Winds of Change

"It's okay that mommy has to sell all of my stuff. I don't need it anyway. All I need is you and mommy. Besides when I get out we will just get new stuff. Bigger and better stuff because daddy is going to get a really good job because he won't have to worry about taking a drug test."

Fan F**king-tabulous....

You know, I am not usually one to cuss. In fact if you look back in this blog I have probably only used cuss words a handful of times. But people... this is one of those times!!

Today has been LONG!! Long and FULL of disappointments!! Let's start at the beginning, the very beginning, like oh say two o'clock this morning when my son woke up coughing. I tried to feed him thinking he was hungry but he just kept spitting the milk out. I knew that he had not eaten since 7:00 last night and I could hear his stomach rumbling but he would try to suck and he would just cough and then spit out the milk.

I tried three different bottles and three different flow nipples trying to find something that would allow him to get some nourishment into his little body. Nothing worked. Finally I took a baby syringe and was dripping milk into his mouth. I managed to get a half and ounce or so into him but he was still coughing and spitting and I finally decided enough was enough.

At three thirty I put him in his car seat and called my mom to tell her I was taking him to blank. It was about that time that he started to cough and everything that I had gotten him to swallow came back up.

So off to the emergency room we went. The verdict, Zack has bronchitis. They gave him a nebulizer treatment and we got him to eat about four ounces there and so they sent us home with a nebulizer. We got in the car a little before six and we were about 5 minutes from the hospital when I heard him choking. I pulled over real quick and saw that he had thrown up all four ounces down his front.

Okay... no luck there. So off we go to find a 24 hour pharmacy to get his medicine. I tried the ones in our town but had no luck so I had to go into Des Moines to find a Walgreens. We got out of Walgreens at 7:00 and I had to get Zack to daycare and be at Jake's court hearing by 8:30.

So I rushed home and changed and made it to the daycare at about 8:00. I basically threw him at the teachers and gave them a brief play by play of the nebulizer and such and off I went. I arrived at court right before 8:30.

Court was supposed to begin at 9:00 and they had told us to be there early so Molly and I sat in the waiting room and waited. And then we waited... oh yes and then we waited some more.

TEN THIRTY they came and got us. TEN THIRTY people!! I rushed around for NOTHING!! When we got into the court room we were talking with the lawyers and found out that the treatment center in Mt. Pleasant where we wanted Jake to go won't take him because he's on medicine. SO, now he gets to go to MECCA which is not as great.

Strike one.

And he may have to go to the MECCA in Des Moines, which is not as great as the one in Iowa City.

Strike two.

And the state will only commit him for 7 - 30 days even though his doctor said he needs 3 to six months. As the lawyers told us it is either this or nothing which would you prefer.

Strike three.

FAN F*CKING-TABULOUS!!!

So now I have to find a place that we can transfer him to once he gets out. AND I will have to figure out how we are going to pay for this place that we transfer him to. However, like I told Jake there is no point in him just doing the 30 days and then coming out and relapsing. That would just be a waste of everyone's time, effort and money. If we are going to do this, we need to make sure that we do it right.

So, about 11:30 I finally make it to work on my two hours of sleep. I got in and had JUST sat down at my computer when I noticed the server was beeping and our e-mail wasn't working right. So I went over to see what was wrong and noticed the e-mail system had crashed. So I tried to fix it with no luck and ended up having to reboot the entire server.

As soon as I finished that I decided I needed some lunch. I went to lunch with a co-worker and as soon as I got back I got a message that Zack had a fever and that they had only gotten two ounces in him all day (it was almost one by this point) and so my mom had gone and picked him up.

I called the doctor and they told me that I needed to take him back to the hospital so off I went to meet my mom in the ER once again. As I was walking out the door someone stopped me and said the e-mail was not working again. I caught one of the other tech guys and asked him to look at it as I bolted for the elevator.

When my mom pulled up to the ER I immediately noticed that all two ounces Zack had taken this morning were down his front so I was glad we were there. They gave him some anti-nausea medicine and then took some blood and gave him another nebulizer treatment.

After all of that we were able to get about three ounces in him and thought we were doing good until the nurse came back and told us that his potassium levels were high. SO... they had to take blood again and this time they were going to put and IV in so that if his levels came back still high they didn't have to poke him a third time.

It was at this point that I lost it. He cried and I cried as two nurses held him down to place the IV. They got the blood they needed but ended up bending the IV and had to remove it. Then it was more waiting.

Finally about 45 minutes later they came back and said that his levels were okay and they were discharging us.

At this point all I wanted to do was fall into bed. BUT NO... the DHS lady is coming tomorrow and so my mom and aunt thought that I should probably clean up my house before she got there so about 6:30 they showed up to help and they didn't leave until 9:30. At which time things had been picked up... but not really cleaned. (YES... my house was THAT bad!!)

When they left both back seats of my mom's tahoe were full of clothes. Katie and Jess are coming tomorrow to do the actual cleaning while I am at work. Someone just shoot me now!!

Why I love my job....

So... at 3:00 this afternoon my boss pulled me into his office and closed the door. All I could think of was oh shit my job performance has been slipping and he's going to talk to me about it.

After he sat down he said I want to talk to you about what's been going on. I want you to know that if you need anything don't be afraid to ask. Do you need money? If you need to take time off don't feel like you can't because you don't have any personal time left. We will still pay you and this will not affect your raise, etc.

Holy hell!! I have no idea who tipped him off. I'm guessing either someone from my work reads my blog or they picked up on it from one of my 10,000 phone conversations this week. I can only imagine what my cell phone bill will be!!

So... needless to say I will NOT be looking for anything different any time soon. I have always told everyone that I had a great job and I have never looked for anything different because I like where I'm at but this REALLY solidifies that.

Any job that is willing to put the well being of their employees ahead of their own bottom line is the job that I want to be at!!

Angry

That's where I am at today. They say there are different stages to processing any crisis situation. The stage I have now made it to is anger. Anger and frustration.

Last night I got home and there was a card in my door from DHS. They are investigating my home because of Jake. I don't have to be drug tested and it's not a formal investigation or anything it's just that any time meth is involved they have to go to the home and make sure the children are ok.

So... now I have to take him to a doctor to make sure they approve of the fact that he is fine and then I have to deal with being scrutinized. It makes me very angry that I have to fight to keep my son.

Last night I also went and visited Jake with his sister. I know that it is still early in the process and I know that it is going to take awhile but he asked about his four wheeler. That makes me angry. Of all the things he is fighting to keep you would think that a four wheeler would be VERY far down the list. Yet he asked if I was going to sell it.

It makes me very angry that I am on the outside fighting to keep my family together and fighting to keep my head above water with all the debt I have been left with and he is worried about a god damn four wheeler.

Speaking of debt... over the past couple of months our debt has gone from $9,000 at the beginning of December to $23,500 now. Why you ask? Well he wrecked a jeep, and then he wrecked another jeep and then he stole from me and then he didn't work and we had to borrow money. OH... and then he decided he needed to go out and buy a four wheeler!!

It makes me very angry that I am here swimming in debt because he couldn't get his SHIT together and he is there, watching TV and sleeping all day.

You get mad you get strong
Wipe your hands shake it off
Then you Stand

One day at a time... I can do this.

Changes

Last night I committed my husband.

Wow... it seems really strange to say that. I went to the court house, I got a court order, and some friends and I tracked him down and had the police haul him away. Boy doesn't my life suck?

As for why I'm saying this here. First of all this has always been the place where I find solice. I am able to write down what I'm feeling and for the most part feel pretty un-judged about it. If people don't like what I have to say they don't comment and if they do then they leave wonderful feedback. Speaking of which, please leave comments if you can. In fact tell your friends to tell their friends to leave comments. I could use all the positive feedback I can right now. This is going to be a long road.

Secondly, this is my life and my story. I know that a lot of people don't agree with me airing my dirty laundry but people it is my laundry. I have ALWAYS lived by the motto that you can't be embarrassed of your life. If you are than you should change it. I take each day as it comes and I make each decision one at a time. Once I make one I do not look back. If I have regrets than I should have made different choices.

People have often asked me how I live my life like this and I can't exactly explain it. I just know that dwelling in a past that you can't change has never done anyone any good. You can only change the future.

So with that said, let's start at the beginning....

Hi, my name is Heather and my husband is a drug addict.

I have known this for pretty much the entire time I have been with him. Ten years, six months and 6 days. I found out in the way a lot of people find out who have their heads in the sand. Jake was busted. I was 16 and he was 15. He got caught smoking pot in the school bathroom.

From there it has been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. There have been periods of time where he has been clean. Some as long as six or nine months. But inevitably he always goes back and each time he does the drug he chooses seems to get worse and worse.

Remember back last May when I told you Jake got laid off from his job. He didn't. I lie well to cover up for him. I've had 10 years of practice. What really happened was that he failed a drug test and when they asked him to take another one to prove that the levels in his system were coming down and that he was going to get and stay clean he refused.

Remember what I said about finding out only after they get busted. That was the same here. As is often the case with me. I begin to notice signs but never have any real proof and so I brush them aside until I am slapped in the face with something real and overwhelming.

This time was about two weeks after I found out I was pregnant with Zack. It is amazing to me to sit and look at my little boy and know that he was born healthy despite the hellish time I had the whole time I was pregnant. The summer was filled with days he would be home and nights where he wouldn't. Things would be good for a few weeks and then all of the sudden he just wouldn't come home one night.

When we graduated into the fall things started to get better. I was showing and the pregnancy seemed a little more real to him. However sometime in the early winter it all went terribly wrong again. I found out he was stealing money from his family and then in early January about a week before Zack was born I found out he was stealing from me.

Since that point things have quickly spiraled out of control. I spent much of my time in the hospital alone. Jake always had "errands" to run and somehow they always took longer than he had planned. I suppose I knew then what he was doing but everyone had told me how much having a child would change him. So I figured I needed to give him a couple of weeks to bond with his son and then see how things went.

My husband missed the entire fourth week of my son's life. That's how it went. Every weekend from the time Zack was born Jake disappeared for at least one night. Then the weekend after Zack turned three weeks he just never came back. One day passed, then two and three and four. Finally before I knew it was Friday.

I went to dinner with my mom and when I got done I found myself SO angry that I knew I had to find him at all costs. It took a couple of phone calls and a couple of people who ratted him out but I found him. However he went into someones house and refused to come out so I ended up going home.

The next day he was home. That was February 10th. I was at his mom's house getting ready for his nephew's first birthday party. He missed it. In fact he missed most of that weekend as he slept off all of the drugs in his system.

After that I took his jeep. It had the front end damage and so we didn't think it should be driven anyway. For some reason I have always thought that if I just restrict where he goes it will make it better. It doesn't. All it does is prolong the inevitable.

That next weekend it snowed. He had to have his jeep back to do snow removal and once he had it back he had no intention of giving me the keys ever again. By Saturday night he was gone again. I got home at 8:00 from his nephews second first birthday party and promptly fell into bed. When I awoke at 10:00 he was gone.

He called the next morning about 6:30 claiming he had been stuck in the mud while he was chasing coyotes and since his phone was dead he couldn't call anyone. This was the incident which found him ripping the transmission out of a jeep we had had for two weeks. Since the transmission was broken I chose to believe the story and he came back.

I honestly don't remember what happened on Sunday to make him leave but I'm sure he had some excuse about where he had to be or what he had to be doing. I think he told me he wanted to go work on his jeep. Either way he didn't come home and it was Monday night before I saw him again.

Once again I ventured out and made some phone calls and once again I tracked him down. AND OF COURSE... once again he ended up in someone's house and wouldn't come out so once again I came home. The next day his boss needed him to come to work so I dropped Zack off with a friend and out I went trying to find him. I finally tracked him down and was told that he would be home. At 6:30 he finally showed up.

The next day I decided that there needed to be some changes. Our plan was to commit him then and to this day I am kicking myself for not doing it!! Instead his sister came over and tried to convince him to go himself to get treatment. He refused saying he could do it on his own and she thought she should give him a try.

So Jake stayed home. He stayed at our house and I told him the following two phrases.

"I have gone to these people's houses twice now to track you down and bring you home. I will not do it a third time. If it happens again I will send someone bigger and badder than me."

"If I catch you at their houses again I will have you arrested or committed, it is just a matter of who gets to you first."

And then I prayed. I prayed that I would not have to follow through on my threats and for three weeks it looked like it was working. For three weeks he was home. All last week he picked up Zack from daycare and it looked like they were bonding and things were going well and then this weekend something happened.

I will never know what. I am not a drug addict. I have never even been drunk in my life and I have never even smoked a cigarette so I have NO idea what it feels like to have a craving. However, from talking to the counselors I have gathered that it is an over powering feeling and that you don't think about anything else but getting your fix.

From what they have told me it is not that an addict purposely hurts people they just do what they need to do to get their next high and if that means stealing or lying or whatever they are going to do it. So, when he didn't come home on Friday night I knew I was probably in trouble. On Saturday I had to work and then I had a girls night planned. I knew that he was going to be with a friend of ours so I figured he and Zack would be pretty safe when I went out.

Saturday night he gave me another story and off he went. However, every time I called him he answered the phone. It was different than all the other times he was gone and a part of me was hoping that his story about helping out a friend was true.

Sunday was the final straw. The day that I will forever kick myself for. I had to work on Sunday and Jake was supposed to watch Zack. Never before has he ever taken him anywhere or done anything with him to make me think that Zack would EVER be in any danger. For Jake drugs have always been a night time thing and so I have never really worried about him during the day.

Sunday he decided to break that streak.

Excuse me while I take a brief break to collect my thoughts... writing this down has been harder than I thought it would be. I love my husband, I wouldn't be here if I didn't, but the decisions that he made could have really had some bad consequences. And it hurts. I'm very objective about Jake. I make a decision and I move forward. I don't waller, I don't cry and to most people it looks like I am incredibly strong. I have been trained this way.

Don't take my lack of blubbering on to be a lack of emotion. It's just that falling apart right now is not going to help me keep my job, my house, or my son. It's only going to be me... falling apart.

Okay... back to Sunday. Sunday morning before I left Jake and I had the standard conversation. Do not even THINK about taking your son anywhere where he could be in danger. Stay home, call me if you need anything, I'll be back by noon. To which all of it was answered, "You know I would NEVER do anything to put Zack in danger. I love my son."

Sometime around 8:00 on Sunday morning Jake stopped answering his phone and my heart SANK!! Panic ensued but I tried to stay calm. Finally about 8:45 he answered again and he was at home because I could hear the dogs in the background. He told me he had just run up to Wal-mart and he was back. I asked how Zack was doing and he told me that he had changed him into a cute outfit (which he NEVER does) and that he was doing just fine.

By 11:00 I just had a feeling I needed to go home and so off I went. I knew something was wrong immediately. I opened the door and heard a rumbling upstairs. Then Jake came running down the stairs and immediately went to the couch and grabbed something up and put it in his pocket. I could tell right away that he had done some drug. I could see it in his eyes and the way he talked to me.

I immediately told him he needed to leave and he did. And that my friends is how we got to this point. He put me in the position that I either had to make good on my threat or be the woman who forever just made empty threats. I started with the police.

Since it's an on-going case I don't want to say too much about the circumstances just that I let them have access to my garage to look at an item of property that may have been stolen. They took it on Monday morning. They have yet to figure out if it is stolen but it is no longer at my house so that is alright with me.

After that I went for the commitment. When Jake called me on Monday he said he was going to check himself into rehab. I didn't hold my breath. By Monday night the story I got was that he needed a couple of days to clear his head and then he would do it. Tuesday morning we signed the papers.

After that it was just a matter of finding him. Luckily I have a friend who volunteered to help me. I will never be able to repay the kindness that this friend has showed me. I can only say that he has taken me and Zack under his wing and vowed to help us and make sure that we were safe. At 5:00 he called me and said he was out looking. He had no luck.

Than about 6:00 I got a tip that he was seen at a motel with the word Red in the name. Even though my friend was at home he jumped back in his vehicle with his wife and was out looking again. By 6:45 I got a call that they had found him.

Things after that moved pretty quickly. The police came, the pulled Jake out, they took him to treatment. In the room was drugs and a prostitute. He claims they didn't sleep together, she was just there for the drugs. She claims they didn't sleep together, she was just there for the drugs. Druggies are liers. I will never know the truth and quite frankly I don't care. My husband has a disease and what is most important right now is to get him help. We will figure the rest out at a later date.

So, there you have it... all the gorey details. Please, if you have any compassion for me do not take this opportunity to bash Jake in the comments. As I have said before I love my husband and he is very sick. As it looks right now he will be gone for a few months getting his ducks in a row and where we go from there is our decision... not yours.

I don't need to be judged for my decisions nor do I need to be lectured for them. I just need to tell people so that 1) if there is anyone else out there going through something similar they know that they are not alone and 2) because it makes me feel better.

For now I'm just going to take it one day at a time. There is a song by Rascal Flatts that I am taking my inspiration from. It is called Stand and there is a part in the song that says

You might bend, till you break
Cause its all you can take
On your knees you look up
Decide you've had enough
You get mad you get strong
Wipe your hands shake it off
Then you Stand

That's where I'm at. I'm picking myself up and dusting myself off and trying to stand strong for myself and my son. Chances are that if Jake is gone for more than a month we will have to sell our house and possibly some of our other things but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. We have enough between our tax refund and our savings to make it until about the end of April. That will get me through tax season and let me take a couple of weeks to sort through it all.

One day at a time....

Cross at your own risk

Dear Pedestrians:

I realize that you have the right of way but do you think that it is always smart to count on that as your sole reason for stepping into traffic without so much as a glance to see what is coming down the street?

Look, chances are I will make every effort to avoid hitting you (it just depends on the night I've had) but really... why tempt fate? After all I am going on VERY little sleep because last night my son decided to go to bed late and then get up twice in the night because he was just STARVING and I needed to feed him NOW!! So even though I may want to stop my reaction time may be a little delayed.

That said, no, a stop sign is not acceptable justification. See above explanation. Just because I have one doesn't mean I will see it or stop in time to avoid ending up half in the cross walk.

Finally, if there is a long line of cars and people continue to cross eventually one of us will get angry and forget that we are not in a video game where there are points given for each pedestrian. Really....save my paint job and your legs and just take 5 seconds to pause at the edge of the road and look both ways.

Thank you kindly,
Woman With Mild Road Rage

2 months

Boy what a difference 9 weeks makes?

A friend of mine sent me this picture. It was taken the first week in January. This was before we even had a clue what our babies would look like or how much one little smile could melt your heart.

Happy two month birthday my little peanut. Momma loves you to the moon and back.

(and back again....)

I have a son?

You know it's funny. I carried him around for nine months, I gave birth to him, I spent basically every moment with him for six weeks and yet when I'm at work and back in my routine sometimes I "forget" I have a son.

It still seems very surreal to me and I am waiting for that definitive moment when I won't be daydreaming and have to remind myself that everything is different. Just the other day Jake and I were going somewhere and we passed the new elementary school in our area. Zack was in the car, yet I still said that is the school that our children will go to. As if we didn't have any.

Now don't get me wrong, I love my son. The other night I had a dream that DHS came to take him away because I took him out in the snowstorm (who knows) and when I woke up I was filled with a hurt I have never known in my life. It took EVERYTHING I had not to snatch him up out of his bassinet and just hold him. So it's not like I haven't bonded with him.

It's something else entirely. I have had 26 years without him and only 7 1/2 weeks with him. So, I'm just wondering am I the only one who has ever felt this way? Did anyone else have to keep reminding themselves that there was a baby in their lives or am I just strange? Feel free to vote for the later... we all know how I am!!

Oh... and for those of you who are not reading Zack's site here is a little tidbit for you of baby cuteness. I plan to put a few pictures up here... just not as many as on the other site.

Time? What time?

What was that I was saying about hoping I have more time once I go back to work. HaHaHa!! I'm SOO funny!! This week has been really hectic!!

First off, Jake blew up his jeep (I know.. yes... AGAIN!!). He got it stuck in the snow and floored it in reverse and destroyed the transmission. He says that it was slipping when we bought it but I think that's just the excuse he gives me so I won't be so mad. So... on top of returning to work and adjusting to all of that we were also a one car family this week so I had to take him to work and pick him up.

Secondly, who knew it could take SOO long to get such a little person ready and out the door? I have to make sure I have bottles and milk and the breast pump and the extra clothes and my computer and get it all out to the car.

Oh yeah... and where is the baby, have to get the baby!!

My day starts a whole hour earlier than it used to and I still am late most days. It seems like something else always has to be done just when I think we are ready to go. Change the baby, feed the baby, oh crap he spit up... where is the burp rag? You get the point.

Finally when I actually DO make it to work I don't feel like I'm getting anything done. I'm pumping and even with the good double electric pump that process takes 15 - 20 minutes each time I do it. I have to unpack the pump, pump for 10 minutes, repack the pump, go to the kitchen and rinse out the pump parts and then return to my desk.

On top of all of that, Zack is going through a growth spurt. My mom just told me that he just ate 8 ounces for her. EIGHT!! I'm lucky if I get four in a pumping session and he is eating every 2 hours and I am only able to pump every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. So... needless to say we are going to either have to start giving this kid some formula or some cereal. I'm leaning towards the latter because I'm not real big on the formula factor right now. Not that I think it will hurt him, I just think if he's that hungry formula might not be the answer.

SO... needless to say things here are a little crazy. I really appreciate all of you checking in on me and sending me e-mails. It's nice to know that someone is out there missing me!! :-) Hopefully things will get regulated soon and I will be back to posting on a somewhat regular basis!!

To freeze or to feed?

Is anyone still out there and reading? Hey... if you are out there and you have ever breast fed I need some advice.

I just started work today and so I'm pumping. Now... tomorrow when I take milk to daycare should I take the stuff in the freezer that I pumped earlier and freeze what I pumped today or take the stuff from today to daycare tomorrow and leave the stuff in the freezer?

Does it matter?

Triage

That is the best way to describe what the first few weeks are like with a newborn. I feel like all I get done is the essentials. Take care of the emergencies, put out the major fires and move on with your day.

When I started this whole process I thought for sure that by week three my house would be spotless and I would be chomping at the bit to have some work to do or SOMETHING to fill my time. Guess what... not the case at all.

My house is still a mess and I haven't done any work at home for my job in the entire five weeks I have been here. I suppose if I had stayed home all day every day I may have gotten more done but it had just seemed like there has been so much to do.

I have met a couple of my friends for lunches and been to my mom's house half a dozen times and other than that it's mostly just trying to sleep and take care of Zack. (i.e. as I am typing his hour nap just turned into a half hour nap because somewhere in the back of his mind he KNEW mom was trying to do SOMETHING other than pay attention to him...)

Okay.. I am now typing one handed while I feed him.....

Which is another reason I'm getting nothing done. Most days he will eat every two to three hours. So if you figure it takes 20-30 minutes to feed him, change him, etc. Then that only leaves an hour and a half to do anything. Take out the time that he is crying because he is gassy, bored, overly tired, etc. and my "free" time is quickly dwindling!!

Honestly I must say I give serious props to stay at home parents. I have yet to be bored and I only have one week left!!

So, for those of you still reading wondering if I am alive. Yes, I'm here. Just be glad you can't see me in my two day old clothes and milk stained bra!! I return to work on the 26th so maybe I can find time to post then. Preferably with both hands next time!! :-)

Moved

Okay... I now have Zack's new site up and running. Because of my frustration with how blogger handles the password feature I have moved his site to typepad. Right now I am updating from the week he was born and his birth story. Hopefully I will get some of his first moments and some new pictures up soon!!

Please e-mail me, if you have not already, to get the password.

www.hamiltonkids.com

Frustrated

Is it really that hard for blogger to create an adequate password protection feature? They just upgraded so I thought for sure that this was the time but NO....

To restrict access to Zack's blog I can't just put on a password and tell it to people I have to add their e-mail address. So... all the family and friends that I wanted to be able to check up on him have to give me their e-mail addresses so I can add them to a list.

What a crock!! I'm going to have to contemplate what I want to do next.....

Update in Process

I have begun the process of updating Zack's site to the new blogger so I can password protect it. Cross your fingers for me that it goes well!!

I plan to institute the password next Monday, the 29th. Please e-mail me at hamiltonfamilycircus{at}yahoo{dot}com if you want the password. (You can click the link to the right) I'm not going to be too picky about who reads it but just tell me who you are and why you want to read. (i.e. I have been reading for a few months and would like to keep up on your adventures)

The main purpose of the password is not to keep readers out, it is to keep someone from stumbling upon the site and the next thing I know my son's picture is plastered in one of those e-mails about dying children needing your money.

He's Here!!

Sorry I've been MIA for so long!! I didn't mean to worry anyone... but I have pretty much been in labor for over a week so I have not done much of anything!!

Introducing Zackary Alan
Born: 1/12/07, 5:12 pm

8lbs, 20 inches long

For right now his website will remain unpassword protected but shortly I will be putting a password on it. To get the password I ask only that you e-mail me and let me know who you are etc. I'm not going to keep it tightly restricted, I just don't want all kinds of pictures of him floating around for the whole world to see!! :-)

Early Present

"Oh My G*d! What is that? Is it a bird?"

"No... I think it's a bunny..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's a bunny... see here's a foot. Oh wait over here is another one. Do you want me to saw them down so you can have lucky rabbits feet?"

"No!! Absolutely not... just clean this up will ya?"

So... last night one of my furry children decided to give me an early Christmas present. In her defense I do like bunnies. I am always exclaiming oh look at the bunny when I see one run through our yard.

However, that said, I would have preferred that said bunny stay in one piece, and alive, instead of the way in which it was eventually presented to me.

Maybe we need to work on our communication skills......

Part Four - The Conclusion

So, where does all of this end? As it turns out the forgery charges that Jane was charged with were for a credit card that she had stolen so she has yet to be charged with anything relating to their checks.

Detective D. called Hobby Lobby but they do not have video cameras and several of the other places the check amounts were not big enough to prosecute. So, at this point Detective D. says the only way to charge them is to get one of them to confess to taking and/or using the checks. Fat chance huh?

Thus far Jane has shown up for all of her preliminary hearings so she has not been thrown back in jail. Who knows what will become of her and her son now that her husband is safely behind bars. And speaking of her husband, he is in jail with no bond, but there is a bond review hearing set for the 18th of December. We can only hope the judge in that matter is smart enough to realize a flight risk when he sees one.

And as for Jack and Jill? Their house is now locked up like Fort Knox whenever they leave. Jill has lost a little piece of that country innocence and trust in people and that makes her sad. Right now they are not out any money as all of the Big Bank stuff was finally rectified. However, what they are out is possibly more important.

It has taken Jill two or three days in total to deal with all of this. That is two or three days of personal time that she does not get to use this summer to be with her son. And that, that angers her the most of all.

In the end it comes down to what Mark Twain once said:

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

Jack and Jane attempted to help out their fellow man and were in turn "bitten" for their troubles. Next time an opportunity presents its self for them to help someone they may be much more skeptical and less willing to help. I'm not sure if that is societies loss or theirs. I guess only time will tell.

Part Three - The Aftermath

So after the phone calls stopped coming it became evident to Jack and Jill that the only thing they could do now was just sit back and wait for whatever came next. As it turns out, they didn't really have to wait long.

Shortly after the last text message was sent they got a phone call from Detective T. He informed them that they had looked for Jon long enough and were now bringing in the U.S. Marshalls to assist with the search. Their reasoning was that the marshall's spend all of their time tracking people and would be able to put more man hours into it and inevitably catch him sooner.

Detective T. then asked if it would be alright for the marshalls to contact Jack & Jill to gather as much information as they could. Of course Jack & Jill agreed and later that afternoon they spoke with U.S. Marshall P. and gave him all of the information that they had about Jon.

A few more days passed and then Jack and Jill were surprised to see a story on the local news.

November 1, 2006

Des Moines police, Polk County sheriff's deputies and U.S. marshals spent the early-morning hours searching for a man wanted on what they said is an outstanding warrant.

Authorities said they are searching for Jon Doe of Warren County. They would not say what the warrant is for or whether Bridges is dangerous.

Officers were searching an area around the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

While they were disappointed that no arrest had been made Jack and Jill were glad to see that progress was being made in the attempt to capture Jon. At this point Jill didn't really care whether they charged him with the theft of her checks or not.

She was more concerned with the fact that this man knew where she lived and that it was a secluded area . For the first time in the four and a half years that she had lived in their house she was afraid to be home alone after dark. She would rush home from work and lock the doors, concerned that he would try to come back and use their house as a hideout. As far as she was concerned she just wanted to see him put behind bars so she could stop looking over her shoulder.

The next day she received a phone call from U.S. Marshall S. He informed her that he had found her two books of checks. They had been searching a house looking for Jon when they came upon them. He said he had looked under the bed and seen them rubberbanded together. Unfortunately they did not search the rest of the house for the passport & birthcertificates as all they were really looking for was Jon, it was just a fluke that they found the checks.

Still she felt glad to have them out of circulation just the same. The U.S. Marshall told her he couldn't tell if any of the checks had been used and Jill could not remember the exact numbers that had been stolen. Either way, at least Jill knew that from this point forward they could not write any more checks. As it was she had yet to be notified by anyone that any of the checks had been used so she was hopeful that maybe they realized the accounts were closed and never used the checks.

HaHa!! Isn't Jill so funny??

Her first brush with the bad check recovery system began just two days later. On November 4th she received a call from M*astercheck. When she called them back she was informed that they were calling in regards to a bounced check. Since this was her first theft of checks and actually the first check that had EVER bounced with her name on it Jill was a little green in this area. The people on the phone were very nice and told her that she needed to fax them a copy of the police report along with a notice from the bank showing when she closed the account.

They also agreed to fax her a copy of the check so she could give it to the police detective. However, later that day Jill opened up her mailbox and found a letter from M*stercheck. Attached to the letter was a picture of a canceled check written on her big bank checking account. Check number 1130 had been written to Hobby Lobby for $135.61.

While this made her perfect little maybe I got off easy scenario not work so well, what most bothered Jill was the fact that the check had been written on 10/19/06. See as you may remember from earlier in our story (I know it's been a LONG ass story and you may not remember that far back!!) big bank will not call when a check hits the bank. They will only send it back lost/stolen and then you have to wait to be contacted.

This means that unfortunately any surveillance video that they may have had of Jane writing the checks is probably long gone. Making it almost impossible to actually prosecute her for this crime. Great customer service huh?

The next day Jill again opened her mailbox to another surprise. (Yes I'm aware it was a Sunday, the mailman/woman is new and still adjusting to the route so the mail didn't get there until 6:00 Saturday night and it was cold and Jill didn't want to traipse outside and get it.) Inside the mailbox was the letter from M*stercheck (apparently they had called when they put the notice in the mail) and a notice from C*pital Recovery. Check number 1134 had been written to Pizza Hut for 42.38.

So just as before Jill called the company and explained to them what was going on. They told her the same information she had already heard. They would need a copy of the police report and a letter stating when the account had been closed before they could turn the incident over to their fraud department.

On Monday morning Jill opened up the paper and was somewhat disappointed to see the following:

November 6, 2006

Alleged abductor eludes authorities

Jon Doe, the target of a Des Moines manhunt, is also accused of assault. U.S. marshals consider him armed and dangerous.

U.S. marshals conducted a manhunt through Des Moines Saturday night for an accused kidnapper, failing to locate a man on the run who should be considered armed and dangerous, authorities said.

Jon Doe, 30, is wanted in Jasper County on charges of second-degree kidnapping. Bridges is accused of kidnapping and assaulting two adults in rural Jasper County in September, a spokesman said. A warrant for his arrest was issued Sept. 25.

The U.S. Marshals Service joined the investigation about two weeks ago, spokesman Mike Powell said. Sources tipped off deputy marshals to the vehicle Jon was driving and his general location Saturday.

Deputies saw Bridges driving at Southwest Eighth Street and Davis Avenue about 8 p.m., Powell said. Jon fled in his vehicle, sparking a chase through the south side of Des Moines.

"Early in the pursuit, it was questionable whether or not we should even continue ... fearing that it might be too dangerous given that area," Powell said, citing narrow streets and a populated neighborhood.

Police backed off several blocks and eventually found Jons' abandoned car around Southwest Fourth Street and Thornwood Road. Jon had jumped out and had run on foot, Powell said.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Des Moines Police Department; and a canine unit joined the search. Officers followed several leads, Powell said, including stops at several locations mentioned by sources during interviews. The search was called off about 11 p.m.

Jon is described as 5 feet 9 inches tall and about 150 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.

"He should be considered armed and dangerous in more ways than one," Powell said, noting an investigation into a firearms violation and Jons' propensity to flee.

The U.S. Marshals Service is investigating possible drug and firearm charges, Powell said. It will not charge Jin for eluding police or violating traffic laws stemming from the chase.

While she was glad that they were still hunting for him she would have been much happier if they had been able to actually CATCH him. The next morning Jill received a phone call from one of the U.S. Marshalls. They had found Jack's birthcertificate in the car that Jon had ditched on Saturday. Further proving that Jon and Jane were the people who had broken into their safe.

Later that morning Jill made copies of the notices she had received and also wrote up and explanation of what she knew so far. It appeared as if Jane had been using a fake ID as there was an ID number on the checks that was not Jill's old or new ID number. It also appeared as if she had gotten in the phone book and looked up someone will Jill's last name and just the first initial because that was the phone number that was on the checks. (Can you tell she must have done this before?)

Jill then took a two hour lunch and dropped the copies off at the Sheriff's office. The detective was out until Monday but since the checks had been written three weeks prior Jill was fairly certain one more week was not going to hurt anything. She also got a copy of the police report while she was at the sheriff's office. Once she got back to her office she proceeded to fax letters and copies of the police report to both of the check collection agencies.

By that weekend she had received no more notices and was hoping that maybe all they had written were the two checks. (You know where this is going don't you?) Monday morning (we've made it to 11/13 now) Detective D. called her to let her know that he had received the papers that she had left the previous week.

He mentioned to her at that time that since the checks were written in the city he may have to turn the case over to a city detective. However, he said if he did so the chances of anything getting done about it would be pretty slim because they have SOO many cases. So, he was going to speak with his boss and see if he couldn't keep it in the county office.

The next day Jill returned home from work to find a notice from Big Bank stating that her account was overdrawn because they had paid a $30 fee to M*sterchek. At this point Jill became angry. How could they have paid a fee to this company out of her new checking account when the only information this company had was her old account?

Jill immediately called Big Bank and was informed that when they close an account because of lost or stolen checks they do a lost/stolen transfer. So, any checks are returned but any electronic withdrawals are rolled from one account to the other. WTF? So, Jill had to explain to this person at big bank that this was an error because the fee was for a check which she didn't write. The person on the phone processed a fraud report and told Jill that she would take care of it. At that time Jill also asked her about the two other companies that had contacted her and whether she could make sure they could not do the same thing. The person on the phone assured her that would not happen. She lies...

The next night Jill answered the phone and was confronted with a woman from Gl*bal Payments who wanted to talk to her about a check she had written to NAPA for $79.40. Jill politely informed her that she could talk all she wanted but she didn't write a check to NAPA (by this point she was becoming a little cynical). She then explained the rest of the situation and got a fax number to fax the police report to.

On the 16th Jill just had a bang up day. First she received a call from big bank stating that her account was REALLY overdrawn. At first she was caught off guard until she realized that in all the commotion she had forgotten to deposit the money for her home equity loan. So they had withdrawn it from funds that weren't there. She told the woman on the phone that she would go right then and make the deposit and questioned as to whether this would make everything alright. She was assured that if she went and made the deposit that day the account should be fine. She lies... (are you seeing a pattern here?)

When Jill returned home that evening she was faced with two more notices in her mailbox. There was a second notice from M*astercheck about a second check to Hobby Lobby, this one for $156.67. There was also the notice from Gl*bal Payments regarding the NAPA check. She called M*stercheck to confirm that she didn't need to refax the police report and then made a note to make sure she faxed Gl*bal Payments the next day.

By the morning of the 17th Jill was pretty fed up with all of this bad check crap. She faxed Gl*bal payments their information and then faxed Detective D. the newest statements. Finally she decided just for fun she would jump on the Big Bank website to make sure that things had been taken care of. That is when all the real fun started.

At this point she noticed that there was more money in the account than there should have been. After looking into the detail she was horrified to discover that the M"astercheck charge had not been reversed, they had paid another charge to a company called Ch*ck Recovery, and they had bounced her home equity payment.

She immediately picked up the phone to call them and then re-considered. She knew that she was not going to get ANYTHING accomplished on the phone. So... off to the bank she went. It took two hours to get everything straightened out. Since Big Bank is a national chain there is nothing that can be handled within the branch. The banker has to call the corporate number and then they walk them through filling out forms on-line.

The man who was helping Jill had to call three different phone numbers and explain the situation to three different people. Not to mention she had to first get him to understand that while these companies may have legitimate charges they are charges for forged checks and so no, she was NOT going to pay two $30 charges plus two $33 dollar overdraft charges simply because they linked two accounts that they shouldn't have.

Finally when it was all over they had to close the account completely and open another one that was in no way linked to the first. So Jill is now the proud owner of her THIRD big bank checking account in a month. The only really helpful thing that came of her two hours at the bank was she was able to get copies of all of the checks that had tried to clear her old account. In total there were 9.

The perpetrators had gotten away with approximately $731 and it didn't appear that there was anything Jill could do about it. Just the same Jill faxed the copies of the checks to Detective D. for good measure. She also noticed that one of the checks had her SSN on it. This disturbed her greatly. Jon & Jane had not taken her Social Security card but apparently had written down the number from it.

On Saturday she got another notice from Gl*bal Payments regarding a second NAPA Check for $147.90 and by Monday the social security number incident was really starting to eat at her. When she got to work she got on-line and pulled all three of her credit reports. Luckily there was no activity on any of them.

On the 24th she received notice from S*curity Check, LLC about a $28.09 Kum & Go check and then on the 25th she received two notices from Big Bank. One said they had accepted her dispute of one of the $30 charges. The other one said they were denying the dispute of the other $30. Now please explain to me how they can treat two charges for the same thing in two different manners? After a month of dealing with this shit Jill's blood was just boiling.

On Monday the 27th Jill had to go out of town for training so she was not able to fax anyone regarding the notices she had received the previous week. When she returned home she got on-line and checked out the current inmate listing at the county jail. Imagine her surprise when she saw Jane's name on that listing. It said she was charged with two counts of forgery.

Jill looked for Jon's name but could not find it so she assumed Jane must not have known anyone was looking for her and was out and about going about her business. The one thing Jack and Jill were surprised about was that Jane was only 19. Apparenly heavy drug use must take a tole on your looks because she looked at least Jill's age or older. So, while it wasn't Jon behind bars Jill was certainly happy to see Jane there just the same.

unfortunately by the next morning someone had paid $1,300 to a bail bondsman and she was let free. Many people questioned why they would let her bond out of jail. Jill had only two answers for them. Number one, she's not a flight risk. She's never run from the law before so they can't hold her as one until she does. Number two, they may be hoping she leads them to Jon. As a 19 year old kid it may have been possible that she wouldn't be smart enough to lay low and stay away from Jon for awhile. Since he was who they really wanted they may have been trying to set her up.

Once at work Jill sent three more faxes, an appeal to Big Bank, the police report to S*curity Check, & the remaining notices to Detective D. then she waited. She must have checked the jail listings 20 times that day. Each time was the same. Jane was still out and Jon was not yet in.

It took three more days for the law to catch up with Jon & Jane. They were caught together proving Jane's theory that Jane had probably lead them straight to Jon.

December 1, 2006

A man wanted who was involved in two high-speed chases with police and wanted on kidnapping charges is now back in jail.

Members of the US Marshals and Polk County Sheriff's Violent Fugitive Task Force arrested Jon Doe Friday night at a home in West Des Moines. Does' wife, Jane was also arrested. Investigators say she was an accessory and helped hide Jon from the authorities.

Jon was wanted in Jasper County on second-degree kidnapping charges. He is now in the Polk county jail. Investigators say they aren't ruling out more charges against other people they believe helped Bridges avoid arrest.

Unfortunately drug money runs deep with these two. By Monday someone had paid an additional $650 to another bail bondsman to get Jane out of jail. Jon, however is another story. He is now being held without bond where Jack and Jill hope he stays for a long, long time.

Part Two - The Crime

The next morning (We've now made it to Wednesday, October 18th) Jack and Jill were getting ready for work when Jill spotted something shiny on the floor of their office. She walked in to take a closer look and noticed it was a butter knife. Still not catching on to what was happening she picked it up and carried it across the hall to the bedroom.

Jack, what is this butter knife doing on the floor of our office?

I don't know, maybe the dogs... wait. Where are your checks?

They are locked in the drawer of the desk right over.....

It was at that moment that Jill noticed that the drawer was cracked open. She walked over to the drawer and noticed that it had apparently been pried opened. She took out both boxes of checks and dumped them on the bed. The first thing she noticed was that the last book of checks was missing from her big bank checking account.

Lots of things flashed through her mind as she tried to contemplate what to do next. Jack had already gone downstairs and was attempting to call Jon & Jane on their phones with no luck. Finally Jill got out the phone book and had him call the Sheriff's office. She didn't feel it was an emergency situation that required 911 but she still wanted an officer there to take a police report.

About an hour later (yeah... their kind of slow in these parts) an officer showed up to take their statements. Jill was kind of expecting some sort of CSI stuff but instead she got Barney Fife. He looked at the drawer and then noticed that there was a file on the floor. The file, they determined, was the ultimate tool that was used to break into the desk. Since both surfaces were uneven the officer informed her that they could not get finger prints from either of them.

Then Jill walked over to the fire safe. Things on top of the file cabinet had been moved. She informed "Barney" of this but he assured her that they couldn't have broken into that safe and that it was also not a finger printable surface. After examining the room "Barney" gathered both check boxes for possible finger printing and then wrote down all of the details they had about these two.

While they didn't know their last names Jill felt confident in the fact that they knew enough details about them to allow them to be found. It was during this information mining process that the truth about Jon started to come out. Jill knew that he had been in jail from January to April. What she didn't know, that Jack apparently did, was that he was a convicted felon.

During this revelation period Jack also informed the sheriff that Jon had shown him a loaded .38 that he kept in his vehicle. Finally, another piece of information leaked out. Jack thought it was possible that Jon was wanted for some offence in another county. He told the sheriff that Jon had told him that he had paid someone off or something and that the charges had been dropped but he was not 100% sure whether this was true.

After taking all the information down "Barney" informed them that the theft of checks is actually a very minor offense. Since they (and by they he of course meant Jack because Jill did NOT give them permission) gave them permission to enter the house all they really had them for was 5th degree theft. Basically the value of the book of checks and the damage to the drawer. MINOR amounts.

So, he told them that until they used the checks they probably would not be getting any follow up calls. Once they used the checks a detective would probably call them to begin a fraud report. Jack & Jill thanked "Barney" and he headed out to his squad car to begin writing his report.

It was at this point that Jill decided she should probably find out if any of the small bank checks were missing. Since there was not a pad in there saying what the last check should be she called the company she ordered the checks from. They were very helpful and told her what number should be her last check. It was, of course, missing.

Luckily "Barney" was still in the driveway so they headed outside to give him the remainder of the information. Jill then quickly packed up her things for work and began the process of closing bank accounts. She went to small bank first because it was closer and because that's where all of her money was.

They were VERY helpful and nice about the whole process. They took down a list of items that were outstanding, made a copy of the officer's card along with the police report number, and then set up her new checking account. They told her that if any of the stolen checks came into the bank they would make a copy of the check before they returned it and promptly give the copy to the officer and to Jill.

From there she headed off to big bank. The process at big bank was just as smooth but Jill did not get the feeling that they would be as helpful. They did close her account and open a new one and they did change the automatic withdrawal information for her home equity loan. What they would not do, however was make copies of the checks and send them to her. It was up to her to contact them. All they would do was send the checks back marked lost/stolen.

Finally at about 11:30 Jill finally made it into work for the day. Although she was not productive in the slightest and spent most of the day talking with people about what happened or fretting over it. As she was sitting at her desk around 3:00 her cell phone rang. She was very surprised when the man on the other end of the phone identified himself as a detective who wanted to talk to her about the theft.

After all, the officer that morning had told her that she would not hear from a detective until the checks had been used and as of that morning when she was in both banks none of them had. After he identified himself Detective T. told her that he thought he knew Jon's last name and that if it was the same Jon, he was looking for him for something else.

He asked Jill if she would be available the next day to look at a photo line up and see if Jon's picture was in it. As luck would have it, she had already made arrangements for someone to come and fix their broken garage door the next morning (so they could lock up their garage and house like Fort Knox) so she was going to be home for a few hours.

He told her he would call her before 10:00 to stop by and then told her the most disturbing piece of news.

If Jon shows up at your house this evening do not speak to him. Call 911 immediately. If this is the same Jon we have been looking for you should consider him dangerous. Please don't take any chances.

Nothing like making a girl feel safe huh?

For the remaining two hours that she was at work all Jill could think about was the fire safe. Why hadn't she opened it when "Barney" was there. What if they had broken into that too? As soon as she got home from work she headed straight upstairs and moved everything from the top of the fire safe. It opened, no key needed and she saw that it had been damaged.

It looked as if they had taken the file and pried it open because there were large groove marks in the plastic around where the lock was. At this point she could tell that there would be no way to repair it and it would need to be replaced. She also noticed that her passport and birth certificate along with Jon's birth certificate were missing.

Jill immediately went downstairs and called the number on "Barney's" card. A receptionist answered and told her that an officer would call her back. When the officer called he took down the newest missing items and said he would add them to the police report.

That night Jill's phone rang. It was Jon & Jane. They were returning her phone call from earlier that day. Not wanting to give away that they knew what was up Jill played dumb and just said she had called because Jane had left her brush and Jon had left some tools at their house. They told her that they would probably not be around for awhile but that they would be in touch later. She wanted to keep the lines of communication open so that hopefully these people could be caught but it was VERY hard to play dumb when she just wanted to jump through the phone and ring their necks.

The next day Detective T. called Jill around 9:00 to tell her that he and another detective would be over within the hour. Jill told him that would work fine. When they got there they briefly asked her what happened and then they looked in the office. They agreed that none of the surfaces were fingerprintable and so their best bet was if there were finger prints on the check boxes.

After that they asked a few questions about what Jill knew about Jon & Jane they brought out two photo lineups. Each one contained about eight people and they told her to look over them and let them know if she saw the people who had been at her house. The first one was of the men and Jill had NO trouble picking out Jon. His face just jumped out at her.

The second lineup was of the women. This one was a little bit harder. She had not really paid all that much attention to Jane as she had only talked to her a couple of times but she picked out a girl who looked like her. The difference was the girl in the picture looked younger, had a thicker face, and different color hair.

After she had identified both of them the Detectives informed her that she was, in fact, correct on both people. It was at this point that some more details about Jon started to emerge. Apparently he was wanted for felony kidnapping, adults not children, and he was a fugitive from justice. They asked if Jack would be interested in trying to get Jon to a central place so they could arrest him.

Jill informed them that Jack had already mentioned that possibility to her and also told them about the conversation that she had with them on the phone the night before. When the detectives left they repeated to her that if either of these people showed up she should call 911 immediately. She told them she would and that Jack would be in touch if he could arrange a meeting.

After the detectives left Jill headed to the D.O.T. Since Jane now had her birth certificate and passport it was possible that she could go to the D.O.T. and get a new license with her picture but Jill's information on it. So, trying to curb off any identity theft, Jill went and had her license number changed and a flag put on her account so that no one else could get a copy of her ID.

Then when she got to work she had to try to get ahold of someone to cancel her passport. The first piece of information she found stated that she had to mail in a form stating that it had been canceled. Jill knew that could take weeks to process and she wanted something with MUCH more speedy results. So, after a little more looking she located a phone number.

When she called the phone number no one answered. She left a message and waited. Two hours later she had still not received a return phone call. So, she began calling every 10 minutes until FINALLY someone answered. By noon she had her passport canceled. One more hastle off her list.

That night Jack received a text message from Jane saying that Jon had been arrested for kidnapping and that she was going to rehab. She requested that Jack leave her alone and stop calling. Then about 15 minutes later she sent another text message saying that Jack needed to stop being such a nark and calling the police on them.

Jack immediately called Detective T., who did not answer, probably because he was on the phone with Jill. See earlier that evening Jill had noticed one more item that was missing. Her old 35mm camera which had been sitting in a case on top of the fire safe was no where to be found. She quickly checked her digital camera and noticed that someone had taken it out of the case and placed it back in a different manner but at least it was still there.

So Jack called Detective D. who told him that as far has he knew Jon had not been arrested but he would check in on it. He also told Jack that there was no way for Jon to know that Jack and Jill had called the police and that they were most likely just feeling him out. He told him to play dumb.

So he sent a text message back stating that he had no idea what she was talking about and why would he have called the police on them? He got no response. Later that evening Detective D. did call him back and confirm that Jon had not been arrested and that they must just be trying to feel them out. He told Jack to let him know if they heard from Jon again.

On Sunday October 22nd as luck would have it Jon called again. He called Jack's cell phone from a restricted number and did not give any details about where he was. All he would say was that he was staying with family and trying to lie low. He gave Jack some song and dance about how the charge that he thought was dropped wasn't and so he was trying to hide out. (As if he thought if he hid long enough everything would just go away.)

Jack played everything off really well and tried to set up a time to meet with Jon but he didn't really fall for it. He just told him he would call him back later. As it turns out Jon did try to call one more time later that week. Jack missed the call but returned a text message to the phone number only to find out that Jon had been there but had left.

After that... the lines of communication went dark.

Part One - The Background

I have been trying to write this story for over a week now and have been finding it a lengthy process. Therefore, I'm going to break it down into three parts so that you can read it a little easier and I can make sense of it a little easier. Hopefully all three parts will be posted by Sunday or Monday.

The time has come when I feel secure enough in the case against our perpetrators to give you all a few more details. I will not use names... because after all everyone is innocent until proven guilty right??

So sit back and get comfy and let me tell you a little story. It may explain a little of why I've been absent lately.

Once upon a time there was a man and a woman, we'll call them Jack & Jill, and they lived in a big farm house in the country. On October 9th there was a man and his "wife" (for the purposes of the story we will assume she was his wife... who knows if that is true), we'll call them Jon & Jane, who were driving along when all of the sudden they noticed that there was something wrong with their vehicle.

So, being in the area they decided to pull into the driveway of Jack & Jill because Jon used to know Jack. (Or worked with him on a jobsite once or something.) Anyhow, they knew nothing about cars but remembered that Jack liked to work on cars and were hoping he could help them to fix whatever was wrong with their vehicle.

Jack, however, was not home when they pulled into the driveway. Jill answered the door and immediately got a strange feeling about this man at her door. However, his car story seemed plausible so she called Jack on his cell phone and he told her he would be right home. While she waited she headed out to the car in the driveway where she discovered that Jane was also pregnant and due a week ahead of her.

Taking pity on this pregnant stranger and her husband Jill left to run an errand while Jack stayed behind to help with the vehicle. As it turns out the radiator in their vehicle had a leak. Jack attempted to help them plug the hole but with no luck. When Jill arrived back from running her errand Jon & Jane were still in the garage with their vehicle running.

About an hour after Jill got home Jon & Jane finally left. Their radiator was still leaking a little but they thought they could make it home. So... imagine their surprise when 45 minutes later they pulled back into the driveway. For the second time that evening Jill had this strange feeling that something just didn't seem right. After all, it is not like they drove 5 minutes and turned around. What were they doing for that 45 minutes?

However, since it was late and Jill was tired she decided not to ask too many questions and so Jon & Jane parked their vehicle next to the shed and came inside to wait for their ride. After a little chit chat about babies, etc. their ride showed up and they were off on their way.

The next day their vehicle stayed parked in the driveway but they did not show up to claim it. Then on Wednesday Jack called Jill at work to say that Jon & Jane were going to be at their house that evening trying to fix the vehicle. When Jill showed up Jon was out in the garage with Jack.

Sometime around 7:00 or so Jack came in and said he needed to talk with Jill about Jon & Jane borrowing his jeep. He told her that Jon's ex-wife had been admitted to the hospital and Jon needed to get to the hospital to pick up his son. Once again Jill was very uncomfortable with what was happening but Jack had already committed the vehicle so Jill sort of went with the flow.

Jack & Jon worked on Jon's vehicle for a little while longer while Jane came in and sat on the couch next to Jill. They talked for about an hour about babies and families and animals. Jane told Jill all about their dog and where they had been living and about her sister who had just twins so she was getting all of their baby stuff, etc.

Once they got ready to leave Jill felt a little more comfortable having had a conversation with Jane and feeling like she knew her a little better. They assured Jill that they had insurance and both had valid drivers licenses. They left the keys to their vehicle in the garage and told her that all of the vehicle information was in the glove box. Jill would later kick herself for not looking for that information and following her gut feeling about these two.

That said, the next day (we've made it to Thursday the 12th are you still with me?) Jill was VERY relieved to get a call from Jack saying that the vehicle and Jon & Jane were back safely in the driveway when he arrived home from work. Jill had to work late but Jack assured her that he would just be in the garage working on the vehicle.

She inquired about Jane and the children as she did not want them alone and unsupervised in her house and was told that only Jane was there and that she would be outside with them. Feeling somewhat comfortable in this knowledge she continued to work. While she was at work Jon and Jack were busy taking the radiator out of the vehicle to try to take it somewhere and get parts.

About 7:30 Jill left work and headed home. She picked up some food and got home around 8:00. Jack came in to eat while Jon & Jane headed out to get parts for their vehicle. They showed back up around 9:45 and Jack went out to give Jon some basic instructions on how to put the vehicle back together. So, imagine Jill's surprise when Jack came back in and told her that they would once again be driving his vehicle home.

At this point they were driving out of the driveway so there was not much she could do. The whole next day at work she pondered what she would do if they did not show back up. Finally about 4:00 she received a call from Jack stating that their vehicle was fixed and was gone from their house and he was just meeting them at their friends house to pick up his jeep.

Hurray Jill thought, this whole nightmare is over and not one bad thing happened!! (Dun, dun, dun.....) You see where this is going don't you?

On Saturday night Jill was exhausted and went to bed early. About 10:00 she heard Jack yelling on the phone and came down to see what the commotion was about. Jack told her that he had called Jane's cell phone trying to get ahold of Jon and Jon had totally flipped out on him. He was going out to the garage to get Jon's tools and Jon was going to come and get them.

About 15 minutes later his phone rang again. It was Jon. Some words were exchanged and some how it was decided that they were going to meet at a gas station by Jack's house to "discuss" their difficulties. Since Jack had been drinking Jill drove him to the gas station the whole time assuring him that if there was any fighting she was leaving and he could gave fun in jail.

There was no fighting, although Jill felt the whole time as if there was something illegal going on. It just didn't make sense to her what was happening and she had a feeling that Jack was not telling her the whole story. Finally after about 5 minutes she went to confront them but Jack headed her off and got in the vehicle and told her to go home.

On the ride home Jack informed Jill that they had asked him if he had a credit card that they could use to register a hotel room to sleep in. He told them no and so they asked if Jill did. Luckily Jack had SOME part of his head screwed on straight when he told them that there was no way in hell Jill would let them use her credit card to register a hotel room. After all... why didn't they just pay with cash? Something didn't make sense.

The rest of the weekend was very uneventful and Monday came without Jill so much as giving it a second thought. As far as she was concerned Jon & Jane were on their way and she would not have to see them again. On Monday night Jack was helping his dad burn leaves while Jill was at home watching TV.

About 8:30 Jill heard the dogs barking. She looked outside but did not see anyone. So, imagine her surprise when Jack showed up at 9:00 and informed her that Jon wanted to come over and work on another vehicle. And imagine her even greater surprise when Jon pulled into their driveway from across the street where he had apparently been lying in hiding while waiting on Jack.

So now Jill's weird shit-o-meter was starting to go off. Things were just not adding up. First they wanted to work on a friend's vehicle. To which Jill promptly said no. She was not letting anyone she didn't know hang out in her garage while she was asleep. Then all of the sudden it was Jane's jeep they wanted to work on and the only people that would be outside would be Jon & Jill.

At this point it was raining and according to Jack they were moving in the morning and needed to get the Jeep in working order so they could use it to haul their things. Feeling defeated and outnumbered Jill gave up and went to bed. She cracked the bedroom window so she could hear anyone coming and going and laid down.

A little after 10:00 a vehicle pulled in which she assumed was the one they were going to work on. Then about 15 minutes later she heard yelling. She got up and looked out the window and noticed Jane standing next to the vehicle obviously quite upset with Jon. She was yelling but Jill couldn't quite hear what she was yelling about.

Then after about 10 minutes she started walking down the driveway and then down the road. Jon sat in the driveway for another 10 minutes or so and then headed out in their vehicle. Jill crossed her fingers that maybe they would just leave and not come back.

No such luck. About 12:00 she heard a vehicle pull in, around 1:00 she heard another and assumed it was the mystery car coming to finally get worked on. Around 6:00 she heard what she thought was the final vehicle leaving so imagine her reaction when she got out of bed at 6:30 and noticed that Jon & Jane's vehicle was parked next to the garage.

Jack's explanation for this was that they were either still in the garage or they had left it and would be back for it later. So Jane got ready for work as usual. When she got outside she noticed something VERY strange. The garage windows had all been covered. It was dark outside for heavens sake, why would they need to cover the windows?

Jack came out and opened the garage expecting to see them inside working on another vehicle. However, the garage was empty and Jon & Jane were no where in site. It is at this point in the story where Jill KNOWS something about these people is off. Her first thought was to go inside and call the police/lock the door.

HOWEVER, what would she tell the police? These people who have done nothing to me are acting strangely can you come and check it out? So she suppressed her negative feeling and headed off to work. When she got home from work the vehicle was gone but when she walked into the house she had an overwhelming feeling that something was not right.

In the bathroom she noticed two used towels and a brush that was not hers. She immediately called Jack and asked them if Jon & Jane had been in their house. It was at this point that she discovered that they had actually been sleeping in their car that morning and that's why it was in the driveway. According to Jack that was because they were moving and just need a place to crash for the one night.

Sometime that morning they had called Jack and let him know what was up and also asked if they could use the bathroom to get cleaned up. Being the sucker that he is he told them that they could enter the house to use the bathroom. It was at this point that Jill blew her top. It was bad enough that they had been outside when Jack & Jill were at work but entering their home when no one was there crossed a line.

Jill told Jack, in no uncertain terms, that Jon & Jane were NOT allowed back at their house ever again. There was something about them that creeped her out and she was done ignoring that feeling. After she got off the phone she walked around the house and took a brief inventory of major items in the house. Jack's wedding ring was there, all of their jewelry appeared to be in place, all major electronics were as they should be, etc. Some of the baby things in the office looked like they had been bumped but that could have just been by the cat. Nothing appeared to be missing.

So Jill decided that maybe her feeling was wrong. Maybe they did just need to use the bathroom.

Some sort of Justice...

On December 1st at approximately 11:00 PM the law finally caught up with our perpetrators. The rest of the story will follow soon... I promise...

Jake's Jeep

I present for your viewing pleasure... or actually your viewing horror. Jake's Jeep....

Yes, he walked away from this...

No... I don't know how...

According to him a deer ran out in front of him, he swerved, hit the gravel, over corrected and tipped it over onto the drivers side in the ditch. He didn't want to call a tow truck, so a farmer pulled him out.

As you can see the front end is now held together by very attractive stripped tape. The roof collapsed down an he had to hook a chain to the bar between the windshield and the door to pull that bar up enough that he could drive it home.

Neither door opens, and speaking of driving home... I have NO idea how he drove an hour home with a windshield that looks like THIS!!
In the end he is damn lucky that the thing that is hurt the worst is his pride. We have spoken here before about his driving record so I won't go into it in any further detail except to say that we have only had this jeep a year and a half. He really liked it and is very sad to see it go.

However, with the baby coming and his driving apparently not getting any better I do not think that we will be able to get him another jeep for awhile. For the mean time when you come to visit us the part of Jake's vehicle will be played by a small cheap car or truck, depending on what we can find. That way if he wrecks it again we are not out much money.

Contractions, Contractions, and oh yeah... some belly pictures

I have updated the baby's site, over there to the right, and so I'm not going to regurgitate the same stuff about all of my fun contractions here that I have written there. I'll just let you browse at your leisure.

I am, however, going to post some belly pictures for your continued enjoyment. When I was in the hospital on Wednesday (see, you haven't gone over and read the other site yet have you and now your are lost. Go on... I will still be here when you get back and then you will feel all in the loop again) Katie asked how long it had been since I had taken belly pictures and I realized that it had been 8 weeks.

Not knowing whether he was going to stay in for another few weeks or decide to be born shortly I decided that I should take these.

Yes, I'm aware that I only look half with it. Please keep in mind that this was after a day of contractions and stress and such so I'm allowed to look out of it!! :-)

As before I've also decided that you should see the full girth from the front so here you go.
Finally, here's the standard comparison picture. And no, I'm not going to give you one of the two frontal pictures. Wasn't it scary enough the first time around?
The main difference I notice in these pictures is not the difference in the size of my belly or the fact that you can see that I'm starting to gain a little water weight in my face. It's the roundness of my belly. Sometime in the last 8 weeks I have began to carry around a basketball instead of a slightly flattened volleyball.

Now, all of you just cross your fingers with me that we will have at least two more weeks of belly pictures before the little man decides to make his grand entrance.

Where have I been?

Nesting people... nesting.

Who would have thought that all of those people weren't kidding when they told me I would have this uncontrollable urge to have things in perfectly pristine order right this minute or everything would be ruined and the baby will surely be irreparably damaged?

So, for about a week and a half now I have been cleaning out drawers and cupboards. The DAV people came and took 5 boxes, 2 bags of clothes and an end table today. I think I will have more by next week.

I have washed every piece of clothing that we have for the baby up through 12 months. I have washed all of the hooded towels and wash cloths. Receiving blankets and other blankets. I have sterilized every plastic toy that we have gotten second hand with clorox wipes and placed them all in their sorted little cubes.

On top of all of that Jess has been over trying to get the baby's room in order and I have been trying to keep up on the regular household cleaning. I have discovered that cleaning up after my husband is a lot like shoveling your driveway in the middle of a blizzard. You move some things and it looks nice for a little while but inevitably more stuff just piles in the same place as before. WOULD IT PLEASE STOP SNOWING ALREADY??

So... I hope all of you are well and hopefully in another week or two I will have nothing left to clean, or I will be so big and uncomfortable that I will just give up. Either way... I hope not to be away for too much longer!!

Crib Assembly 101

My first rule of advice... never send an amateur to do a professionals job.

Last night Jake and I decided we were going to put the crib together. Sounds easy enough. When we picked it up from Matt & Danettes we were shown the handy little instructions on the bottom of the board that goes under the mattress.

Looked simple enough and pretty straight forward. So last night, upstairs we go. We pull out those handy instructions and the first thing Jake notices is that there are two support beams to hold the mattress up. We only have one. So we call Danette.

She looks in her basement. No luck. She looks in Bryce's room. No luck. We hang up with her promising to continue looking and get back to me.

So, I call the car dealership that has my jeep thinking maybe we loaded it into the jeep and just never unloaded it. They send someone out to check the back of my jeep. In the time I am waiting I somehow get transferred to someone's voice mail so I hang up.

As I'm getting ready to call back Danette calls. She has spoken to Matt and he only remembers there being one support beam when they took the crib apart. So, I head back upstairs where I discover that in fact there are two support beams, but since the crib had been previously assembled one of them was left attached to the front of the crib so that is why we only had one loose one.

Feeling rather stupid I decide I should at least call back the car dealership. So I do and I play dumb. Oh... it's not in my jeep. Okay, well thank you for looking.

After I get off the phone with them Matt calls. I sheepishly admit to him that no, no parts are missing, we just didn't know where to look. At this point Jake comes back upstairs and within 10 minutes we have the whole crib put together.

Really, just as simple as everyone said it would be.... once we became smarter than the furniture that is!!

Starting with a Bang

So, yesterday began my 30th week of pregnancy. In honor of this momentous occasion I decided to end my day with a bang. You know like the bang that the front of my jeep makes when it hits the back of a very large dodge truck.

What's that? That expression is not supposed to be taken so literally? Well now you tell me!!

Yes, you read that right, at 30 weeks I rear ended someone. You know at this rate I might be able to catch up to Jake in the worlds worst driver category. What is my excuse? I have none. Call it a case of Monday head up ass syndrome.

I was coming down a hill about 5 miles from my house and at the bottom of the hill was a car turning to go into a workout place. There were several vehicles lined up behind the car and I just didn't see that they were stopped until it was too late.

As for damages, my jeep is obviously worse off than his truck. I think there are some scratches on his bumper. The truck sits so high that I ended up going right into his tow package. So my bumper is cracked, my grille is cracked and something funky is going on with my horn.

When I push the button to lock my doors it makes this sad sort of whimper. About how I feel each time I look at the front of the jeep so maybe it's a sympathy whimper. It is drivable but Progressive has this quick fix program that I fully intend to take advantage of so that hopefully it will be fixed within a week or so.

Then the problem? Coming up with the $500 deductible to fix it. I just paid my $330 deductible to the doctors office today for the delivery fee. (His website is updated if you are interested in how the appointment went)

Oh yes, and last but certainly not least... the little man. As far as I can tell he is fine. I am obsessive about pushing my seat belt down below my belly about 10 times on my way home so from what I can tell it was appropriately positioned. Of course when I got home he was not bouncing around so all sorts of things were running through my head.

Luckily we rented a fetal doppler at the beginning of the pregnancy so I immediately pulled that out and let me tell you, any thoughts I had of sending that back before the end of the pregnancy were quickly thrown out the window. I called the doctor just for good measure but he said as long as the baby is moving and I don't have any regular contractions, bleeding or loss of fluid he should be fine.

It's amazing that while I know he is probably safe in his fluid home right now I so wanted him to be here so I could look him over, check for cuts and bruises and watch him breath. One of the worst parts of the whole thing is knowing that I just have to trust that he is fine, I can't see him to know.

So anyhow, one damaged vehicle, one fine little man... I think I'll take that outcome over anything worse any day.

Ummm.... yeah...

Police search for a wanted Warren County Man

That's him... they still haven't caught him yet so I'm not going to give you the whole story just yet... but um.. yeah...