With the economy in flux and gas prices at an all time high (I think a barrel of oil hit $129 today), it’s important to be frugal with money, and intelligent about how you’re spending what you have. Getting into debt, or getting further into debt, can cause many problems in the long run. It can have a negative impact on your credit score, which can prevent you from getting loans for a home or a car, it can suck up your cash resources, and it can become an overwhelming burden that is hard to escape.

That said, having credit cards such as visa credit cards can help increase your credit score if used wisely. What I mean by this is using the card to make purchases you can afford, and paying it off at the end of the month, before needing to pay the finance charges.

Keeping your balances low or at a zero balance can help increase your credit score. If you’re wisely using a credit card, paying it off every month, the credit bureaus will look at that as a sign of fiscal responsibility, and will likely increase your credit score. If you have a very low credit score, and are in need of a bad credit credit card, there are some available that you can get, however, keep in mind that the interest rate will be higher (because people with bad credit scores are tended to be looked at as being “higher risk”).

If you currently have a lot of credit card debt, it’s ok. Work to pay off one card at a time (the one with the highest interest rate), and pay minimum balances on the rest. Once you’ve paid one off, start on the next one, and work towards paying them all off. Credit cards can be a double-edged sword. They can provide a lot of benefits such as providing greater spending power and helping increase credit scores - and some even offer airline miles and more. If they’re not used wisely, however, they can cause a lot of problems, and are an easy way to get into a lot of debt.

Moral of the story: If you’re looking to get a credit card, be wise about how you use it. Pay it off every month, don’t spend more money than you have, and carefully consider what cards you choose to carry.

Note: Credit cards can provide a needed means of capital for small businesses. I believe the same rules of thumb applies with business credit cards, however, they can be extremely useful if you’re looking to purchase products for your business. Again, be wise in how you use credit, but they can be extremely beneficial in helping get your business up and running.

Monday was also our 3rd wedding anniversary - hard to believe it’s been 3 years already! I feel really blessed to have Preston (and soon our little baby) in my life. What a great 3 years it’s been!

In Bali, we went to some different temples, and even the king’s palace, where we walked around the grounds. One of the more interesting parts of our trip was going to the monkey forest. Just outside the forest, they sell bananas you can feed to the monkeys. One thing I failed to notice was that only the tourists were buying the bananas…for good reason. I was standing holding a big bunch of bananas, and the monkeys were all around me, begging for some. I was holding the bunch, taking my time, when a cute little monkey started tugging on my shorts, begging for one. I gave him one, and wham! The next thing I knew, I had another monkey sitting on my head, grabbing for the bananas I was holding. I yelled to Preston, “Preston, get a picture!” He thought that was so funny…so he did. I bent down to get the monkey off my head, and just as I stood up again, two more monkeys jumped onto me - one on my head, and one on my shoulders. I decided that having a large bunch of bananas in a monkey forest wasn’t a great idea, so I threw down the bunch, and bent over for them to get off me. I had enough of the pesky (albeit cute) little guys.

Lesson learned: don’t take bananas into a monkey forest.

The whole trip was wonderful, and I was so grateful to have my father-in-law be such a great tour guide. He knows Indonesia really well, so he took us to some of the most interesting and fun places. Despite the 30+ hours of travel time it took to get there, it was totally worth it. Indonesia is a fascinating and beautiful place, and I’m hoping we’ll be able to visit again next year after our little baby boy is born.

It’s been a long trip so far…We flew from SLC to Las Vegas for a 2 hour layover, then enjoyed a 13 hour flight aboard Korean Air. We’ve been sitting at the airport for a few hours now…I think our layover is 9 hours total. We’ll board the plane in a couple of hours to head to Jakarta, which is a 7 hour flight. All in all, I’ll be very happy to get there.

I will say, however, that Korean Air was much nicer than Air France, which is what I flew on in April on my way to France. The plane was roomy, even in Coach class, which was a relief to me, being 20 weeks pregnant. I felt pretty good on the flight - I just had to get up and walk a lot to make sure to avoid blood clots. (I guess they’re more common when you’re pregnant.) Anyway, I slept a lot, which made the flight go by pretty quickly. Preston ended up sitting next to a rather large man that accidentally kept hitting the Flight Attendant button, and they kept coming over to see what he needed. He was nice enough - just on his way to the Philippines to pick up his new bride. You meet all sorts on airplanes, I suppose.

At any rate, one thing that helped the layover seem better was our Crown Room membership, which allowed us to relax in the Delta Airlines partner lounge. Unfortunately, they closed it after 3 hours, for reasons I didn’t really understand (the language barrier didn’t help…), but luckily they let us stay in another partner lounge. It’s nice and quiet, with food and drinks, and comfortable chairs. It’s nice being outside of the main part of the airport.

I’ll write more about the trip later, but I have to say, this has been the perfect time during my pregnancy to travel. I’m not huge yet (although I’m starting to feel that way…), and I’m past feeling nauseated. Hopefully our little baby enjoys travelling, because we plan on travelling a lot with him. Or we hope so, anyway!

Several rabbits were released into the wild, but they have been unable to adapt, falling prey to predators. These tiny lagomorphs need protection, and placing them on the Endangered Species list will hopefully give them the help they need, to prevent this tiny (and adorable!) rabbit from becoming extinct.

Anyway, it’s exciting thinking that we’ll have a new Wily in June - our own little linkbuilder/bunny lover.

To be honest, I hope that he is able to get his football career back on track. He’s talented, and he shouldn’t have to pay for the rest of his life, provided he has learned his lesson, and has done much good to right the many wrongs he’s done. Dogfighting is a serious and terribly disturbing crime. It’s not just the fights that are cruel - it’s what leads up to them and how the losers are treated that is sickening as well. Losing dogs are killed in terrible ways, and other smaller dogs are used as bait. The whole “sport” is barbaric, and it takes someone that is cold and has been hardened to be able to participate/enjoy such a bloody event.

I hope Michael Vick takes this lesson to heart, and I hope others involved with dogfighting will consider what they’re risking, and think about the cruelties they’re perpetuating. I hope Mr. Vick will donate money and time to caring for abused and neglected animals. He’ll be able to see how rewarding rescuing animals can be - how much more rewarding than winning money at the price of an animal’s life. I wish you all the best, Michael Vick. I hope that your apology is sincere, and that you will change for the better. Remember, you’re an example to so many. Be a man, do the right thing, and make up for your mistakes. You can do a lot of good - just do it.

While the guys lost money at the poker & roulette tables, the girls enjoyed Enchanted, a very cute Disney movie about Giselle, a cartoon princess that gets cast into real life Manhattan. Her handsome prince follows her to try to rescue her, and bring her back to the cartoon world she’s from.

The movie stars Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, and Susan Sarandon. With such a talented cast, and a well-written storyline, the movie was bound to succeed. It was fun to watch, and Amy Adams was charming as Giselle. I would recommend this movie to anyone - it’s a great family or date movie. I’ll try and drag my husband because I’d love to see it again. (Hint, hint, Preston!)

I think it’s good to try to conserve and not waste - we need to take care of the earth. There are, however, some businesses that are trying to make making a lot of money by appearing to be earth friendly. Or perhaps they are earth friendly - their sole product is the soothing of consciences so people can feel less bad about not being as carbon neutral as our good friend, Al Gore. These companies sell carbon credits.

Basically, the idea is, if you feel like you’re not recycling as many soda cans as you think you should be, or you enjoy driving your H2 (which, personally, I don’t really have a problem with), you can buy carbon credits which offset the negative carbon particles you shoot off into the air. Or something like that. Basically, you give a company some money, and they’ll plant a tree or two for you, and you can feel guiltless about turning your heater up to 85 degrees in the winter.

I compare this to the old practice of purchasing Indulgences (yes, the same one Martin Luther protested with his 95 theses) because, really, it’s a very similar concept. Back then, if you sinned, you could pay the church some money, and your sin was wiped out, as if it never happened. (Of course, there are always consequences to sin, like if you rob or murder someone, that doesn’t take away the fact that the victim was still victimized. But the church needed money for a new bascilica, so they figured that if they could get people to pay in cash for their sins, they were still paying.) At any rate, the same goes with carbon credits. If you waste nature’s resources, you can pay someone else some money, and it’s as if the waste never happened, because they’ll plant a tree for you, and then you’re “carbon neutral.”

Personally, I think if you want to conserve, and that’s your thing, do it. I think it’s good to recycle and not waste - we need to take care of the earth. But don’t condemn me if I don’t use organic cotton (or hemp) recyclable bags to carry my groceries out to my car. I recycle cardboard and plastic and soda cans, but I’m going to enjoy driving my H3, and not worry about having someone plant a tree to offset the emmissions it released. I think the whole “green” movement is a bit of a fad, and there are a lot of companies cashing in on it. It will die down soon, but hopefully people will take lessons from it. Like it’s ok to drive an SUV, but you should recycle what you can.

The idea has gotten pretty popular, and it’s easy to see why. The cute little pink bunny gives a bit of comic relief to a tense situation. Humor always helps when kids are worried about their parents, and this was a great idea by Major Jenkins, to help make learning about Iraq a bit funnier, and more interesting for his kids.

Check out the photo album in the link…my favorite picture is the bunny strapped into the seatbelt with Major Jenkins.