Do You Have A Preference?

Visa or Mastercard that is.

I know there are others, but for now, I am curious as to which you prefer between those two and why.  Drop me a comment and please take my poll{see on right side}

Thanks!

Helping A Neighbor With Cancer Stop Foreclosure

My neighbor has been battling cancer, which seems to have been most of her life.  In high schoo,l she had ovarian cancer.  Physically having children of her own would no longer be possible for her.  As she grew older, she came to terms with not having a child in her life.  However, in her late 20's she was blessed by receiving temporary guardianship in raising her 2 week old cousin.

When the little girl turned two or three, yet again cancer knocked on my neighbors door, breast cancer.  She was devasted, but knew she had a young child depending on her and she fought and won.  In her late 40's, she is in her 50's now, cancer once again has come to visited her, the "little" girl no longer in her household is of age and "writing" her life chapters. I've noticed the fight seems to have dimmed.  I remind her that Cancer has knocked on her door several times and that she's kicked it out each time and that she must do the same this time.  She confided in me that she was behind in her mortgage and that it worried her that one day she would come home from the hospital to find that she no longer has a home  She's been in the hospital numerous of times to the point where she has exhausted all of her leave, exhausted leave that was donated to her and is strictly getting paid for the days that she actually works.  There are good and bad days, however as of late the bad are outweighing the good.

After contacting Chase Mortgage, her mortgage broker she filled paper work in hopes to have the mortgage adjusted.  She was informed not to pay her mortgage and wait to hear from them regarding approval.  Doesn't that sound shady.  I couldn't believe it when she told me, but I have researched online and found that this has happened to others...only to receive a letter stating the mortgage adjustment has been DENIED!

She just returned home today from a stint in the hospital and I have discussed with her that she needs to talk to a mortgage counselor.  I researched on Hud.gov and provided her a listing in our area.  Meanwhile, I have created a Chip In  account in hopes to help her raise the funds in which she owes... just in case.  If you, feel it in your heart to help her out any amount (i.e., $1 etc.) it would greatly be appreciated.

I will keep you posted.
THANKS!

Parental Medical Consent Form

I remember when I was growing up, I fell and hit my nose.  My nose started bleeding and nothing my grandmother did seemed to stop the bleeding.  It continued to bleed.  She rushed me to the emergency room and there we had to sit and wait for my mother to arrive.  Although, my grandmother was related to me, she did not legally have authorization to ok any medical services administered to me.  

I  recently was talking with a co-worker, who had her grand kids for a few days and one of the kids had a boo boo, which resulted in her taking him to the emergency room and him receiving a few stitches.  Luckily, she had a Parental Medical Consent Form, which authorized her to make medical decisions for them while in her care.

The form is used to authorize an adult to make medical and dental care decisions for your child(ren) when the parents are away.  I have previously given my parents authorization when I've gone on vacation without my son (rare) or when I've had to go on business travel.  I also, leave his medical card with them.

Without authorization, your child more than likely will face delays in receiving medical attention.  Also, if your child participates in any sports activity, sponsored by a school or community organization and you are not provided a medical authorization form to fill out, please request one and or fill out one and provide it to them.

The form does not need to be notarized, but it's more quickly accepted.  Here is one you can use.

You Can Phone Home From Gmail

I really like this feature.  It is so convenient.  Most say this is nothing new, but it is to me. 

After downloading the plug-in, I gave it a whirl.  I called my house phone and surprisingly it was very clear.  The next day, I needed to make a long-distance phone call and since, I was on my computer, I decided to use the new feature.  I dialed the number, it rings, I'm place a queue as according to the recording my "call will be answered in approximately 5mins".  When the rep answered, I said, "hello" and proceeded to explain my dilemma.  In the middle of my explanation, I hear "hello, how may I help you!"  Argh!  She couldn't hear me.  What a disappointment.  I decided to search online to see if others were having the same problem...and they were.

I decided to update my drivers, reboot and try again.  I tried calling a friend locally.  The keyboard stated, it was dialing, but I couldn't hear it. Ugh!  I then re-installed the initial plug-in, reboot and retried.  This time I called my mom, who is local.  I can hear the dial tone (yay!). 

Mother: "Hello"

Me: "Hi"

Mother: "Where are you? "Whose number is this?"

Me "You can hear me!" *smiling*

Mother: "Yes, I can. Stop yelling!"

Me: " It works!" *smiling*

Mother:  "What are you up to now?"

Me: "I'm calling you from my laptop, through my gmail account."

Mother:  "You and these gadgets"

Give it a try if you have a gmail account and if you don't sign up for one.  Remember to update your drivers (sound) and then install the plug-in for the feature from Google.  Long distance calls are free now; not sure for how long.  International calls have a small fee.

My First Auction

I woke up today not feeling the best.  My allergies seemed to have gotten the best of me.  After dropping my son off at school, my intention was to call out of work, take my allergy medicine and take a nap.  After calling out and taking my allergy medicine, I started reading the paper.  I came across the legal notice section and saw some scheduled foreclosure home auctions.  I have been to tax sales, but never the foreclosure home auctions.  I had a hour before the start of a particular auction that happen to be a property in my neighborhood.  I didn't know the person, but I decided I would go and witness the sale.

I went to the court house and literally there were seven people sitting on the steps of the court house with their list, pen and pad and cell phones.  I walked up, with my pen and pad (I had wrote down some info on the homes I was interested in) as I was curious as to how much each would sell for. 

Each auction was announced, "this is the 1:23pm auction for [insert address]" and he would read the legal mojo.  He would then ask someone on his cell phone what is the opening bid.  He would then share that with the group and then he would begin he auctioneer song..."225, 225 do I hear 226, 226, 227...anybody want it for 227".  Those bidding were on their cell phones discussing with partners, I assume on how high they should bid.  It was obvious that these investors come to these auctions often as their was a small group who greeted each other, even the auctioneer, when they arrived.  In bidding, one lady made a comment to me, "she's only bidding on it because she knows I want it".  Then, the other lady said, "Sue, do you really want this property?"  The lady who made the comment to me didn't reply.  She ["Sue"] ended up winning the property at a higher cost than she anticipated.  I overheard "Sue" tell someone that the other lady ran the price up so she wouldn't be able to bid high on a property that everyone else seem to want [it was in a very nice community].  Alot of the auctions had no bidders, at least not at the court house and the auctioneer would make a statement, "sold to note holder" or "back to the bank".

Prior to going to the auction, I researched some of the properties online and there value and some were really nice looking homes and some deals were definitely available.  The only problem is alot of times you don't know what the inside presents.  Also, as one of the ladies commented, she likes to bid on the vacant properties because she doesn't like going through the eviction process.  It definitely was interesting and I'm glad I attended.  BTW, the property in my neighborhood was cancelled, seems they got the money prior to the sell...happy for them.  Some were not so fortunate.

The Garden

My Cabbage...it's getting bigger each day!

I am so proud of my little container garden.  This year, I planted tomatoes, green beans, cabbage, green bell peppers, carrots and lettuce.  The tomatoes were slow in producing fruit.  I had several flowers, but no fruit.  I researched online and discovered it was probably due to the extreme heat we've had.  I also, stopped fertilizing the pants.  Another thing I did, which I feel helped is, I  placed the container of the tomatoes in the shade.  That seemed to help in the production of flowers again and they didn't drop off like they did previously and this time they indeed produced fruit!  Once, the tomatoes started forming, I placed the container back in the sun and fertilize every so often.  I gave my mom a bag full of tomatoes as her tomato plants did not produce any fruit this year.  I thought my tomato plants were done (as they are no longer pretty looking...thus, no pic), but I see five new yellow flowers

My lovely Green Peppers

I had difficulty with the lettuce, carrots and green beans.  All were growing good and then something went wrong.  I will try growing these next year, but I will do differently.  With the lettuce, I will not attempt to grow seedling in the home and then transplant.  I will plant in a big pot outside and keep my fingers cross.  As far as green beans, I will have to pick up some bush type beans and not the pole type.  Carrots, not sure what went wrong, but I will purchase a deeper pot to have those in.

I am preparing for my fall garden, I plan to have kale, collards and I read that I still have time for lettuce, so I may give it another try.

It Would Have Been Her 82th Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!

Love & Miss You