A very strange week

Hi

A lot has happened since I last blogged, and I'll admit I'm in a bit of a daze, still, wondering if it's really real.

My sister's family stayed with me from Friday night until Monday afternoon. Saturday after noon, the Ragbrai bus came to my house to pick up the members of Team Petting Zoo who live in Des Moines, and take them to the starting point in western Iowa. However, the hydraulic brakeline sprung a leak, and they spent 5 hours in front of my house fixing it. It was nice to be a part of the Ragbrai atmosphere, but a little weird to have 25 people drinking on my lawn on a Saturday afternoon. The bus was successfully repaired, though, and the team has had a good time this week. I am unofficially declaring this year to be "Disaster Ragbrai," since something really rotten has happened nearly every day of the week. One guy got a severe citation for dribbling a bit of beer on the ground near a police officer's shoe while demonstrating his "open container" was an empty container. There was, of course, the brake line problem, and a host who wouldn't let anybody into his house, even to use the bathroom (some host!!!). There was a bit of family drama in Ames - not much, but I didn't handle even that well because Emily got very sick (102 fever and too congested to eat :( ) and I was dealing with her wanting nothing but to cry and doze in my arms (and only my arms!). I did get to bike all day Tuesday, and except for being greeted by a very sick little girl, I had a good time! Emily was feeling better by morning, so I biked half of the next day, but the wind was so strong I decided it wasn't fun anymore and quit then. I'm glad I did, because the wind was awful for the rest of the day, and I'm told I made a very smart decision. I went back to Barnum that evening, Wednesday night, because Nancy was with me. I thought about meeting Tim so Nancy could go home with him and then Emily and I could go home, but I'm very glad I didn't. Nancy took Emily to a doctor in Fort Dodge because her fever roared back that night (throughout all of this, I was getting about 5 non-consecutive hours of sleep each night), and it was nice to let her take necessary action and trust her on it. I'm also glad because when I did get home Thursday, I discovered that our house had been broken into.

Yes, I'm not kidding - somebody kicked in the front door, breaking the frame around the deadbolt, and made off with our most expensive items. They found the keys to our Saturn and used it as a transport vehicle, and it wasn't recovered until today. They made off with our new stereo, subwoofer, and speakers, among many other things. There is quite a list of odd things they took, such as the ironing board and iron, the blender, the coffeemaker AND the coffee, the entire silverware drawer itself, numerous items from the fridge (half a container of OJ?) and all of my stockpile of frozen Fareway meat. They took my pearl pendant necklaces, but not my pearl necklace from my wedding. They took my class ring :( :(, but Travis was not attached to his class ring and is content that it's gone. They didn't do much damage to the house, just took a lot of things, so that's "nice". Possibly the strangest take was our brand new washer and dryer!!! How glad I am that I didn't leave my wedding ring here while I biked, and that our bikes were with us. They didn't take Travis's computer downstairs, though it looks like they intended to since it was unplugged. Our upstairs laptop is gone (as are both of our John Deere laptops!), so I am writing this on a borrowed friend's laptop. They also got our digital camera, which I didn't take on Ragbrai because I didn't want it to get lost - oops. I am only missing about 3 weeks of Emily's pictures, though, because I had just copied everything from Emily's lifetime onto my mom's computer. Plus, a lot are on our picasa site, too, so it's okay.

Really, in all of this, I am okay, we are all okay. There are only a few things that can't be replaced, but a lot more things that they could have taken that are priceless to us but apparently worthless to others. All of my grandma's antique china that she gave to me is here, untouched. Nearly everything else can be repurchased.

The neighbors said they saw the Saturn in our driveway on Wednesday, but not on Thursday morning, so I am so glad I stayed with Tim and Nancy that night. I am left with the same feeling I had after my work accident two years ago - I wish it could've been a lot better, but I am so incredibly grateful that it wasn't any worse. It was also another opportunity to see how amazing my friends and family are. Nancy made the same 90-minute drive that I had just made the instant I told her what had happened. Two of my friends who were not on Ragbrai came over with dinner and their laptop and digital camera. They documented all the damage and repaired my front door so I could sleep here safely last night. (it is SO barricaded!! :) ) Tim drove all the way to Iowa City to pick up Travis so he could get started with me in getting things back to normal. We are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives. I am lucky that the bad things that happen in my life are so minor that I am left only a little sad, yet a million times more grateful for what I have.

So, I'm going to go call my mommy now. I hope all of you have had a far less interesting week!!