With the election on the forefront of every American’s mind, a woman voter may have more to think about than the average “Joe Sixpack” (a phrase recently coined by vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin).  For instance, some political discussion has taken place regarding positions of each candidate with regard to the Roe v. Wade ruling and its standing in allowing a woman the right to choose abortion.
 
As a woman, having the right to decide whether to carry a baby has been an entitlement to me.  Although I have not personally had to apply such right in my own life, knowing the right is mine is critical to my sense of security and safety, particularly in a society with high crime rates.  Additionally, the medical community today pushes pharmaceuticals to every patient without fully understanding the potential side effects to an unborn fetus.  These uncertainties are concerning and reinforce my opinion that a woman should have a right to decide.
 
Just recently, I watched the struggles of a friend trying to get pregnant in her 30’s.  To explain in detail, this friend had tried for several years to get pregnant, to no avail.  However, on this particular month, she did all the right things.  She charted her ovulation and every single detail to make sure that nothing was overlooked.  Too afraid to excite her husband unnecessarily, she carried this burden alone, with the exception to a few trusted friends.  Suddenly, she started to possess pregnancy symptoms.  However, an early blood test suggested she wasn’t pregnant.  At this point she was relieved for not having excited her husband about something that did not exist.  The only problem was, my friend was convinced she was pregnant.  She recognized changes in her body which were unexplainable.  Another week passed and my friend performed another blood pregnancy test that provided another negative test result.  Although she had missed her cycle, there was no accurate explanation to the cause and the physician’s solution was for my friend to take medication to restart her cycle.  She couldn’t help but question whether she was indeed pregnant but too recent for the tests to detect.  The physician’s nurse couldn’t offer a solid answer.  The point is, there was no guarantee she wasn’t pregnant.  A woman knows her body and physicians know their tests, but sometimes one or the other is wrong.
 
I’ve mentioned my friend’s struggles to point out that even today, in America where land is “free” and your destiny is whatever you make it…, modern medicine continues to be puzzled by many unanswered questions.  If the nurse couldn’t tell my friend with certainty that she wasn’t pregnant, how could she make the decision to “restart” her cycle?  Likewise, my friend ultimately had the right to make that decision.  Flipping the coin, what if my friend WAS pregnant and learned of a pending deformity of the baby.  Shouldn’t she have the right to make that choice?
 
With the election nearing, it’s only appropriate that American’s should consider all things pending.  Women voters especially have more factors to consider than whether our candidates are “soccer moms” and dress well, but rather, “will they truly represent ALL of a woman’s best interests?”  If you are a woman, you have a RIGHT TO CHOOSE…on November 4th.

It’s that time of year folks…you got it, election time.  Much like any other American, it’s time when we are all considering which political view we share and which direction we will vote on November 4, 2008. 
 
So, I ask…”where are you on the political forum?”  If you haven’t been following the political debates, you have missed quite a bit that I most certainly can’t enlighten you on.  However, I would urge you to check out … to update yourself on the all encompassing list of issues.  I will, however, give you a brief summary on a couple key issues that have recently been discussed in our latest presidential debate.
 
In short, we have John McCain as our Republican candidate running against Barack Obama, our Democratic candidate.  Both candidates agree that change is imperative to pull America out of the financial crisis we are in; however, Obama specifically uses “change” as his motto to encourage Americans for a better economic future. McCain, however, is struggling with avoiding the image of following the economic and political policies of our current President, George W. Bush.  For that reason, McCain is hoping to encourage Americans that his policies are different from those policies which have landed America in its current recession.
 
During the third presidential debate, Obama spotlighted several key issues of his campaign, including his intent to lower taxes for the average American citizens who make less than $250,000.00 per year, to implement an energy efficient environment, and, among other things, to minimize unnecessary combat.   McCain’s campaign goals include the redistribution of insurance funds to the insurance providers, with the intent to lower American’s insurance costs, as well as his interest in continually helping other countries with their military needs. 
 
Needless to say, this merely touches the many different issues between these two candidates.  The point remains…we are approaching an election and it’s time for every citizen to do his or her own research, familiarize oneself with the key issues and your relevant stance, and most importantly, VOTE.  Stay tuned until November 4th!

Have you ever sat down and really looked at your spending? I have been financially comfortable until this last year and have reached a point where I need to look at what I am spending before hand. This is a really big must have for me, but it is not going to be easy. I have the same amount of money coming in as I have going out…Yikes

In the last two months I have noticed my money cushion diminishing at a high rate. Having the money cushion is great, but it tends to hide what you are really spending because everything is flowing comfortably. Well, let me take that back because if I balanced my checking account like I should I would have noticed these things a long time go. However this is not the case so going forward I need to be smart and make some wise life altering decisions.

I am not sure if any of you what Opera, but she had a show on last week that talked about saving and spending money on necessities verses wants. Her guest talked about stretching the dollar to get its maximum benefits. Most of the families are cutting corners because of the economy and challenges they have all had, but there was one family who has been living this way for years. This family only lives on the necessities, the husband car pools to work, mom bargain shops for groceries and tons on other cut backs are made. They live on an income of $58k a year with a family of 6. This is amazing and I highly recommend going to Opera.com to check it out – they give great tips to follow.

On the same show there was a lady who has mastered the bargain shopping to a whole other level. This lady gets 3 papers every Sunday and cuts out the coupons and then matches those with items on sale at her local grocery store. Basically she is saying that you need to base your meals on the food that is on sale. This lady had a $137 grocery bills before coupons, but after the coupons the bill came to $37. Wow…that is amazing.

All of the ideas they were giving seem difficult, time consuming and just plain challenging, but I think once you create a pattern and new habits; then things will appear to be easier. I have reached a point were I do not have a choice, I need to learn how to cut back on spending and start saving. The other thing is to get rid of the credit cards. Credit cards should only be for emergencies and nothing else.

So I have first calculated my monthly spending and then looking to see what I can cut back on or get rid of. My next step will be to figure out the grocery bill shopping because I spend a lot on food here, food there and so on. I am always open for help ideas so if anyone knows of any great ideas on savings please let me know.    

I finished the summer semester courses and my two week break seemed as if I blinked and it was here and left before I could enjoy it. I guess that stems from working to much and everyday life stresses.  This semester I am adopting another class as I am trying to expedite my time attending school. I try to take additional classes when I can. However; working 60 plus hours a week doesn’t leave to much room for those extra classes. So I will take two for know and see how things go.

My classes this semester at Rasmussen are E-commerce and Customer Service. The E-commerce class is going to help me a lot in my working career now because I do a lot of online recruiting, marketing and searching for new business. Therefore I am actually excited about this class and anxious to learn a lot. The Customer Service I am not real sure about because I did not know they even had this type of course. It makes sense when you think about it because it is great for everyone to learn how to deal with customers whether they are outside of your company or inside. Inside meaning co-workers because we need to learn how to treat one another too.

Of course as I decide to take on more challenges with school, work wants to give me more challenges too. In Orlando we are really struggling with the economy and businesses are laying people off left and right. It has been addressed that I could be one of these people next. These are the times when I wish I could blink my eyes and be finished with my degree.

I was searching for jobs on CareerBuilder.com the other day with my boyfriend. He has his Bachelors degree from University of Central Florida and I am earning my degree now. The difference and stress levels from his search and mine are completely different. He is searching for areas of knowledge and compensation and looking in one field while I am searching for all of those plus education requirements and looking under several different fields. While there are companies out there searching for people with my experience they are requiring a four year degree. Even the sales positions were requiring a degree. What the heck… He was finding things left and right while I kept running into road blocks. This really scares me and I can only pray that I am not put into this difficult situation again.   

If only I had gone to College right after high school things in my life would be so different; however I did not so I have to move on. Thank goodness for the resources we have now which allow me to earn my degree online and work to pay my bills at the same time. Stay with me this semester as I journey through these courses and hope to learn lots – who knows, maybe I can share some things with all of you.