Did you know you could be eligible to deduct your dental and medical expenses from your taxes?

Fox Carolina shares a great tip on the details of how to do just that:

Continue reading at Fox Carolina

Last year the Upstate Heart Ball raised over $263,000 to continue research and educational programs across the Upstate.  This include cardiovascular research and education, building awareness and understanding of the American Heart Association.

This year Dr. Thomas and staff are contributing an Italian ceramic table to the auction.  This was custom designed in Florence, Italy just for the event, including a small, token heart on one corner.

The Ball is Saturday, March 24, 2012.  To attend, donate, or learn more, visit the Upstate Heart Ball.

There are a few rules to saving that gorgeous amaryllis flower you received for the holidays.  I just wait til April and plant them in a sunny spot in my yard and watch them grow and bloom.  They require NO care in the yard!  And they grow large and stay straight and produce 4-6 large blooms on each stem!!

If you wish to have the amaryllis bloom next year for the holidays in your house, there are a few simple things to do.

1. Remove the flower stalk when blooms die. The strap-like leaves will begin to appear. At this time you may want to feed lightly.  Keep in a sunny window until outdoor nighttime temps remain above 50 degrees – and then move outside. Only water when soil is dry. This means when outside, lay pot on its side so excess rain water/irrigation water does not over water the pot.
2. The bulb will go dormant – even in the heat of summer! Remove the leaves (early August) when withered and keep the pot (on its side) in the sun. These bulbs do not require cold nor dark for their dormancy.
3. In early October, repot into fresh soil; use a new pot if needed. The pot should only be 1-2” wider than the bulb but deep enough for the root system. Remember only 1/3 of the bulb should be above the soil line. Bring indoors.
4. Watering ends the dormancy. But do so ONLY when the soil is dry – over watering rots the bulb.
5. Late October the flower stalk starts to appear, Move to a sunny location in the house and increase the watering a bit.

Save your memories this season with these 10 Tips For Better Christmas Photos.

Tips include not making people pose for the camera – be creative and find a natural, what’s happening in the moment shot.  Or, take multiple shots so you can pick and choose later the best of.  Keep reading…

Have an iPhone?  Here’s some extra tips just for better iPhone photos.

We love hearing from you!  Let us know how your spending Christmas this year in the comments.

Note:  Our office will be close Dec 22 at 2pm and re-open on Jan 4th at 8am

Did you miss our Christmas Email?  Check it out…

Excerpt – Diet soda also stains your teeth: “It’s actually the acids in these drinks, such as citric and phosphoric, that are damaging your enamel.”  Keep reading….

For professional teeth whitening contact us for holiday special discounts to make them shine.  Its not too late!

Better yet?  Collected treats will fill care packages for troops stationed overseas and sent via Operation Gratitude.

After seeing WSPA’s re-post of Ideas For Leftover Halloween Candy we wanted to participate!  Organized through halloweencandybuyback.com
we signed up.

Storage tips exert from WSPA:
“Dark chocolate can be stored for up to two years if kept in foil and a cool, dry place.

Milk and white chocolate, eight to ten months.

Hard candies like lollipops, up to a year. Unopened soft candies like gumdrops, 12 months.

Halloween favorite candy corn, nine months, in an unopened package.”

Corene, Lexie, and Bennie hitched a flight with Julian up to Winston-Salem, NC last weekend.

Lexie and Bennie are brother and sister (we think) traveling from Atlanta.  Bennie is missing part of his back leg but he doesn’t act like it holds him back from a thing!

Bennie is the brindle.  All three are terrier mixes, but Bennie is a little taller than his friends.

Two more flights that day for them and they made it to PA and their new forever homes.   =)

Tests at Michigan State University resulted in improved soils and healthy lawns when the  leaves were mulched into the lawn in the fall.  Mow at least once a week – leaves shred most efficiently when damp so an early morning mowing helps.  To boost natural matter into my soils, I am spreading the clippings around most of my beds and trees (that don’t have other mulch around them).  MSU  tests also showed that leaf compost does not harbor disease and insects.

An article appeared in the Fine Gardening Magazine and it confirmed what I have done for years.  About 31 years ago I bought an Ariens mulching mower (newer idea at that time)  and I was surprised at how well it not only mulched grass but the fall leaves as well.  My neighbors watched in amazement as I mowed over a heavily leafed lawn without raking it first and there was so little evidence of the leaves on the ground.  I let 2 neighbors borrow the mower for their yards, and voila, the dealer sold 2 more!

Bonus:  If you like a wood or straw mulch in the summer, save excess shredded leaves in the fall mixed with a little dirt and water, and use as an underlayment of the new mulch added in the spring.  Remember only 1-2 inches of mulch is needed.