One of the most frustrating things for me is the price of certain surgeries in my home country.  Sure, it is nice that we can get some of these procedures done here, but quite frankly, when it comes to the price, most of us cannot afford it.

This has lead many people to look for ways to get similar services without the costs.  Sure, it would be nice if there was some way that you could shop around in your neighborhood and pick the cheapest rate, but that is not the case.

In response to this need, many people have taken advantage of medical tourism Asia, where they take a trip to an Asian country that offers the type of procedure that they need, and pay a reduced rate for the services.  This not only saves them money, but quite often can reduce waiting times as well.

So the next time you need a medical procedure, don’t forget to shop around other countries - you might just find yourself a better deal.

One of the habits I have that my husband finds most annoying is my fascination with shopping bargains. If he loses me at a store, he knows that he will be able to find me rifling through a clearance bin or walking up and down the discount aisle.

I don’t know what it is, but I have always loved getting a bargain. I would never buy anything at regular price if I didn’t have to. I guess this started a long time ago, when we were young and were struggling financially. The only way I could get things for myself is if I found them on clearance.

Old habits must be hard to break, because although we are financially secure now, I still seek out the sales. When my husband decided to get a new television for the family room, I went on a hunt for LCD TV bargains, telling him we certainly could not buy at full price.

I guess I can see why he might be annoyed with me.

I feel that they key to a healthy life is to work at it a day at a time.  We can’t all expect to be healthy everyday, but if we make choices that help us stay in that state, we have done what we should do.

Healthy choices that you can make each day can be something as simple as eating properly, getting some exercise, or even taking your vitamins.  The thing that I find is that there is not just one magic thing that we can do to be healthy, but it is a combination of small things that makes it all work out.

For example, I have been getting rid of the toxins in my body by using Zeolite - it takes just a few drops in a bottle of water each day and that is it.  The result of this habit is that my memory is more like it was when I was younger, and I have as much energy as I had as a teenager.  By simply getting rid of the toxins in my body, I have made a drastic change in my lifestyle.

So make sure that you take the time to make choices that will keep you healthy - that way you will live a long, fruitful life.

One of the best parts of my job is that I am in a position to help others.  I have always believed that we should help one another out, and therefore I found myself in a career as a debt counselor.  It has not only been a rewarding job, but when I see the stress melt away for my clients, it makes me feel like I have made a difference in their lives.

I help people that are in situations of financial distress - particularly with debt.  Since so many people have been granted many credit cards and lines of credit without the education that is required to utilize them properly, I find many people in my office at the end of the line.  They have abused the credit that was granted to them, and I am the stop before they declare bankruptcy.

Thankfully, by using the debt consolidation loans that I offer, they never have to go bankrupt.  In fact, it is a better solution that helps them out in the short term, as well as reduces the damage to their credit, which is key if they wish to borrow money in the future.

I am just so happy that I can help them out.

The other day, I told my daughter that if I tripped over her dog bed one more time, than she was going to have to get rid of the dog. She cried; I felt bad. But, I was tired of the fact that she was dragging it all through the house and leaving it in the middle of the way.

I apologized to her for getting angry, but I reminded her of the conversation we had when we were looking for dog beds, before we got the puppy. I told her it was important that the dog have a quiet place to go to sleep and, as we discussed this, we decided that moving her bed all over the house would not be comforting for the dog.

She agreed with me and it has been much better since then. I know that she always wants the puppy with her, so I told her that she could put Mollie’s bed in her room from now on, as long as it stayed put.

I don’t know if you have ever had the problem where someone just keeps calling and calling and hangs up, but it is one of the most frustrating things in the world.  I mean, it is one thing to call once in awhile, but to call any time of day, well, that is just plain rude.

What ticks me off a little bit is that I called the police and they will do nothing for me.  Unless I can get the number of the caller, they told me that they are too busy to help me and I was on my own.  Same goes with the phone company - they won’t help me unless I get their number.

So, I have been waiting patiently, hoping that they will mess up at some point and let the phone ring too long or forget to block their number.  Because once I have their number, it will only take a reverse phone lookup and I’ll have them.

I have decided that I would do some research and see if I can find the best MySpace layout online.  I have had some experience with MySpace, though I haven’t done a lot with it up to this point.  But, I am pretty good at finding things online, so I figured that this would be a good challenge for me.

What I wasn’t counting on was the large number of sites dedicated to MySpace layouts.  I mean, you could find ones related to music, movies, television, pets and I even found Christian MySpace layouts.  In fact, I was overwhelmed by the number of layouts available and now I will need to devote even more time to this project.

So, I have been going site to site to see what the most downloaded layouts are, and then I am saving them to test later.  I am also making a list of sites that do review the layouts, and I am going to tabulate the results from them as well.

It looks like this is going to be a little more work than I bargained for, so it might be a few weeks before I have an answer - but the results will be worth it.

We have some good friends that I have known ever since I was a little kid, and we get together once a year to catch up.  Quite often, we all meet back in our hometown, as we have all left that small place on the prairies for bigger and better things.  This meeting not only gives us a chance to catch up, but we also have a chance to all visit our parents that are still in the town.

There has been a tradition in these meetings that we bring gifts for one another and this year was no different.  I brought some pies for them from my favorite bakery from home, and they were thankful for such a yummy treat.

But what I had not expected was the gift that Bruce had brought - he brought us all a copy of the book that had changed his life.  It was Stock Split Secrets, a book by Darlene Nelson, that showed how to trade on the stock market and become financially free.  He had used the same book to amass the wealth that he has today, and he thought that we should be given the same opportunity.

I now have some reading ahead of me with a purpose in mind - to become financially free.

Some people are good at art. Others excel at athletics. Personally, I’m a singer, actress and writer. I’m also a frustrated artist — frustrated because I neither have the time nor the setup to do the painting and quilting that did in the past. Other priorities have taken hold — namely building a business.

In the past I searched art stores for cobalt blue and titanium white oil paints, and searched  quilting and fabric shops for fat quarters and the latest nifty gadgets. Now I do research online for free PHP hosting, keyword tools and clipart.

Considering how much I loved doing decorative painting (when we lived in Puerto Rico for three years, PBS art, sewing, quilting and cooking shows (and “General Hospital” that my daughter-in-law watched daily), were about all the TV I watched. At least that’s all I remember from that period of my life. My goodness, it was going on 30 years ago!

I do miss those days of PBS personalities and programs. But they’re no longer on TV, and I’ve moved beyond hobbies to running a business. Maybe when I retire, I’ll get back to those things again. It’s all a matter of priorities. I hope so. It’s a part of my life I prefer not to lose entirely.

As times change, the way that you usually do some things change.  For example, we all used to go to the bank and do our banking at a teller, but since the advent of ATMs, that is no longer the case.

Same goes for dating.  In the olden days, the way that you would find local singles was to go out, and ask random people for dates.  Okay, that might not be the exact way that you did it, but in a nutshell, that is the way it was.

But things have changed.  Instead of walking up to strangers, we now post our profiles on the many free online dating sites that are on the Internet, and wait for someone to bite.  It is much like filling out a job application, but everyone can see it, and make their decisions from there.

Sure, this method is full of many pitfalls, but I know of a handful of my friends that have had good success with this method.  All I can say is courtship is not the same as it used to be.