The Final Push!

Hey! I am just $1.86 away from reaching my Google AdSense goal. One final push, and away I go to my first payday! Yay! This just goes to show you that anyone, even lowly housewives can make a little money using Google AdSense and a personal blog. Yes you can! Now readers, please, just give me that little push.

The Hypnotic Secret

Just curious if anyone has tried "The Hypnotic Secret" cds or downloads from Dr. Harlan Kilstein. It all sounds intriguing and I would like to try it, but I just don't have the money to spend on the stuff. If anyone has tried it and has feedback one way or the other, please leave me a comment. I sure could use a little positive energy in my life right now! I am also curious about the "Law of Attraction" idea. Does that stuff really work? How does it jibe with Christian beliefs????

Hydrolyze Dark Circle Cream

Okay everyone, here we go again. Back in December of 2008, I wrote a post on this blog about a product called "Hydrolize" that was supposed to get rid of dark circles under a person's eyes. I have received countless comments and e-mails regarding this product, so I think I need to update my information. The name of the product is now "Hydrolyze" I think all they did was change the spelling. I have yet to receive any positive feedback on this product. The only thing I have received is complaints about requesting the "free" trial. With regard to this product free means $6.95, or sometimes $12.95. Once you sign up for the trial, you will be billed monthly for around $69.95. It also appears that it is next to impossible to cancel your "subscription" to this product. I tried to find an address or a company name on the website, but there just isn't any contact information. I have also tried to look this product up on the Better Business Bureau website, but came up with nothing. So, my best advice regarding this product is NOT to purchase even the "free" trial. I would still like to know if  the product works, but it seems that everyone who has ordered is has been so caught up in the monthly payment scam of it, that they haven't really gotten to use the product. No matter how you spell it, Hydrolize or Hydrolyze, be very careful and do not fall into the billing trap they set for people like me who are desperate to get rid of their dark circles.

$3.00 Away

I don't know why this seems blog-worthy to me, but it just is. I am only $3.00 away from being eligible to be paid by Google Adsense. I have been plugging away at building my little blog and make it pay a little bit of pocket money. Now, I am  so close to my payday that I can hardly stand it. Sure, it has taken me a LONG time to get here. I made a lot of mistakes and I have been working at this for the better part of 2 years, but the point is this: one really CAN make money blogging. It is possible. I know that now because I have done it and I am proud of myself. I hope I can improve my blog and make money even faster. Google AdSense  can  help you make money. Take a chance and try it for yourself!

Health Care Bill Worries Me

I don't know about you, but the way this health care bill is being rammed through is making me quite nervous. Senators changing their minds after meeting with President Obama seems awfully fishy to me. Do these Senators not have backbones? Are they being threatened in some way? That is not to say that I am totally against reforming our health care system. There are certainly things that could be improved, but this complete overhaul is too much too soon. Sure, there are people who need reform now, but why in the world, with something this important--our health, our very lives--would any of us be okay with agreeing to this slipshod mess. No one understands it, no one knows what is truly in it. Why not go about changing things by taking out the most crucial part, examining it, and finding ways to fix it rather doing everything all at once. If you were sick with a severe case of strep throat, would you allow doctors to cut your head off to cure it? Certainly not! If you car has a flat tire, would you allow a mechanic to take the engine out? No, of course not. This whole health care bill is just too much. I was taught that when I do something, I need to take my time and make sure the job is done right. Rushing through something just to say you got it done means nothing. Rushing through something such as the health care reform could be disastrous. Don't politicians have any common sense at all?

I Hate Daylight Savings Time!!!

Just a quick entry today. I hate Daylight Savings Time. It is stupid and really doesn't help anyone. Now I am going to be tired and cranky and my kids are going to have to wait for the bus in the dark tomorrow morning. Being a stubborn Hoosier, I liked things the way they were back before Mitch (the dark prince) Daniels became our governor. He crammed the DST thing through during his first week a governor. The citizens of Indiana ended up losing sleep and money in the whole deal. Let's face it, the excuse(s) for changing to DST were pretty flimsy: 1. To lower crime rates, 2, So it would be easier to do business with the surrounding states 3. so that Indiana would no longer be one of only two states (now I think only Arizona is left) that doesn't observe the time change. Not one of the those excuses has benefited anyone that I know of. The other thing I hate about Daylight Savings Time is that it is light and bright well past nine o'clock in the evening, but no stores stay open past that time. Everyone is raring to go, but there is nothing to do. Sorry, Benjamin Franklin, you had lots of good ideas in your time, but DST was one of the most ill-conceived, idiotic and unhealthy ideas you came up with.

What a Life!

My 93 year old grandmother passed away this morning at 8:15. It is sad, but also a relief because her little body was just not functioning well. She lived a great life. She and my grandpa made a dapper couple and even though they were never rich, they lived a nice, comfortable life. I remember when my sister and I were little girls sleeping over at my grandparent's house, my sister and I would call to my grandma to come and sing to us before we fell asleep. I don't remember all the songs, but one was "Froggy Went A'Courtin', and "Write My Name With a Golden Pen." The golden pen song puzzled me a bit because I thought she meant "pin" not "pen" I knew that it had something to do with going to heaven and meeting Jesus, and making sure your name was written in the Book of Life, but I could only picture a golden diaper pin when she sang the song. . . I must have had diapers on my mind because my brother was a baby at the time.  The funny thing is, that we are having a gray and cloudy morning here, but right around 8:15, the clouds broke for a few minutes and the sun shone brightly through the clouds. Makes me think my granny was on her way to check for her name in the Book of Life! Anyway, I am feeling a lot of different things right now. Sadness is one thing, but happiness for my grandma because she is free. Life won't be the same without her, so now we will have to figure out what the new normal is for us. Grandma was the constant in all of our lives and she will be missed something awful for awhile.

I Don't Understand

My grandmother is old. Not super old, just pretty old. She is ninety-three. On April 1, she will be ninety-four. She has always been a character. She was a very young mother, so that, in turn, made her quite a young grandmother. She has always dressed well; never succumbing to all that ugly polyester Karen Scott or Sag Harbor kind of "old lady" clothes. She always seemed to keep up with the trends and yet never dressed like she was trying to look young. I am using the past tense of my verbs because my dear, sweet, feisty, grandmother is lying in a nursing home bed suffering. It is unbelievable to me how quickly a person can deteriorate. In September, I was still e-mailing her at least once a week. In October, she started having pain and by the end of the month, she was in a nursing home to get physical therapy with the hope that she would return to her home. She had a few more health crises, and is no longer even getting dressed. She lays perfectly still on her bed because every movement causes her back to hurt. She no longer has any solid vertebrae, so her spine must be tender. This all so weird, and everything seems contradictory. Her health seems to have declined so rapidly, that we are all surprised that she is even still alive. She frequently asks my dad why she just can't "go."  My dad has told her that maybe God isn't ready for her yet. I don't know how long she will buy that response. She is still mentally sharp. She has always wanted to "meet her Lord and Savior" and so why all the suffering? She has lived a good, long, life. She has been a faithful follower of Christ, so why not? I just don't understand. Why in the world must she suffer so? I guess God alone knows and we just need to love and comfort her until he is ready for her.

Great Idea, Terrible Noise!

I just opened a fresh bag of Sun Chips this afternoon for my lunch. I think I am deaf now. The new packaging even warns the consumer that the bag is LOUD, but I bought them anyway. The bag is the first compost-able bag in the world (so they claim) and that is why it is so loud. I think the idea is great. Anything we can do to create less trash, I'm all for. I give the Frito-Lay company an A+ for their great idea. I give Frito-Lay D- with regard to the noise pollution the bag creates. I don't think I will let my kids eat from the bag, we will all be hard of hearing if I do. I thought I might just dump the chips into some other container and go bury the compost bag in my flower bed. Go see for yourself what I am talking about, and then let me know what you think! Happy crunching!!!

Money Problems

Have you ever had problems with money? It seems like in the twenty years I have been married, all we have had is money problems. I am only now finding out just how much trouble we are/were having. We have gotten ourselves in such debt that I don't think we will ever be free. It is sickening and no matter how mad about it I get, I still only have myself to blame. Being a stay-at-home mom, my attention was almost exclusively focused on the children. My husband "paid" the bills and I didn't think too much about it. On several occasions I offered to take the burden of paying the bills off of my husband's shoulders, but he refused. A couple of times, after I insisted, he showed me his bookkeeping and had it so confusing, and so complicated that all he did was yell at me when he was trying to show me what he was doing. I have always been a little "old school" with my bookkeeping--paper and pencil and a tickler file. Anyway, in the last year, I have taken over a good bit of the bill paying and was shocked at the amount of credit card debt we are in. I had no idea my husband had used cash advances and balance transfers to max out most of the credit cards we had. While I would love to put all the blame on him, I certainly have to take responsibility for some of the situation as well. If I had not wanted to get a table for the kitchen, or landscaping, or bedroom accessories, then he might not have felt so much pressure to put things on a credit card. At any rate, we are in a terrible fix. I don't see any other way out except to file for bankruptcy. This makes me heartsick. We have children who will be going to college and very likely will be affected by this move. We are considering Chapter 13, which makes me want to vomit every time I think about it, but unless one of us has a rich uncle we don't know about, or we win a sweepstakes, we are out of options. I recently got a part-time job after being unemployed for 17 years, but now I am wondering if I will even be able to afford gas for my car to get me to that job. It is a black hole we are falling into, and I am scared!

Math Facts Speed Test

Maybe some of you can relate to this: the faster you try to do something, the slower you get. That is the situation I have been dealing with with my second grader. Every Monday her class goes to the computer lab and sits in front of a computer to do their "math facts." The idea, I guess, is to get kids to know their basic math facts in an instant, which is a good thing. My kid is having a devil of a time with this though. She gets all hung up on the idea of doing it fast, and the harder she tries, the slower she gets. It is SO frustrating. It seems that every little thing in the classroom distracts her--the teacher clicking her pen, another kid standing over her shoulder watching what she is doing, other children talking. My kid just can't deal with the environment. I addressed this with the teacher a couple of times and she sent home the "Math Facts Fast" cd for us to use on the computer here at home. All I have asked is that my daughter do the facts for five minutes everyday. So far she has only gotten them finished under two minutes one time. The most frustrating thing about it is that she knows the answers. All ten are correct every time, but only after about 2 minutes. I just don't know what else to do to help her. Now she is becoming so anxious about Mondays that she is getting stomachaches and nervous habits. Anyone have any ideas for me?