One of my favorite movies growing up, the Gremlins! We even named our dog after one of the characters, the sweet little pre-gremlin, Gizmo! He was such a cute puppy, one of those popped eyed little pups. Do you remember the part in the movie when the elderly lady rides up the stairs in the chairlift, I was so amazed as a child! I secretly wanted one in our house, what fun to have your own lift! (if only we had a two-story house) haha.

Do stair chairlifts really exist? You bet! there is a company called Value Stairlifts stair lift that sells these amazing devices. I know in the movie as a child it was more of a wonderment, but now as an adult I could see where one might really be useful, more than useful a necessity if you have a home that you love and wish to remain in. It would allow someone who is disabled in one way or another to still live in their multi-level home and enjoy every part of it. DId you know you can even buy a stairlift for an outdoor stairs, or curved stairs, and they even sell reconditioned stairs that might help with a fixed budget.

The recent CMT Awards had many winners but it may have been Sugarland that was the most impressive entertainers of the night. This country music duo did very well and racked up a lot of awards for their great country music songs. One of these awards was for Duo of the Year in country music. This was impressive because the former winners of this award had won it 6 times in a row. This famous duo is known as Brooks and Dunn and this was an award they have defended very well over the last few years.

I guess they had to lose sometime and it turns out that 2009 was the year for that. You will find the words to some of the songs inside the printed cd sleeves that will help you understand the meaning and inspiration behind some of their work. Brooks and Dunn is no longer America’s favorite country music duo and the new duo of the year is Sugarland. Do you like Sugarland or Brooks and Dunn more? It should be interesting to see how the 2010 CMT Awards play out next year and if Sugarland can defend their duo award as well as Brooks and Dunn have done.

This Christmas will be the first time in 6 years that we will not be traveling to in-laws to celebrate the holidays. We would travel across the country and drag our Christmas presents with us to show our love and appreciation. We will also be able to take in the amazing Christmas Lights displays that have become a family tradition on top of the hill where we used to live. It is amazing the simple things that you started when you were young can be passed on your to kids. With the holidays fast approaching now is the time to start planning for those special family gatherings so that you are able to enjoy time with family and not busy rushing around. The world is changing and making time for the family to enjoy and create new traditions is going to be more important than ever.

Wow, has this summer flown by or what? I can hardly believe that very soon the crisp morning air will arrive, the leaves will turn and the romping of bucks will be seen at twilight. Its only August, but if you think about it is a great time to begin reloading our spent shells and prepare for the bug hunt this fall. There are numerous websites out there that get us up to speed, but the true home of the “Re loaders Experts” for reloading supplies is at www.sinclairintl.com. This is a great site for every hunter and for every re-loader from novice to expert. Their reloading equipment is top notch and user friendly. What I really like is the ease of shopping, where I can look at all the kits and get complete details of what I am buying. They simply have everything you will need to get ready this year from deburring tools and other case preparation tools to loading blocks, shell holders, presses and reloading dies. Right now they are having a special on their reloading log book and Berry’s Tumbler. You can request a catalog as well as sign up to their newsletter via email to keep up on what is new and on sale. They have a great customer service department and great shipping terms. Plus they also offer a multitude of other gun related parts, tools and videos. However, this is your one stop reloading site for all your needs from start to finish.

It simply amazing how many websites are out there selling gun parts. You could spend hours shifting through them all, looking for price, shipping, content etc. What I want and I would recommend is to find one with these items plus customer service. That is a real challenge to any store online; how do you bring customer service to your clients? Well, one store offering gun parts has brought us technical video clips to educate us and retain customer loyalty. I just watched a complete program on how to build your AR-15. They also offer clips form there trademarked “Gun Tech” series on gun sights, product reviews such as for Brownells competition three gun case, scope ring alignment and even how to use ear plugs. Here is an excellent clip of Brownell’s AR-15 Magazine I love companies that love what they do and seek to keep me the customer happy by offering these free how to clips. When was the last time you saw that? Plus, their prices are right on the money too.  They offer top of line parts for your shotgun, rifle, pistol and outstanding how to books and videos. They show you exactly how their shopping cart works by walking you through all the steps and finally a great guarantee. They have been around for 70 years now and still offer a 100% money back guarantee. They also offer a flat shipping rate of $11.50 so you don’t have to shop everywhere looking for that final price. I love their honesty and transparency.

Summer is in full swing and like so many couples, summer is the time for wedding anniversaries. I don’t care what the economy may say to you but we must never forget our loved one on the anniversary of your wedding day. Of course, the dog house is always available. One of the main topics on my page is the use of alternate power so when I think of a great gift for my wife, I think of a solar watch. I found a great one at www.bluedial.com This one amazing site that has a flurry of watches to choose from. I for one am looking very closely at the Casio Ladies LWQ120DA-AV that has a great look and fashion and runs on solar power. Then comes my best man from the wedding who quickly reminds me that is great, but your wife is not looking for practicality. She is looking or a beautiful watch that says just how much you love her. That is when the Citizen watches come into the conversation. Wow, just look at the number of choices I will have. There are 313 Ladies Citizen watches to choose from. But then I look at the closeout specials and behold, I found a lovely, Gucci Watch, specifically the YA116502 with its dazzling band and unique face. She has worked so hard for the family and is a great bride; she deserves the very best. You must remember your anniversary and never go stingy on her.

Even with the new economy, some things just do not change. Our home is still our castle and if you are married, you know just how much a wife wants to beautify her home. Friends and family still come by, there are still summer parties and in fact with people going out less, wives want to have their house ready to display. One idea that we wives should continue to strive for is having a very warm scent about our home. When you first walk into a home and the front door opens, you will immediately get a smell and invariably will make a judgment call. Do you smell the cat, the dog, the evening dinner? Why not make that first impression a warm scent from a candle such as candle within an apothecary jars? At www.jarstore.com, you find a multitude of candles to choose from, all in a decorative jar with pleasant colors a warm scents to make you house a home. With apothecary jars, you can choose the size of the a jar such as clear and frosted as well as the style of the lid. I for one love their honeysuckle and the fresh cut grass for the hot summer months. You can sell all the seasonal scents at their website, especially to get ready for the fall where they have several chosen just for that season. The website is very well designed and easy to get around. As you know, my biggest issue is always the customer service, where jarstore.com excels. You can click if you have a broken jar, need an update or Order info. Make your home a welcoming home by using scented candles this year.

Our family is huge on crafts these days for entertainment. Its fun and educational. We are starting out with clay projects and we need all kinds of supplies like lead free glaze pencils. We found AMACO/Brent to be the finest and most professional site to use for the unique craft supplies. For example, they make 572 different liquid glazes for both professionals and families like mine. They are then broken out for easy shopping, into categories like low and high fire glazes, under glazes and over glazes. I really like the photography they use on this site to give a good graphic detail of the items they sell. Our children like the variety of glaze chalk they have for sale. They come in delightful pastels and hues that the kids love, especially for spring! Take a look at the example image on the glaze chalk page to see what you can create with these colors. It is titled, “Our First House” which gives some idea of just how these colors stand out. Our favorite tab is the Kids and Crafts page, where you learn that they also produce modeling clay and magic mud which our children just cannot get enough of. You may be interested in downloading there 2009 catalog to get an even better idea of what they sell. I found the site to be very easy to use, with all sorts of links to more information on neighborhood clinics with a great help staff when needed. 90 years from experience speaks for itself!

I have friends who are considering a corporate move to the United Kingdom. Its hard to believe, but yes there are plenty of jobs in the world and they still need top talent and will pay to move them overseas. One of the issues that they must think about is affordable car insurance. Your local carrier in the US is probably not licensed in the UK and would it not be nice to find affordable insurance from those who know what they are talking about? The family will need specifically Van Insurance because unlike the US, they really do not drive too many SUV’s over there. The streets are much smaller and not as wide.

At www.autonetinsurance.co.uk/ they have the solutions to this problem. You can save up to 70% on your van insurance and with one click you can get a quote. What is more, you can get quotes on pet insurance, motorcycle, business, travel and caravan insurance. For us on this side of the pond, caravan insurance is RV insurance. What I love about this company is that if you find a better deal with the same level of coverages, you will get your money back. They shop 40 carrier to make sure of it. That is what shopping on the Internet is all about and few companies seem to meet this demand. Thank you www.autonetinsurance.co.uk for doing so! Further, their site is very easy to use and navigate. Just click on the type of insurance you need, click on give me an online quote or call their phone number, enter your information and receive your quote.

Is it me or has the quality of children’s books diminished over the years. After reading books with my children, I like to look at the inside publications notes to find out when and where the book was published. If you look at the Curious George book written in the 1930′s you will see that you need to dedicate some time to reading it aloud. It is an older prose, without rhyme and needs time to develop plot, conflict and resolution. Today, its all fluff because, I at least I think, we have little to no time to read to our children. If we do, we want the book to get to the point fast and get out quick too. If you think about it, we are already setting up our kids to have short attention spans. Perhaps we are at fault for the dumbing down of our children. Now that we take work home at night or if we could just finish this project I could make time to ensure my child is reading at their level. Managers love this because once they see that you get big tasks done well and quick, more work will come your way while you make your way to the top. Hey, there is always trade offs I was told. Oops, now we are in a global recession and we have to lay you off, so sorry. We will be sure to give a great recommendation. Meanwhile, looking at your kids ask yourself, “do you know them?”

We have been looking for a special gift for the in laws who seem to have everything that they need. They are grandparents and what grandparent do you know that would not just love a painting of their grandchildren. I recently found some cool unique birthday gifts at paintyourlife.com. I just cannot believe how they can take your very simple photo and turn it into a lasting portrait to be hung on the wall forever. Photos are great, but end up in the box sooner or later. Take a look at their testimonials. You will see how dogs, livestock, children and couples look before and after they put their professional touch on your painting. They can even take multiple photographs and create one combined portrait. That is a great idea. You just have to put 20% down and do not pay the rest until you are completely satisfied. That is very professional these days and hard to find! They offer six different mediums including watercolor, oil, charcoal, paste, acrylic and pencil. Just try out their gallery and you will see. We have in mind sending in a photo of the grandparents at the beach walking down along the tide with the setting sun off to the distance. They will eat it up. This is a professional site, with great customer service like live chat! Enjoy.

Our family has decided that with the new economy, we need to find a great outdoor recreation idea for the whole family that is fun and inexpensive, rather than going on a huge vacation getaway. One idea we have is to look into canoeing and or kayaking. Here we can get outdoors, get some great exercise and even though there will be some upfront investment in watercraft, the craft will last for years. There are some differences between canoeing and kayaking and that is where we found outdoorbasecamp.com. This is a great article which outlines the pros and cons of each, and how each watercraft fits into your family or individual situation. For us we will have to go to the canoe because we have a huge family which will require lots of gear to take with us, food supplies and the family dog. We will be a little heavier but we plan to take two cars, float down stream and ride back with the second car waiting for us. This is a very nice website, easy to use with information on parks, cooking, camping etc. My favorite item though is their cool You Tube videos on camping techniques. Check these guys out!

Well, with everyone beginning to lose their jobs and thousands of men and women at home doing research, why not spend some time to see if you can make money on the Internet. There are all kinds of ideas you can explore that yet to be tapped into or not running very well. I recently found that I could learn to make money online from pclink.co.uk. This is a great site to look into a home business over the Internet. One simple yet in high demand idea is that of printer cartridge Ink jet Business. They walk you through how you can put together business where you simply pick the product, pick the price and start selling. You can use your own website, eBay, amazon etc. PC Link has a warehouse of thousands of products in their virtual warehouse. You do not have to keep an inventory, PC Link will deliver to your customer. You get to focus on keeping your amazing website running well and promoting it to drive customers to your site. PC Link steps in from there. It is a great idea, easy and profitable. Look into pclink.co.uk to find the best home based business over the Internet.

With spring around the corner, it is already time to think about early pest control. Green is the rage and it should be. We have destroyed so much of our environment by neglecting good R&D into better performing products with safer ingredients. I have done some shopping for organic gardening products and found that Safebrands.com is your first place to shop. They sell OMRI listed products to replace the not so safe products I have been using that could have been putting my family at risk. For pest control I found their Safer Brand Bug patrol 32oz concentrate to be a great organic buy! It kills 40 insects invade my yard and I have to admit, I used some pretty harsh stuff in the past to kill these guys. Shame on me for not doing better shopping. Buy hey, it is never too late to make a change! My area is very popular for fruit and vegetable gardens and Saferbrands has a great page for people like me. Here I found a tomato and vegetable kit with good insect control and safe at the same time. Plus they sell Insect killing soap, caterpillar killer and Concern fast acting weed killer. We also loved the fact you kind find this brand at the Designing Spaces TV where Saferbrands are showcased and you their hosts Jodi Dombrowski and Woodstream Corp’s Karolyn Warfel have a great 5 min You Tube segment to learn more about going green. Friends, this is the future! Check out saferbrand for a better Green Environment!

Well the Dow has managed to tumble below 7000 today and our retirees get to watch their years of saving tumble as well. The money they counted on by good conservative investing has been slashed in half. Just when folks were turning the corner from the 9/11 stock shock yet another loss has emerged, just when they needed it the most. They did not want the government to be the one to count on. Social Security was just a little help out, along with Medicare. The Retirees took the time to make good 401k contributions to that they depended upon themselves and not Uncle Sam. How ironic, that now the government could possibly be on the board of directors at banks like Citi and now the US will tell you how you will retire. Just what they did not want. Others have years to recoup, but not the greatest generation.
Over the weekend I met with a 75 year old man who lives the above situation. He said what is really ironic or perhaps Deja Vu, is that they can still remember the stories of their families during the Great Depression. They heard, and some saw if they were old enough, the joblessness, the hoplessness and the fact that no one had really anything. Then the War the came and saved everyone yet killed everyone. We have no War to get us out of this one. It will depend on ourselves he said.