SPECIAL URGENT REQUEST: PLEASE PRAY!

Hello, Friends.

I have a special urgent request: please pray for my friends, Carola and Anthony.

(My boyfriend, Phuong, and Anthony are old high school buddies. Phuong was one of Anthony's groomsmen.)

Carola, Anthony's wife, was expecting their first child sometime in 2010. Tragically, however, Phuong and I just found out that a few days ago, Carola had a heart attack, lost the baby, and is now at the ICU in Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California. Prior to the heart attack, it was found that Carola had three blood clots down her leg. The clots (aneurysms?) burst, caused the heart attack and the loss of their baby, and basically Carola is on life support at this very moment.

Tomorrow, Friday, 12/18/09, the family has decided to "pull the plug" ...still hoping against all hope that Carola's vital organs will revive, and that she will recover. It's a very slim chance... but God can do anything! We believe that! Please pray!

I ask you to please pray for our dearest Carola... that if God wills it, He will perform a miracle and save Carola's physical life.

And if it is not His will to do so, that God will be with Anthony and Carola's family during this sudden and unimaginably difficult time. May He provide His immeasurable peace and comfort to all who love Carola.

The sad thing too is that Anthony and Carola recently bought a huge house in Sylmar, California -- with tons of bedrooms! They wanted to fill their big house with their growing family. I pray that God would still give them that chance!

Thank you for your prayers...

Sincerely,

Christine & Phuong

P.S. I've attached pictures of Carola and Anthony in happier times at Six Flags Magic Mountain taken in October 2007.

I'M STILL HERE!

Hello, Friends!

I'm still here! On Planet Earth, that is. :)

I know, I know, I haven't updated in forever. Sorry about that! :P I've been super busy getting ready for THE NEW YEAR!!! Don't you just love that it'll be 2010 so very soon??? I even have a countdown on my laptop! :)

So in just 15 more days, we get to say bye bye to 2009 -- with all the good, the bad, the memories -- and say hello to 2010 -- with all the new the good, the bad, the memories! Hehehe.

Seriously, though, New Year is probably my most anticipated holiday of the year because that's when we get to start new! That's when we get to make new goals and see how we can reach them! That's when we get a fresh, blank slate! It's exciting to see what 2010 will turn out like!

I've already done a bit of a rough draft of my goals for 2010, headed by each month and the following categories:

1. Work
2. School
3. Money
4. Fitness

Those are four categories that I'll be drastically changing in 2010... and I'll share them with you soon enough! (I didn't add Spiritual, Family, Friends, etc. in there, but you're more than welcome to... and I encourage that you do actually! It's just that right now, I know for me those categories won't change much in 2010, but the above four definitely will.)

For now, I just wanted to say...

THINKING OF YOU & MISSING YOU!!!
I'll be back with more updates, I promise!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Celebrating the best GIFT of all -- JESUS!

HAPPY 2010!!!
May it be an even better year than the last because we are all striving to become better in every area of our lives!

WARRANTIES ARE WONDERFUL

Warranties are just wonderful and oh-so-useful! Any chance you get to buy warranty, I say get it! Usually we'll really need to use that warranty down the road... and you'd rather be WITH it than WITHOUT it then, for sure!

Just yesterday I went into Macy's to exchange my luggage roller (read about why I purchased a regular luggage roller rather than a "specialized" steno machine roller by clicking here) with a brand new one! My beautiful blue Ricardo luggage roller handle broke off completely after only 3 short months of use. I guess I was putting way too much stuff in it? (I'm sure I was because the roller would bend toward the floor! Oops!) Well, lesson learned. I won't overstuff my roller anymore, and I'm so glad that this luggage roller came with 6 months of warranty! WHEW!
Also, just yesterday, my Dell laptop came back from the "laptop doctor" (my technical term for saying that it came back from the manufacturer after a little bit of fixing! :P). The caps key was coming loose and messing up not only that one very important key, but other keys around it! It was very annoying, especially since to even get onto my laptop, I need to key in my password, which is case sensitive... of course.

On top of the caps lock problem, the fan in my laptop was sounding so loud. By the time it was sounding like a helicopter (ok, maybe not quite, but, really, loud enough!), my boyfriend sent in the pink Dell laptop he had bought for me back to the manufacturer to get it fixed. He bought 3 years' worth of warranty for my laptop.
I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND getting warranties for laptops because these on-the-go computers have a much shorter lifespan than a desktop computer. Plus we're always banging our laptops around, carrying it from here to there. They go through a lot of beating! So the warranty you buy for your laptop is well worth the money! TRUST ME! Better to be safe than sorry!

RENT THIS AMAZON VIDEO TODAY!

HERE'S AN AWESOME TIP YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO MISS! ONLY $1.99!

Hi, Everyone!

LONG TIME NO SEE! :)

Sorry I haven't been updating as frequently as before. Got a little busy there. :( But I finally found a spare moment to say HELLO! And to let you know that I'VE MISSED YOU! :)
Thanks, by the way, for voting on Steno Nerd's sidebar area about court reporting school. It's interesting to know that most students have gone to only one court reporting school as opposed to two, three, or even four. If you haven't voted yet, please do so. 20 more days to go! It'll be great to see the final verdict.

I've been busy mostly doing transcription jobs on the side... because I gotta save up as much as I can for my transfer to Downey's Court Reporting Program in January 2010. So that's been keeping me extremely busy. I'm grateful to have the work! But it's draining since now I have to add this onto my already full plate of full-time school and part-time work, Monday-Saturday. No pain, no gain, right?!

Besides being busy, let me share with you an amazing Amazon video about court reporting tips for us students.

Well, first let me credit the source of how I came about this super helpful video. I got it through Downy Adult School (DAS) Court Reporting Director Cindy Grafton's mass email she sent last week. Yup, I'm not in their program officially yet, but I asked to be signed onto the mass email! And Cindy GRACIOUSLY agreed to include me. YAY! :)

Every email message Cindy sends keeps you up to date with the happenings of DAS and includes an encouraging story and/or motivational quote for us court reporting students. The one she sent last week had the link to this video, which is Court Reporting Instructor Mary Gallagher speaking to the students at last year's DRA (Deposition Reporters Association of California) Conference. She talked about her ""secret techniques used by the most successful court reporting students."

THE FOLLOWING AMAZON VIDEO WAS

AND HERE'S THAT LINK: AMAZON VIDEO LINK

The video is 45 minutes long, and you have the option to buy it outright or rent it for a few days for $1.99. I decided to rent the video and watched it on my laptop right then and there. I WAS SO GLAD I DID SO! This video has a wealth of good tips for us! Dr. Gallagher includes her "10 Silly Things Students Do To Mess Up Their Speed" and "10 Super Things Students Do To Improve Their Speed." The video is well worth the $1.99, I assure you! :)
Also, check out Humphrey's newsletter here. Page 7 has Dr. Gallagher's Top 10 lists of both "Silly Things" and "Super Things" all spelled out for you. Browse around this newsletter as well. Lots of great info for us court reporting students here! :)

P.S. If this was helpful to you, please spread the word about Steno Nerd! We court reporting students need all the motivation and "insider" tips we can get! ;)

17 SUCCESS PRINCIPLES

17 SUCCESS PRINCIPLES
By: John Maxwell

1) A positive mental attitude (PMA)
2) Definiteness of purpose
3) Going the extra mile
4) Accurate thinking
5) Self-discipline
6) The master mind
7) Applied faith
8) A pleasing personality
9) Personal initiative
10) Enthusiasm
11) Controlled attention
12) Teamwork13) Learning from defeat
14) Creative vision
15) Budgeting time and money
16) Maintaining sound physical and mental health
17) Using cosmic habit force (universal law)