Good evening everybody! Today is day 6. Last night was quite interesting. After we got done with Red Box movie number one, it was not quite 1:30AM and we went up to go to bed. Erin read for a little while on her kindle and went to sleep. I opened up my novel I'm reading and started a new chapter. After everyone in the household was asleep except for me, I was about half way through the chapter when I started hearing noises downstairs. Not just any noises. Actual thumbing sounds, one of which sounded like one of the doors closing. I kept stopping and listening, trying to see if I could hear the squeek of our stairs as if someone was trying to creep up them.

A big nightmare would be someone not only getting into the house, but getting into the house while we were all asleep. Sneaking into each of the bedrooms and being able to kill us or do God knows what to us without us being able to fight back. So, I kept telling myself "it's fine, there is nobody here." I went down to the landing between the upstairs and down here on the main floor, and stood there trying to look into the room I'm now lounging on the couch in. The only problem was, I had shut all the lights off and so I was peering into a pitch black room. I had the thought going through my head "God help us if there is someone in the darkness staring up at me, with me unable to see them." I went back to the bedroom and continued reading. When I was done, I turned the light off and tried to lay down. I posted on face book basically saying I was freaking out a little, and that I had the worst feeling that there was someone in the house downstairs.

Finally I decided I was not going to be able to let myself go to sleep until I could look everywhere and know for sure that we were alone. I turned my lamp back on, partially waking Erin up. I told her I would be back, that I was taking Teegan our husky downstairs with me to make sure that the doors and windows were locked. I told her about my horrible feeling and she said to be careful. Teegan ran downstairs first, I followed right on his heels, quickly running over to the lamps and turning them on. Made my way into the office, all clear. Checked the front door, locked and secured. Went over to the windows, they were open but we still had the little tab lifted above them which makes them only able to open a few inches. Made our way into the kitchen. One of the windows we had left very wide open. I closed it and put the security tabs in place. I did the same with the other window. On our way down stairs to the basement, I clicked the light on and made sure the back door was latched and locked. Good to go so far. In the basement, I looked for any and all signs that someone might have made their way in there. I found nothing. Went back into the laundry room part of the basement, and everything looked good back there. When I took Teegan and went back upstairs to bed, I left a lamp on in the kitchen, and a lamp on in the TV room that I am in now. I figured I didn't feel comfortable turning all the lights off last night.

Thankfully I was able to go to bed without feeling so insecure after having walked throughout the house making sure. You just never know these days. One day you think you're completely safe and then the next you are face to face with a monster in your own home. The thought went through my head that if it was just me, I would just lock myself in the bedroom. However, I have Erin and two little girls living here too and I would not let anything happen to them.

So onto today. When I was in English class, the teacher told us about the next and probably last major paper we will be writing for this class. It has to do with Argumentative topics. One of the assignments that was due today was we had to write as many topics that can be argued as we were able. One of them that I wrote was about our church. When Erin and I attended a little dinner group seminar thing at the church, our pastor talked about how men are leaders and are the main ones to be pastors and leadership roles at the church. Erin raised her hand and questioned him on it, asking why women weren't allowed to be in the leadership roles. He said that was just how they do things. So, one of my ideas for an argumentative essay was to write about that topic and argue about it using any research I can find. I remember having women pastors when I was younger. I see no reason why women should not be leaders as well. Look at Hillary Clinton, for example. The funny thing was, being about church, I didn't know if it would be allowed. So I mentioned it to the teacher and what inspired me to want to write about it. She immediately was like "That sounds great!"

So after class, I was walking out of the college and got a text from Erin. "Better come home quick! I made a new soup!" it said. "On my way," I replied back. When I got home, Erin was outside working on her garden, watering her plants while Zoe was over by the door playing in her little water pit. The water pit is kind of like one of those plastic sand pits but we put water in it instead. I went inside to get a bowl of soup, having not eaten anything yet today. It turned out Erin made her first batch of Ham and Potato soup. It was yummy! Yesterday she made donuts from scratch. She had made them before, but when she first made them, they weren't as much like donuts being the first batch. This round last night though, one bite and I was like "oh my gosh!" With all the things that Erin knows how to do, and how great everything is, I know that our bakery bistro is going to do great. We will finally put a bakery/restaurant in town that will give the other places a run for their money.

So we loaded up in the car, and went to pick Ally up. Her school lets out at 3:30. At 4PM she had her first swim lesson at the YWCA. The picture is up above. Now what can I write about this experience? Well, we watched her swim off and on. The reason why I say off and on is because the area where the pool was in was extremely warm. I was wearing windpants and a short sleeve shirt, and I was sweating horribly! Poor Zoe got nice and flushed in her cheeks. Erin, Zoe and I got up and went out of the room into the cooler part of the building to cool off. We got someone to give us a tour of the Y, telling us about the daycare, and the babysitting place where Zoe and Ally could both be watched temporarily if we were there for a work out class or just using the gym for an hour or whatever.

While we were there, Erin asked if I would be up for all of us going for ice cream afterwards since we were all so hot (Well except for Ally since she was in the pool). Of course I was up for it. We thought about getting the cheap cones at McD's, but decided to go through DQ. Erin and I both got waffle sundaes, Ally got a waffle cone, and we got Zoe a little plastic cup with a strawberry sundae. She ate it right up, only wearing it on her face and not all over her tummy. I polished my waffle sundae off really easily, and Erin finished most of hers and tried to give it to me. I thought it was really good, but I knew I could not handle any more. So we told Ally when she finished her cone if she wanted to munch on Erin's left over sundae to go for it, and she did!

So backing up a little bit, when we were on our way to the Y for Ally's swim lesson, my employer called wondering if I could come in for a few hours. They needed security for a few hours before the other guard was to be coming in and wanted to know if I could come in. I told them I would love to but we were on our way to an appointment for our daughter. They wanted me in there right now, and I explained that on my off days unless I know a little in advance, I can't come in too quickly. The big reason is when I'm off for a few days, I do not worry about shaving as much. What reason do I have? I'm not going anywhere. Usually i'm off for about three days so really its not too bad. I told the guy calling me that if I were to come in it would take me a while anyway because I would have to first go home, then shower and shave and get ready. I'm not "always ready to come to work," despite what they might think. On my days when I'm scheduled, of course I'm prepared to go. But the big thing for me was I wanted to be there with the family to see our oldest going through her first swim lesson.

So, with last night in mind, here is the lesson for today. No matter where you live, what you do, or whether or not you live alone. If you have a bad feeling about anything, be it something you are getting ready to do, something bad you think will happen, or just an over all bad feeling about something, listen to it. There is usually a reason why you are feeling that way and it could potentially save your life and the lives of the people you care for. When I was in High School, I listened to this extra sense all the time. A friend of mine called me and wanted to know if I would go cruising around with him. I had the familiar bad feeling and told him I had homework I needed to do. The next day I was called by his dad saying that my friend went off the road, rolling his car about ten times. He wasn't wearing his seat belt, but by the glory of God he was spared. I saw a picture of the car and it had previously been a Ford Escort. Now it looked like a tin can that was crushed in from all sides. Looking at the picture, I was sure that if I had gone with him that one of us would have been killed, and it very well could have been me. So, be open to those bad feelings and listen to them. Last night I listened to it and was able to go to bed with the peace of mind that the house was secure. For all I know I could have run into someone trying to get out of the house before I saw them. Safety first! Never take anything for granted, always be on your guard, and listen to your inner self when you have a bad feeling about anything, no matter what it is. Thats it for tonight! I hope you got something out of what I wrote today. I will write again for you tomorrow.

Thanks for being here!

CB