Quick update

We were able to get serial numbers for all of the electronics that were stolen: Xbox, video camera, and my sister's Wii. Hopefully, having the serial numbers will help. I'm just hoping and praying that whoever it was that was involved will slip up somewhere and give themselves away....somehow.

I spent a lot of time today trying to clean up finger-printing dust. For future reference: the stuff gets everywhere. We've had it caked on our feet, socks, and shoes since last night. I think I got almost all of it off the laminate flooring, However, when I tried to get it off the carpet......that didn't go so well. Dark black streaks started forming each time I pulled the vacuum cleaner over it. So, we tried using some carpet cleaner to get it up. That helped a little, but we ran out. So, we had to use what we had.....which was oxyclean. It helped a little also, but we still have some dark patches on our carpet. I guess we'll have to get a steam cleaner and see if that will work. Anyone else have any ideas?

Mentally...emotionally...I'm hanging in there. I've honestly tried to block a lot of the emotions that could have rushed in: fear, worry, anger, helplessness, etc. In four months, I've experienced two of my biggest fears, and I'm still left wondering "why?" I just don't get it. Jeremy commented that he felt like a modern day Job and that I shouldn't be surprised if his skin was covered in boils in the near future. It's funny, but it's honestly how we feel right now. We feel as if we're just waiting to get hit with something else.

I think I've tried to block a lot of the emotions mentioned above because I know that is what satan would love for me to allow to come into my mind. After all of the madness of yesterday, I got a moment to myself, and I spoke to satan, simply saying, "You will not win. I won't let you get inside my mind right now. I refuse to be afraid." I can't say I was completely fearless; I did sleep with pepper spray and my tazer sitting right next me on my night stand, and Jeremy had a box cutter with him. We had a scary moment last night. It was 2am, and all of a sudden, I hear the doorbell ring, and I sit up quickly....heart racing...and I grab my tazer. Jeremy didn't hear it the first time, but he heard me sit up. The doorbell rang again. He heard it that time, so he got up and went to the door to look out the peephole. In the meantime, I have my tazer in one hand ready to go....Tucker in the other....and I'm looking out our window to see if anyone is in the backyard. We left the lights on outside, and we left Gracie out of her pen. We thought that the burglar had come back to have some fun. It turned out to be our neighbor. She had seen that Gracie was out, which is unusual, and after everything that happened, she was afraid something had happened to us. Needless to say, we ended up sleeping late this morning because sleep was not so easy last night. I had actually stayed up until about 1:45, reading and watching TV because I just couldn't sleep. So, I hadn't been asleep long when all of this happened. We let Tucker sleep with us last night, which I believe he enjoyed thoroughly. He's hard to sleep with, though, because he likes to be right up against you, and if he hears any little noise he starts growling and barking. He did well last night, though.

Tonight will probably be much like last night. We are already looking into houses that are for sale in the area. We know we won't be able to even look into new places to live until ours sells, but it's nice to know what's available. With the next house, here is what we want:

- Small, cozy, preferably a bungalow...cute farm house style (which means older)
- AWAY from town and the crazies that live in town (I know there are crazies out of town, too)
- Location: Close to the memorial park where Ayden is, or on the outskirts of the county (again...away from town)
- Not a lot of neighbors - preferably not even in a subdivision
- No fence because although they offer privacy, we now know that people can jump them and kick in a back door with no one in sight.
- An affordable price range

Here is one we LOVE (<-- click "love")If only it could stay out there for us long enough for someone to take our house off of our hands. It's everything we want. It meets every criteria on our list. It will probably be taken well before we can even think about it, but something like it is sure to come up. I'm still going to cross my fingers for this one, though. Something good has to happen soon right?

Well, so much for a quick update. Thank you all for your kind comments and continued prayers. We truly appreciate it so much.