One of those stories we hear that is worth looking into.  If true it may save a life and property.

A house burnt down… nothing left but ashes. Owners have good insurance so the house will be replaced and most of the contents.  That is the good news.

 However, they were sick when they found out the cause of the fire. The insurance investigator sifted through the ashes for several hours. He had the cause of the fire traced to the master bathroom. He asked her sister-in-law what she had plugged in the bathroom. She listed the normal things…curling iron, blow dryer.  He kept saying to her, ‘No, this would be something that would disintegrate at high temperatures’. Then her sister-in-law remembered she had a Glade Plug-In, in the bathroom.

The investigator had one of those ‘Aha’ moments. He said that was the cause of the fire. He said he has seen more house fires started with the plug-in type room fresheners than anything else. He said the plastic they are made from is THIN. He also said that in every case there was nothing left to prove that it even existed. When the investigator looked in the wall plug, the two prongs left from the plug-in were still in there.

The sister-in-law had one of the plug-ins that had a small night light built in it. She said she had noticed that the light would dim and then finally go out. She would walk in to the bathroom a few hours later, and the light would be back on again. The investigator said that the unit was getting too hot, and would dim and go out rather than just blow the light bulb. Once it cooled down it would come back on. That is a warning sign

The investigator said he personally wouldn’t have any type of plug in fragrance device anywhere in his house. He has seen too many places that have been burned down due to them.

Montecino & Associates has developed Hope For Owners division out of a very strong need to help homeowners who may be experiencing hardships and may be facing foreclosure.

The Hope For Homeowners division is here to help people in our communities by giving them the information they need to either modify their loan and stay in their home or if that is not an option, to help them understand and proceed with a short sale of their home in order to avoid foreclosure.

The Hope For Homeowners team are CDPE (Certified Distressed Property Expert) trained and have invested time and money to learn and develop the systems to work with the banks and lenders with the goal of achieving a short sale approval.

Homeowners do have options and we strongly feel it is our responsibility as real estate professionals to help people explore their options and avoid foreclosure.

If you know of anyone who is experiencing hardships and are struggling making their payments please have them call the Hope For Homeowners team at (559) 683-3556.

The new stimulus package has a gift for first time home owners. So if you have not owned a home in the past 3 years and you are a renter now is you time.  Homebuyer Tax Credit – The bill provides for a $8,000 tax credit that would be available to first-time home buyers for the purchase of a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009.  The credit does not require repayment.  Most of the mechanics of the credit will be the same as under the 2008 rules:  the credit will be claimed on a tax return to reduce the purchaser’s income tax liability.  If any credit amount remains unused, then the unused amount will be refunded as a check to the purchaser.

This news blew me away.  Nobody can care for and afford fourteen children.  Especially one that is single, receives assistance, and lives with her parents.  My heart goes out to those children.  They will never receive the love and attention a child deserves.  The doctors who have allowed this woman to become pregnant are to blame.   These doctors should be the ones to pay child support and assist this family.  Unfortunately that is not the case.  We, the taxpayers, will raise and support these children throughout their lives.  What is wrong with our system in California?  This mother did not have any reservations bringing 8 additional children into this world knowing she would not be able to provide for them.  She knew the state would support her and all her 14 children.  That is ridiculous. 

Has Christmas become too comercialized?  Have we forgotten the true meaning of Christmas?  I feel the true meaning of Christmas has been over-shadowed by the gifts, Santa, and worrying about who will be having having Christmas dinner.  We have forgotten that Christmas is Jesus’ Birthday and we are to celebrate the gift God sent to us on that day.  We have also forgotten about the meaning behind Santa, St. Nicholas.  It is fine to participate in all the holiday cheer but it is important to remember and teach our children the true meaning behind Christmas.  I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

So I just posted my thoughts on daylight savings time and then came across this article which cleared up many of my questions.  Hopefully it will answer any questions you may have.

“Daylight Saving Time: Why Did We Do It?

At 2:00 a.m. local on Sunday, most of the United States (except Hawaii and Arizona) will leave daylight saving time behind and fall back an hour to standard time.

The annoyance of resetting clocks (or forgetting to, and showing up an hour early for appointments on Sunday) may raise the question of why we bother with this rigmarole in the first place.

Daylight saving time is most often associated with the oh-so-sweet extra hour of sleep in fall (and the not-so-nice loss of an hour in spring), but some of the original reasons for resetting our clocks twice a year including saving energy and having more daylight hours for retailers, sporting events and other activities that benefit from a longer day.

As far back as the 1700s, people recognized the potential to save energy by jumping clocks ahead one hour in the summer - Benjamin Franklin even wrote about it - although the idea was not put into practice until the 20th century.

During both World Wars, the United States and Great Britain began observing daylight saving time.

After the war, U.S. states were free to choose whether to observe daylight saving time and the calendar start dates of the time change. The result was time confusion for travelers and newscasters. In 1966, Congress enacted the Uniform Time Act, which stated that if any state observed daylight saving, it had to follow a uniform protocol, beginning and ending on the same dates throughout the country.

Starting in 2007, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 lengthened daylight saving time by four weeks, starting it three weeks earlier in spring and ending it one week later in fall. Daylight saving now begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday of November.

Formerly it began on the first Sunday of April and ended on the last Sunday of October, so that extra week gives trick-or-treaters a precious extra hour of candy-gathering before sunset.

But not everyone is wild about daylight saving time, with some states opting out all together and others proposing to do so.

Hawaii has never observed daylight saving time, as its tropical latitude means its daylight hours stay fairly constant year-round. Arizona likewise has not observed daylight saving time since 1967 because the extra daylight in the summer would just mean more energy consumption to keep the desert state’s residents cool.

Many Alaskans would like to stop observing daylight saving time because the change in daylight from summer to winter is already so extreme at their northerly latitude. A petition has even been set before the state this year to abolish the observance of daylight saving time in Alaska.

Florida too finds daylight saving time less useful because of it’s southerly latitude. In 2008, a Florida state senator introduced a bill to abolish the practice in Florida.

From 1970 to 2006, most of Indiana didn’t observe daylights time, but began to do so in April 2006 after eight counties in the western portion of the state switched from the Eastern to the Central Time Zone.

None of the U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, observe daylight saving time. ”

Andrea Thompson
Senior Writer
LiveScience.com andrea Thompson
senior Writer
livescience.com – Fri Oct 31, 2:33 pm ET

What exactly is daylight savings?  Is it necessary and who decides which weekend will be the weekend?  Why don’t all the states participate in the changing of the hour?  I have never completely understood the point of daylight savings.  I have heard many reasons for its necessitybut still don’t know why we do it.  I hate having it get dark so early and light by 6:00 a.m.  It messes with the sleeping habits of my children not to mention my own.  The one thing I really don’t understand is why not all the states participate.  What is even stranger is that only parts of Arizona participate.  Talk about confusing.  The only good thing that will come from this weekend’s time change is the extra hour of sleep you have the opportunity to get.

“THIS LETTER MAKES MORE SENSE THAN ANYTHING I HAVE SEEN, HEARD, OR READ,

CONCERNING THE UPCOMING ELECTION…



IT’S A LETTER FROM  A U.S. CITIZEN… WHO LIVES IN   ILLINOIS … AND

OBVIOUSLY IS A  ”SELF-THINKER”… NOT JUST A “FOLLOWER”!!!



IF YOU ONLY READ ONE THING, REGARDING THIS ELECTION… LET THIS BE THE ONE

THING!!  AFTER READING IT, YOU WILL PROBABLY WANT TO FORWARD IT TO OTHER

AMERICANS WHO ARE “SELF THINKERS”!!



An impassioned letter from a “nobody.”  But he gives his telephone number

And e-mail at the end.



Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 3:19 PM

Subject: FW: A letter from Illinois



Dear Friends:



    My name is Joe Porter.  I live in Champaign , Illinois .  I’m 46 years

Old, a born-again Christian, a husband, a father, a small business owner, a

Veteran, and a homeowner. I don’t consider myself to be either conservative

Or liberal, and I vote for the person, not Republican or Democrat.  I don’t

Believe there are “two   Americas ” but that every person in this country
Can

Be whomever and whatever they want to be if they’ll just work to get there

And nowhere else on earth can they find such opportunities.  I believe our

Government should help those who are legitimately downtrodden, and should

Always put the interests of America first.



   The purpose of this message is that I’m concerned about the future of

This great nation. I’m worried that the silent majority of honest,

Hard-working, tax-paying people in this country have been passive for too

Long.  Most folks I know choose not to involve themselves in politics.  They

Go about their daily lives, paying their bills, raising  their kids, and

Doing what they can to maintain the good life.  They vote and consider doing

So to be a sacred trust.  They shake their heads at the political pundits

And so-called “news,” thinking that what they hear is always spun by

Whomever is reporting it.  They can’t understand how elected officials can

Regularly violate the public trust with pork barrel spending.  They don’t

Want government handouts.  They want the government to protect them, not

Raise their taxes for more government programs.



   We are in the unique position in this country of electing our leaders.

It’s a privilege to do so.  I’ve never found a candidate in any election

With whom I agreed on everything.  I’ll wager that most of us don’t even

Agree with our families or spouses 100% of the time.  So when I step into

That voting booth, I always try to look at the big picture and cast my vote

For the man or woman who is best qualified for the job. I’ve hired a lot of

People in my lifetime, and essentially that’s what an election is - a hiring

Process.  Who has the credentials?  Whom do I want working for me?  Whom can

I trust to do the job right?



I’m concerned that a growing number of voters in this country simply don’t

Get it.  They are caught up in a fervor they can’t explain, and calling it

“change.”



“Change what?”  I ask.



“Well, we’re going to change America ” they say.



“In what way?”  I query.



 ”We want someone new and fresh in the White House,” they exclaim.



“So, someone who’s not a politician?”  I say.



“Uh, well, no, we just want a lot of stuff changed, so we’re voting for

Obama,” they state.



“So the current system, the system of freedom and democracy that has

Enabled a man to grow up in this great country, get a fine education, raise

Incredible amounts of money and dominate the news, and win his party’s

Nomination for the White House that system’s all wrong?”



“No, no, that part of the system’s okay we just need a lot of change.”



And so it goes. “Change we can believe in.”



Quite frankly, I don’t believe that vague proclamations of change hold any

Promise for me.  In recent months, I’ve been asking virtually everyone I

Encounter how they’re voting.  I live in   Illinois , so most folks tell me

they’re voting for barrack Obama.  But no one can really tell me why only

that he’s going to change a lot of stuff “Change, change, change.”  I have

yet to find one single person who can tell me distinctly and convincingly

why this man is qualified to be President and Commander-in-Chief of the most

powerful nation on earth other than the fact that he claims he’s going to

implement a lot of change.



We’ve all seen the emails about Obama’s genealogy, his upbringing, his

Muslim background, and his church affiliations.  Let’s ignore this for a

moment.  Put it all aside.  Then ask yourself, “What qualifies this man to

be my president?  That he’s a brilliant orator and talks about change?”



            CHANGE WHAT?



Friends, I’ll be forthright with you.  I believe the American voters who

are supporting barrack Obama don’t have a clue what they’re doing, as

evidenced by the fact that not one of them - NOT ONE of them I’ve spoken to

can spell out his qualifications.  Not even the most liberal media can

explain why he should be elected.







Political experience?  Negligible



Foreign relations?  Non-existent.



Achievements?  Can you name one.



Single piece of legislation as a Senator? Zero



Any Reform Bill as a Senator?  Zero



Someone who wants to unite the country?  If you haven’t read his wife’s

thesis from   Princeton , look it up on the web.



This is who’s lining up to be our next First Lady?  The only thing I can

glean from Obama’s constant harping about change is that we’re in for a lot

of new taxes.



For me, the choice is clear.   I’ve looked carefully at the two leading

applicants for the job, and I’ve made  my choice.



Here’s a question - “Where were you five and a half years ago?  Around

Christmas, 2002.  You’ve had five or six birthdays in that time.  My son has

grown from a sixth grade child to a high school graduate.  Five and a half

years is a good chunk of time. About 2,000 days.  2,000 nights of sleep.  6,

000 meals, give or take.”



John McCain spent that amount of time, from 1967 to 1973, in a North

Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp.



When offered early release, he refused it.  He considered this offer to be a

public relations stunt by his captors, and insisted that those held longer

than he should be released first.  Did you get that part?  He was offered

his freedom, and he turned it down.  A regimen of beatings and torture

began.



Do you possess such strength of character?  Locked in a filthy cell in a

foreign country, would you turn down your own freedom in favor of your

fellow man?  I submit that’s a quality of character that is rarely found,

and for me, this singular act defines John McCain.



Unlike several presidential candidates in recent years whose military

service is questionable or non-existent, you will not find anyone to

denigrate the integrity and moral courage of this man.  A graduate of

Annapolis , during his Naval service he received the Silver Star, Bronze

Star, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.  His own son is now

serving in the Marine Corps in Iraq .  Barack Obama is fond of saying “We

honor John McCain’s service…BUT…” which to me is condescending and

offensive - because what I hear is, “Let’s forget this man’s sacrifice for

his country, and his proven leadership abilities, and talk some more about

change.”



I don’t agree with John McCain on everything - but I am utterly convinced

that he is qualified to be our next President, and I trust him to do what’s

right.  I know in my heart that he has the best interests of our country in

mind.  He doesn’t simply want to be President - he wants to lead   America ,

and there’s a huge difference.  Factually, there is simply no comparison

between the two candidates.  A man of questionable background and motives

who prattles on about change, can’t hold a candle to a man who has devoted

his life in public service to this nation, retiring from the Navy in1981 and

elected to the Senate in1982.



Perhaps Obama’s supporters are taking a stance between old and new.  Maybe

they don’t care about McCain’s service or his strength of character, or his

unblemished qualifications to be President.  Maybe “likeability” is a higher

priority for them than “trust.”  Being a prisoner of war is not what

qualifies John McCain to be President of the United States of America  - but

his demonstrated leadership certainly DOES!!





    Dear friends, it is time for us to stand.  It is time for thinking

Americans to say, “Enough.”  It is time for people of all parties to stop

following the party line.  It is time for anyone who wants to keep America

first, who wants the right man leading their nation, to start a dialogue

with all their friends and neighbors and ask who they’re voting for, and

why.



   There’s a lot of evil in this world.  That should be readily apparent to

all of us by now.  And when faced with that evil as we are now, I want a man

who knows the cost of war on his troops and on his citizens.  I want a man

who puts my family’s interests before any foreign country.



   I want a President who’s qualified to lead.



   I want my country back, and I’m voting for John McCain.”

(source: email circulation)

These are some great tips that really work.  I have tried many of them and sure enough, they worked!!!

Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a non-stick skillet on top of the stove,
set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar/calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants; work the nutrients in your soil. Wet
newspapers put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass
Use a dry cotton ball to pick up little broken glass pieces of
glass- the fibers catch ones you can’t see!

No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn’t hurt the plant and the squirrels won’t come near it.

Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gif wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not
have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and - voila - static is gone.

Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don’t dry the cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include
something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily.

Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It’s a lot cheaper
than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It’s also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn’t like when you tried it in your hair…

Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2″
with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dishwashing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it “home,” & can’t digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, esp. if it rains, but it works & you don’t have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Take baby powder to the beach
Keep a small bottle of baby powder in your beach bag. When your ready to leave the beach sprinkle yourself and kids with the powder and the sand will slide right off your skin.

This year so many families have been affected by natural disasters.  For those affected by such trajedy you’d hope that they would be able to receive assistance.  Mariposa County faced a devasting year of fires.  The Telegraph Fire and Oliver Fire left many with only ashes of memories.  With hope of assistance from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) many were ready to rebuild thier lives and build new memories.  However the hope of aid from FEMA was declined.  FEMA has now turned their attention to the victims of the hurricanes.  Is this fair?  Why is FEMA doing this?  Should everyone who needs it, receive it?  I was shocked to hear on the channel 30 news that local residents of Mariposa will not be receiving any assistance from FEMA.  I don’t think this is right.  One victim needs just as much help as the other.