May 11

May 11, 1998 eleven years ago a tragedy hit my family killing my younger brother Lloyd. Last night I dreamed about him. I saw his young face smiling back at me – bringing up once again the pain that was buried deep in my heart. They said time heals all wound but each time I remember that fateful day the wound in my heart breaks anew. Death - an enemy that no one can defeat. Death can snatch away our loved ones or even ourselves in the blinking of an eye. We cannot fight against death by ourselves but the good news is Jesus fought death and he already won and one day will put an end to death and give those who believes in Him eternal life. It would be a great reunion for families separated by death to see each other again when Jesus comes - I am looking forward to that day. Until then, I will be missing my brother and allow father time to heal my wound.

Hair - Cut

Hair is a girl thing. Hair care products never left my expense list until I came to USA. I used to pamper my hair with all kinds of hair products to make it shiny, glossy, soft and manageable. My hair is not long and shiny like a shampoo model but it's my hair and I do my best to take care of it like having a trim every month.

Next to personally taking care of your hair - the next best thing for your hair is finding a good hairstylist. I used to go to a lady (in the Philippines) who knows what I like and knows how to cut my hair that will look good on me. Hair cut here in USA is a little bit pricey (15-25 bucks) so when we got a coupon for a $7 hair cut from a neighborhood salon, we brushed our way to a new hair cut.

I explained to the person how I want my hair cut and she snipped, snipped my long hair away - and the final result was, well, so horrible it made me cry!!! She butchered my hair, gave me bangs, I looked like I have a helmet, I felt and looked so horrible I could not even look at my self in the mirror. Overwhelmed with sadness, I asked hubby to set an appointment with his hairstylist (she cut my hair before and I liked it). Even it was out of budget, I still had my 2nd hair cut and Brooke performed a "repair" cut on my hair and thankfully I liked the end result.

Before and After

Mystery Shopper Scam

The other day, a letter from EAST INK FINANCIAL arrived in the mail telling me that I am hired to be a "mystery shopper" in my area. They sent me a whooping check of $3,950.00 with an instruction on where to use the money. They even had a break down of the enclosed check.

3 hours training pay - $300
funds for shopping in walmart, jc penney or home depot - $140
service charge for western union - $170
required funds to be sent - $3340

The whole things seems to be so wonderful. Imagine getting paid for shopping and giving reviews but they said, if a thing is too good to be true, then it is too good to be true.

At first glance, the offered plan seemed so legitimate because they even put an address, a number to call, and other stuff. But I noticed that the company name on the check is different from the name on the letter head. The company on the check is SCHNEIDER LOGISTICS TRANSLOADING & DISTRIBUTION, INC while the letter head is EAST INK FINANCIAL.

I searched online and I found out that this is one of the many scams. MYSTERY SHOPPER SCAM.

These days people do all kinds of schemes even it means to cheat and to do illegal things just to acquire money. Be careful and watch out for schemes like this. Satan used 99% truth and mixed it with 1% lies to trick Adam and Eve and that is what his followers are doing too. They make something look real when it is actually fake. We need to be vigilant, be inquisitive in all our monetary transaction and question every angle of the proposition. Remember . . . not everything that glitter is gold.