With Your Family in Mind

Paintings and children…two things in life that offer joy.  Now College of the Canyons, in cooperation with the Los Angeles County foster care system, presents The Heart Gallery, an exhibition featuring photographs of children in the Los Angeles County foster care system that are in need of permanent adoptive families. 

Life, as much as we plan it, sometimes throws us curves.  We get married and start living, but when children are introduced we get caught up in life and forget why we got married. Children change relationships and you and your mate end up wanting different things. 

I have been advocating for many years not only to my clients, but to my friends and family as well, that carrying the most uninsured motorist coverage possible is always in your best interests.  This stems from the fact that approximately 40 percent of all drivers in the state of California are uninsured. 

I don’t know too many people who like to talk about insurance, except insurance agents.  However, the truth is that I would not want to see you set financial goals, increase your net worth, properly diversify your portfolios and carefully manage your finances only to have all your hard work wiped out by a catastrophic event.

Seniors need about the same amount of sleep as younger adults, seven to nine hours a night. Unfortunately, many older adults don’t get the sleep they need because they often have more trouble falling asleep.  A study of adults over 65 found that 13 percent of men and 36 percent of women take more than 30 minutes to fall asleep. Also, older people often sleep less deeply and wake up more often throughout the night, which may be why they may nap more often during the daytime.

I have gone through my entire fourth month wondering if my bump would ever come.  I just don’t look pregnant.  Everyone has told me that one day I will wake up and boom there it will be.  So of course, every morning I wake up and look down to see if my belly has popped out.  But to my dismay, I still don’t have my bump.  As everyone has told me, I will regret wanting my bump in my eighth and ninth month, but for right now, I want it.

Congratulations to our first Teacher of the Month, Lynda Ashley from Castaic Elementary School.  We appreciate all of your submissions.  Ashley was an extraordinary example of an amazing teacher.  Please submit or resubmit teachers you would like to nominate for next months Teacher of the Month honor.  The following is written by the mother of one of Ashley’s students.  Ashley has taught both of the mother’s children.

Here is how you can save your family around $15,000.  The other day, I was talking to my friend Jennifer.  She hasn’t done any estate planning because, as she explained, “All I have is my house and some money in a checking account.”  She went on, “I have two kids, so they will get the house and the money. Right?”  Her house is worth around $600,000.  Jennifer’s belief that estate planning is unnecessary given her situation is a very common one.

Many couples created Revocable “Living” Trusts before the 2001 changes in the tax law which increased the personal estate tax exemption over what it was in earlier years.  Just before the new law, the personal lifetime exemption was $675,000.  For persons dying in years 2006 through 2008, the exemption has been increased to $2,000,000 and the amount of this exemption is scheduled to increase further.

Feng Shui is not superstition, magic, religion or a new age fad.  Whether you are aware of it or not, you are affected by the Feng Shui of your environment at all times.  The energies of your home or workspace will either be nourishing you or negatively affecting your health and progress in life.

Traditionally, the statute of limitations for assault and battery bars litigants from seeking relief for claims that occurred more than three years prior to the filing of the lawsuit.  Under this statute of limitations, multiple incidents of assault or battery have been considered as individual incidents, each with their own statute of limitations.

In the case of the Magathon contest, luck, cause and effect all come together in a grand way.  The luck part has to have a little help from you because if you don’t play, there is no way for you to win.  That is, you need to open up your checkbook, pick up a pen and scribble your signature.  Address the check, lick a stamp and run, don’t walk to the post office box to mail it.

Around this time of the year we begin to look forward to warmer weather, longer days and being outside again.  The smell of spring is like no other smell, it just uplifts us and we look forward to the physical changes around us.  We become aware of the flowers beginning to bloom, trees leafing out and how blue the sky is. It is a time of feeling renewed and it seems like we have a little bit more energy in our steps.

I have read many articles lately about how nice Microsoft’s new operating system Vista is.  Bill Gates has even been on the road promoting his company’s latest and greatest OS.  What’s odd to me is that even more articles seem to be written about how Vista isn’t as great as Microsoft might want you to believe.  One article even calls the Vista upgrade process a fiasco.

Emotional intimacy is allowing another individual to enter into and witness our core being, it kind of feels like interior nakedness.  This type of emotional penetration is often too risky and generates unbelievable trepidation for most of us.  The more exposed we are, the greater potential there is for pain.  It is the fear of pain that often jolts us away from pursuing further intimacy.  We could just rely on our great sex life and avoid this deeper level of relating.

A successful divorce has been argued to contain the following elements, recovery from the emotional pain of separation, becoming grounded as a separate individual, providing the necessary nurturance and social growth of children and developing a healthy attitude toward self, ex-spouse and past marriage (Ed Sherman, Practical Divorce Solutions).  It seems near impossible to achieve any of these elements without first adopting a positive attitude.

The Magazine of Santa Clarita readers have been sending in pertinent questions about the voiceover business.  Here’s a recent one:
Q:  In learning how to use my voice better and being able to use it for voice acting more, how helpful are standard acting classes versus dialogue coaching or voice training? —Jenna M., Sylmar, CA

Some of the more serious accident cases that I have received occurred during the colder months.  So, what accounts for this, and what can we do to prevent ourselves from being a victim in an automobile accident during this time period? First of all, most of the accidents during this time of year occur due to rainy weather conditions, and associated with that, failure to properly maintain one’s vehicle.  Another major cause for accidents this time of year is drinking and driving.