Guest Columnist

Most people probably have a sense of what their credit score is and if their score is considered a “poor” score all the way to “exceptional.” Banks and credit cards will show you your credit score often updated on a monthly basis.

This January, Santa Cruz County is celebrating Positive Parenting Awareness Month for the seventh year in a row, and several other counties in California are joining in — Inyo, Napa, Mendocino, Sonoma and possibly more!

The next workshop will take place at the Rio Sands Hotel Conference Room at 116 Aptos Beach Drive in Aptos (Rio Del Mar). It will be held March 24 from 1-2 p.m. (English) and 2:30-3:30 p.m. (Spanish).

A year ago my update showed the median sales price in Aptos at $935,000.

The Friends of the Aptos Library have started a new program called Our Community Reads, which asks everyone to read the same book, and then a series of special events are planned to enrich the experience for those people who did read the book. The Friends also hold book sales and fundraisers to make our library a better place for all of us. But, what if there were no Aptos Library? Our story begins with the very first “friend” who started the library.

When I was a young child, the only TV shows my parents let us watch were Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, or anything else on PBS. Occasionally, we watched The Brady Bunch, until my mom declared the show off limits.

What came first, the chicken or the egg? How about “when I want to buy a home, who do I see first, the realtor or the loan officer? These are deep philosophical questions that require an astute examination of perception versus reality. The perception for years has been to walk into a real estate office and start the process of buying a home. The reality is doing it this way is like walking onto a car lot and walking right up to a salesman and asking if he would sell you a car.

Dear Nicole, I want my kids to learn the value of money. My partner and I both work two jobs to make ends meet, and we live on a tight budget.

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The second you realize this article is housing-related, like most people your first comment has to be "housing prices are crazy" followed by "I hear people in San Jose are paying over a million for a small two-bedroom home" followed again by "Housing pric