Ever since my oldest son was little, I have always made Halloween costumes for my kids. I think that the store bought ones are way too expensive and way too flimsy. We have had such a wide variety of costumes and I always get great comments on them.

One year, the kids were Goldilocks and the three bears. Everyone loved the idea and everyone got a good laugh over it. This past year, I made the kids all Jetsons Costumes and they were really cute as well. We even dressed the dog up as Astro. That was a lot of fun.

My two older kids are getting too old for trick or treating, but I have such a good time with the costumes that I am sill going to make them dress up. They can hand out candy. They may complain, but I know that they will humor their mother. After all, if moms happy than everyone is happy.

In my life I thrive on routine.  Every morning after I eat breakfast I call my dad and ask them what the stock pick of the day is.  He is very knowledgeable and I trust everything he tells me.  He has not failed me yet and I don’t see it happening in the near future.

One of the reasons for this is that since he retired he likes to research stock and deduce which ones would be a good investment and which ones would be better left on the table.  He helps me out and I have made a lot of money invested in what he tells me would be a good choice.

I like to go over what I can as he teaches me how to do stock research. I hope that I can one day be able to do my own picks without help from him.  I am really glad that I have him in my life and that he taught me about money and investing from a young age.  He is my hero.

When I was getting married I knew that the food was going to be a big fight with my mom.  She has always been big into entertaining and I knew that she was not going to be alright with the menu that we have chosen.  This is why I decided that I was going to hire the caterer before we talked about it.

I decided to go with some finger food catering as I wanted the meal to be very easy and light.  One reason for this is that we were getting married in the morning and it was going to be a mid afternoon meal.  Another reason is that finger foods are what me and my husband enjoy most.

I was right, and my mom completely flipped out when she found out, going as far as to say she would not attend a wedding that did not have a proper reception.  We told her that was fine she did not have to attend, but the menu was still saying the same.  We enjoyed our meal, and yes, my mother was also there.

I get so frustrated when my husband leaves me and the kids in the car, so he can run into the store to buy computer parts. He is always gone for at least a half hour and the kids end up getting antsy and cranky having to wait in the car. In fact, I pretty much refuse to let him stop while we are all out with him.

I understand that, with his passion for computer systems, being in the store is like taking a child to Toys R Us, but it is just something that he is going to have to do on his own from now on. I don’t think he even realizes how long he leaves us sitting out there and I have said that enough is enough.

He doesn’t want to take even just me in with him because I tend to rush him and he can’t enjoy the experience to its full extent. The last time I went in with him, I convinced him to buy me a mini PC so that I could take it with me when I went to scrapbooking events. I think he figures I am too expensive to take in there.

Every year, I have the same problem. The problem is with what to get my parents for Christmas. They have absolutely everything that they could ever need and if they don’t have it, then they just go and buy it. They are impossible to buy for and every year we get the same answer when we ask them what they want.

They always say that they do not want anything, except to have all their kids and grandchildren home for Christmas. It is such a cop out answer, so they usually end up with another fruit bowl or a new sweater or something equally as useless. This year, I determined that it was going to be different. I was going to get them something that they would absolutely love.

The idea hit me while I was trying to fall asleep one night. The last time we were all together, we took some pictures of all the grandchildren. I was going to look into putting photos onto canvas and giving them a large canvas picture of all five of the grandchildren together. It was something that they would find so spectacular. I couldn’t wait.

We have always been a family of many pets. Ever since I can remember, the kids had an assortment of pets from cats and dogs to fish to turtles and reptiles. I actually remember a time when we had seven pet dishes lined up at the back door, even though they all seemed to eat out of the same one.

The pets all quickly became a part of the family and we spent a lot of money on pet carriers and vet bills. Usually I did not mind having them around, but at times I felt as though we were running a zoo out of our home. But, for various reasons, I could not say no when the kids found a stray animal and we adopted many this way.

Our youngest child just moved out and we, for the first time since I can remember are completely petless. I have to admit that I really don’t miss the dog toys lying all over the house, but I don’t like how quiet and empty the house feels. In the end, I may just go and adopt a pet that will be just mine. I have never had one of those before.

As a young adult, I never really thought of anyone but myself.  Let’s face it - you really don’t have to.

But as you get older and start to have a family of your own, things change.  Instead of talking about the latest and greatest party you just attended, you start talking about that health insurance quote you just got over the phone.

This change of thinking of leaving something for my loved ones in case I passed away.  I would hate to leave them with any sort of financial burden when I am gone since they would not have the benefit of the income I generated in life.  So I decided to call around for a number of different life insurance quotes so that I would have some options to choose from.

After I tried to compare insurance quotes, I was confused.  I didn’t really understand what I was comparing.  But I do know one thing - I need to look out for my loved ones now, while I am still alive.

I was at my local library the other day and was going through the archives, looking for information about my great-grandparents. They immigrated here and became quite successful. I was sure I would find some information about the start of the family business that would one day become very powerful.

I found out, shortly after I arrived that the library had recently transferred some of their archives to digital media and the rest they had just scrapped. I was hoping beyond all hopes that the family information was not among that which had been scrapped.

I did a free search and did eventually find some information on the family. There wasn’t much, but I found a little bit of interesting information. I was stunned to find that they built their empire and had absolutely nothing for sale. This intrigued me to find out more about how they had become successful.

I kept looking for more information and eventually found out more about how they made their money. But, that is a whole other story.

I was talking on the phone last night to my friend Fred who moved in the past year.  He moved because a management position opened up in a new branch of the company he worked for.  He took the opportunity with the promise of riches and a new beginning.

But things didn’t go how he planned.  There happened to be a recession in the town that he moved to, and the company decided to lay off all the workers in his branch.  Without a job or the possibility of finding a job, it was looking like his house would join the other repossessed properties in the community.

Luckily for him, he found a way out before his home was repossessed.  A company came into his town and did a presentation for their sell and rent back program - essentially they would buy homes that were going to be repossessed solving the home owner’s problems, and at the same time, they would be willing to rent out their old home to them - so they wouldn’t have to move.

He took advantage of the program about three months ago and they are fine.  He has found a job and they are planning to buy back their home when they have the money.  Thankfully, he only lost his house - they still have their home.

Today in my psychology class we covered learning disabilities.  Considering the psychology class is an education (teaching) class, it dealt a lot with students with challenges in class such as students that are dyslexic.

We learned about dyslexic symptoms and how to spot those children at risk.  Some of the common signs are trouble with writing, spelling and numbers such as 56 and 65.  The troublemaker of the class sometimes is the one suffering from dyslexia - they act out to try and disguise their problem.

We also learned about resources available to us as teachers.  There are a lot of dyslexia tests available should we suspect one of our students have the condition.  There was also some training done on how to approach parents of children that potentially have dyslexia.

We will be continuing the topic next class with more attention made in the area of teacher and parent relations regarding handling the delicate nature of this type of situation.  I think it will be interesting and I can’t wait.