Lessons Learned

Thanksgiving morning, we were up super early and ready to head to my sisters.  Damien could not find his wallet anywhere, so we searched and searched but never found it.  We were planning on staying the weekend but decided to come home that night as we were still worried about the missing wallet.  We spent all of Friday and Saturday searching, tearing apart and putting back together, but still no wallet!  This was very weird, I mean, he is "notorious" about leaving stuff wherever, but we  (or I) always find it! :) 

So we decide it really is lost, and I spend most of Monday cancelling everything and figuring things out.  Tuesday rolls around and Damien stops by before he leaves for his basketball game in South Fremont.  He asks if I have any cash (since he has no wallet..haha) and I didn't have any in my purse, but remember that on Wednesday (day before Thanksgiving) I decided to organize my dresser and I found two envelopes in there.  It was the envelopes we had used to keep track of the boys' summer money from moving pipe and taking care of Grandpa's animals.  I looked in them, seeing that one was empty and the other still had lots of 20's.  I remember saying to myself "Wow, I better take that to the bank after we get back."  

Anyway, back to Tuesday when Damien asked for cash---I ran up to grab some out of that envelope and when I opened up the drawer, both envelopes were gone!!!  I looked everywhere---but they were gone.  I immediately knew that someone had taken the wallet (which usually sits on top of our dresser when its not in Damien's pocket) and the envelopes!  I just knew it!  The only time we figured someone could have was on Wednesday night (the night before Thanksgiving) when we were in Ririe at Damien's game.  Our back sliding door is really hard to lock, and I couldn't get it, so I left.  

I was very upset that someone really might have come into our home (and into my bedroom!) and when the boys got home from piano yesterday, I explained what we thought had happened.  Carter starts getting scared/excited and yells, "See Mom--I told you!!!"  

That is when it all hit me---I had left the boys home that night after they came home and were NAUGHTY all afternoon and I was ticked off at their behavior, so as a consequence (a very serious one too, I might add, we all love going to Dad's games!) they were left a list of chores and told to be IN THERE BEDS at 8:00 and to NOT COME OUT until I got home.  At 8:20, (I checked my phone to be sure of the time), I got a call from Carter asking if I was home because someone was walking around in our room (it is directly above theirs and has creaks in the floor so they always hear us walking around up there).  I told them, No, I wasn't home, but would be in a few minutes, assured them there was nobody in my room (I was still a little annoyed by their behavior, I hate to admit, and wasn't exactly nice about it!)  and to STAY IN THEIR ROOM!  Oh, how thankful I am that they did! 

I really believe that there was someone in our home, stealing from us, while my two boys sat in their rooms reading!  I am sure they heard Carter talking to me on the phone, and realized someone was actually home, so quickly grabbed the wallet and envelopes and  got out!  We thought it odd that they would not have just taken the cash out of the wallet, and then taken the cash from the envelope, because we probably would have never realized it was stolen, but I think they panicked and just grabbed it all (one envelope was empty, remember) and ran!  I have tried to think of ANY other circumstance as to why we would have lost Damien's wallet AND the envelopes in the same night, but deep down I really believe this is what happened.  SO LOCK YOUR DOORS and STAY IN YOUR ROOM IF YOUR MOM TELLS YOU TO!!!  And DON'T KEEP CASH IN YOUR TOP DRESSER DRAWER-THE FIRST PLACE I WOULD LOOK IF I WAS A THIEF!!!

UPDATE:  THERE HAVE BEEN MANY BREAK-INS IN THE LAST COUPLE WEEKS, SO WE ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS!  THEY HAVE NOT CAUGHT WHOEVER IS BREAKING INTO OUR HOMES, AND WE MIGHT NEVER FIND OUT WHO IT IS, BUT MAKE SURE YOU LOCK YOUR DOORS AND BE EXTRA CAUTIOUS!