And totally WOW on quitting your day job.
I have a feeling that you will be ok though, you have a good head on your shoulders, you're a planner, so I know that while you closed this door, you've already got your foot in another door somewhere with big plans for whatever is in that room.

I absolutely love it! And for me to say that about jewelry in gold is a HUGE thing, trust me...LoL
I'm a silver girl through and through, but this is so gorgeous.

I really do love it and I cannot wait to get it, wear it, and take it with me to surgery so that you all are with me while I undergo surgical torture for the 3rd time. ha hahaha
Hey, I'm just as cheesy as you are. *wink*
This really is beautiful, I will be proud and honored to wear it, thank you so much.

LOVE it! I have no idea what to name it, but how cool is it that you get to drive a fuchsia colored car with flowers on it? It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, so enjoy it girl!

Heh, I'm on there, cool.

I chose #2, black flowers on pink, love it myself!

For me, it's the whole paying for followers thing. I don't think anyone should pay, or should have to pay, for followers.
Every new person who follows me, I check them out.
If I like their profile, like their blog/website they linked to, if I like the tweets and rate of tweets they post, I follow back.
If I don't like all the above, I don't follow back.

I've been told I'm a "Twitsnob" because I'm not following everyone who follows me.
I don't understand how that is being snobby at all, and I don't like being called a snob simply because I choose who to follow back.

I also don't want to follow thousands of people, it gets far too confusing and makes it difficult to really converse with anyone.
It's hard enough keeping up with the amount of I do follow, following thousands of people would be a blur, I'd never really be able to read every single tweet, and I actually like reading them, knowing what people have to say, I don't want anyone to get lost in the mass of tweets.

I have never understood this.
Financial times are tough, people are struggling to pay bills and keep food on the table, they cut back on things they don't need, cut off the cable tv, stop eating and ordering out, yet they will go to church and drop more and more money in the collection plates because they believe a few lines of scripture, that if they give money to god, that he will take care of them, and somehow, miraculously, give them some back.

They believe Malachi 3:8-10, and Luke 6:38, and II Corinthians 9:6-7.
These 3 scriptures tell them to give to god and he will give to them, but it never works.
What ends up happening is that they still end up broke, yet maybe the church soup kitchen or food pantry will give them some food to feed their families.

"Doing is always better that praying."

Exactly.
That was like the whole point of my email to you.
Doing is far better than praying.

Thanks for sharing this story Joe.

Procrustes,
I don't think our obligation is to help every single person every single time, but if faced with a certain situation like the one that faced Joe, and you have the means to help, like Joe did, then we should help.
I'm not quite sure why Joe feels guilty, he did a good thing IMO, he shared what he had with someone who had nothing and had resorted to begging.

I think a lot of people, most people, avoid helping the homeless because when they ask for spare change, we have this stereotyped idea in our heads that all homeless men are alcoholics and drug addicts, and so if we give them money, we are contributing to their substance abuse.
But not all homeless people are alcoholics and drug addicts, so sometimes, we must simply give our spare change and hope that they use it for the food they say they need.

What is my motivation for helping my fellow man?
Well, I try to do the things for my fellow men that I would want done for me.
I'm far from perfect though, the story I shared with Joe was written around 3am, and I re-read it this afternoon, and found myself saying to myself, "Kat, what is wrong with you that you feel you have the right to ask a behavior from anyone else? What gives you the right to say that what my believing friends do in a time of crisis or need, is wrong, and by whose standards is it wrong?"

It's my standards that says their behavior is wrong.
To them, praying for me is what they feel is the absolute best thing to do.
To me, doing, action, is the best thing to do, but I can't ask or make others do what I think is best.
This is where I fail.
I fail because I want and try to make others behave the same way that I do, because I believe that treating each other the way we want to be treated is the best way for humans to live.

Not everyone believes in the golden rule.
I need to remember that.

I don't believe that the kids should suffer because of what's she's done either, but it isn't right that the taxpayers of California and the entire country, (food stamps & medicaid are national, so all citizens pay for these programs) are being forced to pay for her choices.
Instead of helping her mother pay the mortgage on the house, she used 2 workman's comp settlements to pay for IVF. Instead of using those 2 workman's comp settlements to help her mother pay for food/clothes/utility bills in that house, she used the money for even more IVF treatments.
At some point in the last few years, she lied on her food stamp applications about how much money she had and any settlements she received. If she had been honest about those 2 workman's comp settlements, she would not be getting any food stamps, so she has committed welfare fraud which is punishable by up to 5 years in prison per count of welfare fraud, so 2 settlements over the course of 5 years, during which all 5 years, she did receive food stamps and medicaid, so all 5 years are considered welfare fraud.

What gets me is that ET (entertainment tonight) is treating her like a celebrity, giving her a daily video blog, tons of press, paying her for every video she agrees to make, and every single time they show up to film her, the bring a check for the doing the video and more diapers, clothes, and toys and gifts for the other 6 kids.

I don't think any of the kids should suffer, go without, but since when is becoming a parent worthy of all of this attention and fame and money?
Since when is being a seriously irresponsible idiot with no job, a home in foreclosure, obvious mental and physical problems, (workman's comp settlements are paid out for serious injuries, she claims it was her back both times, she says she can't work because of her back) no spouse, no man's name even claiming to be the father, (the name she wrote on all 14 birth certificates is a lie, it's just the name of a friend) something worthy of all of this attention?
I guarantee you that if someone else ever tries to pull this again, CPS will be at
the door investigating the home, the children, the mother, the grandparents, talking to all of the neighbors, everything, and the kids would never be allowed to be given to her to raise.
But because shows like ET are making her out to be some sort of celebrity, CPS is not even touching this! They are not investigating her, and they should be!
The old house was an absolute pig sty, filthy, held together with duct tape, a total mess, the kids were dirty, neighbors had called the police and CPS, but nope, not now, not now that she's a celebrity.
Gah. makes me sick. I have o stop talking about her, it's raising my blood pressure up, I can feel it, and I already have heart health issues.
Trust me though, if I did even 1 little thing that someone else considered wrong with my sons, CPS would be at my door, they'd probably take them away while they investigated me because of my health issues alone, never mind if I did something as stupid as get IVF and have 6 embryos implanted as a single parent with no job and my house was messy.