Patched up one leaky hole but as luck would have it...

So I spent last night erasing, blocking, deleting, editing and damn near bleaching out every reference to our last name in the digital landscape and happily it seems I may have found a way to keep our information semi private with little to no searchability via google (I know searchability is not a word but spell check wanted me to insert a hyphen and I disagree!)  I was feeling a bit better about our privacy but then this morning my happy little bubble of security (or at least the illusion of it) was shot right out of the sky.

Our neighborhood association sent out emails last night informing residents about a series of attempted break ins on our very street. The "good" news is that apparently the would be criminals were not successful in their attempts (leading me to believe that they were just dumb teenagers), but the bad news is that the police suspect he/they were likely after the teenage girls, who along with their parents, were asleep at the time of the attempted break ins.  OH MY WORD. 

Isn't there any place that a Momma can take her babies to and feel safe anymore? 

Should we get a motion sensitive alarm system installed?

Should we get a loud, mean dog?

Should we plant razor sharp cacti around all the bedroom windows?

Should I carry pepper spray? Sleep with a knife under the pillow?

Should we move to a little happy farm in Sweden? Or Canada? They have low crime rates in Canada right?

While we don't live in a gated and guarded community, our neighborhood is still in a newer, middle class, family friendly part of town. I slept all summer with the windows open and on the few occasions where we mistakenly left our garage door open overnight nothing was disturbed or missing. Retirees walk the sidewalks all hours of the day and kids ride bikes outside throughout the summer. We felt comfortable buying in the area because of the number of swing sets, bike trailers, cozy coupes and mini vans we saw while driving around. (Doesn't it just make you feel better knowing there are lots of happy, little kids around? Kinda like if there's a baby on a plane you assume "Okay we're good. Ain't no way this plane's going down. Not with a baby on board!")  On the outside everything is pretty much still the same but for me just knowing that homes in this area have been repeatedly targeted makes me wish we were still renting and had the flexibility to move far, far away. 

I know I have a tendency (okay frequency) to overreact but in addition to cyber security issues and nearby home invasions we also had our credit card information stolen from a local restaurants databank last week and used to makes purchases in Mozambique. Luckily the credit card company removed the charges but it still made me feel uneasy about how little it takes to steal sensitive information. If it had been our checking account, rather than our credit card, they could have cleared out our checking account on before moving on to our savings and then our credit card, all of which are set up as overdraft fallbacks to our main account. My oh my.

Alright enough already. I'm off to run. And then maybe a margarita (Yes, on Monday!) It's been that kind of week. 

Oh and by the way the kids are good. The boys are just days away from turning two.  Sophia is clinging to her terrible two mentality and Patrick is recovering from a painful muscle injury which did not preclude him from swinging me around the dance floor on Saturday night. Did I mention we went dancing? Well we did and it was just fabulous! We're even plotting another escape while my parents are here over the weekend.

(Oh really? thinks my Mom as she reads about our plan. Do I know you or what!)