Last weekend my husband took me over to his brothers’ house for a surprise birthday party (for me :)). While we were there, his brother showed us the security system they just had installed. They live in an area of town that is nice, but the surrounding areas, not so much. Obviously break-ins and thefts are a concern, which is why Dan’s brother arranged for a security system to be installed within two weeks of he and his fiance moving in. I completely admit that we don’t have a security system (no, this is not an invitation to come rob us!), but it is something that weighs on my mind every now and again. We live in a relatively safe area, with the common crimes being speeding, drunken mail box bashing, and the occasional loose dog issue. But I’m not going to kid myself, we could definitely benefit from security equipment.

After all, everyone always says it’ll never happen to them, right? But then it does happen, and suddenly your life is turned upside down. My grandparents’ nice Philadelphia home was broken into and robbed about eight years ago, while they were out of town. To add insult to injury, the robbers ignored the electronics, my grandfather’s pricey cameras, my grandmother’s cash savings, and instead went for her jewelry — most of which was costume. The important pieces were heirloom pieces and things of sentimental value. Those hurt most of all to lose.

A security video camera is handy to have, whether it’s used here at home, or in the office. In our case, we’d set it up to monitor what’s going on at our back door, since that is obviously more secluded and hidden away from the road and our neighbors, and if robbers were going to break in, they’d more likely than not target that door first. And a backup battery and equipment guide would protect us and give us peace in mind in case of a power outage — which happens every other time it storms heavily.

Do you have any home security equipment in your home? Has it helped to chase away would-be robbers?

I am irritated with the condition of our living room carpet, and irritated is the understatement of the year. The carpet is just… dingy. Of course, the fact that it’s beige-colored doesn’t do it or us any favors, but still, I’d like to do something to get it clean. The carpet is three years old, but unfortunately has been subjected to heavy traffic, since our front door opens into our living room. Add on top of that two small children and their occasional spills (did I mention I re-arranged our living room last year to hide a blue paint stain? *snicker*), four cats and their occasional hairballs (one of my cats deliberately yacks his hairballs onto the carpet; he could be in the kitchen doing the hairball-spew-dance and he’ll head into the living room to finish up!), and a dog, and yeah… you can imagine some of the messes that have hit the carpet. But I vacuum 2-3 times per week, steam clean every 2-3 months, and spot clean in between with a portable carpet cleaner whenever there’s a need.

I think part of the problem is the carpet cleaner I’m using. It’s a 10+ year old Hoover that my mom gave us several years ago. And while it gets the job done, it doesn’t heat up the water or do an exceptional job of cleaning. I’m really thinking about getting something newer and better. I’ve had my eye on a few Reliable vapor steam cleaners. With my birthday coming up next week, I keep hoping that the hints I’ve been dropping about wanting a nicer looking living room carpet have rubbed off, and on next Sunday (my 26th birthday!) I’ll be lucky enough to unwrap one of the Ladybug vapor steam cleaners I’ve been reading about.

If I don’t wind up with a steam cleaner for my birthday, I’ll just have to save up and treat myself to one for Christmas. Or, I might tell my husband, my best friend and my family to pool money together and get me a nice steam cleaner as a “group” Christmas gift. There’s more than one way to accomplish a goal, right?

Right now I am reading Slow Death by Rubber Duck. It’s a chilling, realistic view at how pollution over the past few decades has evolved from tangible smoke and chemical plant run-off to commonly used chemicals that leach off of products and into our bodies. The primary culprit of the stew of toxic chemicals that we surround ourselves with everyday by way of so-called “harmless” products like cosmetics, cleaning products, childrens’ toys and plastic ketchup containers is phthalates. Phthalates are a group of chemicals that are used as plasticizing agents.

I’m not quite halfway through the book, but already I’m horrified at the amount of chemicals we expose ourselves and our children too, and the consequences that are already apparent. What’s sad is that phthalates and other toxic chemicals are so common and so commonly used that it’s almost impossible to get away from them. What’s worse, to a large extent the damage has already been done.

I’m going to write up a much more in-depth review once I’ve finished Slow Death by Rubber Duck. For now I’m just going to recommend that you pick up a copy of this book as soon as you can, because it is a true eye-opener.

One of the coolest non-scale victories, or NSVs, is being able to wear smaller clothing sizes, which translates into being able to shop at more places. Prior to surgery and losing weight I was stuck with Fashion Bug, Lane Bryant, and occasionally Target’s plus size line, if they happened to have something in a 30/32 or size 4 (their junior plus line uses 1-4 sizing. Retarded, IMHO.).

Now? I can still shop at Fashion Bug and Lane Bryant, but since I’m a size 16/1X, it looks as though I’m “barely” plus size. And that right there is pretty freaking cool. What’s more, I can shop for trendy clothes and fashionable accessories at other stores, too. Last night I stepped into a DEB shop for the first time in over a decade. Their stuff runs ridiculously small, as evidenced by their 3X tops fitting like Fashion Bug’s 1X tops do, but who cares? It’s fashionable and trendy, and definitely beats the pants off of FB’s recent frumpier lines of clothing and boring styles.

As I lose more weight, more options for fashionable clothing will definitely open up. I can’t wait!!!

You know what sucks? Car problems. Our ’05 Hyundai Sonata just rolled over 80,000 miles, and my ’02 Kia Spectra is close to 110,000 miles (yes, that number makes me nauseous). So far we’ve only had to take care of normal wear-and-tear issues, including front brakes for the Hyundai last year and for my car last month, and rear brake pads and rotors for both vehicles a few weeks ago. My car’s tires were replaced three years — about 20,000 mile ago — ago, and the Hyundai’s tires were replaced a year ago. Aside from the standard oil changes, filter changes, fluid checking and the occasional windshield wipers needing replaced, we haven’t had any issues. My neighbor, on the other hand, has had some major issues with his Ford F-150. Sucks to be him!

Then today my husband discovered a small chip in the Hyundai’s windshield. Grrr. It’s not as pressing as the dreaded check engine light going off, but we’ll still need to get the car to a auto shop within the near future. That small chip could spread and eventually require the whole windshield to be replaced — and if I can avoid that and a rather pricey San Diego auto repair bill, I will!

Barring any other issues, we’re good on vehicle maintenance for at least another month or two, as I just had the oil in both cars changed, and all eight of the tires rotated. Here’s to making it through another summer without any problems!

With a shed full of tools, a head full of knowledge, the internet at his fingertips and a never-ending supply of honey-do lists from yours truly, my husband has no excuse to not get to work fixing up our house. Here’s how things work in our house: I work, take care of 99% of the housework and 75% of kid duties; he works and picks up that 1% housework slack and 25% kid slack, and covers all home repairs, improvements, and outside work (I don’t mow, rake, or shovel. Period.). Oh, and he also takes out the garbage — to the curb, anyway. It’s pretty 50/50 as far as who empties the trash from the kitchen can and takes it out to the can.

We’ve lived in our house for a little over three years, and in that time my husband has put in three faucets, four ceiling fans, and has made various improvements throughout the whole place. We want to paint the living room and the kitchen, but we also want to improve our main bathroom. It’s just way too pink. Now, I like pink, but not when it’s an old lady shade of pink. It just needs to go. I’ve made it work by using Simply Shabby Chic coordinates, but now I’m just sick of it. We’d like to scrap everything and start off with a cool gray and green color palette. That means painting, putting in a new sink, and counter top, and picking out new coordinates. I’m also eyeballing bathroom vanities. Technically there’s nothing wrong with our current one. I just want a new one. I’m thinking a white vanity or a very dark chestnut-stained one to go along with the cool gray and green color palette. If that’s the colors we ultimately stick with, anyway. I was inspired by a really cool shower curtain I saw in Target a few months ago. I guess it’d be a smart idea to definitively nail down the color palette we want to do our bathroom in before shopping for any paint or coordinates, huh?

Do you have a room in your house that just desperately needs a makeover?

I had gastric bypass surgery almost six months ago (yes, it has been that long! My six month surgiversary is on May 18th, 2010!), and about two and a half months after surgery I started experiencing hair loss. It was pretty dramatic for a good four to six weeks. I’m still losing hair, but nowhere near at the rate I was before. Fortunately I have very thick, coarse hair, and a lot of it, so despite pulling out huge wads from the shower drain and my brush every few days, and finding dozens of loose hairs floating all over me and throughout the house, you would never know by looking at me that I was losing my hair. Believe me, I know that I’m blessed and I’m very grateful for the thick/coarse/large quantity hair genes.

But I’m definitely appreciating my hair a lot more these days, and I’m doing what I can to take care of it. I brush it daily, but I don’t over-brush. I shampoo and condition it with specially formulated products. No hair dye other than harmless vegetable-based dyes have touched my hair since July 1st, 2006. I don’t use sprays and gels very often, and I never ever use a hair dryer.

But truth to be told, I never used to be conscious of good hair care. Here’s a good example of how nonchalant I was about my hair: from September 1999 until July 1st, 2006 my hair was constantly being subjected to hair dyes and bleaching. In one month alone I would dye my hair three or four times, maybe bleach it and dye it hot pink, and then toss in something dark a few weeks later. Needless to say, my hair was quite damaged, so it’s no surprise that in mid 2007 I wound up chopping off a good six inches of it.

But that’s all in the past, thankfully. Aside from the occasional bit of volumizing mousse or vegetable-based hair dye, I don’t do anything to my hair to damage it any further than it has already been damaged from nutritional deficiencies! Of course, now that summer is just around the corner, good Hair Care is on my mind once again. You see, the local pool opens up in exactly three weeks and three days, and we plan on spending a lot of time there this summer! High temperatures + blazing sunshine + chlorinated water is never good for the tresses, so I’m already checking out potential hair care products that I can use throughout the summer in order to protect my hair as much as possible. WEN’s Healthy Hair Care System seems promising. It’s $30 for a monthly supply, but the products have all sorts of great ingredients, and I’m particularly interested in the Re Moist Intensive Hair Repair Mask — it sounds like something I could definitely make good use of this summer!

Do you have any recommendations?