Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Sexy Halloween?

Sexy Cookie Monster
Has anyone noticed the slow change in Halloween celebrations and costumes? Everything is sexy this, and sexy that. I took two of my daughters out this past weekend to look at costumes, and I actually saw a "Sexy Cookie Monster" costume!! Really? The costume consisted of a blue furry hat thing a dress and thigh high blue hose. Who thought of that? Not only are the costumes getting racier, they are also extremely expensive! A "sexy" candy corn witch costume was $49.99. Who out there thinks candy corn is sexy??? Halloween used to be all about kids having fun and neighbors gathering and spending time making costumes and having bonfires, bobbing for apples (which I guess is now pretty much taboo because of evil germs!) Sexy? I just don't get it. I was actually glad I didn't bring my youngest daughter to the store with me that day. Everything was so gross and sleazy! I have always made my daughters' costumes, but this year I happen to actually have a job, so my time is a little more limited. I gave in to the idea of getting store bought costumes. I regret that thought. I think we will be resurrecting, and reworking some costumes I have already made. I don't want my daughters walking around in "sexy" costumes. What is our world coming to?

Friday, October 15, 2010

My myLot

I have just rediscovered a little site I used a few years ago to earn a little bit of extra cash. I don't remember the reason I stopped using it, but I was recently reacquainted with the site, and now I remember that it was kind of fun. It is a little bit like Facebook, but it is all about discussion and participation. The more you participate, the more you can earn. Like Facebook, it can really eat up a lot of your time if you let it, but it is easy to justify your time spent on myLot because you are earning a little bit of money. I am not saying that you will get rich, but having $10.00 a month put in your PayPal account is not a bad thing. These days, for me, 10 bucks is quite a treat!




www.mylot.com/?ref=Chickenscratch



Tuesday, October 5, 2010

After Bankruptcy

As I have written about before, my husband and I filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in April of this year. So far, it has caused us nothing but humiliation and heartache. There has not been that feeling of: "Ah. . I'm so relived. . ." We are paying a huge amount to try to pay back as much as we possibly can to our debtors. We have been treated like we are lepers and imbeciles, so it has not been an easy road so far. I really didn't expect that it would be, but I thought that I would have some sort of feeling of relief. That has yet to manifest. I have nothing but worry right now. My husband and I did, however attend a web seminar ("webinar") that we received an invitation for. The invitation came from Stephen Snyder who has spent the last 15 years trying to make bankrupt people feel better and come out of bankruptcy stronger. Mr. Snyder is the head of his After Bankruptcy Foundation, and is trained by the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO). I had my doubts about Mr. Snyder, but the seminar was helpful, albeit long--4 hours! I did a little research on Stephen Snyder and found out that he is from my hometown of Goshen and graduated from high school the same year I did. Our high schools were "cross-town" rivals. How bad can a guy be who hails from a small Indiana town, and actually still lives in a small Indiana town. He is legit, and if you are struggling with life after your bankruptcy, I would highly recommend connecting with Stephen Snyder. Most of the things he talked about didn't really apply to my husband and I because we were not in arrears on any of or our bills, there is no foreclosure, no judgements or liens against us, we just were buried in credit card debt and a huge IRS bill. While I still think we could have worked things out without the complication and consequences of bankruptcy, our life now is what it is--Stephen Snyder sort of put things in perspective and assured us that life does go on, and you can emerge from it a better person. If you need help or want to participate in one of Stephen Snyder's workshops, here is his website https://www.afterbankruptcy.com/. Good luck, and please feel free to leave your comments here.