If you are one of those people who grew up not sure if you’d ever want kids, and now you find yourself married to the perfect spouse and thinking children might be in your not-so-distant future, you are not alone. If you are worried that having these kids will ruin your marriage, you are not alone, either. While it will take some work, and while it will certainly change your life, having a baby doesn’t have to ruin your marriage. You just have to get a little creative about how you think of spending time together, and you have to make the most of the time you have.

After Bedtime

Remember when you were a little kid and you used to complain about having to go to bed earlier than all of the adults? There was a reason your mom and dad made you go to sleep earlier than they did. They use the after-bedtime hours as adult time. This is the time for moms and dads to watch what they want on television, or to watch a movie not suitable for children. You might be exhausted when you put your kids to sleep, but enforcing a strict bedtime is good for the child and the parents. It gives the child a sense of routine, and a good night’s sleep, while it gives the parents some quality time together in the comfort of their own home.

Hire a Babysitter

Some parents may be wary of hiring a babysitter who is not a family member, but sometimes it is necessary if you ever want to get out of the house with just the two of you. Find someone you trust by asking a trusted neighbor or by consulting online babysitting and nanny searches. These internet babysitting profiles often run background checks and allow you to interview people before hiring them, which can put your mind at ease. Hiring a babysitter can really add up, though, from a cost standpoint. If hiring a babysitter is too expensive, see if you can trade off nights with the parents of your child’s friends. You take all the kids for a night one week, and then the next week, the other parents take their turn. This can be beneficial for everyone involved, because it allows you to spend less money while still being able to have someone you trust watch your kids, and your kids get to play with their friends every week.

Schedule Date Night

Those mommy calendars are no joke. When you have little kids running around, you need to schedule every minute of every day. Before kids, you probably had spontaneous date nights all of the time, but after kids, this can be much harder than it used to be. There is no shame in scheduling a date night. Put it on the calendar, and make sure everyone knows that you and your spouse are going out of town for a night, or maybe just dinner. It doesn’t matter what you do; what matters is that you do it alone.

Family Cuddle Time

While it’s definitely not the same as spending time alone, having quality family time every night is important for everyone. When you spend time with your kids, talking to them and sharing stories about your days and being excited about each others projects, this can foster a sense of companionship among the family. Even if you don’t feel like talking one day, pick a favorite movie or television show and cuddle up each other with a great blanket. You’ll feel great having spent quality time together with your family.

Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee hauled in $ 40.1 million in April for the presumed nominee’s campaign efforts, nearly matching the fundraising total for President Obama and the Democratic National Committee last month.

This is the first joint fundraising effort by the Romney campaign and the national party, and together they have $ 61.4 million in cash. Romney and the RNC announced their fundraising coalition in early April.

Republicans are demonstrating they can be financially competitive with the Obama campaign. The president’s re-election team and the DNC raised $ 43.6 million last month. The Obama campaign said the average donation to the Democratic presidential effort was around $ 50 and that 98 percent of donations were $ 250 or less.

According to the Romney campaign, 95 percent of donations were $ 250 or less, raising $ 10.1 million. The campaign received contributions from all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

“We are pleased with the strong support we have received from Americans across the country who are looking for new leadership in the White House,” Spencer Zwick, national finance chairman of the joint fundraising campaign, said in a statement. “Along with the hard work of the Republican National Committee, we will continue to raise the funds necessary to defeat President Obama in November.”

According to a Miami Herald report, Romney told donors in South Florida Wednesday night that he raised $ 2 million in that day alone, and the newspaper said the candidate could bring in up to $ 10 million in a two-day drive. (That haul, of course, was not included in the April total.)

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said the joint haul signals voter enthusiasm for Romney’s platform and opposition to the president’s policies. “Along with the campaign, we will work to provide the resources so that we can defeat President Obama and change the direction of the country,” he said in a statement. 

Caitlin Huey-Burns is a reporter for RealClearPolitics. She can be reached at chueyburns@realclearpolitics.com.

As legendary as the legends that have slept in her beds, The Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows turned 100 years old over the weekend. We recount some of the historic hotel’s charms.

Built by architect Elmer Grey for $ 500,000, and with a mind to have every room receive some sunshine at some point in the day, the Beverly Hills Hotel opened on May 12, 1912, predating by two years the plush neighborhood that would surround it. Its celebrity guest registry is long and continues growing.

Here, silent film stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks met, Liz Taylor and her six husbands honeymooned (not all at the same time, of course) and Marilyn Monroe reportedly had an affair with Yves Montand in 1960. But it inspired more than love between couples. In the 1940s, Marlene Dietrich would affect the Polo Lounge’s “no slacks” dress code for women. Much later, the likes of John Lennon and Prince disturbed other guests with vocal antics.

Marilyn Monroe at the Beverly Hills Hotel with costar Yves Montand and his wife, actress Simone Signoret during the filming of “Let’s Make Love”

In the hotel’s Kiwi Collection history, it made CMO Jean Marie Healy’s top five list, and Carrie Harrison-Ell reviewed the property and regularly stays there. We asked Carrie a few questions to better understand what makes the hotel’s allure so enduring:

What is it about the hotel that makes it so special? “It’s history. There have just been so many celebrities associated with the hotel over the years. It’s special to walk through the bungalows while imagining people like Liz Taylor living there.”

Why do you think so many celebrities like to stay there? “Privacy is of the utmost importance at the hotel. Also, it’s amazing history, reputation, and all-round high quality.”

Is it true that every room gets sunlight at one point of the day or another, as per the architect intent? “I didn’t know this tidbit, but I can see it being true. I’ve stayed here during different seasons and each time the rooms were both sunny and cozy. The bungalows are also spacious and so well lit.”

What’s your favorite thing about the hotel? “What it represents; it’s classic Beverly Hills. There are so many stories about the property.”

Faye Dunaway poses poolside for photographer Terry O’Neill the day after winning her best actress Oscar for “Network”

A star-studded centennial celebration is set for June 15 to 17, 2012. Benefiting the Motion Picture Television Fund, there’s an evening soiree hosted by Brett Ratner and a Polo Lounge brunch co-lead by Warren Beatty and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Those not on the coveted invite list who still want to reminisce can drink from the hotel’s themed “These Walls Are Talking” cocktail list whilst perusing the pages of The Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows — The First 100 Years, an anniversary book by the hotel’s historian Robert S. Anderson.

Clipping and saving coupons is the most classic way of saving money, but in today’s digital world, it feels rather archaic. SnipSnap for iPhone lets you say goodbye to physical coupons by taking photos of them to carry with you at all times and store clerks can scan the processed bar code right on your iPhone.

To add a coupon, you simply take a photo of it, or “snip it”. SnipSnap will then process the coupon for you by converting the barcode on the photo into one that can be scanned by a store clerk (this process may take a few minutes). SnipSnap will also look at the dates valid and display when the coupon is redeemable or expires on the main Coupons page.

When viewing a coupon, you’ll see all the details like minimum spending requirements. You can also look up the important dates, bar code, promo code, offer details, consumer restrictions, and retailer legal. SnipSnap also allows you to mark coupons as a favorite and share to Twitter, Facebook, or email.

When redeeming a coupon with SnipSnap, you have two different options for the clerk. The easiest one is the barcode which can be scanned by a store scanner. If that doesn’t work, you can also display the coupon’s code in nice, big, easy-to-read text. And if the store clerk is still a little suspicious of your coupon, you can show them the photo you took and allow them to pinch and zoom to see the details.

Another cool feature of SnipSnap is the Discover tab that shows coupons being snipped by other SnipSnap users. You can also use the search field to search for coupons at a specific store. I really like this feature, but sometimes I get coupons that are one-time use only (like on a receipt) and don’t want to share it publicly in fear of someone “stealing” it. SnipSnap does allow you to disable sharing snipped coupons to the community pool, but I wish it’d let you do it on an individual basis.

A feature that makes SnipSnap way better than keeping track of physical coupons is that it will remind you when a coupon is about to expire. You can choose the notification to be sent at 1-3 days or 1-2 weeks before expiration. Additionally, when you arrive at a store that you have a coupon for, SnipSnap will send you notification reminding you of your coupon.

The last thing I want to mention is that SnipSnap does not work with “manufacturer coupons”. This is not a fault of SnipSnap, however. These coupons require stores to collect coupons and return them to the manufactures. Until manufacturers change their rules about these coupons, I don’t expect to see manufacturer coupon support anytime soon.

The good

• Quick and easy to use
• Processing only takes a few minutes
• Reminders when coupon is about to expire
• Location reminders
• Discover coupons being snipped by other SnipSnap users

The bad

• Can’t edit sharing options when uploading coupon. Must set a universal setting.
• Not compatible with “manufacturer coupons” (because these types of coupons must be physically collected and turned in to the manufacturer by the store)

The conclusion

Personally, I’ve never been much of a coupon user unless they come through my email inbox because I can’t keep track of them nor remember to bring them. Now that I have SnipSnap for iPhone, I look forward to the savings in my future. But if I’m not careful, I may see myself making unnecessary purchases due to me “not wanting to miss out on a deal” before my coupons expire!

Likely GOP Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney was forced to address a Washington Post article in which many of Romney’s prep school classmates recalled some of his pranks and more troubling behavior during his high school years. Apparently, the buttoned-up Mitt Romney that we see today was much more of a wild child in the early 1960s, and some of his classmates still have the scars to show for it. Among some of the more cruel “pranks” perpetrated by Romney, he reportedly held down a student with several other boys and cut his hair because they believed that the student was a homosexual. As it turns out, he was a homosexual and the incident troubled him throughout his life.

Romney denies any recollection of the incident and also pointed out that, in the early 60s, he was oblivious to anyone’s sexual orientation or the possibility that any of his classmates might be homosexual. In fairness to Romney, that is probably a much more accurate statement than trying to claim that he doesn’t remember specific incidents from high school. Anyone who has ever been to high school – and certainly anyone who enjoyed the level of popularity and influence that Romney seemed to hold during his days at an elite prep school – is very likely to remember most of the important details of the experience.

Many of Romney’s classmates acknowledged that he was humorous and could frequently evoke a laugh, even if it was often at the expense of others. And even those who found Romney to be mean-spirited and somewhat of a bully acknowledged that his demeanor began to change when he met his current wife, Ann, who attended the sister school nearby.

Ultimately, the high school stories are probably going to fade away – as they should. Trying to dissect events of 50 years ago isn’t going to create a discernable advantage for either party, but these are the kinds of stories that will be thrown about in the calm before the election storm, which will get into full swing later in the summer.