Put Your Hands Up!

Being a resident manager has it's good and bad to it. Last night was definitely the BAD!

Let's start at the beginning here. We have a resident, let's call her "Jane Doe," that came to me about a month ago and informed me that two of our residents were drug dealing with each other. One of the ladies lives across from me and the other is a great friend so I thought how strange it was that I did not notice this since I am always on the lookout for things like that. Well, later Jane Doe came to me and she said that she asked on of these residents if she was selling drugs and she said that she was because she needed money. I decided to watch these two homes instead of calling the cops since I did not have any evidence myself.

About two weeks later Jane Doe was in my back yard with three dogs that belonged to another resident. I went outside to ask her why she had the dogs and she told me that the owners abandoned their home and they just left the dogs hungry and without food. I thought this was strange since the owners were a younger couple that were very nice and they had kids at my kids school and I just knew they did not abandon their home. Jane Doe said they abandoned because their Mom was one of the ladies that she suspected was doing drugs and they got scared and moved out.

I took Jane Doe, and the three dogs to the owners home and found no one there. I looked in the window and it was full of furniture and I knew they had not abandoned the property. I then asked Jane Doe how she knew that the dogs did not have any water and she said that she went into the home and found no food or water. STRANGE! But yet, I believed her story of wanting to help the dogs. I left her in the dog owners yard and came home to tell Mitchell about it since I could not get her to move. About that time the homeowner of the dogs called me and said that a strange lady was in their yard and she had her dogs. She asked her what she was doing there and she said that the dogs escaped and she was putting them back into the yard.

Then, the story gets better. Last night at 11:30 or so I get a POUND on the front door. Lindsay and Hailey fell asleep on the floor in the living room right by the front door and Ashley was in her own bed. I ran to the door and yelled, "who is it?" and she replied, "Jane Doe". I ran to get presentable to open the door and when I opened it she stormed in the house and shut the door behind her. Immediately I heard sirens outside and I asked Jane Doe, "Are the police here for you?" her reply was, "apparently." OK, I was scared to death, what in the world did she do this time? She was in my home, my kids were right by me and I felt trapped. Luckily Mitchell was in the other room getting presentable also so he was here just taking a bit to come out. She kept explaining to me that apparently the law does not like it when she takes things into her own hands.

At this time I could hear the police cars on my street. Jane Doe started feeling around in her coat and the first thing that I thought is that she has a gun and she was going to harm my family. I calmly (this was truly heaven sent) asked her what she was looking for and she said she did not have anything. I opened the front door and pushed her out and she calmly went. Upon opening the door I had a flashlight on me and Jane Doe and seconds later Mitchell was right behind me. The cop yelled, "PUT YOUR HANDS UP!"

At this time another resident of ours was coming to my porch and it was so dark that I did not realize that he was not a cop. He just moved in two weeks ago and he informed me that Jane Doe broke into her house and he caught her in there. He called the police and chased her to my house where she hid in my shed until she pounded on the door and I let her in.

Long story short, an hour later she finally was hauled away in a cop car and I found out more details from the cops. She has something mental going on (obviously), and she thought that she would take the law into her own hands and break into this residents home to see if they were illegal or not. The police officer told me that the resident was missing some guns so I am not sure where they went and I do not know if they found the guns.

In the meantime Lindsay heard everything from start to finish and she was hiding under the blankets three feet from where Jane Doe was standing with me in my home. When I noticed she heard everything she was bawling and was truly scared. Once things calmed down she slept on the floor in my room and we said a prayer that we would be protected and able to sleep through the night.

I am so thankful for prayer and for the promptings from the spirit on how to handle things in such scary situations. It very easily could have become dangerous for my family and thankfully it wasn't. We are safe and that is all that counts. Now time for damage control with the residents that watched it all come down and I am taking a nap!

Guess What!

I love their reaction!

Easter

I absolutely love Easter. It is such a sacred time to think about our Savior and all that he has done for us in our lives. It is so sacred that we decided to not have the Easter Bunny actually come on Easter but come a week earlier so we can celebrate the true meaning. This Easter was extra special since my parents were here from California for Spring Break. It is always good to see them and the girls love having their Grandma and Grandpa over.

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This year we took my families Easter tradition where the Easter Bunny hid eggs and candy around the house and the girls had to find them. I was sneaky this year and did not tell the girls when the Easter Bunny was coming so it was fun on a Saturday morning to tell them that he had.

Lindsay, Ashley and Hailey waiting to come into the living room to find their treasures.

I love this picture of Lindsay holding up Hailey to find the egg. I wonder who kept it.

This year I was adventurous and decided to make my girls Easter Dresses. Let me just say that I loved it and love the dresses but realized that it takes a lot of time and it costs quite a bit. Every year I buy similar Easter dresses for the girls. This year they are quite similar, but in different colors in which the girls were able to choose. Lindsay and Ashley's dress came from the same pattern, but they both chose different sleeves and ribbon. Hailey had a slightly different pattern, but it is pretty similar also.

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One day during Spring Break I went over to my sister Heather's house and we sewed for 14 hours straight until all three dresses were complete. She is a fantastic seamstress and was such a huge help. It was such a fun day and I learned a lot. Thanks so much Heather, I love them and could not have done it without you!

The Golden Ticket

On March 19th our good friends invited Mitchell and I to the Portland Trailblazers Basketball game. Let me just say that we were treated like royalty and had such a great time. Apparently if you have this special wristband, you get all the food, snacks and drinks that you want. Upon arrival Lynn and Scott showed us around a huge area that only people in the Executive Club could go. The food choices were amazing. We could have all you can eat salads, prime rib, pizza, nachos, hot dogs, popcorn, peanuts, candy, sodas, desserts and the list goes on and on. Let me just say that we were in heaven and when we left we were about 5lbs heavier.This is the view from our seats.

We had a great time and to top it all off our friends girls babysat for free! Can't get any better then that.