When I was a child growing up, I remember seeing mostly houses in neighborhoods and a few apartment complexes here and there.  Nowadays, there are still a lot of housing communities, but there are also a lot of apartment complexes and condominiums.  In fact, it’s common to see apartments and condos in the downtown sections of cities.  Senior housing is also available in most areas of a city as well as mobile home parks, some of which have curbs, sidewalks, and driveways just like regular housing communities.
 
I wonder, however, if neighbors nowadays know each other as well as they did back when I was growing up. Back then, we knew nearly all our neighbors up and down the street and many on the streets on either side of ours as well. Now, we basically know our neighbors on both sides of our house (both are great neighbors, by the way) and a few others on our street and other streets in our neighborhood.
 
One thing that’s sad to me is hearing about some people who don’t even know their neighbors at all. It’s great to have neighbors to be friends with, to watch out for each other’s houses when gone, and to be there to help out when needed.  One definition of “neighborhood” is friendliness appropriate to a neighbor (a feeling of  neighborhood).   Even though neighborhoods may change in dynamics, I hope the “feeling of neighborhood” never changes.

Jenny Bizaillion and her husband didn’t have any medical insurance, and he is overwhelmed right now by the enormous medical bills incurred during her hospital stay and then also for her funeral expenses. Jewelry for Jenny is selling jewelry designed specifically with Jenny in mind.   Jenny’s daughter and close friend helped design the jewelry, and part of the proceeds will go directly to help with medical costs.  It’s very touching to go to this site and read the story of Jenny and see the pieces of jewelry that reflect her life.

Thousands of prayers for Jenny were lifted up during her sudden illness (flu/pneumonia/sepsis), and you can still visit the FaceBook site set up for her!  Although Jenny passed away at the young age of 31 and is greatly missed, her family believes God has a greater purpose in mind.  Jenny’s passion for Christ has touched so many people’s lives!

Philanthropists are interesting to read about and learn what they do to help other people.  For example, I was reading about richard willich recently, and the article said that he asks these three questions in his personal and philanthropic philosophy:

1. Is it the truth?
2. Is it fair?
3. Will it improve things?

I think these are very worthwhile questions, and I like the fact that he supports positive youth programs as well as educational and historical preservation pursuits.  That’s probably the teacher side of me that’s drawn to these pursuits.

Do you know of some interesting philanthropists?

Would you like to check the quality of drinking water in your area?  Just go to the University of Cincinnati’s website and click on a major city on the United States map. A graph will show you the quality of the drinking water according to several different contaminates.

I’m surprised at how much chlorine is in our water. Well, actually I guess I’m not too surprised. We can definitely taste the chlorine in our water which is one of the reasons we’ve been using bottled distilled water.  However, we just purchased a “Pur” water filter so we won’t be buying gallons of water now. There’s no chlorine taste using the filter, and we like the taste of the water so far.

When addressing your Christmas cards this year, please take one card and
send it to this address.  If everyone sends one card, think of how many cards these
wonderful special people who have sacrificed so much would get.

When you are making out your Christmas card list this year, please include the following:

A Recovering American Soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical  Center
6900 Georgia Avenue,NW
Washington,D.C. 20307-5001

This has to be one of the sweetest stories I’ve heard in a long time.   Kristin was crowned homecoming queen in Aledo, Texas, while hundreds of people in the stands gave her a standing ovation, cheered, and many burst into tears.  It was a very touching moment that those at the football game will never forget.  And neither will Kristin.  Here’s the whole story in detail with a great video from ABC News.

If you notice on my sidebar, I have a box about breast cancer.  I would appreciate if you visit that site every time you visit my site.  That will take you to the Breast Cancer Site where it’s free to help sponsor those who can not afford mammograms.

Probably most of you know one person or maybe several women whose lives have been affected by breast cancer.  I lost a friend, who had three children, to breast cancer 16 years ago.  I have several friends who are breast cancer survivors, and we thank God for that!

I had a breast cancer scare 15 years ago, had surgical biopsy done, and it turned out to be a non-malignant tumor.  Again, I thank God!  I am in a higher risk category because of that, and so I have my mamograms done every year.  Several years I’ve had to have an additional sonogram.  Last year, I had another scare and thought I was going to need to have another surgical biopsy, but it turned out OK and I didn’t have to have one.  (but that was after 10 weeks, four doctor visits, a mammogram, sonogram, and new digital mammogram)

So again, please visit this site, and I want to stress the importance of every woman having regular mammograms.  They do catch cancer early while it’s treatable!