Monday, January 23, 2012

{Things that go "bump" in the night}

We had quite the weekend around here. It started out as a standard, relaxing weekend. Friday night we stayed in, put Isabelle to bed early and watched the 6th Harry Potter movie (AMAZING! I don't know what movies we are going to watch when we are actually done with the series) and called it an early night. Now, I understand I am totally cool by going to bed at 10:15 on a Friday night but I had a LONG day ahead of me on Saturday...even longer than I originally planned.

Saturday morning I woke up to read on the Weather Guide that it was currently 21 degrees outside and the chill factor was 11. Awesome. Perfect day for an 18 miler (sense the sarcasm please). I started running from my house and hooked on to our running trails where I met Mr. T for the last 5 miles. (Isabelle was safe and warm at my parents house) The run turned out to go by pretty quickly and I didn't freeze...only my pony tail froze. Not joking.

We joined my parents and Izzy for breakfast at their house and then we headed to the Flea Market where we found lots of good finds! My favorite was a slouchy beanie that was handmade by my new hippy friend. I love hippie's and I love handmade. Win, win!

After walking around for a few hours, we headed home to let Isabelle take her nap while I cooked my freezer friend meals. This idea is AMAZING, unless you decide to do it all in one day after 18 miles and over stimulation from the flea market. Not long after that, the exhaustion hit me. I was so tired and was fighting to keep my eyes open at around 7:00! I fought the urge to be a GIANT lame-o and settled for just being a normal lame-o and I hit the sack around 10:00 while dreaming of sleeping in until 8 the next morning. I was wrong.

At around 2:30 we hear our back porch door jiggle around (our bedroom windows face the back porch) and then we hear our dogs go crazy. Our dogs are large, so they have a pretty threatening bark. We sit out of bed and listen a bit more. Maybe it was the wind, or maybe it was just our imaginations. Wrong. Immediately after that the door really starts moving and we hear a man's voice. We FLY out of bed, I call 911 and grab Isabelle out of her crib, while Mr. T gets some protection. I am on the phone with the operator, so all I can hear now is someone pounding on the back door and yelling while Mr T yells back at them to tell them to leave and that the cops are on the way. I then hear pounding on the FRONT door right where Isabelle and I are standing. The man is yelling cuss words, but I can't understand much else. At this point I am for sure that it is someone (or people) that is on drugs and out of their minds, but after multiple threats by Mr T, the man still would not stop. He continued to pound on our windows, kick our doors and scream through the walls while Isabelle and I are tucked away, hiding in our closet. This goes on for 8 minutes until six police cars arrive at our house and rush the man and get him on the ground. They arrest him and then tell us that the man thought WE had his dog. Again, we have no idea what he is talking about. The police tell us this man's name and the fact that he lives 5 doors down from us. They also tell us that he is so drunk or high that he doesn't know what day it is.

In a ten minute span, we went from dead asleep to trapped in our own house and under attack. I prayed harder for my husband and daughter than I ever have in that ten minutes. I also wanted to jump through the phone to the police dispatcher to give her a giant hug when everything was over. She kept me calm, continued to ask me questions and gave me step by step directions on how close the police were.

Have you been in a situation like that? As I have said before, I have a sick love for crime shows. Criminal Minds, Dateline mysteries, etc. so I have always thought about what I would do in certain situations. Having a baby in your arms changes many things, but it helped me to remain calm and think clearly. Mr. T said the same thing. We didn't have enough time to be terrified or cry (until it was over) we just acted on instinct and what we have been told to do and not to do.

It's situations like this one that seem to bring clarity to life and make you stop and realize how quickly everything can change. Thankfully, we are safe and thankfully the man is safe now too.

So maybe next weekend I can catch up on sleep?
Probably not...

3 comments:

Ashley said...

That is terrifying! I am a big crime show girl too, but that really is one of my biggest fears. More so because of my kids in the house! Thank God you're all safe and sound!

basebell6 said...

OMG OMG THAT IS THE SCARIEST THING EVER!! i am so scared of something like that happening when my husband is out of town. one time a drunk lady was pounding on our door; turns out she crashed her car A MILE AND A HALF up the road and just started walking down the snowy street in JANUARY and picked our house to pound on. she had already passed up like 6 other houses. nothing as scary as your story though! glad the police made it there in a timely manner and glad that guy didnt have a gun or something!

Joii C. said...

Oh my goodness!!!! I am so thankful that you and your family are safe.