The 2011 Rebuild Your Life Project Rental Assistance Grant Winner Grant

The Rebuild Your Life Project presented by MySavvySisters.Com presents the 2011 Rebuild Your Life Project Rental Assistance Grant Winner- Teresita Ortiz. Teresita will receive a $650 grant to pay her rent compliments of the project.

Video Below!

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Your World News Report - July 13, 2011

Berlyne Julmis
News Coordinator

Rupert Murdoch Newspaper Empire in Trouble

Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was allegedly hacked by two or more of Rupert Murdoch’s many newspapers. The newspapers retrieved personal information about the Prime Minister bank account and medical records of the Prime Minister ailing infant son. The Prime Minister was among thousand who were hacked--previous allegations of unlawful activity at Murdoch tabloid “News of the World” has halted plans to takeover British Sky Broadcasting. United States will investigate if Murdoch’s Newspaper targeted any Americans.

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Former First Lady Laid to Rest

Former First Lady Betty Ford, 93, was laid to rest in Southern California. Mrs. Ford was the founder of the Betty Ford clinic which has helped drug and alcohol addicts to recover. First Lady Michelle Obama, Former President George W. Bush, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were among those in attendance. Mrs. Ford’s family will have another ceremony in Michigan where she grew up. Mrs. Ford was also known for her advocacy for women rights.

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44 Boys Die in Accident in Bangladesh

44 boys killed in Bangladesh in route from a soccer game when the truck they were in lost control. The boys ranged from 10 to 13 years of age--officials suspect the death toll to rise as the truck was carrying as many as 70 students. The deaths have affected three villages in Chittagong, Bangladesh nearly every household in the villages were affected. Divers from the Bangladesh Navy, Fire, and Civil Defense team have recovered 32 bodies in the canal.


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Casey Anthony Release Date has been Altered

Casey Anthony release date has been changed from jail July 17 instead of her original release date of July 13, due to a recalculation in her sentencing. Anthony was acquitted from murder her daughter Caylee Anthony, but still had to face jail time for lying to detectives and was also ordered to pay $1000 fine for each count of false information charges and $600 in court fees. Anthony’s attorney Cheney Mason has publicly stated he fears for her safety as Anthony has received several threats on her life.

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My Savvy Sister of The Week- Aisha Jackson

Aisha Jackson
Sagittarius

Aisha Jackson is the 29-year-old owner of several businesses including a recycling business, marketing firm and a productions & entertainment company.

Aisha believes her personality has been the main factor in her success. “I have a go hard or go home personality when it comes to my work ethic,” she explained. “I believe that we should strive to do our very best at whatever we are involved in, whether that be our education, our work life or our personal lives. I am a woman who wins!”

Born and bred in a family that generally wins in life, Aisha is proud of her lineage of success. “My family are all go-getters. My parents are doctors and they made sure all of their children would be over achievers and conscience enough to use their talents to help others,” she explained.

She said her biggest triumph has been being a business pioneer and working on her book, Retire by 35, A Blueprint to Financial Freedom for Generation Y.

Life hasn’t always been a crystal stair for Aisha. “I had a divorce that was especially difficult and extreme sickness that I overcame in 2008 - 2009. So much happened at once that I didn't think I would make it to 2010,” Aisha recalled. “But, God helped me to rebuild myself physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually and I am happier than I have ever been in my life.”

“Being a sawy sister is important because we women all have a gift of influencing the world and leaving our mark. To me, sawy sisters are women who have it together and want other women to succeed as well, thereby empowering more women to shine.”

To learn more about Aisha Jackson and her work, please visit www.aishajackson.com

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VIDEO: Redefining Loss

How can we change our perception of a loss? Watch this video and see.

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Why You Don't Have To Be Number One

You may feel like there is a lot of pressure to achieve something great during the course of your life. We are a society raised by television that glamorizes celebrity which causes most little boys and girls to daydream of being actors or actresses or rappers.

While these people seem to live the ideal lifestyle, having millions of fans and riding in the most luxurious vehicles alongside beautiful people, is that what really creates happiness?

Being number one at anything requires a certain amount of dedication and sacrifice. You won't be able to enjoy the many adventures of life because you are so focused on being the best at that ONE thing. Some people do undertake this level of sacrifice by choice but you shouldn't allow it to make you feel badly about who and where you are in life.

You are the author of your own life story. You can define greatness for yourself. Your version of greatness doesn't have to match the woman you read about in the fashion magazine. These people, once they reach the top, have to put in even more work to stay there. They sometimes set their ability to love themselves by how many fans they have or how many awards they receive.

Awards are man made objects. I know because I have created many awards programs throughout my life. All it takes is a computer and a printer and then I go out and buy a frame and there it is. The value people place on these awards is the meaning behind it. Receiving an award and valuing it simply means that you value someone else's appreciation and acknowledgment of who you are and what you can do.

Do you really need that to feel good about yourself?

No, you don't. You don't need anyone else's validation to know that you are indeed a worthy and valuable human being. You don't need anything outside of yourself to help you place a sense of self worthiness within your being.

Stop trying to impress people. Stop trying so hard to be great in another man's eyes. Stop trying to win love. Stop pressuring yourself to do something great.

You will achieve greatness when you follow your bliss. When your passion is reflected in the work you do, they will all come knocking to acknowledge you. Your passion doesn't have to expose itself in the boardroom. Your passion can be expressed by the way you show love to your children. Your passion can be expressed by the generosity you show to those in need. You will receive an inner reward that is unmatched by any wooden plaque I could buy for you. Your applause will be self generated and won't end when its time to cut to a commercial.

You don't have to be number one.

You don't need outside validation to know you are a worthy human being.

It's okay to redefine your version of success. You give definition to everything that happens in your life. Call yourself GREAT right now and it will be.

For My Savvy Sisters: Can you recall a time when it was better not to be the top gun?

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REBUILD: Slurpees on 7/11

Today is 7/11/11.

When I realized it I immediately began to imagine driving a nice new car and picking my sons up from summer camp and driving to Seven Eleven to buy slurpees. Then I shook my head at that vision wondering if it could ever happen again. Then I thought, "It can happen again since it happened before."

I don't know how it could happen. It would take a miracle it seems.

I have very little to work with right now but I'm trying.

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REBUILD: Something Is Wrong

I can feel it.

My sons called me yesterday to check up on me and when I told my younger son I was sitting outside he asked, "Are you going crazy?"

I hesitated before responding, "No, baby. I'm okay."

But I'm not.

Since being here I realize that if I do happen to be mentally ill, it's definitely not that bad. But people have been saying that I'm crazy for so many years. It's usually people who don't understand me or people who dislike me, as most people who meet me dislike me. Average people with basic expectations hate me. But I don't mind. It's all a weeding out process.

Anyway, yesterday when I was at work, I had this thought, "After this shift I have to go back to the shelter." Then my eyes began to tear up and my chest tightened. Then I started to feel really sad. The sadness spiraled until I felt stuck in a black hole. I'm beginning to be paranoid again. I used to suffer from that very badly and it only went away once I stopped being around people and sat happily at home working on my website and learning.

I was a hermit until I started this project and now look at what I got myself into. I'm constantly surrounded by people and the MEN are constantly criticizing this project and questioning my motives. It's annoying and frustrating.

I am having regrets. Yes, I have them every single day. Part of me fights inside to give myself kudos because although nothing went the way I planned it, I stuck it out and met my expressed objectives. But the other part of me just wants to go and hide somewhere because I feel like a complete failure at life and I find myself constantly asking myself, "Where was I the day that they were giving out whatever it is that makes people be fake and phony and adjustable and satisfied with the status quo?"

Why didn't I get some?

I am dysfunctional.

And the only thing I can do about it is glamorize my dysfunction and make the most of it hoping that somehow I can figure out how to make it work for me.

But today. Today. I am feeling mighty low, mighty low. This shelter living is not the way. I don't see how anyone could do this long term. It takes a certain mentality to be able to handle it and I don't have it.

I feel even more like an alien than before. But it's okay. I'm going to do some more research and present more information so that no one, NO WOMAN, will ever have to feel like I feel right now.

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EDITORIAL: Vacation Time

By: Christina Fermin

Political & Social Columnist

I make it a point each year to take a vacation, between everyday life in a city and work, stress can too often hit hard. When stress hits, it can take many forms and be damaging physically, mentally and spiritually. I had noticed that the weeks prior to taking my vacation I began getting headaches regularly, feeling off and down, and my back was hurting more than usual. Now that I am back to my everyday life, I notice the small changes in myself and my attitude. I know that not too many employers offer paid vacations and the ones that do are too often hard to take off more than a few days at a time. We really need to get on our representatives in Congress to make legislation requiring employees to offer at minimum 4 weeks vacation each year.

Among most of the developed countries around the world, the U.S. is last in the amount of vacation days employees receive. Number one would be Italy with a whopping 42 days each year and number two would be France with 37 days. When it came to the United States we came in last at 13 days per year and second to last was Japan and Korea with 25 days. For U.S. employees to even get to 13 days you have to had worked at your job for about 5 years, assuming your employer gave vacation time. Europeans enjoy far more vacation leisure time than Americans do by about 10 days more. Imagine if your employer was mandated to give you a 2-4 week vacation, what would you do, where would you go, how much better would you feel, and how much better would you work?

It has been proven that happy employees are more productive employees and more productive employees are more profitable. Does it not make business sense to give employees at minimum 20 days off each year, that is about 1 month off of work. I mean we do work 12 months a year, minus a week for Holiday. If you work full time and work for an employer that offers vacation time you usually get 5-10 days, but you usually have to be there a minimum 1 year to qualify for anything more than a few days off each year. Here in the U.S. unlike many developed nations and some undeveloped nations there is no law that requires an employer to give vacation time. Here in the U.S. we work more than the Chinese. Too often than not we are working more than 8 hours a day and in some cases more than 5 days a week just to make ends meet.

In the current economy and the financial mess we are all in, stress is extremely high and living in the city makes it even higher. With the fast pace of the city and high density living it does not surprise me that the standard of living has dropped along with a rise in medical issues. Issues that affect us mentally, physically and spiritually. When working in the city especially, I highly recommend taking at minimum a vacation where the pace is much slower than the city you reside in. When vacationing on a budget camping is always a wonderful alternative and very relaxing. Aside from the 7-10 day vacation I take each year, I like to go on weekend getaways and camp at the state and county parks that are usually a few hours drive away.

By doing this I am able to stay centered, focus and refreshed. My best ideas come after a vacation or weekend getaway. Like many of you I do not gain an astronomical amount of money each year, I am in debt, and I drive a clunker, but I make it a point to save a few dollars each week to make sure that I can go away when the itching comes and the time is right. Without these vacations and weekend getaways I would have suffered from many ailments and been in a lot of pain physically and mentally. My vacation out to the mountains was more than relaxing and refreshing, it was a great learning experience. I understand wholly what Mark Twain meant when he said “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

Peace & Harmony,

Christina

About the Columnist

With a bachelors degree in political science from Florida Atlantic University, Christina Fermin has always cultivated her love for history, politics, sociology, ancient knowledge and teachings, the outdoors, the ocean and the environment. Christina strives to make our world better by helping us all create a new reality and understanding of all taking place here and now.

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