After Ryan's grandfather has a stroke, their close relationship has to change. With the help of his parents, rehabilitation professionals, and Grandpa himself, Ryan learns what a stroke is and the stroke's effect on his grandfather, now and in the future. He also experiences a full range of emotions, including fear, avoidance, disappointment, anger, confusion, and denial. Eventually, he accepts his disabled grandfather coming to live with the family with a positive and helpful attitude.

"My Grandpa is my best friend. After Grandpa had a stroke, mom taught me the Smile-Reach-Speech Test. It's an easy way to know if someone may be having a stroke and that you should call 911 right away. I'm glad that's what we did because now Grandpa and I are back to doing fun stuff together." Anyone can have a stroke. With the Smile-Reach-Speech Test, parents and children will learn to recognize the signs of a stroke and call 911 right away. Knowing what to do in an emergency is just as important as learning to whistle or catch a ball. It's easy to learn. Just ask Grandpa. Grandpa's Crooked Smile includes games and activities to help your whole family learn the Smile-Reach-Speech Test.

Michael J. Rider grew up on a farm. He currently resides in Ohio with his lovely wife, Debbie. He taught mechanical engineering courses at Ohio Northern University for forty-two years. During that time, he wrote ten engineering textbooks. Since his retirement, he has written several children’s short stories. This story is the first in this series.

#winning is a twenty-years-in-the-making autobiography that encompasses the life of a young woman who has sacrificed everything she has to please others. Being a giver is a wonderful quality but not when it results in being abused, stolen from, losing your family, having to claim bankruptcy, and almost losing your life. You will be able to go back in time to 1999 when this young author was twelve years old and read many of the journal entries that have taken her through the ups and downs of life. This book opens up the questions of "Why do we do what we do?" "Are we who we are because of how we were born or because of the decisions we have made?" "How can we learn to love and forgive those who have hurt us so badly?" and "How can we give to others without being taken advantage of?" If you have experienced failures, abuse, financial disasters, ugly divorces, drug and alcohol abuse, rape, isolation, and much more, than this book may offer you some comfort, understanding, and hope that any bad situation can be turned around and used for good. By the grace of God, we can all survive what this world may throw our way, and this book will prove to you that you are not alone.

This is the story of my grandfather – a very ordinary man. It covers his childhood in Poland, his immigration, and his life in America. He was a typical Polish immigrant, who immigrated to make a better life for himself. Compare his life to your ancestors. Use his life for clue that may help you understand theirs. My hope in writing this book is to share the information about the daily lives of the Polish people living in the rural areas of Poland. The book also describes some of the reasons for leaving Poland, the trek across Poland and Germany to the ports, the voyage across the North Atlantic, arrival in America and their life in their new country. I used my grandfather as the central figure in this book but this is not his biography. I used details of my grandfather's life but added accounts of other people to tell a complete life story. My grandfather was not a person whose accomplishments would be in history books. However, his life is an example of a typical Polish immigrant. I felt that tying the information to one person would make a more interesting story and easier to show the impact of various events had on our ancestor's life.

The central theme of this book is how to identify and deal with the realities of incest. Most of the time incest victims have a great deal of emotional, physical, and sexual pain. Too many times it literally takes years and years for a child to work through all the tormenting, and too many times all they can do is subdue it, which makes them deal with it in their thirties and forties. It has a way of compounding all relationships, especially in marriages and parenthood. For the victim, it is frightening and extremely painful as memories keep rushing in. For them, there are self-help books, but for the families of victims, they are victimized by the abusers of the victims. It just becomes a horrifying adventure of not knowing what is going to happen next. Confusion and instability keep everything within a family structure to go into chaos, especially between spouses. There are so very few books for the families of victims, and especially any that deal with Christianity or other religions that have special moral expectations. By no means is anyone ever beyond God's understanding and love, but each person has to deal with these issues for themselves. We are not to judge or demand how anyone else deals with their relationships with God. The problem is, everyone in the family feels too much responsibility, guilt, and anger. The anger is the hardest thing to deal with because it reaches out to others and inward toward oneself. Each chapter deals with different issues and how everyone is affected by everything that goes on, and that includes both good and bad decisions. My hope is each person learns how to love themselves and everyone else in the healthiest and best ways. The main problem has to be dealt with by the victim, or everyone in the family automatically becomes a victim as well. I wish everyone to gain some form of understanding and appropriate ways to love the victims of incest. Not all times do things always work out the way we would like, and so each of us has to take responsibility for ourselves. Each person has to know themselves and learn to love no matter what happens.