Financial Struggles?

Then check out Tiffany Colter's new newsletter filled with tips and information for those hurting financially and suffering depression over all the bad news. There is help for these individuals.

I know Tiffany personally; have sat in her marketing classes; have fellowshipped with her at different meetings. She's a go-getter. She's a survivor. She's a helper.

Check it out at:
http://www.thebalancedlife.com/

I think you'll be glad you signed up!



Quote:
What can be done at any time is never done at all. --English proverb

Blessings!

Take my Son

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.

When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier.

The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son. About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.

He said, 'Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.'

The young man held out this package. 'I know this isn't much.I'm not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.'

The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears.

He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture.

'Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It's a gift.'

The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.

On the platform sat the painting of the son.

The auctioneer pounded his gavel . . . 'We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?'

There was silence. Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, 'We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.'

But the auctioneer persisted. 'Will somebody bid for this painting. Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?'

Another voice angrily. 'We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Gogh's, the Rembrandt's. Get on with the real bids!'

But still the auctioneer continued. 'The son! The son! Who'll take the son?'

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. 'I'll give $10 for the painting.'

Being a poorman, it was all he could afford.

'We have $10, who will bid $20?'

'Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters.'

'$10 is the bid, won't someone bid $20?'

The crowd was becoming angry. They didn't want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.

The auctioneer pounded the gavel. 'Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!'

man sitting on the second row shouted, 'Now let's get on with the collection!'

The auctioneer laid down his gavel. 'I'm sorry, the auction is over.'

'What about the paintings?'

'I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything!'

God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: 'The son, the son, who'll take the son?'

Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.

Pretty interesting, huh?

Quote:
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em. --Louis Armstrong

Blessings!

Some Information to Tickle Your Funny Bone

In Michigan:

• It's illegal to kill a dog for attacking horses, carriages, or people, but you can electrocute it or use a high-altitude depression chamber. What! Scandalous!
• The last Sunday in June is Log Cabin Day.

In Maryland:

• Using profanity on playgrounds is illegal in Columbia, Maryland. Makes sense around all the kids.

In Montana:

• It's illegal to give away rats for any reason except as food for snakes. Yuk.

In Alabama:

• It's illegal to alter the appearance of the teeth of horsees or mules to make it appear younger than it is. The dentist who thought that one up might as well get out of that business!

In Kentucky:

• It's illegal to exchange or offer to sell baby fowl, ducks or chickens if dyed unless four months old and sold in batches of six. Gotta go plain, chickies!

In West Virginia:

• Anyone who taunts someone who decides not to participate in a duel can go to jail for six months and fined up to $100. Ouch! Lead me to a nice, clean duel!

Quote:
Problems are the price you pay for progress. --Branch Rickey

Blessings!

More Mushy Stuff . . .

More useless information for you to ponder:


Want some flowers? Don't wait for them; send 'em to yourself:

• 15% of U.S. women send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day.
• 73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.

Absolutely no reason not to have at least one of these!!

• More than 50 percent of cards are sold the week of the holiday, with the largest and most elaborate Valentine cards sold 48 hours before February 14.
• 70 percent of those celebrating the holiday give a card, followed by a telephone call (49 percent), gift (48 percent), special dinner (37 percent), candy (33 percent) restaurant meal (30 percent), and flowers (19 percent).
• Teachers will receive the most Valentine's Day cards, followed by children, mothers, wives, and then, sweethearts. Children ages 6 to 10 exchange more than 650 million Valentine's cards with teachers, classmates, and family members.
• Hallmark has over 1330 different cards specifically for Valentine's Day.

Comfort food coming up!

• More than 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine's Day.

Don't worry about the money. Your pet's worth it.

• Valentine's Day is big business. Consumers will spend an average of $77.43 on Valentine's Day gifts this year. E-commerce retailers expect to rack up about $650 million in sales of food, candy, flowers, and other Valentine's Day gifts. Of that amount about $350 million will be for gifts and flowers and another $45 million will be spent on food (including chocolate) and wine.
• About 3% of pet owners will give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets.

And have a great Valentine's Day!

Quote:
Every woman should have one old love she can imagine going back to.
Hmm. Not sure about this one!!


Blessings

What Have You Been Up to?

Here's the list . . .

(In case you haven't learned this about me yet, I LOVE lists!)

• Besides, traveling?
• Finished the final edits of my loved historical suspense/romance.
• And got it in the mail to my patient agent.
• Worked on expanding one of my romances.
• Doing heavy research for the second in my historical suspense/romance trilogy

An aside to all of you: Any one knowledgeable about WWII out there that wants to email me privately to brainstorm?

• I'm also trying to figure out how to start the second in my contemporary suspense. Sigh. First chapter is done, but will probably re-do the second and third.
• And I need to begin a new novel. We'll see where this goes.
• Am brainstorming about a couple articles I'm wanting to write.
• Brainstorming about some other things.
• Editing some things for some possible contests.

Enough about all that.

You have a great day.

Quote:
Everybody knows that if you are too careful you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something. --Gertrude Stein


Blessings!

Updatin' You All

Again, I've been lax about getting blogs up these last two weeks. But . . . I think I've got a good excuse. HMMM.

Our electric's been off (growl) off and on for about a week. Now granted, that doesn't cover the whole two weeks, but it does some, huh?

Everytime I thought, okay, now to catch up, it would go off again.

Taught me one thing. I'm no pioneer. I'm afraid I like my creature comforts (sorry, bro. Laugh). I've done my share of camping out, and I grant you, it's fun for maybe a day, two, stretch it to even three days. But after that? I'm itching for my computer.

Yeah, I can do without the phone. No problem.
I can do without running water.
I can make do with alternate methods of cooking.

But light and my computer?
EEEK!!

Don't make me do that again, please!

More tomorrow . . .



Quote:
Always remember to forget the friends who've proved untrue. But never forget to remember those who've stuck by you!


Blessings!