Monday, October 12, 2015
Down Syndrome Walk 2015
The annual Down Syndrome walk came upon me much too fast. With four kiddos on my hands I had very little time to think of fundraising this year. We will have to try again next year but we did achieve something new, this was the first year the entire family went on the walk around the stadium. In past years there were pregnancy issues, hurt ankles or growing pains, etc but we all went this time around, I just wish we had the pictures to prove it! (see prior post)
The kids had a blast playing on bounce houses, carnival games, eating snow cones and cotton candy. Pumpkin was in heaven with this fluffy delight with her sweet tooth. Kent couldn't feed it to her fast enough. The only thing the kids lamented was the loss of Blue Bell ice cream for which they always talk about having days before the walk. Our stint in Houston has defined our taste of this creamy cold treat and will never be the same. Hopefully they will begin shipping out this way soon, otherwise his shirt may just need to be worn in our household.
Our DS family has grown and I'm always so happy to see them and interact with them. How grateful we are to have Eli to bring us this whole other world!
Photo courtesy of Sharing Down Syndrome of AZ
Friday, October 9, 2015
It Couldn't Happen to Us ...
You know how some things happen and you hear it all the time but you never think it'll happen to you - like getting burglarized for instance? Well it happened to us, just three weeks ago. I came home a little later than usual from my morning workout to find the back door open. It's not the first time kiddos have left it open when dashing out the door. I didn't think too much of it until I walked past out closet door and found odd things pulled out. Eli had been set up with his usual shows so I grabbed Leora and checked the back door a little more. Sure enough there were marks of a crowbar taken to it which was when I called Kent.
We had been in the house for a good 10 mins and I was pretty sure no one was still here but all the same I stayed on the phone with him until I'd gone through all the rooms. I called the police hoping they'd be there soon but unfortunately there was a four car pile up and an attempted suicide on our end of town so they arrived nearly 2 hours later. Thankfully a friend of mine, Pam had this experience not too long ago and was able to take Eli off my hands and reassure me of the procedures.
At first we thought it was just the digital camera that was taken, but on closer inspection we realized they took all our records, from passports, to birth certificates and social security numbers. Kent took the afternoon to get identity protection for all of us. the officer is pretty sure I interrupted them in the middle of the robbery since they went through so little of the master bedroom. It takes us a while to unload little ones and head into the house but the back gate was open which I don't recall seeing when I came home. That was perhaps the most frightening of realizations for me, and I was just grateful we were all safe.
Kent took it really hard even though he never saw any of the mess they created. I realize now that it's the instinct of a man to wish to protect his family and since then he's made a few changes.
Things we learned:
1. Never keep anything of importance or great value in the Master Bedroom, it is the first place they will go. Even if you use a safe, have it bolted down and heavy enough that it would deter them from thinking of moving it. Store all important documents in something that looks innocuous.
2. Current crews in the nearby neighborhoods have been ringing doorbells and when no one answers then they try and break in. That was a particularly frightening realization for me since I often ignore the door if I don't know of anyone coming over. Just answering or making noise is enough to keep them from trying at your home or your neighbor's.
3.A dowel placed in the track of a sliding door is a cheap and great deterrent, they are left with windows or breaking glass, all of which is harder and gets much more attention.
I had the house back in order before everyone arrived home, but clearly just knowing someone had been in there without our invitation was disturbing enough. Bug love hit a point that evening when she was near to tears and I asked her what was wrong and she said she was mad they took our pictures that we will never see again. Anything that was misplaced in the home Isaac blamed the robbers, I was jumpy for a while and for days after Kent began looking at security systems and cameras. Total loss was the things mentioned before along with a guitar with a broken neck and it's case, cheap cheap earrings and some pins with sentimental value from my mission days. In the end it is just stuff, things are in place to protect our identities and fretting about it isn't going to help. We've made changes in our home and even the kiddos will be more vigilant in closing and locking doors.
So if there are very few pictures in the next while, you'll understand why. It'll take some time to replace the second wife and learn how to use it again. Lesson learned, it can happen to us.
We had been in the house for a good 10 mins and I was pretty sure no one was still here but all the same I stayed on the phone with him until I'd gone through all the rooms. I called the police hoping they'd be there soon but unfortunately there was a four car pile up and an attempted suicide on our end of town so they arrived nearly 2 hours later. Thankfully a friend of mine, Pam had this experience not too long ago and was able to take Eli off my hands and reassure me of the procedures.
At first we thought it was just the digital camera that was taken, but on closer inspection we realized they took all our records, from passports, to birth certificates and social security numbers. Kent took the afternoon to get identity protection for all of us. the officer is pretty sure I interrupted them in the middle of the robbery since they went through so little of the master bedroom. It takes us a while to unload little ones and head into the house but the back gate was open which I don't recall seeing when I came home. That was perhaps the most frightening of realizations for me, and I was just grateful we were all safe.
Kent took it really hard even though he never saw any of the mess they created. I realize now that it's the instinct of a man to wish to protect his family and since then he's made a few changes.
Things we learned:
1. Never keep anything of importance or great value in the Master Bedroom, it is the first place they will go. Even if you use a safe, have it bolted down and heavy enough that it would deter them from thinking of moving it. Store all important documents in something that looks innocuous.
2. Current crews in the nearby neighborhoods have been ringing doorbells and when no one answers then they try and break in. That was a particularly frightening realization for me since I often ignore the door if I don't know of anyone coming over. Just answering or making noise is enough to keep them from trying at your home or your neighbor's.
3.A dowel placed in the track of a sliding door is a cheap and great deterrent, they are left with windows or breaking glass, all of which is harder and gets much more attention.
I had the house back in order before everyone arrived home, but clearly just knowing someone had been in there without our invitation was disturbing enough. Bug love hit a point that evening when she was near to tears and I asked her what was wrong and she said she was mad they took our pictures that we will never see again. Anything that was misplaced in the home Isaac blamed the robbers, I was jumpy for a while and for days after Kent began looking at security systems and cameras. Total loss was the things mentioned before along with a guitar with a broken neck and it's case, cheap cheap earrings and some pins with sentimental value from my mission days. In the end it is just stuff, things are in place to protect our identities and fretting about it isn't going to help. We've made changes in our home and even the kiddos will be more vigilant in closing and locking doors.
So if there are very few pictures in the next while, you'll understand why. It'll take some time to replace the second wife and learn how to use it again. Lesson learned, it can happen to us.
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