Lately, my "to-do" list seems never ending with each new day bringing one more "to-do" to the party.
It all started in late October when
a burglar (or two) spent time in our home turning the place upside down in search of, what I'm assuming they thought-- based on the ransacked mess, was buried treasure. Every stitch of clothing and personal items in our bedroom were thrown about in such a mess that I'm STILL sorting, cleaning and washing trying to get their disgusting sweaty palms off our stuff.
Along the way I've learned a lot,
and I've become a little too freaked out about the whole thing...
-Take photos of ALL your possessions and your entire home, room by room, closet by closet-- Literally, use your fancy cell phone camera and start taking pictures. Gawd forbid you ever need them, but if you do, you'll be glad you did.
-Then make time to take "good" photos of your most cherished items (like jewelry?). Place them on a solid colored surface so they show up well and take photos at different angles and with a ruler in the shot so the size is noted.
-Make a note of the serial numbers for anything that has them-- like your computer, and keep copies in few different places not just on your computer.
-And, turn on the outside lights, at least at your front door, at night. The police said to turn the radio on when I leave the house during the day too. The more you do the greater the chance burglars will go elsewhere.
I'm all about lights these days. All. About. LIGHTS!
Yes, I now have 6 sets of exterior floodlight-- 2 lights per set-- 120 watts per bulb. They automatically turn on from dusk til dawn with a 50 watt light. Not huge but enough to "glow". But, if a leaf falls, a hummingbird passes by or a car drives down the street, the yard is lit up like a maximum security prison. I love it!
At night when we watch TV, we can see three sets of the lights though the windows-- front yard and two on the side yard. All night long it's as if a child were flicking the light switches on and off, on and off, on and off, every three minutes. I've never gotten such a workout because every time the light comes on I'm up and checking out the windows. I can only imagine what our electric bill will be and, um, how long the senor lights last before husband unscrews the bulbs.
In other news..
The "mouse" and by "mouse" I mean it's much larger and significantly uglier "cousin" who took up residence in our master bathroom days before a big dinner party is now history. He was as unwelcome as the burglars and cost me...
-4 trips to the hardware store, each time getting bigger, and bigger, and
bigger traps to catch him
-1 trip to the grocery for more apples-- which seemed to be our "guests" food of choic
-1 trip to garage for a shovel to scoop up the "guest" (trap attached) 24 hours before dinner party
-20 minutes to get the nerve to actually go near the deceased "guest" with shovel
-5 hours of scrubbing the "mouse motel" from top to bottom.
The fund-raiser dinner party was certainly the highlight of the last several weeks and thank gawd the "mouse" was gone well before any guests arrived. Husband and I agreed that this was probably the nicest gathering of people we've ever had at out home. (No offense to family and friends.) Of course we didn't know a single person but by the end of the evening, we'd made many new friends. It was really a treat.
And the best news of all-- You can still enter my
giveaway for one of these beautiful ornaments. Just leave a comment below and you're entered! Easy peasy.
For more chances to enter CLICK HERE! Giveaway ends at midnight PT, December 15th.
Is your house "lit up" for the holidays?
Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor.com - Joanna Jenkins
Photo Credit: © VRD - Fotolia.com
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