I can remember just a few years back no one in this neighborhood even locked their doors at night, or when leaving the house!  People felt very safe around here.  But I’ve been hearing recently that a few houses a couple of blocks away were broken into over the past couple of weeks, and just last night by neighbor told me that someone appears to have been in their house over last weekend when they went away to visit their relatives in Ohio.

They said that it does not look like anyone stole anything, but things were rearranged and food was eaten from their pantry and refrigerator.  And beds had been slept in.  I have to wonder if it was maybe some neighborhood kids that were just taking advantage of a temporarily vacant house to have some private romance time!  I’m glad that nothing was stolen, but I’m sure that it would creep me out if I came home and found that someone had been in the house.  Who knows what they might have gone through?  How could I tell if a couple of pieces of jewelry were missing?

My hubby asked me to try and find a consumer reports article about what are the best security systems and services to use.  I think he is concerned that someone might break into our house and steal some of his NASCAR collectibles!  When I got up this morning I saw his laptop computer was on the http://www.broadviewsecurity.com/webpage.  So I guess he’s really serious about looking into a system!

These days if I want to do local search for someone or some place all I have to do is go online to sites like local.com and I can find the local restaurants, pet stores, shoe stores, auto repair, etc with just a few clicks on my keyboard, so who needs the paper version of the phone book these days. Of course if you are still in the dark ages and don’t have Internet access you would still rely on the paper version, I just hope that when you are done with them that you would have the common sense and the decency to recycle them, just like I’m planning on doing. We all need to do what we can in order to be a “green” as possible these days and recycling is a big part of becoming “green” in today’s crazy world.

We especially get excited when we see a bluebird; we don’t see them very often!  My hubby has been talking about trying to take pictures of them, but by the time he gets his digital camera, they’ve flown off!  I recently came across a website that  sells special bird cameras.  I’ve never heard of them before, but I was intrigued.  These are special wireless bird cameras just for taking pictures of birds!  They are weatherproof, have motion detectors, and one even has a flash feature for night time photos!

The cameras were more affordable than I would have expected!  I just might break down and buy my hubby a bird camera for his next birthday.  I think he’d be really excited to get a gift like that!  No more groans of disappointment when the bird has flown away!

You can find plenty of nice rain barrels for sale on the Internet if you can’t find them locally. They have some wonderful styles of rain barrels to offer for today’s consumers. Not just the old wooden type of rain barrel that we grew up seeing from time to time. If we all try and harvest the precious and few rain drops that we are getting it could make a big difference all the way around for many folks.

That was my very first time painting on tiles! I used Folk Art Enamels paints, and used the One Stroke method of painting. When I gave them to my mother-in-law, she was thrilled to death! It would be very easy to glue some felt and ribbons to something like that to make a pretty gift!

When I moved to my neighborhood over a year ago I was impressed with how everyone welcomed me. Within the first two weeks I was invited to a neighborhood watch meeting and I knew I had to attend. At the meeting everyone offered up new suggestions to keep the neighborhood safe. One of the suggestions included having a Gilbert first alert alarm installed. I did this soon after, which gives me added comfort when I’m home alone. Since that first meeting I would say that my neighborhood watch has been very effective. Meetings are held once a week and any new activity is reported. Neighbors report any suspicious vehicles parked for long periods of time to each of the members so everyone can keep their eyes open. Weekly night watches are done by some of the more courageous members and signs are posted in almost every lawn stating that we are an active community watch committee. I feel much safer knowing that there are people monitoring the neighborhood. My family and I have been practicing ways to be safe that include locking the doors at night, keeping one light on downstairs to give the impression someone is awake. We also try to collect books like the yellow and white pages up from in front of the door. I have never felt this safe in any neighborhood.

If you have been thinking about remodeling your kitchen, but are worried about the cost than you should consider getting your cabinets refaced. When my wife and I were completing a kitchen remodel recently we knew that the ceramic flooring was going to run over budget and there was no way that we could afford new cabinets. We mulled over our options and talked to a variety of cabinet dealers before settling on Cabinet Refacing by Sears. How does it look? Tremendous!

For a fraction of the price of new cabinetry, our entire upper and lower cabinets have been refaced in a contemporary dark mocha tone. The result is like walking into a brand new kitchen! The process was handled quickly and professionally and it truly is like having a showroom in your kitchen. Each day we come home and see the new tile floor, we are thrilled. We are more thrilled, however, by the great look of our newly refaced cabinets. I am so glad we opted to keep our sturdy cabinetry instead of gutting the whole kitchen. If your kitchen has good bones and just need a facelift, talk to a refacing professional in your area. You will be glad you did and so will your wallet!