A cute little article/story my husband just wrote that I wanted to share!

Layoffs in the North Pole

Story by Bill Perkins

In a press release this morning Santa Claus announced the layoff of nearly 800,000 elf employees. The announcement was completely unexpected despite the current economic situation.

Due to the failing economy, and many companies cutting costs wherever they can, including advertising, Mr. Claus has lost several endorsement jobs.

Mr. Claus is seeking government aid, requesting his own bailout package from several different governments. However, he is meeting a great deal of resistance. Many toymakers and distributors, namely Walmart, Playskool, and the Chinese government, are lobbying against the bailout. They say Santa's "Free Toy for Every Child" program is a seasonal monopoly, and it generally takes four months to recover the losses sustained from his "good deeds."

Children across the globe will feel the impact this Christmas, particularly the naughty ones. Traditionally, naughty children receive lumps of coal from Santa on Christmas. Mr. Claus has no coal to give, though, as it was part of the elves' severance packages. It is Santa's hope that it will at least be enough to keep his former employees warm through the winter.

When asked if there was any hope of the elves returning to work next year, Santa replied, "It doesn't look very promising. The elves are like family to me; I love them all very dearly. Unfortunately, illegal immigrants work for a lot less, and I don't have to provide benefits, so that's probably what I'll have to do. It was a difficult decision to make, but it's necessary if I want to keep the business in operation."

The elves aren't the only ones hurting. The reindeer are suffering a great deal more. Mr. Claus has had to auction off much of his breeding stock just to stay operational until Christmas Eve. (See related story on page 5, "McDonald's Debuts new Christmas Menu.) It is questionable at this point how much longer Santa will be able to make his annual flight.

Could this be the beginning of the end of Santa Claus? Only time will tell for sure.

• A cute little article/story my husband just wrote that I wanted to share! - Merry Christmas
  • that is too funny - shelly

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I worked at a physical rehab center for 5 years.  As another poster stated, the amount of improvement depends on a lot of things.  However, I saw people leave or return for appts with no noticeable residual, others who still had deficits but were independent.  Those who were permanently impaired learned to adapt. There are some really cool gadgets out there! One thing I learned from working at the rehab center was determination really *can* pay off.  It was inspiring working there. 

IF your dad needs extensive therapy, the hardest part for YOU may be keeping him motivated.  So, best of luck to your dad, you and the family.  Let us know how things are going.

It has become a tradition in our neighborhood to "spook" our neighbors.  Here is how it works. 

First the poem

Good Evening My Friends!

The Gretting of the Ghosts are haunting your way

A cursewill be left if you fail to obey!

To ward off the curse of the dreaded Phanton Wart

You have just ONE day till you must start.

Take treats to two houses in your neighborhood.

Be sure they are tasty! Be sure they are good!

Copy a letter and a phantom for each.

Help the "spirit" spread to those you can reach.

Post the ghost of the phanton on your front door.

So others can see he has been there before.

Join the fun of the season

Keep him right in sight

Share the "spirit" of giving

Till Halloween Night!

Sincerely,

                                             The Halloween Phantom.

Here is the rest....My dauther downloaded a picture of a ghost and printed it on an 8x10 piece of paper so we could go ahead and get started without having to make copies.

Then go to the dollar store and first get a big plastic candy bowl.  In our bowl we received last night there was candy....always candy, a halloween candle, a cermic figurine of a bear dressed like a ghost, halloween clings for windows, halloween potholders, and our fav. Peeps ghosts, all which I am sure came from the dollar store.  My son came home and found the bowl on front porch. 

Here are some other things we have recieved in the past....candy....always candy, halloween dishtowels, stickers, bubbles, and gel pens when the kids were younger, a plant in a halloween container, chip clips, magnetic grocery lists, brownine mixes, even a halloween throw rug for the front door.

We once spooked a couple that did not have kids so we gave them some goodies as well as dog treats. 

We also once spooked a family with a daughter the same age as mine so we thought we could get some really cute things.  They were Jehovah's witnesses.  Needless to say they did not put the pic. of the ghost on the front door. 

This has been going on in this growing neighborhood for the past 5 years and everyone really seems to enjoy it. 

This is also a geat idea for school teachers, dorm rooms, etc.  Hope this inspires some.

Doctor just dictated this:

3,000 miles away this Thanksgiving/Christmas season.....I hope someone gets a kick out of it. I'm so sad today.

Good afternoon Ms. Best-Thanksgiving-Cook in the whole world! How are you today?

What I wish I knew then what I know now...and need to know now...

She went out on one date with him - went back to his place where he got nasty, grabbed her arm and threw her across a room and she ended up with a fractured wrist. 

My experience with online dating is it doesn't work 95% of the time - a bunch of men online who seemingly cannot  *cut the mustard* in real time are not going to change just because they are online.

Yes, I have seen folks meet up online and marry and I have seen twice as many marriages/relationships break up because of people meeting others online.

BE_VERY_CAREFUL_PLEASE!!

I posted on the 16th about my son attending a candle light vigil for a classmate that had been died while playing the choking game.  Yesterday at school there was a memorial service for him.  My son said the rest of the day was pretty somber and my daughter who did not even know the boy said the same thing. 

After school some of the kids really needed a pick-me-up but also to do something special to remember him.

I did state earlier that he and my son were not close but they did share several close friends.  It seems that everytime Trey went to the drive-thru at McDonalds he always ordered every item with Mc in front of it.  A Mccheesburger, Mcfries, McCoke, etc.  About 10 cars of kids decided to go to McDonalds and order just that way.  Someone in the first car must have told the people inside becuase they were giving back Mcchange. 

One of my son's closet friends organized this and started to break down while ordering, the lady at the intercom said "it's okay honey, we will get through this".  Then the kids pulled over to an empty part of the parking, blasted  Trey's favorite song and just danced.  It brought my daughter to tears. 

She then told me she did sort of know who he was after seeing a picture of him. A couple of weeks ago after school she and a couple of friends were jokingly arguing about who had the coolest cell phone.  Best phone, color, features, etc.  Suddenly Trey walked over to them and pulled out his cell phone which was exactly like my daughter's.  He didn't say a word, just smiled and left. 

It is still a terrible tragedy but somehow the other kids are working through it and hopefully will definitely learn an important lesson.

My best friend just returned from a trip back home by herself. There, she met up with her high school sweetheart - 20 years later. His mom and her mom are best friends and they were both there for a funeral.  She cried her eyes out at lunch today.
She learned while on her trip back home that the love of her life was divorced, has 3 kids - his wife left him for another man. My friend is married with 2 children.
To make a long story short, my friend is a true lady. She told him all about her life here and he just listened. They were near water (a gorgeous beach) on the docks and it was just the 2 of them and he began saying things to her that made her so sad. He went on and on about how he never stopped loving her and would look at her and say, "you are just as gorgeous as you were back in high school."  She said she would just laugh and tell him he was crazy.  She said she saw him on and off during the trip because she "had" to. They have families that are very close.  Every time he would see her he would give her a big hug and call her gorgeous.  She said the night before she left they were on his mother's porch swinging, eating ice cream and he cried like a baby. She cried. Nothing inappropriate happened between them.  She said it was a connection none like she had ever, ever experienced before.  She said that he made her promise that if anything were to ever happen between she and her husband that she would come back and be with him. He promised that he would wait for her, even if she were 80 years old.  My friend cried and cried.  He cried and cried.

I cried and cried.  I know this lady's husband.  The have a good relationship.  But she and I both know that we did not marry our soul mates.  I don't even know where mine is (we broke up many moons ago), but I know he was the one for me.  There was no infedelity to this story at all. I believe her.  They lost contact when she went away to college, moved on, and that was it.  She would talk about him periodically with me, but nothing real serious.

I don't know how many women (I sure haven't) met up with old flames or lost soul mates and have the experience she has.  She is a Christian and says that if she didn't love Jesus, something would have happened between them. She was able to use her love of God to witness to this man (who isn't a Christian).  She said that she wouldn't be able to live with herself if something happened between them and that his soul was more important to her than her selfish desires.

I commended her for that.  I don't know how many women in her position would have been as strong.  She cried so hard when she was telling me this story. Lunch lasted 4 hours!! I'm glad I was off today. Anyway, it just has me thinking about my ilfe, too, as a married mom and wife. My husband is the most unemotional, unaffectionate, doesn't-believe-in-soul mates-kind-of-guy. I can't talk with him about these kinds of things.  I just wish he were mine OR I was with mine.......

I have a daughter  that is a sophmore.Wamted this certain college.  Could not convince to stay in state.  It costs her 10,000 dollars more being out of state.  She goes from wanting to b there to not wanting to be there to liking it it to hating it It depends on what day you talk to her. Joined the band dropped out, had problem with boyfriend moved across the campus, than they started dating again, then he ends it. She gets upset wants to come home.  I get a phone call every night.  Everytime we decide to have her transfer or come home she decides to stay.  Has changed her major three times.  What worries me is she is on Student loans that she will be responsible to pay when she graduates. If she leaves college she will have to start paying immediately, where she would have 10 years if the stays in college.  This month she is already over 80 minutes on the cell phone and there is two weeks more to go.  She spends hours talking to the ex-boyfriend and they are on the same campus.  My husband and I are going to talk to a therapist about this because I want to do tough love.  Hang up when she calls crying at 11 p.m.  Telling her if she does not get her act together she will have no choice to leave etc.  He is the softy.   Nothing makes her happy. 

By any chance is your son going to a college in New England. 

the original post.  Sending my son to a boys' home is obviously a last resort.  I don't mean an orphanage or foster care.  I mean a facility that can help to retrain him if I can't.  I love my son very much.  I would rather suffer the pains and guilt of having to send him to a reformity, then to watch him grow up into someone who would hurt someone else and ruin the rest of his life.  I love all of my children equally. 

Secondly, when I took my child to the child psychologist, I had several visits with him first to see if there was something I was doing wrong.  I continued to attend each session with my child, including private sessions for myself after his meeting with my son. 

Thirdly, your comments were not helpful, just nasty, and that's not the kind of help I was looking for.  Anyone who's ever been in this situation already feels inadequate as a parent and doesn't need someone else to slam them.  Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to do just that.

The check was a voided check to Wal-Mart and the Loan company, CNH Capital, knew that and cashed it anyway.  I thought it was illegal for someone cash a check that did not belong to them. 

passive people just sit back ,allow bad things happening, and then whine about it, while aggressive people actually DO SOMETHING about matters they disagree with.

Here is what happened.  When you write a check at this Wal-Mart here, they have you sign something and give the check back.   I stuck it back in my purse.  They are supposed to void.  I was cleaning at my purse that day and paying bills at the same time.  I wrote a $250 to pay a loan.   I really don't know how it happened but I must have torn that one up and sent the $10 voided check to the loan.  A week later, i was looking at my acct online.  I notice that that $10 I had written to Wal-Mart went through twice.  I called the bank and asked why.   They said, "oh, it looks like Wal-Mart double dipped." so I was refunded the money.  I don't know who refunded the money, was it the bank, Wal-mart, I don't know.  Anyway, I became concerned about why that 250 check didn't come in so I called that loan company.  They said $10 was credit to my acct.   I did not connect the 2 at the time.  I thought, 10, I don't write $10 to this acct.  The man told me he would look into it incase there was a mistake.  He called back the day later and said that was a  $10 originally written to Wal-Mart and we cashed it.  So I called the bank and told them.  They then had me go to wal-mart because they said I owed them $10 back.  I go to wal-mart and they say no it is the Telecheck, company they use for this service and they thanked me for trying to clear it up and said Telecheck will be contacting me.  So I get a letter in the mail saying I owe $40 plus I am not allowed to write checks anywhere that uses their service until I pay that $40 back. 

What scares me is that that check said VOID on it and that other bunch was still able to cash it and get their money, which I think was dishonest of them...also my bank let it go through.  Now what if I were to loose a bunch of those type checks and someone cashes it AGAIN.  Man I would be out a lot.  Do you think any of this is right?  TIA.   

www.healthmad.com/Men's-Health/Circumcision-of-Males-in-America-and-How-it-is-Viewed-by-American-Women.541911

Apparently women are responsible for infant male circ's? Well, perhaps they are - perhaps they aren't - but what is so wrong in circ'g. Isn't that recommended by docs??