double and triple time?!)  I do get Christmas day off though, which is good.

So if you don’t see many posts from me over the next few weeks you can bet that I am either rolling in the money that I am making or passed out from exhaustion.

Instead of boring all of you with my ramblings about work, I’ll point you to some of the cool sites and posts that I have discovered this week.

The Stay At Home Dad
The Working Dad over at the Hossman Family Blog recently quits his job to be a Stay At Home Dad, and shares his thoughts and considerations leading up to the decision.

TheFatherLife.com
This is a new magazine that states, “We are the only men’s magazine geared toward fathers; a magazine for guys who work hard, play hard, and father hard!“.  Check ’em out!

DadGoneMad.com
This Dad was featured on TheFatherLife.com in the Dad Blog Spotlight.  After reading the excerpt from his post about getting a vasectomy…I knew this guy was getting a spot in my feed reader.  :)

SupDad.com
SupDad is a social community for parents. “a place for dads…and moms to talk about what’s important…the kids!“  I just started a profile, but after having a look around it looks like a pretty cool place!  If you happen to join add me as a friend!

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Posted in: Links, Misc Ramblings, Money |
Views: 621
10 Comments »

POLL RESULTS: How Much Do You Spend On Each Of Your Children At Christmas?

December 15th, 2007
6 Comments »

Well, the poll has been up for a little more than one month and we have had 25 votes.  Here are the results:

POLL RESULTS: How Much Do You Spend On Each Of Your Children At Christmas?

Momma did all the shopping this year, like always, so I’m not sure how much we actually spent on Ace, but I would guess it was in the $101-$200 group.

So, it looks like we are right in there with the majority of parents!  I feel better now. :)

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Posted in: Holidays, Money, Polls |
Views: 402
6 Comments »

Bah Humbug!

December 5th, 2007
5 Comments »

I love the holiday season. All of the gift giving, the snow starts falling, the family get togethers, and the free food. I’m so excited for Ace to have his first Christmas, and want to make it special and memorable. But the holidays are not all fun and games. There are a few of things I dislike about the holidays.

  1. Spending Money – I am a tight wad. I admit it openly. If there is one thing I hate, it is spending money. Now don’t get me wrong. I like to buy gifts for everyone, but I don’t think we should spend as much as we do. The problem is that we go to see so many different places and see so many different people on Christmas and everyone buys for us, so we feel obligated to buy for everyone else. Our combined family is BIG! After buying gifts for visits to my Grandma and Grandpa in-law’s, then to my Mom’s, then to my Mother and Father in-law’s, then to my Grandmas, then to my Dad’s, and finally our own Christmas gift giving celebration…we are B-R-O-K-E…BROKE. Done. Cooked. Burnt!

    broke.png

  2. Preparation – All the running around to different stores, putting things in lay-a-way, paying on the lay-a-way, getting out the decorations from the basement, wrapping the gifts, and coordinating all of the family gatherings so that it is convenient for everyone. Mentally exhausting!
  3. Taking Up Precious Time – There are only two things that I don’t have enough of…money and time. It’s hard enough during a non-holiday month to get caught up with all of my regular responsibilities in order to have some free time to have some fun. Not only do we have to allot time for everything in #1 and #2, we also have to allot time for consuming two full days of the month…the 24th and 25th. With 31 full days in December, after subtracting all of the time preparing for the holidays, it feels like I have five whole days left in the month to be productive.
  4. Pretending To Like Gifts – I know I am not the easiest person to buy for. I already have a lot and don’t ask for much, but why would you waste your money on something totally useless? If you don’t know what to buy for me…buy lottery tickets. $$$
  5. pink-elephant.pngThe Drama – There is always drama somewhere. Never fails. One family member is not getting along with another family member and there is always tension in the room. This kind of things just eats me up! Everyone is usually civil, but there is always that pink elephant sitting on the couch next to me. Pink elephants look cuddly, but are vicious wild creatures! Beware!
  6. The Pass Me Around Game – I personally don’t mind for everyone to want to hold Ace and play with him, but Ace can not stand it. Ace and large groups of people tossing him around the room like a hot potato do not get along. He gets over stimulated, worn out, and downright cranky. No amount of formula, rocking, swinging, tickling, or funny faces can calm him down. The only thing we can do is bear the grumpiness until he runs out of energy and passes out. :D

Looking back on my list I notice that all six things can be summed up into four broad categories…

  1. Lack Of Money
  2. Lack Of Time
  3. Stupid People
  4. Crying Babies

I’m going to try real hard to not let these things get in the way of everybody having a good time and enjoying the holidays, but it’s going to be a challenge…now where is that egg nog?

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Posted in: Family, Holidays, Misc Ramblings, Money |
Views: 422
5 Comments »

The Price of Happiness

November 13th, 2007
17 Comments »

I was going through my feed reader today and came across a very well written post written by Adam Purcell of WheresTheInstructions.com titled “For The Next Generation,” and it got me thinking about a few things…

Adam’s sums up his post using this one sentence…

“This is one of the greatest calls of a father, to realise the world my daughter grows up in, is the one I make for her.”

What kind of world do you want to make for your child? Do you want your children to have all of the things that you didn’t have? Do you want them to have more?

I want Ace to have more than I did growing up, but I want to make sure he also gets the things that I did. I could bust my butt and work seven days a week and give him everything he ever wanted…except for one thing…a Dad.

While I would love for Ace to have every thing he ever wanted, I think it is more important for him to be happy. I think it is more important that he have an involved Mom and Dad. I think it is more important that he is smothered in love.

Just remember…the world that we make for our children is not made up of just physical things that money can buy. It is also made up of something that money can’t buy….friends and family.

In my opinion, a person can buy every thing they ever wanted, but they won’t be truly happy unless they have true friends and a loving family.

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Posted in: Family, Growing Up, Money |
Views: 1,412
17 Comments »

POLL: How Much Do You Spend On Each Of Your Children At Christmas?

November 9th, 2007
8 Comments »

Christmas is coming soon. Therefore Christmas shopping is right around the corner. This will be Ace’s first Christmas, and our first Christmas with a kid. I have plenty of questions…

  1. What do I buy him?
  2. Will he like the presents?
  3. How much do I spend on him?
  4. etc, etc…

I’m just curious what everyone else spends on their children, so I’ve created DadThing’s first Poll.

I know it will probably be different for each family…their financial situation, how many children they have, and the age of their children. However, I think it would be very interesting to see what other families do…

{democracy:4}

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Posted in: Holidays, Money, Polls |
Views: 817
8 Comments »

Do Kids Affect The Car You Buy?

October 28th, 2007
13 Comments »

I’ve always driven a truck except for the past few years. I bought a Ford Ranger 5 or 6 years ago and my wife bought a Ford Taurus. When I took on this last job we switched vehicles…she drove the Ranger and I drove the Taurus.

I have never liked the Taurus, but drove it because I couldn’t drive the Ranger for work. It was too small. I carry tools and luggage on a regular basis and it just wouldn’t fit.

When we had Ace, we traded in the Ranger on a Ford Explorer. The Ranger was not big enough for all three of us. Plus it is not safe to have a car seat in the front seat. And I stuck with the Taurus.

The Taurus finally started to show it’s age. We bought the car with 13,000 miles and it now has 127,000 miles. It was a great car. I never put the first part on it. Just the routine brake pads, tires, and oil changes. Recently the check engine light came on, it didn’t like to start all of the time, and sometimes would almost die when accelerating hard. So we decided that it i time for me to get a new vehicle.

I hate buying a new vehicle. I hate car salesmen. I hate the whole sales approach thing. How hard is it really? I told them what we were looking for, how many miles it needed to have, how old it could be, what we could pay per month, how much we could put down, and how long the loan term could be. All they needed to do was show us the right vehicle.

Sounds simple, right? Wrong! Our salesman found us the “perfect” truck.  I liked it.  He assured us it met all of our criteria. We took the truck on an overnight test drive and I fell in love with it.  We went back the next day and they couldn’t meet all of my criteria.

Finally after many hours of visiting car lots and negotiating with the dealers we found the perfect truck.

Now that we have Ace, we had to consider a few more things. Will a car seat fit? How would the vehicle do in an accident? Would it be safe?

The biggest challenge for us was finding a truck that would fit a car seat. Trucks with big extended cabs or quad cabs tend to be pricey! However after being very persistent we did find the perfect truck that met all of our criteria…

We are the proud owners of a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 SLT 4×4…

2004 Doge Ram 1500 SLT 4×4

2004 Doge Ram 1500 SLT 4×4

Happy birthday to me!

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Posted in: Money |
Views: 1,843
13 Comments »

Money Matters

October 21st, 2007
8 Comments »

A while back I wrote a post explaining how Momma was going to be quiting her job and staying home with Ace during the day. Momma has not worked for a few weeks now, Ace is not going to day care anymore, and we have figured out one very important thing…we can’t afford it!

We could do it if we really wanted to, but things would be tight…really tight! It all comes down to making sure that one simple formula is true…

Income > Expenses

I’m a mathematical kind of guy, ya know, the kind of guy that draws up a spreadsheet to calculate everything. After a few spreadsheet calculations I discovered that if we stuck to an extremely strict budget, had absolutely no surprise expenses, and never did anything fun, we would have like $20 left every month. Not going to work…

So Momma has to go back to work part time. Her income will cover some expenses and all fun activities. My income will cover the bills.

She put in a few applications at some of the local clothing stores nearby where we live. She got a job in no time, and will be working evenings. This is what she wanted and it will work perfectly for us. The money she will be making comes no where close to what she was making before, but since she will be home during the day, Ace does not have to go to daycare and I will be there with him in the evenings while Momma is working.

Our plan is for Momma to work part time until baby number two is born. Hopefully we can get a few bills paid off and get into a better financial situation so that Momma can truly be a stay at home Mom in the near future… Wish us luck!

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Posted in: Daycare, Money |
Views: 533
8 Comments »