Congratulations to country singer Carrie Underwood and her husband Mike Fisher on the birth of their second child together, son, Jacob Bryan.
The American Idol Champ shared the news on social media.
“Jacob Bryan Fisher entered the world in the wee hours of the morning on Monday…his mom, dad and big brother couldn’t be happier for God to trust them with taking care of this little miracle!” Underwood shared with her fans on social media Wednesday along with a series of family photos. “Our hearts are full, our eyes are tired and our lives are forever changed. Life is good…” given birth to a baby boy!
The new arrival joins older brother, Isaiah, in the Fisher family.
The new year is a time to begin again — to reflect on what you’ve accomplished, get organized and set new goals. For many of us, that means working on our finances.
According to a 2017 Fidelity study, approximately one-third of people planned to make a financial resolution going into 2018. The most popular resolutions included saving more, paying down debt and spending less.
Despite the hope and good intentions a fresh calendar brings, statisticsindicate that less than 10 percent of people accomplish their New Year’s resolutions. Financial goals, which often feel overwhelming at the beginning, are especially easy to neglect.
To make your New Year’s resolutions last beyond February, it’s important that you set realistic goals and implement a tracking system to hold yourself accountable.
To start, get a free credit report from one of the three reporting companies Equifax, Transunion and Experian. You could also try to enroll in a Credit Score and Monitoring, Savings Recommendations and Identity Theft Protection. You have probably seen a commercial for Credit Sesame which does all of that for free though they make their money off of upgrades to their basic services. So watch out!
For those who are furloughed during the federal government shutdown, a lot of utilities will now negotiate with you for delayed or skipped payments.
Third party companies like Bill Shark can help and 85% success rate negotiating bills for Cable TV, Wireless Phone, Satellite TV, Internet Access, Satellite Radio, and Home Security.
Also, a bunch of gamification apps that make saving a game but with that takes money from your paycheck and deposit it directly into a savings account have popped up. Long Games Savings rewards you with Crypto or Cash.
To help get you started, the folks at WikiBuycompiled a list of the best apps to help you monitor your financial life. From tracking daily expenses to creating better budgets, these apps will help you meet your 2019 financial goals.
Congratulations to former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton and her husband Marc Mezvinsky on expecting their third child.
Clinton tweeted the news on Tuesday.
Marc and I have loved watching Charlotte be such a wonderful big sister and we’re excited to watch Aidan become a big brother! We cannot wait to meet our newest addition later this summer.
“Marc and I have loved watching Charlotte be such a wonderful big sister and we’re excited to watch Aidan become a big brother! We cannot wait to meet our newest addition later this summer,” Clinton tweeted.
They are already parents to couple two children, 4-year old Charlotte, 4, and 2-year old Aidan, 2.
The new arrival will be here later this year!
Clinton wed Mezvinsky in 2010 and became mom to Charlotte in 2014 and Aiden in June 2016.
Many babies are washed soon after they take their first breath, but new evidence shows it’s best to wait before that trip to a tiny tub.
Delaying a healthy newborn’s first bath for at least 12 hours after birth increases the odds of the mother exclusively breastfeeding her baby during her hospital stay, a study published Monday in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing found.
Jessica Simpson and her husband ex NFL quarterback Eric Johnson celebrated the impending arrival of their third child together, a daughter the couple have chosen to name “Birdie.”
During the outdoor day-to-nighttime event, called “Birde’s Nest”, guests participated in a family dining affair draped in lots of beautiful floral arrangements dripping from an awning above.
In attendance was her sister “Pieces of Me” singer Ashlee Simpson and Jessica’s bestie Cacee Cobb,
In photos the singer and actress turned fashion entrepreneur posted on her Instagram, she can be seen in a flowy white lace dress under a emerald green robe posing alongside her 6-year old daughter Maxwell “Maxi” Drew
In another photo, she, mom Tina, Ashlee and Ashlee’s daughter Jagger Snow with husband Evan Ross posed.
She Instagrammed storied a lot of the events while giving credit to the event designer, rental company and other vendors who helped make the gorgeous affair possible and look so heavenly!
If you didn’t enroll you or your children to participate in one of the many service activities organized around the nation, there is still time for you and the children to do something kind on their own for their neighbors or fellow man.
Here are a 6 other suggestions besides watching a speech and reflecting on its meaning:
Take garbage bags down to the town creek or some other littered area near your home and clean it up.
Make sandwiches and pack fruit and a snack into about a few dozen brown bags and pass them to homeless people in the closest town or city to you.
Gather old toys and bag them up to donate to Goodwill or a local family shelter.
Call a local home for the elderly and ask if you can come by and play cards and/or board games with the residents.
Make Homemade colorful Get Well Greetings cards to send to a local children’s hospital/
Make Festive Thank You Cards to send to the local USO to ship off to military serving abroad.
Things are getting crazy out here for furloughed federal workers.
Over 800,000 workers are out of a job and waiting for the federal government shutdown to end while bills pile up and they scramble for ways to cut costs. Many are taking advantage of grocery giveaways and free meals but what about the stuff in the home that are piled up unused?
There are several places where you can sell your stuff. There is always eBay which was a pioneer in online sales of used items but which can still be time-consuming to set up. Now we have several mobile apps that have helped people bring in major bucks.
The following excerpt from sites like Techilicious may be helpful and talk about 8 places to sell your old stuff
1. Decluttr
Decluttr is a mobile app that provides a fast, easy and free way to sell and Buy CDs, DVDs, Games, Books, Mobile Phones and Tech.
There are no auction fees and they pay the next day and they pay to ship your old DVDs, CDs and Games and send you a pre-paid box! You cannot go wrong because you can accept or reject the offer for the items. A lot of it will be sitting in your shelves anyway. As long as you’re home, you might as well go through your house and scrounge up any stuff you think you can sell and start stacking those offers. It could add up!
Poshmark app is the place to sell your high end monogram handbag you never use, old Louboutins and rarely used couture items you cannot fit anymore or simply do not like. Major shoppers probably have handfuls of unworn clothes in their closets.
People have made full time income from this site. It functions similar to to eBay in that it allows people to buy and sell clothing and accessories with ease making it an ideal platform to offload some of the unwanted gifts during the holiday season.
Since launching in 2011, it has transformed into a community of five million sellers, who so far have been paid out $1 billion, according to Poshmark.
Poshmark takes a $2.95 commission on all sales under $15. It takes a 20% commission on any sales above $15.
If Craigslist is an online version of the classifieds, OfferUp is a tech-savvy version of Craigslist.
It sports a gorgeously intuitive, picture-heavy interface for buyers to find anything from appliances and antiques to clothing to electronics in their respective locations.
This sophisticated clothes reselling marketplace focuses on branded fashion from j. Crew to Louis Vuitton, with items displayed in a magazine-esque design that showcases editor’s picks and categories such as “unique and surprising shoes.”
Sellers can compile a personalized homepage or “closet” showing items for sale as well items they’ve liked from other sellers. Users can follow sellers and brands in order to keep track of new items.
Best for: Designer bags and accessories, with somewhat lesser demand for high-end clothing and shoes.
There are dozens of fashion reselling sites out there, but Vinted offers an additional feature: the option to swap items without incurring any fees.
If you prefer to make some cold hard cash, it’s also an easy option for putting stuff up for sale. Where high-fashion-centric sites require sellers to send in their prospective items for checking before sending on to the buyer – thus lengthening the time before you get paid – Vinted lets sellers and buyers conduct their own exchanges, with seller ratings and the option to follow particular sellers and brands.
Best for: Clothes that are in good condition, from mass market fashion to designer brands, though the bulk of listings seem to be for mainstream fashion.
Chairish is a beautifully designed site and iOS app focus on the reselling of unique or designer homeware, as well as antiques and jewelry. The site’s homepage shows timely curations of the available products, such as barware in time for Father’s Day, or items from “New Miami Sellers.” A couple hundred new items are posted each day, with the site’s catalog filtered by designers, styles, and cities, so that buyers can hunt down anything art-deco in Chicago, for instance.
Best for: Vintage or antique furniture, house accessories, or jewelry in good condition.
With nearly 1.5 billion users, the reach of Facebook Marketplace can’t be beat. Marketplace defaults to listings in your local area, so you don’t have to worry about shipping your item. That makes it great for larger items, like furniture and appliances. But there is a brisk trade in a wide range of products.
Best for: Nearly anything in your house, including big items such as appliances and furniture and smaller items like clothing or accessories.
Over 54 million people use Craigslist every month, posting anything from jobs to event listings. The buying and selling of secondhand goods represent a brisk trade on an overflowing marketplace that still looks like a 90s-era message board. It’s often the place to pick up a bargain from people who just want to get rid of their stuff.
Best for: Nearly anything in your house, particularly big things such as appliances and furniture. Smaller items like clothing or accessories are better suited to other sites
While there are plenty of legitimate and reasonably lucrative ways to make money at home, there are some scammers who are out to take your money.
For local sales apps, never agree to meet a buyer in a remote location and go with a friend to avoid being robbed or scammed.
If you have an old vehicle you are looking to unload, look for these signs on the road an in local listings that read ” we buy junk cars near you ” and see what type of deal they’re willing to offer and compare to Carmax or other established platforms.
Chanel Iman‘s daughter Cali Clay is getting big and she’s doing the model baby prop posing thing new moms like the Kardashian/Jenners love to do (Instagram)
In a week, the MonsterJam tour will land in my backyard to DC. Tickets are on sale now though some shows are sold out so hop on it now!
I cannot wait to see eight of the most intense athletes of Monster Jam, Washington fans will witness a fierce battle for the championship with each competitor contending in customized high-powered vehicles: Monster Jam Speedsters, Monster Jam ATVs and of course, the iconic Monster Jam trucks in six events sure to leave fans on the edge of their seats.
Joining me will be our winner of our giveaway! If you’ll be there or at any of the stops of this awesome show, you may want to know the answers to some of these Trivia Questions.
How big is a Monster Jam truck?
Answer: Monster Jam trucks stands approximately 12’ tall
How much does each Monster Jam truck weigh?
Answer: Each Monster Jam truck weighs 12,000
pounds.
How tall are official Monster Jam truck tires?
Answer: Each tire must be 66 inches tall.
How many tons of dirt are needed to set up a track for one Monster Jam show?
Answer: Stadiums use up to 500 truckloads of dirt.
Arenas use over 100 truckloads of dirt
How much horsepower does the average Monster Jam Truck have?
Answer: Each truck produces approximately 1,500
horsepower, which is the equivalent of about 10 average cars.
Who judges each Monster Jam competition?
Answer: The fans! Through Judgeszone.com, each fan
can have a say in the outcome. Monster Jam is the only sport in the world gives
the judging exclusively to the fans.
Who holds the most Monster Jam World Finals Championship titles?
Answer: Tom Meents holds the record for the most
Monster Jam World Finals Championships at 11.
How many drivers hold two or more Monster Jam World Finals Championship titles?
Answer: Since the inception
of the Monster Jam World Finals, only 8 drivers have two or more Championships
to their credit.
Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching and soon you’ll be scrambling to find activities for your little ones to do while celebrating the day together! Here are a few ideas to get you going.
Make heart shaped pancakes – Make heart shaped pancakes for breakfast! Put pancake batter into a squeeze bottle and draw heart pancakes on the griddle! You can also cut sandwiches, deli meats, and fruits into heart shapes using cookie cutters. Creating heart shaped cupcakes or muffins is simple, just drop a marble or rolled up piece of tinfoil between the baking liner and muffin tin before baking to create an indent in the finished product, it will look just like a heart!
Create a conversation heart wreath – Cut the middle out of a paper plate to create a ring. Have your children help you cut out hearts and write short messages on them such as “I love you” or “You rock” and glue the hearts onto the ring to create a conversation heart wreath. Be creative with your phrases and make them special to your family.
Make your own valentines – Younger children will usually have a party in their classroom to celebrate Valentine’s Day with their classmates, so take some time to help your child create their own cards. They don’t have to be fancy, all you need is some construction paper, glitter glue, stickers, doilies, and adhesive to jump start the creativity in your child. Encourage your child to be creative and let them create whatever they want to, the cards don’t all have to be the same as long as there is one for every child in their class.
Valentine’s Day scramble – Post a piece of paper on the wall that has the words “Valentine’s Day” on it and see how many words you can create from those letters, adjusting to the age of the children around you. How many words can you find? You could also add the traditional candy heart phrases and see what additional words you can make using those letters.
Hold a Valentine’s Day dance party – Invite your neighbors over for a fun, family friendly dance party! Decorate the room with streamers and balloons, choose a few fun songs together, and get ready to dance!
Themed worksheets – A quick search online will turn up dozens of Valentine’s Day themed worksheets, from math sheets to crosswords, so you can easily find something meet your child’s needs.
Love themed books – Hit up the library for books with a Valentine’s Day or love theme; most libraries will have seasonally appropriate books on a separate shelf, which makes finding them easy. Check a few out and read them together!
Create coupon books for family members – Talk about what love is and what it means and then discuss various coupons you could create to show family members that you care about them. Offer to walk the dog for free, give a back rub, have one on one time, play a game together or offer to sweep the floor. The receiver can then choose when to redeem the coupons. Coupon books are a great way for kids to be able to give back to the family without a monetary contribution.
Go pink and red! – Create a pink and red theme! Pink lemonade, strawberry milk, cupcakes with pink frosting, watermelon, beets, strawberries, and apples are all great pink and red foods to offer for snack time.
Make a paper heart chain – Use your cutting and gluing skills to create a chain of hearts to hang up in your house! You can either create a chain by cutting hearts out like you would with paper dolls or cut out hearts together and tape or staple them together to create a chain of unique hearts. Hang them where everyone can enjoy them.
Children love to celebrate holidays and Valentine’s Day is an especially fun holiday to celebrate together. It’s a great time to discuss what love and family means and why it’s so important to recognize it together.
