I took both of my girls shopping yesterday at the mall and my oldest daughter found some really pretty pajamas that she just had to have. I laughed at her when she also found matching ones for her sister that were in the infant pajamas section. My oldest daughter is only five but she already has a good eye for fashion and how she spotted the same exact infant pajamas for her baby sister is beyond me.

I like to dress my girls the same but pajamas is a new one. Most of the trendy stores have those kinds of things, matching pj’s and stuff but I cannot afford them. This store is very affordable and if they start carrying more items that both of my girls can wear so that they match, it will be very nice.

When we returned from the mall, my husband was already home and he helped us carry in our shopping bags. My oldest daughter was so proud of the great find of the matching girls pajamas and the infant pajamas that she just had to show her daddy before we could even get our coats and shoes off. He told her what a great job she had done and she just smiled with pride from ear to ear.

The two companies that we were using still that were local were a safety supplies company and a janitorial supplies company. Both of which were higher priced than any of their competitors online. In fact they are about thirty percent higher for everything and if it not for the fact that they are locally owned and we have used them for about ten years, I would have made sure that we switched years ago.

The past two years have been especially hard on locally owned businesses and we have lost several other providers and had no choice but to go with some bigger online companies. I truthfully thought that we might find out that either the safety supplies or janitorial supplies companies would be closing soon too since just about everyone else in town has decided to switch to cheaper providers. I am not sure how they are lasting, with their client base being cut down and the economy still in a slump, but they are.

I will use the local guys while they are still in business and not look any further into the online companies no matter how much money that I could save by switching to a bigger company that can pass on bulk rate prices to their clients.

The ad on the screen for the social networking Raleigh directory was for a carpet cleaner. I love this new social networking Raleigh directory that I became a part of just last month, it is free and all of the members have full access to everyone else. If you need some kind of service, you can almost bet that there is one that has good ratings to boot.

Every time you use one of the companies on the directory, you have to rate them. Too many bad ratings and you are taken off of the list. But, if you have good ratings, then you will get more calls. I called the carpet cleaner with the highest rating and told the woman who answered who I was and that I was currently working for website designers in Raleigh who needed to have their carpets cleaned and since we were all on the directory, it would be nice for them to give us an estimate.

Two days later, the carpet guys came to my website designers in Raleigh office to give us an estimate. My boss approved the estimate since he knew that they would do a great job by their reviews from past clients.