For the Fellas

Looking for name change advice or some tips for newlywed life? The MissNowMrs experts have created state-specific name change articles and checklists for you. We’ve chronicled our recommendations for how to travel while changing your name AND how to handle voting during the transition.

We’ve also compiled our best guidance for how to handle difficult sister in laws, holidays as newlyweds, the ever-annoying baby questions, and much more. Why? Because, while we are name change experts, we’re also newlywed wives, moms, and sisters.

We hope our name change advice articles help smooth your transition to your new name, and a whole new phase of life. Congratulations and best wishes from the entire MissNowMrs team!

It’s That Time Again: March Madness

Your idea of March Madness may be coming up with a plan to put your winter items away. However, March Madness is actually an NCAA Basketball Tournament involving the best 65 teams in college basketball.

You may be confused about March Madness, but believe me your husband not only knows what it is, but chances are he’s one of the 30 million Americans who participate in an office pool in hopes to win the big prize! You can expect to watch your fair share of basketball from March 13^th-April 4^th and maybe even hear a few choice words coming from your spouse’s mouth if his favorite team fails to make the game winning shot (or worse he loses the money he bet filling out an office pool bracket)!

March Madness Fun Facts

• Odds of picking a perfect bracket? 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 1. That’s nine zillion to one! How big is that number? It is a billion times as big as 9 billion! Think of it this way: if every man, woman, and child on the planet randomly filled out one million brackets each, the odds would be greater than 1000 to 1 that even one would have a perfect bracket.
• Defining an upset as beating a team at least 4 seeds higher, there’s an average of 8.7 per year. There’s never been a year with less than 5 upsets.
• The last 10 champions have been won by 9 different schools. Connecticut is the only team to cut down the nets twice in the last decade (as of 2007).
• The FBI estimates that more than $2.5 billion is illegally wagered annually on March Madness each year. Less than 4% of that amount is wagered legally in Nevada.
Whether you’re going to tune in for March Madness or you’re planning to have some quality ME time, you’ll need to know the dates for the 2011 NCAA Tournament:
Selection Sunday: March 13^th
First Four (NEW): March 15^th-16^th
Second Round: March 17^th-18^th
Third Round: March 19^th-20^th
NCAA Sweet 16®: March 24^th-25^th
Elite 8®: March 26^th-27^th
Final Four®: April 2^nd, April 4^th

Are you into March Madness like your spouse? If not, what do you do for 3 weeks during the tournament?

Announcing Our Home Depot Gift Card Winner!

We’re so excited for our Home Depot gift card winner! Today Kelly won our week long mini-giveaway For the Fellas—a $50 Home Depot gift card! Congratulations!! It’s the perfect stocking stuffer and will arrive in time for the Christmas Holiday, leaving her with one less gift to worry about.

Kelly simply posted a comment on our newlywed blog and won this great prize for her man! We hope you will send us a picture of of what project you ended up completing with your gift card. Please check your email for the details on how to redeem your prize from Home Depot. Happy Holidays from the MissNowMrs.com team!

Home Depot Gift Card Giveaway—For Your Mr. Fix-It

We have something for your Mr. Fix-it! Today kicks off our week long mini-giveaway For the Fellas—a $50 Home Depot gift card! It’s the perfect stocking stuffer and will arrive in time for the Christmas Holiday, leaving you with one less gift to worry about. Maybe you just moved into a fixer-upper and want to paint your kitchen or are thinking about converting your home office to a nursery? The possibilities are endless!

Most men love going to a home-improvement store to pick up the latest tools and gadgets for all their at-home projects, so enter to win this and your spouse will surely be grateful. Think about it ladies, what could be a better way to get your hubby to start tackling tasks on his To-Do-List than a FREE $50 gift card for Home Depot?

Simply post a comment below for your chance to win (and re-tweet this post to double your chances)! Remember, we will randomly select and announce a winner next Friday December 10, 2010. If we don’t hear back from the winner within 2 weeks, we will randomly select a new winner to make sure someone ends up with this great goodie.

Tell us why you (or your spouse) need to win the Home Depot gift card and what you plan to do with it, we’d love to hear about your projects!

How to Convince Your Wife That She Needs a New Gadget

Are you longing for the latest version of your favorite electronic toy (i.e. TV, iPhone, Xbox, etc.)? Not sure how to convince your lady that it’s a good purchase that you’ll both benefit from and surely enjoy? Well, don’t sweat it! Try these helpful strategies and you’ll find yourself making your next new gadget purchase as early as this weekend.

As women, we don’t always see why your new $200+ new gadget is a good idea, much like you don’t understand our shoe bill at the end of the month. Your wife may not see the point in your purchase because she hasn’t been convinced or sold on the idea of the mutual benefits.

Your job is to figure out what those mutual benefits are (not your strong suit? Not a problem, we’ve got you covered!…keep reading) and tell her about them. Once she has a better understanding of how this new gadget fits into both your lives (and relates to her interests/hobbies), she will be more susceptible to the idea of purchasing the said item!

Women tend to care about the following (among so many other things, but for the purpose of this post we’ll stick with these): how will it fit/look in our home, will it make my life easier and will it affect our communication (i.e. will it bring us closer together)?

How will it look in my home?

Women spend a lot of time making sure everything in the house is color coordinated and has its own special place. Don’t mess with that! Try talking to your wife about how a new TV will not ruin the chic and sleek look she has going on in the family room because it’s a wall mount with wires that will not be seen! She’s more-likely to agree to a purchase that won’t clash with the décor or ruin her vision of your home.

Will this gadget make life easier?

Women have so much on their minds (i.e. You, a career, a home, fitness, kids just to name a few) and don’t need anything to make life more complicated or stressful. If you can figure out a way to prove that the new gadget will make life easier you will be one step closer to getting exactly what you want. It could be as simple as explaining how a universal remote will work the TV, DVD player, stereo and surround sound system, eliminating 3 of 4 different remotes. Believe me, this will sound like a mini lifesaver to your wife!

Will this gadget affect our communication or bring us closer together?

Whether it’s a conversation over a glass of wine or watching a movie with a bowl of popcorn, at the end of the day your wife just wants to spend some quality time with you. Let her know how a new gaming system will allow you to have video game nights together; which is great if you are the competitive types or how a new laptop or Smartphone will allow for you to sit on the couch and catch up on emails and bills instead of having to head to your home office. After all, it’s not always about what you’re doing that matters most, it’s that you’re able to be together while you do it.

Tell us: What purchase were you able to convince your wife to make using our tips or others? Share your tactics with other readers…I’m sure fellas all over will appreciate advice Man-to-Man!

Ways To Woo Your Wife This Fall

Are you looking for ways to woo your wife this fall? I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say they hate the Fall, probably because it’s such a beautiful season no matter where you go! The cooler air is welcomed after an extremely hot summer and who wouldn’t appreciate the leaves changing to every shade of red, orange and yellow making any commute to work more enjoyable.

There are so many things to do in the Fall to enjoy the last few weeks before the temperature really drops and you and your sweetie are stuck inside for the Winter months. If you’re not the type who plans weekend getaways or date nights, your wife will truly be impressed and grateful that you took the time and effort to make plans for the two of you.

Here are a few things you can do to make the most out of the season:
Visit your local Pumpkin Patch: Now is the perfect time to pick out pumpkins and carve them for Halloween. If you and your partner are the competitive types you can have a contest to see whose pumpkin looks the best (have a neighbor or friend be the judge).

Enjoy a Wine Festival: Your local winery/vineyard may have a festival to celebrate the fall. Often times you pay a set price and enjoy the entire day sipping wine and listening to live bands or DJs. They even have vendors come in with food, unique art, jewelry and clothing. You could also bring a blanket and a cooler with your favorite wine pairing snacks; such as cheese, nuts, grapes and chocolate!

Attend a Fall Foliage Festival: I keep talking about the leaves and trees, but seriously…they’re beautiful! You and your spouse could walk hand-in-hand and spoil yourselves with all things Fall—hot apple cider, caramel apples, pumpkin pie or apple dumplings!

Spend a weekend at a Bed and Breakfast: There’s something about spending the night or weekend away from home that somehow brings out the romance in all of us. If you’re lucky enough to live near mountains this could be one of the best ideas for you as the view is always spectacular!
If you’re really feeling adventurous and want to plan a weekend away (far away), you may be interested in the Top 10 places to visit this Fall.

No matter what you do this Fall get out and enjoy it together! Tell us about your plans to woo your wife this fall, and inspire other couples with your ideas!