Friday, August 31, 2012
Picture Day
Today was picture day at school. Both the girls wanted to have their hair curled for picture day. I am always worried about trying something new on picture day, because you never know what the outcome will be. But luckily everything turned out ok. I am not sure what their hair will look like by the time they actually get their pictures taken, but this is what they looked like when they left the house this morning.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Robbery
Today at 2:50pm we were robbed. At 3:00pm John called me at work. There was a pause on the phone and he said "well our TV is gone, our room is a mess." My heart sank. I knew what had happened. There has been a rash of robberies, attempted robberies, etc in our area; and for a few weeks now I have had this un-easy feeling.
Every morning before we left the house the kids and I would hide things that we felt were of value to a thief. This particular day, I just didn't feel right. I went back inside the house after getting the kids into the car and hid the laptop. I thought about locking the door that goes from the garage into the house, but I didn't (I should have listened to that voice).
At approximately 2:50pm some thieves pulled into our back yard and drove across our lawn. They attempted to pry open a metal security screen door, bent the screen on our bedroom window, bent the screen on our garage window and then decided to kick in the door going from the garage outside. Once they got in the garage, the door going from the garage into the house was open and they gained access into the house. After 60 seconds our alarm sounded and the alarm company called. Our answering machine says the message out loud so the thieves heard the alarm company saying that they were calling about an alarm sounding. One minute after the alarm company called our house, they called John's phone. John ran home from work as fast as he could, but the thieves had already done their damage and were gone. We estimate that the thieves only had 4-5 minutes once they gained entry into our home. We are assuming there was more than one person because of the amount of damage done in a matter of a few minutes and by the fingerprints we found.
The thieves got away with our TV, John's scriptures, Ashlee's scriptures, a bag, a necklace and a bracelet. They ate some cookies and dropped their crumbs down the hallway on their way out and peeled out on our lawn and driveway as they sped away.
Later on that night after things calmed down, the kids and I drove down the road and we were able to recover Ashlee's scriptures, some empty jewelry boxes and some papers that were inside of John's scriptures.
As bad as this situation was it could have been a whole lot worse. Things have not been the same since the robbery. We are all shaken, scared and on edge in our own home. We do not want to be in our house, but we don't want to leave our either. Every noise startles us, every suspicious car makes us wonder if they could be the ones. The girls slept together in the same room for 5 days with baseball bats next to them. Every night we sleep with the gun on the night stand and everyday when we leave our home, we take things with us. We figure are valuables are safer with us than in our own home.
The detective was able to get a partial hand print off the garage window, but so far we have not heard from them. So I guess that means they haven't found a match. As messed up as the whole criminal/government system is these days, they will probably never find the scum bags, and if they do find the scum bags, they will probably just get a slap on the hand and be right back at their life of crime in a matter of days.
We do have renters insurance, but in this situation it does not do us any good. They got away with approximately $1100-$1200 worth of stuff and our deductible is $1,000. So it isn't worth it for us to pay a $1,000 to get $100-$200 worth of coverage. Our luck!
They dumped every drawer out of the dressers and nightstands in our room and tossed stuff everywhere.
The hole in the entertainment center where our 46 inch TV use to be.
The door going from the outside into the garage that they kicked in. From the size of the foot print. The person has a big foot.
Our bedroom window that they tried to get in.
Marks on the security door where they tried to pry it open.
Every morning before we left the house the kids and I would hide things that we felt were of value to a thief. This particular day, I just didn't feel right. I went back inside the house after getting the kids into the car and hid the laptop. I thought about locking the door that goes from the garage into the house, but I didn't (I should have listened to that voice).
At approximately 2:50pm some thieves pulled into our back yard and drove across our lawn. They attempted to pry open a metal security screen door, bent the screen on our bedroom window, bent the screen on our garage window and then decided to kick in the door going from the garage outside. Once they got in the garage, the door going from the garage into the house was open and they gained access into the house. After 60 seconds our alarm sounded and the alarm company called. Our answering machine says the message out loud so the thieves heard the alarm company saying that they were calling about an alarm sounding. One minute after the alarm company called our house, they called John's phone. John ran home from work as fast as he could, but the thieves had already done their damage and were gone. We estimate that the thieves only had 4-5 minutes once they gained entry into our home. We are assuming there was more than one person because of the amount of damage done in a matter of a few minutes and by the fingerprints we found.
The thieves got away with our TV, John's scriptures, Ashlee's scriptures, a bag, a necklace and a bracelet. They ate some cookies and dropped their crumbs down the hallway on their way out and peeled out on our lawn and driveway as they sped away.
Later on that night after things calmed down, the kids and I drove down the road and we were able to recover Ashlee's scriptures, some empty jewelry boxes and some papers that were inside of John's scriptures.
As bad as this situation was it could have been a whole lot worse. Things have not been the same since the robbery. We are all shaken, scared and on edge in our own home. We do not want to be in our house, but we don't want to leave our either. Every noise startles us, every suspicious car makes us wonder if they could be the ones. The girls slept together in the same room for 5 days with baseball bats next to them. Every night we sleep with the gun on the night stand and everyday when we leave our home, we take things with us. We figure are valuables are safer with us than in our own home.
The detective was able to get a partial hand print off the garage window, but so far we have not heard from them. So I guess that means they haven't found a match. As messed up as the whole criminal/government system is these days, they will probably never find the scum bags, and if they do find the scum bags, they will probably just get a slap on the hand and be right back at their life of crime in a matter of days.
We do have renters insurance, but in this situation it does not do us any good. They got away with approximately $1100-$1200 worth of stuff and our deductible is $1,000. So it isn't worth it for us to pay a $1,000 to get $100-$200 worth of coverage. Our luck!
They dumped every drawer out of the dressers and nightstands in our room and tossed stuff everywhere.
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| Three finger prints on the trim by the entertainment center |
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| Skinny finger prints by alarm keypad and light switch. I found these prints 2 days later, but the sheriffs office said they couldn't use these prints because walls are too porous! |
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| Larger prints near the alarm keypad and light switch. |
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
First Day of School
Today was the first day back to school for the girls. Where in the world did summer go? It doesn't even feel like we had a break and we are back at it again. Ashlee started 6th grade today (Middle School) and Mikayla started 4th grade.
Mikayla loves her teacher and has all her friends (except 1) in her class this year.
Ashlee isn't so sure of her teacher and has 1 friend in her class, She also seems to have ended up with the "class clowns and class goof offs" so she isn't too thrilled about school this year. I thought since she was in middle school and rotating classes throughout the day that she would be with a different group of kids in each class, but she rotates classes with the same group of kids throughout the day. By the end of the day she has a headache from dealing with all the goof offs! Oh, well such is life. I told her we are not always thrilled about having to go to work everyday, and we have to deal with all kinds of people too, so get use to it. Next year is a different year...
Mikayla loves her teacher and has all her friends (except 1) in her class this year.
Ashlee isn't so sure of her teacher and has 1 friend in her class, She also seems to have ended up with the "class clowns and class goof offs" so she isn't too thrilled about school this year. I thought since she was in middle school and rotating classes throughout the day that she would be with a different group of kids in each class, but she rotates classes with the same group of kids throughout the day. By the end of the day she has a headache from dealing with all the goof offs! Oh, well such is life. I told her we are not always thrilled about having to go to work everyday, and we have to deal with all kinds of people too, so get use to it. Next year is a different year...
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| Jordan, Allison, Mikayla |
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| Ashlee in her desk |
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Brooke, Allison, Mikayla, Jordan.          |
Friday, August 03, 2012
Ashlee's Sinus Surgery
Ashlee has had sinus issues ever since she was little. She is always getting sinus infections. There usually is only 3 months out of the year that she doesn't have sinus problems. When she was 8 they removed her adenoids to help with the issue of recurring infections. At that time, adenoid removal was the only thing that would really help, because of her age and the fact that the sinus's would continue to change with growth.
Fast forward three years to now, Ashlee still continues to have infections and headaches on a regular basis. Antibiotics would only help the infection for 2-3 weeks and then the infection would be back. Her left sinus is now 90% blocked. To simply put the situation in the terminology used by the doctor he said: "Your either going to keep treating the infection with antibiotic every few weeks or your going to have surgery to fix the problem. My motto is if the problem can be fixed, fix it. Don't keep treating it." Needless to say, we decided to have the problem fixed. The surgery has a 90-92% success rate which is really good. Ashlee will continue to take allergy medication to help with allergies, but as long as things go as expected, the infections will be gone!
Today was surgery day. Ashlee wasn't scheduled for surgery until 3:30pm but she had to arrive at 1:30pm. Ashlee was starving. She was going to go from dinner time Thursday night to dinner time Friday night without being able to eat or drink anything. Luckily the surgeon was ahead of schedule. She got in about 40min earlier than expected. The surgery was an hour and a half long. The surgeon said the surgery went well. Ashlee had infection from her cheek area all the way up to her eyes. The surgeon said the infection "glowed" he could follow it all the way from her cheeks to her eyes (this is in spite of being on antibiotics 2 weeks ago)! Ashlee is doing good. She has to take it easy for 3 weeks, no lifting, bending, swimming, nose blowing, etc. Right now her nose is pretty plugged up from the healing process, but hopefully that will all be over soon. She has had very little pain too. Hopefully we made the right choice and she will soon be healed, infection free, and breathing freely.
Fast forward three years to now, Ashlee still continues to have infections and headaches on a regular basis. Antibiotics would only help the infection for 2-3 weeks and then the infection would be back. Her left sinus is now 90% blocked. To simply put the situation in the terminology used by the doctor he said: "Your either going to keep treating the infection with antibiotic every few weeks or your going to have surgery to fix the problem. My motto is if the problem can be fixed, fix it. Don't keep treating it." Needless to say, we decided to have the problem fixed. The surgery has a 90-92% success rate which is really good. Ashlee will continue to take allergy medication to help with allergies, but as long as things go as expected, the infections will be gone!
Today was surgery day. Ashlee wasn't scheduled for surgery until 3:30pm but she had to arrive at 1:30pm. Ashlee was starving. She was going to go from dinner time Thursday night to dinner time Friday night without being able to eat or drink anything. Luckily the surgeon was ahead of schedule. She got in about 40min earlier than expected. The surgery was an hour and a half long. The surgeon said the surgery went well. Ashlee had infection from her cheek area all the way up to her eyes. The surgeon said the infection "glowed" he could follow it all the way from her cheeks to her eyes (this is in spite of being on antibiotics 2 weeks ago)! Ashlee is doing good. She has to take it easy for 3 weeks, no lifting, bending, swimming, nose blowing, etc. Right now her nose is pretty plugged up from the healing process, but hopefully that will all be over soon. She has had very little pain too. Hopefully we made the right choice and she will soon be healed, infection free, and breathing freely.
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| Before surgery. She didn't want her picture taken. |
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| Getting ready to go into the operating room. John got to go with her until she went to sleep. |
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After surgery. She doesn't do real well with anesthesia. She kept saying she wanted the "sleepy medicine" to be gone. Of course about 2 miles down the road from the surgery center, the nausea and vomiting began. YUCK!
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