Last year I was in a terrible car accident. I am very lucky to be alive today, but my life has sure changed because of it. My mobility is not very good so I do not get out of the house very often. I do try to keep positive and, since my life was spared, I have decided to keep on living life to the fullest extent possible.

One of the things that I love more than anything is shopping. I would say that before the accident, I went shopping every day. Since I can no longer go out and shop, I am big into online shopping. I can usually get whatever I need, and though I have to wait longer for it, I still have a great time browsing online stores.

This past week, I was doing some discount electronics shopping, as I am in need of a new TV. I found exactly what I was looking for and I am certain I got a better deal on it than I would have if I had actually gone to a brick and mortar store.

When my husband and I decided that it was time to purchase our first home, it was a really exciting experience for us. We took our time and looked through several houses before making a final decision on the one that would best suit our family.

As we had never been through the process before, we did not know what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised to walk into our home on the day that we took possession to find a gourmet gift basket and a beautiful plant, as gifts from the realtor.

It was a lot of fun decorating out home the way we wanted to, knowing that we could paint the walls whatever color we chose to and that every decision about the house was completely up to us.

We eventually had to upgrade to a larger house and I did feel sad to leave the very first place that we were ever able to call home.

If you are like me, sometimes when I travel, things happen.  I might get hurt, get sick, or even chip a tooth while I am far away from home and I might need help quickly.  But if you don’t know anyone in the area that you have traveled to, it may be a nightmare with no apparent solution.

I found myself in this position just a couple of years ago when I was having terrible problems with my wisdom tooth.  You see, it decided that it wanted to come in while I was traveling in Mexico and as it turns out, the tooth was rotten when it came up.  Not only was this excruciatingly painful, but I needed to get it out of my mouth as quickly as possible.

But I didn’t know any dentists in Mexico.

As it turned out, I found a website that specialized in medical tourism dental that had listings of dentists in the city that I was in and I was able to get into one of them right away.

Now, if I ever have any health problems, I revisit this site to find the solution quickly and easily – which is exactly what you need in an emergency.

One of the things that I have learned is the more the merrier.  If I have one website that makes one dollar per day, wouldn’t it make sense to have a thousand sites making a dollar a day?

Well, that is the way I run my business – I feel that spreading my earnings over a large number of sites keeps me from being in the position of having too many eggs in one basket, but at the same time, it creates a daunting task for me.

How do I make one thousand sites?

Well, the trick is not doing everything myself.  I outsource the content, I get the logo design online, and all I do is put the pieces together.  This way, I can focus on putting the sites up as quickly as possible, and I even outsource the marketing.

And that is my secret on how to create websites quickly.

As we all know, the Earth is pretty polluted.  From the air that we breath to the water that we drink, we are continuously increasing the toxicity of our blood which in turn can cause a lot of health problems.  From cancers to feeling lethargic, these toxins affect our lives in many ways.  But, I decided that I was going to do something about it.

I have seen many infomercials on the television about different patches or series of treatments that you can do to purge toxins from your body, but I don’t have a lot of time to do all that.  What I really needed was something that would work without having to change my lifestyle at all, and I was sure that there was something available for me to do that.

It was at that point that I found liquid Zeolite, which works in the body to trap toxins and helps you get rid of them easily.  The best part was that all I would have to do is add a couple of drops to my water and that was it – it doesn’t get any easier than that.

When I was in college, I was approved for a line of credit. This was the first step on the road to destruction for me. I was young and I did not know how to handle the responsibility of having this borrowed money. I started to sign up for credit cards and before too long, I was in debt up to me eyeballs.

I knew that I was not going to be able to make the minimum payments for very long and I had to start looking into my options. I did not want to go bankrupt, but I was at a loss for what else to do. I went to talk to a consultant and she suggested that I look into debt consolidation loans. She said that I would only have to make one payment per month and it would be substantially lower than the ones I was having to make with all of the cards and loans.

I decided to do it, and although it has taken me quite a few years, I am happy to say that I am completely out of debt and have kept my credit intact.

With my abysmal success that I had trying to find a date in the "real" world, I decided to turn my attentions online.  It was a last ditch effort on my part, as I didn’t want to end up alone.  I knew that if I just posted a profile, maybe people were looking to find local singles might find me.

But I really didn’t know where to start.  When I did a search for free online dating sites I was overwhelmed by the number of sites that were out there.  There were more than a hundred sites and I didn’t really know what I should do.

So, I signed up for a couple that were directed towards people in my locale, filled out my profile, and just waited to see if anyone was interested.  The sad thing is that it took a couple of weeks before I heard anything, but eventually I did have some bites.  Sure, none of them turned into anything much, but I did make a friend or two out of the deal.

When my dad passed away, I somehow inherited his three year old puppy. I had never been a dog lover up to this point, but I felt somehow responsible for the little guy. I knew that I could not let him go to the shelter or have him go live with complete strangers. So, I packed up his dog bed, his food and all of his toys and brought him to my quiet little house.

Before too long, it seemed as though his dog beds and toys were taking up more room in the house than my own things. I was feeling bitter and sorry for myself, as I had always prided myself on having no one to take care of besides myself.

Eventually, Rascal grew on me and I grew to love him very much. In a way, he made me feel closer to dad. It was nice to know that I would have him to greet me at the door when I came home from work. In the end, he filled up an empty spot in my heart that I never even knew was there.

As my parents are getting older, I have found that they need more and more help around the house.  I know that my dad doesn’t like to ask for it, but I can see it in their eyes that they appreciate what I do for them.

So this year, we have decided to fix up their house before winter, so that it isn’t as drafty as it was last year.  In fact, their heating bill was so high that we really don’t have any excuse not to do the work.

I have hired a company that specializes in sash windows to come in and replace all the windows in the house.  They are a little drafty, and with new windows, we won’t have to worry about the cold winter wind getting into their house.

When the windows are done, we will still have a lot of work ahead of us including painting, cleaning and replacing their carpets.  It looks like it is going to be a long summer.

It has been a number of years since I started to buy rental properties and so far the experience has been very profitable.  Sure, there have been some bumps along the way, but that is the way it goes with any business, right?

Since I have been doing so well over here, I thought that I might expand my horizons, and invest overseas – specifically in the UK.  The reason that the UK interests me is that I have some relatives over there and this would give me an opportunity to visit them and write off the expenses.

One of the biggest hurdles of this will be overcoming the jargon.  For example, no one understood me when I was looking for properties that I would buy to rent – instead they use "buy to let".  Even though the intention is the same, I will have to learn how things work over there as I am sure some of the details are different.

But, I love the fact that this is a new challenge for me – if it goes well, I will be looking at other countries as well.