Obama is at it again! Now he wants to cut the mortgage interest deductions for those he calls wealthy – individuals making over $200,000.00 or couples making over $250,000.00.  I don’t happen to fall in that tax bracket, but many of my friends do.  I think this is an outrage and so very unfair.  You can read more by clicking on the following links:

NAR Cautions Against MID Changes

http://speakingofrealestate.blogs.realtor.org/

On Valentine’s Day … more than 58 million pounds of chocolate will change hands across the nation.

In the Middle Ages, when jousting knights competed for honor and love, their sweethearts offered them bright red ribbons – a symbol of good luck! And the red ribbons that adorn each heart-shaped box trace their roots back to an Old World tradition.

Wishing you all the luck and success you
deserve … in business, in love, and in life!

P.S. Valentine’s Day, named after St. Valentine is popular in many countries besides the USA.  For a more in-depth explanation of the history of Valentine’s Day and to read about the various real St. Valentines please click on the following link:       http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops offers the following clarifications regarding the Health and Human Services regulations on mandatory coverage of contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.

1. The mandate does not exempt Catholic charities, schools, universities, or hospitals. These institutions are vital to the mission of the Church, but HHS does not deem them “religious employers” worthy of conscience protection, because they do not “serve primarily persons who share their religious tenets.” HHS denies these organizations religious freedom precisely because their purpose is to serve the common good of society—a purpose that government should encourage, not punish.

2. The mandate forces these institutions and others, against their conscience, to pay for things they consider immoral. Under the mandate, the government forces religious insurers to write policies that violate their beliefs; forces religious employers and schools to sponsor and subsidize coverage that violates their beliefs; and forces religious employees and students to purchase coverage that violates their beliefs.

3. The mandate forces coverage of sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs and devices as well as contraception. Though commonly called the “contraceptive mandate,” HHS’s mandate also forces employers to sponsor and subsidize coverage of sterilization. And by including all drugs approved by the FDA for use as contraceptives, the HHS mandate includes drugs that can induce abortion, such as “Ella,” a close cousin of the abortion pill RU-486.

4. Catholics of all political persuasions are unified in their opposition to the mandate. Catholics who have long supported this Administration and its healthcare policies have publicly criticized HHS’s decision, including columnists E.J. Dionne, Mark Shields, and Michael Sean Winters; college presidents Father John Jenkins and Arturo Chavez; and Daughter of Charity Sister Carol Keehan, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States.

5. Many other religious and secular people and groups have spoken out strongly against the mandate. Many recognize this as an assault on the broader principle of religious liberty, even if they disagree with the Church on the underlying moral question. For example, Protestant Christian, Orthodox Christian, and Orthodox Jewish groups–none of which oppose contraception—have issued statements against the HHS’s decision. The Washington Post, USA Today, N.Y. Daily News, Detroit News, and other  secular outlets, columnists, and bloggers have editorialized against it.

6. The federal mandate is much stricter than existing state mandates. HHS chose the narrowest state-level religious exemption as the model for its own. That exemption was drafted by the ACLU and exists in only 3 states (New York, California, Oregon). Even without a religious exemption, religious employers can already avoid the contraceptive mandates in 28 states by self-insuring their prescription drug coverage, dropping that coverage altogether, or opting for regulation under a federal law (ERISA) that pre-empts state law. The HHS mandate closes off all these avenues of relief.

Additional information on the U.S. Catholic bishops’ stance on religious liberty, conscience protection and the HHS ruling regarding mandatory coverage of contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs is available at http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/conscience-protection/index.cfm.

I know I have not posted much lately and it is due partly to the new and exciting change in my life.  I’m not talking about a man…. it’s all about success!  I just left one of those big national, highly successful, firms to join a smaller firm.  Although moving 7 years of files and 7 years of stuff from my comfortable, cozy office was very stressful, I know I will be happy and successful at this new company.  Leads are coming in left and right, and yesterday I showed property to three different customers.  It felt like 6 years ago, before the market tanked.

Between the work I do for a specific bank on short sales and now all the leads I am receiving from this new firm,  between what I have learned and what I am now learning, I believe my life is going to change dramatically for the better.  Watch out Gainesville, here I come!

This post is very different from anything I’ve posted so far, but it is something I’ve been thinking about and praying about for the past two weeks. I feel I have received answers to some of my prayers, but they are in God’s way, not mine. Sometimes that can be difficult to accept, but it must always be God’s will and God’s way, not yours or mine.

Last week our church had a mission with a priest from California – Fr. Mike Barry.  The whole mission was about Healing the Family Tree. For those of you who are not familiar with this concept, take your bible out and turn to Exodus 20:5 or Exodus 34:7 and/or Deut 5:9.  If you read those verses you will realize that sin and problems pass through generations.  If you go to Genesis 31:19, or Genesis 34:35 and /or Hosea 4:17 you will read that sin can skip a generation.  To see how sin can travel through generations go to Mt 23:29-36.

The talk on the first night brought up questions for us to ponder such as:

• Were there/are there members who have been/are cut off?
• Are there family secrets that disable truth-telling?
• Are there rules and forms of acting in the family that interfere with the freedom to be mature?
• Is there a history of mental illness or emotional difficulties that influence family life?
• What major events marked the family’s history, such as war, natural disaster, ethnic strife, economic loss?
• Are there miscarriages, still-born babies or abortions that haven’t been resolved?

Father Barry also talked about the obstacles to healing which would encompass things such as:

• Un-forgiveness
• sin

Thoughts such as:

• God wouldn’t hear my prayers
• I’m not holy enough

Of course, it goes without saying that the starting point to healing your family tree is Jesus. Oh, I’m sure there are some people out there that will say this is bunk and try to prove with science that sin can’t pass from generation to generation.  Unfortunately it can and the mind can cause the body to become ill. What you think, can and does have an effect on your body.

Some plain and simple facts are that every family is in need of healing – families have gifts, talents and accomplishments, but they also have sin, shame and disgrace. You don’t have to live with these burdens from the past, but healing is a process.  Healing has to do with your/my relationship with the Lord, in my heart, in my mind, in my body and in the Body of Christ.

The process of healing life’s hurts begins with leading our hurts out of forgetfulness and into consciousness – opening up to Jesus.

Take a look at your ancestors.  Do you have destructive patterns of behavior that you can also see in your relatives?  If so, you should pray for your ancestors as well as yourself.

Following is a list of possible patterns your should look for in your family tree and yourself.

• Broken Relationships (divorce, loners, homosexuality, adultery, family members not speaking to each other etc.)
• Sexual Excesses (molestation, abuse, adultery, etc.)
• Violent Behavior (wife/husband beating, family anger, hate, excessive fighting)
• Addictions (alcoholic, pornography, gambling, overeating, other)
• Deception (lies in the family over serious things such as land, property, money secrets, shame etc.)
• Deaths (violent, sudden, accidental, suicidal, un-mourned deaths, war deaths, other)
• Abortions (miscarriages)
• Curses or false vows and promises
• Occult (witchcraft, black magic, Ouija boards, horoscopes, curanderos, other)
• Secrets
• Predominant diseases

Next ask yourself some of the following questions and answer them honestly:

• What emotional or personal unease or problems do you have?
• Do these involve a beloved person with whom you now have a wounded relationship?
• Do these involve a trauma you experienced?
• Are there patterns of failure in dealing with others, significant relationships, employment?…………..Do these patterns exist in the immediate family or the family history?

• Do you cultivate big or little addictions in order to cope?
• Do you feel bondage?
• Has there been sexual, physical or verbal abuse, acting out or mis-conduct?…………….Of which you are the victim or have perpetrated to some degree or the other?……Are there any patterns of this in the family and the family history? ………..Are any of these associated with acts you carried out or behaviors you exhibited?
• Do you know of stories or anecdotes in your family history that reveal where the past family problems or behaviors of significant people introduced difficulties still being worked out in the present.

Whew – pretty heavy stuff and not so easy to think about is it?  The process itself goes like this

• develop a personal history
• make a road map of your family’s history to the best of your memory – a genogram is a great tool for this, or you can go on-line and download a family tree outline to put your family members on.
• search and locate significant patterns in your family’s history – a pattern is a condition that has recurred three or four times
• Go to confession then
• Bring these patterns to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

God himself promised us generational healing.  If you don’t think that is true, just get your bible again and go to: Jer. 31:29-30. Ezekiel 18:1-3, Is 61:4. or 1Cor. 15:32.  To know how God did it and healed the generations, go to the following books of the bible: Lev 28:39-40, Jn 6:25-28, Mt. 27:51-54, 1Cor 15:6 and Romans 8:36-38.

Healing your family tree can take more than one time.  Some  patterns may be healed immediately, while other may take longer. There trick is to never give up on yourself or God.

I did ask for a lot from the priest who gave the mission and from God.  I believe he did answer one of my prayers by opening up an opportunity for me.  I have been with RE/MAX for 7 years and they have been 7 good years. I made friends there and learned a lot.  Our broker was an excellent mentor. Unfortunately, over the last three years I had quite a few setbacks and now the economy has sunk even lower than last year.  I was fretting what to do, and prayed for a sign – should I stay with RE/MAX in spite of the fees, should I go to another real estate company or should I get out of real estate altogether. I prayed and prayed and on Friday, as I was going to the last evening of the mission, a broker from another company called me to ask me to come on board.  I had my husband in the car, so I asked if he could call back the next day.  He said yes, but I didn’t hear from him until Monday. When he did call I was very happy and he offered me an excellent split and was willing to help me learn the platform he provides his agents.

In spite of this good news I was hesitant because leaving RE/MAX meant leaving my comfort zone and starting all over again.  Finally on Tuesday, I told my RE/MAX broker the news and he was very gracious and understanding.   Some of my co-workers had watery eyes and they all gave me hugs and words of encouragement.  I was told I could come back anytime – but that will be very difficult to do.  By Friday I was completely moved out, turned in my key and headed for home with tears in my eyes.  Seven years of files and books, seven years of stuff, seven years of building relationships and now I was leaving it all behind.

I can tell you this much, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders by not having to come up with the corporate and desk fees and I am already getting leads with his new system. This to me, was the answer to one of my most important prayers.  What direction my life was going to take now?

One of my religious education teachers heard Father Mike Barry was coming back to Florida in the fall.  He will be in the Tampa area – near where my daughter lives.  I will be going back and hopefully take my daughter with me.  Our family tree still has some bent branches that need to be straightened out and I for one am looking forward to more healing.

Technology  “If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger.” - Frank Lloyd Wright

Unsophisticated home-shoppers tend to select a real estate agent based on a chance encounter at an open house or a friend-in-the-business referral. Savvy home-shoppers, on the other hand, do their homework, contact several successful agents and prepare lists of questions to ask these agents during how-can-you-help-me-buy-a-home interviews. Some of the questions should concern how involved the agent is in the high-tech aspects of real estate. All other qualifications being equal, here are six reasons why a tech-savvy agent can be a good bet.

For the last few days I’ve had time to do a lot of thinking. Ever since the serpentine belt on my car broke, I have had trouble getting around because I sprained or jammed my ankle when I was getting into the tow-truck. I’m not tall, 5′-2″, and need assistance getting into trucks.  My husband knows this and will either already be in the truck to grab my wrist, or give me a boost in via my tush. Well it was raining and the man was hooking up my vehicle to the tow mechanism. I was getting wet and it was cold.  So I decided to get in the truck on my own. I was almost there when my foot slipped off the floorboard. There was no step and no handle to grab, so I went down hard on both my feet. Luckily I didn’t fall, but I either jammed my ankle when it hit the ground or twisted it as I slipped off the floorboard. In any event, today has been one week and I am still in pain. No I didn’t make a stink – that is just not my way and besides it didn’t seem serious enough at the time.

The day after my car was fixed, I returned with a cane to complete the presentation and CMA I was on my way to do when my car died. The man was nice enough and showed me around his home. It was difficult getting around but I managed. We talked for a good hour and a half, I finished my presentation and took a few pictures of the exterior. I went home in much pain, did the CMA and sent it to him the same day.  I thought I gave him a good price range to sell his home albeit an honest one. One year ago he took out a small loan against his home, had an appraisal done on his property and it appraised for “X” amount of dollars.  The CMA I prepared for him was between 5-10K less than the appraisal value he received one year ago.  Not bad considering the market is still trying to level off.

I received an email from his wife the following day, telling me they decided not to sell at this moment.

What is the lesson to be learned here?  Sometimes you need to put yourself first and just say no. The outcome would have been the same had I not gone back to do the presentation and CMA – but I could have rested my ankle and maybe today it would be feeling better.  Here’s another thought – if I hadn’t gone out there in the first place, I would have been in my town when my serpentine belt broke and could have called for help and maybe not have sprained my ankle at all!  If only we could see in the future, would we change what we are about to do?  This is probably a question that has plagued mankind for centuries and still, there is no answer.

What would you would have done?

I received this video in an email and it is probably the most intriguing video I have seen of gorillas. This was not staged.  To view the video just click on the link below.

Wild Gorilla Encounter

Three days ago, when I was talking with a friend – Mary Jayne, I was telling her I was trying to figure out how to get my presentation onto the “Nook” my daughter gave me for Christmas.  I also mentioned that I hoped my customer had WiFi so I could show him some of my websites.  She offered to loan me her laptop with her 4G card.  She said it was great because she could get on the internet anywhere, even at the beach.  The 4G card was like a cell phone she said.  I thought about it for a moment and then told her the last time I borrowed a laptop, I was burglarized and that was the last thing I wanted to happen again.  She insisted, so I borrowed it and boy was I glad I did.

Two days ago I left for the small town of Bronson about 35 miles from my home. That is where the prospective customer was that I was going to talk with and give my presentation to.  It was raining and cold and I considered taking my poodle with me for company and then opted against it.  I’m glad I did!  Thirty miles down the road, I suddenly had no power steering, and when I looked down at my dashboard, I noticed the battery light had come on.  I quickly called my husband because I knew I would lose cell phone service – my carrier has limited towers in that area. My husband immediately told me to turn around and stop because my serpentine belt probably broke and I would be overheating shortly.  When I looked at the temperature gauge, the temperature was indeed climbing.  Making a U-turn was no easy task without power steering, but I did and pulled over, turned the car off and put my flashers on.  I then tried calling for assistance and could not because my phone had no signal.

As I was sitting in my car wondering what I was going to do stuck out here in the middle of nowhere without cell phone coverage, I remembered the conversation I had with Mary Jayne.  I thought what did I have to lose, it is supposed to work anywhere. So out came the laptop and the 4G card.  I logged on to the internet and to my surprise I was connected.  Great I thought, at least now I can email people for help.

I emailed my office, a co-worker, two girlfriends, my husband, and the repair shop I usually take my car to, and explained that I was broke down, where, and had no phone coverage and if they get this message please email me back.  I kept waiting and waiting for an email and nothing.  Every now and then I would check my cell phone to see if there were any bars and at one point I had a half a bar.  I immediately tried calling my repair shop.  They answered but they could only hear every other word I was saying, so I repeated, “check email, check email, check email…. I guess they heard the word “email” and checked their email.  About 1 hour later, a tow truck pulls up.  Being the New Yorker that I am, I went to the door of the tow truck and asked why he was here and who sent him.  When he gave me the correct answer, I almost cried I was so happy.   I sat in my car, with the hazard lights on for over two hours.  About 50 cars and trucks passed by and not one car or truck stopped to see what the matter was. I thought for sure I would be stuck along the side of the road all day.

As a Realtor, part of my job is to constantly check my email.  That is how I stay in touch with lenders, buyers, sellers, and repair people.  I forgot that not everyone is on the net as much as I am. My friends and husband had not looked at their email, because they were busy doing other things, although my husband did try calling me about 6 times.

So what are the lessons to be learned in all of this?  There definitely is more than one here.  The first is that God and my guardian angel were watching over me that day.  I never asked to borrow my friends laptop, Mary Jayne offered out of thin air and the goodness of her heart – that was surely God working through her to protect me. Plus, why did my cell phone work long enough to call my husband and find out why I had no power steering, then it didn’t work after that?  Could it be my guardian angel had his/her hand in getting that call through?  The second is, perhaps if someone did stop to help me their intentions would not have been honorable – I might have been in worse trouble. The third lesson is that perhaps I need to change my cell phone carrier. My carrier, although they have the very best customer service,  do not have enough towers and after getting stuck like I did two days ago, I don’t ever want to be in that situation again.

Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs will be effected by this and already oppose SOPA and PIPA.

The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel.

“To make matters worse, SOPA and PIPA won’t even work. The censorship regulations written into these bills won’t shut down pirate sites. These sites will just change their addresses and continue their criminal activities, while law-abiding companies will suffer high penalties for breaches they can’t possibly control.”  quoted from   ”End Piracy, Not Liberty”,  paragraph #3.

This reminds me of the gun control laws in some states.  Take New York for example, gun control is so strict there, it is difficult for the law-abiding citizen to legally purchase a firearm. But you know, the criminals don’t have a problem getting their hands on guns.

Personally, I see this country on the fast track to socialism and I don’t like it one bit!  What’s next? – a spy cam in every home?

If you are unfamiliar with the bills, please go to these links to read about what Congress is trying to do.

http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/how-sopa-pipa-can-affect-you/

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/sopa-pipa/

“STOP PIPA & SOPA; S968 & HR3261 are threatening CL and the rest of your Internet. Most of the web sites you use strongly oppose these bills. Find out why, and how you can help put a stop to this madness before it’s too late!” quoted from Google.

Related articles

• How SOPA and PIPA would Censor the Internet (connectwithyourteens.net)
• Day of Darkness: How Can You Help Fight SOPA/PIPA? (outspokenmedia.com)
• Sign the petition to Stop SOPA & PIPA (radiopd.wordpress.com)
• Tell Your Senator Hell NO to SOPA & PIPA! (lifeinthemind.wordpress.com)