I know that this is going to be one of the hardest years of my life. My wife just had a baby and I am working on my dissertation. It will be hard for me to devote as much time to my family as they deserve and it will be hard for me to spend as much time in my studies as I should.

I always thought that I would be finished with my thesis before we started having children, but sometimes things happen that are beyond your control. I would not trade in my baby son for anything, but I am just saying that the timing could have been better. I wish I could devote more time to him than I have been able to.

On top of all that, I have been spending a small mount of time writing custom term papers, in hopes of earning a little bit of extra income to help with the added expense of adding a child to the family. We have been doing alright and I know that we will get through this, but I feel as though I have no time for me and if I did, I would just spend it sleeping.

For the past three years we’ve gone camping for our summer vacation.  We went to the same spot each year up in the mountains and spent a glorious week hiking,camping, fishing and just enjoying the outdoors.  But over the past year our health has deteriorated to the point where we won’t be able to go camping outside.  So instead of going camping, we have decided to stay over at hotels and do something we’ve always dreamed of.

Our choose one kids are still pretty young, so what we have decided to do is take a trip down to Disneyworld.  Our kids have always wanted to go there, and now that we finally are in a financial position where we can afford it, we’ve decided that it would be the perfect place for us to go.

I have been looking online to see if I can find a place where I can get cheap tickets to Disney World.  I have found a couple of websites that offer cheap tickets but what I will do is check with our travel agent to see if she can match the price before we him purchase them.

I’ll be honest here: I love the outdoors but I hate bugs.  I especially hate it when you get Mosquito bites after venturing outside for a few minutes to take out the trash.  We have tried using bug zappers, but they have never really given us the results that we were looking for.

While I was at the store today, I took a look in the seasonal department to see if they had developed anything new to combat bugs.  I wasn’t expecting a bug flamethrower by any means, but I did want something that would work.

What I found was a Mosquito trap that they had on sale.  All you had to do is plug it in, and the trap would do the rest.

I have purchased a couple and will be setting them up in my yard tomorrow.  I feel that it would be best to get a head start on removing the mosquitoes as soon as possible.  Who knows, I might actually get to enjoy my summer this year.

Last year, we took our youngest son to go see the Wiggles.  If you are not familiar with them, they are a singing group for children from Australia.  It was one great show, and if you ever have the chance to take your children to see them, you really should.

When we were buying the tickets, we had many decisions to make.  The floor seats looked like a splendid opportunity to see the show up close and we were really considering buying them.  But, we were a little concerned with the price and we were unsure if it would be worth it.

In the end, we just bought the cheap event tickets a couple of rows above the floor.  You might think that our view was not as good as those on the floor, but you would be wrong.

You see, each row above the floor was higher than the last, so we all had an unobstructed view of the stage.  For the people on the ground floor, it was just rows of chairs, and if you were in the back row, most children couldn’t see at all.

We were just happy that we ended up with the best view of the show - it was amazing!

Well, most of the snow in my yard is melted, and that means one thing - it is time to get ready for summer.  I wouldn’t say that it is my favorite time of year by any means, but the sooner I get the work done, the sooner I can sit down for a break.

Yesterday, I spent most of my time pulling out old weeds from the flower beds.  I guess I must have been lazy last fall, as there were a large number of weeds to remove.  But, I find it pretty easy to take care of that in spring, so I am not complaining.

I also made a point of getting my deck cleaning done today.  It was a lot easier this year than last, thanks to the deck sealant I put on it last year.  It was as simple as pressure washing the deck, and that was it.  I even had enough time to wash the patio as well - and it isn’t even noon yet!

Well, I think my break is over - I should get back outside.

Every year, I am involved in the local art auction for charities in our town.  From what originally started as a small affair, it has become one of the biggest attractions of the year in our home town.  People come from miles around (we are in a farming community) and bid on the items.

Usually, we auction off artwork from local artists and we also ask the community to donate any pieces that they might have.  As it turns out, there were a few interesting donations from artists that are a little more famous than those people in town.

The most interesting piece of art was a Banksy signed art which made its’ way all the way from the United Kingdom.  Not only is is something that I have never seen before, but it is sure to fetch a good price at the auction.

Well, I should get back to setting up for tonight - I am sure that it is going to go very well.

I recently found myself in a transition between two jobs.  This was a really good thing, but it left me with no health coverage.  This concerned me as I am accident prone and didn’t want to be scared to see my doctor if there was a problem.  This prompted me to further check my options, to see what might be available to me.

What I found was, that I was eligible, to obtain temporary insurance until my health insurance from work was valid.  This made me feel a lot better, though I never had to use it, I’m sure I would have if I had not purchased it.  It made me feel safer knowing that I was covered should anything happen.

I’m enjoying my new job immensely and think that this is one of the greatest changes I have ever made in my life.  I love the people I work with, and I know we will have a lot of good times.  I now have health coverage through work and no longer have use for temporary insurance.  At least now, I know what to do if I am ever in this situation again.

The next time you take a trip to your bank, take a look at the number of pamphlets on their wall that provide you with financial information.  I never really thought of it until the other day when I was at the bank, staring at the pamphlets, and wondering how many trees needed to be chopped down to create them.

Being somewhat of an environmentalist, I thought that the number of pamphlets was overly excessive and that I should be able to find the same information online.

My search resulted in me finding a large number of low quality sites, and a couple of good ones.  Out of the bunch of sites I did find, I think Michael Dinich did the best job with his website, Your Money Matters.

I was particularly impressed with the daily article that was provided on the site regarding IRAs.  The article gave me the idea that I should take a closer look at my IRA plan and not just assume that everything is okay.  In fact, an hour after landing on the site, I was still there reading the many little tidbits of information found there.

I think from now on, I will be looking online for financial information instead of killing trees by getting pamphlets at my bank - it just seems like the right thing to do.

I thought that the phone book was the be all and end all of phone numbers.  I mean, you can find pretty much any number in there (personal or business) except for those numbers that are unlisted.

Also, if you find yourself needing to know who called you, and you have the phone number, you can always use the reverse phone search online, and get the information that you are looking for.

Well, it wasn’t until today that I realized that the phone book had one serious limitation - it only works for regular telephone numbers.  You see, I wanted to find the cell phone number of my friend Jerry, but when I looked in the phone book and searched online, there was nothing to be found.

But I did find a solution, provided that you have the phone number.  You see, there is a website that has a cell phone number lookup service that you can find who called you provided you have their cell phone number.  Pretty slick, don’t you think?

Ever since I was young, I have always hated the color of my eyes. They are a dull brown. It is not that I hate brown because there are nice brown colored eyes, but mine are not among them. My sister has the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen and I always wished I had her eyes. I always wished it was as easy to change eye color as it is to change hair color.

I decided that I would look into changing eye color. I know that you can buy colored contact lenses, but for me that was too temporary. I wanted something more permanent and decided to see what was out there. I knew there had to be something I could do. I thought that if I could even just enhance the color that I have, I would love it a lot better.

I did an online search to see if there was something that was offered in the way of permanent eye color change and was very relived to see that there was a surgery and that I could have the blue eyes that I had always dreamed of. I booked in to talk to someone about it and I am pretty sure that I am going to go ahead with it.