Amazon Direct Publishing

Yesterday I began to write children's books. I began writing them so I could have more books that would be of interest to Sara and would incorporate dolch sight words. I also began to create a set of books on the alphabet since that is what I am working on with David at the moment. It will be interesting to see if any of them sell or not, but I figured since I was making them anyway, then why not put them up for sale since it does not cost anything. Well anyways, my favorite so far is Gin-Gin and the Case of the Missing Hair Ties. If you have any interest just type my name into amazon and they will pop up.

A few Updates

Ok, so I thought I would update you on a few things that have been going on in my life and that go in line with some of the previous tip blogs I have written.  I was going to write this one yesterday, but I got extremely sick with some 24 hour thing that made me appreciate being able to be more than 20 feet away from a toilet if you know what I mean.
 Ok, well in my schooling there are a few updates. I am officially a member of the education honor society kappa delta pi now.  I had a call with my placement specialist for student teaching.  This call marked the introduction to the january 2012 cohort. These two things have been two key moments in my education and they both happened this week.
As far as the making extra money goes, I have tried a few of the tips that I gave and will continue to try more. I have been tutoring one student for the past few weeks. This has been very enjoyable, but proves to be a difficult experience to build up more clientele. This would be a great addition to my income if I could get just 3 to 4 more clients a week. Me and my wife went to give plasma on Tuesday of this week and I will tell you she definitely had a better experience than me. We waited for four hours since the first two hours is a medical screening. 2 hours is the total time it takes once you have done the medical screening and each time you come in after that. So, I was grooving along through my donation and then the machine starts to beep, signaling that I am finished. The attendant comes over and pulls out the needle and wraps my arm telling me I am finished. She then points me over to the sink where I can wash my arm off, So, I stand up and go over to the sink thinking this wasn't so bad. Then as I am looking down at my arm I can fell my eyes start to become blurry and I know I need to sit down. I rush over to the recovery room, which is more like a waiting area with juice and crackers. There was no attendant there, so I do not know what I would have done if the lady  that didn't work there had not gotten me a juice or told them I needed help. By the time I got to the room I could barely make out the outlines of the chairs and by the time I had the juice in my hand I could feel I was about three seconds away from blacking out.  As soon as I drank the juice it felt like life was rushing back through my veins. It was kind of exhilarating to think how the body works and how just a little thing of juice could bring me back that fast.  My wife did not have this issue. I am going to keep going until the promotion is finished and I will stop. The payout is 25, 30, 35, 40, and then goes down to 15 and then 20 for the second of the week. I will probably stop after the fourth time. I was going to go back yesterday, but with me being sick I thought it might not be the best choice. We have begun to save our pop cans so we can take them to the recycling center when we get a few bags saved up to update on how much we get for them.

20 Million half orphans

Did you know that there are 20 million kids in the US alone that do not have their father in their lives in any way?

This is horrifying to me. Not only is this terrible for the children, but it is terrible for the entire nation. That is 20 million grown adults at some point in the future. With the statistics showing single parents being 6 times more likely to be in poverty it is then no surprise that these same children are much more likely to go to prison or to live in poverty than to go to college and make themselves a contributing member of society.

I want to challenge you males out there. Get involved in your community.  Become a Big Brother, volunteer at an orphanage or community center. Get out there and make a difference.  I have volunteered with Royal Family Kid's Camp and it is a truly rewarding experience.  Fathers can be sometimes undervalued in our society and I think that is a tragedy. Moms you are important, but so is the father. You can not be both and you shouldn't have to.

I grew up without a father, yet the majority of the time I was fortunate enough to have male figures in my life to look up to. I have now lost contact with most of them and one even passed away recently. This and the combination of having children has made me think about what my life might have been like if my father was more involved in my life. If I knew that side of the family, would I be a different person than I am today? Would I act differently? Would I be having holiday traditions to perform every year. Those are the types of things I see in movies and TV, yet they are not seen in my life. We live far away from the one person on my side of the family I have regular contact with, my sister, and that makes it difficult for us to get together. I haven't really talked to anyone else on my side of the family besides my sister in two years, except through cards or short and very spread out e-mails. My wife's family is small and spread out as well. Her father is a ..well I can't say what I want to say he is. Let's just say he is not going to be involved in our life. Her brother lives in Carbondale, but hasn't married or have kids. One of her aunts passed away last year. Her other aunt lives in California now, but doesn't have kids so the network or framework of our family is very small and spread out.

I pray to God every day that our children will grow up with a strong network of family somehow. I want this for my children, but sometimes am so baffled at where to begin. I have been somewhat looking to find my father and to just meet that side of my family before it is too late. Sometimes I wonder if the rest of his family even knows that I exist.

Are you looking for a long lost relative? Are you trying to build a network of individuals you can trust and truly call your friends or family? I would love to hear what you guys have to say in regards to this.