Aniston Gets Engaged and Pitt Gets Married?

Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston divorced nearly seven years ago and yet their names are still often tied together in the tabloids. This seems especially true lately. If you believe what you read, Brad and fiancée Angelina Jolie are always trying to rain on Aniston’s parade as far as the headlines go. Pitt and Jolie announced their engagement in April after seven years and six children together. At the time, I think the tabloids were accusing Pitt and Jolie of ruining Aniston’s possible wedding plans by upstaging her. Now, it may be Aniston that upstaging Pitt and Jolie. Rumors were … Continue reading

Planning a Childs Wedding

Planning a wedding for your child as a single parent has it’s own special set of challenges. Who knew that a divorce really would affect everything? With the current rate of divorce and remarriage just the names on the wedding invitations could cause it to be more than a page long. Then you get into who pays for what. The brides family traditionally pays for the wedding, but what happens when you are divorced and you and your ex can’t agree on what constitutes the wedding of your daughters dreams? A fairy tale carriage ride, every little girls Cinderella dream … Continue reading

Estate Planning and the Step Family

For too many of us, estate planning is the thing we’re always going to get to but often don’t. It’s like flossing, but with exponentially greater potential for harm. I understand why we procrastinate, believe me I do, but a failure to act in this department can have a devastating effect on your family. Our financial planner had been after us to create an estate plan for a year; as we began preparations for an extended trip through Mexico, it seemed irresponsible not to have something in place. We contacted an attorney who came highly recommended, and blithely scheduled an … Continue reading

Adapting to the Holidays as a Married Couple

Our neighborhood held trick-or-treating last night to avoid going out on the Sabbath, and my kids had a ton of fun dressing up and heading out to collect their loot. I took them around, and my husband stayed home to hand out candy to those who came to our house. This is very representative of our personality styles. I’m the one who likes to go out and do things. I can more comfortably navigate my way through social circumstances, and because I’m the “mean” parent, I can herd four overly excited children up and down the street. My husband likes … Continue reading

Have Married Couples Got It Wrong?

For married couples the age of having children has gone up dramatically. These days many couples are leaving it later, till their thirties before even considering having children. In the push to have it all and make sure they buy a house and get the house all set up, before having children, as many are doing, are they doing their offspring a disservice? Recent reports conducted in the USA and in Australia claim that children of older fathers have a lower IQ. And it seems that the older the father is, the lower his child will score in intelligence tests, … Continue reading

Oh Sure NOW They’re Getting Married

Breaking news (not): Nicole Richie and her live-in lover Joel Madden are reportedly planning their wedding now that she’s pregnant with their second child. First comes love, then come marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage… obviously this children’s rhyme was penned by someone, who had absolutely no ties to Hollywood, or the 21st century. Baby first, marriage maybe second, or third (depending on how important career is). Hey, that’s how they roll in Tinseltown… and Toledo… and Tulsa… and just about every other place in the world. But, that’s life, right? Just ask first time parents Richie … Continue reading

Estate Planning

Estate planning should be a continual process, always evolving as your life changes. Ideally, you should review your plan yearly and every time you undergo a major lifestyle change. One such event is a change in martial status. Since marriage is a legal union, it comes with an assortment of financial changes and rights as well. With a new marriage, benefits such as Social Security, veterans, pensions, and retirement accounts will change. In addition, depending on the laws in your state, your assets and liabilities will also merge. Before marriage and shortly after is a great time to review your … Continue reading

Children Lead the Way to Marriage Strife

If you’re just married and you’re planning a wonderful life together, here are few tips about what to expect when you have your first child together. The birth of a child is a wondrous thing and it will have a profound effect on you and your spouse. But the stresses and changes that occur due to the birth of a child can often lead to the first major blow up in the marriage. Why? So why does the birth of a child (this fantastic, wondrous event) because so much stress on a couple? In large part, it’s because Mom now … Continue reading

Is May an Unlucky Month to Get Married?

Have you ever heard that May is an unlucky month to get married? We talked about May Day earlier today and we’ve still got Cinco de Mayo and Mother’s Day coming this month. May is both a spring and a summer month depending on where you are located. June may be the most popular month for marriage (the month being named for Juno, Roman goddess of marriage and wife to Jupiter), but I know many people who wed in May. In fact, one lovely couple that happens to be very good friends of mine are celebrating seventeen years of marriage … Continue reading

Planning A European Vacation

Long before I visited a movie theater to see “National Lampoon’s European Vacation” I dreamt of strolling along the streets of Paris and exploring all that Italy had to offer. In fact, I had even completed preliminary research for a European honeymoon, but alas, we ended up getting married in Hawaii and honeymooning there. As it stands now, my dreams of taking a European holiday are permanently on hold, especially since we now have a young daughter who would rather visit Elmo than the Eiffel Tower. While we are in Elmoland a new survey found more than 64% of all … Continue reading