Although I live in a safe neighborhood, I still worry about crime. My neighborhood has nice homes and I think if I were looking to break-in and steal something I would target a nicer neighborhood (like mine) where there were likely to be nicer things. And because a relatively safe neighborhood would be less likely to have the police on every corner. To help myself sleep better, I went to www.besthomesecurity.com and set up an appointment to have a professional come give me an estimate on installing and activating an alarm system in my home. In addition to possibly installing an alarm system, I have an electrician coming to install motion detecting flood lights on the corners of the house. I also purchased dusk to dawn actuators for the outdoor lights I already have so those lights will come on automatically when it gets dark. I’m even thinking about adopting a dog from the local shelter. Convicted thieves are often quoted as saying that a barking dog is a huge deterrent to break-ins. The noise a barking dog makes calls attention they don’t want, much like a blaring alarm will!

Most Mondays mean back to work, back to the grind of things, back to the ho hum and humdrum that is your day. But, just because it’s Monday does NOT mean that it has to be pooey (a word I made up). So, in the spirit of wishing you a wonderful Monday and a great week, I want to ask you to start today by setting a goal and creating a challenge for yourself. Today!

I’m definitely taking my own advice in doing this by having my own little goal that I’ve set. My sister and I have a challenge going to see which of us can lose 30 pounds (fat loss) by September 1, 2012. We both decided to do this last month (December 2011) when we were all home to celebrate our mother’s birthday.

Now, both of us are different sizes and slightly different body builds, so our weight loss journey will likely be different, no doubt. But, the main thing is that we’ve set this goal and when I win (wink, wink), I’ll feel very accomplished and completely stoked! If you’re interested in following my journey to small-erdom, sign up on my health and exercise blog for updates and pictures.

What is your new goal for today? For the week? Have you set any goals yet?

Start today off by making a challenge for yourself or with someone else. Good luck!

There were a lot of TXU energy details for Lewisville Texas residents in my area so I finally decided to get back to the computer and look into electricity rates. I think it’s important to note that it’s been years since I’ve done an audit of all my utilities but it’s good to do one every now and then to make sure you’re not spending money when you don’t need to be. I’ve got a huge house and it really sucks down the energy so I have to be careful about every little thing. While I was at it I looked into our cable provider and also our security company, too, and I finally got rid of our home phone because we never used it anyway. I think it’s good to streamline when you can find the time but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. There are more times than not when I’m not worried about my house but when I get those lower bills in I’m going to be happy I did all this!