In other teeth news, Kathryn doesn't have any (she is seven,after all). Megan and Hannah have all theirs, just not in the right places. I guess it's time for an orthodontist. Orthodontist bills? Ouch!
On Saturday night, at 2:15 in the morning, I was woken up by the sounds of men yelling. I was groggy and not sure where it was coming from. Then there were dogs barking, and a bright light illuminated our house. Jay and I jumped out of bed to try to figure out what was going on. There were about five cop cars spotlighting our house. A bunch of policemen and dogs were in our front yard yelling. Needless to say, I was scared out of my mind. Jay put on a robe and went outside to see what was going on. Apparently, the police had been tracking a man through our neighborhood with their dogs, and they found him in our front window well. This is the window to our girls' bedroom. I am still totally freaked out about that.
The girls, by this time, had run upstairs. My wonderful husband calmed them down and explained what was going on. They didn't seem to be too scared, just full of adrenaline. They hadn't heard the man in the window well, but woke up when his feet were banging on the window as he was dragged out. Somehow, Jay managed to get them to go back to bed and they fell asleep pretty quickly. Later, he told me that he had told them to say a prayer that they would be safe and could fall back asleep. I wish he would have reminded me to add that to my prayers. I was just praying thank you's that nothing terrible had happened to us. I couldn't sleep the rest of the night.
I was mentioning what happened to a member of our bishopric on Sunday as I waited for Hannah to get done with a meeting. Brother Johnson, who is a canine policeman, happened to walk in, and didn't know anything about what had happened, but he made a phone call to find out. During the night, a police officer was following what looked to be a drunk driver. He didn't even turn his lights on before the car sped away into our neighborhood. The policeman carefully drove in the direction of the drunk driver, and found the car wrecked in someone's yard on the street up from our house. There was no one in the car. They checked who the car was registered to, and went to the house which was just a few streets up from us. They found a man there who looked like he could have been in an accident. The man said he was the guy they were looking for. By this time, the canine officers had already started looking through the neighborhood, and the dogs had picked up a scent. They decided to follow it and see what they found. They found, of course, the man hiding in our window well.
Brother Johnson says people hide in window wells all the time and he has woken up a lot of people with barking dogs and spotlights in his time. He did say, though, that in his eighteen years, he has only ever had someone try to break into the house once. That doesn't make me feel too much better. I am still highly creeped out. We make sure to leave the porch lights on at night now. And, we are looking into getting window well covers. I can't believe this happened in our neighborhood. Obviously, I'm incredibly naive. This certainly isn't the worst that has happened around here. I feel really exposed and vulnerable.
Charlie is much happier. A few days after the last post, he suddenly started being able to reach and grab things. He started playing with his toys instead of just looking at them. Yea! Happy baby.
We went to Las Vegas to see Jeff and Melinda. I should say, I took the kids to Vegas. Jay stayed home. How on earth did I think it would be easy to take a six hour car ride by myself with the kids? Traveling with a baby is so much fun. NOT! Actually, it wasn't too bad. He only screamed for about an hour on the way down. He was very nice once we got there. We had a nice, relaxing time. We didn't do too much, because Zach and Brady got sick, but just being out of my own house was a fabulous vacation. The girls rode their scooters all over the place. We went for a hike at Red Rock. We hiked to a 
waterfall. Who could have imagined there would be a natural waterfall so close to Vegas? Charlie slept the whole time. The girls enjoyed climbing on the rocks. Hannah had to pack Zach, because Brady got sick when we got there and wanted his Mom to carry him. Poor thing. There is nothing sadder than sick kids. The baby was awake most of the way home, but the girls played with him, and he didn't fuss. Overall, it was a good break, but I think Jay got the vacation of my dreams. Being home alone for a few days with no responsibilities. Sounds like heaven.
Megan entered the 4-H Healthy Cuisine/Quick Meals contest with her cousin, Kallie. They had do make a healthy meal in one hour, including clean-up. They made chicken noodle soup from scratch, and some tortilla roll-up sandwiches. They really did an amazing job. They learned to chop vegetables, cut chicken and clean up properly after it, and how to work together. There were four groups competing, and they won first place! 
Okay, I'm going to make a bigger effort. Thanks for harassing me yet again, Kristen. Working on the blog has been one of the best things I have done in a long time. I had to have Hannah help me ( of, course) to fix things, and the kids and I ended up laughing and dancing to my new playlist. Great fun! I haven't even looked at their blogs, let alone everyone else's for ages. Hannah took pictures of pictures from her scrapbook, Kathryn spells like my mom, and Megan talks as much about other people as her self. Charlie likes dancing to the Barenaked Ladies. Who knew?
Last night, I decided it was time to stop hoping for my perfect life, and realize that I have it. I am so blessed. I get to spend all morning with a happy, smiling baby. I get to go to a job I love, and I only have to go for four hours, so I can still be a mom. And, my sister watches my baby for a pittance. My children WANT to help fix dinner, and they ENJOY washing walls. My husband does his own ironing, and most of the laundry. I can afford to buy chocolate. I've got friends and family who care about me enough to want to read what I think on this silly blog. My day has been so much better for my decision last night.
