just4moms.netExciting News Every Mom Should Know…

The media and real estate professionals continually report that 2012 is the year to buy real estate. Since home values have dropped considerably, the U.S. median list price has dropped considerably, too. Couple that with interest rates that are the lowest they’ve ever been and it’s a perfect storm of real estate buying opportunity, especially for starting out your career as a landlord.

Note: if you are one of those folks that believes you can predict the future and hopes prices will go down, they may. But interest rates might go up which would nullify any gain you would hope to obtain from any price decrease. But more importantly, all investments fluctuate in value over time. You should not be concerned about short-term fluctuations in a long-term investment, like real estate. if you buy sooner over later, ten years down the road not only will you own more properties overall than someone who waits, but you’ll most likely have earned significant equity in all of them. And you won’t care about any price fluctuations that might have occurred in 2012, 2013, or 2014.

Here are tips to get started. And, if you start a few years out of college, and amass several properties, you will probably be retiring early.

Go for the long haul — Rarely do people increase their wealth by owning property for short periods of time. Long-term investing in cash flow-producing assets like real estate is the way to go.

Don’t’ give up your day job! – You need a solid job to be able to save money for a down payment and be able to obtain financing to buy properties.

Buy cash flow-positive properties – if you don’t understand why to do this, you might want to skip real estate ownership. see “What is a good Real Estate Investment” article.

Buy a property that you love! – the more you love the property for all the right investment reasons, the better chances you’ll own it long term.

Skip the prize properties – Prize properties have negative cash flows and are NO prize, it’s the moderately priced properties that are the real prizes.

Buy as a personal residence to change to rental – buy properties in life that make good rental property investment sense and first live in them as a personal residence. When you buy as owner occupant, you get the best financing and can put down a smaller down payment if you so desire. plus you learn the property characteristics, issues, and can fix issues so they won’t be issues once you make it a rental. Then, move out after one to three years and into your next personal residence that will become a rental property a few years later. this also ensures you will only buy properties in areas where you are willing to live, and that’s very important to do as a real estate investor.

If it sounds too good to be true, it is! – Real estate is high risk as there are many things that can go very wrong. if it sounds too good to be true, be very careful. once you take ownership of the property, you have to correct the problems and issues,or live with them.

Fully educate yourself for 3-6 months – Talk to other people who own properties, read books, go to the local real estate investment clubs, etc. the better you educate yourself, the higher the chances you will take the proper steps to reduce your risks and make smart and safe decisions.

Buy properties in good shape – Fixer-uppers are money pits and rarely sell at a large enough discount to compensate for all the work needed. buy properties that are as close to rental ready as possible. a great move, if possible, is to buy a property with a good tenant already renting the property!

Be conservative on your expectations – always overestimate the amount it will cost to renovate a property, underestimate the rental income you will earn, and overestimate the expenses you will have to pay. Then, when you blow it out of the water, you’ll have a big smile on your face and be able to gloat to all your friends!

Stay away from high vacancy areas or declining cities – buy properties in nice, moderate, working class areas where there are not too many foreclosures, empty properties, or in a city or area that is in decline.

Start young, but not before you are settled in a particular city – You want to start early, but make sure you’re somewhat settled before you take on this big responsibility. have fun when you are young, there is still plenty of time to get rich on real estate. just start saving your pennies for that first down payment.

Death, taxes, and…. – Those two items are guaranteed in life. But, there is one more item if you are a real estate investor, and it’s 100% guaranteed: if you own real estate, you will feel pain along they way. things will go wrong, but you will recover and will likely look back on the journey with fondness when you retire early.

And let’s end where we started, once again with the most important item in real estate investing:

Go long! – Long-term ownership will give you the highest chances of entering retirement with a nice rental property cash flow stream. And long-term ownership equity gains will compensate for the hassles and issues you have along the way.

Related:

How to Figure out the value of Empty Building Lots

Rent to own Properties are Usually good for the Sellers, Not the Buyers

Why Property Price Can be of low Importance

The 2012 Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas will be played on Friday, Dec. 28, at 8 p.m. CST, Lone Star Sports & Entertainment announced today. the game will …
houston.cbslocal.com/tag/meineke-car-care-bowl/

Beyonce’s “World’s Most beautiful Woman” cover.

People’s ”World’s Most beautiful Woman” issue is trickling onto newsstands, and it contains lots of revelatory information about Beyoncé’s life post-baby. Like: She still wears lip gloss! And watches Game of Thrones on Sundays! Of course, there’s the requisite fawning over how quickly she shed her pregnancy weight: The 50 pounds she gained are almost all gone thanks to a spartan diet of egg whites, protein shakes, fruit, and yellowtail tuna sashimi (although sometimes she gets crazy and has pepperoni pizza and a glass of red wine). “I’m proud that my waist came back so fast,” she says humbly. but! for all you people who think Beyoncé’s post-pregnancy struggles were limited to exercising away any lingering belly rolls, guess again. Apparently motherhood has wreaked havoc on unexpected parts of her physique. She explains:

My toes and my feet are a lot rougher since I’ve become a mom! 

Yes, folks, Beyoncé’s feet are not as nice as they used to be. more on that topic:

I never thought there would be a day when I wouldn’t wear heels, but now that I have a child and I walk around holding her all day, I’m buying loafers and oxfords. I love them because they’re comfortable. And shorter heels too. I’d always thought, “The higher the heel, the sexier.” but now I’m like, “These are really sexy!” … [Jay-Z] loves when I wear flat shoes, which is surprising — he never saw me in flats [before]! 

No, really, he didn’t. She even wore heels to the hospital to give birth.

I tried my best to roller-set my hair, and I wore my gloss when I arrived at the hospital. I committed to the end and wore my kitten heels. 

Well Bey, congrats to you and your freshly calloused, newly horizontal feet (which are probably still perfect)! You can read the full interview in the new issue of People, which has more fascinating information about her eating, exercise, and beauty regimens. 

Mortgage backed securities have long been feared by investors across the globe. especially after the U.S subprime crisis back in mid 2007/2008 where these highly complex instruments were unregulated. However, things have changed a lot since then.

With more stringent risk management principles in place and the market seeing more rigorous regulations since the 2008 debacle, the solvency and credit quality of the mortgage financing companies and their loans have improved immensely.

Favorable economic data coming in domestically and from abroad has resulted in an increase in corporate activities leading to higher income and consumption in the U.S markets. As the demand for residential and commercial real estate rises, likewise mortgage financing companies are bound to see an increase in their asset books in the near future. (see Top Three Mortgage Finance ETFs)

Structure of MBS

A mortgage backed security is created by a process known as securitization. It is a process by which illiquid loans are transformed into tradable securities. in case of MBS, the underlying loan is a mortgage loan. The loans are pooled together and act as a single debt security. these securities are then rated based on the credit quality of the underlying pool of loans.

on the basis of the ratings, coupons are assigned, with higher coupons assigned to lower rated securities and vice versa. (read Top Three High Yield Financial ETFs). Lastly they are sold to the public at large and are traded in the open market. by using this process, the highly illiquid mortgage loans can be easily traded in the form of liquid debt securities.

Most MBS are “pass through securities” guaranteed by Govt. Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs). these include Ginnie Mae, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The cash flow streams arising out of the mortgage loan repayments (principal plus interest) are “passed through” to the investors purchasing the MBS.

It is prudent to note that apart from the cash flow streams, lots of other risks are also pushed on to investors as well. Among the biggest concern to investors should be; interest rate risk, credit risk and also inflation risk.

Current scenario in MBS market

Real estate demand is finally starting to turn around. in fact, sales of existing homes in February marked the best second month of the year for the industry prior to the broad market slump. Additionally, investors also saw the first year-over-year price increase in home values since November of 2010.

if the interest rates remain low, but start to slowly creep higher, there will be a significant increase in the demand for mortgage loans resulting in creation of more asset based securities, possibly increasing the pool of high quality assets in the space. (read Time for A Commercial Real Estate ETF?)

for investors looking to make a play on the broad space, there are several options in the ETF world. these ETFs employ a basket approach of investing across various investment grade mortgage backed securities with varying maturities, ensuring that credit risk is pretty much entirely diversified away. As a result, any of the following three ETFs could be great picks to play this slowly recovering market:

iShares Barclays MBS Bond ETF (MBB)

Launched in March 2007, MBB seeks to replicate, before expenses, price and yield performance of the Barclays Capital U.S MBS index. The market capitalization weighted index measures the performance of the investment grade agency mortgage backed “pass through” securities.

these securities are generally fixed rate securities of the Govt. National Mortgage Association (GNMA), Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FHLCM). The Index is reviewed and rebalanced on a monthly basis.

With total assets of $4.87 billion and average daily volume of 365,106 shares, it is by far the biggest and most popular name in the MBS ETF space. from a sector perspective, traditional 30 year mortgage securities comprise the bulk of the assets at 56.14%, followed by GNMA 30 year mortgage loans which account for another 20.79%.

About 53.5% of its assets are invested in securities having a maturity of 25 years and above, however, the weighted average maturity of all the securities in the fund is only 2.56 years. this enables the fund to face little in terms of interest rate risk, especially when compared with other long-term focused peers (read UBS Launches Monthly Leveraged Real Estate Securities ETN (RWXL)).

although the Index is comprised of 998 securities, the fund holds only 303 securities out of those. this implies that the ETF does not follow a full replication strategy but a relative sampling strategy which looks to follow the overall performance of the underlying index.

unfortunately investors have to pay 31 basis points in fees and expenses for this service; however, the fund pays out pays out a good yield of 3.56% per annum with monthly distributions. The ETF has returned 5.88% in the past one year compared to the index returning 6.23%.

SPDR Barclays Capital Mortgage Backed Bond ETF (MBG)

this tracks the price and yield performance of the same index as the previous fund i.e. Barclays Capital U.S MBS index, the only difference being the number of holdings. MBS holds only 28 securities presently which best track the index.

Just like the previous ETF, it employs a representative sampling technique rather than a full replication technique. The fund was launched in January 2009 and since then the fund has managed to garner about $33 million in AUM.

The fund normally focuses on securities having higher coupons with a short term focus and assigns more weights to those securities leading to high current income. The fund has a gross expense ratio of 0.32%, thanks to the unique fund management technique (see more on ETFs at the Zacks ETF Center).

However, the fund is yet to gain in popularity as suggested by the inflows in its asset base and the average daily volume which stands at 5,036, probably because investors perceive that such a small sample size would not actually reflect the performance of the index in totality resulting in higher index sampling risk.

Vanguard Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF (VMBS)

VMBS was launched in November 2009, and tracks the performance of the Barclays Capital U.S. MBS Float Adjusted Index. Like the above two funds, this ETF employs a representative sampling passively managed technique holding 342 securities out of the 998 securities held by the index.

The fund focuses on securities with shorter maturities and lower modified duration in order to reduce interest rate risk. The average modified duration of the fund is 2.8 years and the average maturity is 4.7 years.

in less than three years since its inception, the fund has seen a massive inflow in its asset base managing $165.2 million with average daily volume at 28,995. The main reason for the popularity of this product is its low-cost structure backed by its efficient fund management techniques.

this mortgage-backed ETF charges investors a paltry 15 basis points in fees and expenses and pays out 2.11% per annum as a yield. The ETF has returned 6.17% in the past one year, making it a solid performer in the competitive space.

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As they prepare to take their vows tomorrow, a Marlboro couple has already been through better and worse, as a fire destroyed their home and a community came together to help them find wedded bliss.

“We’re still getting married, that’s No. 1,” said Toby Bourke, 40, who will be marrying his fiance Heather McGuire, 34, today at St. John’s Church in Hopkinton. “It’s definitely brought us closer. We haven’t left each others’ side since Monday. We can’t believe our home is gone.”

The couple’s condo was destroyed when a six-alarm fire tore through their 32-unit building in Marlboro on Monday. the blaze destroyed the couple’s wedding favors, a junior bridesmaid dress to be worn by Bourke’s daughter and the couple’s passports for their Bahama cruise honeymoon, Bourke said.

“We’ve received donations from a bunch of people. a lot of people have asked what can they do to help us,” he said.

The couple were allowed into their ruined home for 10 minutes Thursday and found their wedding bands. a Sudbury jeweler had offered to donate rings earlier in the week.

A radio station sent a limo to take the couple on errands, including to the passport office. Bourke said Sen. Scott Brown’s office is helping expedite the process so they can leave for their honeymoon on Wednesday, but the couple’s checkbook was destroyed in the blaze, making them unable to pay for the passports. Bourke said they now hope to receive the documents on Monday.

McGuire’s dress was safely tucked away at her parent’s home in Hopkinton, while Bourke’s boss bought a new junior bridesmaid dress for Bourke’s 13-year-old daughter. Donated truffles will replace the gift-wrapped turtles the couple originally planned to give as favors at their reception at the Marriott ballroom.

Bourke said the couple parted for the first time since the fire today when McGuire went to a salon appointment in advance of their nuptials.

Bourke said the couple is overwhelmed by the support they have received, especially when so many of their neighbors were also left homeless. the American Red Cross of Central Massachusetts reported that it assisted 31 families displaced by the fire, including 63 adults and 23 children. They also assisted a handful of residents from a neighboring building who were left without power after the fire.

Nation

Sanford, Fla. — Calling it an “oversight,” George Zimmerman’s attorney said Friday the neighborhood watch volunteer did not disclose that a website had raised more than $200,000 for his defense, even though his family told the judge they would have trouble coming up with his bond.

Attorney mark O’Mara said the family was not trying to be deceptive, but Florida Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester said he wanted to know more about the money. Zimmerman, accused of second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, has gone into hiding since his release over concerns about his safety.

Young testifies he feared Edwards

Greensboro, N.C. — A former aide to presidential candidate John Edwards says he felt in danger during a back road meeting where he asked Edwards to tell the truth about his mistress. Andrew Young testified for a fifth day Friday in Edwards’ trial. the former senator has denied federal charges of misusing campaign donations to hide the affair with Rielle Hunter and the fact they had a baby together.

Canceled concert an ‘insult’ to Nugent

Los Angeles— Michigan native Ted Nugent said he was insulted by the cancellation of his planned concert at an Army post over his comments about President Obama. “To think that there’s a bureaucrat in the United States Army that would consider the use or abuse of First Amendment rights in determining who is going to perform at an Army base is an insult and defiles the sacrifices of those heroes who fought for the U.S. Constitution, bill of Rights,” Nugent said.

In other headlines

Obama campaign adds Mich. aides: the Obama campaign has named two top campaign officials in Michigan who are veterans of the Clinton-Gore ticket, officials said Friday. the campaign is naming Lavora Barnes, a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan official, as state director and Amy Chapman, CEO of Information Staffing Services Inc. as a senior adviser in Michigan.

Children’s ER treatment for concussions way up: the number of children being diagnosed with concussions doubled in recent years, emergency room data suggest, which Dr. Jeffrey Colvin, lead author of a study, says may reflect more understanding of the dangers of head injuries.

Louis Armstrong’s last trumpet recording now a CD: A 1971 live recording of Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong playing his trumpet for one of the last times is being released to the public for the first time.

World

Syria says suicide bomber kills 10

Damascus, Syria — A suicide bomber blew himself up across the street from a mosque in the Syrian capital Friday, killing at least 10 people and wounding nearly 30, state TV said. the violence was the latest blow to a peace plan brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan that called for a cease-fire to go into effect two weeks ago.

Dutch aim weed ban at foreigners

Amsterdam — the Netherlands’ tolerance for drugs may be going up in smoke. A judge on Friday upheld a government plan to ban foreign tourists from buying marijuana by introducing a “weed pass” for Dutch citizens and permanent residents only.

From Detroit News wire services

GREEN BAY — A look at former Vanderbilt cornerback Jerel Worthy, whom the Green Bay Packers selected No. 62 overall Friday with the last of their two second-round picks in the NFL draft.

Position: Cornerback.

Height, weight: 5-foot-113/8, 192 pounds.

Highlights: Appeared in 50 games for the Commodores, starting his last 37 contests. Named second-team all-SEC as a senior after finishing third in the NCAA with seven interceptions. Ranked first in college football in allowing opponents to complete just 19.5 percent of passes thrown his way. Also recorded 62 tackles, 7½ tackles for a loss and led the Commodores with 17 passes defensed while giving up 1.39 passing yards per target. Was a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, given to the nation’s top defensive back and was named to the Nagurski Award Watch List, an honor given to the nation’s top defensive player. Considered the top “rising star” among 2012 NFL draft-eligible cornerbacks by NFLDraftScout.com. Had 31 touchdown-saving tackles during his career. in 2009, Hayward became the first cornerback in Vanderbilt to history to lead the team in tackles for loss with 8½. Recorded a pair of interceptions in Vanderbilt’s 31-24 loss to Cincinnati in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. Led all active players and finished 11th all-time with 47 passes defensed in his college career. Also received interest from Tennessee, Dallas, Atlanta and Minnesota leading up to the draft. Appeared in all 13 games as a true freshman, totaling eight tackles and registering one third-down stop as a reserve nickel back. Ran a 4.47 40-yard dash while posting a 34-inch vertical jump and bench-pressing 225 pounds 19 times at the NFL combine.

Strengths: Good size. Quick feet and flexible hip swivel. keen eyes, instincts and anticipation. is aware in zone and maintains field leverage. excellent ball skills and production. Track throws, competes in the air and has hands to intercept. Very good closing burst. Bested all combine CB participants with time of 3.90 in short shuttle. Has special-teams experience as a jammer. Energetic, smart and durable.

Weaknesses: Short arms. Speed and physicality are just adequate. Has some man-cover limitations — plays upright, shows some wasted movement in transition and gives up separation on nonvertical routes. Stressed by sudden receivers. gets caught peeking in the backfield and bites on double moves. Average recovery burst and catch-up speed. Soft in run support — plays small, struggles to break down and is a weak, low tackler.

Noteworthy: Played quarterback, defensive back and returned kicks while also competing in basketball and track and field in high school. Threw for 1,300 yards and 18 touchdowns and added 1,284 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns on the ground as a senior at Perry High School in Georgia. Named the Houston County Athlete of the Year by Rivals.com as a senior. Excelled as a sprinter and a triple jumper for Perry’s track and field team. Majored in sociology at the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science.

— Quinn Cretton, qcretton@ greenbaypressgazette.com

— Strengths and weaknesses according to Pro Football Weekly

Quotable

“Casey Hayward is a very bright guy. a classy kid. He’s a captain, he has good football instincts and great production. I think he’s a guy that will be able to handle moving around. We are very excited about getting the opportunity to get these guys in here and start working with them.”

— Dom Capers, Packers defensive coordinator

“I think I’m going to bring a lot of instincts and a lot of playmaking ability to the team and I feel like Green Bay also has that with Charles Woodson and Tramon Williams. I just want to get behind those guys and learn from them and see how they interact with each other and see if we can repeat that.”

— Casey Hayward, Packers second-round pick

Today Blizzard has announced its worldwide events for the launch of its new Diablo III game, which has been in development for over 10 years and is finally set to launch on May 15th 2012.

Blizzard have revealed that on the night of May 14th key retail partners in the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Poland, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, and the region of Taiwan who will open their doors at midnight to allow gamers and fans to be the first to purchase the Diablo III game.

When Diablo III launches there will be two editions available, the Standard Edition of Diablo 3 which will have a suggested retail price of $60, and the Collector’s Edition for $100. which will include Exclusive aesthetic artifacts for Diablo 3, as well as an exclusive World of Warcraft in-game fetish shaman pet and exclusive StarCraft 2 Battle.net portraits and army decal, plus more exclusives, including a behind-the-scenes Blu-ray/DVD two-disc set. Blizzard explains:

“In the States, the official launch event will be hosted by Blizzard and GameStop in the Great Wheel Court of the Irvine Spectrum Mall, located in Irvine, California. the “festivities” will start at 8:00pm PDT on May 14 and include multiple giveaways, entertainment, and contests offering exclusive Diablo 3-themed prizes including laser-etched desktop PCs from Intel.

In addition to the official US launch event, other retail locations around the country will open at midnight to support gamers looking to pick up their copy of the game the moment it goes live,”-”please check with your local retailers for further details.”

Source: Toms Hardware

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NEW YORK (AP) — Coby Fleener heard his name, grabbed his phone and immediately contacted his new teammate in Indianapolis — and old teammate from Stanford. the overnight wait paid off for the Stanford tight end. He's reuniting with his college quarterback, a guy named Andrew Luck.

Fleener wasn't chosen in the first round of the NFL draft, in which Luck was the top selection. he got a nice consolation prize Friday night when the Indianapolis Colts grabbed him with the second pick of the second round.

Among the other notable selections on the second day of the draft were: Oregon running back LaMichael James by San Francisco, Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson by Seattle and Alabama linebacker Courtney Upshaw by Baltimore.

NEW YORK (AP) — Detroit Tigers left fielder Delmon Young apologized to his team and fans, just before getting arraigned on a hate crime harassment charge for a fight at his hotel during which police say he yelled anti-Semitic epithets.

Young posted a $5,000 bond at a brief hearing in Manhattan court and was released less than an hour before the Tigers' game against the Yankees. he faces a misdemeanor aggravated harassment charge that entails targeting someone for his or her religious beliefs. if convicted, he could face up to a year in jail.

CLEVELAND (AP) — the struggling Los Angeles Angels released slumping outfielder Bobby Abreu. the 38-year-old, a two-time All-Star, had been relegated to part-time duty and was batting .208 in 24 at-bats for the last-place Angels (6-14).

Abreu, who is in the last season of a $27 million, three-year contract and is due $9 million this year, was given the news following a 3-2 loss to Cleveland, the Angels' fifth straight defeat.

NEW YORK (AP) — Moose Skowron, a five-time World Series champion and one of only two players to hit three home runs in Game 7s, died of congestive heart failure at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Ill. he was 81.

Skowron helped the new York Yankees win four titles in the 1950s and 1960s. he became a star first baseman with the Yankees and went on to appear in eight All-Star games over six seasons.

NEW YORK (AP) — the federal government is investigating the business practices of the NBA players' association.

The union confirmed it has received a subpoena for documents from the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and says it will cooperate with the investigation. the NBPA also said in a statement that it has appointed a special committee to oversee an internal inquiry, including a financial audit.

Recent reports have questioned the NBPA's finances and spending practices, largely having to do with the hiring of family members and firms that employ relatives of executive director Billy Hunter.

DALLAS (AP) — several SMU players have been informed by new coach Larry Brown that they will not remain on the team.

SMU athletic director Steve Orsini said Brown, the Hall of Fame coach hired last week, conducted an evaluation of the roster and held individual meetings with players. while not saying how many or which players wouldn't stay on the team, Orsini referred to “these young men” in his statement released by the school.

Brown later announced the hiring of assistant coach Jerrance Howard, who spent the past five seasons as an assistant at Illinois.

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Auburn has dismissed two basketball players and suspended a third indefinitely.

Coach Tony Barbee said Cedrick McAfee and Josh Langford were kicked off the team for violating team rules and Noel Johnson is suspended.

Langford averaged 5.2 points and 2.1 rebounds as a sophomore. McAfee was redshirted last season. Johnson is a Clemson transfer who played in 19 games and started three last season after becoming eligible following the fall semester. he averaged 2.1 points and 1.5 rebounds.

AVONDALE, La. (AP) — Jason Dufner moved into position for yet another bid to win his first PGA Tour title, shooting a 7-under 65 to take the second-round lead in the Zurich Classic.

Dufner lost a playoff to Keegan Bradley last year in the PGA Championship for one of his three runner-up finishes in 163 winless starts on the PGA Tour. he capped his bogey-free round with a 30-foot eagle putt on the par-5 18th to reach 12 under at TPC Louisiana.

Russell Knox (64), John Rollins (66) and Ken Duke (68) were tied for second. Greg Chalmers holed out from 137 yards for an eagle on the par-4 first hole and finished with a 64 to join Steve Stricker and Ernie Els at 10 under. Striker and Els shot 68.

Defending champion Bubba Watson had his second straight 71 to make the cut by a stroke in his first tournament since his playoff victory in the Masters.

Second-ranked Luke Donald was 6 under after a 65.

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Stacy Lewis birdied five of her final nine holes for a 5-under 67 and a one-stroke lead after the second round of the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic.

Lewis, the Kraft Nabisco winner last year, had three straight birdies and a two-stroke lead, but missed a 5-foot par putt on the final hole en route to her first bogey of the week. She had a 9-under 135 total on the Crossings course at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail's Magnolia Grove complex.

Karin Sjodin tied the tournament course record with a 64 to finish a stroke back along with Lindsey Wright, So Yeon Ryu and rookie Sydnee Michaels. Ryu shot 67, Michaels 68, and Wright 69.

Related Posts

seven months pregnant with her second child, military mom Ashley Broughton knows about the challenges of taking care of family while her husband is deployed.

“It worked OK when we were first married,” Broughton said of her husband, Sgt. Jeremy Broughton, who is assigned to the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. “I could do a lot of things to keep myself busy, like going to school. It’s harder with a child because of separation. I have to be mother and father and run the household.”

Broughton and nearly 200 other expectant moms received a helping hand Friday with a huge baby shower at the Kelley Hill Recreation Center at Fort Benning. Sponsored by Carter’s Inc., Kids In Distressed Situations and Operation Homefront Georgia, the shower treated expectant mothers to lunch and a gift bag filled with clothes, gift certificates and other items.

Broughton, who has a 3-year-old daughter, said the event meant a lot to her family.

“It means a lot to me as a military mom,” said Broughton, from Wetumpka, Ala. “I am away from my family. they try to support me as much as they can but you don’t get all the support you really need.”

Kim Scofi, president of Operation Homefront Georgia, said the organization was excited about its first shower at Fort Benning to celebrate military motherhood.

“We heard there was a lot of expectant moms down here and we want to be part of giving them goodies to take home,” she said.

In addition to the gifts, expectant moms received information on everything from changing diapers to taking care of the mother and family after the baby is born.

“Education is vital,” Scofi said. “We want to make sure these moms-to-be have everything they need as they go forward.”

Scofi said there are strong military women taking care of the home front when their husbands are gone. “We want them to know there are other people out there with their struggles,” she said. “It’s not uncharted territory.”

For Staff Sgt. Colin Wallace, the timing just seems right for her and former soldier husband Kyle to have their first child. The couple had endured constant deployments and separations before she became pregnant two days after their sixth anniversary. her husband is now attending Columbus State University.

“I’m really excited and couldn’t be in a better place,” said Wallace, who is three months pregnant and works in labor and delivery at Martin Army Community Hospital. “I’m really excited to be here at Fort Benning. There is a lot of support that goes on in the military. It’s going to be a challenge. It’s going to be balance.”

The couple is wishing for a son. “We want a little boy but we are happy either way,” she said.