I am the oldest of four kids. We all have our unique qualities. My youngest brother is the artsy one. He is the person you can go to for any type of art and he is able to produce it quickly. One of my sisters is the smart one. I think she could win any kind of trivia game because she knows everything there is to know about anything. I have always been the technology one. I think it will forever be my place with my family. Everyone always comes to me with any and all technology questions. Sometimes it is questions about Microsoft Word, sometimes it is questions about direct tv vs cable and sometimes it is questions about operating a computer. I am always happy to help and I love my family, but the world is getting so advanced with technology that they might need to start learning some things. My mom can’t keep calling me every time she needs to turn on the computer or open a webpage. I keep hoping she will remember, but I keep getting calls about simple things.

So yesterday I broke down and bought a new one. This one cost about twice as much as the first one did; it has more bells and whistles. I don’t know how to use it yet; I am actually a little bit intimidated by it. Being technologically challenged is a sad thing to be in this day and age!

Well, now is really different!  With the Internet at our fingertips, today’s teenagers and young adults are extremely fortunate to have such great websites as the studentcreditcardscenter.com to go to. At that website they can read a lot of great articles about the different types of student credit card offers and brands that are available to the student. There is also a really great article about identity theft that I think everyone should read no matter how old (or young) you are!

As far as I’m concerned as long as it is made of beef Oscar Myer is still tops in my book and when I have a coupon and/or find them on sale I stock up on them so they are a pretty cheap food that I’ve been enjoying since childhood. My mother always served Oscar Myer and still does.

I try not to call her too much, so I have been communicating with her mainly through emails and texting. It has been so long since we have talked on the phone or seen each other face to face that I all most forget what her voice sounds like for heaven’s sake! So I am so happy to accept an invite from her to join her to watch the fireworks tomorrow night in celebrating the 4th of July. This is something that we have done dozens of times through out the years of our friendship and from many, many vantage points all over the country, depending where we are living at the time. And I’m so grateful that we are both at least in the same state for right now anyway, but after she graduates, who knows where she will end up, it all depends where the best money is to help pay for all the education that was required for her to get into her new field of bettering the environment. Her favorite color has always been green!

Anyway, we have a copy of the first Shrek movie so we sat down and watched that last night. I really didn’t expect to enjoy it, but it was a cute movie. There was a part in it that I wish my family would take to heart – the part where donkey tells Shrek that friends forgive each other because that is what friends do. If the entire world would learn that particular lesson life would be a lot easier all the way around!

During the night some folks came across this scene. Only to find an abandoned dog was looking for a comfortable, protected place to sleep. He chose the baby Jesus as his comfort. No one had the heart to send him away so he was there all night.

We should all have the good sense of this dog and curl up in Jesus’ lap from time to time. This is too sweet not to share and no one mentioned that the dog breed is a “shepherd!”

So, what is a woman to do?  Smart women get estimates, and this is where the Internet can help.  There are websites, such as repairpal.com that you can use to plug values into their search engine to determine fair rates for different types of repairs, and then find out where different local repair shops are located.  So you could, for example, find out how much you could expect to pay to replace the timing belt on a honda accord in the San Francisco auto repair market.  You can switch it out to match your own needs.  I think that this kind of help is a great advantage to all of us consumers – you can get a good idea of the value of the repair so that you are not treated like “fresh meat” at the repair shops!

My entire family was just about climbing the walls because we had no Internet access for so long!  I think I’ll be checking out the wildblue satellite internet services to see what their rates are.  I don’t want to be without Internet again!  I can’t believe how dependent my family has become on it for so many functions – entertainment, communications, paying bills, shopping…..  We depend on it so much!

Now that the Internet has come back up on line, the entire family has parked themselves in front of their respective computers.  Watching shows, checking their emails, playing games.  I have to make sure that the bills I needed to pay got paid!  I hope I didn’t miss any deadlines!