I’ve been searching for a 3-Day license plate for the front of my car for a few months now, without success. I’m a bit surprised that the 3-Day people sell a bracket to go around my plate in the rear, but they don’t sell anything for the front. I’m tempted to make my own! I have the plate that came on the car when we bought it from the dealer, and I could customize a few stickers online to act as bumper stickers to cover up the old plate. That would work, right? Not only would it be what I want, it would be totally custom, and no one else on the road would have the same design as me!

I love giving to charities and worthwhile causes - I enjoy it even more when the money I’m giving doesn’t come directly from my pocket, because it allows me to donate even when I have bills due. Search Freely is one such site that allows you to donate to good causes by simply visiting their website, and using Google to find what you’re looking for on the internet. The site has raised over $1000 so far, and they’re hoping to double that next month, and you can help! By visiting Search Kindly the next time you need to search the web, you’re supporting their efforts. By making the site your homepage, you can add $3 to their efforts, without taking a penny out of your pocket.

You can search Google AT google.com, and do nothing, or you can search Google at Search Kindly, and support causes like The Ronald McDonald House and Save Darfur.

This story is just 10 kinds of sad. An obese boy in the U.K may end up being taken away from his family and put into foster care. The boy, who is 8, weighs 14 stones, or almost 200 pounds. My 37 year old husband doesn’t even weigh that much, and I’m quite sure he’s a lot taller than an 8 year old child. Connor’s mom says that the health care authority has made threats, but has not offered her any support in helping her son.

What a shame that it even came to this.

There’s a show I record every night on HGTV called BuyMe. It’s a one of those reality home selling shows, set in Canada, and I enjoy watching real people attempt to sell their homes. The episode I watched today was a little sad. A retired couple realized that they were really missing their grandkids, and they decided to sell their home and move 3,000 miles away to where their children had settled. Because of the difference in home values, they ended up selling their old home (which they had purchased for just over $100,000) and making $300,000 in profit. The trouble was that their NEW house cost over $430,000 - and needed renovations, so they really didn’t come out ahead. It got me thinking about retirement and your home, which is typically your biggest investment.

When my grandfather bought his retirement home, he paid cash - about $50,000. The market increased dramatically, and after he passed away in 2005, it was sold for about 3 times as much as he had paid for it. The money was split between my mom and her siblings, but it’s money that most seniors could use while they’re still living. There’s a lot of stories in the news about seniors not being able to afford proper health care, or medication, and I hate hearing about those things - it should be the best time of your life. Spoiling grandkids, and enjoying the fruits of your labor after years of work. Most senior homeowners probably aren’t away that there’s a mortgage that can help them use the equity they’ve built up in their homes over the years, to improve their quality of life NOW.

To take a reverse mortgage, you just need to be over the age of 62. You can convert the equity of your home into cash or monthly payments that they lender pays to YOU. This reverse mortgage calculator can help you see how much you’d stand to gain each month. There’s also a detailed overview of the reverse mortgage process. The short version though, is that you get payments each month, and your equity decreases a bit with each month that goes by. Obviously, your total equity is reduced, so your heirs won’t get as much from selling your house as they could, but it this can make a difference in your quality of life now, and reduce your worry about finances, then it’s worth it.

I’ve heard a lot of commercials on the radio for the 3-Day walk, and noticed that they’re using a song from Five For Fighting as the theme song this year. (Man, those guys are making the big bucks - first their song 100 years is used in a credit card commercial, and now this?)

I actually like the song. It’s called “What Kind Of World Do You Want“, and Five For Fighting is using the song to donate money to charity. You can create a video of yourself, friends, or family answering the question, “what kind of world do you want?” The leader singer of Five For Fighting, John Ondrasik has personally selected a few also. When you watch the clips and support the sponsor, up to 49 cents goes to one of the following charities:

* Fisher House
* Breast Cancer 3-Day: Komen for the Cure
* Save the Children
* Autism Speaks
* VH1 Save the Music Foundation
* NY Police and Fire Widows & Children

My husband and I have been able to save quite a bit of money in the past few months, and we’ve been putting the bulk of it into an online savings account. I keep on top of our bills by scheduling payment dates in my Outlook calendar, and I haven’t missed a payment in a LONG time since I started doing that. And because we’ve maintained a good payment history, we’ve been eligible for a few 0% credit cards. In fact, we charged our airfare for vacation in June on one, and I’ll pay it off as soon as the bill comes. Free money! One of our credit cards that we opened just for the ability to do a 0% balance transfers has a points reward program. I thought, how nice if we could use the points for our vacation. It’s the only reason I wanted to apply for credit cards that gave you points, in fact. HA! You need approx. 50,000 points to get a decent airline ticket, and to get that many points, you need to charge $50,000 to the card. Not all at once…but still! I need to compare credit cards and see if there’s a card that will give us more for our points. If I found a good deal, I’d continue charging and just pay it off each month in full!

My kids will all be going to camp during spring break next week. The cost was worth it to ensure that I wouldn’t hear, “I’m bored” for 5 days straight. My oldest is taking a hip hop dance class for 8 hours a day - that’s great for her, because she’s usually the one who wants to watch TV or get online. My middle child, who is pretty active outside, will be taking a cooking class. And my baby boy will be doing a basketball camp each morning. He’s so excited about that - I hope he’ll pick up some tips and pointers that will get him excited about playing at home too.

March Madness is here - basketball brackets and pools are everywhere! I’m in a bracket for work and I’m waiting on my husband’s advice to pick my teams. Otherwise, it’s going to be who was the cutest players and prettiest uniforms. Ha! My son is going to a basketball camp during Spring Break and he’s so excited about picking up some tips and playing with friends for a week straight. Spring has definitely sprung. For us, it means more time for our portable backboard to be placed in front of the house. I sure wish we could ditch it and get in-ground basketball goals…if not in our yard, in the green space in our community. This basketball equipment is the real deal - heavy-duty and built to last. And it’s on sale to celebrate the men’s NCAA tourney. If you’ve got kids crazy about basketball, this pro style hoop can be yours for just $1449.00. It adjusts for all ages and heights and is strong enough to let a man hang off the rim. (Good to know, if you’ve got a pro b-ball wannabe in your house! After all, my basketball nut of a son isn’t going to be 48 pounds for ever - someday, he’s going to be a big, sweaty, stinky basketball wannabe pro!)

This is huge news for the fight against breast cancer - the FDA has just approved a new drug to fight advanced cases of breast cancer, cases that other drugs have failed to help. The new drug is called Tykerb and is being manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. It’s a one daily medication (pill) and can be used in conjunction with chemo. While it’s too early to know how this will affect the survival rate for those with aggressive forms of breast cancer, it’s an important step towards finding a cure.

My husband went to the dermatologist last week and had 3 suspicious moles removed from his back. Since then, I’ve been “nursing” him back to health. The first few days, I had to wash his back so he wouldn’t injure the spots. And of course, my duties included putting on fresh band-aids twice a day, as well as the antibacterial cream the doctor recommended. We took it one step further and bought a tube of StaphAseptic at the drug store to apply it as well. After blogging about this product, I knew that I wanted to give it a try. We bought a small tube and I’ve been applying it daily. The product is designed to kill MRSA skin infections and bacteria before they can cause a problem. It also has a pain reliever, which is a huge plus when you have 3 gaping wounds on your back. (I’m not sure why antibiotic creams don’t do the same thing - if you’ve got a cut or scrape, a pain reliever in the cream is a good thing!)

The StaphAspetic went on easily - no mess, and I covered everything with band-aids. Jim’s back is healing up nicely and he doesn’t even feel anything back there. He’s not completely healed up yet, but we know he won’t be getting any skin infections!