https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoes/home
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/athomeinnorthcarolina
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/ayearandahalf!
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/beachandbeached
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/beginningofnovember(seeyounextweek!)
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/fallingforfall
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/funpreviouspictures
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/justalittlemoreinaugust
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/littlelucyvideos
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/lucy,halloweenandwaaaayyyytoomanypicture
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/lucyandaugustupdate
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/lucygrace16-17months
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/lucygrace18months
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/newhouseinraleigh
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/novemberweekendathome
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/ourhailandfarewellatcol.sherman's
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/ourtriptospringfield
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/ramblings
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/regressingandthenursery
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/septemberfamilyvisits
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/someolderpictureswefoundfromthisspringan
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/sundayattheparks
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/thanksgivingandlucy'sbirthday,i.e.ourtri
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/the4thofjuly
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/themanyfacesoflucy
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/thencstatefair
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/washingtondcandfamily
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/whyweloveclothdiapers
https://sites.google.com/site/thesargeantfamily/wichitawmountains
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/afewdecemberpictures
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/alittlefamilyfun
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/aweekathome
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/familyvisitsandourlittleones
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/home
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/it%27sanewweek%21
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/merrychristmas!
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/oklahomacity%2Cokla-home-a
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/sometimetogether
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/sophiegrace
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/thewiggledispenserandrumpelstiltskin
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/triggat7weeks%2Clucyatprecocious
https://sites.google.com/site/lulutoesandtriggelbows/welcometriggwilliam!!!!
Before Blogger, I had a blog on Google Pages. Before that I had a blog on Baby Jelly Beans. I started blogging about my pregnancy with Lucy and later moved to Google Pages. When Lucy was 2 and Trigg was probably about 6 months old, we were living in North Carolina. While there I got an email on my junk email account one day from someone I didn't know. The girl went on to tell me she was so glad to find my email address and that she had missed me on a certain forum and wondered how my kids were. She seemed to know quite a few details about me so I wrote her back and through further communication we figured out that I really did not know her...but she did kind of know me...sort of. Through emails back and forth we realized that the "me" she thought she knew and had been talking to was someone using my pictures and stories on a forum. She gave me the name of the forum. It was a forum for women who had problems getting pregnant or who had experienced miscarriages. Low and behold, there was an Amy Sargeant on the forum who had my picture as a profile picture and all of her posts were about my life. The woman had used my pictures and retold my stories from the blog, acting as if they were her own. I contacted the forum managers and relayed this information and she was banned. They tracked her IP address and found out that she was doing this same thing with at least 3 other ladies on the same forum, and a few others on a related site.
I was freaked out to say the least. I had been careful not to post naked baby photos, but had not thought much farther than that. I contacted the local police and they worked with police in Florida, where they IP address was traced to. It was all quite a crazy experience. When the children start school or are in a program away from me, I always get to share our tale and put alerts on our kids now for safety.
Apparently, this person started following most of the ladies she “stalked” from the Baby Jelly Beans site. That's what we all seemed to have in common. She even was able to follow me when I had changed blogs a year before, probably by doing a Google search for my name. I didn’t know there was a setting you could turn off to make yourself “unsearchable.” I shut down my blog completely by deleting the home pages that made all the pages link together, and started this new blog; password protected and locked down. It was only available to others through invitation.
Over time, I have realized that the threat is real, but I do not want to live my life in fear. Blogging is a great way, for me as a mother to share my experiences with others. It's a wonderful way for me to log my pictures and our life events. I get a lot of enjoyment from it and so do others. It ended up being a harmless experience, aside from being weird. Blog’s are my kids' baby book. Blogging is very important to me. Very. I decided a long time ago to not let someone else steal the joy from me, as I do not feel that it puts my family in real danger. Imitation is a form of flattery right?
I now watermark my pictures, so that if they are used on another site, it is obvious where they originally are from. With my work, my name and photos are searchable and have to be. I am not the only blogger out there with pictures of their families and children on the web.
I tell this tale because I feel it should be shared. You should know that things like this happen. I know similar things have happened to other blogger friends as well. If you have a blog, watermark your pictures. It’s important. Show where they are from and who owns them in your watermark. If you have a Facebook account, make sure you only become friends with people you ARE friends with. Be careful. Be cautious. But don’t let fear rule your life.
