Happy May!

This has been a very traumatic week for us. Healthwise it has been good, but things have gone on that made it a hard week. But...first the good.

Bill saw the hematologist Tuesday and he saw even fewer of the cells that had shown up before. He's really thinking more now that he had an infection and that it has resolved itself. He's only going to check him every 3-4 months now. When I called Stephanie to see if she wanted me to fax her the lab report or just bring them she thought that I was going to tell her something bad!

If you remember from last week's post, our Saturday was a full one with a baby shower and then a BBQ, gospel singing and preaching service for a mini-revival at church. The shower was huge! Little Hallie Hope will not need much more except lots of love from her family. The BBQ was a success with so much food left over that we were able to eat again on Sunday, the music was fantastic and a great speaker. He was one of those that isn't pompous, but just talks, and the subject was something I needed to hear. He also preached Sunday morning and we were able to meet his wife. She has lots of health problems and usually doesn't travel with him, so we were glad she chose to come.

And now for the bad...when I unlocked the house after church I saw that we had been broken into. "They" had broken the glass out of the back security door and then reached in and unlocked it. It was the 1 time that Bill hadn't locked the deadbolt, which can only be locked/unlocked with a key. They then kicked in the wooden storm door and the door leading into the kitchen. They took my desktop computer, both laptop computers, our TV, a portable DVD player, Bill's digital camera and about $60 in change. There's probably more missing because they packed one of our suitcases with loot. But, the reason we don't yet know what all is missing is because they completely trashed the house...things pulled out of every closet, every drawer open, things and paperwork just thrown everywhere! We discovered that they did not take the 2 tablets or the 2 nooks, although I thought they had taken one of those, and when I went to get breakfast Monday morning my box of Poptarts was empty. We've also since discovered that they took a box of snack crackers and an almost full package of my unmentionables! Why anyone would want to steal "granny panties" is beyond me, but I guess Mother's Day is coming! It looks like most, if not all, of my jewelry is still here, but I haven't had the heart to go through it all yet.

The easiest thing during all of this was dealing with insurance. I filled out the claim online and the adjuster called at 10:30 Wednesday morning. I gave him the list of items with dates and approximate prices and by 4:45 he called back with some figures for us. It was more than we had thought it would be and he even said that we would probably get more once we replace things and send the receipts. He was able to do a direct deposit and the money was in the bank yesterday morning! So, if any of you are members of AARP and looking for insurance, check out Hartford. The homeowner policy we have was double the value of the old policy for about half of what we were paying, and we saved almost 6 months of premiums on the car insurance, with better coverage! OK, that's the public service announcement.

Bill was more upset about the change being missing because most of it was in the talking bank I got him for Christmas. I tried to tell him that the bank was not expensive and I would get him another one. It was just one of those gifts that show up around Christmas to get when you don't know what else to get. But, as I was cleaning up in the bedroom, I found the jar under some pillows and the top was in his clothes hamper! I'm more upset about my laptop computer. That has all of the tax information for the FAMILY on it, plus medical forms. I also collect knitting and crocheting patterns and some of them came from sites that are no longer active, or I just plain don't even remember all of them! I think we have all of the family pictures because they were on CDs or our external hard drives, which they did not take. I'm hoping they just wiped them and didn't really look at what there was. 

There were a couple of little blessings with this, and I've said throughout Bill's difficult recovery that every trial can be turned into a blessing. Bill has an antique double-barrelled rifle (yes rifle, not shotgun) that was either his father's or his step-father's). They did not find it, and we didn't either. But, Bryan remembered where it was and has now taken it to his gun storage locker. My sister had given me a silver dollar minted the year I was born for my 50th birthday, and even though they had gone through the drawer it was in, they missed it! My mother had given me a Bible for Christmas one year that my step-father had given her for Christmas. Because it's not a full-size book, I kept it in my computer case and of course they took the case. But, I had moved it to the briefcase that Mayo pharmacy sent us instead. So, a few little victories.

All of this has made us a little fearful of leaving tomorrow for Bill's checkup, but we've done what we could. The security door has been repaired, and we replaced the glass with plexi-glass. We've bought an alarm system and it was installed and activated yesterday. I also broke down and purchased some drapes for the living room. I don't like heavy curtains and have always just had sheers up. So, I'm compromising with some drapes and sheers so that I can leave the drapes open some. The only thing we've replaced so far is the TV and that was another fiasco. We've been pricing the other things, but decided to wait until we get back to buy them.

Buying the TV itself was not a problem, but it is a little wider than the one we had, so we also had to buy a new stand for it. We did some looking and they are so expensive! I didn't want to pay more for it than we did for the TV! We got one from Walmart and spent 6 hours putting it together. It was 3/4s done and when we turned it over for the next step...it collapsed! Because we were so stressed as it was I said I wasn't going to try it again. We were going to take it back, but we couldn't put it back in the box. I didn't want to go through the hassle of returning it, so we gave it to Mistie. Hopefully they could put it together. We were going to use the cedar chest as a stand until we found something else and then I remembered we had an old dresser we weren't using. I had planned on moving it into the living room and putting it in front of the window to store my yarn, but it is making a wonderful stand for the TV. It's the same finish as the tables and looks perfect! I need to get new hardware for it and it will be done. I think we paid about $25 for it from a junk store a long time ago.

We were going to take the Thunderbird to Florida and leave my car in the driveway so that people would think we were home, but decided we would be more comfortable in mine. We've done about all we can to make the house more secure and I'm not going to let these punks (and we think it's the teenagers who live in the house with the kids who broke the tree) make me live in fear. I just refuse to not leave my home when I want. Yes, right now I get a little twinge when we both go somewhere together, but we haven't gone through everything we have with Bill to not be able to enjoy life! We have so many friends and neighbors who have said they will keep watch that make us so grateful for good neighbors (well, most of the neighbors)!

I've found that it's hard to do something like this on my tablet, so don't look for an update while we are in Florida, and we will be home before time for the next one. At least they didn't take Bill's desktop. I don't like the way he has it set up and I'm itching to change it to what's easiest for me, but I'm holding myself back

This is the longest post in a long time! Oh for normal again! Until next Saturday, enjoy this nice weather (at least it's nice here)!