This Is me and My Family On Christmas Eve

Cute Clara is under the tree

Merry Christmas

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, 'If I were any better, I would be twins!'
 
 

He was a natural motivator.
 
 
 
If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
 
 
 
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, 'I don't get it!
 

 
You can't be a positive person all of the time How do you do it?'
 

 
He replied, 'Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ... you can choose to be in a bad mood
 
 
I choose to be in a good mood.'
 
 
Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.
 
 
 
Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life. 

 'Yeah, right, it's not that easy,' I protested.
  

'Yes, it is,' he said. 'Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood.
 
 
 
You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life.'
 
 

 I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. 
 
 
Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.
 
 
 
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.
 
 
 
I saw him about six months after the accident.
 
 
 
When I asked him how he was, he replied, 'If I were any better, I'd be twins..Wanna see my scars?'
 
 
 
I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.
 
  
'The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,' he replied. 'Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live.'
 
 
 
'Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?' I asked
 
 
He continued, '...the paramedics were great.
 
 
 
They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared.. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action.'
 
 
 
'What did you do?' I asked. 
 
 
'Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,' said John. 'She asked if I was allergic to anything 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity''
 
 
 
Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.'
 
 
 
He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude.... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
 
 
 
Attitude, after all, is everything .
 
 
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.' Matthew 6:34.
 

After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Author Unkown

Southern women appreciate their natural assets:

Clean skin.
A winning smile.
That unforgettable Southern drawl.


Southern women know their manners:

"Yes, ma'am."
"Yes, sir."
"Why, no, Billy!"



Southern women have a distinct way with fond expressions :

"Y'all come back!"
"Well, bless your heart."
"Drop by when you can."
"How's your Momma?"


Southern women know their summer weather report:

Humidity
Humidity
Humidity


Southern women know their vacation spots:

The beach
The rivuh
The crick


Southern women know the joys of June, July, and August:

Colorful hi-heel sandals
Strapless sun dresses
Iced sweet tea with mint


Southern women know everybody's first name:

Honey
Darlin'
Shugah


Southern women know the movies that speak to their hearts:

Fried Green Tomatoes
Driving Miss Daisy
Steel Magnolias
Gone With The Wind


Southern women know their religions:

Methodist

Baptist

Presbyterian

Football

Southern women know their country breakfasts:

Red-eye gravy
Grits
Eggs
Country ham
Mouth-watering homemade biscuits with momma's homemade jelly


Southern women know their cities dripping with Southern charm:

Chawl'stn

S'vanah
Foat Wuth
N'awlins
Addlanna


Southern women know their elegant gentlemen:

Men in uniform.
Men in tuxedos
Rhett Butler


Southern girls know their prime real estate:

The Mall
The Country Club
The Beauty Salon


Southern girls know the 3 deadly sins:

Having bad hair and nails
Having bad manners
Cooking bad food

More Suthen-ism's:

Only a Southerner knows the difference between a hissie fit and a conniption fit, and that you don't "HAVE" them, you "PITCH" them.
_____

Only a Southerner knows how many fish, collard greens, turnip greens, peas, beans, etc., make up"a mess."
_____

Only a Southerner can show or point out to you the general direction of"yonder."
_____

Only a Southerner knows exactly how long"directly" is, . as in: "Going to town, be back directly."
_____

Even Southern babies know that"Gimme some sugar" is not a request for the white, granular sweet substance that sits in a pretty little bowl in the middle of the table.
_____

All Southerners know exactly when"by and by" is. They might not use the term, but they know the concept well.
_____

Only a Southerner knows instinctively that the best gesture of solace for a neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of hot fried chicken and a big bowl of cold potato salad. If the neighbor's trouble is a real crisis, they also know to add a large banana puddin!
_____

Only Southerners grow up knowing the difference between"right near" and "a right far piece." They also know that "just down the road" can be 1 mile or 20.
_____

Only a Southerner, both knows and understands, the difference between a redneck, a good ol' boy, and po' white trash.
_____

No true Southerner would ever assume that the car with the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn.
_____

A Southerner knows that"fixin" can be used as a noun, a verb, or an adverb.
_____

Only Southerners make friends while standing in lines, ... and when we're "in line," . we talk to everybody!
_____

Put 100 Southerners in a room and half of them will discover they're related, even if only by marriage.
_____

In the South,y'all is singular, all y'all is plural.
_____

Southerners know grits come from corn and how to eat them.
_____

Every Southerner knows tomatoes with eggs, bacon, grits, and coffee are perfectly wonderful; that red eye gravy is also a breakfast food; and that fried green tomatoes are not a breakfast food.
_____

When you hear someone say, "Well, I caught myself lookin'," you know you are in the presence of a genuine Southerner!
_____

Only true Southerners say"sweet tea" and "sweet milk." Sweet tea indicates the need for sugar and lots of it -- we do not like our tea unsweetened. "Sweet milk" means you don't want buttermilk.
_____

And a true Southerner knows you don't scream obscenities at little old ladies who drive 30 MPH on the freeway. You just say,"Bless her heart" ... and go your own way.
_____

To those of you who are still a little embarrassed by your Southerness: Take two tent revivals and a dose of sausage gravy and call me in the morning. Bless your heart!
_____
And to those of you who are still having a hard time understanding all this Southern stuff, ... bless your hearts, I hear they are fixin' to have classes on Southernness as a second language!
_____

And for those that are not from the South but have lived here for a long time, all y'all need a sign to hang on y'alls front porch that reads "I ain't from the South, but I got here as fast as I could."


Southern girls know men may come and go, but friends are fahevah !

Now...... Shugah, send this to someone who was raised in the South or wish they had been!

Author Unknown

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AOL Autos

(AOL Autos) -- You don't have to look too far into the past to find a time when automakers didn't see car safety as a "selling point." But over the last 30 years, car safety has become a prime factor in the minds of car buyers.

The NHTSA ranks the Volkswagen Jetta as one of the top safest small cars.

So, automakers responded -- and as a result, cars and trucks are much safer today than they were 30, 20, even 10 years ago.

One car segment that has especially benefited from this overall improvement in safety is the sub-compact category. And it's a good thing, too, because as gas prices have soared in the last two years, more buyers are turning away from big trucks, monster SUVs and gas-thirsty muscle cars in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Indeed, the small-car category is the fastest-growing segment in the U.S. auto industry, with sales increasing by 12 percent this year, and everyone expects that growth to continue as long as gas prices keep rising -- or even if they just hold steady and don't drop. That's why many automakers have even more sub-compact models in their product pipelines.

So, as Americans' buying preferences have shifted to smaller vehicles, the old debate about the safety of small cars has ignited anew. Some drivers who've been in an SUV for the last six years have been apprehensive about not being surrounded by a massive steel structure and a few dozen feet of sheet metal.

But those who have been forced to "go small" for economic reasons can take comfort in the fact that small cars are much safer today than they were just a decade ago. AOL Autos: Cars with the lowest ownership costs

According to the most recent available data released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the death rate in the smallest cars on the road has dropped to 106 per million registered vehicles, a significant drop from the 165 per million in 1996.

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And today, 14 of the 17 top-selling small cars receive good frontal crash test ratings from IIHS, says Adrian Lund, IIHS president. A decade ago, none did. "That's obviously a huge improvement," stresses Lund. "Small cars are indeed much safer now than they were just a decade ago."

The IIHS is a non-profit group, funded by auto insurers, that conducts research on "how to prevent damage and injuries and deaths" in auto accidents, says Lund. AOL Autos: Most popular fuel-efficient cars

"There have been many new technological developments over the last 10 years, and all small cars now have front air bags, many of them have side air bags with head prevention, and many are getting electronic stability control," Lund continues.

"Plus, due to the crash testing conducted by us and by the National Highway Transportation & Safety Administration (NHTSA -- a division of the Department of Transportation), many of the automakers have improved the structural design of the passenger compartment -- which means there is less 'intrusion' into the compartment than there used to be if a crash occurs."

Here are six of the safest small cars on the road, according to NHTSA, which gave all six a frontal-crash-test rating of five stars, the organization's highest rating. AOL Autos: Safest small cars

Ford's small-car entry, the Focus, followed right behind these models, as far as NHTSA is concerned, with a four-star frontal-crash-test rating.

IIHS uses a different system of rating vehicles' crash-test results than NHTSA. And to illustrate the improvement in small-car safety, IIHS compared some current models to older models from the same car maker.

The current Chevy Cobalt, for example, got a "good" overall frontal-crash test rating from IIHS -- the organization's highest rating. Comparatively, the old Chevy Cavalier, which was produced from 1995 - 2005, received a "poor" overall frontal-crash rating. AOL Autos: Four fast cars for under $30,000

"The overall frontal rating," explains IIHS spokesman Russ Rader, "is based on the individual scores for each of the parameters we measure in the test -- such as the performance of the vehicle's structure; injury measures to the head, neck, chest, legs and feet, and the dummy's movement during the test."

Meanwhile, the old Dodge Neon (1995-'99) received a "poor" overall frontal rating, while its replacement, the current Dodge Caliber, scores a "good" rating from IIHS. AOL Autos: Best-selling small cars

And according to IIHS results, the Ford Focus's frontal-offset crash-test results have remained steady -- it received a "good" rating in that category from 2000-'08, although its 2000-'07 models received a "poor" rating when it came to side-impact tests when tested without the optional side airbags.

One car company that has emphasized the safety of small cars in recent years is Honda, which launched its "safety for everyone" initiative in 2003. As part of this initiative, the company announced the development of Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure, which bolstered occupant protection.

"The 2009 Fit will be the latest small model to get ACE when it goes on sale in the next couple of months," says company spokesman Chris Martin. "With the intro of the new Fit, over 94% of Honda's sold in the U.S. will have the Advanced Compatibility Engineering technology."

A couple of years ago, automakers also adopted an initiative that will improve the safety for small-car drivers by agreeing to build trucks and SUVs with lower front ends.

"This should address the incompatibility between cars and trucks, says Lund. "Trucks have always ridden higher than cars -- which makes them inherently more dangerous to drivers of smaller cars in the event of an accident. So, by next year, we'll be seeing light trucks with lower structures," says Lund.

"In the event of an accident, that means that the front end of the truck will hit the bumper or door sill of the car, instead of hitting the car higher up, like in the passenger compartment, which in the past, has made drivers of small cars much more vulnerable to injury."

But, even though small cars have made big safety gains, it is true that big vehicles are still safer than small ones.

"The risk of dying in the smallest car, compared to the largest car, is still 2-to-1," says Lund. "But, now that people are being forced to make the switch to smaller vehicles due to economic considerations, with fuel prices being so high, it's a comfort for them to know that the smallest cars are so much safer than they were 10 years ago."

The current trend toward buying smaller vehicles also prompts Lund to point out that, "if you do want or need to go with a smaller car, it is important to pay attention to its crash-test ratings."

I have a New Blog.

In it, I will be blogging about my favorite books, books that I have to read for school, and books that I read for fun. I will even write about books that will help me with my future goals, so that I can learn more about being a Vet, and good Realtor.

This is my new Book Blog http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/emilysreadinglist

Come visit, to see what I am reading.

Happy Thanksgiving

The best ever! Watched this awhile ago and it STILL cracks me up! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZOxqVl5oP4 Wonder if there will be pie at the coronation!

 Hey everyone, so sorry that I haven't blogged in a while. Still busy
getting moved in.


I am so so excited! We are going to see my Sis for thanksgiving, and see
the newest member of her family, baby Andrew.

_________________
Andrew Jackson
Born: November-5-2008
Time of Birth: 11:37 am
Weight: 7Pounds .06 ounces
Length: 18 ¾ inches


Soon I will have photos of him, and his brothers, and put them on my blog.


Anyways, more things that are happening in my life uuummmm!!!!

It snowed today, and some of it stuck, for a minute lol *cold Cold COLD!!*

Right now it is 34 degrees.  We are going to Sam's Club.


Sam's Club has a really cool keyboard, with a mic, it is so fun. I might
get one for Christmas. They also have a very cute doll, with a dog, that
is just so cute. I'm still a girl even though I'm almost 14 ½ years
old. I still like the things that I did 5 years ago heehee.

Well got to go

PS

Clara is coming with us, when we go to see my Sissy. yes!!!