Life changing true stories told to encourage, empower and inspire us!

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"Fill your mind with light, happiness, hope, feelings of security and strength, and soon your life will reflect these qualities." ~Unknown

Email me anytime: coreen.velvetoversteel@gmail.com

"The Greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance!" ~Brian Tracy

All post and stories are the sole property of Velvet Over Steel aka Coreen Trost. I write and create post in order to help others, so share as you want. I just ask that you link back or give VOS credit. Some of the stories are going into a book in progress. Thank You ALL.. for your support and help!!
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." ~ John Quincy Adams

Monday, October 31, 2011

The Purpose of Life and Change


"Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." ~John F. Kennedy

"The adventure of life is to learn. The purpose of life is to grow. The nature of life is to change. The challenge of life is to overcome. The essence of life is to care. The opportunity of life is to serve. The secret of life is to dare. The spice of life is to befriend. The beauty of life is to give. The joy of life is to love." ~William Arthur Ward 

Friday, October 28, 2011

Half Full and Aloha Friday!!

"When you have come to the edge of all the light you have... And step into the darkness of the unknown; Believe that one of the two will happen to you; Either you'll find something solid to stand on Or you'll be taught how to fly." ~Richard Bachi
Half Full Friday is a series of weekly posts that Eye Girl originally started in June 2009.  Now the it is hosted by Sprinkles at Wyldechylde.  We believe that a lot of our happiness is determined by our attitude about the things that happen to us. So by participating, we are deciding to see the glass as half full, instead of half empty. We are choosing to concentrate on the positives, instead of dwelling on the negatives. Our Half Full Friday posts are a way to do just that. They are a list of the things in our life that have brought us happiness over the past week. We are determined to find the something good in every day. Are you?
"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow." ~Anonymous
For the next week, we challenge you to keep a list of at least one thing that brought you happiness each day. 
I'm Happy and Thankful for many things every day... especially this week:
  • For my current job being extended!  
  • For insurance!!
  • For getting all my test done this week. 
  • For wonderful doctors, nurses and clinics.
  • For the support of my friends and co-workers!
  • For 2 more phone interviews and leads!  
  • For getting 2 surgeries done at once next week! 
  • For my son loving his new job and doing Great!!
  • And again for positive energy, confidence and staying optimistic!! :-)
"It is through adversity that we become stronger, find new ways to achieve, and come to know that through perseverance in the face of challenge, we can accomplish anything." ~Anonymous
It's also "ALOHA FRIDAY" Everyone!!  If you want to join in the fun? Post your own question on your blog and leave your link at the Aloha Friday post at An Island Life. Then you can visit the other participants if you wish...It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends or see what people are thinking about this week and join in a conversation or two if you like.
"Take a deep breath. It calms the mind." ~Anonymous
My question:  When you feel overwhelmed by life, how do you calm down?

My answer:  I pay attention and focus on my breathing.  It takes your mind off of the stress and helps you calm down quickly.  
"Do not fear the winds of adversity.  Remember: A kite rises against the wind rather than with it." ~Anonymous
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!
Hugs and Many Blessings,
~ Coreen XO
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Again... Life is a Process


 Life is a Process.
We are a Process.
The Universe is a Process.




Life is a process
Of discomforts and pain
So learn to handle
It all with fain
And learn to unload
Your sigh and grief
Through a smiling face
And get some relief
And remember that bliss
Lies for you ahead
So have courage to listen
To what have been said
And learn more tricks
To enjoy your life
And search for happiness
Instead of strife. 

"Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through.  Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it.  This is a kind of death." ~Anais Nin
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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Wishing they were by your side...

"It's crazy how you can go months or even years without talking to someone but they still cross your mind everyday." ~Unknown

Have you every met someone that you instantly were drawn too?  Connecting in such a unique way that you feel like you've known each other before... in a distant past that you've long forgotten when that was.  Yet you still know that on some level you have.  I certainly have at least once.

As incredibly busy as this entire year has been, I still think about them every day.  In a happy yet kind of sad way too... because I'm wondering how they are, where they are and what they're doing... and I miss them.

It's not that I'm unhappy in my own life; because I'm actually happier than I've ever been.  Strong, confident, social, and busy working on my dreams and life... even driven at times to the point of exhaustion.  Yet... there's something still missing.

At the end of each busy day, I finally take a moment or two to reflect on the day, before planning for the next and getting some needed rest.   It is at that time I can hear my intuition loud and clear telling me what I'm still missing in my life, along with that long list of reasons why they are so special.

Then once again, I feel a tug at my heart where that empty space is and know exactly why it's there... because I'm missing someone and wishing at that moment they were by my side.


Monday, October 17, 2011

IOWA LANDS GRANT TO HELP PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES TO FIND WORK

IOWA LANDS GRANT TO HELP PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES TO FIND WORK
Iowa enjoys relatively low unemployment, yet the jobless rate for people with a disabilities hovers at nearly 40 percent.According to the latest figures from the Governor's 21st Century Workforce Council, there are 87,000 Iowans with disabilities who are either unemployed or underemployed.
The state has received a federal grant aimed at reducing that number by helping schools come up with incentives that can give students with disabilities a better chance of finding a job, says Becky Harker, director of the Iowa Developmental Disabilities Council."What we know is that families and educators, and community members often don't have real high expectations for youths with developmental disabilities to be integrated into the workforce." 
Many people with disabilities who do have jobs are often sheltered behind the scenes in low-skill and low-paying jobs, she says.   
This is where many individuals with developmental disabilities really fall through the cracks.  Because even if they do find employment, they seldom make enough to support themselves.  Which is what these individuals both want and can accomplish with the right programs and employers giving them a chance.  
"We're looking at working alongside others without disabilities, receiving the same rate of pay and the same benefits for doing the same work."Harker says the state's project is one of six that will share $3 million from the Administration on Developmental Disabilities.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Half Full & Aloha Friday!!!

"Whoever is happy will make others happy too." ~ Anne Frank
Half Full Friday is a series of weekly posts that Eye Girl originally started in June 2009.  Now the it is hosted by Sprinkles at Wyldechylde.  We believe that a lot of our happiness is determined by our attitude about the things that happen to us. So by participating, we are deciding to see the glass as half full, instead of half empty. We are choosing to concentrate on the positives, instead of dwelling on the negatives. Our Half Full Friday posts are a way to do just that. They are a list of the things in our life that have brought us happiness over the past week. We are determined to find the something good in every day. Are you?
"It is never too late - never too late to start over, never too late to be happy." ~ Jane Fonda
For the next week, we challenge you to keep a list of at least one thing that brought you happiness each day. 
I'm Happy and Thankful for many things every day... especially this week:
  • For my son's job!!  He's confident, working hard and happy!!  
  • For 3 Great jobs to apply for this week!  
  • For 2 interesting interviews and possibilities.
  • For 1000+ LinkedIn connections now!
  • For several leading to career opportunities!  
  • For attending an exciting event today! 
  • For the walking I got in before my feet swelled up! Ouch!!
  • For getting ex-rays and a referral too an orthopedic doctor. 
  • For having at least 2 part-time jobs later on. 
  • For positive energy, confidence and staying optimistic!! :-)
 "Some pursue happiness, others create it." ~ Anonymous
It's also "ALOHA FRIDAY" Everyone!!  If you want to join in the fun? Post your own question on your blog and leave your link at the Aloha Friday post at An Island Life. Then you can visit the other participants if you wish...It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends or see what people are thinking about this week and join in a conversation or two if you like.
"The moments of happiness we enjoy can take us by surprise.  It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us." ~ Ashley Montagu
My question:  When you see someone who is sad, how do you cheer then up?

My answer:  It depends who it is.  My son, I get him out of the house to go do something he enjoys. If it's a student or someone I don't know well, I at least smile and give them some empathy and words of encouragement.
"Too often we under estimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." ~ Leo Buscaglia
Have a beautiful and wonderful weekend everyone!!
Hugs and Many Blessings,
~ Coreen XO
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Sunday, October 9, 2011

nonPareil.

nonPareil.Institute - Practical Autism Solutions: is A Non-Profit Technology Company that provides technical training and employment for adults on the autism spectrum.

Another wonderful company that helps those with Asperger's Syndrome receive training and employment opportunities they struggle to find.

nonPareil knows these very bright individuals can offer so much to the workforce and our world.  They Redefine Intellectual Commodity.

Check them out at: http://www.npitx.org/

Friday, October 7, 2011

Half Full & Aloha Friday Question

"Happiness is the only good.  The time to be happy is now.  The place to be happy is here.  The way to be happy is to make others so." ~Rober G. Ingersoll
Half Full Friday is a series of weekly posts that Eye Girl originally started in June 2009.  Now the it is hosted by Sprinkles at Wyldechylde.  We believe that a lot of our happiness is determined by our attitude about the things that happen to us. So by participating, we are deciding to see the glass as half full, instead of half empty. We are choosing to concentrate on the positives, instead of dwelling on the negatives. Our Half Full Friday posts are a way to do just that. They are a list of the things in our life that have brought us happiness over the past week. We are determined to find the something good in every day. Are you?
"Success is not the key to happiness.  Happiness is the key to success.  If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." ~Herman Cain
For the next week, we challenge you to keep a list of at least one thing that brought you happiness each day. 
I'm Happy and Thankful for many things every day... especially this week:
  • For having another productive week!  
  • For more Great career ideas and leads!  
  • For more LinkedIn connections. 
  • For the support of many friends.  
  • For a track to walk on 'with lots of deer'! 
  • For a beautiful week and walking weather!
  • For my son re-designing my resume. It's awesome!
  • For lots of Hope for better things to come. :-)
 "Home is where the heart is but happiness is where your friends are.~Unknown
It's also "ALOHA FRIDAY" Everyone!!  If you want to join in the fun? Post your own question on your blog and leave your link at the Aloha Friday post at An Island Life. Then you can visit the other participants if you wish...It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends or see what people are thinking about this week and join in a conversation or two if you like.
"Wherever you are - know I really care.  Wherever you've been - know I've been there too.  Whenever you need to talk to someone, I'll listen.  Whenever you need a friend, I'll be there." ~Unknown 
My question:  What has a friend(s) done for you... when you really needed some help?

My answer:  I was in a dangerous situation once and 2 friends showed up to get me out of there, no hesitation. Their help was priceless and probably life saving. I'm still very thankful to both of them.
"Friendships are what our dreams are made of.  We hold onto each other with it's binding love.  We stand close to each other, hand in hand, showing each other we understand.  Some friends may come and go, but some are the truest friends I know.~Unknown
Have a blessed weekend!!
Hugs and Blessings,
~ Coreen XO
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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Accepting things as they come.....

The following story is a perfect example of two things.  The first, that if we accept things that happen with grace and acceptance, good things will happen.  Second, if we put others first, good things will happen.

This women didn't get upset with the store clerk when she gave her the wrong ticket, she just purchased a second ticket in the category she originally requested.  Then when she WON with the mistaken purchase, her first order of business is to take care of her mother and grandmother!  

What a self-less, kind and caring person!  We don't always see stories about these types of people; however they are out there with these awesome events happening more than we realize.  It sure is uplifting to see people like this WIN such prizes.    

Wrong Lottery Ticket Wins Georgia Woman $25 Million
Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:24:46 

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(SAVANNAH, Ga.) -- A woman in Savannah, Georgia has an inattentive clerk to thank for a $25 million lottery windfall she won on Sept. 14.

Kathy Scruggs, 44, tells the Savannah Morning News, "I asked for a Mega Millions ticket, and the lady gave me a Powerball ticket."  I just took it anyway.  So I bought Powerball and Mega Millions."

That twist of fate paid off -- big time.  Scruggs matched all of the winning numbers in the Powerball drawing, netting a $25 million jackpot.

Scruggs, who is unemployed and has been "looking and looking" for work, now plans to travel, and launch some charitable efforts with her winnings.  But, as the saying goes, charity begins at home.

"I’m going to build my mom and grandmother a home.  That's my first focus," Scruggs says.
Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio
"Accept things with grace, believing some events are meant to be a blessing, see them as a sign and good things will happen." ~Me

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Company succeeds at hiring adults with Asperger Syndrome as Game Testers



HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (AP) — The software testers at Aspiritech are a collection of characters. Katie Levin talks nonstop. Brian Tozzo hates driving. Jamie Specht is bothered by bright lights, vacuum cleaners and the feel of carpeting against her skin. Rider Hallenstein draws cartoons of himself as a DeLorean sports car. Rick Alexander finds it unnerving to sit near other people.
This is the unusual workforce of a U.S. startup that specializes in finding software bugs by harnessing the talents of young adults with autism.
Traits that make great software testers — intense focus, comfort with repetition, memory for detail — also happen to be characteristics of autism. People with Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism, have normal to high intelligence and often are highly skilled with computers.
Aspiritech, a nonprofit in Highland Park, Ill., nurtures these skills while forgiving the quirks that can make adults with autism unemployable: social awkwardness, poor eye contact, being easily overwhelmed. The company's name plays on the words "Asperger's," ''spirit" and "technology."
Clients, nine companies in Aspiritech's first two years, have been pleased.
"They exceeded my expectations," said Dan Tedesco of Shelton, Conn.-based HandHold Adaptive, which took a chance on Aspiritech to test an iPhone application. "There is a pride in their product you don't usually see in this type of work."
Aspiritech was founded by Moshe and Brenda Weitzberg after their son, Oran, now 32, was fired from a job bagging groceries. Oran was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome when he was 14. He now works at Aspiritech.
"He went from failing at bagging groceries to being one of the best software testers on our team," said Brenda Weitzberg.
The Weitzbergs modeled Aspiritech on a successful Danish company called Specialisterne, or "the Specialists." Specialisterne also employs software testers with autism. Its satisfied clients include Oracle and Microsoft.
Other companies in Belgium, Japan and Israel are either hiring or training adults with autism as software testers.
This year, Aspiritech projects $120,000 in revenue, with 60 percent coming from donations and 40 percent from clients. The Weitzbergs hope to raise the client revenue to 50 percent next year.
"There have been a couple of attempts in the U.S. and Aspiritech is the one that's making it," said Scott Standifer of the University of Missouri's Disability Policy and Studies office and the organizer of a national conference on adults with autism and employment.
The exact unemployment rate for adults with autism is unknown, but it's thought to be high, Standifer said.
"We don't know how many adults have autism and, because of that, we don't know their rate of unemployment," he said. "We do know from tracking adults just emerging from high school that they are having great difficulty finding jobs."
A 2009 U.S. Department of Education survey found the employment rate for young adults with autism was on par with that for deaf-and-blind young adults, and well below the rate of those with blindness alone or learning disabilities or traumatic brain injuries, Standifer said.
Since Asperger's syndrome didn't become a standard diagnosis until the early 1990s, many of Aspiritech's software testers were adults when they first learned they were on the autism spectrum. They are pioneers, the first generation of adults with Asperger's.
Katie Levin, 35, was diagnosed in her late 20s with Asperger's. As a child, she'd been labeled as mentally ill.
"Asperger's is not a mental illness," she said. "I definitely feel like I identify with the Asperger's community more than I did with the mental illness community." She tests software and runs Aspiritech's Facebook page and Twitter feed.
Rick Alexander, 24, another tester, has a degree in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology and completed an internship developing software for the city of Chicago.
"I have a lot of social anxiety. I don't like meeting new people," said Alexander, who was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome as a teenager. Like many of the other testers, he lives with his parents.
He'd rather be a software developer than a tester, he said. But selling himself in a job interview is "very difficult for me."
"When you're a child, the school is very concerned with you, the state is very concerned with you," Alexander said. Organizations help adults with autism, he said, but "you need to approach them and for somebody with Asperger's syndrome, it's very difficult to do the approaching."
Most research dollars have gone toward studying children with autism while adults have been neglected, said Molly Losh, an autism researcher at Northwestern University.
"Our vocational structure really isn't suited to funnel people with autism into the workforce," Losh said. Aspiritech "is a magnificent and innovative venture," she said.
Many businesses hire offshore companies to test software. Mike Mestemaker, director of engineering for Schaumburg, Ill.-based ISI Telemanagement Solutions, chose Aspiritech because it offered competitive rates but was based in the United States.
"They dove right in and worked very quickly," Mestemaker said. "They were very detail-oriented people. They really got the job done."
ISI was happy with the work and has hired Aspiritech for a second project, he said.
Aspiritech provides meaningful work (pay is $12 to $15 an hour) in a relaxed environment where bosses never yell if you're late and nobody minds if you need to be alone for a while. What's more, the company is building social skills. The software testers, who are in their 20s and 30s, are trained to work together and they take part in organized outings: miniature golf, bowling, eating at a restaurant.
"We want to improve social skills among people who tend to be socially isolated," said Marc Lazar, Aspiritech's autism specialist. For many of them, software testing is not going to be their lifelong career, Lazar said, "but while they're here they're going to improve their job skills and they're going to learn what kind of behavior is expected on the job and they're going to have more to put on their resumes." ~ AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/CarlaKJohnson
Read more at http://www.timesunion.com  

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