A Personal Plea

Last week, just before Thanksgiving, I found out that my uncle passed away. He died from something that should have been caught early. He died from something he could have caught early. He had prostate cancer.

Needless to say, I put on a brave face last week but I was heart broken inside. My uncle was actually my great-uncle. I was really close to him. He was my grandmother's baby half-brother. At only five years older than my dad, he may not have always felt like an 'uncle' to my dad. I mean, he DID live a half a world away. He also had kids around the same age as my sisters and me. Yet, when I moved to Israel, he was one of the first people to extend his hand and offer me help. It wasn't monetary help - it was REAL help. He set me up with kitchen items, taught me the banking system, and helped me translate contracts and other documents in Hebrew.

He was a real mensch. I will miss him greatly. I don't want his memory to be forgotten so, just before he passed away, I donated to Movember. A few of my guy friends grow mustaches every year in hopes that people will donate money to help fund research for prostate cancer.

So, now I'm asking for your help. My friends are just shy of their goal of $10,000. Will you help them reach their goal? I donated and plan on donating again today - but today is the last day to donate!! Please help them out - donate what you can $10, $18, $20 - every dollar counts and they'll be eternally grateful. I'll be eternally grateful. Don't forget 'tis the season - so please help. Feel free to donate here.

Penny Pinching

Oh sh*t. We've hit our first married "financial" crisis.

Our credit cards are a bit high this month (thank you State of Israel for not allowing us to get hitched here and forcing us to pay $1300 to spend the day in Larnaca, Cyprus). We're scraping the barrels of our checking account AND to top it off, we're realizing that if we were doing our jobs totally in the US, we'd be getting paid A HELL OF A LOT MORE!

Regardless of work stuff - we're struggling youngin's (please give us your donations... just kidding). It's time to penny pinch and you'd think with all the bloggers I work with who WRITE about penny pinching, some of it would rub off on me.

NOT AT ALL!

Here are some things Israel doesn't have that I miss from the US:
- coupons
- discounts
- friendly customer service


However, we DO have buy one get one free ... and a lot of it.

What do you do to save money when you're in a budget crisis?

 I guess it's time to invest in more pasta, rice, and large quantities of spices.

Here's a recipe for you:
Hillary's Comfort Food
1 cup rice
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon powdered chicken soup mix
2 cups water

In a small pot, cook 1 cup of rice in 2 cups of water. Once the rice is tender (but not fully cooked) put the butter and chicken soup mix into the rice and mix. Fully cook the rice.

There you have it. It costs nearly nothing to make and reminds me of being left alone in the house in 7th grade.

Nashville

When Craig and I started dating, I told him if I could move anywhere in the world, it would be to Nashville, TN. When I said that, I meant that if money was no object and I didn't need to work - I would TOTALLY move to Nashville.


I know, it sounds REALLY odd. Why would a Jewish girl from Detroit want to move to the country-western capital?

Well, once upon a time, my friend, T, and I were traveling. She's a big time lawyer but accompanied me on a trip to Nashville so I could work on a photo shoot. I was looking for any kind of experience and I'd never been to Nashville before. We rented a hotel room and a car and drove around the greater-Nashville area.

I fell in love. Not just with the city but with the people.

Now, I sit far away in a place where Nashville doesn't register on our radar. It makes me sad. Nashville is in trouble. The flood waters haven't receded yet. People have lost their homes and their possessions. Many of them have lost everything. So, I wondered: what can I do to help? Well, I can blog.

Over the past two years, I have worked with several awesome Mom bloggers who live in Nashville. I envied them. Now they need help, along with others.

I read on Bitches on a Budget that a volunteer wanted to give some great publicity to a great cause. There's a list of organizations that need help.

If you want to help, the Middle Tennessee Red Cross needs donations and volunteers. So does the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Have some extra food you'd like to donate, the Second Harvest Food Bank would love to take it off your hands.

There are many ways to help! Just like the earthquake in Haiti devastated an entire nation - these floods have ruined people's lives. Now's a good time to help you! You'll get a great warm and fuzzy feeling. I promise.

Know of other ways to help? Leave a comment!!

PR: wait...  I: wait...  L: wait...  LD: wait...  I: wait... wait...  Rank: wait...  Traffic: wait...  Price: wait...  C: wait...