Happy Birthday to me???

Wednesday was my birthday.  It started out good.   Tyler had the morning off so he let me sleep in and do what I wanted.   It was actually a balmy 60 degrees so the kids and I spent the afternoon outside playing with the neighborhood kids.   We ate dinner and headed to the church.   Tyler had mutual.   I had choir practice (I'm playing the piano for the whole Christmas program on Sunday-- major stress!!).   Anyway, we came home and was planning on having cake and opening a few presents, but we had another surprise instead.  

Our house got broken into!!!   All the doors and windows were locked, but they busted open our front door that even has a deadbolt!   They ransacked everything and made a huge mess of our house.   They had opened several Christmas presents, but none were taken.   (They are mostly dollar store and homemade gifts.)   Our room was the worst.... everything was out of my cedar chest, our drawers, and closet.   We have 3 guns.   We have a small gun safe that they tried getting into.   They had used a screwdriver to try and pry it open.   We think we came home when they were still here because it didn't take Tyler much effort to open the safe with his hands after all of their work.   So they probably just freaked and left it as it was.   I'm amazed they didn't take the safe with them!   Well, after a check of things, they did run off with our laptop, camera, and a coin collection I got from my Grandma.   They also had Makenzie's school stuff strewn all over the living room and her backpack is now missing, so they must have taken that to haul all the stuff in.    

Our first clue that something was wrong was when we opened the garage and our kitchen door was wide open.   I totally would have seen it still open when we left, but my thoughts passed it by thinking the kids didn't shut it all the way.   It didn't take long for us to see the mess in the house though.   Tyler ran around with one of the guns to make sure they were gone.   The upstairs wasn't touched.   The screen from a kitchen window was off and our backdoor that has a chain on top was unlocked from them.   I think that was their getaway route.  

Anyway the cops came and got a few fingerprints, but I don't think anything will come of it. I'm not very sad about the lost items, it's just stuff.   I'm glad that I downloaded all the pictures from our Guatemala trip already!   I'm just completely scared wondering why we were targeted!!   I don't know if we have been watched for awhile or if it was just a random break in.   I am never gone in the evening....This was the first night in a very long time!   We are now taking EXTRA precaution and I'm completely paranoid!!!   It is the worst to know that someone has invaded our personal property.

We spent the rest of the evening with the cops, talking to neighbors, cleaning up and rewrapping presents.   We ate cake for breakfast this morning and opened presents.   The kids loved it.   So it will be a memorable birthday for sure!!!


There will probably be a lack in photos for awhile.  We do have cameras on our phones, so we aren't completely hopeless, but of course, it won't be the best quality.  :( :( :(