My sister just went through an ordeal that just about ruined her life.  You see, she ran up a lot of credit card debt while in college to keep up with her need to shop.  Not long after getting out of college and starting her career, she moved out of my parents house.

Guess what she did?

She went shopping again.  This time for bigger ticket items such as furniture, a television, and of course clothes.  She thought things were going good until her credit cards started to come up as declined.  Pretty soon they were all over their limits, and she couldn’t make the minimum payments on all of them.

A few months into this, she started getting phone calls.  And more phone calls.  She was about to follow in my brother’s footsteps and have to go bankrupt.

Luckily, she received a phone call one day from a company that offered credit card negotiation services.  After talking to the salesperson, she decided that she would signup to their debt negotiation program.

They were able to get her some credit and bill consolidation help and reduce her monthly payments.  They also gave her some classes on responsible credit use.

Now, just two years later, she is debt free.  I think that she has learned her lesson from being on the edge of bankruptcy and is thankful for the help she received to get out of debt.

Now, most people take their library for granted.  We assume it is always there, and to be honest, quite a few people don’t use it.  But for those of us who do, it is definitely a blessing.

In fact, just this week a friend of mine passed away and I was given the honor of giving the eulogy at the funeral.  Thing is - I have never written one and I had no idea how it was supposed to go.

So, I went over to the local library and found some books on how to write a eulogy.  Inside these books I was able to see some eulogy samples and find some great eulogy quotes I could incorporate into what I was writing.

I have started with a simple outline of what I want to write as I have over twenty years of friendship to draw upon when writing the eulogy.  As sad as I am to see Bill pass away, I am happy as he was in great pain with the Cancer he had.

Thankfully the library was able to help me out with what I needed to know.  We are definitely lucky to have a library in our community - if you have one in yours be thankful.

A little while ago, we had to install a couple of stair chair lifts in our house.  You see, my son had back surgery and was bound to a wheelchair - no more walking while he healed.

It didn’t seem that it would be too bad as we needed only straight stair lifts, but I was floored when I found out what our cost was going to be.  It sure seemed expensive - we really only needed it temporarily.

I inquired about the resale value we could expect and I was not too pleased with the results.  I checked out the used market for stair lifts, but I couldn’t find any.  One of my friends suggested renting stair lifts - they had done it before and they found the pricing very reasonable.

So, I called a few places to inquire about renting stair lifts.  Over the phone, I learned that the price was very reasonable and that they could come out in the next couple of days to install it.

Now that the stair lift is installed, my son can get around the house with ease.  As soon as he is mobile, we can just give them a call, and they will remove it.  I am so thankful that it was available - otherwise I don’t know what we would have done.

You know we often take our parents for granted.  They are always in our lives, helping out, acting as our friends, and caring for us.  I just want to say a little bit about mine, to thank them for what they have done for me - publicly for all of you to see.

The biggest thing I should thank them for is being involved in everything I did and do.  You see parent involvement was their mantra - if it was something that I was doing, they made the time to participate too.  Whether it was going to Boy Scout camp, attending a music recital, or helping me with my homework they were always there.

I also can thank my parents for my excellent grades in school.  You could say they emphasized parent involvement in education - whether it was reading a book to me every night, helping me learn to cook, or any new skill they could teach me, they made an effort to help my learning.  Their caring helped me to appreciate what I learned and make that extra effort to do it.

Lastly, to me, my parents made the most effort in my life - compared to the parents of any friend I ever had.  While most of my friends had no parent involvement in school, mine paved the way as a good example.  My friends’ parents helped when they were younger, but disappeared from the school.  Mine stuck with us through high school and even came along on band trips.

All in all, I have good memories of my parents and their involvement in all aspects of it.  I hope that I can be as good of a parent as they were to me - thankfully, I have a good example to follow.

Today for me was a pretty slow day.  I didn’t have much to do and the wife took the kids out so I could have a well deserved break.  Inadvertently I ended up sitting here, at my computer with not much to do.  I thought maybe I should blog a bit today, so I sat here all ready to blog about something.

The catch is I didn’t really have any good ideas.

So, when it doubt, do a web search and find something useful to write about.  I decided to look for something that would educate me about another part of the world.  Why?  Well, I am a firm believer that we should learn something new everyday.

So, I ended up at a strange news blog.  Now, if you know me at all, I can’t really be bothered reading a newspaper, so this site had to be good.  Digging around a bit, I did find a number of good articles.  Well, one in particular caught my eye:

“China Takes Stand Against Social Pollution”

Now for me, this is probably the best out of all the weird news headlines I found.  Why?  For me living in Canada where freedom of speech and rights is the norm, censorship is foreign to us.  Here we can speak our mind, share our opinions without fear of retribution.  I would find it sad if my choices of what I thought or what I did with my free time was monitored and limited.

It also reminds me of what it is like to be a parent.  How many of you have told your child not to do something or not to go somewhere only to find that they do it anyway’s?  I would think that the Chinese government would run into the same problems as parents do:  their people would just be doing what they are not supposed to do behind the governments back.  Granted, there could be more dire consequences for them compared to being grounded as a child.

All I can say is that I am thankful that I live here in Canada and that I do have more choices than other places in the world.  It seems that I often take that for granted, but today has reminded me of what I have.

If you are looking for ways to get your website noticed, you may have tired submitting your sites to search engines, web directories and maybe in a signature in a forum.

Have you tried using blogs to promote your websites?

If you haven’t, you are missing out on one of the easiest ways to get traffic.  You see, if you announce your website through a blog search engines tend to pick it up faster.  Also, if the article about your site is interesting, it may get submitted to the social bookmarking sites resulting in more traffic.

What is even better that it is easy to setup a blog.  There are many free providers that provide free blogs, or your can easily setup your own for under $20.

You can also work as a guest blogger.  What you do in this case is write an article for a blog and you are allowed to put some links in your byline.  This way, if they like your article, they will come check out your blog through those links in your byline.

You will find that blogging is one of the most effective and cost effective ways to market your website. 

Have you ever spelled something wrong?  Anything good ever come out of your mistake?  

I know through most of my life, I have been penalized for making spelling mistakes.  Whether you are in school, work, or even at home, a spelling mistake can be disastrous.  Well, let me tell you of this one time a mistake was a blessing.

I was looking for some articles for a new website I was developing.  They had to be specific and I didn’t really have time to write them, so I considered using articles from a free article directory instead.  Being lazy like I can be sometimes, I decided to just type article in the address bar and add .com to it – with the purpose of arriving at an article site.  

I made a little typing error…

Oops!  I mistakenly typed Articlr instead of Article.  Funny, I came out to a website anyways.  What I had not expected was to open a useful website, full of free content and articles that could benefit my site.

Now, I recommend Articlr.com to all my friends and they love it.  You should try them out too.

My son picked up his first car last week.  He is now the proud owners of a Ford Mustang.  I figured this was the end of my relaxing, calm life and the beginning of sleepless hours wondering when he would be home and if he would come home.  I figured now that he had his car, he would work less and party more.

Boy, was I wrong.

He is working more hours than ever now and I finally sat him down long enough to try and understand what goes through his brain.  He looked at me like I was from another planet and just said: “I want to soup-up my Mustang mom.”

I thought I must be an idiot, because as he rambled on in another language, I only understand a few words here and there.  He started talking about engines  Well, I know it’s that big thing under the hood, but I didn’t understand all this mumbo-jumbo about modifying it.  I am proud to know where to put the oil.

When he started talking dampers, springs and struts, and other Ford Mustang parts, I just nodded my head and thought about how nice the front flower bed would look in the fall when the asters would bloom.  When he finished telling me all his plans for the car, I was exhausted.  But I was also very thankful.  For now I realize, as long as there are modifications to be made, and he has to pay for them, I can continue to sleep at night.  For my independent boy with his new car, is not out killing himself on the highway, but tucked safely at work earning the cash to better his car.

One thing that is noteworthy of those who volunteer their time, talents and means. Is that, for the most part, that they are genuine in their motives. I have been on both sides of volunteer programs in my life. And my feeling is to “Pay It Forward”. One kind deed always turns another kind deed and so on. Such deeds can be a smile to several hours of donating your time at a local reading program. To helping your childs school in activites. To donate your old clothing or appliances free to a local thrift store. To even donating your blood at your local hospital or Red Cross chapter. One does not always need deep pockets or a slew of money to volunteer in such a great efforts.I have come across a great website that covers volunteering and includes a forum to discuss such matters. That website is How You Can Volunteer. How you can volunteer has sponsered links to volunteer programs as well as a blog to keep updated on such things. You may even stop in to discuss any updates in programs that require volunteers at the forum as well. So stop by and see what you can do to volunteer your time, talents or skills at How You Can Volunteer

Figuring out a time and place to do your homework and study is of the utmost importance. Once you have figured out when to do your homework, the next question is where to do it.A good study area should have a desk or table big enough to spread out books, notes, worksheets, etc. without them all being on top of each other. You do not want to make a mess, but you also do want to have ample room to work.

Make sure you have plenty of light. Ideally, you will near a window with an overhead light and perhaps even a small reading lamp.

Most important in choosing a study location is finding a place that is relatively free from distractions. That means no TV on in the room, no brothers or sisters running by, no phone conversations to listen in on, and no instant messenger or emails to keep you busy.

Whether or not you listen to music while you study depends on your personal preference. You may choose to ignore any phone calls, or turn off your cell phone, and forget about the urge to go and get a snack every ten or fifteen minutes.

Depending on your home, you may be able to find this area at the kitchen or dining room table, or in your bedroom. You may be able to set aside a study space in your basement or an office in you home. Some people find their homes too filled with distractions, and prefer to take their studies to the local library.

Wherever you choose, it is best if you can study in that same place all the time. If you can study in this same location consistently, your mind will get used to this being a focused and important place. When you enter this area, you will know it is time to get down to business. Your pens and pencils, paper, erasers, stapler, calculator, and anything else you use often can be kept nearby. Also, you can keep them in a bin or bag which can be pulled out whenever you need them. This will avoid having to stop studying to collect supplies.

Having this dedicated study spot will help you get down to business and focus more easily on getting your work complete.