Search Results for: november 2009

Great American Smokeout 2009: November 19

It’s Smokeout season again: the American Cancer Society celebrates the Great American Smokeout on the third Thursday of November each year. On a smaller scale, Smokeouts began in the 1970s. In 1971, a guidance counselor in Massachusetts asked people to give up smoking for a day — and donate the money they would have spent on cigarettes to a high school scholarship fund. A Minnesota newspaper editor organized the first D-Day (Don’t Smoke Day) in 1974. Just two years after Minnesota’s D-Day, the American Cancer Society in California got close to one million smokers to commit to not smoking for … Continue reading →

National Adoption Day 2009

Jessie joined our family on September 11, 2008. She was placed in our home for adoption. It wasn’t until June 2, 2009, that we learned that what was promised was going to happen. We were going to be able to adopt our third foster placement. That was the happiest day since we graced our eyes upon her. The next thing we had to think about is what to do next. I had the names of two attorneys whom I spoke with when there were challenges to Jessie staying with us. I liked them both and each had a different take … Continue reading →

Great American Smokeout 2009: Measuring Success

I read a very interesting thing on the American Cancer Society website about quitting smoking and how you measure success. Many people look at the success rates of a particular quitting smoking program before they decide whether or not to try it. But the ACS points out a few problems with that. For one thing: not all programs define success in the same way. Some may measure a “success” as a person not smoking for six months, while another may call reaching the one year mark a “success”. So before you even start, you need to figure out how YOU … Continue reading →

World Run Day 2009

Are you a runner? Do you enjoy running not only for fitness, but also for an even more rewarding reason? Do you want to run for your favorite charity? You can make a difference in the lives of someone else by raising money for a good cause. On November 8, 2009, many people around the world are choosing to run to help raise money for their chosen charitable organization. The World Run Day was started in 1999. A man named Bill McDermott from Long Island wanted to encourage people to not only run for a healthier existence, but to dedicate … Continue reading →

Education Blog Month in Review: November

By November, students have settled in to the routine of school. The month of November brought with it lots of education news, from sex education and ethics in the classroom to upcoming policy changes that may affect when some students graduate. Check here to review any important posts that you may have missed. November 3rd Schools Required to Improve Dropout Rates Last month, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced a new set of regulations that are aimed at making high schools accountable for high school drop out rates. November 7th New Plans to Graduate Kids in 10th Grade The last two … Continue reading →

Education Blog in Review: November 3rd Through November 16th

Education is a serious topic. Make sure you know all of the current news by reading the education blog. Here is a review of all of the articles posted here in the past two weeks. November 3rd Schools Required to Improve Dropout Rates Last month, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced a new set of regulations that are aimed at making high schools accountable for high school drop out rates. November 7th New Plans to Graduate Kids in 10th Grade The last two years of high school are generally spent preparing for college and enjoying the last hurrahs of senior year, … Continue reading →

Epic Mickey

One of the things I like best in a video game is a good story. Developers make use of advanced computer technology to program sometimes 20-minute-long animated movies to appear throughout certain video games, especially at the beginning and end, to make the experience as much about hearing a story as about playing a game. And those are my favorite games. Foremost of them all, in my opinion, are Kingdom Hearts I & II, which fuse the world of respected Japanese gaming franchise Final Fantasy with Disney. The player’s character travels to various Disney locales like Atlantica from “The Little … Continue reading →

Intro from a Lifelong Animal Lover

As the new pet blogger at families.com, I thought I’d take a post to introduce myself. My name is Angela Shambeda, and I’ve been with families.com since November 2009. You can also find me over at the Disney blog. I thought I’d tell a story from my childhood as part of my introduction. When I was in fourth grade I wrote my very first research paper on harp seals. While working on the paper I learned that conservationists would often spray stripes of bright paint over the coats of harp seals, particularly the babies. They would do so to protect … Continue reading →

Three Generation Families do Better Financially… at what cost?

Findings from the November 2009 Journal of Families issues states that three generation households are better than two generation homes headed by a single parent. The reasoning behind this is that having the grandparents and parents share the financial burden of the home will keep children out of poverty. “Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation from 2001, the researchers found that the presence of just one grandparent makes the odds of living below the poverty line 80% lower than for children living without a grandparent, and children living with two grandparents are at an even greater … Continue reading →

Cozies, Stray Cats, and Past Dogs: An Interview with Marion Moore Hill

I’m pleased to introduce you to mystery writer Marion Moore Hill. I’ve been trying to coordinate an interview with her for months now, but my efforts were somewhat waylaid by having to tend to affairs with my mom. However, I am pleased to finally bring you this long overdue interview. Enjoy! (And, Marion, thank you so much again for your patience and cooperation.) Courtney Mroch: What kind of things do you write about? (Genre, subject matter, themes, what have you.) Marion Moore Hill: I write traditional, amateur-sleuth mysteries (sometimes called cozies). I do two series, the Scrappy Librarian Mysteries and … Continue reading →