Even before my hubby and I got married and moved into our first home together, we opened a shared bank account. Since I worked in banking for many years, I knew that we both needed to understand how we handled money individually, as well as together, and we needed to create some sort of "flow" before marriage. Since I managed a budget much better than he did, it was only natural that the responsibility of paying the bills and making sure the bank ...
Personal
I Need A New Fridge…
It seems that everything around me operates on Murphy's law: if I take a quick 5 minute walk to the supermarket, my toddler will need to go potty, if I plan a trip to the park, it will rain, and if I purchase a 5 year warrantee on an appliance, it will stop working the day after the warranty is up. I guess you can see where this is going; I purchased a refrigerator 5 years ago, and got the 5 year warrantee. I used the warrantee twice in those ...
Long Days, Short Years
A few days ago I was taking my laundry out of the dryer. Which reminds me....I have to go put my wet laundry in the dryer! Anyway, when I was taking the clothes out I was noticing that my daughter's size 12 and 18 month clothes didn't look so small mixed in with the 3T and 4T of her older brother's. It made me a little nostalgic for the early days and weeks of her life when her teeny tiny onsies and socks looked so little. My husband and I ...
Lost Dog???
My husband and I are in the residential Real Estate business. However, I haven't worked full-time since my oldest was born over 4 years ago. Now that our kids are a little older I've been thinking about getting back to work locally now that we live on Long Island. After much thought and discussion we've decided to start a new company with two colleagues of ours in the area. This leads me to my lost dog story. I typically come home after ...
Pre-School Struggles
When my oldest was 18 months old he had three seizures in less than 24 hours. He was hospitalized and had a battery of tests run on him. After two years, a CAT scan, three MRI's, two EEG's, and three different neurologists....we finally had a diagnosis. He has Sturge-Weber Syndrome. Thankfully he only has the neurological aspect of this syndrome and not the developmental delays. What this means for us is daily anti-seizure medication, daily ...
Infant Woes: Teething Trouble
I guess you can say that when it came to teething, my hubby and I were spoiled by our older daughter. She effortlessly popped up her two bottom teeth at 11 months, and didn't have any more teeth until she was almost two years old! Unfortunately she did get all her teeth in at the same time, while she was also suffering with RSV, then two stomach viruses. Since everything hit her (and us) at once, teething was never an issue on its own. Until ...
It’s Never Too Early To Plan Your Retirement Fund #SHGenworth
This may seem silly, but at (almost) 30 I'm already starting to think of my retirement. I've been working since I was a teenager, and once I was able to start saving towards a retirement plan, I did. After I started my teaching career, I felt that I had a safety net for retirement, since there was a teacher's retirement system in my network. After I lost my job, my first fear was providing for my family, and my second fear was saving for ...
A Time Out for Mommy (and Daddy)
In early January my husband suggested we go away for a few days to recover from the stress of the move, the hurricane, and the holidays. I was keeping an eye on some deals online and found an amazing hotel and airfare deal to South Florida. So, I checked with the babysitters (my parents) and booked a three night stay in South Beach, Miami! My husband and I go out on date nights but it's not enough time away from the kids to really relax and ...