Cyber Monday Tips

It’s Cyber Monday and here I am on my computer surfing the internet. Here’s a few quick tips for internet shopping that could save you a lot of pain and suffering:

Everyone is receiving emails from our favorite retailers about discounts on cyber Monday, I get them all. Here’s the important tip, read the email then go and type in the website for the retailer and shop from there! Why? Because scammers are now creating emails with all the links that look like your favorite retailer, you click on their link and off you go to their site or activate some malicious software or spyware. By not using the email links and typing in the retailers website address you are positive you are at the correct retailer’s website.
Watch out bad spellers out there. There’s a new type of scamming called “Cyber Squatting”, these scammer create shopping websites that look exactly like your favorite retailer except for a slight misspelling, like dropping off the last letter or leaving off the .com. You go to their website, do all your shopping then are left wondering why the Christmas presents aren’t showing up at your doorstep.

Last by not least, it’s not a good idea to shop while at at a WiFi location. You, like me, didn’t really read the disclaimer that states the connection is not a secure connection. You run the risk of people getting your credit information at an unsecure location, to just looking over your shoulder while you type. Most retailers allow your shopping carts to sit for a period of time. Do your shopping, put it all in your cart, then check out when you have a secure connection.

Finally a fun tip. There are coupons and promotions everywhere. Make it a point to do a quick google search with your retailer name and the word coupon (electrichut+coupon) and make sure there isn’t a coupon sitting out there for free shipping or a percentage off before you check out.

Or better yet, shop locally! Hit some of the retailers advertised in Forsyth Woman and Forsyth Family for great gifts that keep you from waiting at the mailbox and you support local businesses! Happy Shopping!

Surviving those holiday crowds…

As an avid runner, I figure you may need a few pointers about that race through the doors of (insert store name here) for your holiday shopping.

If you are in the front of the pack expect to get hurt. Once I ended up in the front of a 5K race and as the gun went off I was bounced around like a ping pong ball for the first ten minutes of the race. I wasn’t sure I was going to survive as the stampede ran over me to jockey for place.

If you’re planning on running into the store, think like a runner in a pack, stay to the fringe, it will keep you safe. If it gets too crazy then you can just step out of the way. Or you can just wear a full suit of armor or try to get into the store with an armored tank.
Like running, once you get in the store you’re still not at the finish line. You’ve got to get to that item you want and be able to carry it to the finish line. Do you have the strength to hold onto that flat screen TV while walking back to the front of the store for check out? Choose something you know you can handle, there’s nothing worse than seeing a poor panting shopper lying on floor just a mere feet from the register unable to check out because they couldn’t go any further with the new vacuum, flat screen TV and zou zou pet! Keep your hydration up and fuel up early to keep from crashing before the finish!
Don’t forget to stretch, limber up the legs for jumping over other shoppers to get that last Singing Bass, limber up the arms to scale the shelves to make sure all the 5 dollar crock pots are truly gone, and stretch out the back it’s pretty much guaranteed that all the carts are gone as you enter the store.

Like running, remember to enjoy the race. Laugh at the other shoppers falling over themselves or losing hair pieces as they enter the store. Cry with the other mothers when the Barbie Glam Shot Maker goes on back order and then congratulate yourself as you leave the store. You put another one in the books and came out alive!

Will the real THANKSGIVING please stand up?

Wikipedia states: “Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. It is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States. While perhaps religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday.”

Is that what Thanksgiving means to you and your family? It saddened my heart to see this definition.

While researching, I discovered the first Thanksgiving occurred in 1619 when a group of settlers gave thanks for their safe passage. The feast portion of Thanksgiving was added several years later. At that time, Thanksgiving was a time to give public thanks to God, especially for freedom, and was more of community event, as opposed to a private celebration. Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a yearly celebration. It might be important to note that America was in the midst of the Civil War at the time.

“And Lincoln, too, proclaimed that all Americans set aside the day for a public expression of gratitude to God. He wrote, ‘It has seemed to me fit and proper that they [gifts of God] should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.’” [Gingrich N., Rediscovering God in America, 2006]

What does Thanksgiving mean to you? I suppose you know what it means to me now. It means giving thanks to God, remembering thankfully those who lived before me and made it possible for me to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. I am especially thankful that America is a place of religious freedom for all.

Is today a time like that of Abraham Lincoln? While the subject matter is different now, are we at war within ourselves? Tomorrow, and every day, might be a good time to give thanks to God and ask for God’s favor, wisdom, direction and blessing on our country.

What are you doing on Thanksgiving Day or Thanksgiving weekend?

Coffee Wars-a lesson in the compromise of marriage..

I love my morning cup of coffee, on some race days I’ll get up at 430am just to have time to process that precious cup of coffee before a race begins at 7am.

Since my morning cup of coffee is so important, like many women, I’ve started enjoying flavored coffee. This has sparked a war in my household. My husband drinks coffee all day long at work, he, like me loves his coffee. But he’s a purist, it’s black. In our over 20 years of marriage I’ve listened to his lecture about how I ruin the coffee with my cream and sugar, then watching him blanche as I buy “flavored” creamers!

I get up early and since I’m the first up, I have control of the coffee machine, the wonderful smells of Hazelnut fill the house. My husband comes down pours his cup of coffee then almost spits in in the sink. “What’s this?”
“Oh it’s just Hazelnut coffee, I thought you may want to try something different.”
“Hazelnut?” You’d think I’s said, “Oh we’re living in Jonestown, go ahead and drink this fruit punch.”
“You can still drink it black?”
“Guys don’t drink flavored coffee.” He leaves the cup of coffee on the counter and leaves for work.

The next day, I hear shuffling in the kitchen. My husband set his alarm early and as I shuffle down to the kitchen, there’s strong black coffee brewing in the pitcher. OK, I can use a flavored creamer.

I take out the directions and learn how to use the timer on the coffee maker and as my husband shuffles down in the middle of the night, the Hazelnut coffee is sitting there giving him the finger.

This is where there’s compromise in marriage. We could go along with this game that is fun when it starts but end up with someone mad at the end. My husband comes home with a big box for me! I’m so excited, “What’s this for?”

“Because I love you.” He says. I open it up and it’s an insulated carafe. He did buy that because he loves me, loves me enough to stop the battle before it becomes a war. That’s the compromise of marriage, I think as I sip my Hazelnut coffee.

Do you have a battle you’ve fought? What are some of your compromise solutions?

Women: The Beauty of Friendships

What value do you place on friendships? Have you maintained a friendship since childhood? Are you a woman who prefers one or two BFFs or do you have a variety of friends? Perhaps you are a woman with a career and small children and you simply have not been intentional about friendships lately.

In the January 2010 issue of Forsyth Woman, you will find a new feature. Women: The Beauty of Friendships. This article will explore women’s friendships from pre-school through the golden years. We will explore challenges in friendships as well as the great blessings of friendships among women. We will explore serious questions that are common to all women, such as how to be a friend during serious illness and even how to handle the death of a friend or a friend’s spouse.

There are distinct differences in the way women relate to one another. From a scientific perspective, women who have meaningful friendships are found to be healthier, both physically and emotionally. Many studies suggest that women with meaningful relationships live longer.

Let me know about the subjects you would like to see addressed in this new monthly feature. In addition, I would love to hear from groups of women who have been friends for several years, as well as see pictures of you are your close friends.

Finding what is best and worst in yourself and continuing on…

Yesterday I competed in a Half Ironman, 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run. Endurance races like these are when in the midst of pain you examine what got you there, and what it’s going to take to finish. Races are a lot like other hard things in life; you make the decision – to change something, to add something, to race 70.3 miles and when it’s time to start you’re standing there going what have I done? You don’t how in the world you are going to get to there from here but faith gives you a quiet determination to push you past that starting line. During the race there are little things that try to shatter that faith, an ache in your back during the swim, how bad your butt hurts on the bike, the stone that found its way into your shoe-you think of everyone who tells you that you are crazy to even be here and wonder if you can make it the 50, 35, 14 miles. Crossing that finish lines teaches you something new about yourself, that you are strong, that you can do what you set your mind to and that faith can pull you through the pain. Remember this when you are at the starting line of anything in your life, tuck your faith under your arm, put your head in the water and get started, the finish line will come soon enough!

November is National Novel Writer’s Month

I’m sitting and staring at a blinking cursor on my screen. I joined the National Novel Writers Month challenge to write a novel of 50,000 words in the month of November. November 1 rolls around and as everyone on the nanowrimo.org website kick off their novels with flair, I’m still staring at the blinking cursor.

I have the story floating around in my head. I can see the entire movie version of it, I can see me explaining to Oprah how this phenomenon of Kelly Melang started with a simple novel that was part of the National Novel Writing Month. The hardest part of this idea is starting. By starting, I’m comitting and that’s what’s scaring me as I make up a song in my head to go with the beat of the blinking cursor. 50,000 words in one month, if I do 2,000 words a day then I can take a day off here and there during this.

The cursor is still blinking, I swear it’s cursing at me. Do you have that dream? That thing that sits in your mind waiting for you to have the courage to start, then the guts to finish? The hardest part about reaching a goal is starting. Every doubt you’ve ever thought of in your life now plays through your mind as you pull deep inside your soul for the courage to start. Go ahead, listen to all those voices that tell you that there’s no way you’re going to reach that dream. Then tell them to shut up and get started.

Hey, is that my fingers moving across the keyboard?

Wanna track my writing project and that of others during National Novel Writing Month? http://www.nanowrimo.org/ It’s only November 2nd, you still have plenty of time, wanna join us?