With our men and woman taking up the call to serve our country all across the US, that means there are brothers, sons, daughter, sister and moms and dads coming and going. There are free services that are available to help the family of these soldiers. The services offered vary from state to state and from town to town. Checking with your local television station should help lead you to some of these programs. Also a check on the internet can direct you to other resources available to moms and dads, sisters and brothers and other family members. Especially to the wives and children that are waiting at home for their husband and dad to come again.

Most of the services come from a small business that want to honor and thank the soldier and the family for the sacrifices that are being made each and everyday. There are some tow truck companies that offer free towing to the wives of a soldier. Mechanics and handy men that will give special prices for repairs to help around the house in place of the man being gone. A lot of Lawn Greeting and Yard Card rental places will set out a free display to honor the soldier and help the family welcome them home or send them off with a big thank you. They will set up 25 flags in the yard with a special message from the family for the soldier. The display will be set up all day in celebration and then they will take it down in the evening to for the family. Check with your local lawn greeting company to see about scheduling a display to honor your soldier and let them do the work to setting it up for you.

If you own a small or large business consider giving back to the ones that have made it possible for you to have your business. Thank a soldier and their family in a unique way and help those who are trying to help you. Serving your county is a honor and in return they should be honored by their country.

Send A Free Greeting at A Sign Of Surprise http://www.asignofsurprise.com or email asignofsurprise@cox.net.

Don’t Just Send A Card..Put One In The Yard.

Every slate tile in the world is unique, due to the naturally occurring chaos which creeps into its appearance during formation. This gives the material a certain amount of power, and makes every installation a one of a kind experience.

When putting natural slate into a floor, countertop, or backsplash, it is important to lay the tiles out first, to get a sense of the overall picture that will be formed in the final installation. Each tile is a unique portrait that will have to be coordinated with all of the others, to develop a montage which is complimentary and fits the overall ambience you are trying to achieve.

Like laying out a giant puzzle, where you determine what the outcome will be, you should rearrange the tiles several times to get a feel for your different options. If you are lucky, your contractor will have had the foresight to order a couple of extra tiles. This will allow you to choose the absolute best, discarding any which you don’t like, or which don’t fit in with the overall scheme the rest of them create.

Often slate tiles which come from the same box will have come from the same quarry, and may have even been cut from the same original slab. If this occurs, you can lay them out sequentially, and try to recreate the original appearance of the stone as it lay within the mountain.

Other times the tiles within a box will be erratic, each one having different colors and patterns. In this case, it is important to balance the various stones, light against dark, subdued against wild, to create an effect which has a strong center.

When laying out slate it is also important to dampen the tiles. This will give you an idea of what they will look like once the stone has been sealed. The moisture from the water seeps into the stones pores, much like a sealer eventually will, bringing out a variety of colors and contrasts which were invisible before.

Once you have decided on the layout of your tiles, it is often helpful to label them with small numbers on the back or sides, to help with laying them out. Markings should be done in pencil, so that any stray markings or exposed edges can easily be washed clean. You should also be certain to make a note of how the sequence is supposed to be laid out, whether vertically, horizontally, backward, or forward.

It is helpful to have a contractor or installer that has an artistic eye when dealing with natural stone. When choosing to hire someone, you should try and get a look at their portfolio to see some of the work they have created. Since stone is such a unique medium, it is also often helpful to give your own feedback on installations, and to try and incorporate your own vision into the project.

For natural slate tile and slab materials for your next project, just visit http://pebblez.com/stone/index.html

Loss and change are conditions of existence. They begin at birth with the massive change of leaving the cozy womb to be thrust into the physical world, and they end with the final change: death. In between, many little deaths and many big deaths take place that are stressful and demanding to survivors and call for the establishment of new routines, the development of new coping skills, and often new roles.

Regrettably, we have to learn how to manage our losses through experience because we are a death denying culture and there are few, if any, schools that teach that life involves many loss experiences or how we should cope with them when they occur. Nevertheless, no one is immune from the condition of having something taken away that is cherished.

So what do we learn from experiencing loss? If we are lucky, we are told by those who have been through many changes and much grief that it is alright to express emotion, that crying is good for the soul as well as the body, and time heals all wounds. However, time only heals when you work at healing your inner turmoil minute by minute and hour by hour. It isn’t an automatic process of simply waiting it out.

Interestingly, no one ever tells us to expect and trust mystery and the unseen to intervene. And yet, many things happen unexpectedly that ease the pain of loss. Here are some common examples.

● You intuitively sense the presence of your deceased loved one.
● A rainbow occurs on a dark day with a message of hope.
● A phone call comes from an old friend at your darkest hour.
●You hear a song whose lyrics spark an idea on dealing with your loss.
● From out of nowhere a thought pops into your mind providing great comfort and the realization that your loved one is in a good place.
● You’re alone driving on the freeway and ask for a sign that your loved one is okay on the other side, and a car passes you, pulls ahead, turns into your lane with a vanity license plate that reads BELIEVE.
● You continue to find pennies in odd places inside and outside of your home.

The list can go on and on.

The point: mystery in the form of unexpected help is always out there. Look for—be sure to ask for—positive signs even as you use tried and tested strategies for coping with the death of a loved one. They will show up. I tell every bereaved person that there is nothing wrong with praying for a sign that your loved one is okay. And there is nothing wrong in asking for their help. Also, don’t be fearful about joining a support group (it is not a sign of weakness) and/or coming to the realization that the death of a loved one means starting a new life.

Regardless of your belief system, unexpected signs always come if you are open to them. As a man in one of my support groups put it, “Believe that your loved one knows what you are going through.” And that belief will open you to the inexplicable and the wisdom it possesses. The key is positive expectation.

These signs and messages suggest that there is a power greater than the self seeking to help, that you are not alone, and that you will get through this difficult time. Refuse to cling to and have faith in beliefs that interfere with healing and accepting inevitable change (like this shouldn’t have happened to me or I can’t ever be joyful again). Pain is always a teacher, a sign to take a new road in life and sometimes to dump old beliefs that were hoisted on us by well-meaning adults in our younger years.

There is an unchartable order in the universe, often ignored, that comes through to stimulate the acceptance of loss and the changes it imposes. Allow mystery and the unseen to become another resource for coping with your loss. Expect your share of insights. Death never has the final word.

Dr. LaGrand is a grief counselor and the author of eight books, the most recent, the popular Love Lives On: Learning from the Extraordinary Encounters of the Bereaved. He is known world-wide for his research on the Extraordinary Experiences of the bereaved (after-death communication phenomena) and is one of the founders of Hospice of the St. Lawrence Valley, Inc. His free monthly ezine website is http://www.extraordinarygriefexperiences.com

Wouldn’t you rather PREVENT health problems instead of having to deal with them? It is possible to do that, simply by strengthening your immune system! Here are some tips for your whole family to follow so you can all live healthier and not get sick so often!

* Eat healthy. Focus on eating mostly organic foods. There are health food stores like Trader Joe’s and Mother’s Market that have organic foods at pretty much the same cost as “regular” foods! I used to think organic is just not in my budget, but I have been proven wrong! Go to a store that SPECIALIZES in organic foods and you will see that the prices are very competitive.

* Make berries a part of your diet, like blueberries, wolfberries, acai berries, raspberries, etc. They are high in antioxidants, which means they bring oxygen to your cells by fighting off the free radicals that attack you everyday because of all the toxins in your body. I highly recommend adding one ounce of NingXia Red every day - a great NingXia wolfberry drink. [It is offered exclusively by Young Living].

* Make exercise a part of your daily routine. Make it a priority! Wake up a half hour earlier, or take out a half hour of your evening to focus on your exercise routine instead of just slouching on the couch. Also, walk whenever you get the opportunity: walk places instead of taking the car or bus; park farther away from the store entrance; walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator.

* Make sure you get enough sleep at night. Our bodies need to recover from the day. During the time that we sleep, our muscles grow and our cells renew themselves. Sleep is necessary! Make it a priority to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night.

* Keep stress to a minimum. Try not to fret over little things. Try to be more easy-going, though it’s not always easy to do for some people (it’s not always easy for me, I must admit)

* Take a good natural, whole food supplement, like one from Young Living Essential Oils.

* Use personal products that don’t contain Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, Propylene Glycol, or any other toxins. Check the labels on your shampoo, toothpaste, soap, deodorant, make-up, etc. After all, whatever we put on our bodies gets permeated into it. We don’t want to add to the toxins that we already breathe in from the environment we live in!

* Use house cleaning products that are toxin-free. Most detergents, multi-purpose cleaners and toilet bowl cleaners on the market today are filled with toxic chemicals, it’s terrible! Just take a whiff down the aisle of cleaning supplies - you can just smell the toxins that are let out into the air! Don’t get them into your homes. Use products that are safe for you!

Use these tips regularly and you will find that soon your immune system will be stronger and you will be able to fight off all those sicknesses, health problems and diseases that try to attack it =)

Live healthy!

Mirdza Hayden
Helping People Lead Healthier Lifestyles
http://www.MirdzasHealthSite.com

ld As humans we have a unique talent, a potential which is not shared with our brothers in the animal kingdom. We have the ability to create. We can conceive of new ideas, develop strategies, and think up original thoughts that nobody has ever had before.

Even more, we can take these ideas and implement them. Plucking them from our minds eye we can make our imaginations live, and rewrite the world to match our dreams.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t. Instead we hide within convention. We bury ourselves within the safety of the tried and true, relying on the wisdom of the herd to see us safely through our lives.

However, even the least adventurous of us have moments of awakening. We all have experiences that cause our minds to explode, where suddenly a million new thoughts and concepts come flooding into our perceptions.

Often this will happen when we are faced with something of extreme beauty. Sometimes love is involved.

Other times this experience happens when faced with extreme fear, or violence. It can even come from moments of quiet contemplation.

What is important is that these extreme moments move us forward as people, and as a species. It is within these eureka experiences that we open our eyes a little wider, and are able to appreciate a little bit more of the world around us.

We have all felt inspiration. Even if we don’t realize all of its affects right away, we have all had moments of mental growth that have changed us, and made us better people.

It is important that we encourage this within ourselves. At no point in our lives do we get so old, so tired, or so stagnant that we cannot grow as people. It takes effort to keep the ball rolling, but the benefit is the richness with which you can live your life.

One way to inspire ourselves is to appreciate the inspirations of others. Surround yourself with art, music and literature. Craft your world from the finer elements of our culture, and openly revel in the overwhelming beauty that we as a species have been able to create.

This is not to say that you should docilely let society choose what you consider to be beautiful. You have your own tastes, you are a unique individual, and if you truly want to contribute something special to the world than you have to appreciate the inherent preferences that make you one of a kind. In this way you can add something to the worthat could not be added by anyone else.

Don’t be afraid of the unknown reaches of your mind. Potential lives in the shadows just beyond reality, and it can consist of anything you dream. You just have to be willing to try.

Natural stone home décor including drink coasters, wall clocks, and coffee tables from http://PebbleZ.com

Reading junk email is a lot like listening to a used car dealership commercial. They promise the moon and hit you with a lot of glitz and flash but in the end all you end up with is a piece of junk and a bad taste in your mouth. How many times have you gotten an email that promises you a truckload of cash for filling out free cash paying surveys? If I had a dollar for every bogus program that comes down the pike I wouldn’t have to work for the legitimate companies that actually pay me. So how can you separate the good from the bad when it comes to these paid surveys and how can you be sure you are in with the right companies?

The simple fact is that you can indeed get paid for online surveys, but you need to be careful that you are not in with one of the fly by night outfits. There are some legitimate offers out there that will indeed pay you cash for your opinion but you have to do two things. First, you need to join the good ones and avoid the bad ones, and second you need to be willing to actually follow through and do the work. If you are diligent in your work habits you will find that you can actually make some decent money by filling out online surveys and taking part in special offers, and that is something that not many people have been able to do.

Tim spends his time finding unique ways for people to profit from the Internet and is following a life long dream of being an author.

Download my Special Free Report ** The top 7 Quick Surveys that Actually Pay Cash **
Visit us now for your free report at http://www.chubbywallet.info/

A walk in closet is a distant dream for many people. A place of almost infinite space, there you could store and organize all of your clothes and personal accessories, keeping them neat, clean, safe, and easily accessible.

Unfortunately most homes don’t have access to such a luxury. However, with some clever space management, you may be able to create a walk in closet out of space you didn’t even know you didn’t need.

Many people have a junk room, a space devoted to storing all of their little used possessions. However, if you go into that space and organize it, discarding or selling what you don’t need, and compacting what you do, you may be able to utilize the resultant space as your walk in closet. Storage boxes can be stacked to one side, or even used to fill the actual closet. Than line the walls of the room with armoires, dressers, and clothing racks. Tada! You have your very own, luxuriously spacious, walk in closet.

If you don’t have a whole room to devote to this use, than try partitioning off part of another room. If you have a large bedroom, the walls of your closet can be formed by the armoires and dressers you need to make the room function. Hide the backs of these pieces using decorative shoji and partition screens, to complete the effect.

This plan can theoretically be used in any room, however you will generally want the closet to be as isolated and private as possible, so that you can go ahead and change on the spot.

You can make your closet do double duty by letting it serve as a laundry room, or linen closet. In this way the space you create will give benefit to everyone in the house.

Creating a walk in closet within your home is a matter of strategically arranging your home so that you can squeeze it into the margins. While some homes simply don’t have the space for such a luxury, many do, even if their owners do not know it.

For a unique collection of natural and rustic stone home décor products, visit http://PebbleZ.com

Keep moving pandemonium at a minimum by completing moving day tasks ahead of time. By doing so, you’ll be able to supervise the movers without worry or distraction. The following moving checklist will serve as a guideline of tasks to complete on moving day, delivery day and after arriving in your new home.

Moving Day

• Double check closets, drawers and shelves to make sure they are empty.
• Check rooms, attic, garage and yard to make sure nothing is left behind.
  
• Carry important documents, currency and jewelry yourself, or use registered mail.
  
• Note all utility meter readings.
• Read your bill of lading and inventory carefully (provided by the moving company) before signing. Keep paperwork in a safe place.
• Turn off the water heater and lower the thermostat.
• Get the name of the driver of the moving truck and give him your contact information. Review directions to the new house.
• Have the final payment for the movers and tip money.

Delivery Day

• Check your belongings carefully and note any damaged items on the inventory paperwork.
• Prepare to pay the driver before your possessions are unloaded via cash, a certified check, or travelers checks, unless other arrangements have been made in advance.
• Supervise the unloading and unpacking.

New Home

• Renew your driver’s license, auto registration and tags.
  
• Shop around for new insurance policies, especially auto coverage.
  
• Revise your will and other legal papers to avoid longer probate and higher legal fees.
  
• Locate the hospitals, police stations, veterinarian and fire stations near your home.
  
• Change the locks on all doors in your new home.

Use this moving checklist as a guideline for tasks to complete on your moving day, delivery day and after arriving in your new home.

Hilary Basile is a writer for MyGuidesUSA.com. At MyGuidesUSA.com (http://www.myguidesusa.com), you will find valuable tips and resources for handling life’s major events. Whether you’re planning a wedding, buying your first home, anxiously awaiting the birth of a child, contending with a divorce, searching for a new job, or planning for your retirement, you’ll find answers to your questions at MyGuidesUSA.com. Find moving and relocation tips and resources at http://www.myguidesusa.com/movingandrelocation

Nobody wants to waste time and money. It doesn’t matter if you are managing a business or managing a household, saving money is generally a priority. One way that you can save money and time is by having faxes sent directly to your email. I know that before I started to use a fax via email service that my fax machine was ringing and printing almost non stop. Generally it was just junk faxes, offers for mortgages and other products that I just simply “could not live without”. But every time my fax machine rang it was simply saying waste to me. But what are all of the benefits of having a fax via email service?

To me, the benefits of a fax via email service are too numerous for me to mention. I use it every day to sort and print all of the important faxes that come to me, as well as keeping copies of the faxes on my computer instead of having to file them as paperwork (who of us wants less paper work?) You can also delete the junk faxes before they print and waste paper, ink and time. I get a kick out of this and it makes the fax via email service worth it just for this one aspect. I am also able to get faxes on the road, and because I travel often I’m not missing out on the important faxes that come through, they follow me wherever I go, all I need is an internet connection.

Set Yourself Free from the Fax Machine at http://www.FaxViaEmail.info/

You could be missing an opportunity for more notary signing agent business if you’re not taking full advantage of your web page or website through basic search engine optimization. These simple SEO techniques could help you boost your Google search results position.

1. Understand How Search Engines Work

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN send out robot “spiders” to “crawl” websites and gather information which they store in their databases. Data is the key here. When you do a search in Google, all their stored data is instantly scanned for the specific terms of your search. If the data doesn’t have the exact terms in the search, the search engines don’t display something close. In other words, they don’t make logical connections.

It works the same as when you do a search in a Word document. If you have a Word document that’s a recipe for fruit salad, you search for “banana,” and it’s not on that page, Word will tell you “not found.” It doesn’t reason you’re looking for fruit, so maybe provide something similar to banana like apple, pear, strawberry, etc. Nope, if banana isn’t in that document, Word doesn’t come up with options. It’s the same thing online: if you list only names of counties but no cities or zip codes, you will not show up in Google results for specific cities or zip codes. Or you may show up but many pages later, only after the best results have been displayed. Keep in mind that search engines will display first the sites that mirror the exact words in a search.

For instance, let’s say you’re a notary signing agent in Miami, Florida, and you have listed your service area as “all of Dade County” thinking that covers everything. A potential customer does a search for these keywords: notary signing agent Miami Florida. Every other site that has those exact five words will show up first before yours because you didn’t specifically mention Miami. Close doesn’t count in searches, so include good keywords on your web page or your website to help your position in search engine results. However, don’t go crazy with listing too many cities or zips because you want your page to look attractive to human visitors not just spiders. Find a balance, maybe up to 20 or so each, and list the cities and zips where you prefer to work.

2. Use Meta Tags

Have you entered a website title, description and keywords for your site in the meta tags section? Check this out by selecting View and Page Source in your browser menu and look at the beginning of that text. If you manage your site, you can complete these sections or give the information to your webmaster. What should be included? Words that might be used in a search. Title: Notary Signing Agent, Your Name, City, County, State. Description: This should be a mini-ad for your site. It’s the short paragraph that shows up in search results and should encourage a prospect to visit your site. Keywords: These should pertain to your site and should be repeated on the page. Keywords don’t carry as much weight as they used to so make sure they are appropriate, with the most important terms repeated in your title, description and page content. You can use different meta tags for each page on your site.

3. Emphasize Keywords in Page Content

Search engine spiders are trying to determine the focus of your web page or website and will give more weight to words that are used in subheads, emphasized with bold type or repeated several times. Write your pages first so they appeal to human visitors, then edit to sprinkle in your keywords to appeal to spiders.

4. An Example of “Number 1 in Google”

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to reach “Number 1 in Google” for a specific set of keywords. To see an example of top search results for a notary signing agent who included cities on her GoGetNotary.com web page, do a search for these five words in Google, Yahoo, MSN or AOL - bayonet point notary signing agent - and you’ll see that her page has the Number 1 position in Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL! She has her own custom website, too, but it’s her web page that takes the top position in search results for those particular search terms. If she had listed only counties and not included cities, she would not show up in any search results for this city. Be aware that it also helps that there may not be much competition for these exact search terms. If the city was Orlando or Miami, she might not be number 1.

5. Google Likes Old and New

This great number 1 position shown above didn’t happen overnight. Aging improves search results for web pages and websites since Google equates age with stability. Google also rewards web pages for fresh content which they equate with more accurate information. Old sites that aren’t refreshed may be outdated. You can’t rush the aging process, but make a note on your calendar to revisit your web page or website at least every other month to add or revise something on your page to keep it fresh. Add testimonials to increase your credibility with signing/title/mortgage companies. Add more cities or zip codes. Improve your content whenever you can, even if it’s simply rewriting what’s already there. Keep it fresh and accurate.

Speaking of accurate… While you’re freshening up your page, check it for accuracy. Did you enter your phone number correctly? Email address? Street, city, state and zip? And always proofread your text. Your prospective customers see this information as a reflection of you. Sloppy work on your page or site will present you as a notary public who isn’t interested in details.

6. Links Are Votes

Additional factors, such as links from other directories can help boost your position in search results since search engines, especially Google, see links to your web page or website as votes of approval. Visit GoGetNotary.com for a list of Notary Directories where you can post your info and link for free or for a fee.

7. Review Your Competition

When creating your web page or website, do a search for your primary keywords to see where other notaries in your service area rank. How does your information compare to theirs? Do they have more testimonials? Is their presentation more professional? Invest some time to optimize your web page or website, and when you periodically refresh your web page or site, check your competition again.

You don’t have to become a full-time webmaster to improve your web page or website to boost your Google search results position. Utilize these basic search engine optimization techniques to provide a content-rich, properly optimized web presence that can increase your notary signing agent business by increasing your Internet customers.

About the Author:

A former loan officer and real estate agent in Southern California, Sharon Hassler served as Communications Manager for First American Title-Arizona for 11 years. She is President of Go Get Experts, owner and operator of real estate-related web page directories including GoGetNotary.com for notary signing agents.

Copyright © 2007, Go Get Experts, for GoGetNotary.com. All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint this article is granted if the article is reproduced in its entirety, without editing, including author’s information. When using this article in magazines or newsletters or online publications, please include the full URL or a hyperlink to http://www.GoGetNotary.com