WHAT IF....

What if I had been awake at 4:30 several weeks ago?
What if I had been sitting on the couch when those thugs decided to come into my house, or upstairs?
What if I had heard that noise on that night?
What if I had found myself face-to-face with them as I came down the hall, or got up to see about a noise?

What if my dog hadn't woken up, what would they have taken then?
What if they had looked into the kitchen and seen my laptop on the table?
What if then they had looked into the den and seen the others?

What if they had come down the hall to our bedrooms?
What if I had just not been so tired when I heard Willis walk down the hall?
What if I had decided to listen, or follow Willis down the hall?

What if they had vandalized things - like cutting up the tv or couch downstairs?
What if they had taken Legare's book bag as a carry off bag (would he have been ok after that)?

What if the sex offender had decided to offend again?

What if they had seen my keys hanging on the post downstairs?
What if they had seen Bryan's that were in his unlocked car that was sitting in the driveway?
What if I had left my purse and phone in my unlocked car?
What if they had the gun they stole from across the street when they got here?
What if they had shot my dog when she came down the hall?
What if worse then that had happened?
What if I had just woken up and had a chance to see them, or tackle them?
What if we had all been woken up scared and terrified in the middle of the night?
What if my kids were now scarred for life over this?

What if "they" come back to look at "the scene of the crime" and decide to go for one more load of stuff?
What if that's why the neighbor's dog is barking?

What if they don't catch this guy?
What if the other one gets off?
What if he can make bail (when the time comes)?
What if I keep having the "what if" dreams?
What if making bail makes the "what ifs" worse?
What if the "what ifs"don't go away soon?

What if this happens again?
What if God hadn't protected us so?

I have played every "what if" scenario I can think of in my head since this happened. Sadly, there's hundreds more. I have decided that the best thing that could have happened if you get bruglarized, did happen. We slept through it. No one was hurt. Things of not much significance were taken. No one had to confront these guys. They didn't ransack the place.

And because of all of this, I say God is good! He is so many things to me, and on that night, He was my protector. What if I hadn't had Him?

'Tis But a Mole Hill

Resume, resume, resume....my eyes are going crossed due to the nit-picking details that go into creating a resume. Oh, my neck...oh, my eyes.

Well, needless to say, that because of all of the time spent in front of the computer over the last week or so (or in the dentist chair because I broke my implant crown - yay me!), I have fallen behind on my laundry. But because I have been doing little loads at a time, Mt. Laundry is just a mole hill right now.

Lost and Found

I occasionally misplace things.
I am usually pretty good at retracing my steps. Every now and then I enlist the help of others.
For instance....on the way to the hospital, I decided NOT to take my phone in, too much for my loved ones to keep up with, so I left it in Bryan's car.

After remembering this 5 days later, I ask Bryan to look for it for me in his car (bending at the waste was slightly uncomfortable). He didn't find it. I get slightly panicked, but mostly sad that I can't find it and will have to rebuild the numbers that were on the sim card.

Guess who found the phone? My daughter (after I bribed her $10).
Guess where she found it? Under the seat in the car - where she could see it from her seat in the back.

So, this weekend, as my children get their Godparents, officially, I wanted the camera to snap some shots. I ask Bryan to go to my car to get it; telling him it's in there somewhere - I had it when I picked up Legare from camp and didn't bring it in.

He looks. He can't find it. So I go behind him and look under the seats. I found it today (a day too late). Guess where it was???? In the middle of the back seat, behind the other stuff he moved on top of it while looking for it. I didn't look on top of seats this weekend thinking he did - I looked under them.

So I guess we are both to blame. However, I think I need to either stop asking him to find stuff - cause he never does - or we need to invest in some kind of "How to Find Things" 10 step program for him.

Don't Revisit Your Childhood Like This

On several occasions lately I have noticed the same thing happening. I've noticed it happening at church (on Sunday mornings and during weekday Bible study). It's happened numerous times at the children's school. Happened again at a few basket ballgames and even in large stores (Lowe's I believe).

This thing I have noticed actually kind of grosses me out a bit. It's one of the things that your mother pounded into your head as a child. Over and over. And over again. It's the thing that as a child you just didn't want to be bothered with because it seemed kind of senseless. You literally could have been doing this all day long. As an adult, most of us understand the importance of it. And until lately I thought that it was something that ALL adults did. But I have been proven wrong. All of the places mentioned above had infractions by adults. Well, except for the children's school. That grossity (ooh - new word) was actually performed by a child. But adults were guilty everywhere else. And some of these adults were adults in the "great grandparent" sense of the word. So they should know better.

What is this thing that I have witnessed? This thing that really has me scratching my head? I'll tell you. It's that more people than I have ever noticed before have left the bathroom stall and headed straight out of the door. Maybe slowing down to check their hair in the mirror. But definitely NOT washing their hands. YUCK!!

Is there some sanitary movement that I don't know about? Like - you'll pass less germs after wiping your backside than after touching the sink? Granted, I will a lot of times turn on the water, wash my hands and then get a towel to dry them. I then turn the water off with the towel. And I can understand not wanting to touch sinks in public bathrooms (they are gross in and of themselves). But these bathrooms are the ones inside my church and the school. Where I know they are cleaned everyday. And they aren't even really dirty to begin with. So I say - WHAT IN THE WORLD GIVES?

Please, people, please, either explain to me, or begin washing again. Maybe this explains why 36 of 187 students were absent one day from the school. No one is washing their hands anymore! And these are people you would expect to know better.

P.S. Quick change of subject - whiplash quick - Crock Pot lady's Rotisserie Chicken was YUM! O.K., after re-reading, this just doesn't seem right coming after the subject above. Sorry.

Nuttin' Honey

Some times I move through the day and create posts in my head as I encounter the event at hand. Sometimes I go through days and days and days and have nothing.

I so enjoy writing, but I mostly enjoy having something to write about. I think that's why I love all of those "25 question" and "43 odd things about me" thingys. I can come up with an answer but I really love to expand and elaborate on what's behind my answer. Those questionnaires can almost always lead to a story. But in this day of "can't come up with nuttin'", I don't even have a 25 question thing for you.

I can say that "The Bachelor" is coming on and I have got to go watch it. And he'd better pick Melissa in the end. And it better take or I'm going to have to give up these stupid reality shows.

A Quick Aside

Why is it that every time I declare that I'm done with Christmas shopping I run out and get something else that needs to be wrapped? It's like I can't get enough and don't want it to be over. I would love to have more to give everyone, but I've got to stop. I'm running out of time and funds.

So, I will declare (for the first time here, but definitely not the first time this season), that I am done!

Now...no more last minute trips to Costco, the drug store, or to online stores. I'm done.
Oh, except for getting the provisions for Christmas Eve dinner and for staying at the house with the Red Tin Roof for a few days.

Color A or Color B

As you might have noticed, I've been monkeying around with the background color of my page. I've used two. The first one is the one I like the most, but it's one color on one computer and an all together different looking color on my other computer. Same with this second color that I have tried, hoping to get a more true color both places.

Well - I like the first color I used best (on my laptop anyway), but didn't like the pumpkin/orange-ish hue that it was on my desktop. So I changed. I now like the color here, on the desktop, but can't stand it on the laptop. What is a girl to do?

How are you seeing this color - as a nice dark khaki/brown or as a purple eggplant-ish hue?
I'd like to know how you see it. Was the first color a pretty complement to the marsh in the picture or an orange color? HELP. I feel like pulling my hair out. Or maybe getting a new pair of eyes - ha!