Life on the Third Coast: WEEKEND WRAP UP

What an offbeat weekend. For real. Saturday was normal. Sunday could've played out a little differently for us.

The weather has been unusually amazing for a November up here. Friday was the exception. That day was an all day mix of snow and rain and really the first snow that I've seen in the area as we head into the cold months. Conner and I bundled up and went for a visit to see friends for a little while. Nothing like going over to someone's house and playing with all of their toys and eating nearly all of their raspberries in the house. (I forgot how much that little bird loves raspberries.)

So since we were halfway to the grocery store, we braved the weather a little longer and got the shopping done for the week. Big win here everyone... We made it through the stores without stomping all over the groceries (a very common problem) or running all through the aisles. However, there was a lot of junk food consumed to get us through those quick trips.

While we visited with Karra and Amy, the discussion of home break ins and strategic gun placements came up. I bring this up because it plays into this weekend. I used to be paranoid about living out in the woods, but that fear has gone away. I don't worry about people trying to break in or cause harm to us. I've grown content with the quiet area and became more comfortable as we slowly get to know our "neighbors" more.

Can this boy be any more comfortable eating his snack?

When I got home I talked to Joe about looking for a small handgun for myself. This is something we've discussed before, but I had forgotten about it completely because of the feeling of confidence I have with being out here. Joe was all in for looking at guns Saturday morning, but I told him I was in no hurry. And I'm going to bookmark that story here and we'll pick it back up a little later. In the meantime, let's talk about Saturday.

Saturday's weather was awesome. We made a trip to pick up chicken feed and a quick Walmart stop. After that quick run into town, Conner took on the roll of daddy's little helper and spent the next 2 1/2 hours out in the garage "helping" Joe build the new dog pen. There is nothing more that kid loves than to be right in the mix of whatever project Joe is working on.

I had to be the mean parent by breaking up their fun and sending that little boy off for his nap. Yeah, he wasn't happy over that. But we got to spend the evening with Uncle Phil and Aunt Lori after he woke up. Lori's taking on the huge, helpful role of taking care of Conner when it's time to leave for the hospital. Let me tell you, that boy is going to have a blast and probably won't want to see us come back home. He loves playing with Lori!

We haven't gotten past the newborn stage of sticking Everything in his mouth.

Can life with these two get any cuter!?

Sunday.

Sunday was even better with the weather. However, we dealt with some unexpected events. We got ready to head off to church in the morning to point where I had Conner in his carseat and the car warming up. But, I had no idea where Joe was. After about a minute of searching, I see him walking back to the house looking quite angry.

Apparently, the dog ran off on him. So, instead of heading to church we had to spend the next 45 minutes searching for her. Eventually, a couple of young guys found her and returned her to us. Oh boy, she was in trouble. This is a h u g e flaw of hers. She runs away too much hence is the Saturday project of building a new dog pen for her.

So, since we had to change our morning plans, we didn't want to pass up this extremely rare November day. We got back in the car and headed into downtown TC. I love walking the downtown area so we did that for a little while, had lunch at the Mackinaw Brewing Co, and played at Clinch Park. Before we knew it, it was already past the start of Conner's nap time so we headed home.

This is where I'm going to pick up where I left on from the "I feel safe at home" conversation from Friday. As we approach our drive, I hear Joe ask, "What's in the ditch?" I start searching and all of a sudden I see this incredibly suspicious, ragged looking guy in our ditch. Joe slowed down as we passed and he laid down as flat as he could in the weeds, but we had made eye contact.

Joe pulled in, got out and started walking back out to talk to the guy. Oh. my. word. talk about the fear of what could've happened next. And of course it was the one day - the one day - that neither Joe nor I had our phones charged. I watched as Joe walked down the road to find this man in the ditch wondering if this guy had a gun, if he had just done something terrible and was on the run, if something awful was going to happen to Joe. So many outcomes were going through my mind and since I always jump to the worse case scenario, I thought for sure this wouldn't end well.

My next thought was to check the house. If this guy robbed us, I wanted to know now. I ran inside and quickly scanned the first floor and bedroom for any signs of a break in. Nothing that I could tell, so I ran back outside to stay close to Conner who was still in his carseat. By then Joe was confronting the man. I couldn't hear Joe, but I saw the man spring up from the ditch with both hands up. I could hear him telling Joe, "Don't tell anyone what you saw, and I will leave you alone." Perfect. He kept telling Joe that as he held his hands up and crossed the road. Eventually, he ran off over the meadows across from us and Joe came back up the driveways signaling me to call 911.

Guys, I've never called 911 before, but Joe said the 911 folks were not very helpful. Like flat out worthless and even hung up on him. Doesn't give you too much confidence in a 911 dispatcher when they hang up on you!!! But, at that moment a sheriff's car came driving down our road. Joe started chasing and waving down the sheriff's car. The cop must not have seen him, but a random driver did and stopped to talk to Joe and ended up giving him a ride to catch up with the sheriff.

Meanwhile, this full term pregnant lady and her 2 year old were left back at the house without a phone since Joe took mine and no real idea if there was any other suspicious guys out in our woods or even hiding in our house. Not really knowing what to do, I kept Conner occupied in the backyard playing with the chickens as I kept a close eye on the woods ready to grab him at any moment and run for my car just in case.

After what seemed like forever, Joe returned with info from the cop. They were already looking for this guy. They knew this so called "Brent" guy and were apparently very familiar with him. So to bring closure to this story, this Brent character lives not too far from us, (yay.) has a drinking problem, and this is clearly not the first time this guy has been in this situation.

Unfortunately, the cop told us there's not much you can do about this but he's harmless. He's much more of a nuisance than anything. Joe mentioned the whole fact of him trespassing, but the cop asked him if we really wanted to pursue that and if it's worth it. Umm... no I don't want to go through the effort and yes I do want something done because he has no business being on our property acting creeping and suspicious like that.

Just when I got to the point of feeling completely safe out here, this happens and you do feel uncomfortable. Fortunately, like the cop said, this man is harmless and was able to give us some info on this guy if we ever saw him on our property again. Well, Brent, you better hope I don't find you on our property again or I will probably give you a "talking to" that your parents apparently never gave you growing up to set you straight.

It does shed light on the fact that I need to fully set out a plan on how to protect my kids especially if Joe is away. I've gotten too comfortable and naïve about harm never coming our way.

So, that's our weekend in a nutshell. I did ask Joe if he'd paint my toenails for me. Long shot, I know, but I'd figure I'd ask. And after a long pause in which I thought maybe he'd actually agree to try it, his response ended up being, "There's spray paint out in the garage. I can do a quick spray over your feet. You can choose from green or yellow." So there's that.

We stopped in at Cherry Republic for tasty samples and hit up their indoor play area before lunch. Ball pits are awesome. Until it's time to get out. Then it's a tantrum.