Contribution by Saul Martin

I wanted to get my parents something really special for Christmas this year, and had no idea what that would be. They spend most of their time together now that they are retired, so I thought it would be nice to get one big gift that they could share and use around the house. They pretty much have everything that they need, but have never been extravagant, and hardly ever spend on the extras. I was really stumped, and was starting to get desperate. I was lucky to come across http://www.giveadish.com/ the other day, because I found the perfect gift. I am going to connect Directv for them and pay for a year of their service. They have never had access to all of these channels and sports before and I think that they are really going to like it. I know that my dad will definitely like the fact that he can watch all NFL games, and my mom will enjoy the movie channels. It would be great if they actually like it because I always have the hardest time finding them something that is practical and enjoyable.

My mother asked me to cook supper tonight, she wasn’t feeling very well.  I asked her what she wanted me to cook and she said “whatever.”  So I know she REALLY wasn’t feeling well.  So I scrounged around the kitchen to see what I could come up with.  Something a little bit different than what we eat.  I felt like experimenting.  So I found some skinless chicken breasts in the refrigerator that had a “use by” date of tomorrow, so I decided to pull them out and use them.

Then I went to the pantry and was looking around.  I found a can of Healthy Request Cream of Chicken soup, and a can of Healthy Request Cream of Mushroom soup.  I pulled them out.  I rinsed off the chicken and cut it into strips and put them in a covered casserole dish.  Then I opened the cans of soup and poured them over the chicken, put the lid on and cooked it at 350 for a half hour.  While that was cooking I cooked up some minute rice, some dinner rolls and some veggies and we had a great meal!  I’ll have to cook that again sometime!  Definitely put that in my recipe box!

The controversy that has been going on in the news and on Facebook about whether or not all employers that provide medical insurance as a benefit to their employees had to provide birth control pills free of charge has really been quite heated. What seemed to me a simple “common sense” situation that all medical insurance should provide that benefit as an open and shut case has become a controversy over separation of church and state, and people have really gone nuts over the whole thing.

Many people felt that if an employer offers medical insurance to their employees, then religion should not be a part of it. Others felt that this was a case of the government interfering with the church’s position on birth control. Finally the President arranged a change in the wording of the law so that it was not giving people the impression that the church was condoning birth control, and it appears that now everyone is satisfied. At least I hope that everyone is satisfied!

So the clogging shoes that I bought from Ebay for my sister-in-law are too small for her. They are too small for me, too. I’m debating whether or not to hold on to them to maybe sell to someone in the future at the class that I go to, or list them for sale on Ebay just to get of them quickly. I’m inclined to just hold on to them for a couple of weeks to see if there are any newbies that need shoes that might fit. What would you do?

Recently I was given a list of self-help books that a successful sales organization uses to help their sales agents hone their people skills. Rather than running down to the book store and buying them I decided to try to find some of them for sale at bargain prices online. That’s when I found a shopping site called become.com. The become.com shopping website is different than any other shopping website I’ve seen before.

In addition to being able to search through a lot of different vendors for an item like white teen desks or custom suggestion cards the site also offers comparison reviews and an entire section of tips about products and “how to” do things, like how to take care of your fingernails and how to pick out the best vacuum cleaner for your needs.

While I was browsing around, looking at the listings of books I realized that this might be a good website to use to buy the baby shower present that I’m going to need next month for Sarah. I found a lot of cute crib bedding, and I’m having a hard time choosing between the green and black crib bedding and the girl farm crib bedding. I think I’m going to need to find an excuse to go to Sarah’s house to get a sneak peek at the nursery before I decide for sure what to buy.