With Your Family in Mind

Setting up ground rules to resolve issues helps couples keep their eyes on the big picture rather than on mini “victories.”  That’s one of the reasons that a mediated divorce, on average, feels and works better than a litigated divorce.  

Sometimes during custody battles or residency decisions parents find themselves involving their children.  They do so sometimes hoping the opinion of the child will affect the outcome.  Other times, the children themselves may ask for a change.  The child’s desire may be influenced by many outside influences; sometimes they might want to be closer to a particular school or friends.

The Macintosh finally has the perfect solution to the mundane world of PC-based Point-of-Sale Systems. Xsilva LightSpeed is a ground-breaking new multi-user Point-of-Sale system built exclusively for Mac OS X. As the Mac proliferates the computer market, more and more small businesses are looking to adopt it as their hardware solution, and are subsequently seeking a business management software package that reflects the Mac look and feel and user experience.  Xsilva LightSpeed fills that very demand.

A carpool is simply two or more people sharing a ride together in a common vehicle.  Typically this involves two to three co-workers or students from the same community driving together, rather than commuting in their individual cars.  A carpool can operate on a daily or occasional basis (once or twice a week), and may involve rotating the driving responsibilities.  It is possible to carpool even if you don’t have a car of your own; you simply contribute toward gas and other expenses instead of providing a vehicle.  Flexibility is the key to carpooling.  There is always a way to make it work for you.

When a child is diagnosed with cancer, normal family routines come to a sudden stop.  Everything must now revolve around that youngster’s fight for survival. Chris and Sue Hoefflin, co-founders of the Michael Hoefflin Foundation certainly understand that situation. Their son, Michael, fought a four-year battle against recurrent brain cancer. Throughout his ordeal, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles became the Hoefflin’s home-away-from-home. Despite Michael’s anguish, he selflessly wished for a day when no child would ever have to know the horrors of cancer. He longed for an end to all forms of this disease.

As you read this, 2007 is emerging as a New Year.  There will be some new births among us and they will always look to this year as their special year of birth.  There will be others among us that will leave this life and begin to live “more” life in the presence of our Heavenly Father.  Some of us are making new commitments or renewing old ones that call for us to live a stronger, better, more joy-filled life.  Some call these New Year’s Resolutions.  Someone once quipped, “A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.”

Congratulations!  You’ve just paid $25,000 for your brand new dream car.  It’s beautiful.  For the first nine months, your car runs likes a dream.  Everything is perfect and then, after putting 8,000 miles on your car, it begins to break down continuously, and is in the repair shop numerous times, often for the same problems. So you think you’ve got a lemon?  Guess what?  You probably do and you’ve got rights.

The Magazine of Santa Clarita readers send in their questions about the voiceover business.  Here’s a recent one:
Q: “I’m not an actor, but I’ve done some announcements for a local cable television station.  Do I have any chance of doing announcing for radio and TV commercials?” — Edward M., Valencia

One of the most useful, flexible and cost-effective legal devices available is the Revocable Living Trust.  If properly drafted and funded, a trust can enable us to avoid probate and perhaps save hundreds of thousands of dollars of federal estate taxes. Ordinarily , the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) insurance on bank deposits only covers the first $100,000 in an account.

January is the month of changes for all.  If nothing else, remember to use the correct date for the New Year!  It is the time of year that we feel renewed and we feel the year has new potential for all of us.  With a clean slate, most of us begin planning what we would like to accomplish in the New Year, particularly after December, which can be a tough month for many of us.