Financial planning, investing and stocks

I often wish that I knew alot more about financial matters and how to invest properly. The entire subject just scares me and seems rather intimidating. Wizetrade is a powerful stock trading software program and stock research tool, and they have now started a blog called The Wizetrade Blog. It seems these days as if with blogs such as these, and so many of the personal finance blogs out there, that if you really set your mind to it, you could teach yourself the basics, I guess I just need to get over the initmidation factor. Of course I would need money too before any investing could occur! But I do like to plan ahead, and I'm hoping by year end, we will be starting to finally "get ahead" a bit.

Do you do meal plans?

I need to start making meal plans. I was doing it for awhile, and did really well with it and felt so organized! I just spend awhile browsing recipes online. I made pulled BBQ pork in the crockpot the other night, and we had quite a bit left over. I decided to make enchiladas with them tonight, I think we have all the required ingredients. I need to go grocery shopping and really feel like my life is so disorganized right now, that having dinner all planned out and ingredients accounted for in advance, would be one less thing for me to have to worry about each day!

Halloween is coming!

Fall is coming! Halloween will be here before you know it, and there is already a lot of hype out there for the new Halloween movie directed by Rob Zombie. I am not a horror movie fan per sey, but I have seen The Shining, and the same suspense of the insane killer wandering the halls of the huge empty Inn in the middle of winter in The Shining, seems to be captured in the new Halloween movie as well. I think both films will capitalize on that feeling of suspense, rather than the gore and violence so many other horror movies focus on.

I think Rob Zombie will bring an interesting twist to the new version of this movie. In an online interview of him I read, he mentioned that he dislikes the term "remake", and instead, "plans to make this more of a prequel and semi-remake all in one, so in theory, there will be much more original content to this film than remake content." He also said his focus in directing this movie will be on "character, mood and terror." Halloween the movie, is a classic horror flick. I think Rob Zombie will do well with the new version.

The following U-tube trailer, leaves my heart pounding. It's quite intense! So please don't say I didn't warn you!

Summer is winding down!

Today is one of those weird summer days that feels like fall. The sun has been gone AGAIN, and it's been misting/drizzly and overcast for a few days now with temps only in the 60's. YES, I said only in the 60's! It's a bit bizarre actually.

The girls have friends over, and everyone is cooped up in the house so it is a bit loud and chaotic. It feels strange that summer is already coming to a close and winding down. End of August is always a crazy time for us with the State Fair, and then we are squeezing in a short camping trip afterward over Labor Day weekend right before school starts. I am looking forward to those quieter less chaotic days once school starts, but I will miss sleeping in and having veg days with the girls. Tonight we have our last 4-H meeting before Fair stuff begins, so it feels like summer is almost over!

What makes you feel good?

Summertime is always an interesting time for me. I love the weather, hanging out with the girls, sleeping in late, not having to go through backpacks and check homework. But it also stresses me out in other ways. I feel like I cannot keep on top of the house no matter how hard I try. I find it difficult to do errands with three kids in tow. I find I can't concentrate on my "work" whether it be Ebay or blogging. There are constant interruptions. So as I count down the days until school starts, I'm trying to figure out what might help me feel better about all the little things that are stressing me out.

One thing you can do that makes you feel really good about yourself is to give back to those who need a little help. Whether it's just by donating your unused household items or clothes, car donations, or donating cash to your favorite charities, it all feels good. I honestly believe that what goes around comes around, and when you help out others, good things will happen to you as well. I am at a point where I have so many Ebay things around my office to list, I am seriously considering donating most of it. I think it will be a weight off my shoulders right away, and I know that many people would put a lot of this stuff to good use.

I have an 8 yr old slumber party going on!

It's my middle daughter's 8th birthday today! Happy Birthday Shannon! Yes, it's birthday season at our house! All three girls have birthdays within a month of each other. Guess you all know now when I'm most fertile! HA! Anway, Shannon is creative and thoughtful, organized and always wants to know what the plan is, what's on the agenda, when the next play date is. She won the "Most Responsible" award in Kindergarten! She is the most social of my three, doesn't like to be on her own or entertain herself. She's crafty, loves to do projects and go shopping! She wants to be a "clothes designer" when she grows up and she is definently my girly-girl! Hope you have fun at your slumber party tonight, love you Shannon!

Do you need a mattress?

Or any other furniture? If so, check out GalleryFurniture.com or if you live in Texas, Houston Furniture. We actually need a dining room set. We've been in our house for 6 yrs next month, and with three kids, and lots of other priorities, getting a dinning room set has not been that high on our priority list, so it sits empty and is usually full of miscellaneous toys. If I had the money right now, I love this set and would get it in a heartbeat:

Our dining room set up calls for a lot of circulation all around it, and I think a round table would work best in there. It's also open to our Great Room, and we wanted to go with either a dark brown or black finish on the pieces in both rooms when we one day get around to buying new furniture for both rooms. Being that we are not really fancy folks and much more casual, I think this set would work well for us with it's casual look, but I love the little touch of having upholstered seats, adds a little grown-up feel!

We also need to get a different set-up for when the girls have sleep overs. I'd love to get my youngest a bunk bed set up but that would also mean we would need another mattress. In fact, her entire room needs to be redone and is next on the list. She still has her nursery theme in there and she's turning 6 in less than two weeks! So much to do, so little time.......and money!

Back from camping! Back to the blogosphere!

We had a wonderful few days camping, lots of walking on the beach, sitting by the lake, a little sunburn and a lot of smores. I've finally caught up with unpacking and laundry. Time to get back to the real world and the blogsphere!

I finally have reached my 10 approved posts on Payperpost for this blog, and hope to add my NEW blog A Problogger Mom to their system this week. Before I left, I signed up with Sponsored Reviews with that blog also, and I just heard back that I have been approved! I have heard really good things about that site from Amanda over on The Blog World. I have two other blogs I need to work a little harder on, in able to qualify them for one or both of those sites also. In the future, I would like to be able to spread out the sponsored posts on multiple blogs, instead of having one blog chock full of them. I don't like reading blogs that have a ton of them, so I'm sure most of my readers don't either.

I know everyone is antsy about the next Google Page Rank update, and most people seemed to think one would occur either late July or the first half of August. I sure hope so. I am very curious to see where the new blog will fall. This blog has a PR of 3, and I think the new blog has a few more links than this one, and a few more technorati favorites, but I don't know if it's enough to have it qualify for a PR4. I'd be thrilled if it matches this one with a PR of 3.