Memorial Hermann Hospitals Named Among the Nation's 100 Top Hospitals® by Thomson Reuters

Six Memorial Hermann hospitals recently earned the distinguished recognition of being named among the nation's 100 Top Hospitals® by Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of healthcare.

This is the fourth time Memorial Hermann Northwest, Memorial Hermann Southeast, Memorial Hermann Southwest and Memorial Hermann The Woodlands hospitals have been recognized with this honor.  Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center and Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital have made the list two times.  Additionally, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital have been recognized in the past.

“Protecting the health and safety of all of our patients, visitors, and staff is not a goal - it’s our core value and culture,” said M. Michael Shabot, M.D., System Chief Medical Officer for Memorial Hermann. “The culture of a high reliability organization is 100% performance on quality measures, zero safety incidents and excellent patient outcomes. These six hospitals, their physicians and staffs earned this award by practicing high reliability, evidence-based care and achieving great measured results.  Avoidance of hospital acquired infections and near perfect performance on all state and federal quality measures has yielded tremendous benefits for our patients.

Envoy Mortgage and the Montgomery Group

Bringing Trust and Efficiency To Your Home Loan Process 

For the past ten years, Casey and Mimi Montgomery have served Bay Area Houston’s residents by helping them achieve their dreams of homeownership. 

In 2011, this brother/sister team joined forces with Envoy Mortgage to open the Bay Area Houston and Atlanta branches of this highly respected mortgage bank.  "A large retail bank approached us about starting a local office here in Bay Area Houston, but we chose Envoy for several reasons,” says Casey.  Envoy Mortgage, a nationwide mortgage bank with branches in 46 states, offers a paperless process for purchasing and refinancing home loans.  They were recognized as Mortgage Technology’s “Top 25 Tech-Savvy Lenders of 2010” and won Mortgage Technology Magazine’s “Green Originator of the Year.”  Envoy was recently named one of the “Top 30 Mortgage Companies in America” by Mortgage Executive magazine.  “Envoy offers an easier loan process and consistently beats the larger retail banks in rates, fees, and time to close,” says Casey.

Having weathered the storms of a volatile real estate market, this brother/sister team has persevered.  “The highly restrictive licensing process now in place for mortgage lenders is the best thing that ever happened to our industry,” says Casey.  “These financial transactions are very complex, and we have stayed in business because we love what we do, and we know our products.”

Treat Yourself Royally At Royal Indulgence Boutique Gallery & Design Studio

Elegance and the wow factor describe the new and now open Royal Indulgence Boutique located at 828 Marina Bay Drive, in Clear Lake Shores.  Owner Myna Mungle and her Sales and Marketing Director, Era Lee Caldwell have created a showroom filled with a beautiful selection of china, crystal, stemware, linens, bar accessories, and other luxurious yacht and home décor items.

Main Events for May

Crystal Beach

Texas Crab Festival, May 11-13.  This 27th annual event features live entertainment, food and craft booths, a crab legs contest, crab races, Wiener Dog Nationals, carnival and a kids’ stage. Gregory Park, Texas 87 at Barbados Drive.  Call 409-684-5940 or visit www.texascrabfestival.com for more information.

Clear Lake

25th Annual Business & Wellness EXPO, May 10.  Visit over 80 greater Clear Lake area businesses at the 24th Annual Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Business EXPO. Find out about the goods and services that are offered right here in your backyard. The purpose of the EXPO is to enhance our local businesses and encourage everyone to “Shop the Bay Area First.”  The EXPO will be at the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church - Life Center in Nassau Bay from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.  Admission is free.  Visit www.clearlakearea.com for more information.

The Future of Energy

By Bradford J. Snipes

Solar Engineer

We are downstream of peak oil. As the world’s finite oil supply of petroleum is further depleted and the world’s demand for oil continues its relentless increase, the cost of energy derived from its combustion will obviously begin to increase at an even more rapid rate than it has in the past. Historically, the cost of energy has increased at the exponential rate of about 5% per year. If governments gain control of the energy sector through proposed cap and trade mechanisms, they will take money from the fossil fuel industry and give it to renewable energy companies. This would be beneficial to the solar energy industry in the short term, but it will be disastrous for our economy. About 60% of our electricity comes from coal burning power plants. If they are penalized for carbon dioxide emissions they will only pass the burden of the carbon tax to the consumer. Electricity rates and gasoline prices will skyrocket.

Besides, disproving the junk science of global warming is easy. Historical temperature data prior to 1985 was very meager. Plenty of weather stations collected data for the industrialized areas of the world but data for the oceans and the continents of Africa and South America was almost nonexistent.

Lakewood's Blessing of the Fleet a Success

On Sunday afternoon, April 1, several hundred friends, members, and guests were called to attention by Lakewood Yacht Club’s Protocol Officer Don Kugle to commence the annual Blessing of the Fleet and opening ceremonies. This is a traditional, nautical ceremony where members’ new boats are blessed and christened into Lakewood’s fleet.

Second Chance Pets Appears on Great Day Houston

Second Chance Pets was invited as guests on KHOU’s Great Day Houston with Deborah Duncan on April 26th. Clear Lake Petco store manager Eric Vansco discussed tips and products that help eliminate pet allergies during the spring. SCP was featured with two puppies from a “Boxador” litter of nine (Boxer/Lab mixes) and a beautiful Viszla/Basenji mix. 

Pictured left to right are SCP dog coordinator Jan Smith holding Midnight, Eric Vansco holding Shadow, Deborah Duncan and SCP publicity volunteer Jennifer Maxwell with a very affectionate Chester. Many of the puppies are still available as is “kissing” Chester, who doesn’t bark, a unique Basenji trait. SCP adoptions are held on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Petco on Bay Area Blvd. near Space Center Blvd.  All dogs are heartworm tested, on heartguard, fixed, vaccinated, de-wormed and de-fleaed. All pets are microchipped. Puppies receive all shots. For more information, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit www.secondchancepets.org.

The Mortgage Man

Presented by Envoy Mortgage, LTD and Casey Montgomery

Q: Casey, many clients have asked me about new refinance programs. Can you explain to us some of the products available?

-Deborah Bly, Remax Space Center Agent

A: Deborah...a vast majority of all mortgages are currently owned or insured by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or the FHA. It is in everyone’s interest (homeowners, servicers, neighbors, etc) for these agencies to work with current borrowers to reduce payments or lower terms. Fannie, Freddie and the FHA have offered new, more aggressive refinance initiatives in an attempt to reduce overall risk for their current portfolio while addressing issues that have kept borrowers with a strong payment history from the refinance market. I will be happy to offer a brief description of these products.

Financial Focus

Brought to you by Edward Jones

Can You Turn "Be a Millionaire Day" into Reality?

If you look hard enough, you can find many obscure holidays, but few of them can instantly capture people’s interest as much as Be a Millionaire Day, which is “celebrated” on May 20. While amassing a million dollars may not be as significant a milestone as it used to be, most of us would still feel pleased if we could someday attain “millionaire” status. While there are no perfect formulas or guarantees, here are some steps to consider when working toward any investment goal: 

Put time on your side. The earlier you begin saving and investing, the better your chances of reaching your financial goal. You can’t expect to “strike it rich” immediately with any single investment, but by investing year in and year out, and by choosing quality investment vehicles, you have the opportunity to achieve growth over time.

Should You Adjust Your Tax Withholding?

Now that tax day has passed, chances are you’re either waiting patiently for your 2011 tax refund to arrive, it’s already been spent, or you just wrote the U.S. Treasury a check and are in budget-cutting mode. 

It’s difficult to calculate exactly how much you’ll owe in taxes unless your income and family situation are identical from year to year. But going more than a few hundred dollars above or below your final tax bill is not a good idea: A big refund means you’ve been giving the government an interest-free loan, while significantly underpaying means you may have to pay costly penalties and interest on the amount.

Your goal should be to receive little or no tax refund. Better to use that money throughout the year to pay down credit card balances or other debt, build emergency savings, beef up your retirement plan contributions or invest it where you can earn interest or dividends.

Unless you’re self-employed, retired or had unexpected sources of income, the driving factor for how much tax you owe or have refunded is probably your W-4 form. That’s one of the many forms you filled out your first day on the job and probably never thought about again.