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DECEMBER 2022 / JANUARY 2023
HOUSTONALEXANDER.COM
CALL US: 423-267-6715
Merry Christmas from Houston & Alexander. Enjoy this time with your loved ones. Johnny, Bret, Jay, Wanda, Chaiden, and Katie (and Dexter and Rita!)
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With These Holiday Hosting Tips IMPRESS THE GUESTS
The holidays are rapidly approaching, and soon, we’ll share laughs while enjoying the festivities with our loved ones. Before the celebrations begin, you must prepare your home for visitors, especially if they stay overnight. It can be stressful whether it’s your in-laws, best friends, or distant cousins coming to stay with you. You want to leave a good impression, but how do you ensure everyone’s needs are met, including yours? Here are three tips for setting yourself up for a successful holiday, regardless of who stays with you. Stock up on your guests’ favorites. Have you ever stayed with someone who didn’t have extra food for their guests? Don’t put your guests in this situation. Load up your pantry, refrigerator, and cupboards with your guests’ favorite foods and drinks. If you don’t know what they are, ask ahead of their visit! Your guests will appreciate your conscientious gesture and have a much more enjoyable time if they can eat their favorites while visiting. Prepare a guest room. If your guests are staying with you, you need to prepare somewhere for them to sleep. Make sure you make up the
bed, have plenty of pillows and blankets on hand, and provide adequate closet space for their clothes. Even if they aren’t staying in a traditional bedroom, their sleeping area should still be ready when they arrive. Clear off a table for them to use as a nightstand and put sheets on the couch or mattress where they’ll sleep. Use real dishes. When we have company over for a meal, especially a large gathering, it’s usually easier to use plastic or paper options — saves on cleanup, too! The holidays are not necessarily the time for this shortcut. Break out the fine china if you have it, or use regular dishes for your guests. It’s okay for the kids to have paper plates, but if you want to make a good impression on visiting adults, nicer dishes will dress up the table setting and meal.
THE LEGAL TRUTH ABOUT POSTING YOUR SALARY ONLINE
In July, a Colorado woman was fired from her tech job for posting her salary online. This company later rehired her, but her dismissal was featured on news outlets, including CBS to USA Today. The reporting dug up thousands of others sharing their job titles and income on social media. There are even a few public spreadsheets to which anyone can sign on and add their information. Sharing job details online is part of a push to fight against discrimination and unfair business practices, such as gender pay gaps. While the cause is good, many business owners don’t take too lightly to their employees talking about how much they make. But can you legally be fired from your job for doing it? The short answer is no. Talking about your wages is federally protected, and you have the right to do it. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) protects employees when discussing workplace wages.
This means two things: First, how much you get paid relates directly to the quality of your treatment at your job. If you aren’t getting paid fairly, that is a poor job condition. Second, discussing how much you get paid brings attention to your mistreatment. You will never know if you’re not being paid fairly if you don’t have a reference point. And once people realize they’re being treated unfairly, they do something about it. Wages are the starting point for many other positive changes. What’s more, the NLRA explicitly protects the discussion of wages online. The NLRA does mention, however, that your employer may still be able to fire you if you use their technology equipment to post about your wages. So don’t post your salary on Facebook from your work computer.
Your employer can also use your wage posting to fire you for previous bad behavior, so if you post your salary, be smart about it. Do it without defaming your employer, and never give away too much personal or professional information online. Only share information that pertains to you, not your company’s secrets.
According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which enforces this act, “Wages are a vital term and condition of employment, and discussions of wages are often preliminary to organizing or other actions for mutual aid or protection.”
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LOCKS OF LOVE
TA TA W
SON MAKES A WIG FOR HIS MOTHER
Melanie Shaha is currently fighting her third brain cancer battle. For 15 years, she’s been suffering from a benign tumor on her pituitary gland. Although she doesn’t mind being sick, going to her appointments, focusing on her treatment, and talking to loved ones about her cancer, she doesn’t like looking sick.
her in public. So, her 27-year-old son Matt had an idea. At first, Matt joked about cutting all of his hair off to make his mother a wig. But the joke soon became a plan, and Matt followed through in 2018. After graduating from college, Matt began growing his hair out. In no time, he had long and luscious hair. His mother tried to dissuade him from cutting it, but Matt wanted to help her feel confident and comfortable in her skin. So, he chopped it off and sent his locks to Compassionate Creations, a hair company in Newport Beach, California, that created a wig for his mother. Now, Shaha has a piece of her son to take everywhere with her beautiful new tresses. “The color is spectacular, and we had it cut and styled with a hairdresser. Matt said it looked great on me. It sure fills your emotional cup,” Shaha says.
If you didn’t know Shaha, you wouldn’t realize she was battling cancer. But this suddenly changed once she lost all of her hair. She had two surgeries, in 2003 and 2006, in hopes of removing the tumor
on her pituitary gland, but they weren’t successful. Then, when she began radiation therapy in 2017, the treatment caused her hair to fall out. “Not having hair [makes] you stick out like a sore thumb, and well-meaning people can say things that break your heart,” Shaha told TODAY. She didn’t like all the attention and the looks people gave
If you — or someone you know — would like to donate your hair to cancer patients, you can donate to Locks of Love, Wigs For Kids, Chai Lifeline, and Children With Hair Loss. Research donation centers in your area if you would like to give back locally.
NO-BAKE PEANUT BUTTER SNOWBALLS
Relieved and Free Thanks to Johnny D.!
“Within minutes of speaking with Johnny, I knew he was clearly the guy who could get the job done! Attorney Houston’s knowledge and keen legal instinct were evident right off the bat. He is tough and direct with an easy demeanor and effortless charm. It was hard to imagine him ruffled at all. I walked in with a warrant, and in less than 30 minutes, he had won me my case. In addition, he saved me literal thousands of dollars, and I never came close to a jail cell that day. If you need an excellent, experienced lawyer to tackle your case like a closer, Johnny D. Houston, Jr. is the one call to make. This is truly the dude!” –Andrea 423-267-6715 | HoustonAlexander.com 3
Directions
This year-round treat is the perfect dessert for any holiday party. Since you don’t need to worry about a hot oven, it’s a great recipe to make with the whole family — including the little ones! • 1 cup powdered sugar • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter • 3 tbsp softened butter • 1 lb white chocolate candy coating Ingredients
1. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper. 2. In a medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, peanut butter, and softened butter. Mix until evenly combined. 3. Shape the mixture into 1-inch balls and place them on the lined cookie sheet. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or until firm. 4. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt white chocolate candy coating in increments of 30 seconds, stirring occasionally until smooth. 5. In the same bowl, use skewers to dip peanut butter balls into the chocolate before placing them on a lined cookie sheet so they can harden. 6. Chill until ready and then serve!
Inspired by ThisSavoryVegan.com
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE Merry Christmas From Houston & Alexander! How to Impress Visitors This Holiday Season Can You Be Fired for Posting Your Wages Online? What Started as a Joke Became Reality No-Bake Peanut Butter Snowballs Testimonial This ‘Anti-Diet’ Could Save Christmas PAGE 1 PAGE 2 PAGE 2 PAGE 3 PAGE 3 PAGE 3 PAGE 4
fullness, and satiety cues to help you decide what and how much to eat. No food is off the table.”
Intuitive Eating: The Anti-Diet for the Holidays WHAT IT IS AND HOW YOU CAN BENEFIT
This means you won’t catch an intuitive eater counting calories, talking about cheat days, or staring longingly at a doughnut they want but just can’t have. Instead, you might see them slowly savoring their food and pausing between bites to decide whether or not they’re full. What are the benefits of eating this way? Intuitive eating isn’t about weight loss, although some people who practice it do shed pounds. Instead, many articles point to other benefits like increased respect for your body, less stress and guilt around food, and even a better understanding of your emotions. Ultimately, practitioners of this anti-diet claim to find more joy in eating than before. How can I learn more? Intuitive eating is based on 10 principles, including “honor your hunger” and “feel your fullness.” You can read about them at Health.ClevelandClinic.org/what-is-intuitive-eating or pick up a copy of the 1995 book that started it all: “Intuitive Eating” by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, two health professionals who specialize in nutrition and eating disorders. Intuitive eating is an “anti-diet” for every age and body type. It may be just the strategy you need to heal your relationships with food and get more joy out of the holiday season.
If you’ve ever seen any “What I Eat in a Day” videos on TikTok or Instagram, you’ve probably come across the hashtag #intuitiveeating. It pops up under posts ranging from snapshots of green smoothies to reels of influencers sprinkling cheese over giant bowls of pasta. If you’re not familiar with the term, you probably have a few big questions. What is intuitive eating, and why is it considered an ‘anti-diet’? At its core, intuitive eating is simply giving your body the food it needs in a mindful way. As psychologist Dr. Susan Albers explained in an interview with the Cleveland Clinic, “Intuitive eating is the polar opposite of dieting. Instead of following rules and restricting what you eat, you trust your internal hunger,
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