So long farewell...

This blog was created to promote a neighborhood and area. Originally started by Teresa Harvey in 2009.

The Harvey's moved and a friend has updated sporadically the blog. It's not a priority since she did not live in the neighborhood but was part of the area. The blog has mostly become dormant.

We will leave this here for those who stumble upon or value any content here within. If someone in the neighborhood or community would like to take the blog over and promote it then please contact honeysuckletx@gmail.com. Due to this being a public reflection on the neighbors and neighborhood any editors will be checked out and references needed before turning the blog over.

It was fun providing information and getting to know Honeysuckle Estates and Midlothian.

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2017!

WooHoo 2014!!!!

So many exciting things happened in 2013. A year of growth for our neighborhood. New babies born in the 'hood. New neighbors. A new high school is being completed. A year of so many good and new things. Can't wait to see what 2014 will bring.

Happy New Year - Bring on 2014!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing each of you a wonderful Christmas. May it be filled with family, friends and great memories.  Be safe.  From our neighborhood to yours MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Missing Mississippi Teen!

A Friend and former neighbor has sent me this information to share.  Please feel free to share, repost or send links to anyone in the Mississippi area that might be able to help.

Stephen Tyler Emerick is missing. He went missing late Monday night after becoming ill at work.

The following articles give information on the search.

Search Continues

Stephen Tyler Emerick

Face Book for Find Stephen Tyler Emerick

Veteran's Day!

Veteran's Day Discounts

We are so honored by the great men and women who have served for our country! To protect, defend, serve and sacrifice. WE will never forget and forever be greatful.

Spring is here and it may be time to consider a move...need a larger house? Just starting out?  Looking to upgrade from your starter home? Downsizing?

There are many great homes in Midlothian, TX. You get the country life style and the convenience of being close to the city.

Check out some of the great properties currently available:



SOLD!














Realtor.com/Midlothian

Cyber Stalker, Creepers, Peepers...

Cyberbullies are not any different from a normal bully.  They are unhappy, blustering, overbearing, small minded individuals whose intent is to cause malice and harm through badgering and intimidation. The goal is to discredit and harm others through lies, intimidation and misuse of information.

You can stop their their mischief by not supporting their cause. Reporting the abuse using the "report" buttons, removing them and blocking them from your online sites.  Doing nothing does give them a sense of success and feeds the personal high they achieve by harming others.

A cyberbully has a whole arsenal of supplies to achieve their goals.  They can use social networking sites, online information data bases, online video and picture sites to target an individual. There are blogs and websites that automatically pull from YouTube and other websites any content based on descriptions and or tags - so information can be spread and shared at warp speed.

How?

Bullies can keep it personal and use email, phone calls & text. But with the popularity of the internet, digital photography, videos and smart phones bullies can now take photos, edited video clips, or out of context pictures, video and information then add malicious statements and comments to spin a story that will suck in an audience.  It doesn't have to be true, doesn't have to have any truth in it - but if it has a picture attached it draws people in to look and to possibly believe what is stated. Some bullies will even use a shred of truth that is manipulated, i.e. "I have a stalker that drives slowly past my house 6 or 7 times a day". The bully leaves out the fact that the "stalker" is really a neighbor that lives next door and drives the residential speed limit past their home every time they leave the neighborhood. But,  not everyone will not stop and ask themselves if the picture or video really add up or know any of the personal players involved. A bully is well adept at the art of editing and altering both the facts and the images they are promoting. A picture or video, are easily altered with photo shop and/or other online editing sources. The altered image can then be used to support the verbiage attached.  A bully will ensure they never show the information and actions that helped insight a response or what was really going on when the images were captured. The bullies will only create a response to support their cause by using the tools of the trade to alter, add in or take away sound bytes, totally manipulating the information so that the situation will draw in an audience to support or victimize based on the bullies agenda.

OK, so what, you say?  Not many people will see that. Or will they?
The art of online marketing is now used by our bullies.  Using catchy or trendy search names like "Jennifer Anniston", "Green Living", "Space Aliens", etc...help their content pull up in search engines.  Now they have a bigger market.  A prime example is the Jennifer Aniston Video to market water.  The video is set to play automatically anytime someone clicks on it - so even if you don't want to promote the video it will play & gain attention and support. More plays the more popular!

Marketing a video to get attention


But not everyone will know who they are talking about, will they?
Tags. You don't have to outright use a persons name & address to target them. Tags are identifying features you can use on almost all websites that allow you to add content.  A bully can learn personal and identifying information about you then add those tags to their content so that it will be linked to your online presence and/or personal information. Your name, address, work, etc., even in random order will now link back to their target.

Is that legal?
Yes. Anyone can take pictures of you, videos of you & use your information. Internet crime laws are vague and stalkers and bullies know this. Unless it is a crime or exploitation of a child the crimes are few and far between.   That being said there are some laws that prevent some of this as outlined in an earlier post, however, a lot of it is open to interpretation.  Also, anything put on the internet takes time to remove. The sites have to be checked, the information provided has to be researched and proven, then the laws have to be reviewed so the content can remain for weeks or even months before it's gone.  Also, if it is only reported by the person who is targeted then it will get little notice. Most sites require a minimum amount of complaints before it's even reviewed.  Making it more difficult is the fact that some sites only allow you to report an abuse if it is a violation against you. Also, as with the Jennifer Aniston video on some sites or videos when you click on them to report them they play & gain attention through viewings. This causes a Catch 22.

Now what?

Report, flag for abuse, block and request content to be removed.  Report the information to teachers and counselors if you are a student. If you are an adult report it to the proper authorities, police, internet crime services, and actual websites. You may have to do this more than once.  Take screen shots of the offending material. Send links to the authorities. They can document and make a report, even if there isn't an actual crime yet.  This helps protect you if it becomes a civil matter or the criminal lines get crossed. Just printing out the material isn't good enough - remember photo shop and/or editing services?  They can be used both ways so courts don't allow information that can be easily altered as evidence. However, having it witnessed and documented by the proper authorities does make for credible evidence. There are also online information storage companies that can protect and encrypt information as it was on a certain date & time.  Remember the bully can go in and alter, add to, take away or delete the information at anytime.

Keep things in perspective. Remember when viewing information online that just because someone uses words like:

Jealous, stalking, weird, unhappy, crazy etc...that the person using those words is most likely the one who is the perpetrator not the victim.  Be proactive and don't support malicious activity online.

Online and everywhere in your life be responsible and thoughtful.

More information against Cyberbully and online Harassment:

Family Safety
Steps on reporting abuse.
Kids & Teens - steps to know
McGruff puts a bite on bullies!

STALKING

Sometimes standard stalking goes hand in hand. Unfortunately, in Texas, Stalking Laws currently are directed at spouses or intimate partners.  There is very little that can be done if it's a neighbor or random person. Our family has suffered from an obsessed woman, we nicknamed "McFreakster", the police and DA's office are involved as they should be but the harassment still continues. Tougher laws need to be made.

This woman creates fiction and slander about me and our family...takes pictures obsessively and post them often claiming they are my photos or with fictional text making it seem something other than the reality. She will take internet postings and remove dates or change the text and original wording and add my name and picture and post it. Often times making it seem that I have visited her sites or sent her something that I never sent.

When dealing with a sick individual you have to keep your focus. Work with authorities and document as much as possible, the process is slow but they can help you. If the person is using the internet they can help get the content removed when it violates policy and content or state laws.

Stay vigilant and keep the focus on your family and move on as much as you can. Screen shots of some of her obsessive rants and postings.

Picture taken standing on a ladder - taken over an 8' fence

Night vision camera and a ladder were used to film over an 8' privacy fence.
Creepers!

A history of problems. Who can trust a liar and a thief?

Getting inappropriate material removed is time consuming but necessary.

These are just a few of the many problems and invasion of our life created by the person that cyber stalked and bullied us for 3+ years. It is hard to deal with but working with authorities, reporting it and following up can help.

Looking for a new home?!

Homes for sale!


A couple of great opportunities in the neighborhood of Honeysuckle Estates!

There are two homes for sale by owner. Save the realator fees and negotiate directly with the seller. The homes are:

4670 Sunrise Lane $335,000.00, 4/3/3 car garage, 4073 sq. ft on 1 1/3 acre of land. Custom home with several must have ammenities!


5410 Morning Light $268,000.00, 3/2.5/3 car garage, 2586 sq. ft. 1 acre of land built by Peachtree Homes. Energy Effecient Rated, wood burning fireplace. Custom home with a lot of unique custom features.


Honeysuckle Estates is a great neighborhood with every lot being an acre to an acre and a half, with custom homes built for todays lifestyles. The neighborhood was recently featured in the Midlothian and Waxahachie Daily Light newspaper. The neighborhood is made up of families and empty nesters and is surrounded by scenic views! Drive on out to this serene country setting and see if this neighborhood is a good fit for you!

Love is in the air....

Valentines. Love is in the air! A chance to declare your undying love, become the most romantic person on the planet, blah, blah, blah!

Wow, it brings up so many memories and emotions in people.  You hear people gripping and complaining about the disappointments, let downs and hassles of this little holiday that has morphed from a few sweet cards, flowers and candy. To a multi-million dollar insanity filled dash for all things red, pink, hearts and flowers! 

On the flip side you witness a lot of endless romantics gushing and cooing about their ideas and plans to make the day remarkable for that special someone with lavish gifts and special get-a-ways, etc... The reality for most probably falls into the happy medium and the struggle to indure for the few.

I am not an endless romantic nor have I become the valentine cynic.  I find that I love to do little things and that if I get a little moment of Valentine love for each of my lovey's then I feel accomplished.  I do keep the  candy to a minimum but I enjoy giving each of my kiddo's a small chocolate treat in their preffered type of chocolate.  I also like to get a cute and fun card that I picked for ech child to make them smile.  My hubby takes me for a nice dinner and usually he spoils me with truffles (a secret delight!) and roses he spent way too much for. Although one year he suprised me with 3 dozen roses on our 3rd Valentine's together and much to his dismay when I got home I had a single rose sitting on our table to enjoy.  He asked what happened to the roses he sent me?  I gushed and cooed about how much fun I had walking up and down the streets of Downtown Dallas for an hour after work picking out random people who looked like they needed a lift and handing out my roses to each of them!  He was totally shocked and I think he wanted to protest but he saw how happy I was so he just kept a rather dismal attempt at a smile on his face and said well I'm glad you enjoyed them. It is one of my favorite Valentine memories. :) Now he keeps the roses to a simple dozen buying terrific hard to find colors that I always love.  I still give roses away but I try to keep at least half of them each year so I don't totally dash his efforts.  I buy him a card and usually some small silly gift that makes him laugh.  It's a fun excuse to think of others and a great time to just be a little silly, loving and fun. 

This year the holiday is on Sunday.  Weekends are all about the breakfast my hubby creates at our house, so before we head out to church this Sunday morning we will make heart shaped (yes, I have a silly pancake mold) chocolate chip pancakes, with sliced strawberries, with a side of scrambled eggs.  I will assist by making a large pot of mexican hot cocoa, a delightful decadent treat, to round out all the morning Valentine splurge. My hubby & I will also put together a special box this Wednesday to send to our college cutie.  It is so HARD having your kiddo leave the nest and miss out on all those silly intimate family moments.  My hope is that she is filled with great memories of those moments to help her build her own special ideas of sharing special days and creating special memories; hopefully our little Valentine fun box will make her smile, laugh and reflect on home. 

The thing I've learned to enjoy most about Valentines is that it is a few minutes in time to be silly, stop and focus on showing your love to those special someone's in your life. 

So whether you make your cards, cook a special meal, stop by the drug store in a mad dash a few minutes before you see that special someone or slightly break the bank with your declaration of LOVE, I hope this Valentine is a day that gives your a smile and bit of warm glow in your own life!

Tell me about your bits and moments of love.

Getting started....

Hoping to find fellow neighbors and friends of Honeysuckle Estates in Midlothian, TX., to build strong relationships through social gatherings, information and idea sharing.

We are loving the neighborhood, excited to watch the changes! It is inspirational to hear the uplifting stories of how home owners have taken on the challenges created by neglect of others, from our neighborhoods interesting history, and turning these homes into great places to live.

My hope is this blog will give us a place to share ideas, review what we have found helpful, share questions or concerns that will help imrpove our neighborhood and strengthen relationships in our community.


Quick & easy dinner idea....
Grilled Chicken, Tortellini Pesto Alfredo dinner

1 pkg frozen grilled chicken
1 pkg tortellini of your choice
1 small jar pesto (makes more than one meals worth)
1 jar alfredo sauce
1/4 c. milk

Cook Tortellini according to package directions for firm pasta, in a skillet heat grilled chicken
once Tortellini is done add to skillet and add alfredo sauce, 1/4 cup pesto and 1/4 cup milk and stir till heated.

Add a salad & garlic bread and your good to go! Happy eating.