Wednesday, November 5th was 5 months to the day I made my retirement official on June 5th being my final day working for “PEP”!!  “People Enhancing People,” as its proper name is a nonprofit organization, assisting others having various disabilities to obtain quality personal care assistants.This unique organization was started by a physically disabled couple very close to me.  I watched and assisted in its creation, with Jim and Claudia Carlisle being awarded a nice grant, allowing their dream to become a reality in July of 2003. Susan Beaulieu, a former “PCA” for the Carlisles was the 3rd original person to help develop this dream.  Susan is also a good friend to me, as her mom remains one of my long-time and very dear friends from high school!!I have talked about “friendship” from time to time, and the importance it stands for.  The Carlisle’s had given me the chance to continue working when I faced a devastating down-sizing and lay-off in 2000 from a health care facility which I was employed for over 22 years.  It is difficult to even imagine a person having a physical disability would find herself living a nightmare of being let go after working for so long.  Stress hit me with all the worries of: “What now?” “How do I survive?” “What about my house mortgage?”Well, I did survive!  Though - another full time, competitive job was not meant to be!  I was blessed with many friends and family with many good suggestions! One, being to pursue the early retirement possibility!  However, I sure faced opposition ~ let me tell ya!  I ended up writing letters, appearing before the “Board” of the Retirement System, and finally speaking on my own behalf before the Legislature. You can only imagine how nerve-wracking that was!  But guess what?  Fourteen months after being on this long, agonizing road, I won!

Jim and Claudia Carlisle have been good friends for such a long time, and asked me to assist with typing for Jim; he has had his accounting business for 40+ years; plus working towards to create a nonprofit organization to assist others having disabilities needing quality assistance to live independently.

Working on that dream for them required one-on-one typing for Jim.  I volunteered at first.  I loved helping out.  The grant proposal took extensive time to be developed.  Finally Jim was pleased with it, and he submitted the proposal.  They received word they would be awarded the grant!  What a very happy day that was!  I continued helping and eventually was offered a part-time position!I experienced the rewarding feeling of helping others receive quality care…  PEP is PCA Choice Provider also known as a Fiscal Intermediary. I was given the opportunity of working in the payroll department and knowing many of the incredible office staff.PEP has grown from the small dream to a very successful company since the day it began its operation in July, 2003!  My respect and best wishes for PEP will always remain in my heart!

The photo is of Dana, PEP’s Billing and Payroll Manager and myself at my retirement picnic held this past July.

PEP has been a big supporter of the greeting cards; for this I am extremely grateful! Thanks, “PEP” for everything!

My retirement has now given me the time to do what I love best! Writing is my passion.  I have written a “Computer Help Guide Book” as well as other material.    Sharing a business partnership with Sandy is fabulous!  Our Blog continues to grow.  It’s my hope you are are able to see my desire to touch so many of you with our cards.  This is why I continue to show some of my favorite custom cards.

It IS all about friendship and wanting to give to others.  I am blessed with the cards and remain thankful Sandy kept nudging me to try it.  I urge you to give it a test drive at http://www.sendoutcards.com/3721

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For several weeks the October’s issue of Success from Home has been on your local magazine racks in bookstores and other popular places.  The entire issue featured Send Out Cards throughout the magazine.

This magazine shows so many good points of the ways of sending an unexpected card, just as we have done with our Blog.  What excites me the most was when I read the articles from Joel Osteen, well-known minister seen on television, as well as Jack Canfield, well-known author for the numerous books of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul”.

Both Mr. Osteen and Mr. Canfield continue to touch so many people, as well as for me with their books!  So to see their testimony in this Magazine only makes me that more determine to reach others with greeting cards.

Joel Osteen writes how important it is to encourage others, and to make a difference for them.  While we may not realize, there is always someone who needs some kind of encouragement; whether it is a kind word; a silly card to make someone laugh; or a important statement to encourage someone experiencing a serious illness.

I like the statement I read from Mr. Osteen in his article.  He gave an example of a teacher doing an exercise in her class: It showed her students that… “If you want your life to get better then you need to improve someone else’s life.”  The students understood the lesson of how important it is to show people that we all care for each other!  This is exactly what we try to relay to others to feel when we send an unexpected card!

If you happen to get this magazine, you were able to read the article from Jack Canfield.  He had very good points to motivate employees at work.  Among the top suggestions was “Appreciation”!  Again, this ties right in with what Sandy and I are striving for. We truly believe greeting cards have delivered this to those we write to…  We know our independence has continued with so much encouragement for others that know us!  We are so grateful for the ongoing support.

Success From Home featured stories from friends and fellow Team Members…  Each article is very interesting!  So, if you can, get a copy or let me know you want one, and I’ll send you one!

Writing is a huge asset we both share.  We rely on each other for support and advice.  Feedback is another topic Mr. Canfield talks about.  Sandy will agree we depend so much on the feedback we receive from one another, as well as when we receive a call or an email from someone who has received a card from us.

Just a couple days ago I received a phone call from my friend, Jamie. A few weeks ago she had told me she became “Great Auntie” again!  Jamie was so proud of this new little Bundle of Joy!  So I asked her to send me a photo via email.  To surprise her, I created a Picture Plus Postcard, and sent it to her.  Jamie was so thrilled when it arrived in her mailbox!  She called that same night to thank me.  I just wanted to make her day and give her an unexpected surprise!

www.sendoutcards.com/3721 will take you to the website for you to send a greeting card.  What better time to try it out!  The holidays are right around the corner!

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I cannot believe we are heading towards the end of the year.  Where has the time gone?  It doesn’t seem possible that the holidays are right around the corner.

Well, for anyone reading our Blog, it is certainly time for several updates.  With the Holidays near, we want you to hear of all the incredible products that are now available with the greeting cards. As before you can still insert a variety of gift cards, gifts, candies, or cookies just to name a few. It’s like “One stop shopping!”

Our newest item is the “Success from Home” magazine featuring our company!  The entire magazine features articles from several well-known individuals.  Joel Osteen, a minister seen on television is featured in it, as is Jack Canfield from the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series. We are very proud to be featured in this national magazine! It provides an excellent, third-party validation of the network marketing industry.

As the Holiday shopping probably has already begun for some of us, check out the new items featured for gifts.

BOOKS AND MAGAZINES (There are a number of choices)

• Diane Walker and Jack Bastide, senders of cards just featured her book, “Navigating the World of Network Marketing”
• Jordan Adler, a sender of cards, wrote “Beach Money”, writes of his achieving his dreams through Network Marketing.
  

SEASONAL GIFTS

This you definitely want to check out. With assorted candies, cookies, brownies, popcorn, lemonade; only to name a few, you will have quite the time, making a choice!

GIFTS FOR PETS ~  A variety of dog treats and also something special for your cat

GIFTS FOR BABIES AND CHILDREN ~ Variety of blankets and rattles

GIFTS FOR KIDS

• Jewelry for little girls
• Cooking kit
• Pirate Treasure Kit
• And much more…Check it out

GIFTS FOR THE HOME

• Variety of Candle Sets
• Blankets

GIFT BASKETS

• Gifts for Pampering that special lady in your life
• Cooking Basket
• Car Care Basket
• And more…..

The company continues to add more features each time we turn around.

Wouldn’t you agree that this is definitely a one stop-shopping place? No crowds, no sitting idle in traffic,  wasting precious gas and money. You owe it to yourself to check it out!

Sending a card will put smiles on faces! Make it known to your family, friends and other contacts they are important. Try it free on us today! http://www.sandysendfreecard.com.

Please let us know if there are other topics you would like to know more about.  We let forward to your input!

Jan

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Have you made someone smile today? A friend of mine is leaving soon to visit her mom for a month. Her comment to me was: “You need to send me a card everyday!” She knows our friendship will remain connected hundreds of miles away from each other.

Throughout this Blog you will see others mentioning the importance of sending a card. I will keep writing Sandra as she is with her mom! I URGE you today to think of someone that might need an unexpected greeting from you. Go ahead and send a couple free cards on us today.
{Jan}

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It’s exciting to watch our Blog grow and see people respond to it with their comments! Sandy and I thought maybe we should explain the cards in a little more detail and how you could become involve with it.

Becoming a sender of cards is easy. In fact go to:

http://www.sandysendfreecard.com

This will give you the opportunity to try it! Sandy and I will provide you with a gift account. We will offer you assistance along the way, including phone calls from our Associate, Gloria, and emails from us! Gloria does a fabulous job of explaining how the process works.

Anyone interested in becoming a sender of cards has 3 options:
· A Retail Customer
· A Wholesale Customer
· Choose the Entrepreneur Package

Sending cards through the website is done on a point system. To explain in simpler terms, here are actual cost breakdowns:

RETAIL ACCOUNTS:

POSTING IN USA PRICES INCLUDING POSTAGE

Postcards 75 cents
Greeting cards $1.39
3 Fold cards $1.88

Cards with pictures (includes picture plus cards)

Postcards $1.24
Greeting cards $1.88
3 Fold cards $2.37

—————————

WHOLESALE ACCOUNT

PRICES TO POST IN USA INCLUDING POSTAGE

Postcards 75 cents
Greeting cards $1.03
3 Fold cards $1.24

Cards with pictures (includes picture plus cards)

Postcards $1.06
Greeting cards $1.34
3 Fold cards $1.55

——————

As a retail customer, you pay as you go. TA basic yearly account is $25. To send cards though, you’re able to fund your account as needed. This is where the points come in. Postcards are 1 point, cards are 2. There’s no need to cloud your mind with that, so we won’t!

Becoming a wholesale customer is similar to having a membership to a “Sam’s Club”. A wholesale account cost $298 and requires a monthly auto-order of $24.50 per/month Over time you definitely will see a nice savings if you choose this option! You can purchase postage whenever you may need to replenish your “expense account.”

The Entrepreneur Package is just $100 MORE than what becoming a wholesale customer would cost. This option will offer you various means of earning an income! This is something you should consider if you are looking to start your own business.

These are basically the 3 ways to become a sender of cards. I want to make this a Challenge and have some fun. Sandy and I will offer the first four individuals that sign up through the site mentioned above, and indeed send cards for free, and decide to become involved either a customer or go for the Entrepreneur Package, we will send all four a special gift.

Check it out!

http://www.sandysendfreecard.com

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Many of you may check our Blog from time to time. Sandy Morgan and I have been extremely busy with things regarding the greeting cards. Sandy has arranged for a commercial to be aired on talk radio. We needed to come up with a script. So between the 2 of us, we accomplished this task over the weekend.

The following paragraph contains a link for you to hear it. It will air today,
April 15th around 2 pm (EST.) Click on the 2nd link in the next paragraph to hear it.

Patch Adams from
http://www.patchadams.org
and the doctor that Robin Williams portrayed in the movie “Patch Adams” will be on LIVE on Heal Yourself Talk Radio on Tuesday April 15 at 2 pm EST at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/healyourselftalkradio

We want to thank Rebekah and Kim for their generosity in helping us air our commercial!

Sandy and Jan
4/14/08

PS If you miss the show, it is recorded Just go to http://healyourselftalk.com/patch_adams-2.

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So far you have seen glimpses of what our cards look like. If you haven’t, click on the “Creative Cards” category on the right.

….. But do you actually understand these greeting cards are sent though the U.S. postal service?  People are receiving cards by mail!  With all the sophisticated technology of the 21st century you readers may still be thinking we’re talking about the “cutesy E-Card”, so famous to computer users.  Cards generated by this service are definitely NOT E-Cards! These cards are Real, stamped and mailed cards that allows anyone to keep in contact with grandparents as well as other relatives who may not so computer savvy.

You are looking at the cards from a web-based card service company, located in Utah. Yet I sent this particular greeting for my friend Claudia as I sat at my computer at home (see Creative Cards).  Awesome, huh?

You can include photos on a custom card, which I decided to do for this birthday card.  This is a popular feature by all that use the system!

With the click of your mouse, you can choose a card from well over 12,000, type your message, as I did for Claudia’s surprise party, and send it on.  The company in Utah does the rest!

What is really nice about this is that I can have birthday and anniversary reminders for each person I have in my Contact List. I am reminded to send a card 7 days before someone has a birthday or anniversary.  I love knowing that I will never forget a special event again!

Do you like to include something in the card you send? No problem!  Gift Cards from major stores (Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Old Navy, even American Express) and food goodies can be included when sending your card. It’s like one stop shopping from your home!

Many of my friends have come to me, asking “How can I do this?”  In no time they have become a customer!  And love it!!

If this interests you, please don’t hesitate to contact us by commenting on this post or sending a free card at my demo site  at http://www.sendoutcards.com/3721!

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Our purpose in doing this blog is not only to share our lives as women with CP, but to tell you how Send-A-Card has enhanced our lives!

To do that, I have to talk about the exciting features added just in the last year. We can now send a card with a Gloss Finish. We also are now printing with green recycled paper to save our trees. So, not only are these cards good for the recipient and the sender but also the environment!

The opportunity of being able to enclose a gift, gift card or even money has excited me when first introduced! I’m a person who has more fun “giving” presents than receiving them. I love including something a little special in cards when there’s a birthday or event about to occur.

In the past, to do the “gift thing” always meant that I needed to go buy the card and gift first. requiring the scheduling of bus rides to shop. Then I had to find someone to wrap it, schedule another bus trip to run it to the post office. This always was the biggest hassle, which usually forced me to just send cash and be done with it!

This web-based greeting card system has opened up a whole new world for me with just a click of my trackball on the computer! Gift cards can vary from giving Starbucks Coffee,  Wal-Mart and Home Depot to name a few. I can also choose the gifts in different price increments.

For the Holidays, we got another cool surprise! We now can ship a variety of candy choices and other goodies (brownies, cookies, teas and coffees!) Your selection is mailed with your card inside the box! This is by far a very popular feature!

We now have available 3 Panel Cards, so you can create your own brochures, holiday newsletters, or just be able to send out a newsy long letter to someone.

If any of the above could help give your business a lift or allow you to spend more time with your family, be sure contact us.

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Keeping in touch with friends and family has always been important to me, as does spending quality time with them. In these busy times, plus the fact wheelchair transportation isn’t always available (or reliable), getting together isn’t that simple.

That is why I am always ready to plan get-togethers and surprise parties! These greeting cards have made planning all of these things so easy. I can just log in to my site, create an invitation and send it out individuals or groups with a few clicks of my mouse!

And sometimes, don’t you just get an urge to tell someone something? Maybe you can’t call at that second or jot it down to recall it later? I cannot write, except when I’m t my computer.  So, when I get that urge, or prompting, I just go to my computer, pick that perfect card from over 1,200, type in my message and click ’send’! It feels good to act on those promptings!

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I am Jan Snook. I have cerebral palsy (CP), similar to Sandy. My husband, Don, also has CP. There are many different types of CP, depending on which part of the brain was damaged. Growing up with a physical disability proved challenging; but for the majority I am happy with the many positive aspects I have experienced in life.

Friendship is probably one of the finest assets one can have. I have been blessed again and again with so many friends that have come into my life. As many of you have heard I am a square dancer and still am a member of “Perfect Squares” square group in Minnesota.

I have experienced holding down a full-time clerical job for twenty-two years; however, I have also gone through the horrible devastation of job downsizing and being let go! I would never wish that on anyone!

But there are always special friends right there to catch you; and I was fortunate again for friends to help guide me to where I am today. My husband, Don, and I constantly help one another. He, too, has Cerebral Palsy. We have been involved with several home based businesses. Send-A-Card has proven to be the best! It has enabled me to remain connected with the numerous friends we have right from my computer. I love writing! So Send-A-Card is so perfect for me. I can just sit here at the computer write to whomever I wish, and click another button, watching my greeting card being sent from the company based in Salt Lake City, Utah!

Kody Bateman, the CEO and Founder of the company has enabled thousands and thousands of people across America, Canada, as well and several other Countries, to do the same as I do with these greeting cards.

Having a disability though, I have a passion to show others facing similar challenges to have the opportunity of sending these cards. Sandy Morgan, a close friend and our sponsor, was the lady that introduced the cards. It took some time for Sandy to convince me I should try it. I have been told I can be a little stubborn! Now almost three years later, you cannot take those cards away from me! Sandy has me “Hooked” for life. Thanks again, Sandy, for everything you do.

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