Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Vacation Nightmare: Family Billed $11,000 For Streaming Movies

By Ned Potter | ABC News Blogs Tue, Feb 7, 2012

When the Gibsons of Weyburn, Saskatchewan, in Canada, returned home from a family vacation in Arizona, they found a $10,600 bill from their Internet provider - all because they had let their children stream movies on Netflix without realizing there would be roaming charges.

"The kids were getting bored," said Jason Gibson, in an interview with the CBC. He had a so-called air card plugged into his laptop. And to ward off any whining, he let the children download "Shrek," "Curious George," and more, via cellular networks.

The only problem: when the Gibsons' children, Jayden and Sawyer, watched "Spider-Man," they downloaded about 400 megabytes of movie - at $6 per megabyte, since they were out of the country.

Their grandfather, John, was the one who first saw the bill. "He gave me a shout, told me about it, and my jaw hit the floor," Jason Gibson told a local paper, the Estevan Mercury.

This is not the largest cell phone bill on record. Some others reported:

There was a Florida woman last October who said T-Mobile charged her $210,000 in roaming charges on a trip to Canada.

After the earthquake in Haiti, a FEMA employee from Maryland unknowingly ran up $30,000 in roaming charges in 2010 after she went to help with recovery efforts.

There was an Illinois man who complained he was charged $27,000 for streaming a Chicago Bears game while he was on a Caribbean cruise. (The Bears won and, after a nasty, drawn-out battle, AT&T agreed to void the bill.)

Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has called for new rules to force wireless companies to alert consumers before and when they start incurring excess charges.

"Surveys show that 30 million Americans - one out of every six mobile phone users - have experienced bill shock, and it's a real problem that we need to tackle," said Genachowski in October.

SaskTel, the phone company and Internet service provider the Gibsons use, said it reduced the bill by $9,600 - though that means the family still got a $1,000 lesson on the importance of reading the fine print. (Canadian and U.S. dollars are roughly equal in value at the moment.)

"We are finding that our customers are using an increasing amount of bandwidth," said Michelle Englot, SaskTel's director of corporate affairs, in an email to ABC News. "We have had some instances of customers exceeding the data usage that is included within their plans but for the most part, our customers do understand what is included in their data plans and it is not typically this dramatic."

"It is very important that a customer understands what is included in their plan," she said. "Also, we recommend that any customer who is traveling outside of Canada should turn off their data while they are roaming to avoid any unexpected charges."

Data plans in the U.S. are different, but not a lot different. And service providers say it is incumbent on users to avoid wireless roaming when they travel.

Jason Gibson said he would pay the reduced bill, but he isn't happy about it.

"I think when you plug an air card in and you're roaming, it should probably say you're roaming on it," he told the CBC. "Some sort of warning signal that you're not supposed to be using it in the States." •

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UFO sightings at Stonefield Beach reveal strange boxes up and down coast

February 8, 2012

Locals here at Stonefield Beach felt uneasy late Feb. 6 after dog after dog barked and growled at a strange metal box that locals say “suddenly appeared at dawn Monday” after a weekend filled with what locals call intense UFO sightings. “These metal looking boxes, that are about 20 inches in height and are a complete square of five foot by five foot are sunk deep in the surf” both here at Stonefield Beach – a popular Oregon coastal beach lookout for UFOs – and down the coast as far as we know “with yet more of these square metal containers that have no opening and are sealed all around,” explains Oregon UFO “watcher” Errol who lives nearby at Bray’s Point. In turn, these boxes are “not moveable,” and they are solid and metallic and seem to have this keening wail coming from both the boxes and the atmosphere around them,” adds Errol who’s been called in to “see what’s up” by locals thinking it “has something to do with UFOs” quipped a local senior named Doris who said she also heard “a miaowing wail come from the boxes Sunday evening.”

Strange beach boxes cause a stir

It’s as if an alarm went off, when a “high, shrill, piercing, frightening ring caught our attention Sunday evening,” explained Doris, a local senior whose retired and lives nearby Stonefield Beach. “I know crazy things happen over at Stonefield, but when you walk down and see that metal box sort of glowing in the surf it gets your attention real quick.”

In turn, local Oregon Forest Service fish biologists – who’ve been called in to help explain what is now been revealed as “a series of metal boxes buried into the surf up and down the Oregon coast, and possibly as far down the coast as northern California” – is more than enough to catch one’s attention, added Doris in trying to explain “what’s not explainable.”

What is known is a “sustained whine of something akin to an ambulance siren” awoke locals near Stonefield Beach and other areas of the Oregon coast Sunday evening, Jan. 5, beginning at approximately 4 a.m.

At the same time, Doris said this area around Stonefield Beach is a very “quiet place,” where “nothing but seagulls and the Pacific Ocean waves to break the quiet.”

Brain plays tricks even when metal boxes appear

While these “metal boxes” buried up and down the Oregon coast are real to the touch and sight, a local professor of psychology – whose attempted to explain away the “strange goings on at both Bray’s Point and here at Stonefield Beach,” thinks the many “of these remote living residents who claim to see UFOs at night are simply not using the tool between their ears to figure this stuff out.”

In turn, this retired professor said in a Feb. 6 Huliq interview at Stonefield Beach that most locals and visitors here “looking for those UFOs” are more or less carrying their own “baggage or self-as-content,” with views and experiences that now seem to define them.

Doris added: “The doc is saying we’re all a bunch of nuts to believe in UFOs.”

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The End of the DVD is Coming Fast

By Jason Gallagher

The end of the DVD could be close than many realize. According to an Associated Press report, Verizon is set to team with Redbox to offer a video streaming service later in the year. The news is not really all that surprising, as a report from Gigaom.com mentions that video streaming giant Netflix has almost twice as many streaming subscribers as it does for DVD subscribers. The arrival of yet another video streaming option, could spell the end of the DVD.

A report from MSN highlights that spending on home video in the U.S. fell by more than 2 percent in 2011, and more competition for the entertainment dollar will lead consumers to cheaper options. However, as the MSN report mentions, price is not the only benefit of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu or even on demand purchases like those found on many cable boxes, Amazon and iTunes.

Convenience and simplicity are major factors in the purchase of entertainment. Plus, mobile technology, like tablet computers, allows users to enjoy all sorts of programming in a variety of settings. It is those benefits that will eventually minimize the impact DVD sales have on the entertainment industry.

The nuances of the Redbox and Verizon partnership have yet to be announced. Still, a Web Pro News article indicates that the service will be a mix of new releases and download services. If Redbox can offer up new releases in streaming forms instead of forcing consumers to make the trip to the kiosk, the death of the DVD will only start to escalate.

In an effort to compete with so many digital options, studios will likely be forced to compete on one of the only landscapes available to them: price. However, even discounting DVDs is likely not enough to salvage the home entertainment medium that has been so popular for so long. This new massive partnership will only serve to drive DVD sales down further, and eventually make them vanish from homes, the same way those VHS tapes did.•

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Man’s body goes unfound for four years


The body of a Wisconsin man was discovered inside his home more than four years after he reportedly killed himself with a handgun.

The "nearly skeletonized body" of David Carter was discovered inside his home in January by a real estate agent sent to deliver foreclosure papers to the house, as first reported by wisn.com. But his actual death is estimated to have occurred sometime in 2007. So, how did Carter's death manage to go unnoticed for so long by friends, family, bill collectors and even the local government?

Like so many things these days, the nation's struggling economy is at least partly to blame. After Carter disappeared, his utilities were eventually shut off and it was presumed his home had been abandoned. But that's only part of the sad story.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Jim Stingl dug deeper into the story and discovered that Carter, intentionally or not, had nearly all of his bases covered before apparently choosing to end his own life in utter seclusion.

"This may indeed be the perfect storm that caused the body to go unnoticed," Stingle said in an email interview with the Sideshow. "Still, though, when Carter went totally out of contact with everyone for quite a while, someone should have insisted that police enter the house."

Carter told his friends and neighbors that he was planning to move to New Mexico. When he first disappeared, they apparently assumed he had followed through on those plans. Carter had no siblings and never met his father. The death of his mother in 1997 reportedly put him in a depressive state he never recovered from.

His friends described Carter as a "giving and funny guy." But as with many cases of severe depression, it appears Carter spent enough time in isolation that his disappearance didn't immediately register as alarming.

According to the county medical examiner's report, as quoted by Stingl, "Spider webs were noted all around the residence," and that a "Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun was found lying on the decedent's chest."

Carter's home was paid for, but while local property taxes still accumulated, the city was in no rush to collect. In fact, Stingl notes that the city of West Allis continued to mow his lawn and shovel snow from his driveway in the years after his then unknown passing. The $3,700 in charges for the annual maintenance efforts was simply added to Carter's growing county property tax bills and fees, which had grown to more than $30,000.

Authorities finally moved in after Carter's house was awarded to Milwaukie County in a December tax foreclosure. It is now being put up for sale. Meanwhile, Carter's cousin, Kevin O'Neill, and some of Carter's friends are planning a memorial gathering in his honor.

Carter's friends says he was depressed in the years leading up to his death and had been drinking more than usual. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly 90 percent of all suicide victims experience issues with substance abuse and/or depression leading up to their deaths. •

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Obama Administration's Hidden Fee On Home Loans A Secret Tax Increase



President Obama has trumpeted the temporary payroll tax cut as his major victory for middle class Americans. Unfortunately, he isn't telling you about the massive screwing over homeowners are getting to pay for a few hundred dollars in savings.

Hidden in the bill that the president signed that came down from the Senate is a provision that adds a minimum monthly fee of one tenth of one percent per month for every $200,000 of the loan amount on every purchase or refinance - for the life of the loan.

For those of you whom are math challenged, for a $300,000 purchase or refinance loan, that amounts to $37.50 added on to your monthly payments...every year you have your loan:

The new fee is a minimum of one-tenth of 1 percent on Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed loans, and is likely to go much higher.

It will be imposed for the next 10 years on most mortgages and refinancings and it lasts for the life of the loan.

For every $200,000, it amounts to an extra $15 dollars a month.

(CBS News)

Just before Christmas, American workers got a rare gift from Washington politicians - the current payroll tax cut would be extended for two more months.

At the time, both President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner lauded the move to avoid a tax increase for millions of working Americans.

But there's something the politicians weren't bragging about - the fact that they're paying for the two-month tax cut with what has turned into a brand new fee on home buyers.

The new fee is a minimum of one-tenth of 1 percent on Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed loans, and is likely to go much higher.

It will be imposed for the next 10 years on most mortgages and refinancings and it lasts for the life of the loan.


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U.S. targets food stamp fraud as election looms

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Stung by election-year criticism of a program used by one in seven Americans, administrators of U.S. food stamp benefits are intensifying efforts to combat fraud and protect the $75.3 billion plan from the budget axe.

Enrollment in the food aid program that helps the poor, elderly and disabled is running at record high levels, with 46.1 million people now participating.

High joblessness, persistent woes in the housing market and a tepid economic recovery have driven more that 14 million people to sign up for the benefits since U.S. President Barack Obama took office three years ago.

That number includes many displaced workers, who are now attempting to eke out a living with low-wage or part-time jobs. In many states, a family of four with net income of just over $23,000 would qualify for food stamps.

The spike in enrollment prompted Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich to dub Obama the "food stamp president" and has fueled calls for cuts to assistance programs that critics say are turning the United States into a welfare state.

In the face of such criticism, officials responsible for food stamps are trumpeting the program's efficiency and vowing further improvements.

Kevin Concannon, U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, said his agency was doubling efforts to prevent fraud, which accounts for just 1 percent of food stamp benefits, but equals about $750 million each year.

"This is $750 million that isn't being used to provide food to individuals and families and that issue isn't lost on us," Concannon said in a recent phone interview.

"We want to maintain the confidence of American taxpayers because everyone is challenged in this economy - the payers as well as the folks who are benefiting from the program," he said.

The program's biggest step forward in fraud prevention came in 2004, when the government replaced paper coupons with plastic cards that are loaded electronically like debit cards. In 2008, the USDA changed the name of the program to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, but the benefits are still commonly referred to as food stamps.

Concannon said the program was adding high-tech strategies to its enforcement quiver.

Those include working with social media firms and data mining company SRA International Inc to root out abuse. It also debuted a new website for public whistleblowers at www.fns.usda.gov/fightingsnapfraud.

While administrators work to reduce payment errors, the USDA is collaborating with state agencies to investigate recipients suspected of committing fraud or misusing benefits. It also will seek tougher penalties for stores engaged in trafficking.

Trafficking generally takes the form of users "selling" their benefits for roughly 50 cents on the dollar to brick-and-mortar retailers or to individuals found via websites like eBay or Facebook.

From October 1 through December 31, the USDA sanctioned more than 225 stores found to be violating program rules and permanently disqualified 350 stores for trafficking in SNAP benefits , a roughly 14 percent increase in disciplinary actions overall.

"Fraud is not a static concept -- we know that where there is a will to commit malfeasance, bad actors will try to find a way," Concannon said.

ASSET TEST

Concannon and other supporters of the food stamp program are also warning against efforts by some states to toughen eligibility rules. The program is funded by the federal government but administered at the state level.

Programs in 36 states as well as the District of Columbia, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands have no asset test for food stamp eligibility.

Such rules came under scrutiny last year, when it came to light that a Michigan man who won a $2 million lottery jackpot was collecting food stamps under a state loophole that counted only income, not assets. The man took his winnings in a lump sum, which categorized them as assets.

Michigan has since closed the loophole and adopted an asset test.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has proposed denying food stamps to households with assets of more than $5,500. The limit would be $9,000 for households that include a person who is disabled or age 60 or older. His original proposal, which had significantly lower asset limits, hit a wall of resistance from anti-hunger advocates, who called it unusually punitive.

Some U.S. lawmakers have called for asset tests for all recipients.

Concannon said the food stamp program was designed to help people weather tough times brought on by a job loss or illness. Requiring participants to exhaust their resources in order to qualify for benefits could leave them in a weakened position when the economy recovers, Concannon said.

"We would caution states to be wary of just running down the road without thinking through the impact on their citizens, especially in what is still a tough jobs economy," he said. •

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Staten Island mom hits city with $900 trillion suit

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A $900 trillion suit.

That's trillion with a "t," and it's the amount in damages which a West Brighton woman seeks from the city for, she alleges, improperly placing her two sons in a Queens foster home more than three years ago.

Fausat Ogunbayo, 46, recently sued the city and its Administration for Children's Services (ACS) in Brooklyn federal court, claiming the defendants had violated both her civil rights and her children's by removing the boys from their home here in June 2008.

The children, then 12 and 10 years old, are now 16 and 13, respectively. They have been out of their mother's custody since being relocated to Queens.

Ms. Ogunbayo alleges she and her children have suffered "over three years of terror, horror, grievous harm, time lost, substantial economic hardship and injuries" due to their separation.

In removing the boys, the city contended Ms. Ogunbayo was mentally unstable and had refused treatment, said court papers. She allegedly suffered from hallucinations and delusions, and also left the boys at home alone for extended periods while she was working, the city maintained.

Ms. Ogunbayo, who is representing herself, has branded the allegations a "huge lie."

A recent appellate court ruling may provide her some legal ammunition.

Last month, the state Appellate Division, Second Department, in a separate legal case, vacated the Family Court finding of neglect against Ms. Ogunbayo.

There was no evidence, the appellate panel determined, the children were ever in "imminent danger" of harm despite Ms. Ogunbayo's refusal to acknowledge her mental condition.

"Proof of mental illness alone will not support a finding of neglect," unless there's a causal link between the parent's condition and actual or potential harm to the child, said the court.

In fact, the youngsters had "near-perfect" attendance in school and "were doing well, even thriving, academically," while in their mother's care, the appellate division said. In addition, the boys were up to date on their medical examinations and vaccinations, and their heights and weights were appropriate for their ages, said the court.

While the appellate ruling restored custody of her children to Ms. Ogunbayo, she alleges ACS has "refused" to return them.

A city Law Department spokeswoman yesterday said the children remain in ACS custody, because the agency has filed a new petition in Family Court.

Citing the pending litigation, the spokeswoman declined comment on the other allegations in Ms. Ogunbayo's lawsuit, but said a plaintiff's damages' demand "has no bearing on whether the case has any merit and no relation to actual damages, if any."

Ms. Ogunbayo told the Advance last night that the city is "treating me very bad and now they want to come around and lie against me."

The bottom line: She wants her children back.

According to court papers, ACS moved to take away Ms. Ogunbayo's kids after receiving several reports of suspected mistreatment in mid-2008.

In one, she allegedly told a doctor her children's skin was becoming darker each day, due to radiation. In another incident, she wrote her children's school that the FBI and Secret Service were out to get the boys, ACS said in court papers.

Ms. Ogunbayo insisted she was mentally stable, and the children were removed because she refused to seek "necessary treatment for her mental health issues," the agency contended.

ACS also maintained Ms. Ogunbayo endangered the boys by leaving them alone for up to seven hours after school and all day on weekends, said court papers.

In response, Ms. Ogunbayo submitted a November 2008 letter from the children's pediatricians, saying they seemed to be well cared for during the eight preceding years in which they were patients. Doctors also said they hadn't seen Ms. Ogunbayo behaving erratically.

She also provided handwritten letters from her sons saying they wished to live with their mom.

And court papers said her older son was having some problems with the law while in foster care -- he was arrested in Queens in August of last year for alleged marijuana possession.

In its ruling, the appellate court said evidence that Ms. Ogunbayo sometimes left her kids unattended for long periods was "vague and contradictory."

ACS failed to establish that any lack of supervision on her part created an impending risk to the children's health, safety, or mental or emotional condition, the court determined.

The panel also recommended that ACS provide -- and that Ms. Ogunbayo accept -- "appropriate services or referrals" to aid her reunification with her children, after more than three years apart. •

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Mo. teen gets life with possible parole in killing

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri teenager who had described the slaying of a young neighbor girl as an "ahmazing" thrill made an emotional apology Wednesday to the girl's family and was sentenced to a potential lifetime in prison.

Moments before her sentence was imposed, 18-year-old Alyssa Bustamante rose from her chair — with shackles linking her ankles and holding her hands to her waist — and turned to face the family of 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten, whom she confessed to killing in October 2009.

"I really am extremely, very sorry for everything. I know words," she said, pausing to take a deep breath and struggling to compose herself, "can never be enough, and they can never adequately describe how horribly I feel for all of this."

She later added: "If I could give my life to get her back I would. I'm sorry."

Elizabeth's mother, Patty Preiss, who on the first day of Bustamante's sentencing hearing called her an "evil monster" and declared "I hate her," sat silently, staring forward as Bustamante's finished her apology.

Cole County Circuit Judge Pat Joyce then sentenced Bustamante to the maximum possible sentence for second-degree murder — life in prison with the possibility of parole. She ordered the teenager to serve a consecutive 30-year term for armed criminal action, a charge resulting from her use of a knife to slit the throat and stab Elizabeth after she had strangled her into unconsciousness.

Elizabeth's family declined to comment about the sentencing, as did Bustamante's family.

There were no immediate indications that Bustamante planned to appeal the sentence.

Bustamante originally had been charged with first-degree murder but pleaded guilty last month to the lesser charges to avoid a trial and the possibility of spending her life in an adult prison with no chance of release.

Bustamante was 15 years old at the time of Elizabeth's murder in the small town of St. Martins, just west of Jefferson City. Evidence presented during her hearing revealed that Bustamante had dug a shallow grave in the woods several days in advance, then used her younger sister to lure Elizabeth out of her home with an invitation to play. Bustamante, who had hidden a knife in a backpack, said she had a surprise for Elizabeth in the forest. The surprise turned out to be her demise.

During her two-day sentencing hearing, prosecutors referred repeatedly to an entry Bustamante wrote in her journal on Oct. 21, 2009 — the night of Elizabeth's death — in which she admitted to having just killed someone.

"I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they're dead," Bustamante wrote in her diary, which was read in court by a handwriting expert. "I don't know how to feel atm. It was ahmazing. As soon as you get over the 'ohmygawd I can't do this' feeling, it's pretty enjoyable. I'm kinda nervous and shaky though right now. Kay, I gotta go to church now...lol."

Bustamante then left for a youth dance at a Mormon church her family attended while hundreds of volunteers began a two-day hunt for the dead girl. Although she initially lied to authorities about Elizabeth's whereabouts, Bustamante eventually confessed to police and led them to Elizabeth's leaf-covered shallow grave.

Defenses attorneys had argued for leniency after presenting evidence from family members and mental health experts about Bustamante's troubled childhood. Bustamante was born to teenage, drug-abusing parents; her father was imprisoned and her mother abandoned her, leaving her in the legal custody of her grandmother.

After a suicide attempt on Labor Day 2007 as she was starting eighth grade, Bustamante was prescribed the antidepressant Prozac. Her dosage had been increased just two weeks before Elizabeth's death. A defense psychiatrist testified that the medication could have made Bustamante moodier and more violent and contributed to the murder — a theory rejected by a different psychiatrist testifying for prosecutors.

Charlie Moreland, one of Bustamante's attorneys, described the sentence imposed Wednesday as "a harsh punishment."

"This was a child who had been spiraling out of control, but has treatable conditions," Moreland said.

Under Missouri guidelines, Bustamante would have to serve 35 years and 5 months in prison before she is eligible for parole, said Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Cline. It's also possible that the more than two years Bustamante spent in jail while awaiting her sentencing could be counted toward that time.

After spending several weeks at a diagnostic prison, Bustamante could be placed in either one of Missouri's two female prisons or sent out of state. Cline said department officials also would evaluate whether Bustamante should be kept separate from other adult woman inmates. •

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Mom Who Forced Son to Walk Alongside Car: 'I Was Already Late for Work'

A Utah mother, who allegedly forced her son to walk alongside a moving car she was driving after he had missed his school bus, has been charged with child abuse and reckless driving, ABC News has learned.

Stacie Johnson, 37, reportedly was angry that her 9-year-old son had missed the bus to school one too many times, and was again refusing to walk. But what Johnson may have thought was teaching her son a lesson, turned into criminal charges Monday, 11 days after she was arrested in the incident.

"He had missed the bus repeatedly … he refused to go to school," Johnson wrote in an email to ABC News. "The reason I did not walk with him is that I was already late for work."

Police responded to a call on Jan. 26 reporting that a boy was being pulled alongside a moving car by his belt, which was being held by the female driver, as it headed down a Woods Cross neighborhood street.

Woods Cross Police Chief Greg Butler told ABC News that Johnson was driving at a slow enough speed that the boy could keep pace with the vehicle, but that he could have been hit by traffic driving in the opposite direction.

Police turned the case over to the Davis County District Attorney's office and Johnson was charged Monday with child abuse, a class A misdemeanor, and a class B misdemeanor of reckless driving.

While the story has been making its way around the internet, Johnson's identity was not known until after she was charged Monday.

Johnson told ABC News that contrary to other media reports, she did not "drag her son through the car window in the middle of the road," but rather that the door was "ajar" as she drove slowly to the side of the two-lane road.

She retains custody of her 9-year-old son and another son, age 12. Johnson said that her younger son has struggled emotionally ever since she and his father divorced about four years ago. •

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I'm praying blessings to you and yours, friends!
I don't know how much longer I'll be doing this blog,
(we do have to remember that things need to come to a conclusion sometime, and I started this blog in 2006!) but remember to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to be your Savior, then you'll see me again one day soon, but in Heaven, when we'll be with Him!!!
ARE YOU READY? Spend time with Him and make sure.
Time is short, guys! We're never promised another tomorrow. ♥
I'm loving you, friends! Yours in Christ, Missygirl*







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