Happy Birthday Month, Sisters

Two of my three sisters have birthdays in February. Happy birthday to my oldest sister and my baby sister. I love you.

Here are photos of them that my oldest daughter took.

-Holly

Someone I admire: Randy Pausch

Are you a Tigger or an Eeyore?

I admire Randy Pausch.

If you have not yet seen Randy's "Last Lecture" you are really missing something great! Go here http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/ and decide how you will view it.

If you would rather read the text of the lecture, or view PowerPoint slides, go here: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

To follow Randy's journey, take a look here:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/index.html

Trying to be a Tigger every day, and wishing Randy numerous more days in his Tigger adventure,

-Holly

First Graders are Funny

I sometimes do varous volunteer activites at my kids' school. I don't have any kids in First Grade this year, but I did do some presentations to all the First Grade kids this year.

There were MANY questions asked of me by these great little ones. But, there are two questions that keep popping back into my head and making me smile and laugh over and over:

"Are you an Archaeologist?"

and

"Do people in Russia wear clothes?"

You just gotta love it.

-Holly

O Magazine/Suze Orman (financial guru)/Spending Plans/MONEY

I am spreading the word NEAR and FAR about this! Here is a message I wrote to my family and friends. I wanted you all to have it, too. NOTE - you probably CANNOT download this book easily with a Dial-Up connection to the Internet.

Love to all,
Holly
------
I never buy O magazine (because I dislike the perfume ads, and the myriad of ads for expensive material items and excessive lifestyles that people DO NOT need – the magazine feels very elitist to me. I know MANY people LOVE the magazine! And, that is just great for them.). BUT, I am going to buy the March issue. I just watched yesterday’s Oprah show and she had the FABULOUS Suze Orman on there with her money advice. LOVE HER.

The March issue has financial planning info. I believe there will be “something for everyone.” I shall soon see. :-)

On the show, they had a woman whose husband killed himself 3 months ago and left her with a home and lifestyle of $9300 a month! She had not worked in 12 years. They had 4 kids (all but one under 12 years of age). When he died, she had $72. SEVENTY-TWO DOLLARS. And, a “Spending Plan” (I hesitate calling it that!) of $9300 a month. NO income.

Suze helped her with an estate sale (the stuff she and her husband had accumulated brought in over $13,000! Very cool!), asking her family for help (gifts and NOT loans, support with watching the kids, help finding a new place to live, etc.), and getting a one bedroom apartment for her and the 4 kids. She is looking for a hair-styling job.

It was a show FILLED with hope and truth. I LOVED IT. It was SOOOOOOO inspiring!!

At one point, Suze said, “She will be JUST FINE.’ That was so huge! Suze can be pretty ... um ... plain spoken(!) about people and their CHOICES about money. So, to hear her place faith and total BELIEF in the woman’s future was just HUGE.

OK. Can you tell I needed this show?????????? :-)

ANYWAY – I just wanted to share with you that the March issue of O seems like a good one to CHOOSE to spend a little money on.

ALSO, until 5pm TODAY (Pacific time, February 14 2008) you can download Suze’s book “Women and Money” for FREE from www.oprah.com Click on the left side for yesterday’s show, and then scroll down and click on the link to download it. Or, you can try the direct link:

http://flv.oprah.com/suze_orman_eng.pdf

This is SUCH a huge gift to me! It is JUST what I need.

Having had problems with excessive unsecured debt in the past, and now having a STRONG commitment to living on CASH or DEBIT CARD only, I am so in favor of Suze Orman's approach to money. I have recently added a large unsecured debt to my life and it is eating my soul. I absolutely CANNOT WAIT to get my business up and running and get this monkey off my back!! I am VERY committed to living within a Spending Plan that only includes debt with secured items (house and car - when needed. A life with NO DEBT is preferable - but, I am also realistic about today's Economy!).

I cannot wait to read the March issue of O Magazine and read the copy of Suze's book that I just downloaded!

May financial abundance and security be yours.
-Holly

Happy New Year!

Chinese New Year, that is! We are entering the year of the Rat, which is lucky because when the race was held to see which 12 of all the animals would be honored with a place in the Chinese Zodiac, the Rat WON the race! (OK, so there are stories as to why each of the 12 animals are lucky. LOL!)

Last Saturday, the Chinese school where my three daughters go every Saturday held their festive performance to celebrate Chinese New Year. It was colorful! Joyful! Wonderful! Here are some pictures. Enjoy! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Goodbye, BH, friend I never knew

I had a friend I never knew. He never knew me, either. His on-line name was Brainhell (BH) and I read his blog (http://brainhell.blogspot.com/) for years. He drew me in. His writing was compelling -- smart, witty, thoughtful, humorous, tart, cutting, truthful, loving. I grew to love him. No, really. The photo above is what I saw each time I logged on and read his words and the comments of the Village who loved him. I could click on any post in the archives and find something to make me think, laugh, cry, or gasp. This was my among favorite blogs.

I do not know his name. Until today, I never saw a picture of him. But, I have thought of him every day since I ran across his blog about 4 years ago.

BH transitioned last night. His body finally released his spirit, 1481 days after he was diagnosed with ALS. It is a huge loss to me and to all who read his blog. It is the worst of loss to his wife and two small children. He leaves a large hole in the lives of the friends who knew him for 15 - 30 years and often posted to his blog. For me to think of his sister, who wrote to the blog with him, makes my heart physically ache.

And, still ... this release was really needed. The ALS had robbed him of so much. In the death of his physical body, I am sure he has regained all he lost, and so much more. I wish I knew what he now knows.

Below is a painting done from a photo of BH and his wife on their honeymoon. I pray his spirit now knows the freedom and peace that this picture portrays.

Paddle on, beloved Brainhell. You will be missed, but never forgotten.

Applause!

Here are my 3 daughters' hands (well, representations of 3 of their 6 hands!) that we made out of dough at Christmastime. They are clapping, because I PASSED!

I needed a score of 70% or better to (RE)pass the state's real estate Broker exam, and I got an 81%. I’ll take it! Wa-Hoo!

You take the exam in a secure area where you are not allowed to bring in any personal items. They provide you with a dedicated computer (a dumb terminal that is solely for taking the exam - you can't get to the Internet from it or do any other work from it). You are issued ONE piece of scatch paper (which I had to SIGN and DATE. LOL!) and a pencil. There was a 4 function calculator at each work station. Hmmmmm ... I have used an HP12C for soooooooo long that it is hard for me to step down to a 4 function! LOL! You are allowed 110 minutes to pass the test (74 questions).

It was too funny, because when I was finished, I told the computer and it brought up a screen, “Are you sure you want to end the exam? You have 68 minutes remaining.”

I did NOT want to go back through my answers and start second guessing them and changing them to wrong answers! LOL! So, I told it ENTER and it went to a screen “If you are certain you want to end the exam, type YES in the box below.”

YES.

Then, another screen! If you are certain you want your answers graded now, press END on the keyboard (something like that).

So, I finally got out of all that and it took me to a Survey about the process. After THAT, it graded my exam on screen for me. So, before I even went out of The Quiet Room, I knew I had passed with 81%. Yippee!

You know that ONE piece of scratch paper? The one I had to sign and date? I had to turn it back in when I was finished. LOL!

One more step finished on my way to being a Broker/Owner!

YIPPEE! :-)