Go to the best!

My dad is a plastic surgeon so I've heard horror stories of people who have gone the cheap route or to someone they didn't quite trust and had bad work done.

In fact, my dad has a whole scrapbook of people who have received bad care and needed to be "fixed".

First of all a place needs to be reputable and have references. I think if you're looking to have any medical care you should be confident in the place you're having the procedure and equally impressed with the doctor.

The Times has rave reviews about MYA Plastic Surgery in the United Kingdom.

Plastic surgery is one of those things that you don't want to cheap out on and you only want to go to the best for your care! God knows if you do try to take short cuts you could have to pay for it later and it might be something that is damaged for life.

This post sponsored by: Mya.co.uk

YIkes.

We are totally strapped for cash these days. I just got a call from Shawna that the fertility center wants her to do another one of the $1,400 transfusions again. Last time I tried to get it paid for within the month so that we didn't have to pay interest on it...

Now, it seems like it's snuck up on us again and it's a lot of money!

I know we should just do it without thinking twice at least I'll be getting back a nice chunk for our taxes and most all of it is tax deductible.

Cop friend.

We have a new friend who is a cop and I must say that it's quite interesting when we hang out. I'm always afraid that I'm going to say something against the law and admit to speeding or doing something bad!

Of course, I seem to be more sensored and just know that Shawna's going to open her trap and talk about egging houses as a kid, or something else that she did in her terror years.

I'm sure our friend has 5.11 Tactical gear. She's a park police right now but they really handle just about everything including park incidents and they get calls for the local area - which includes our area.

511TacticalOutdoors.com offers some great gear for police who are in the field. When it comes down to it ... in this line of work. You only want the best out there with you.

This post sponsored by: 511TacticalOutdoors.com

WTF?

was I thinking by not coming in this weekend to work? Last weekend although we had quite a few appointments I was still able to get in forty hours.

This weekend I don't have any appointments scheduled except maybe a haircut appointment and I can see some overtime in my near future.

The harsh part about this is that it's dog work and I'm sure that a full 40+ hours of dog work is going to make me a major bitch by Friday!

Viva!

I'm not sure I would mind going to Vegas again. The first and second time we went it was for infertility treatments and it really wasn't that much of a getaway because we were pretty stressed out - plus we brought Graem with us!

I think it'd be a great place to go and do the nice dinners and go to the shows. Since I'm not into the gambling thing I'd more than likely choose not to waste my money at the casinos!

The shopping at the outlet malls wasn't too bad either. We were able to get some good deals!

Golf carts!

When we used to go golfing I used to have a great time driving the golf cart. God knows, I couldn't golf to save my life! So I was surprised to see half of the carts sitting on the side.

When asked what was wrong the guy replied

"we are having a hard time looking for golf cart parts!"

Being that we're so isolated I think it's pretty hard to be able to go to one store and buy locally. That's why I'm glad that we now have access to online stores and shops and are able to buy and compare stores in order to get the best deals!

Graem's pictures!

This morning I picked up Graem's pictures from school. They are so cute and she's smiling in all of them! Of course, this makes it pretty hard to select the cutest ones to keep!

This would actually be the perfect gift for Grandpa and Uncle Dennis. Maybe I'll just get some nice frames for their desks and call it a day!

Good times.

We're always looking for good weekend trips. Lately, we've been staying close to home because we've been pretty broke - plus we've been somewhat leary of Shawna's pregnancy and not wanted to venture too far.

One thing that's really caught our eye is St. Augustine shopping. On the last Saturday of October and November or October 27th and November 24th the city becomes a wonderland for shopping, adventure, music, and train tours.

All of the participating stores offer goodies including wine and and refreshments and you walk from shop to shop.

This is a great idea for those who are looking to do their Christmas or holiday shopping and don't want to spend a long time doing it.

You might want to head out one Saturday night with an idea of what to get your loved ones. By the end of the night you are sure to find something for the whole family.

GetAway4Florida.com offers a great website and useful information on how to have a nice Florida get away. The great thing for northerners that are interested in getting away is that Florida has great weather year round!

Plus, you can get to Florida on less than a $200 round trip ticket and it's a nice weekend getaway!

Of course, you might not want to do this on a snowy weekend because God knows they love to close the airports down these days over anything and then you'd be stuck in Florida. (Poor thing!)

Monday.

I'm so sick and tired of our house.

This weekend our windows became so fragile that as I was putting in the damn storm windows I almost had one break in my hand. So I went to Lowes to get this caulk and materials to try to remake the windows. Hopefully, that will hold them through the season.

As I'm doing that the rednecks down the street are riding their four wheelers up and down the street...but get this, they are using a truck and a rope to pull the four wheeler in order to get it started.

This morning I think we have something funky going on with our septic and Shawna's going to call out the septic guy to take a look.

Ugh. I'm ready to move.

More website traffic?

We're constantly looking for ways to increase traffic to our websites. It's amazing how much a pregnancy or the announcement of a birth will send ratings through the roof!

However, not everyone has that option or the drama that we have in our lives!

We've even looked at getting more website traffic by purchasing advertising and links on some of the bigger search engines such as google.

Since we blog a lot and page rank is everything it's important to be one of the first websites that comes up when someone does a search on something.

Since our websites deal with infertility, babies, and gay parenting we'd love to be one of the first links that someone finds when looking for specifics.

If you're looking for more website traffic you might be interested in ThinkBigSites.com.

They have been around for a while and they're starting to get a good reputation on the internet for helping the "little guy".

They offer a search engine where you can purchase spots and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

In order for us to even consider doing advertising on one of the big search engines we'd have to put out quite a bit of money --- which, very honestly, we don't want to do!

Maybe we should just -- THINK BIG!

Nice rack!

Boy, do I miss my truck. I admit that I probably should have never bought domestic and the reason why I don't have a truck now is that the Dodge was about to bite the bullet even though it didn't have more than 15,000 miles on it!

I've been drooling over my bosses truck - a Toyota Tacoma for some time. It has four doors and perfect for a family and someone who might have to go to contruction sites like me.

Of course, I'd want all of the trim on it including a truck rack.

Isn't it funny that the whole time we were renting I had a truck and then a month after we moved into our house I sold the truck and ended up getting the X-Terra? What were we thinking?

It should have been the other way around!

BuyAutoTruckAccessories.com offers a great selection of truck accessories and has great prices too!

Life insurance.

I swear we have every type of insurance that is offered! We pay about 20% of my net earnings on insurance premiums! However, I have piece of mind at night and I know that if anything ever happens my family is protected.

Now I've read about life insurance for kids!

It makes sense really and I know when I was a kid was when my father took out a life insurance policy on me and my brother.

To this day it's been nice because he rolled it over to me and I'm able to use it in case something happens to me it will help my family out financially.

Getting excited?

Tomorrow we go for our 8 1/2 week ultrasound and I'm pretty excited about what we're going to see. I'm guessing the kid will be bigger but we might actually get to see him/her move on the ultrasound.

Originally, Shawna was going to go to the appointment alone since I've been missing so much work but I decided that I really didn't want to miss seeing the baby move for the first time on the ultrasound!

Yikes!

This isn't suppose to be happening! The other night I weighed myself and I was back at my pre-pregnancy weight! It seems like since Shawna's pregnant I feel the need to eat just as much as her. But of course, I'm not feeding a growing baby.

I think at some point I might need to hook up with some hoodia. I have a few friends that have tried it for weightloss and it's helped them get off the unwanted pounds.

This is just another reason why I want to nurse the new baby. WIth Graem I lost around 20 pounds in the first three months of nursing!

ROCK ON!

I've never been much for rock-n-roll, however I do love many of the classics. I'm always surprised to see listings that some of the oldies are touring.

In fact the other day I just say that they are selling Van Halen tickets. I feel like at some point we should just take the plunge because you never know when they might not be touring.

Plus, I think it's pretty cool to say that you've seen a legendary band like Van Halen. Who would have guessed they'd all make it out of their 70's drug induced haze?

Looking for brochure printing?

A few years back when Shawna started her business we decided to build a whole marketing theme. We devised a catchy phrase, logo, and even made a brochure. We went through an online website for the Brochure Printing and were so impressed at the quality and price they were able to offer.

Of course, when we went to get a second batch we realized that they had almost doubled their prices and they didn't have our old brochure on file.

What a pain...especially, since we had spent hours designing the brochure and saving it to their website.

It's really hard to find a place that does 4 color Brochure Printing. Locally, they want to charge an arm and a leg and we really couldn't afford to have it printed.

Not to mention, we'd get the exact same product whether we ordered it online or through a local vendor.

PSPrint.com offers a great website for all of your printing needs. They offer brochures that are professional and sure to leave a mark!

Not to mention, right now they are offering $100 off brochures! That's a savings you can take right to the bank. Whether you're a small business or a large business - it pays to shop around and look for savings.

Man.

Well, I thought it was hard before doing everything around the house, cooking, cleaning, yardwork. Now Shawna's back is down which means that even the little stuff that she was doing is no longer.

I think at some point it might be best for us to go ahead and hire our old housekeeper back. It'd be worth it for me to work another 2 hours to pay for her so that I don't waste 4 hours of cleaning and still not getting it done.

I love coupons!

Shawna's become quite the shopping professional when it comes to getting good deals. In fact, we have friends who have asked her to look for things around town and she always ends up getting them a good deal too!

The past few months we've been using Coupon Chief for all of the best promo codes out there!

This holiday season I'm sure that I'm probably going to have to get the following gifts:

Shawna - books, music
Graem - toys
Dennis - music
Dad and Gala - something house related

That's why I'm glad that I can get Target coupons and Best Buy coupons online!

It makes my shopping a piece of cake and I might even be able to get it done before December 25th this year!

Yikes.

This morning Shawna was suppose to take Graem to her first gymnastics lesson at the local gymnastics place.

I got a call at 8:30am that Shawna's back was pulled and she couldn't move. To say the least...this sucks. We both wanted Graem to get in lessons and this morning they were pretty close to actually getting out of the house and to the lessons on time.

Maybe we should just take Graem to the Saturday morning lessons. That way we can both watch and it's later so we can both work on getting her out of the house by 8:15.

I need some no medical exam life insurance!

With a new baby on the way I'm sure at some point I should really consider getting more life insurance.

The last time I looked to increase my policy I was told that they had to take out a completely new policy. SOmeone came out to the house and took my weight, blood pressure, and also asked tons of medical questions.

Come to find out since I have asthma it's nearly impossible for me to get coverage that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

I think my best bet would be to go through no medical exam life insurance. There are a few places on the internet that offer life insurance where you don't have to give medical information.

My asthma has been controlled for years so I'm not sure why it's really such a big deal!

IFGINS.com offers a great insurance website where you can get more information about life insurance and the other types of insurances available.

At some point I should see if they offer no medical Senior Life insurance for my dad.

I know he has many policies, however, since he's been diagnosed with cancer and treated I'm not sure he'd be eligible to sign up for any other insurance policies.

Gotta love it...you buy health insurance to keep you alive and life insurance once you die!

I swear after life, home, health, and car insurance I spend about 20% of my income each year!