What happens in Las Vegas, Stays in Las Vegas

The same is true for Cher, and her performance at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Cher fans who are about to get hitched can combine the wedding, honeymoon and wedding gift all in one easy step: get married in Vegas, and give each other tickets to the Cher show. Hockey? Maybe… but weddings can be. Memorable? For Cher fans, Definitely!

Cher is replacing Celine Dion’s show. Essentially you have to hurry to get Cher Tickets at Caesars Palace, if you are fan enough to attend, because the show will only run for about a month, starting on May 6th.

Some info on Cher: She was born as “Cherilyn Sarkisian” on May 20, 1946, and on Feb 7th 2008, at age 61, she announced she would perform 200 shows over three years at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. This new show, titled “Cher at the Colosseum” includes 18 dancers, 4 aerialists, and multiple costumes designed by Bob Mackie. Choreography will be directed by Doriana Sanchez who also worked with Cher on her past three major tours. After the month of four shows a week, it will continue in August again. Cher will share the stage on a rotating basis with contemporaries Bette Midler (whose The Showgirl Must Go On opened on February 20, 2008) and Elton John (whose The Red Piano, which opened in 2004, will continues its run of about 50 shows a year).

You used to want to be with your honey at all times… then baby came along… and now all you need is some time to yourself.
Believe it or not; the more you carry your baby, the sooner it will become independent and have less separation issues.

You can’t possibly carry a baby all day though: you need to do laundry, walk the dog, watch TV, exercise, and do a thousand more things you do every day. Through most of these acts you can actually keep your baby quiet, and close, using a baby sling.

Infants who are carried around everywhere in a baby sling either on the hip, on the stomach or on their mother’s back develop better than those who spend most of the day in a baby cot or crib. Their motor development, cognitive and emotional development progress faster when the baby has increased physical contact with their mother. The fact that they see more of their world when being carried around certainly helps with this as well. The increased stimulus for the baby’s eyes helps brain development, and mom’s movements stimulate skin receptors and organ movement of the baby.

Aside from this, the baby feels safe and you can be the ultimate multi-tasking yummy mummy (or daddy!) by boding with the baby, and doing the dishes at the same time.

Slinglings is a company that makes baby slings, here is their latest press release:
Slinglings Baby Slings Adds a New Line of Exclusive Prints to Their Vast Selection of Pouch Slings–
Slinglings Baby Slings LLC, a Seattle-based baby sling company, has just introduced a new line of 12 fabrics to their already vast selection of over 60 prints. Five of these 12 new prints are Slinglings exclusives that were designed by Stephen Gower, co-owner. These new prints are just more ways for hip moms to wear their babies in style.
With so many baby slings on the market, it is easy for new mothers to get overwhelmed. Why choose a Slinglings baby sling? Pouch slings are simple, quick, and lightweight. They promote bonding with your baby while keeping your hands free to tend to other responsibilities. Slinglings baby slings are affordable with prices starting at just $36.95. They have over 10,000 slings in-stock and most slings ship within 24 hours. Slinglings advanced size calculator takes the guesswork out of sizing, so that you and your baby have a secure and comfortable fit.
Slinglings baby slings are top quality, trendy, and most importantly comfortable! Their numerous customer testimonials and reviews reflect what a great product they have. Angela, a Slinglings customer from FL, sums it up well in her testimonial, “I LOVE my slings! I love the fabric’s design and comfort. I love the freedom they have given me so I can keep up with my preschooler while providing the security and comfort my infant needs. I love how fashionable I appear around town and on vacation…I cannot thank you enough for providing a reasonably priced product for busy moms. I simply LOVE my slings.”
Sara and Stephen Gower, owners of Slinglings Baby Slings are committed to making “parenting easier and babies happier. A top quality baby carrier and a top notch customer service experience have always been important to us.”
Every baby should be a Slingling.

By Brandon Cornett

The Credit – Mortgage Relationship
Credit and Mortgages go hand in hand. When you apply for a mortgage loan as part of the home buying process, the mortgage lender will review a number of your financial factors. One of those factors is your credit score, which is derived from your credit report. Basically, the mortgage lender wants to know (A) your credit score, which they will use to assess the risks involved in loaning money to you, and (B) your ability to manage debt.

Reviewing Your Credit
Long before you apply for a mortgage, you take a look at your credit. The idea is to get the “lay of the land” before a mortgage lender puts you under the financial microscope. At the least, this will help you avoid unpleasant surprises. At most, this will allow you to identify errors on your credit report and work to correct them.

Credit reports are maintained by three credit reporting companies. Chances are, you’ve heard of these companies before. They are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Your credit score is derived from the information found in the three credit reports maintained by the three aforementioned companies.

Getting Copies of Your Credit Report
As part of a thorough credit-review process, you’ll need to start by requesting copies of your credit report from the three companies mentioned above. The easiest way to do this is to visit www.AnnualCreditReport.com. This is a joint website managed by all three of the credit reporting companies. By law, you are entitled to one free credit report per year, so you shouldn’t have to pay anything if this is your first time.

Looking for Credit Errors
Once you receive your credit report, review it for errors or inaccuracies. Check the personal information to make sure it’s correct. Look for loans or other lines of credit that are not yours (possible credit fraud), and anything else that doesn’t seem right. If you find an error, visit the website of the company in question to submit a correction request. Or call the company’s customer service number and ask how to proceed.

Don’t delay in correcting credit mistakes. The process takes time, so start it as soon as you find an error. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), credit reporting companies bear full responsibility for correcting inaccurate credit reports. So don’t be shy about asking them to do so!

Credit Report vs. Credit Score
Let’s clarify the difference between a credit report and a credit score. When you order your credit report, you won’t receive a score. The score is usually determined by the mortgage lender, based on information found in the credit report. So if you want to know your credit score, you’ll need to purchase it separately. You can obtain your credit score by visiting www.MyFICO.com.

Couples who have not lived together before getting married, and who did not ask the right questions before saying “I do”, could be in for some rude surprises. Sometimes, couples make assumptions about the roles each partner plays in the marriage, without discussing these assumptions before getting married.

It is crucial to sit down and spend some time with your partner Identifying Roles in Relationships, and what they mean to you. Otherwise, you may end up with a wife who hates to cook, while you expect dinner on the table at seven every night.

Even before getting engaged, couples should discuss what they expect from marriage.

What do you expect from your future spouse?
Discuss what your expectations are from your spouse in terms of house work, paying bills (who pays what and how much), joint vs. separate bank accounts and investments. Who cooks, who cleans, and when. Are there other expectations if there are children? Some women may not want to stay home with the kids, while some men believe that would be best for the family.

Discussing these marital issues in advance, before tying the knot, will help you get over and iron out any problems that could come up in your marriage. If your ideas are radically different, you can start trying to compromise before you are facing the problem head on.

Why it helps
Discussing potential problems before marriage you are talking about the issues before they come up. Thus, you are discussing marital problems in a relaxed and non-stressful atmosphere where there is no urgency to resolve the problem. If you do not do this, and meet the problem head on as it arises, the stress of the actual problem can further strain the marriage because you are dealing with a time constraint to come to a resolution for the marital problem.

The ultimate thing a couple could ever shop for, aside from a baby, is their first home. With the recent lending crisis, it seems more of us couply-people might end up living with the parents for a longer time than we’d like. After all, who is still lending money to home buyers?

Interestingly enough, some institutions are. The housing crisis is not a crisis everywhere, and in some places mortgage rates have actually increased. This does not mean mortgage money may be hard to come by in the coming months: most banks are busy with their write-offs and trying to plug the money holes they themselves created. However, this does not mean there is no hope! Keep shopping for that dream home for you and your spouse, because as mortgages become harder to get, there will be less buyers on the market and with the general housing slump prices could actually be looking quite attractive. If you are an attractive candidate for a loan, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a bank willing to give mortgages to good clients. Married people with stable jobs and good credit rating are always attractive. They could surely use the cash flow you and your spouse might be able to provide.

Don’t forget to look into foreclosures. With the housing market slowing down and less people buying while more and more are defaulting on their mortgages, there are bound to be more homes up for grab at deep discounted prices. In this case it helps to be preapproved for a mortgage before you shop with your spouse.

Saving together for a common goal (house! cottage! car!) can be quite exciting! Macleans reports in an article this month that couples who save $1000 per month from the age of 19 to 26, and then do not save another penny actually have more money at age 65 than couples who start saving $1000 a month for 40 years, starting in their thirties.

Compounding is pretty powerful, and if your significant other has a financial habit that seems to be spinning out of control (e.g. three gourmet coffees a day, at $4 each?), add up how much this is costing him or her per month, per year and over the course of 25 years! Surely the last number will be impressive, and for sure it would amount to a significant down payment on that cottage!

Think of how much saving can compound, and then consider how much faster debt compounds! Debts always run at higher interest rates than you could ever get for your savings, so it pays to plan your (joint) finances and get debt-free first.

“You spend too much”
“You can’t handle our investments!”
“You spend too much on take-out!”
….
….
…
And on the fight goes. Money and Sex are the two issues that breaks up most couples. One would think that in most cases, you will know fairly early on if you are sexually compatible. Finding out whether you are financially compatible with the person you are dating, may be a bit more challenging. We often don’t know how much someone makes until an advanced stage of the relationship. Even spending patterns cannot reliably hint at your date’s purchasing-power; some people spend beyond their means and may walk around with huge debts in the pockets of their hand-made, Egyptian cotton suits.

Couples who are going through a money slump often resort to either fighting unproductively, or ignoring the issue all together. Because money is such a deal-breaker in life and especially in relationships, both strategies are detrimental for couples. Instead of fighting your spouse or significant other, try setting up a financial planning session as a way of spending time together.

Get involved with your financial relationship
By both sitting down together and writing up a financial statement, you will get a clear idea of what you own, and what you owe. The health of your romantic relationships strongly depends on how healthy your financial relationship is, so sit down with all your bank statements and bills, and make an overview.

Getting your financial relationships in order
It takes motivation from both parties to amicably set a reasonable budget, and stick to it. This is one step towards a better financial relationship. The next step is to see where you can minimize costs, so you keep more money left over for fun stuff (like dating!). Consider refinancing your home, a car refinance and consolidated loans for outstanding bills. Open a line of credit to pay off your high interest credit cards and make sure you both contribute to your savings account.

Less fighting, more dating
If you are both clear on what you have, and how much you can spend, you can actually clear the air and have some fun together. Include money for dates in your budget, and be sure to budget for those “frivolous” items you feel your spouse is spending “too much” on. Whether he or she has a love of take-out coffee or expensive handbags, if you can agree on a set amount that is reasonable to spend on treats, then it can completely eliminate the fighting.

If you are neck-deep in debts, then treats may have to be taken off the table entirely for a while. You won’t be able to sort out your financial relationship unless you both agree and stick to a plan. One person putting in all the effort, and the other guzzling daily $6 coffees will only create resentment and further relationship and financial problems.

By Christine B.

DatingSOS.com is launching a new corner on the site: the baby corner. Here we talk more about play-dating, and not the grown up kind! Except when we hint at how to keep your own play dates, despite your todds busy schedule or all-night screaming fits.

I am a self-professed geek, and when I came across this toy, I wished for a baby to go with it for me to mold into the perfect geek.

The Catch: you have to knit this toy yourself! Here is the free pattern

The cuteness factor on this baby/toddler toy is pretty high, and it doesn’t seem too complex to make! Stay in for a few cold winter evenings, share some conversation and wine with your significant other, and knit this baby toy while spending some quality time together. Doesn’t sound like a bad way to spend a cold night!

A reader emailed me today in reaction to our post about a new show looking for couples in debt. A common problem is one partner actually being the spender, while the other nervously sits by the sidelines wringing his or her hands.

The new sub-prime mortgage mess has left many couples not only in great financial distress, it has left many without a house to live in and likely a slew of relationship problems. Who is to blame for mortgages and other loans you really couldn’t afford? Your wife or husband, or should we blame the banks?

It really does not matter at all who is to blame: most couples spend all their energy and time focusing on who’s fault it is they are officially have bad credit loans. Instead, they should focus on climbing out of it, together. Even if you want to blame the bank for approving you for loans you could not afford (and the bank should know best, right?), it doesn’t help you one bit. Although you may think they got you into it, they will not bail you out!

There are services out there that will help you get back on track financially, and this can put your mind to rest and save relationships (splitting up is actually more expensive than staying together, so keep that in mind as you are throwing the blame-ball around).

Badcreditoffers.com is one of these services that can help couples, and singles alike, navigate their financial distress and come out winners. Your money troubles may not go away overnight, but alone you will certainly never get there! Stay strong, stay together, and get richer as a result.

Surfing the net for sexy gadgets I came across some freakish things; this doesn’t really qualify as a gizmo, but it’s interesting nonetheless:

Imagine someone finally popped the question, you are planning your wedding and running around town looking for the perfect dress you will only wear once. After trying on pounds of poofy silk and still not having found “the one”, you could give this a shot:

A purple wedding dress made of….. 12.500 condoms! Just enough for the wedding night.

When taking a break from dress shopping, look into unique wedding gifts for your wedding shower or reception. Just because you want a unique gift for your guests, or decorations for the venue, does not mean you have to resort to condoms, unique wedding gifts are easier to find that you think and can really be anything that is customized or has some special meaning to you and your family.

If you’re still looking for decorations, here is an interesting chandelier: made from penis-pumps… I suppose you may need once you’re half way through the wedding gown, which at that point should look lovely as a cocktail dress.

That’s my quirky input for the day… it’s nice to see some people can approach weddings from a humorous perspective!