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Recovering from what you might be asking?  Well, read on…

I was going to start this post with a letter that sounded liked this…”Dear Jerks who robbed our house last week…” But, I decided that I should wait a few days and let some steam blow off and just tell you what happened.

Last week was a terrible week for me.  TERRIBLE!  It all started on Monday when I came home from work and noticed a few things out of place in the garage.  My tools were off the shelves, the wine fridge was opened, and when I looked in the backyard I noticed all of my plants were tipped over and the screen was off the laundry room window.  My first instinct was to pop my head in the back door to see if an animal had gotten in the house.  When I looked in noticed that there were a drawers open and some things out of place in the living room and it hit me, we were robbed. My adrenalin kicked in and I ran inside quickly to make sure our dog was okay.  I was so relieved to see her smiling face and I grabbed her, ran outside, and locked both of us in my car and called 911.

Within 5 minutes 8 police cars showed up with and the officers and sniffing dogs went in to clear the house.  Harper and I stayed in the car and watched the action.  Part of me wanted the robbers to still be inside so the police could catch them but the other part of me was afraid of what they would do if they were still there.

After 15 minutes the police cleared the house and asked me to come back inside to identify the missing items.  We retraced the steps of the robbers, it looks like they broke in a back window and then ransacked the house looking for anything valuable.  When they were done the took the time to go to the bathroom leaving DNA evidence behind, and then they walked out the front door.

I took some pictures for my insurance claim, here is one of our master bedroom.  I spent hours last week washing everything that they touched.  We live in such a safe neighborhood with a low crime rate, I still can’t believe this happened to us.

It was heart breaking to look at the list of all of the items that they took and after totalling it up for my insurance claims they stole over $18,000 of personal and business property.  AHHH!!! That number just makes me want to scream. Most of the items are things that I cannot replace like the pictures on my computer or sentimental jewelry given to me by family.  My laptop was stolen and it has all of my photos on it from the last 2 years.  We were just starting the process of uploading them to iCloud in case of a theft but we weren’t finished.  I am so thankful that I put most of them on the blog over the last 2 years so I can still find them there.

Luckily our dog Harper was okay.  She is always gated in the laundry room while I am gone but on the day of the robbery I sprayed raid in that room so I gated her in the guest bathroom instead.  She was was flustered when I got home and since the robbery has taken her role as guard dog very seriously.  Instead of sitting next to me in my office she now lays in the hallway to keep an eye on things…

The rest of the week I maintained my scheduled client appointments and didn’t mention anything about the robbery to my clients.  I made sure that my hauler Billy would be with me after each session so he could clear my house for me.  I talked to all of my neighbors to ask if they saw anyone come or go.  Fortunately the neighbor next door did see someone doing door to door the day of the robbery so that is a lead.  It is hard not to spend time worrying about what I could have done to prevent it, was it someone that I knew, was it someone who knew about my business or had bought something from me on Craigslist, and will they come back to take more?  The police told me not to worry about it, it was probably a random attack because there were two other burglaries in the neighborhood last week.  The robbers probably saw me leave and took advantage of our empty house.

Thursday I spent the day at home documenting the loss for insurance and talking to my adjusters and my agent and crying.   I am so thankful that I am as organized as I am because I had to come up with a lot of documentation for the stolen items.  I wanted to get as much of the paperwork completed on the claim before my surgery.  Yes, I said surgery.

I have been struggling with abdominal pain for years and after going to a few specialist I finally found a doctor that could diagnosed the problem as severe endometriosis.  After running a few tests he suggested that I have surgery to removed it right away.  On Friday morning Chris took me to the surgery center and I had the outpatient procedure.  I have never been put under for a surgery before and  the thought of not waking up really freaked me out.  I just remember laying on the table looking up at the bright light and when the anesthesiologist put the mask on my face I started to say the Lord’s Prayer in my head.  I only remember saying, “Our Father, who are in Heaven” before I fell asleep.

Between the tube down my throat, the IV, and the incisions throughout my stomach I have been in pretty bad shape all weekend. Chris and Harper have been taking pretty good care of me…

I am going back to the doctor for a post surgery appointment this week am I am anxious to hear more about what he found and what my next steps are.  I really hope that I don’t have to have another surgery.  I will probably be in a little bit of pain all week but I hope to be back to normal by next weekend.

To top off the week we found out that Chris had to take a last minute business trip to New York City on the day we were robbed, not very good timing considering I never want to be alone at our house again.  We thought about having me go with him or fly home but with my surgery I am not in any position to travel.  Literally, I can’t really walk and it is hard to sit up in a chair because of the incisions around hips and my belly button.  Plus, I have so much to do here with the insurance claims and getting an alarm installed this week so we took his parents up on their offer to come out to stay with me for the week.  They arrived on Sunday, I am sure this won’t be the most exciting trip to California that they have ever had but I think they are okay with that.  They are going to be stuck hanging out with me, with no makeup, in my pjs, bossing them around.

I am hoping this week is better than last week and that my in laws have some fun while they are here and that I can heal up quick so I can get back to organizing soon!