Unexpected Visitor

We all went to church today; Alex and I headed to setup HRCC, Rene came along a while after we left, and then mom headed to her church. Mom had a lunch she was going to after church, and we had a church meeting, and then went to Zaxbys for lunch (we had not gone out to lunch for about 2 months). I had dropped Alex off up the street and pulled into the driveway about 10-15 mins after mom got home.

I walked into the living room and was just walking thru when i saw some kinf of plastic or metal laying on the floor and i couldnt figure out what the heck they could have been from. Then i looked and saw the back door frame was bent in at the bottom about 2 feet pulling it away and up to the top. I looked at this like, what the heck could possibly have caused that to happen, did the house shift or something fall on the frame, since the door was closed. Then my brain actaully said (and i swear i heard a voice say to me) "SOMEONE HAS BROKEN INTO THE HOUSE!". Being a black belt and being trained for years to be on "alert" i heard Rene come in and told her to stay out of our side of the house, and i proceeded to walk thru the house looking in closets and everything for whomever had broken into the house. I looked everywhere and when i came into the bedroom i saw that the window was wide open and the screen was sitting out in the middle of the deck.

After looking around and trying to see what they had stolen, but i couldnt see anything. I did notice that my jewelry box had been opened and all the junk (and thats all that was in it is junk) was all over the dresser (seee right). The only thing of value that was in there was my wedding ring (I dont usually wear it because playing drums with it on will bend one side flat). I looked and it was still there. All that was in there (and still is) are ticket stubs and things.

I called 911 and told them someone had broken into the house, and they asked me if the person was still there, and i told them i have looked around the house and it didnt seem so. The police officer showed up in about 5 mins or so, walked around the house. I had thought that the person kicked in the back door (shocking that a Black Belt in TKD would have thought to Kick a door open!) but the officer spotted places on the door where had been pryed open with a crow-bar or something, breaking the door frame (see 1st pic). We walked around and at first it looked like they had pulled up something to the deck in the back (ie car/truck) but i was not sure about this as someone would have surly noticed a car on the back yard. Later we figured out that was from the larn mower wheels. The officer looked around to see if there was any physical evidance (fingerprints etc) that he could gather, but couldnt find anything (shocker).

We told him that if anyone in the neighborhood saw anything it would be our next door neighbor (she lives behind our house along the one road). The officer walked over to talk to her, and about 2 mins later they came walking back, we went out to talk to them and she said that she had seen this man walking from our back yard out into the road about the same time thatt we came home. She had been out walking her dog, and the man walked right by her and she had said hello to him. She was describing the man to the officer and he immediallty picked up his mic and called into the other officer to be on the lookout for this man (using his name). I looked at the officer and said "you know this man?", he goes "yep, i have arrested him 2-3 times myself for these kinds of break-ins".

The officer asked if we had access to the internet and i said "well YEAH" (lol). So we went into the house and looked up this man on the police web site, and there was his photo. We printed it out his photo and info (it took 8-9 pages to print this man's record). We showed this to our neighbor and she said "yep thats him". I belive the officer was trying to get a warrent for his arrest. Its only been a few hours at the time im writing this.

We had a friend that is doing some contracting work for us come over and get the door put together enough that we could lock it again (heck with the screws he used to hold it all together are probably stronger than the wood was!). So at least the door is locked. I plan on staying home tomorrow to get someone over to check out the alarm situation at the house, and to see what we are going to do about this door.

The stress of the day has been really high. This has been a really bad few months for us financially, and this really could have been horrendously bad for us. My first thought was Why is God so unhappy with us, but then Rene said to me "maybe its satan and he is upset because for the first time we are all involved with a church together, and we are trying to make changes in our lives to get closer to where we should be." It could very well be, its just been so hard.

Please pray for this man (he is just a 24 year old kid), that he could find a purpose for his life. He has a very long history of drug abuse, breaking into people's houses, and more, and maybe we would be the last people who has to endure his problems.

A really tough few months

--- there is some graphic text below - not bad words, just talking about body issues ---

As you know its been a tough few months, health wise for me. Well you may not know that its also been a tough few months for a my family as well. My niece and nephew have been fighting illness (nothing major). My mom's back has been in VERY bad shape for the past month, it seems to have been muscle spasms and problems in her lower back. After a week of not really being able to stand up from a chair she went to the doctor and got on some meds to help her. Its about 50% better now, but its not great. She really needs to get better, she is headed to my sisters in NY where the weather is a lot colder, and could make her feel a lot worse. I'm praying the meds work better.

Well this is a lot but its just the beginning. Last Thursday and my mom was sitting there (she lives with us) watching tv with us when the phone rang. My mom couldnt tell who was on the phone. She got up to walk up to her room, and stopped dead in her tracks, and went white. This freaked me out, and after a few mins she went and sat back down, and i was trying to hear what was going on. After a while (10-15 mins) she got off the phone to tell us it was my other sister (in OH) calling from the hospital. My sister had come home from work (she lives alone) and she was not feeling well and she started to bleed from her body, and she called 911 and in the process of trying to get help she vommited blood into the phone. She then went into the hallway of her condo yelling for help, someone finally got her an ambulance, and she made it to the hospital. It seems she had a gastric ulcer that broke blood out into her body, and caused all the problems. But she also had some other issues and her white count was/is very low.

Life has also been slamming me financially. The bills from the previous medical issues as well as some vehicel issues were bad enough, but we found out that our master bedroom's bathroom toilet had been leaking under it for a while (who knows how long) and has ruined the floor. It will all have to be pulled up, and replaced, and possiblly even a joist or two replaced. And my part time job has not been bringing in a whole lot.

So if you could please take a few minutes to pray for my family's health and my financial issues. Prayers work, and yours would be more than welcome.

Thanks for listening.