Operator? There's someone at my door!

While my sister was here this past weekend, she kept commenting on how old my dog, Belle, looks. I realized that she is almost 12 years old, but I think she still has a youthful look, despite her graying fur! I began to wonder if it was time to get a new pup. Belle may not be much of a watch-dog, but no one really knows that. I'm hoping that anyone looking for a place to rob will see her in my yard and assume that she is a ferocious beast and therefore just pass-by my house. It seems to have worked so far. But if Belle died and I didn't have a watch-dog in place, I would be unable to sleep at night!! I count on her to keep me safe. Our alarm system doesn't give me a great sense of peace, because I've seen the guys who installed it. They looked just like the kind of guys you would imagine would break into your house! And they KNOW my password! (Of course I'm not that creative - anyone could probably figure it out!). I've only called 911 ONE time in the past 8 years. ONE time! Before I married M., I called 911 once a week. I still panic when he's on-call, but after 3 Benadryl, I'm usually out for the night!

I think the last time I called 911, was about 3 or 4 years ago. We had been at the lake with Mark's family on July 4th. Each year we have a family reunion at the cabin right around the 4th of July. Since my children are the 15th,16th,17th, and 18th grandchildren , you can imagine that there are lots of cousins running around and lots of sleeping bags on the floor. When KitKat and Sunshine were both sleeping in cribs (which we didn't have at the lake)., it was easier for me to drive 30 minutes back to our house with KitKat and Sunshine than to try to get two babies to sleep on the floor in a back bedroom with 14 other cousins running outside of the room. I tried everything and finally decided that I didn't care if I appeared to be a high-maintenance kind of wife who couldn't handle the cabin like everyone else! I was headed home! And I was taking my babies! So there!
Well because it was July 4th, Belle was especially "on-edge". She barked every three or four minutes - all night long. Every time she heard a firework explosion, she barked. Well when Belle's on-edge, Mama's on- edge. Every time she barked, I jumped. I could not get to sleep. I locked all the doors, put the kids to bed, and even locked my bedroom door. (I guess the babies were on their own!) All of a sudden, I thought I heard a door shut. I grabbed the phone to make sure the line had not been cut. All was good. Then I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I dialed 911 as fast as I could. THEN...my doorknob was being jiggled by whomever was on the other side of the door. I had never been so terrified in all my life. I had the 911 operator on the line and I yelled to the intruder on the other side of my door, "What do you want?!?" He calmly replied, "I want into my bedroom." Apparently M. had decided he was as high-maintenance as me and needed to sleep in his own bed. I was so mad at him for not calling to tell me that he was coming home! He said he just didn't want to wake me up because he knew I had a hard time getting to sleep when he wasn't home. Then the embarrassment set-in as I explained to the operator that it was "just my husband wanting into his bedroom". But that wasn't nearly as embarrassing as trying to explain to my husband, the father of those two babies on the other side of my bedroom door, why I locked my door. He thought it looked like "survival of the fittest" and that I was looking out for #1! I assured him that I locked my door just in case the imaginary intruder came upstairs - trying to unlock the door would buy me a few minutes to call 911. "See?", I said, "It worked."