Amen for alarms!!

Two weeks ago...I got a phone call from my alarm company...nothing unusual because my roomie and I find plenty of ways to cause false alarms!! Considering no one had been home for almost an hour, I agreed to send the police to check it out!! I got another call from the alarm company, telling me that the police would like for me to meet them at my house because they found the door open! Awesome...im an idiot--i left the door open! The alarm company also noted that the motion detector was what was triggered...weird...oh my gosh...is their some gross animal running around rampant in my house?!?!? With much hesitation, I finally agree to meet the police at my house...even if that means I have to take 40 minutes out of my day just to shut my door or help trap some gross animal!


As I pulled into my street...Im overwhelmed with the amount of police cars, police officers, detectives, and neighbors that are around! I also laughed while thinking, "I sure do blend in with all these cars" with my grandpa car and all!! Poor me!! Ha! The feeling was quite weird though...and my newest thought was that...oh my gosh! maybe there was some electrical thing and all my neighbors alarms went off!?!? (obviously the obvious is never entering my thoughts!)


I pull in my driveway just halfway...no one is in my yard! I quickly just look at my house from the driveway and find nothing out of the ordinary with the exception that my shed doors are open! I walk towards the street to the crazy amounts of people to find out some info! It was quite clear all the neighbors and police were waiting for ME...um...that cant be good!


The first question asked of me was if I owned an orange husqvarna lawn mower...um..yeah? than I was told my house had been broken into and I need to go check it out! In disbelief, I somewhat argue that everything appears normal and than was told to take a closer look! Walking around the back and up the deck...I realize my beautiful french doors...um...are destroyed!!! Walking in through torn up flooring, broken glass, and ripped up door paneling...I take a quick look around and see nothing out of sort! I look down the hallway and am taken aback by the swarms of police men with flashlights walking all around! haha!! so crazy!! My first thoughts...praise Jesus I cleaned my house just last night...how embarrassing to have had them walking around my crazy dirty mess!! (My priorities might be a little off...haha)


Amazingly enough, it was obvious that the 'punks' never walked in my house...as soon as they had gotten the doors open, the ALARM went off and they jetted down my driveway in their truck with my lawnmower in the back (taken from my shed)...as they speedily were making their get-away, some neighbors were driving home and to avoid a head-on collision, the 'punks' swerved and out jumps my lawnmower from the back of their truck!!!! So I got it back!! haha!! Yes, it needs some repairs..but all in all...i think its awesome and hilarious how I got it back!!


Thanks to my neighbors, the men were caught within five minutes and were brought back to the scene! It broke my heart to see that 'men' and not children had done this! I was told to not expect that I would ever get my money back for my doors or lawnmower...and so maybe not through the court system, but I pray and hope and trust in the Lord who saw fit to have me purchase new french doors! I have a long list of other things that need to be replaced, but the Lord picked french doors...well alright then! haha!! And not only that, but maybe my electric bill will go down now because these new doors (that were put in the very next day-amazing!) are so awesomely more insulated than my others-haha!!


Overall, Im still kinda in disbelief that all that had happened! And for five years (well almost), I have written that $35 check to my alarm company out of obligation and just self-security...NOW I will write that $35 check with much thankfulness and gratitude!! Thank you Lord! Below are some pictures of the fun-ness I got to deal with!

Boo!


Sad day!
 

Tear!

March Madness! So far...

Only two weeks in and its been a crazy insane month!! A few events...

Hit and Run!! While waiting at a red light, I got SLAMMED into by the car behind me!! Pulling over to the left side, the woman behind me also pulls to the left side and falls in line behind me. I put my car in park and open my door...and in a flash...she jets back into traffic and presses the pedal to the metal to run away from me!! Oh no you didnt!! I quickly get back in my car (with seatbelt i promise) and chase after her...haha!! Cross three lanes of traffic, grab a pen, and jot her license plate number and car info on my hand! I pull into a parking lot and call 911 to report it! The cop arrived...she was super nice...and together we discovered that amazingly there was ZERO damage! And I just thought it was crazy because i was hit so hard!! Only the Lord!! (((Dont forget that within the last month...the car has had major cash hits to be fixed because of my accident and than my brother backing into the next day after it was fixed!!---so the thought of another fixing was just sickening!!))) I do know that it has been investigated and she has been found and blah blah!! But my job is done!! Im just sad she never gave me the opportunity to tell her it was ok and to have a great day!!

180!! Week later, on a saturday rainy morning...i was driving to Pensacola on my way to get my sweet sister for a lunch date! It was done raining, but the roads were quite wet of course. I was less than a mile away from their house...driving straight (not on a curve i swear) about 30mph, if that, and all of a sudden the car major fish tails LEFT...than RIGHT...(lifting off the ground...im trying to hold the steering wheel steady since correcting the direction myself could cause worse problems...ugh)...than i ONE-EIGHTY all the way around and am flying speedily backwards...HOW DOES A VEHICLE DRIVE BACKWARDS WHEN YOU ARE NOT IN REVERSE?!?!?!?  I am flying backwards and can see on my left side that im headed into a persons yard super close to their brick house! I scream "LORD" and slam the brake!! The car immediately stops and completely shuts down!! I am completely facing the opposite direction i was driving!! After my heart settles, I look around and realize i cannot even open my door because i am two inches from their fence and my back bumper is two inches from a huge tree and right beside it is their car!! I turn the car back on...and slowly TURN AROUND... and continue on...truly one of the most frightening things that has ever happened to me! Im so thankful to the Lord for my safety and even more thankful that the car came out of this crazy event without a scratch! wow.

On a more happy non-car note, the Lord has provided another pitching lesson for me and two more contacts that should start within the next few weeks!! Unbelievable!! Im so pumped that we are back at the fields for lessons in the hot sun and orange clay-dirt...i love outside!! And even more excited, that the man who is allowing me to use the facility has offered me to use it whenever the weather is not cooperating...the Lord is truly good!! as always!!

And crazy! I turned 28 today! So thankful for my life and the family and friends that I get to love and be loved by!! Im beyond spoiled by Jesus!!

Colorado Adventures!

So...is it too late to talk about Christmas?? Does the fact that I came home from the holidays to a tv AND a computer that no longer decide to turn on work as a good excuse?? I think so!! And no, as most ask, they were both unplugged...so no lightning struck them..just a tag-team plan by both of them to challenge my trust in the Lord all the more! But within days, a tv was given to me for FREE as i await the time to get a new one! Of course it is much smaller than mine...so i had two options...shrink my living room and put my couches two feet from the tv or squint my eyes...I chose to squint...hopefully this will not cause me to get glasses in my future! haha! And even a little while later, my sweet uncle Dan gave me his old computer! Im so thankful...now I can blog and facebook and catch back up with the world again!

So on that note...spending Christmas in Colorado was great, cold, adventurous, and tiring! Our not so small family of 6 piled into a not so big suv and drove all the way there and back!! We had the great privilege to make a couple stops on the way...St. Louis to visit my Uncle Glenn & fam AND also our long-time family friend, Shaun and his sweet family! These stops served as great time-outs from the car travel...6 tall Floyd's in a suv just dont stay sweet, patient, and calm voices for too long! haha

So why Colorado?? Well besides me, none of the Floyd kid's have seen real deal snow! Breckenridge was the home of  my precious great grandparents and so it was great to remind ourselves of many long-ago life memories (well at least introduce the other kid's to those memories)! And of course...SKI!! And whats a blog post without a funny story!!

So we all set out..for the FIRST time...we are all going to be brave and try! Matthew and Kobi decide to snowboard while the rest of us decide to ski! We hit the slopes..or rather they hit us...we are on the green (the beginner short slope)...I neither know how to turn OR stop...both necessities, but you could live with just knowledge on just one, but without either...it creates such a terrible and miserable time! Being the athlete that I am, I was not laughing, but getting angry that I could not at least get it enough to get down the hill!! All the while, Matthew and Kobi have taken quite well to snowboarding (thanks to my friend Victoria who joined us for the day and taught the boys) and went down the hill 4 or 5 times in my lacking of getting down once!! I ended up taking the ski's off, sit on them, and slide my unhappy butt down the hill--with mom and Jayci riding as well, beside me! Jayci and I decide to trade our ski's for snowboards...and so then Victoria, the boys, and us girls head to a different resort that lets you ride the slopes in the dark because they have lights!

We ride the gondola up the mountain...our first stop is actually the last stop..the very top peak of the hill (obvious sign #1 something is not right, but missed it)...absolutely beautiful--even though it is pitch dark!! Matthew and Kobi take off and Victoria stays behind to give Jay and I a few lessons!! Finally, gosh darnt, I figure it out!! I wave Victoria off to go ahead and go and Ill teach Jay and go down the slope with her! So we set off together...this slope is full of many hills and than bowls (flat surfaces between hills to slow skiers down)...but the bowls created such torture for Jay and I...because we would get stuck on them and you cannot snowboard without a hill...so the first bowl (obvious sign #2-missed again) we spend over an hour on!!! misery!! Finally the second one, i figured out how to take my foot out and treat it like a skateboard and slide my way to the next hill! I noticed that every couple hills there was a phone on the side of the slope to call in emergencies (obvious sign #3--missed yet again)! After about 3 hours on the same slope (i know i know and we are getting better, but it just takes time)...but this man in a yellow jacket comes racing down in his skis and stops to talk with us...he asks, "are you Ashley and Jayci??" WHAT?!?! He then says that my family has sent him to find us because they are worried about us and do not think we will make it down the mountain! (obvious sign #4-missed again) Thanks for the concern but PUH-LEASE!! I assured him that we are fine and to mention to the family that when he found us, we were both STANDING!! haha

Not ten minutes later a skier dragging a toboggan (he is a rescuer--obvious sign #5-starting to think now...) stops and asks us if we are ok...do we have a target on our backs or something?!?!? I told him we were fine and Jayci asks him how often he comes down the hilll..haha...we joked we might catch that ride later! And then...I ask him where we are in reference to the bottom of the slope...his answer..."almost half-way"...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!so then I ask..how long is this thing? he answers...3 miles...after almost falling over, i laugh hysterically that my first attempt at snowboarding is down a 3mile insane slope in the dark!!! This cannot be happening!

So after another hour...Jayci is just getting so tired..and she finally calls it the quits! I flag down a rescuer (who later mentions that it only takes him 6 minutes to get down the 3mile slope-JERK) and we hop on that toboggan AND Jay and I have the highlight experience of our trip...he pulled us so fast down that hill...it was AMAZING!! I dont know why we took so long to get that FREE ride...whats wrong with us!! We enjoyed waving to all the skiers as we flew past them...haha...you dummies are still on the hill!!

The best snowboarding partner ever!

Yay for rescue-taxi's!!

The beginning of the longest day ever!!

Our view everyday! Absolutely beautiful!

Our St. Louis cousins!! Love them!