Simple Randomness

Should You Save Your Baby’s Cord Blood?

So I’ve seen or heard of this idea a couple of times in the last couple of years, especially in the news and other things.  But I’ve honestly never really looked into it.  It does seem pretty interesting though!

So why would you want to save your baby’s cord blood?  What good does it really do?  Well, what it can be used for is later in life if your kid develops a disease like leukemia, cerebral palsy, anemia, lymphoma, or diabetes.  They can use the cord blood and stem cells to help them fight off these and other problems.  Pretty crazy!

But of course, not all of these blood blood banks are created equally.  One that looks really good is Cryo-cell. They’ve been around since 1992 and have already helped over 175,000 families to save cord blood samples.

Their simple challenge is this: compare us! In other words, compare them with a lot of the other cord blood banks out there.

Here are 5 things to consider when choosing a cord blood bank: cost (what value do you get), security, financial stability (will they be around long term), certification, and expert industry leadership.

Cryo-Cell stands out in all 5 of these categories and are worth checking out if you are going to be having any kinds soon. You can check out their current offer at their website and learn more about what they can do for you!

Looking Forward to the Weekend

This is one of those weeks where I’m really looking forward to the weekend.  Some weeks it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I’ve been waiting for Friday to come since Wednesday.

I guess it’s just been a stressful week!  I’m still debating if today needs to be a Rockstar day since my head is still cloudy from having so much going on this week.

It also helps that after work today we’re headed up to a cabin with a friend of mine to hang out until Saturday evening.  I’m looking forward to it and hoping we’ll have a good time.

I need more weekend vacations like this.  Hopefully in the next couple of months my wife and I will be able to plan a weekend getaway for just the two of us.  That would be nice since we haven’t been able to do that for some time now.  But I guess that’s just how it goes with two small kids!

Every Kid’s Dream…

I remember as a kid one of the cool vacations we went on was down to Disneyland.  Isn’t that every kid’s dream?  To go to Disneyland?

Well, maybe it isn’t every kid’s dream, but Disney would sure like you to think so.  But honestly, I know that it is a place that a lot of kids love to go, and I was one of them.

The only problem is that when we went to Disneyland and the Los Angeles area in general, I was too young to really appreciate it.  I think I’ll have to go back with my kids once they are at least 8-10 years old.  Then we can check out all the other things to do in Los Angeles along with visiting places like Disneyland.

My wife would also like to go to New York City sometime.  In the past I’ve had no desire to ever go there, but my mind has been changing lately.  I bet we could go on some really cool New York City tours that would make it all worth it.

Planning your next vacation? Looking for ideas on what to do? Sign up for the Trusted Travels eNewsletter and enter to win a $150 iTunes gift card Offer ends July 31st, 2008.  Trusted Tours also has some great online travel guides that can help you plan out your next killer vacation.

If I Could Invest…

Every now and then I get thinking that it would be really great to have a ton of money to just invest in things and then live off the interest or something like that.

Seriously, it would be so great to just live life exactly the way you want.  Now, I’m not naive enough to think that there wouldn’t be any work involved, but much less than a lot of other things I can think of.  I know that my wife and I would definitly do a lot of traveling to cool places.

Well, in order to do something like this you would probably need a few things to make it happen: an advisor you can trust, a private banking accounts manager you can trust, etc. It just wouldn’t happen on its own. I should probably learn more so I can start on my journey!

Being Sick is No Fun!

So we went on this trip to Bear Lake over the weekend, but unfortunately my wife got sick early on and we had to cut it short.  Basically, being sick really sucks.

I hate getting sick.  Somehow though, I tend to do pretty good about not getting sick.  Over the last couple of years there have been times that my whole family had a cold but I wouldn’t get it.  I think it’s because of vitamin C, but I could be wrong.

Does anybody else have tips for what they do to keep from getting sick?  I do good, but I’m not sure how.

Six Year Anniversary

As of this coming Sunday, my wife and I have been married 6 years!  Have we had our bumpy spots…definitely.  But we’re still together, and that’s what matters.

One thing that I’ve learned over the last 6 years is that a marriage doesn’t always just go great.  You have to actually work on it.  When I first got married I really didn’t understand what that meant.  And to this day I’m sure that I understand it 100%, but I do know that you have to give it real attention.  Otherwise things just die.

I’m excited for the coming years.  I think we still have a lot of growing to do, but I’m excited for it.  I love my wife.  So I guess you might say that this post is somewhat dedicated to her.  Six years isn’t that long looking back, and I’m looking forward to the next 60+!

I’m Really Ready for a LONG Weekend

So with Friday being the 4th it’s already a short week.  Next week I’m taking Monday off so I’ll actually have 2 short weeks in a row.  I could really use this vacation, and I’m getting excited for it!  Granted, it is more of an ‘extended family vacation’, but that’s better than nothing at this point.

What I really need to plan is a weekend getaway for just my wife and me.  We haven’t done something like that for a long time, really not much since we started having kids.  Now that our oldest is about 2 1/2 and the youngest is about 5 months we’re getting closer to being able to do something like that.

Anyway, I’m ready for a long weekend.  It should be nice!

Remembering a Trip to Orlando

Now that I’m on the topic of vacations, one really cool vacation that I had as a kid was when we went as a family to Orlando.  Naturally, the main attraction that we went to was Disney World (at least, that’s all I remember ).

There’s something about going to a Disney Resort as a kid, it just really seems to stick with you.  Some of the things I remember was getting a crazy hat that looked like a dragon (his name was Figment for those of you that have been there), going through the “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” area, and ditching the light parade to go ride Thunder Mountain over and over and over again.  By the way, that’s the best time to do those rides because everyone else is watching the silly parade!

So if you haven’t been to Orlando, you should go.  Maybe even check out Trusted Tours & Attractions, they can show you all the different things to do in Orlando.  They also have a great newsletter and online travel guides.  I don’t know if they have a Madame Tussauds, but those are pretty cool too if you’ve never been to one!

Anyway, summer is a great time for spending time with family and going on vacations.  Even if you have to keep the distances shorter because of gas prices, there’s nothing like getting out with the family and having a little vacation.

Going on Vacation This Weekend!

Well, thankfully it’s time for another vacation this coming weekend.  Every year my wife’s family goes up to Bear Lake, Utah for a weekend, and it just so happens that this year we’re going over the 4th of July weekend.  I’m hoping that there will be some sweet fireworks over the lake or something like that.

If you’ve never been to Bear Lake it’s pretty cool.  It’s a lake that is part in Utah, part in Idaho.  And the really neat thing about it is the color of blue that it is.  Most lakes in Utah are kind of a dirty green color, but for some reason Bear Lake has a really nice blue color to it, almost like the ocean…but not salty!

This year should be interesting because now we have 2 kids.  It was interesting with 1…I guess we’ll see how it goes!

To Be Close or Far From Family…

So my wife and I go back and forth on how we feel about this, but lately we’ve really been feeling that we would like to get away from family for awhile.  Family is nice and all, and they make great babysitters, but sometimes the drama is just too much if you know what I mean!

It’s funny because we also switch back and forth between which family we’re the most annoyed with.  So we’re thinking maybe it would just be good to get away completely for a few years or something.  We’ll see what happens.

Anyone else have problems with family?  Really, it’s not like any thing major has happened, but sometimes it really just seems like it would be really good for us to get away and be our own family for awhile.  Of course, then we would probably have to deal with visits…. now I’m wondering which is worse!