A Little Irish History - The Claddagh Ring

claddagh ring - "irish wedding ring"

In honor of my Irish heritage and St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, I thought I'd give a little history lesson about the Claddagh Ring, better know as the "Irish Wedding Ring".

No doubt that you've seen this ring before. You probably even have one of your own, but did you know that the heritage of this ring and the meaning of its symbols date all the way back to the Roman period? The ring was first introduced in Claddagh, Ireland, during the 17th century and the rein of William and Mary. Claddagh has produced these rings consistently since 1700, but the name Claddagh Ring didn't start being used until 1840 or so.

Traditionally the Claddagh Ring was a family heirloom that was passed from a mother onto her first married daughter. They were large and made of solid gold. The design of the ring spread beyond Claddagh during the era of Queen Victoria and became widespread during the 20th century.

The story (legend) of the Claddagh Ring... has so much folklore and myth attached to it that it is difficult to know where legend ends and truth begins. (Ida Delamer)

The design and positioning of the Claddagh ring bears significant meaning to the beholder. The elements of the ring are said to represent the qualities of love (the heart), friendship (the hands) and loyalty (the crown). They are a symbol of great pride for those of Irish heritage and also a symbol of friendship and love among others of non-Irish or Irish heritage.

Claddagh rings are used in romantic or friendly relationship depending on the intentions of the wearer and/or the giver. How the ring is worn by the wearer conveys relationship status in the following ways:

1. On the right hand with the heart facing outward, the wearer is single and may be looking for love.
2. On the right hand but turned inwards, the wearer is in a relationship, or their heart has been "captured".
3. On the left hand with the heart facing outward, the wearer is engaged.
4. On the left hand but turned inwards, the wearer is married.

There are other local variations about the way the ring is worn and what it means, but these four are the most traditional.

So there you have it, a little Irish history - light and fluffy for a Friday. I wish everyone a safe and happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm Bananas About Bananas (And Why You Should Be Too)

i am a super food.

I know, I know, what a boring post about bananas - Isn't your life interesting at all? But, seriously, I did come here today to preach about my love for bananas and why you should consider getting on the banana train.

Here's an interesting fact about me - I never really ate bananas growing up at all. My mom rarely had them around the house. We ate fruit like apples, oranges, grapefruit, grapes and cantelope most often. Bananas would just rot on the counter and eventually get thrown away or tossed into the freezer for "banana bread", which usually never happened anyway...

I started eating bananas when I was in high school. I started working out more and my boyfriend at the time was obsessed with the fruit - ate a LOT of bananas - because he used to "cramp up" after sports practice. And so, like most other teenage girls, I just did whatever my boyfriend-of-the-moment did too and I have to say that the habit of eating a daily banana has stuck with me and that's the one thing that particular boyfriend gave to me that was actually a GREAT thing to stick with.

Not into bananas? Fine, I get it, they're everywhere and the flavor does get old after a while - However, here's some reasons why you should continue...

1. Bananas contain 15% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C, which helps your body heal, absorb iron and synthesize connective tissue and blood formation. SO IMPORTANT FOR WOMEN IT IS RIDICULOUS. Are you running to eat a banana yet??

2. Bananas supply 20% of the recommended daily allowance for B6, which supports your immune system, plays a significant role in the synthesis of antibodies, helps with protein metabolism, red blood cell formation and central nervous function.

Trying to lose weight? Even Better...

Bananas are packed with fiber that will keep you fully longer. I usually have one with a tablespoon of peanut butter for an afternoon snack that packs an extra punch of protein to hold me off until dinner.

Not to mention that bananas are EXTREMELY CHEAP!

So, get out there and enjoy some of nature's candy bar!

((FYI - I may be doing one "nutrition" or "health" based blog per week. I know it's a bit overdone on the internet nowadays, but it is something I'm passionate about. I'm also confident that with a few simple changes and self control, anyone can learn to love their body and self-image.))

Long Term Care & Why You Should Care

There are 3 questions that I want you to ask yourself before you decide to continue reading. If you answer "NO" or "I Don't Know" to any of the questions, please continue. If you answer "YES". Click "X" at the top of the screen and move on...

1. Do you actually know what long term care is?
2. Do you know how much long term care costs?
3. Do you and your family have a plan in place for long term care (especially for your parents and/or grandparents)?

Lucky for you, you're going to learn something today and even though it isn't a pleasant topic, avoiding it could be financially catastrophic for you or your family. So, here we go...

Answer to #1:
Long term care is defined as a range of services and supports you or a loved one may need to meet health or personal needs over a long period of time. Most long-term care is not medical care, but rather assistance with the basic personal tasks of everyday life, sometimes called “Activities of Daily Living,” such as:

• Bathing
• Dressing
• Using the toilet
• Transferring (to or from bed or chair)
• Caring for incontinence
• Eating

Answer to #2:

The national average cost for nursing homes is approximately $105.00 per day. Assisted living ranges anywhere from $50-$90 per day depending on where you live. You can easily spend $50,000 to $80,000 per year staying in a nursing home. These costs can quickly wipe out a lifetime savings, not to mention the emotional effect long term care has on a family.

A study conducted at Harvard University showed that 69% of single people and 34% of married couples would exhaust their assets after 13 weeks (3 months) in a nursing home...

Answer to #3:

Contrary to popular belief, the government isn't going to pay for long term care at home, in a nursing home or in an assisted living center. Did you hear that people???? The. Government. IS NOT. GOING. TO. PAY.

Medicare pays 100% of long term care for 20 days and all but $137.50 per day (as of 2010) for the next 80 days and after that NOTHING. (Medicare will pay for skilled care, but most long term care is not deemed as "skilled care").

People, I don't tell you these facts to scare you or bore you, I try to share this information with you to keep you informed. The National Clearing House for Long Term Care tells us that over 70% of the people ages 65 and older will need some form of long term care during their lifetime, 40% of those will need care in a nursing home facility.

My question to you today is, what's your plan in this scenario?

Listen, I'm 26-years-old and I've already got my ducks in a row as far as DISABILITY planning. But, my parents have ZERO long term care insurance or protection. What does that mean for my family? What happens if mom or dad becomes too sick to take care of themselves?

Many people are under the impression that if something were to happen to one or both of their parents, that they could take care of them. However, I challenge you with these questions. Could you afford to...

• Leave your home.
• Leave your job.
• Uproot your family.

All in order to care for your parents? Not to play devil's advocate with you in this situation, but I bet you can't do any of those three things in reality...

The government was set to provide a long term care program (CLASS) as it was a part of health care reform, but in a previous post I wrote about how CLASS didn't make it through because it was doomed to fail financially.

Insurance carriers are dropping like flies left and right in this marketplace and there may not be any left to provide long term care insurance coverage. Why do you say? Because people are collecting claims like crazy and insurance companies are losing TONS OF MONEY. Unum lost over $400M in 2011 alone because of their LTCI block of business.

With people living longer and diseases that used to be fatal now having treatments that keep sick people alive for longer, we have A LOT of people that are going to need long term care in the future. This thought scares me and it should scare you too because nobody is addressing this issue and what the plan is... Our country will be forced to go back to "grass roots" morals and values and care for our elderly because I can guarantee families will not be able to afford the rising costs of long term care, especially if there aren't any insurances left to cover the costs.

Times they are a changin'...

I hope you learned something from this post. If nothing else, I hope I got you thinking about what your family is planning.

On a lighter note, tomorrow is Friday! Yahoo!

More to come on this topic from me because I'm passionate about it... Thanks to those who made it through!

Gimme a Nice Firm One...

I knew that title would get your attention... And you're all a buncha perverts for thinkin' what you're thinkin'... But, I came here today to talk about hand shakes and hugs because it's come to my attention lately that some people seriously suck at hand shakes and hugs.

In case you're just stumbling across my blog for the first time today, I work in the business world. There is a lot of hand shaking that takes place in the business world from the initial meeting with someone, possibly in the middle of the meeting to seal agreement and then of course at the end of the meeting to conclude the events that transpired.

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I did receive a lesson on hand shaking when I was in college. Your hand shake can say a lot about you as a person. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about - we've all had the experience of the person that shakes our hand and we swear we're not sure if there are any fingers on our hand that were left unbroken... But, then there's the hand shake that I can't stand - The "finger tip" only hand shake or the hand shake that doesn't seem sincere - it's sort of weak and not really strong or sincere.

I was taught there are three things you should always do when you give a hand shake - male or female - I suggest practicing with a spouse or partner if you've got an interview coming up because as of late we've had some poor ones...

1. Straighten Up and Speak Up: Pull those shoulders back and life your eyes to look the world head on. CONFIDENCE IS KEY.
2. Extend Your Arm and Hand With Confidence and Meaning: Don't make people question what you're doing (is she trying to shake my hand right now, is she initiating something?). This goes back to Number 1 - be confident - put your hand out and...
3. Grab Hold of The Person's Hand Like You Mean It: ((Don't be creepy or anything, there is a time limit on this hand shake)) - But, look the person in the eye, speak up and introduce yourself (first and last name) and for pete's sake, BE CONFIDENT!

Seriously, I'm so sick of these petty hand shakes that I've been receiving as of late - If I can't even hear you introduce yourself and if you don't say something with conviction - sorry, but you just lost some credentials with me... I understand some people are nervous coming into the situtation, but this is the business world - better get used to it.

And the same goes with hugs - I really hate hugs that don't seem genuine or from the heart. Sometimes it's tough to give an all-out hug to someone, but if you're putting the effort into giving a hug to begin with, make it count!

I know this is a petty post, but seriously - one of my pet peeves! If you're going to hand shake in the business world, do so with some confidence and with conviction. Same goes for hugs!

Make it count people! There's only one you in this world, you've already got that going for you so don't be afraid to flaunt what you got!

((End Rant))

Important & Smart Financial Advice Post

I learned something AMAZING last week about how to be more financially responsible. I know, I know, I have two kids and I'm not financially reponsible? No. Of course we are. BUT - This advice is changing the way I perceive "savings" and I hope that it will be helpful for those of you that follow my blog ((thank you for following me! I feel special! MUAH!))



Unless money started growing on trees recently, you may want to pay attention to what I'm saying, yo!

Here's step number 1 in this new financial process that I sincerely challenge you to try - Why should you want to try this process? To help you achieve some dreams... Want to be debt free? Want to save money to buy a house? Want to go on vacation? IT. IS. POSSIBLE.

Read on please and try these steps:

1. Create an account on the website called Mint.com. This is FREE online budgeting tool and best part about it, it gives you a 90 day summary immediately about how much you're spending and shows you by category where your money is going. It can help you reach your goals and budget more accordingly in certain areas of life (rent, food, student loans, etc.). YES; it does take some time so commit at least a half hour to setting it up, especially if you want to get ALL your accounts squared away and for pete's sake, since you're already committing to the process BE HONEST. If you have a credit card, indicate that. Face it. It will get paid off. (Stepping off soap box).
2. You may be slightly depressed after completing step number 1, especially if you're me and you realize you spent $800 on food alone last month and over $100 on alcohol alone... But, the point of all this isn't to depress you - it's to get you to open your eyes and RE-PRIORITIZE. Do it. Use your paycheck to build yourself and your life in a more positive direction - this tool is just the starting place. Step number 2 is to look at your spending, see where you're overindulging and set a reasonable budget for yourself in each category of your life. Figure out the "must pays" and the "optional pays" - "Must pays" are bills that you HAVE TO pay each month. "Optional pays" are just that... They're optional.
3. Look at your "must pays" and minus the total of all the "must pays" from you total monthly income. Now here's step number 3 - Is there any money left over after you complete your "must pays"?? For over 50% of the population, there isn't, so don't feel bad if there's not much there or even nothing left, but if there is money left over don't just leave that money sitting in your checking account to get spent!!!!!!! Which leads me to the next step...
4. Put any money that you are not spending on "must-pays" into a savings account. Put that money to work for you! Even though the interset rate isn't real high right now, it's better sitting in a savings account than in your checking account not working for you or worse, getting spent... AND ALSO, putting the money in a savings account makes it harder for you to access and spend on "impulse shopping" or other non-necessities in your life. It also makes it more PAINFUL to go dig into that savings account, because if you know anything about savings accounts, they're harder to access than a checking account and you'll know the reason you're "digging into" the account is because you went over on your budget and you'll feel like a piece of poo-poo; OR, you'll be grateful the savings is there if something happens... Either way, it's a win/win and a good lesson.
5. The final step is to do this process for as long as it takes to reach your financial goal - whatever it may be - for us, it's saving money to build a house... What's your goal?

You guys, I'm telling you right now that I'm the first person to say financial planners are full of foo-ey and I did this process for us recently. I honestly thought my husband and I were living paycheck to paycheck - but, you know what I discovered? $500 extra dollars every month that aren't getting used on "must pays". You guys, we have two kids, my husband isn't working right now and you know what else? We both have student loans and credit card debt and guess what? I'm not going to tell you how much I'm making at my job, but I will tell you that mama ain't makin' six-figures at her job... Bottom line... There is hope and ways to save money if you just try and budget and spend accordingly.

I had to share this advice with you! Please try it and I hope that it works for you and your families!

Definitely want to hear feedback from those that do it...

A Blast From the Past

I had lunch with an old friend last week.

Let me tell you, I was a bit nervous for this lunch. You see, I'm about 20 steps ahead of most others my age, especially from the area where I grew up and I know it sounds dumb, but I was just worried about what he was going to think of me... Not to mention, I'm pretty sure the last time I saw the guy was in a bar somewhere during the haze that was my college (partying) days.

So we get to the lunch and at first it was awkward as awkward can be. We hugged - talked about how long it had been since we'd actually had a conversation with each other, which we agreed must have been high school graduation (about 8 years ago now)... He was in utter shock that I was married and had two children. His response was that I had two kids and was still "tiny". I can't tell you how much I hate people that remark about this OR believe this stereotype about women - like automatically when you have children your looks have to go away? F that noise.

Anyway, the conversation about our lives went on and on and the more we talked, the more I realized that I missed hanging out with this guy. How did we grow apart? We used to be so close and it was sad to think that 8 years had come and gone and I didn't know anything about him anymore. What's even more sad is that he works within minutes of my office and we'd never known this...

I learned a few things after finishing:

1. I need to seriously see friends more. I feel like I do my best, but wow, no excuses anymore. I feel like I take people for granted sometimes and I need to remember that sometimes when you cut yourself off from people or don't give a little more effort, it hurts them.

2. I'm way ahead of most people my age with having kids and yes, some people think I'm crazy - this guy I went to lunch with was no exception - He asked why we have two kids and I told him that we didn't plan it, it just happened to us and sometimes life just happens and you roll with it. I wouldn't trade having my children for the world. Sometimes I feel like my friends are looking for me to say I would take back having kids or they try to fish and poke around for me to say something along those lines and sorry folks, I would never, ever say that. Having children is a blessing. I'm blessed to be a mother. One day, when you have your own children, you'll understand, but until then....

3. Sometimes in life you just have to A.S.K. to G.E.T. I never would have gotten this opportunity if I hadn't asked for it. And look all the good that came out of it? Reconnecting with an old friend and finding out things about each other in a personal and professional light...

I'm in the mood to vent so I may post yet again after this one - but I definitely had to share my experience with this lunch because it was just... Crazy, weird, good and fun.

::God Moment::

WOW - What a crazy week it's been.

I had my revelation last week that I was going to start making a more conscious effort to just enjoy my life and all things in it as much as I can and jump at opportunities when I want to and take chances. Seriously, I can't even begin to explain the blessings that I've received just in the past week in accepting this new mode of thought and living my life. It's seriously like God has told me, "Finally! You get it! Just trust me and everything will be alright!"

Starting with last Friday... Not going to lie, I've been contemplating becoming a stay-at-home-mom and the thought has been circling my mind for some time now. I think it has been there because I've been a little unhappy with the "love" I've been feeling from my current employer. Sometimes I seriously feel like I work my tail off (as I'm blogging at work - HA - this is ironic... But, seriously, I do work hard!) and I'm the only one that wants to see us grow and try to change things up and I never get rewarded for my momentum or vision or optimism around here... I know, I know, ya'll are like, "Join the club!" But, it was seriously messing with my mind and was making me start to think that I should leave my career behind. Everything changed when I got a job offer from another company last Friday...

A guy that I've met a few times out at meetings and conferences called me (for the second time, I might add) to offer me a job. Long story short, the job was a "promotion" when it comes to pay (about $20,000 promotion), but was a "demotion" when it came to the job duties. I did write him off on it because I don't want to take a step back in my career. I like being in the sales and marketing seat and being more on the "front lines" of a company rather than "behind the scenes". I flat out told him I thought I was overqualified for the position he was offering me and that I was smarter than what the job entailed. That being said, I mentioned to him that the compensation piece was enticing to me. I have a family to consider and sometimes you just have to make sacrifices when it comes to finances when you're married and have children...

Luke and I discussed the opportunity and he agreed that I would most likely be unhappy taking a step back in my career. He knows that I want to grow and that the opportunities at my current company are allowing me to do that and it has opened doors that have been amazing for me. We both agreed it would seem a bit "unethical" in a way to leave now, especially since I just completed working on our new website, name change and new "brand" to hopefully take our company to the next level when it comes to business and sales prospecting. Leave now? Are you crazy? It just didn't seem right.

But, I couldn't shake this other offer. Maybe it was the money that was making my mind hazy and causing me to question. I couldn't help it! So, I wrote a personal email to the guy that made the offer to me telling him that I'd like to hear more about the company - the pay, the benefits, the atmosphere around there and most importantly, my opportunity for growth there.

Here it comes - This was The God Moment...

That same day that I emailed the guy, I had a conference call scheduled with my boss for 2:00 PM. He's traveling right now and the chances of him calling me on time for a conference call anyway are slim to none. So, here I am at my desk, knowing that he probably wont' call me until 3:00 or later, then all of a sudden, the phone rings at 2:01 PM. It was him! Amazing! He called on time! I was considering giving him some grief about this, but we got to talking and got right down to business. I was needing his approval on some new materials that I'm ordering coinciding with our company name change (business cards, letterhead, envelopes, etc.). When we got done talking about that he said he had one other thing that he wanted to discuss with me. The conversation went something like this:

Boss: I have one more thing I'd like to discuss with you. Normally I'd wait until I was back in the office, but thought we could discuss it now...
Me: (STOMACH TURNING! SO NERVOUS!) Ok, what is it?
Boss: I just wanted to tell you that I think you're doing a great job, you're a great asset to our team, blah, blah, blah, (More nice things, feeding my ego)...
Me: Wow, thank you, that's very nice of you, I really appreciate you saying these things... (At this point I'm expecting him to deliver bad news, like, although you're doing a great job, you can improve here or you should stop doing this or you should stop blogging at work... something along those lines).
Boss: Since you've been doing such a great job, I'd like to offer you additional compensation of $7,000 to your base salary.
Me: (HOLDING BACK TEARS OF JOY AND EXCITEMENT) Wow, that's unbelieveable! Thank you so much! This is so great, THANK YOU!
Boss: You're welcome. You deserve it. I just love the work that you're doing. Keep up the good work.

GOD. IS. SO. GOOD. If that wasn't a sign to stay put at my job, I don't know what is!

And so, tonight, I plan to sip some champagne with my family to celebrate my wonderful news and people let me tell you, this raise came at the perfect time. We've got one little guy going to start montisorri school in the next month and our other little guy going back to daycare full time because Luke's going back to work. I know money isn't everything, but let's face it, you do need it!

To conclude, I have been blessed this week. I'm so grateful to God for providing me a job that I have the ability to grow. I'm grateful to my employer for seeing value in the work that I do. I'm grateful to my husband who is supportive of my career. I'm happy that I can stay with my company for the time being and hopefully, keep this going!

Happy Friday ya'll!