SparkDad

Insurance. The industry we all love to hate. No let me preface this by letting you know that I am a licenses insurance agent and can sell both property insurance and life and health insurance. I have worked for State Farm, Allstate and Farmers.

During this time, I have only been insured by State Farm, even when I worked for Allstate and Farmers. But this year my rates went up by about $600 per year on our homeowners policy! Wow! That was a crazy high increase. Of course State Farm sited the recent hurricane Ike damage and expenses as the reason for the rate increase. I understand from a insurance industry stand point. I know what I would be telling my customers if they were calling me asking why their rates went up so much.

But as a consumer I have to wonder if I am making the right decision by keeping loyal to State Farm. Now there are reasons that I stick with them. First of all they have always paid claims on time and paid them properly. Never making me feel like I got short changed.

The other reason is that our State Farm policy includes wind and hurricane coverage which is rare in the Texas Gulf Coast.

So because of the price I sent shopping for insurance. I began by typing in Google, " car insurance ". It brought me to a great site called Net Quote that allowed me to enter my information once and get several quotes for insurance for several companies. It worked great and I was happy with the response.

I found some companies that were a little cheaper, but in the end my loyalty to State Farm because of my treatment during hurricane Ike and previous claims won.

But if you are ever in need of insurance be sure to use a site like Net Quote to help you find competing quotes.

-Spark Dad

In an earlier post I discussed my sunglass problems. This week I received a call from my eye doctor to come look at some frames that they ordered in for me to take a look at. My local eye doctor is a chain so the frames were less than spectacular!

When I bought the shades in Albuquerque at Dr. Iron’s Office I was able to get a very nice Oakley frame. I have received more compliments on my glasses this month that I received on my glasses in the past three years.  So you can understand why I am being a little picky.

I searched the web again and once again come up with Moda sunglasses. They have a nice selection. After looking around their site I found the shades in the photo at right. I am going to my eye doctor on Monday to see if they can order them.

I will update you all when I find the answer. Until then check out the great prices at Moda sunglasses.

- Spark Dad

Last year I procrastinated on getting my eyes checked. Our health insurance gives us a eye exam one time per year and $130 off of new frames. Usually I get it done early in the year, but this year I put it off. Finally while we were on vacation in New Mexico over Christmas break I went to another eye doctor and had the exam.

We purchased a nice pair of Oakley frames for me to wear everyday. I had the great idea that I would get prescription sunglasses as well. We spent the time to pick out the frames, paid and put in the order. Unfortunately my prescription would not work in any of the shade frames that I had picked out.

So off I am this week looking for prescription shades. Now you have to understand that I have a very round head. I am bald so round shades look terrible on me. I have to have a very rectangular frame for it to look right on me.

I searched online to see if I could find some to save myself driving around looking at frames.

One of the places that I ended up at had wholesale sunglasses. They had great prices and sold in bulk, but with my previous mistake on the prescription not working I had to go local.

My eye doctor in town has ordered some frames in for me to try on Monday so hopefully I will find something that will work!

I will post a new picture once the new shades are done and in!

This post was paid for by modasunglasses.com – wholesale sunglasses

Although I have not often discussed it on my blog, I am attending school trying to finish up my degree. I was lazy and had better things to do in my youth and now I am working on it.

I am attending an online university right now. I considered a lot of different colleges including the University of Phoenix . I ended up going to Ashford University, which is a small for profit university in Iowa. They have a good general program and cater to military.

Since I have not received my degree, Mama often asks me “Have you decided what you want to do when you graduate?”  A simple question. A very difficult answer. The truth is that I am not sure what I want to do when I grow up.

This morning while doing my daily read I found this site EduInReview.com . I was looking for information on careers when I found it. It is a great resource for education news, education policies about colleges around the nation, in depth information about specific colleges, health information for students, financial aid and to satisfy my needs steps toward a strong career.

Although my search on EduInReview did not nail down my career choice I did find some good information and resources when I get closer to deciding.

- Spark Dad

This was a paid post by EduInReview.com

Valentines is a holiday that you love to hate. The stress of picking out that perfect gift for your sweetie can be overwhelming.

In my years of dating(1989-1994) and marriage(1994-NOW) for a total of 21 years,  I have had some hits and some flops! I have of course sent the standard dozen red roses and those are good. The problem with roses is that they wilt and die. What does that say about your loving relationship. Here today, gone tomorrow?

I have given lingerie, not so good.  Let your sweetie buy her own lingerie! If you give her some new skimpies then she will think that you are really gifting yourself! You are selfish and well only thinking about one thing!

So, I move on to jewelry. Jewelry is nearly always a winner. Now I am not saying that you need to take out a loan every Valentines day. You do not have to spend a huge amount on it. Just make it meaningful and a good value.

You can go expensive like Tiffany’s or you can go with a great value from one of my site sponsors, BlueDial.com . They have some great deals on Citizen Eco Drive Ladies Watches.

My personal favorite from there this year is the Citizen Purse Charm watch below.

If you are a female, guys are so easy to please. You can go the easy route and choose the lingerie option from above. That one is always a winner for guys, as long as you are the one wearing the lingerie and not him!

Or you can choose something from BlueDial.com . Take a look at my previous post “Watch Envy”.

Finally electronics are always good, but once again you can really break the bank here and most of the time he will have researched the device for many hours and you might not get the exact one that he wanted.

I hope that these gift giving ideas help you on this very important day!

- Spark Dad

This was a promotional post paid for by BlueDial.com