OK, so, I had planned on spending this AM typing out a post on our vacay -- the good and the bad. But so far this AM, I'm not much in the mood. Why? Well, someone tried to break into our house and now I'm all a ball of nerves and couldn't sleep worth jack last night! We had decided that while hubby was off, we would try to work on a few little projects. My project was to do some caulking. Now that weather is getting cooler, we want to be sure and block any possible sites of draft or entry for bugs. So, we decided to move the stairs that go to our back yard (they are temporary) and get that caulking done, clean out, and measure for the mini-deck and stairs so we can start budgeting. We moved the stairs and I noticed right away that the screen on the bottom window is damaged. Badly. My hubby starts looking and I come around and realize that indeed, someone has not only tried to get in, but they have pried the crap outta the screen and damaged the cement around the window. Now, why they wasted time trying to pry the screen out, I'm not sure. But it scares me. Why not just wait until no one was here, cut it then bust the window and go on? Why try to quietly pry it open and get it? It worries me because it makes me think they didn't just want to steal or they were trying to steal something with us in the house. :/ So, I had a long night of not sleeping well and then after hubby left for work, I couldn't get BACK to sleep. UGH. We aren't sure when it happened, but the sitter did lock herself out once and she said she checked that window and it wasn't dented/bent like that when she looked. I know I locked myself out once and I tried to remove that screen and it was a real pain! I may have warped it a bit then, but it is damaged much worse. I kinda hope it was just some kids or something or someone inexperienced just seeing how far they could go. But none-the-less, I want to take some precautions and make a break in much more difficult. The biggest thing is that we need to get light back there. NONE of my neighbors leave any lights on and we ALWAYS leave our driveway and front lights on. But as of now, there are no back lights. We had to remove them when working on the house and we have been looking for a bit now for lights to go back there but just hadn't decided on any. We had ordered new front ones at one time with the intent to move the front ones to the back, but they got here and were PLASTIC! I'm not paying darn near $200 for plastic lights! But that is one of the top things on the list. Next, I am thinking of typing up a flyer and passing it out to everyone on our street, down this little side street, and then in the subdivision behind us. NO ONE leaves any lights on and it's pitch black at night and in the early hours. Which is unnerving when I have to take my little guy to the bus stop. Another thing is I am thinking of contacting the town/light company about putting up some lights or at least repairing the ones that are here that do not work. Lastly, I want the hubby to make some fence repairs, I want to add shades to the back windows (anything to slow them down!), replace that screen, and maybe even put up a monitoring system that is motion activated. All the little things add up. There use to be a show on where they showed how robbers/burglars thought. And they flat out said, the harder it is to get in, the less likely they are to try. They want easy and quick hits. I want this to feel like a very hard home to get to. I don't know if we will go so far as doing the monitoring, but I know the rest needs to be done.
OK, now on to weight and weight-loss. My weight this AM is 186.5. This makes me VERY happy. That means that now that my travel weight and period weight is gone, I only gained about 2.5 to 3lbs. on vacay. Cause goodness, you know I haven't been very good since I got home! I have tried and I am working on it, but I think I've only been pretty good the last couple of days. So, I know that hasn't had much of an impact just yet. It takes me a bit to get back in the groove. So, I was pretty ecstatic to see that 186.5. I even stepped off and did it again to make sure. LOL I am just proud that overall, I must've done pretty well like I tried to do, or my weight would be higher. Now I just gotta work on getting off 7 more pounds to be under 180. Seems unreal that it's only 7lbs. I think it will move better once my hip is all healed up. I have been sure to heat it at least once a day and take my Ibuprofen. Hubby has been trying to help by massaging and I've done the same for him since he took that bad fall at work. Funny part is, the majority of his injury is on his right and mine is on the left so together we're one big sore ass!
I really hope to be able to work out soon. I want to go this week without it and then give it a go next week. But I won't lie... I'm anxious to try. I may give it a try just to see how it feels, but I don't want to overdo. It's been right at 2 weeks since I hurt it, so I don't want to do anything too soon. But I also don't want to go too long without real exercise, ya know? I was very active while on vacay and I was working out pretty steady before we left so I'd like to get back in the groove. But right now, I'm doing good to be moving around and getting my house clean. I love my friend who helped us out, but man alive is my house nasty! It's really my fault. I didn't do a deep clean before I left. I just didn't feel like it and normally I do. That just goes to show HOW burned out we were! So, now it is taking forever to get back into things. Especially since we came home and had to jump right into routine and then had an illness and then a hubby and wife who are injured. I am literally JUST now getting all of the dishes caught up, the vacuuming caught up, and some housework done. The vacuuming alone took forever because the dust/hair was just PILED up. I ended up moving almost everything to catch all the dirt and hair. I guess that is one bonus to kenneling... less dust and hair in the house while you aren't here! On top of those things, I did a piping clean of the whirlpool tub. It was getting mildewy and gross. It's pretty easy to do -- just Cascade and bleach with hot water and run for 15. Then drain, rinse, fill with cold and run for 10. I also do some scrubbing as it is draining the first time... I scrubbed the jets, the drain, the intake, and the mat the boys use as it is getting grubby. Now everything is in MUCH better shape! I still need to do the Scrubbing Bubbles routine and whatnot, but it is much improved. I hope to do that tonight before I shower. I will do the sink and toilet either later or tomorrow. The only other thing on my list for tonight is to do some more on bills, do a couple of loads of laundry, and dust. If I can get the energy together to dust! I need to go down and do some laundry now, but I just want to sit here for a bit longer.
Not much else to talk about other than I am ready to do some projects around here! I hope to do those soon... I may even post pics! I am horrible about posting them, I know. LOL Ok, I'm off to relax for a few and then a snack and back at it!
A few weeks ago a guy tried to break in to three houses next door to me, and it was maybe 10:30 or 11 in the morning. He tried the back doors of the first two houses, but they were both dead bolted so he must have given up right away. The third house he walked right in the back door! The lady who lives there was gone, but her brother was there- and he was like "Uh, who are you and what are you doing here?" I guess the guy made some excuse about coming in the wrong house. The police were called, and then damage to the back doors of the other two houses was reported. What's really silly is that the same guy actually came back around here the next day and was looking down driveways. Thankfully at that time my cousin's car was always in the driveway- and we have the dog here. She'd go nuts if somebody was trying to get in.
ReplyDeletePassing out flyers is a good idea. They did that here the day after it happened, and it has been quiet since then.
We live in a nice neighborhood- but there are tons of kids of all ages, and lots of middle school and high school age kids. They break into houses unfortunately.
When my cousin was living here he saw the teenager who lived on the corner opposite from us coming down the driveway of the house a couple doors down. His hoodie was stuffed full of things. Later on the police came and were questioning the neighbors because a break in was reported. My cousin reported what he saw, and the kid admitted to doing. And then that family put their house up for sale and moved prolly cause they were so embarrassed that their asshole kid broke into a house several doors down.
A similar event happened to another house across the street back when I was in highschool. Again, it was neighborhood boys.
It's scary that it happened to you, but I bet it was just some punk ass kid. It's like you said- they are just goofing around for a rush and seeing what they can get away with. Sorry that it freaked you out though. That sucks. Motion lights are a good idea.