With Your Family in Mind

College bound students should take time during the summer to get organized and boost up their admissions portfolio.  Completing these activities will lighten the load during the school year and get you ready for college acceptance.
Number One: Start Your College Essay

It is stressful caring for an elderly parent or loved one, no matter how much you may love them.  There is a significant amount of disruption to your life and schedule, as well as the worry and sorrow of watching one you love become more helpless.  There are also feelings involved with elderly care including frustration, guilt, resentment, and hopelessness. 

Sometimes there seems to be some unseen force, some undetectable presence that blocks our ability to succeed at things.  Whether we are trying to shed a few pounds, stop a bad habit or rid ourselves of underlying negativity that nags away at us, this invisible force seems to stand like an impassable gate to the other side where happiness, feeling good and being better at things reside.

Our law office is seeing a new trend: long-term care policies are giving their policy holders the “run-around.”  Many seniors have long-term care insurance that they purchased years ago.  They paid their premiums faithfully, and now due to advanced age, dementia, illness, and other needs, they make a claim for benefits.  In response, the insurance company denies the claim.  These denials are often unfair and illegal.  Unfortunately, the senior does not know their rights, their remedies, or how to fight the insurance company.

Every child deserves to have a safe, loving and permanent home.  Children’s Bureau needs foster families who will care specifically for infants and toddlers during the reunification process with their parents.  There are also 114,000 children currently in foster care who are unable to return to their families of origin.  Children’s Bureau is seeking caring families to consider adopting these older children and large sibling sets. 

Readers of The Magazine of Santa Clarita continue to send in great questions about the voiceover business, but this one is typical of many that I receive.
Q: A producer sent a request for an audition for a female character for a major videogame, WOW—World of Warcraft.  It’s a big thing now with kids.  He’s got everything I have in terms of great voice samples in mp3 format, yet he asks me every job for voice auditions.  I wanted to know if my voice is landing in someone’s product and I’m unaware of it. –Ellen G. Agoura, CA

“All things are difficult before they are easy.” –  Thomas Fuller, M.D.
Once the decision to divorce surfaces (the “deliberation” phase) couples enter the “transition” phase.  Transitioning is an emotional roller coaster of adjustment to physical and financial separation.  Feelings of hurt, fear, humiliation, loss, abandonment and powerlessness drive behavior.

When you go through a divorce, there are a number of legal documents that need to be updated or changed altogether once your marriage is dissolved.  You have to look out for your remaining interests received from the Dissolution and those of your children, particularly in your estate planning.  And if there are children in the mix, it’s vitally important that you take care of these matters as soon as possible once the divorce is finalized.

As the summer season begins to slowly arrive, the weather begins to warm, children get out of school, and people take vacations with their families, traveling to places where they can have fun and cool off.  Depending on your ideal vacation, your perfect day may include the sunrise, a trolling motor, and a rubber worm. 

With the weather getting warmer every day, there’s no reservation that summer is drawing near.  The summer can be a great time for relaxing and enjoying the outdoor climate with family and friends.  However, it can also be hazardous if you don’t take the proper precautions to be safe.

Where did the roots of art in America begin?  Art education is rooted in part in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century when drawing was taught in an effort to improve the production of products.
However, the real beginnings of the visual arts in America began when the first English settlers landed on the east coast and established their homes and churches.

Respite refers to short-term, temporary care to allow caregivers and family members a break from their daily routine.  It can also be used for those individuals who require short-term assistance while recovering from an illness or accident.
Families and caregivers who provide constant care for their elderly family member may need some time away from their responsibilities to tend to their own needs.  Respite care allows caregivers to take this time while knowing that their family member will be well cared for by trained staff.  

At Golden Oak Adult School, we continually strive to offer our students the very best in quality education at affordable prices and to provide classes based upon your needs and interests. 

The tragedy of an individual dying because of overwhelming hopelessness or frustration is devastating to family, friends, and the community.  And the survivors of a loved-one’s suicide leaves many wondering if they could have done something to prevent one from taking their own life.

The summer is upon us, once again, which means school is out and kids schedules are about to change.  For separated and divorced families, summer can create higher levels of anxiety as parents have to juggle modified schedules with the kids and deal with separate summer vacations.
Of course, parents aren’t the only ones fretting.  Summer can also be hugely stressful for kids as they move between households.  Even when circumstances are amiable and cooperative, the change from school schedule to summer routine can set kids on edge.

It can be difficult to imagine a time when you would not be there to help provide for your family.  However, by preparing in advance, you will have peace of mind that knowing you are protecting your family’s financial future.  Also, since life insurance benefits are generally not taxable at the federal level, your loved ones can use the benefits to help take care of their living expenses in a variety of ways.  Life insurance can take care of many things including needs after the time of death, such as final illness expenses, burial costs, and estate taxes.

When people think of divorce, the big conversation seems to stem around money.  How much, and who’s getting it?  But eventually the issues that walk into my therapy office are the ones that dig deep into the soul.  “How did this happen?  Could I have changed it?”  Or maybe, “Should I have left earlier?  Why didn’t I see the red flags before we got married?”  I have a firm belief that if you don’t dig into all of the emotions, questions and personal responsibility in the divorce, then you will repeat your issues in your next relationship.  But more importantly, if you don’t acknowledge all of the emotions surrounding this massive change in your life it will affect you, mind body and soul!

In the very recent appellate decision, In Re Marriage of Sorge (Court of Appeals of California, Fourth District, Division One, filed January 5, 2012), the court takes up the issue of “need” for the basis of awarding a contribution of attorney fees from one spouse payable to the other spouse.  In this case, Husband was the higher earner with over $64 million in liquid assets.  Wife wasn’t doing too badly herself with about $14 million, half of it liquid.  Wife asked the court to award attorney fees to her payable by Husband.