Flowers and plants are terrific gifts for almost anyone, regardless of age, interests or gender. Whether celebrating the birth of a baby, honoring Mom on Mother’s Day or her birthday or memorializing someone at their funeral, flowers are always a great choice. And, if you are limited on time or having a difficulty choosing a gift, flowers are a beautiful, easy way to show you care and that you are thinking of the recipient.

Here are five flower suggestions for your loved ones at every stage of their lives:

– New Baby. Flowers are a wonderful way to celebrate new life. You can choose loose bouquets of pastel-colored flowers or baby-themed arrangements with teddy bear, rattle or building block adornments.

– Birthday. What better way to tell someone you are thinking of them on their birthday than by sending flowers to their home or office. No matter how old the birthday girl, she will love getting flowers and enjoying their beauty well beyond the day she receives them. Choose flowers that are fun and brightly colored, especially wildflowers.

– Mother’s Day. It can be hard to choose the perfect gift for Mom. They often seem to have everything. Flowers say you care and you can express your originality while expressing your appreciation and love. Best of all, you do not need to worry about size or color. Roses and gerbera daisies are good choices for Mother’s Day. Or, choose a plant she can enjoy for even longer.

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Roller skates have always been recommended to fitness freaks. They can also be a fun yet eco-friendly form of transportation. Roller skates enable the skater to travel on boots that are generally fitted with three, four or sometimes five wheels. Roller skates have two basic designs:

Quad Roller Skates: A shoe that has been fitted with four wheels on its sole to glide swiftly on a floor.

Inline Skates or Blades: These skates have three, four or even five wheels arranged in single line. Sometimes inline skates feature a rear break.

Roller skating has evolved from a pastime to a sport activity due to its popularity. Roller skating is also recommended by the American Heart Association (AHA) as an aerobic fitness sport. Taking long strides can help increase the heart rate and strengthen the back muscles. Studies have shown that roller skating is equivalent to jogging or cycling and engages all of the body’s muscles. You can burn up to 600 calories while skating 10 miles per hour. According to the statistics released by the National Sporting Goods Association, inline skating topped the list of sports that witnessed the greatest growth between 1993 and 1998, in terms of participants. Roller skating is a fun and effective way of participating in fitness activities.

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No matter where you look today you will invariably encounter someone carrying bottled water. Water has become the earmark of a healthy lifestyle – offering hydration and purification. It’s no wonder so many of us have heeded the advice of the experts and significantly upped our water intake. Drinking water for health makes sense when you understand the role that water plays in the human body.

Over half of the human body is made up of water; for this reason, drinking water for health is absolutely crucial in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Experts have long recommended the drinking of at least sixty-four ounces of water a day in order for our systems to function at optimum levels. Water allows our body to effectively absorb the nutrients that we need from food and systematically flushes our kidneys of waste. In fact, all of our internal organs operate at higher capacity when we are well hydrated. When we are drinking water for health our blood thins as it should; when we are dehydrated, blood becomes thicker making our bodies work harder to pump it; this makes the overall functions of the body slow and inefficient.

A part of drinking water for health is to allow our body to effectively digest our food; without water our body cannot effectively eliminate waste. Water has an enormous effect on weight loss as well, speeding our metabolism and acting as a natural appetite suppressant. Drinking water for health throughout our lifetime means, in many cases, the long term successful maintenance of a healthy weight.

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Americans are pet love people. What this means goes way beyond a description of people who love their pets. While this may not be a news flash, there have been some serious statistics over the past few years that illustrate our status as pet love people.

According to the latest statistics compiled by the APPMA (American Pet Products Manufacturers Association), Americans are off the chart when it comes to spending on our pets.

For instance, as of 2006, 73.9 million Americans own dogs and another 90.5 million are cat owners.

There are more than 16.6 million bird owners in the US and 11 million US citizens are snake owners.

Show Me The Money

While the pet ownership numbers are impressive, how much money would you imagine is spent on those millions of pets? Well, according to the APPMAs’ Pet Industry Statistics and Trends Report, Americans spent $34 billion on their pets in 2004. This represented a huge growth in spending that in fact doubled US spending in the last 10 years.

It comes as no surprise that we treat our pets like members of our families. A regular routine is having your dog groomed and while you’re at it, why not have his ears rinsed, after all it makes your pet more comfortable and healthy?

And then there is medical care, which is another area of financial impact that is definitely felt by all families throughout the world. The family pet can now be covered as well. In fact, some form of medical care for pets has existed for the past 20 years.

With pet accidents becoming more frequent than accidents affecting humans, much to the dismay of many families, 24 hour animal emergency rooms are a fixture in many communities.

Additionally, pet health care by way of medical plans are available, however, the choices are not as simple as you might think.

Pet health care insurance is now marketed competitively throughout the US. The policies and are written with the familiar titles and options written into policies for the pet’s human care takers.

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