I Didn T See This Coming From My Family

Yes, you can learn to say what you mean and mean what you say. This bestselling guide has already transformed thousands of lives—and can change your as well. The authors’ pioneering Assertiveness Training Technique can help you gain recognition and promotion on the job, renew your marriage, put more zing in your sex life, deal with your children more effectively, and make new friends. Change your life as you learn how to: • Target your own assertiveness difficulties and set your own goals. • Follow your progress with a workshop that gives you step-by-step reinforcement. • Visualize and actualize through exercises designed to perfect new behavior patterns. • Develop self-control that comes from within. • Change habits that keep you from getting what you want in every area of your life.

In the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War in April 1975, as Americans fled and their Vietnamese allies and employees prepared for the worst, John Riordan, a young banker, the assistant manager of Citibank's Saigon branch succeeded in rescuing 106 Vietnamese. They were his 33 Vietnamese staff members and their families. Unable to secure exit papers for the employees, Citibank ordered Riordan to leave the country alone. Safe in Hong Kong, Riordan could not imagine leaving behind his employees and defied instructions from his superiors not to return to Saigon. But once he did make it back on the last commercial flight, his actions were daring and ingenious. In They Are All My Family, Riordan recounts in a vivid narrative how the escape was organized and carried out. He assembled all 106 of the Vietnamese into his villa and a neighboring one telling them to keep their locations secret. A CIA contact told him that only dependents of Americans were allowed to escape on U.S. military cargo planes. Riordan repeatedly went to the processing area and claimed groups of the Vietnamese as his relatives—his wife and children—somehow managing to get through the bureaucratic shambles. Eventually he went back and forth to the airport 15 times. Filling out papers in groups, using false documents and even resorting to a bribe, he succeeded in rescuing the group. For the last round, the group drove the bank van to the airport pretending they had bundles of money to transport. Miraculously, all these gambits worked and the Citibank group made it to Guam and the Philippines, eventually reuniting at Camp Pendleton in California. All the while, Riordan assumed he had been fired for ignoring orders but once the mission was completed, his extraordinary commitment and resourcefulness won him widespread praise from senior officials. Citibank spent a million dollars to resettle the Vietnamese, offering jobs to some of the staff and their spouses. Decades later, Riordan has located the Vietnamese and reconnected with them, sharing accounts of those frantic days and the derring-do it took to get them out to safety. John Riordan is now a farmer in Wisconsin. His story of those fateful days decades ago and their aftermath provides a compelling insight to the courage of individuals when all seemed lost. For all the tragedy of the Vietnam War, this saga is an uplifting counterpoint and a compelling piece of micro-history.

This book is a lifetime of short stories that includes an autobiography and history of a woman, her immediate family, extended family, and pets. It also includes challenges, humor, tragedy, and historical lifetime events that spanned her life over a period of nearly seventy years. Truly, angels were in her life, walking with her along the path from childhood to old age.

From comedian and actor Sebastian Maniscalco—star of the film About My Father with Robert DeNiro—an inspiring, honest, uproarious collection of essays tracing his career from playing boxing rings and bowling alleys to reaching the pinnacles of comedy success. At twenty-four, Sebastian Maniscalco arrived in LA with a suitcase and saved up minimum wages. He knew no one and nothing about standup comedy, but he was determined to go for it anyway. Two decades later, he’s on the Forbes’ list of highest earning comedians, selling out arenas, and starring in numerous hit comedy specials including Why Would You Do That? and Is It Me?. Stay Hungry tells the story of the twenty years in between. On the way from clueless rube to standup superstar, Seb was booed off stages; survived on tips and stolen food; got advice from mentors Andrew Dice Clay, Vince Vaughn, Tony Danza, and Jerry Seinfeld; fell in love; and stayed true to his Italian-immigrant roots. The one code that always kept him going: stay hungry, keep focused, never give up, and one day, you’ll make it.

It’s the people we love the most who have the greatest potential to hurt us. Our relationships with our families are complex and, for many, extremely painful. Whether you have a seemingly happy family or not, the truth is, no family is perfect. But there is good news in spite of the ups and downs of our family lives. God opens wide his arms, welcoming us again and again into His family, His acceptance, and His love. The It's Us study helps you to see this part of God—His fatherly desire to see you whole and healed and restored. Featuring "live" dramas from the REVOLVE tour in combination with Bible study, the Reel to Real Interactive Drama-Based Study Series addresses the questions and issues—both series and frivolous—that hit at the heart of teens. Designed for individual or group study, the It's Us participant's guide helps individuals and groups explore what’s been exposed through the dramas and dig deeper into how to live differently in this changing world. Participant's guide features: Questions, Bible study, and activities for group or individual study Real-life stories from teens Tips for youth group leaders Activies to be artsy and interactive with the topic Resources & itunes list (websites, books, online videos, and music related to the topic) For use with the It's Us DVD-Based Study (ISBN 9781418546373).

"Tina Rasutton has grown up in the heart of New Orleans, faced with poverty and a life of tragedy she is determined to be sucessful. Tina must deal with the struggles of her five sisters and brother, her mother, and her best firend, often times ignoring her own struggles. Tina constantly faces obstacles head on trying to maintain everything in her life along. Realizing the need to not only give love but to recieve it takes her on a whirlwind of lessons."--Page 4 of cover

Telepathy is an ability Arianna Miller has had her entire life. It is a gift that she and her sister have inherited from their mother but have been told to keep a secret from everyone, including Arianna's stepfather, Marshal. The only person outside her family that knows about the secret is her best friend, Rosy Mendez, who has kept the secret for years. Then on the first day of her senior year of high school, Arianna meets the town's miscreant, Evan Jackson, the son of the governor and high school principal, who she soon discovers shares the same unique ability as her. Evan has spent the majority of his life with his aunt and uncle, only coming home in the summertime, until an incident that happened when he was twelve caused his parents to keep him from returning. The last place he wanted to be was Harrison, Arizona, but after getting kicked out of his last boarding school, he was forced to return and confront his past. When their paths cross, the two suddenly feel an intense pull toward each other but are warned to stay away from each other due to a secret Arianna's "on again, off again" boyfriend, Jason Richardson, and Evan share. But how do you stay away from someone that has the same ability as you and your heart feels drawn to? Suddenly, the two find themselves entangled in a web of secrets and lies with their parents, with the new science teacher being at the center of it. A secret so big it will change Arianna's and Evan's lives forever.