Sunday Afternoon Ride

Mark wants to go on a Sunday afternoon motorcycle ride almost every week.  This week I finally went with him and it rained on us like crazy! We were freezing, but we still had a good time.  Natasha rode with Mark's brother Stephen and Natalia rode with Stephen's friend Kim.  Josh left his prego wife to come by himself.

I hope Mark enjoyed it, because it will probably be a while before I go again.  Although, I have put 500 miles on my scooter this summer... which amounts to roughly 5 gallons of gas.  Not bad.

He's a mover and a shaker (and a chewer)

Erik really gets around now.  He can get across the room in almost no time (by rolling or scooting) and always seems to have something in his mouth.  Most of the time it's fingers

Sometimes it's toes.

When I try to get any work done from home, he goes for the papers...

Then I tried to feed him solid food.  It says to start with a teaspoon, but even a third of a teaspoon took too long because every bite that went in, came right back out.  Finally he discovered the bib...

So solids may take a while, but at least he is still good at feeding himself.

Planning your estate

Everyone knows they need a will, but most people don't get around to ever creating one.  In fact, 85 percent of American adults don't have one (truth be told, I haven't drafted one for myself or Mark yet).  That's no excuse for any of us.  If you have children and not many assets, a simple will can dictate at least who will be the caretakers of your children should you and your spouse die.  Most legal documents should be drafted by an attorney, but if that isn't going to happen for you now, you can create one yourself.  Make sure you date it and have a few disinterested parties witness your signature (if they receive any sort of gift in your will they are not disinterested).  If even that seems too hard, write something out on a blank piece of paper in your handwriting, date it and sign it.  In Utah that is sufficient.

In a few years when we start to acquire more assets, it is more critical to get a trust to protect those assets.  That's a much more lengthy post that I don't want to get into tonight, but it's also something that should NEVER be done without an attorney.  We have a case where some people created multiple trusts without an attorney and more than a decade after they passed away their children are still fighting to figure out what part of the trusts are valid.  The assets are basically gone, but they are still fighting and it has destroyed their family.  Less effective.

Final consideration: a lot of families are torn apart when the parents die and the siblings fight over who gets what.  There are several creative ways to avoid many of these fights.  One that I heard of today was a family who gave each of the children monopoly money and allowed them to bid on items with the money.  One son really only cared about one item so he bid his full amount on it and walked away happy with it. When all of the money was gone (and all of the items people really cared about had been "bought") they divided the rest if anyone wanted it as a bonus to them.  There are other options, the best of which is to have your parent designate items in advance, if that doesn't happen think of something that is fair and easy to implement.

I'll post more later about some of the other documents, but for today, start thinking about it and talk to your spouse then put something in writing.