A family story is like a puzzle. Each family member leaves some clues. Family members come together because they have a common tie with one another, sharing a name and special traditions. Exploring family roots and sharing past memories ensure each tradition lives on.

    Ancestory.com has created customized (订做的) “Our Name is History” books to give your family a look into your history by learning about your last name. By visiting it, you can check if information is available for your last name. Ancestory.com researchers have collected more than 5 billion names from records such as passenger lists, immigration records and from birth, marriage and death records. The collected information is then used for each customized book.

    “Our Name is History” books are available for nearly 200,000 last names, accounting form 85 percent of all the US homes. The collected information is a great start of learning about your family roots. This book will not only surprise your mother, but also become a precious memory to pass down through the generations. It can also be an inspiration for her to talk about all the special women in her life. So instead of just giving her flowers or jewelry, give her a special family name book and share your favorite memories with her.

    After learning the general history of your last name, your might be inspired to continue your exploration. The “Our Name is History” books include a special software product for building, searching and sharing your family history.

    To learn more about “Our Name is History” books, visit www. Ournameinhistory.com. The deadline to order in time for Mother's Day is April 30.

    Mary Krupa became friends with the grey squirrels during her first week at Penn State,after spotting them running around and idly（漫不经地）wondering what they would look like with tiny hats on their heads.Today, everyone at the university knows her as the "Squirrel Girl".

    Mary started bringing them food,and gradually they began to trust her.She managed to put a hat on a squirrel and take a picture.Thinking that her colleagues could do with something to lift up their spirits,she started posting similar Photos on Facebook.The response Was greatly positive,and before long Mary and her squirrels became an Internet sensation.

    Growing up in a neighborhood outside State College,Mary was always fond of birds and animals around her home,but she didn't interact with people very much.She was later diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome,but the squirrels changed that.The squirrels are actually a good way to break the ice,because I'll be sitting here patting a squirrel and other people will come over and well just start like feeding the squirrels together and chatting about them,"she said."I am a lot more outgoing.

    And in case you're wondering how Mary is able to get the squirrels to do what she wants for her photos,it has a lot to do with food.For example,whenever she wants them to hold or play with something,she puts peanut butter on the prop（道具）,and they'll grab it.But getting to that part took a while.In the beginning,she would throw peanuts up the trees on campus and invite the squirrels to come down and get them,but they hesitated to approach her.She had the patience to earn their trust,though.

    This year,Mary is graduating with a degree in English and wildlife sciences.She wants to be a science writer and educate people on how to preserve the environment.As for her furry friends,Mary plans to stay in the area and visit them as often as she can.

    Time wasters are real enemies of success. Time wasters could be people, events or habits that lead to the opposite path away from our goals. The most important starting point in removing the time wasters in life is to know about them. We need to sit down and analyze the activities which take our time.

    Start by making a list of our activities and sort out the neither urgent nor important ones. Sometimes it could be a simple addiction to a TV Soap Opera, constant distractions, or even one of our core （核心的）activities that we are not excellent at doing. We can, for instance, imagine that we are a business owner and we keep sabotaging our business deals, leading the company into great financial problems. It may be time for us to have our associates do the marketing while we concentrate on the areas we are best in. The next thing would be to make sure that we plan our daily activities. One of the obvious reasons is that we will have an upper hand in fighting against time wasters in our schedule. If what we want to do or what we don't want to do becomes clear, our focus is strengthened.

    Moreover, when we think of people we spend time with, we are sure to notice that some have a more positive impact on our success while others have a negative one. It is important to be able to distinguish them especially with regard to our schedule. While we do not advocate for everyone to throw away relationships, it is good to know that helping a friend who is emotionally disturbed can wait till dinner time. Finally, do the same to our habits. List all the habits and addictions that take any amount of our time. Then, take a little time to straighten them out in line with their importance and urgency.

    Depending on our analysis, kill those that are harmful to our goals in life.

    Jaden Hayes first lost his dad when he was four and then last month his mom died unexpectedly in her sleep.

    “I tried and I tried to get her awake—I couldn't,” said Jaden.

    Jaden is understandably heartbroken. But there's another side to his sadness. When he first made public a few weeks ago he told his aunt, and now guardian, Barbara DiCola, that he was sick of seeing everyone was sad all the time. And he had a plan to fix it. He asked his aunt Barbara to buy a lot of little toys and bring him to downtown Savannah, so he could give them away.

    “I'm trying to make people smile,” said Jaden. He gave his toys to people who weren't smiling and then turned their day around. He has gone out on four different occasions now and he is always successful, though sometimes he doesn't get exactly the reaction he was hoping for.

    It's just so unexpected to some people that a six-year-old child would give away a toy— expecting nothing in return—except a smile. Of course he is paid beautifully in hugs and his aunt says the reactions have done wonders for Jaden, who will then feel joyful.

    “But I'm still sad that my mom died,” Jaden said.

    This is of course not only a fix, but the smiles he has made so far—nearly 500 at last count—Jaden has clearly found a purpose.

    “I'm counting on it to be 33, 000,” said Jaden.

    When asked if he thought he could make that goal, he answered, “I think I can.”

    They are called "sea parrots", and sometimes "clowns (小丑) of the sea"!

    Atlantic puffins (海鹦) are small seabirds which are around 25 cm in length. They have black and white feathers and a large parrot-like beak (鸟喙). The beak changes color during the year. In winter, the beak has a dull gray color, but it turns orange in spring!

    Puffins spend most of their lives out at sea, resting on the waves when not swimming. They live on the eastern coast of Canada and the United States, and the western coast of Europe.

    Puffins live off small fish such as herring, hake and sand eels. Puffins flap (拍) their wings up to 400 times a minute and speeding through the air at up to 88 km an hour. Wow! What's more, puffins can dive down 60m under water in search of their favorite fish.

    In spring and summer, thousands of puffins stay together on the coasts and islands of the North Atlantic Ocean to start a puffin family. They usually pair up with the same partner as before some may have been together for 20 years! Puffins dig out a hole usually in a grassy bank. Both parents take it in turn to incubate (孵化) the egg for the next 36-45 days!

Although puffins are not classed as an endangered animal, their population in some places is becoming smaller. The main reasons are overfishing, which can lead to a shortage of food for puffins, and pollution—especially oil spills (溢出). Not only does the oil make these beautiful birds sick, it harms their feathers.

    My wife and I went to this vegan(严格的素食主义的) restaurant to give it a try. As we were eating our pepper and salt tofu, a young lady named Debra walked in. She wasn't aware that the place is vegan and was looking for some meat. My wife and I talked up the place and invited her over to try some of our tofu. Debra tried it, nodded and went out.

    After a few minutes, she and her mother both walked back in. We were having the rest of our meal at that time, so we told her what we had ordered. Debra then asked the waitress to just repeat our order for them. Next, Debra said. "And we want to pay for their meal", pointing to my wife and me. We tried to say no, but Debra wouldn't listen.

    That was not the end of it. Hugs were in order. Debra came over to our table and my wife got up to hug her. Debra hugged my wife and put $ 100 into her hand. My wife firmly said NO, but Debra insisted. Debra kept talking about our kindness, and we did the same about hers and her mother's. With tears in the eyes, the workers were blown away by this whole exchange between four strangers. I left the waiters and waitresses a tip that would cover all of our meals and we were on our way.

    I've been witnessing so much kindness, especially over the last few years, as I began to pay more attention. We now have a new favorite restaurant and every time we go there my plan is to pay for someone else's meal.