How Now

Easter is Hopping This way

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:39:00 +0000

It seems that each year the holidays roll around faster and faster. Now that we have three little ones the effect seems multiplied. Every holiday you are suppose to think of something fun to do, or decorate, or plan a family function, maybe presents,,aaaaakkk.

Don't get me wrong I love doing things for my kids. We love to craft and make things together, and the especially love anything that has to do with decorating for a special occasion. Whenever possible I try and teach them the true meaning behind a holiday. We have also tried hard to balance teaching the meanings with letting the kids be kids and have fun. For example, we still have presents on Christmas, but we try not to go over board. We have taught them that the real meaning of Christmas is Jesus' birth, and that we feel it is a time to rejoice, reflect and give to others.

This past Christmas my two oldest kids made a pile of cards to send to wounded soldiers that were in the hospital. As they all get older we hope to do more things that revolve around giving instead of just receiving. I would like to take them to volunteer at a food bank in a year or two. They would do it now, but they are a little young yet.

The Easter I am trying to keep it simple. I think we will go through some of their Bible Story DVD's and read alongs. I also bought them the Velveteen Rabbit on DVD tonight. I am going to hide it somewhere in the house and have them "hunt" for it.

I will let you know how that goes!

Happy Easter!

Get Your Real Estate Tax Benefit NOW

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:50:00 +0000

I know many of you may have heard about the 8000 dollar tax credit that was being offered to first time homeowners. What you may not have heard is that the tax credit has been extended. This great Real Estate Tax Benefit has been extended until April 30, 2010. You have to have a binding agreement in place by April and then have closing completed by June 30, 2010.

I was watching a clip on the Coldwell Banker website that was really informative on the topic. What really caught my attention was the fact that there is a credit available for CURRENT home owners as well. People who have lived in their current residence for 5 of the last 8 years can get up to a 6500 dollar tax credit.

It is nice to know that there is a benefit out there for current homeowners and first time homeowners. If you want to check out that video I watched I added it to this post, if it does not work for any reason you can go to the Coldwell Banker website.

Are you thinking of taking advantage of one of the programs? What do you think of the different stimulus ideas? Are any of them helping you or someone you know personally? I would love to hear some positive stories of people that are getting a benefit from the stimulus plans.

I think helping with the housing situation is the best way to help us all out of this mess...what do you think?

How Can We Protect our kids?

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:32:00 +0000

It seems that anymore we can not get through a week without another innocent child going missing, or worse yet having the body of one found. As a parent I lie awake many a night trying not to think about all the "what ifs" there are in this world.

I want so much for my kids to be strong, independent individuals. How do I mesh this with the ever growing desire to encase them in a bubble or their very own bio dome? My daughter was recently invited to her first birthday party/ sleepover the other day. I had to decline the sleep over party of the invitation, and I stayed to help out with the party. I was just not comfortable leaving my child at someones house whom I had never met...would you have? I definitely could not leave them over night.

Like I said I do not want to make them fearful of the world, but now that they have to be out in it more without my husband or myself, how do I keep them safe? I think there is a healthy amount of fear, like teaching kids that fire is hot, etc but I don't want them to be afraid of EVERYTHING.

Ugh... how does any parent survive parenthood?!

MISSING BABY UPDATE

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:25:00 +0000

Remember how I said to keep your eyes open for that missing baby? I was right, they let the person of interest go. I clicked on the link at the bottom of the foxnews article where it said see more from the local news on this case.... well there had been an update. I do not know why they did not update it on foxnews.com.

They do have a video of a KIA that appears to have followed the mother of the baby. They are saying it appears to have out of state ( This happened in Tennessee) plates, but do not say what kind. Someone like this could go anywhere, so please, please keep on the look out!

Thank you.

Here is a link to the Tennesee Fox News channel report WZTV Fox 17

How's Your Credit?

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:15:00 +0000

Everywhere you look these days you see ads, billboards, and TV commercials about credit repair. The reason the ads are everywhere is because credit is becoming more and more important to the modern existence. When my parents were buying their first house credit was important of course, but it was not the obsession it is these days.

Now we have to do all we can to keep our credit in order, and we need to repair bad credit as soon as we possibly can if we want to survive. Even if you do not have horrible credit it still helps to improve credit scores when ever you can. You will save money on interest rate in the long run by having a better score.

Just because you have good enough credit to get credit cards or loans, does not mean that you can not do better. I do not know anyone who wants to pay more in interest than they have to. One site you can go to to learn more about credit repair is Repairyourbadcredit.com. From what I read on the site they seem to have quite a few satisfied customers. I think I might have to show the site to my hubby and look into it farther.

Help Find Missing Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:08:00 +0000

I watched the news earlier tonight, something I don't do as often as I used to. I like to stay informed of current events, but there is so much bad news that some nights I just can't take it some days.

I almost could not decide which thing I wanted to blog about first, and then I heard the story of the missing 4 day old baby. I guess some whack job posed as an immigration agent and went to the house of Maria Gurolla, she then demanded that hand over her newborn. When
Gurolla refused the suspect then stabbed her 8 times and took the baby.

Just a few minutes ago I went to foxnews.com so that I could link to the story. It says that they have a suspect,,,err person of interest,,,, SUSPECT...in custody, but that the baby has not yet been found. I say to all of you out there, please keep your eyes open. This could be the wrong woman, or she is the right woman and has hidden the baby somewhere. Either way this case is not over, please help this baby get home!

You can click on the link above to see pics of the baby, and the person that is in custody. They are looking for a woman about 5'4'' , heavy set, and blond. They woman in custody fits that description, but I do not know what they have not said for sure if she is the right woman or not, so keep looking.

May God be watching over this little one and the mother who miraculously survived the attack. I pray she is reunited with her baby soon!

Does Your Windows Keep Crashing?

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:32:00 +0000

I hate it when my computer gets all nuts on me. It never fails and it usually strikes when I am right in the middle of a project or a long letter or something. I do scan disk and disk clean up with regularity, but it doesn't seem to keep my computer in order.

I have been looking into all this talk of registry problems on a computer. They say that registry errors are one of the biggest culprits when it comes to your computer slowing down. Have you ever used a registry cleaner? I found this site called Regwork.com that offers an xp registry cleaner program.

The site offers a free download and scan of your computer. I think you then have to pay for registry repair, but hey at least they let you try it for free right? Then if you find any errors you can fix them. Anything that will help my computer run faster and smoother sounds great to me. If you are having any problems with a sluggish PC, you might want to check this site out.

A Foul Family Tragedy

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:40:00 +0000

It was not many days ago that we all had our hearts warmed by the story of the dad and the little girl at the ballgame. The dad caught a fly ball and handed it to his daughter, who in turn threw it back onto the field. That story was so sweet and wonderful.

I just gt done reading about another family trip to the ballpark that did not end as well. Chad and Nicole Holko had taken there 4 year old son Luke to see a game the other day. What started out as a fun family night out turned into a living nightmare. Seconds after Luke Holko mugged for some happy go lucky photos, tragedy struck, leterally. Poor little Luke was hit in the head by a foul ball and immediately went into some sort of shock or seizure.

His father rushed Luke down the concourse to paramedics that were on site. Luke was rushed to a local hospital and then quickly into surgery. He made it through surgery and was in a induced coma. Since awakening he is doing better than doctors would have expected at this point, so that is a very good sign. I hope and pray that this family gets their little boy back to 100% as soon as possible.

Even as I type this I have a knot in my stomach just thinking about what the Holkos must be going through. Kids seem to recover a lot better than adult do so there is that plus in Luke's favor. Did this happen to save other kids from the same injury? Maybe they should make those batter's helmets regulation for any child attending a game? Heck, it probably would not be a bad idea for all attendees to wear head protection.

I do not know the answers, I just hope that this little boy gets back to being a little boy. God bless Luke, his family and loved ones!

A Complete Water Workout

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:03:00 +0000

Many of you know that water exercises like swimming or even just walking in a pool can be great exercise. If you enjoy water workouts, you have to check out this website, Hydroworx.com. They have the most awesome water workout pool I have ever seen.

I have seen lap pools for home use, but nothing like this before. These Hydroworx pools seem to be about the size of a lap pool but it also has built in aquatic therapy equipment and a water treadmill , yes you heard me I water treadmill! That is just so cool!

This is more like a Swim Spa than a pool. There are therapeutic jets and resistance swimming jets. This pool has it all. Not all of us could afford one of these for the home, but if I could I would sure get one. It says that residential versions start around 32,000, that really does not sound that bad to me for all that it does.

If you have a spa, gym, or therapy business I would definitely check this equipment out. Then let me know where you are so I can come and try it out! LOL!

Woman Carries Other Couples Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:37:00 +0000

Can you imagine finding out the the baby you were carrying was not your own? That happened to an Ohio woman recently. She was contacted on the phone and told that in fact she was carrying the baby of another patient at the clinic. The family who's embryo it was, was contacted the next day I guess.

When you are dealing with fertility issues there are so many variables to consider. The woman who was carrying the baby did decide to carry the baby to term. Luckily for the baby and the other family this woman had a clear head when it came to the fact that it was not HER baby to keep or to "get rid of". What if this was the last child that this woman was allowed to carry for health reasons or something. I think they said that she will be able to have another child when she is ready, but it would have been so horrible is that was the case.

I guess all is well that ends well, but things could have definitely gone worse. If I were the Ohio woman I think I would have demanded a DNA test of ALL patients of the clinic after the date in which I had embryos or eggs there. What if this is not the first time that the clinic has made this type of error? How did they realize the error? The mind simply spins with questions!

I know that I would have made the same choice to give this child to its family, but what if another woman would not. I don't think that many women in this situation would have terminated the pregnancy since they themselves obviously know how hard it can be to have the family you want. When you combine this many emotions with buckets of hormones anything can happen.

My thoughts and prayers go out to both of these families and any other that is involved with the same clinic.

Great Golf in Myrtle Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:11:00 +0000

OK, if we are down in South Carolina and I lose track of my father, I think I found one good place to look for him. I found this site called MyrtleBeachGolf.net that has a great listing of Myrtle Beach Golf Packages and places to golf.

Myrtle Beach Golf is famous around the world I believe and I can see why. The pictures on this site make me even want to go golfing, they are beautiful. I have always said that if someone doesn't even like to golf at all that they should at least appreciate all the beautiful green space that golf courses make in the world.

If you want to Golf Myrtle Beach you might want to check out this site before you go on your Myrtle Beach Golf Vacations this year. The site has features like course guides, the top 5 golf packages in the area, car rental information and more. Just about anything you might want to know to plan your golfing getaway!

Laughter and Tears on Dancing with the Stars

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:49:00 +0000

Did you guys watch Dancing with the Stars last night?! It is always fun watching the first day for a new batch of dancers on the show. I missed the night before which was the first night for the men, last night was the ladies' turn.

There was the usual lovely display of glitter and pageantry and the beguiling mixture of fledgling grace and nerves. I think the funniest moment of the night was the first post-dance interview with singer Macy Gray. She was obviously one of the most nervous "star" in the bunch. When asked if she was happy to have gotten through her first dance she said that after all these weeks of practice that tonight was like "busting her...." well I will let you watch the clip if you want. I try and keep my blog fairly PG or at least PG-13.

It was so funny that the whole studio, the audience, and event he judges burst into laughter. The judges could hardly give their scores they were laughing so hard.

Another great moment of the night was Kelly Osborne's performance. I have never been a big Osbornes fan or anything, but it was awesome to see a girl transformed the way she was last night. Both of her famous parents were in the audience, and both were in tears I think. It was harder to tell if Ozzie was crying through his signature sunglasses, but Sharon Osborne was obviously moved to tears. Being a parent myself I was crying at the thought of how happy they must have been and how happy I would be to see one of my daughters look so happy and beautiful.

This should be an interesting season that's for sure!

Keep Your Computer Safe

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:15:00 +0000

I have been at war with the internet lately. It seems that everywhere you go there is someone trying to steal information off of your computer. It has gotten to the point that I am reluctant to got to any new websites.

This website wants to put a trojan on your computer to steal information, that site wants to place spyware on your system so they can track what you do on the internet. They have you coming and going. Whether it is a business that simply wants to track your habits for marketing purposes, or a hacker that wants to steal your identity spyware removal is very important.

I was doing some research on computer security and came across a site called ZSecurity.com. They have a couple different versions of software that offer protections like virus removal. The prices seem reasonable, but they also offer a 30 FREE trial. I love FREE stuff, and being able to try something before you commit to it. To me that says that a company really believes in their product. Check it out if you are looking for this type of software.

A Deadly Summer For Celebrities

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:03:00 +0000

I often talk about the passing of celebrities, either just giving my condolences or more in depth. I was reading an article about how many celebrities passed just this summer alone. As always I had forgotten all to quickly just how many people had indeed dies in the last few months.

We all still remember Michael Jackson, and Ted Kennedy, Patrick Swayze of course because they are so recent and have gotten a ton of media coverage. Did you remember that Ed Mcmahon, David Carradine, or Dom DeLuise passed too?

There were even more famous people lost, so many that I lost count. You can read the article for yourself and pay some last respects of sorts by giving these people one more thought. Hug your loved ones while you are at it,, time passes too quickly

Speak For Yourself,, or Hire Someone To Speak For You

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:45:00 +0000

I was searching the internet the other day because I wanted to find some public speaking tips for my husband. He is in college right now, but will graduate soon. He is having to give public speeches with increasing regularity so I thought I would do some research on speaking.

I came across the site for CAASPeakers.com. They have a whole host of Celebrity Speakers that you can hire for your events, it is really and interesting site. I looked around for a few minutes just to see what or who is available. You can search by topic, or choose from a list of names, many of which will be familiar to you right off the bat. If you do not know who a person is, it gives a little bio right there.

So if you are looking for anything from Motivational Speakers to Corporate Speakers this would be a great place to look first. I also found it interesting to click on a topic and see just which celebrities came up as speakers for that field. I clicked on Green Business to see who was there and recognized Ted Danson's name right away. I looked for Ed Begley Jr, but he was not on here.

How fun would it be to just hire one of these people to come and speak just to you? hmmm? I wonder how much it costs. I think I will have to do some more research.

The Afghan From Roseanne is reborn

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:56:00 +0000

If you what much television you have probably heard stories of this prop or that prop being used on more than one show. I have found out what happened to the afghan that used to hang on the back of the Conner family couch....

Just take a look at this article on what celebrities wear to big events. In the one I am referring to Cate Blanchett. Now she is a beautiful woman, but I do not know what she was thinking when she wore this outfit out of the house. I guess if you are this beautiful you can get away with anything eh?

It seriously looks like someone knitted it from that old afghan. Sometimes I think celebrities wear these awful get ups just to get in the press. They say there is no such thing as bad publicity, so maybe that is what these folks bank on.

You can check out the rest of the list of fashion boo boos while you are there,,, lol have fun!

Investing in Gold

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:37:00 +0000

Have you ever wanted to purchase gold as an investment, but didn't know how to go about it? Maybe you just wanted to purchase gold coin, or purchase gold bullion, if so I have found a site full of information. At GoldCoinsGain.com you can learn more about one of the most stable investments there are,,,, GOLD!

There are so many things that you can invest in these days, but I doubt many if any, are as reliable as gold. Have you seen the commercials lately? Everyone is scrambling to sell their bits and pieces of gold for extra money, because gold is high right now. If you can get so much for a little piece of it, imagine what a portfolio full of gold would be worth!

Whether you purchase gold coins, or purchase bullion, you know it will always be worth something. When all else false, and even if every other form of investing crashed, gold would more than likely be around to stand the test. I don't know the answer to financial security myself, but I do know that gold has been valuable for a very long time. so I doubt that it would end any time soon.

Djimon Hounsou

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:37:00 +0000

I was sad thinking about the passing of Patrick Swayze. The movie on television tonight is Beauty Shop with Queen Latifah and Djimon Hounsou. I thought I would write a post about him and cheer us all up.

You may not recognize him by name or be able to pronounce it right, but you will recognize his face (and muscles eh ladies?) He has been in a ton of movies and is quite and actor. I was just reading more about him on IMDb.com and I did not know that he started out as a fashion model.

I also did not know that he is now married to Kimora Lee and they have one child together.( Kimora is the former Mrs. Russell Simmons and runs the Baby Phat clothing line). There child is probably going to be gorgeous!

I also did not know that Djimon was one of the hotties in Janet Jackson's "Love Will Never Do Without You" video...

Who was the other guy? Is that Antonia Sabato Jr? Hmm? Well there is an idea for a future post. Enjoy the video..I miss fun songs like this.

Safe as a BRICK house

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:05:00 +0000

Do you have parents or other loved ones that you worry about living alone? I have always been the mother hen type, ever since I was old enough to know what worrying is , that has been my specialty. Now that my parents are getting older I am getting more and more concerned to leave them on there own.

They are not even that "old" but I still worry about them. That is the thing, I think some people believe that security systems like life alert are only for older people. These days with more and more home invasion type break ins I think life alert and other security systems will become more and more popular regardless of age.

I am half tempted to sign my dad up just for the medication reminder service. BrickHouseAlert.com also offers life alert services like monitored smoke detectors, inactivity monitoring and more. The monitored smoke detectors would be a great idea for a second house or property that you are not able to be at all the time. Check out the site if you want to learn more.

I Will Miss Patrick Swayze

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:42:00 +0000

I was so sad to here that Patrick Swayze passed away the other day. I guess I should have expected it because as the saying goes "Only the good die young." Patrick Swayze did truly seem like one of the good guys.

He was smart, friendly and talented in a way many of us aspire to be. Among other things he was a talented dancer, that talent was not without its costs. I read before that he was often teased for taking dance classes that I believe were taught by his mother. The grace he learned through dance seemed to carry over into other aspects of his life, or was he just born with a grace that permeated the things that he did?

I think he even met his wife Lisa in dance class, so in that way dance helped to form his future also. I can't imagine what it is like to lose your partner of so many years. My prayers go out to her and the rest of Patrick's family and friends. Those of us who loved his work will miss him for sure, but it is nothing like what those who were actually close to him must be feeling.

Dirty Dancing is one of my all time favorite movies, and I usually watch it when I need a pick me up. I will try and not be sad the next time I watch that movie, because I know that he appreciated the joy his work brought to people like me. I have linked to Internet Movie Database for some nice pictures of Patrick and links to news and bios.

It really is a shame how many rotten people seem to live forever, and then we have to lose good souls like Mr. Swayze so soon. God Bless!

Photo from photobucket.com

QIF File Help

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 02:47:00 +0000

Do you need help with the file extension qif ? I just came across a site called Fileextensionqifhelp.com where they have a line of software called Driver Cure. I guess the file extension qif is most commonly associated with Intuit Quicken financial management software.

There may be other programs that use the file extension qif, but it stands for Quicken Interchange Format. I read on this site that Intuit no longer supports the .qif file extension, because they have switched to other formats. For this reason many people are looking elsewhere for help with this program and extension. If you are one of these people, just go here and check out the free download.

You can also purchase other programs from the site that will help you keep all of you drivers in current working order and update them automatically. Financial matter give me a headache, the last thing I need is have my financial software that I bought to make my life easier, stop working! I would rather keep all of mt drivers working smoothly.

More on the Love Saga....

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 02:38:00 +0000

A devoted reader of my blog ( ok, it was the first time that they stopped by), was asking for more information on the Love Saga movies on Hallmark Channel. She had read my first post about this series of movies based on the Janette Oke books.

You can go to HallmarkChannel.com and click on shows to find out more on all of the movies. As far as I know Love Finds a Home is the last book/ movie in this series, but I hope there will be more one day. It is funny how you can become attached to characters in books or movies, almost like they are are long lost friends. Every time there is a new book or movie it is like catching up with a friend you have not seen in ages.

If anyone else out there hears of more installments in this series please let me know, and I will pass it on. Fans of this series and other Hallmark shows, should visit their site. They have a ton of cool clips, download and fan boards.

Seaside in Myrtle Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 02:11:00 +0000

I have found another lovely Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Hotel to stay at. Check this place out, it is called Seaside. I would love to stay near the seaside, wouldn't you? It is funny how different words evoke different emotions. Oceanfront Myrtle Beach Hotels sound lovely, but seaside somehow sounds even more magical to me.

If you are looking for a Myrtle Beach Hotel, you might want to check out this site, SeasideMB.com. These are actually luxury condominiums, not just a nice hotel. Now that is what I am talking about.

I am always sold on the smallest detail, because to me, if the details are carefully thought of, then the big things are definitely planned out at well. Who would not want to stay and have a beautiful breakfast? I wonder if they would really put flowers on the towels for me?

You can just tell by the website that the Seaside management tries to keep up with the current trends. They even have Twitter and stumble upon links on the site and a Relay For Life donation button....good causes are always a good thing and show a concern for the public in general.

Fitness To The Extreme

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 02:06:00 +0000

Ok ladies and gentlemen, if you have been reading my blog you probably know that I hope to get into better shape some day. I have been doing little things here and there to try and make changed in my habits. After three kids via C-section my body is a little worse for wear.

My hubby just showed me this clip from Youtube, called Insane Feats of Strength. The guy in this clip is like a machine, you have to watch it. I can not even do one pull up and this guy can do them with his body parallel to the ground!

I don't think I will ever be in this good of shape, but it really is awesome to watch. I would be happy if I could put the BIG bag of dog food in the cart without making funny noises,,lol!

It's a Website, It's history help, IT's COURSEHERO...

noreply@blogger.com (Drizzly) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:57:00 +0000

There are many social networking sites these days, but there are not many that can help you with your school work. I found a site called CourseHero.com where you can network with college students all across the country to get help with your next HIST Paper.

Have you ever had a subject that was just a little harder for you to get, or just to get done? Now you can got to this site and see what others had to say on a specific topic and then use that insight to help you build a better HIST Essay yourself.

I guess that basic membership is free, so that you can look around and see what the site has to offer. Then if you want to use the information on the site, they have a low 6.95 per month access charge for UNLIMITED usage. I like any type of plan that is unlimited then you do not have to worry about extra charges, or only being able to use a certain amount of information.

So the next time your HIST Essay has you stumped, you might want to check out this site and see if it can help you grasp the course material that you are dealing with. I looks like they have a ton of different colleges lists so there is a good chance that they will have something to help you!