Risk & Associates County Civil - February 2021

Risk & Associates County Civil - February 2021

COUNTYCIVIL.COM

FEBRUARY 2021

‘You Need to Go on a Date With Me’

H appy February, everyone! It’s no secret that I’m big on family, so I’d never skip an opportunity to share the story behind how I met my partner in crime. Speaking of which, I actually met my wife in prison. We were both working as correctional officers, of course! But I enjoy saying that I went to prison and found myself a wife. Anyway, let me tell you the story that shocked my kids once they got older and always earns a few laughs in the family. My wife, Marti, has always been beautiful. But out of all the things in the world about this lady, it was certainly her wholesomeness that drew me to her most. It took a very small amount of listening to notice the pureness she had in her actions and words. Even though I’d never talked to her, I’d hear her from across the room and know that she was a good person with no mean-spiritedness in her. Even after all these years, I don’t see that in her. It doesn’t surprise me — it simply amazes me. Eventually, I’d admired her long enough. I asked around about her, and it got to a point that everyone knew I was going to

ask her out. The only problem was that we worked different shifts. I was working night shifts and she was on in the afternoons. So, while we were changing shifts, I walked between gates until I got to the office space. I approached Marti’s desk, and I could tell she had no idea what I was about to talk to her about. With a dozen or more people surrounding us, I cleared off everything from Marti’s desk in one fell swoop, laid down on her desk on my elbows, smiled, and said, “I need you to go out with me.” Since Marti had never met me before, I looked absolutely insane. I quickly realized this as Marti stared at me, speechless, so I got up and walked away. Despite me asking around about her, it turned out that she was actually engaged to a guy from her hometown. But some part of my crazy plan charmed her. It worked, and she broke up with him. Everyone told her not to marry me, including me! But somehow we’ve gotten along great these past 33 years.

incredibly special woman as a wife, mother, grandmother, and daughter. She can go, go, go, then go some more, especially with her grandkids. Whenever our Grandkids are over, Grandma Marti can always keep up. One minute they’re coloring, the next they’re baking cookies, then watching a movie, and afterward playing cards in the kitchen. Sometimes she even gets through her cleaning chores at the same time. She also drives more than an hour and a half every week or two to see her mom. It’s amazing. Marti goes from sunup to sundown, and she’ll take her rest once she feels she’s ready. Maybe that’s how we were both raised, too. She deserves a big reward for tolerating me all these years and putting her best self forward every single day. I don’t think there’s any reward big enough to show how much it’s meant to me all these years. Thank you, Marti, for being there always! I can’t wait for many more years to come.

-Rick Risk

As the years go by (and they go by fast), I’ve realized all the ways that Marti is an

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FROM BOOKS TO … PRESCRIPTION DRUGS?

AMAZON LAUNCHES AMAZON PHARMACY

For years, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been vocal about his plan to disrupt the American health care system. In 2018, Bezos and his millionaire pals Warren Buffett (CEO of Berkshire Hathaway) and Jamie Dimon (CEO of JPMorgan Chase) formed a company called Haven Healthcare to “stem the rise of employer health care spending,” according to Bloomberg Businessweek. That venture fell apart, but Bezos never took his eyes off the prize. That same year, Amazon bought a drug-delivery startup. In 2019, it started selling its own brand of over-the-counter medication. Then, in November of 2019, Amazon opened Amazon Pharmacy to sell prescription drugs online. The new program offers Prime members two- day delivery and massive discounts on generic and name-brand drugs. Given Amazon’s history, this was no surprise. Since starting in 1994 as a marketplace exclusively for books, Amazon has worked toward becoming a one-stop shop for everything, especially all things health and fitness. Health-conscious people have bought workout equipment, supplements, snacks, fitness books, and more on the website for years. Then, in 2017, Amazon bought the organic grocery store Whole Foods and offered shopping discounts to Prime members, further cornering the market of health-conscious consumers.

Both the Whole Foods purchase and the failed Haven Healthcare venture foreshadowed the arrival

of Amazon Pharmacy. The latter showed how serious Bezos is about diving into the highly regulated realm of health care and insurance. The former revealed the growing importance of Prime membership in an increasingly Amazon-owned world. According to Business Insider, Prime members have access to “discounts of up to 80% on generic drugs and 40% on brand-name medications when paying without insurance” through Amazon Pharmacy. Doctors can also send prescriptions directly to Amazon. If you have insurance, you can simply type your insurance and payment information directly into the website and have medication delivered to your door. To check out Amazon Pharmacy, head to Amazon.com and click on the menu in the top left corner of the home page. Then scroll down to “Programs and Features.” All of that said, Amazon isn’t the only — or even best — option for purchasing prescription drugs online. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s BeSafeRx program offers tips and a comprehensive list of online pharmacies nationwide. Visit FDA.gov today to learn more.

NO NEED TO OPT FOR NETFLIX RIGHT AWAY! Romantic Stay-At- Home Date Ideas

BOARD GAMES AND PUZZLES It’s always romantic when your partner wants to have new experiences with you, and one way of doing that is picking up a new board game. You might be wondering: Wait, there’s optimal two-person board games besides Battleship? Plenty! There’s even two-person, role-playing adventure games if you’d like to dive into new places together. Ticket to Ride is also a classic, and only takes about 30 minutes to complete a game for easy replayability! And if you’d rather focus on one task than many tasks in a game, you might really enjoy doing a puzzle with your other half! TAKE AN ‘ART CLASS’

If there’s a recipe for the perfect romantic stay-at-home date, think of this article as presenting all sorts of ideas for you to choose your very own. There’s no one-size-fits-all, and we know the pandemic has made it harder to have new experiences at home (seems like we’ve had them all). However, there’s more options than you think to make this date especially exciting! A TAKEOUT THREE-COURSE MENU You know what always gets the night started in a good way? Not having to work or worry about cooking. Unless it’s calming to cook together! But cooking can be a task and is not always enjoyable for everyone. If you want to take it easy on your special night, just order a classy takeout meal from your local restaurant.

something completely out of the ordinary and prepare an “art class” where you and your partner paint the same picture together. Prepare all the supplies, grab a glass of wine, and enjoy a fun night of colors and creative challenges together! STARGAZING Borrow, rent, or buy a telescope to look at some stars and talk about the universe together. You could also buy a projector and stream a view of the stars in a dark room, instead! Fill your home with a little more wonder this Valentine’s Day and make someone you love feel extra special. We could all use that this year!

Even if you don’t consider yourself a remarkable painter, it can be fun to do

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Working Parents, Don’t Feel Guilty Anymore! 4 TRICKS TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TIME WITH YOUR KIDS

NO. 3: PUT AWAY THE PHONE. If you’re numbing yourself out with YouTube videos on your smartphone, your kids may react in the same way to their own life experiences. Put away the phone and engage with your kids with daily, in-depth conversations about their day, thoughts, and feelings, even if the day was uneventful. NO. 4: DON’T FORGET A HUG!

Even if you’re working from home, your daily workload hasn’t gone away. It can feel like your quality time with your kids is limited, and you might even miss certain milestones because of work. You might feel guilty, but Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at University of California, Riverside says it best: “Milestones are wonderful, but they’re only a tiny fraction of what gives life meaning. What’s most important is that you love, nurture, and support your kids, not that you catch every great thing they do.”

Studies show that skin-to-skin contact helps premature babies gain weight faster. Contact also eases pain and anxiety in children of every age. Even teenagers need hugs! Regular physical touch can hugely benefit their emotional health because you don’t always know when something is going on.

Here’s four ways you can do just that!

NO. 1: PRACTICE MINDFULNESS. The secret to contentment is gratitude and enjoying the little things. By practicing mindfulness and gratitude on a daily basis, we can hone in genuinely positive energy as we spend time with our kids, no matter what kind of day we had at work. NO. 2: FIND WAYS TO PUT MORE RELAXATION INTO YOUR DAY. Sometimes, all it takes is reorganizing your to-do list to steal some extra minutes with your kids. Maybe waking up an hour early to finish laundry can really clear up your whole afternoon! Little things like that can make a huge difference in the time you spend with your kids.

The pandemic has been a challenge for every parent, but at County Civil, we hope these tips help you become an even stronger

inspiration for your kids. Keep up the great work!

AQUARIUS BLACK HISTORY CANDY CUPID GROUNDHOG HEART LINCOLN

MLK JR PENNSYLVANIA PHIL PRESIDENTS DAY VALENTINE WINTER

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2383 Tamarack St., Lake Odessa, MI 48849 616-374-7170 | COUNTYCIVIL.COM R isk & A ssociates

Rick Risk is Founder and President of Risk & Associates, a legal support service provider in Michigan, and has assisted hundreds of attorneys, municipalities, courts, Sheriff Offices, businesses, and others with their strategic process needs.

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

1 2

The True Story of How I Met My Wife

Amazon Launches Amazon Pharmacy

Romantic Stay-At-Home Date Ideas

3 4

4 Tricks to Make the Most of Your Time With Your Kids

What’s the Deal With Valentine’s Day Cards?

It’s in the Cards WHY VALENTINE’S DAY IS THE ULTIMATE CARD HOLIDAY

This may be the first year in a long time that kids don’t pass out Valentine’s Day cards at school. Going in to the new year, the seasonal section of most stores are lined with cards featuring fun characters from

superheroes to unicorns. Handing out cards is now a well-loved tradition, but have you ever wondered how Valentine’s Day became one of the biggest card-giving holidays of the year? Like many holiday traditions, the convention of handing out Valentine’s Day cards goes back centuries. During the 1700s, it became fashionable to trade Valentine’s Day cards with a short poem or verse. The popularity of swapping cards these cards only increased throughout the 1800s. Sometimes, people would go as far as to paint or draw spring-like images on the cards. They were much more elaborate than what we typically see today, though they were still usually very small. But where did those folks get the idea? People of that era were likely inspired by stories that go back even further. There are legends that the originator of this holiday tradition was Saint Valentine himself. One story says that on the night before he was set to be executed, Valentine wrote a small letter to a jailer’s daughter. He ended the note with “Your Valentine.”

in fact, that the entire Valentine’s Day industry began to gain traction. A guidebook called “The Young Man’s Valentine” was published in 1797 to help suitors garner the attention

of their love interests through the written word. Eventually, books aimed at women were also published, including “The Lady’s Own Valentine

Writer,” which served much the same goal.

These publications, along with young people writing notes to one another every February, have made Valentine’s Day cards an ingrained tradition, and now people can’t get enough of them!

It’s unknown whether that story is true, but to 18th century Europeans and Americans, it was inspiring! So inspiring,

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