Caught By Surprise

So on Monday night (July 23rd), Kimi and I got into a dreamy mode and started looking at different new homes in the neighborhoods around our area. We're trying to compile a wishlist of amenities that we just "have to have", which basically turns into a drooling fest. Anyway, we stay up and talk late into the night (for us) about our plans to build or buy and were just having a great time getting lost in our thoughts. Looking at the clock and seeing it was 1 1/2 hours past our normal bedtime, we start to stir around, get ready for bed, leave the dogs in the front room and finally climb into bed about 11:30pm. But we were both so wired that we couldn't really sleep. I had left our door to the bedroom cracked so if Makenna needed us in the middle of the night, we could get up without disturbing each other. About the time midnight rolls around, there was this noise coming from the front room which sounded like a knob turning with a slight creak. Just then the doorbell sound went off, but it was in a prolonged buzz sound as if someone were pressing up against it for an extended period of time. At this, the dogs jumped off the couch and ran to the door. Kimi yelled, "Jason, I think someone is trying to come in through the front door!" Now, when you are aroused out of the beginning stages of sleep (and without your glasses), you fumble around for reality for a minute or so until it becomes clear that your hysterical wife means business and you should get a move on with your husbandly duty of checking out the "noise". I stumble to the door and try to look through the peephole to see who is out there but to no avail. Whoever had been there took off when the doorbell rang and the dogs barked. When I got a grip on reality, I ran to the place where I keep my shotgun and 22mm rifle and headed back to the front room in case they tried something else. We turned on the alarm (we used to never keep it on...) and checked all the doors and rooms to make sure everything was okay. Makenna was up at this point so we had to put her back to bed. We tried to go back to bed but our adrenaline made for terrible sleep the rest of the night. I had all these questions running through my mind. I kept thinking, "What if the front door had been accidentally left unlocked... we could have been the victim of a home invasion! What would I have done then???" As a husband and father, I am implicitly charged with the safety and protection of my family. You hear in the news about a man's family being raped and murdered in front of him and you just cringe from the horror but you never know how easily bad things can happen at a moment's notice. We specifically chose a cul-de-sac because people are less likely to be there without a purpose but it doesn't really matter much these days. We are going to keep a careful eye out from now on but it is a bit unnerving to have such a close call. What ever happened to our neighborhood watch group? It's a farce. Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you all to be a little more careful and to have a plan in place in case someone tried to break into your home. I know we do now! Maybe it's time I thought about getting a little bit better methods of protection like the kid in "Home Alone"...

Switching to lighter and better subjects, Kimi has spent the last two weeks applying and interviewing at a few places for the upcoming school year. She had two interviews that went well and was offered both jobs pretty much on the spot! How cool is that? Each one, including the one she currently has now, offered different things that made them stand out over the others but it was clear as mud as to which we should choose. So we compiled a list and labored over it all weekend. We took two trips out to each school to determine the drive time, traffic conditions, ease of access to the highway/shopping areas, local daycare situations, etc. That helped a lot but the little things just kept bugging Kimi. We sought advice from friends and family and some were adamant that we should go one way while the others were adamant about the other choice! After much deliberation, Kimi finally had a peace about which school to choose. She chose the smaller of the two schools because she could have more freedom over the direction of the program, whereas the other school is already established in their ways and Kimi would be just another employee subject to someone else's way of doing things. We will (FINALLY) have consistent pay and Kimi has the option of health care and retirement benefits. All very good things in case something happens to my job (long story). So thank you family and friends for your thoughts and prayers. Kimi is extremely excited about the upcoming school year and is ready to get it started!

Oh yeah, guess what we did last week? We went to the Rascal Flatts concert at the Ford Center in OKC! The pic was taken with my cell phone camera so it's pretty terrible. But notice ALL of the people with cameras and cell phone's taking pics? So funny! Kimi dragged me talked me into using my birthday present this year to take her to her favorite country boy band since she was pregnant last year and I wouldn't let her go. (Boo, hiss, bad husband!) It's only fair I guess because the last two out of three years I've gone to NFL football games on her birthday! :) I've gotta tell you, I was having a great time making fun of all the cowboys and cowgirls in the place, drunkly singing out at the top of their lungs with their heads back, eyes closed, swaying around to the sweet lullabies of the Rascal bunch. But when they played "Life is a Highway", I couldn't help myself from really getting into it. Too bad that was the last song! Haha! I like most of the Rascal Flatts songs but I guess I'm not as big of a fan as my wife is. She kept grinning and giggling each time they played a song she recognized. Apparently, she tells me she got hooked on them because of Leah Bierwirth giving her a copy of their CD from back at the apartment days when we lived like 100 feet away from them. Now Kimi says she "needs" all 5 of their CD's and wants me to pre-order their new one coming out in September. Let me personally tell you thanks Leah, I appreciate it. :) Kimi says her perfect concert would be one in which Kenny Chesney (gag me) comes out singing a duet with Rascal Flatts (pretty boys). Yeah, I can just hear it now, "She thinks my tractors sexy-eee and I M-E-L-T every time she looks at me that-a way..." Maybe Matthew McConaughey can join in and make it a real party. That would just be super. <-- Sarcasm fully intended. Did you know that my wife gave me permission to have a crush on any Hollywood actress or singer just so long as she can have one on Matthew McConaughey? She was serious! Did you just roll your eyes like I did? Or did you think, 'Hmmm, I should try that with my husband?'. Of course, I agreed. But I just can't narrow it down between all of the Hollywood starlets. My brother would choose Avril Lavigne but do you guys have any other suggestions? I can't wait to hear them...

I hope this post finds you all well and happy.

Jason