Back when I moved into my duplex, I had a housewarming party to celebrate.  It was the first house I’d had all to myself — I’d once lived by myself in a studio apartment, but with every house or larger apartment I’d lived in up until that point, I had always had one or more roommates.  It was also a feat that demonstrated my good luck in landing a good job right out of college.  For these reasons, I felt I was really justified in celebrating!

At any rate, the housewarming party was a major success.  Several friends brought jar candles as housewarming gifts — probably one of the best housewarming gifts you can pick, in my opinion.  One friend brought lavender scented candles — aromatherapy candles for relaxation, she said.  (My boss was a nightmare, and as a result the job — which I only stayed in another 6 months — was rather stressful.)  Another friend brought a green pillar candle on a really nice candle plate — which I loved because my color theme in the living room and dining room was sage and ivory.

I have to admit, I enjoyed my housewarming party a little too much — I got rather tipsy, I’m afraid.  But like I said, getting that place was a wonderful thing for me, and I really felt that I deserved the chance to celebrate.  Luckily, everyone else had just as much fun as me, so I don’t think anyone minded!

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Everything that happens in a baby’s first year is exciting. We can’t wait to hear them talk and see them walk. We are thrilled to be with them as they experience their first Halloween and their first Christmas. They may not remember this year as they get older but we will … and we’ll always have the photographs to show them how much they were loved and appreciated as soon as they were born.

Unfortunately, we can get trapped into spending a whole lot of money in this first year because of the excitement that we have about it. For example, many people spend a lot of money on infant halloween costumes. They want to see their child all dressed up in fairy costumes or dog costumes because of how completely adorable it will be.

Another big area of spending is the first birthday party. We want it to be big and elaborate and memorable so we call in the clowns and get the photographic birthday cake. It’s not bad to spend money on our babies like this but it’s important to keep in mind that these times don’t actually require a lot of cash. You might be better off going the cheap route while they’re still young enough to appreciate it because pretty soon those kids are going to be asking for more money than you’ve got!

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I recently agreed to assist a friend in cleaning out her garage and helping her to sort her junk into give away, recycle and trash piles. As we went through the items that she had stored away for so long, we came across a piece of medical equipment that I had never seen before. When I asked her what it was, she said that it was a sleep apnea machine her father had used for awhile.

I assumed that this was something that would go in the trash but she said that it could actually be given away. The only problem was that this CPAP machine was really dirty so I had to figure out how to clean it before putting it in the give away pile. I had no idea if CPAP equipment needed to be cleaned a certain way or if certain cleaning products had to be used on it. I hoped my friend would know but she didn’t.

My first solution to this problem was to go to the Internet. That’s where I learn almost everything and I figured there’d be information on how to clean a sleep apnea machine. Unfortunately, I was wrong. At first I wasn’t sure what to do but then I had the idea that we could call a doctor and ask him about this issue. I used the Internet to find a doctor specializing in sleep disorders and placed the call. Sure enough, he was able to tell me how to clean the equipment and even gave me information on where we could donate it.

Technorati Tags: sleep apnea machine, CPAP machine, CPAP equipment