Much has happened...

Friends and family,

It's been a while since my last post. A lot has happened, both good and not-so-good. I will start you out with a little update, then post some recipes and decorating odds and ends I have been doing :-)

To start off, many of you know that Sarah passed away on Feb. 16th, just 4 days prior to my last post. Life without Sarah is a little less rowdy, a little less fun, and a little less spontaneous. I find myself, and others around me, attempting to make up for that loss by adopting mere portions of those characteristics into our own beings. I find myself trying to fill the void by becoming a little more rowdy, a little more fun, and a little more spontaneous. It works for the most part, but nothing can replace the loss of such a sweet and wonderful person. I will say, though, that much of the grieving is passed, because I found myself grieving the loss of Sarah the day we found out her cancer had spread (in July 2010). I had six months to grieve her death, which came much too quick, and the morning that she died was more of a sweet release (more-so for sweet Sarah than anyone else).

Then.... about 3 to 4 weeks after Sarah passed, Scott and I's apartment was robbed while we were sleeping. And no, by some miracle, we did not wake up. He or they broke in through the living room window, then proceeded to wander through our entire apartment, including our bedroom, moving furniture, opening drawers, scrounging through closets, and eventually made away with 2 laptops, 3 cell phones, $600 in cash, my new Canon Rebel, our Canon point and shoot, Scott's Italian leather briefcase, Scott's watch, and...... oh yes, my CAR. Needless to say, we woke up on Saturday morning expecting to start the day off right with a good breakfast, and instead wound up wondering why the trashcan was propping our refrigerator door open... I am still in bed and Scott says, somewhat aggravated, "Babe! Did you leave the refrigerator door open last night??"

Me: "No, what are you talking about??"

Scott: "I don't know, the refrigerator door is being propped open by the trashcan, you didn't do that??"

Me: "No, I swear" *gets out of bed and enters kitchen*

Me: "Okay, that is really weird."

Scott: "I know. Did one of us sleep walk in here last night??"

Me: "Who knows... maybe? I'm really freaked out." *Scott and Hannah walk into living room, puzzled*

Scott, looking at slightly opened front door: "Did we lock the door last night??"

Me: "I don't know honey, I went straight to bed. Did you lock it??"

Scott: "I know I did. I don't understand why it's ajar like that."

Me: "I'm really creeped out right now. Hey, did you move the entertainment center?? And why is the DVD player sticking out??"

Scott: "No, I didn't do that. Babe, someone was in our apartment last night."

Me, now crying hysterically: "Babe, I'm really scared. How did they get in???"

Scott, wandering around the living room: "Come look. The window is open."

What follows is self-explanatory. We started looking around the house trying to figure out what was stolen. My laptop was the first thing we noticed missing, followed by the cell phones and Scott's briefcase, all of which we keep in the living room. It wasn't until I noticed that the piggy bank I leave on my bed stand was missing that we realized they had actually come into our room. They also stole Scott's work cell phone from our bedroom.

We proceeded to walk over to the apt. manager's apt and let her know what happened. The following conversation ensued:

Liz (apt. manager): "Did you guys park your car out front last night?"

Me: "No, I parked it in the car port last night."

Liz: "Well did you move it this morning??"

Me: "No..... why?"

Liz: "Well your car port gate is wide open and your car is not there."

Me: "They STOLE MY CAR???!"

Liz: "Well I don't know. Why don't we go check."

Walk into the car port. Car is gone. Go back into apt. Car keys and apt. keys are gone. The car has been stolen.

Call 911 and the cop comes. He's not very helpful, but nice at least. Hands us a case number and says we will get a call if they find the car.

We eventually did get that call. At 3:30 on Monday morning. Turns out a young male was pulled over for DWI, they ran the plates, and found out it was a stolen car he was driving. Oh yes, and he was very high on Marijuana. Awesome.

We get the car back and the cop shows us what was found in the car:

-A ziploc bag's worth of marijuana in individual containers

-A 9mm gun magazine (the part of the gun where the bullets go) and 9mm ammunition

-My Canon Rebel (yay!!)

-Scott's work cell phone

The ammunition was the scariest finding. The guy who came into our apartment was armed. If we had woken up, that easily could have been the worst night of our lives. The cop told us we were "extremely lucky" we did not wake up. I like to think that God had his angels guarding us. Maybe Sarah :-)

I should note and give a huge shout out to our parents, who all came into town that day to help us deal with insurance, credit card companies, police officers, and put our apartment back in order. They also paid for us to stay in a hotel with them that night and took us out for several meals. We love you guys so, so much, and are very grateful that you came and supported us during such a scary time.

The past few weeks have been a long run-around with our insurance company, but we finally have the money in our bank to start replacing some of this stuff. The first thing we replaced was my laptop! I am thoroughly enjoying the newer model :-)

This turned out to be a much longer post than I was expecting! I will end now with some pictures of the car in the state that we found it when it was returned to us. Keep in mind, my car was SPOTLESS before it was stolen:

I find it particularly amusing that this fellow wanted to do crossword puzzles while living in my car for two days. I guess if you're dumb enough to drive around a stolen car while intoxicated and high, you might as well be sure that your vocabulary and problem solving skills are up to speed. Genius.

Have a happy weekend, all :-)

HK