Because of a crazy guy with a gun...

...I have something totally out of the ordinary to blog about. ; )
-But I won't mind a bit if my posts stay in the realm of the ordinary from now on.... lol


Joy and I had been on a bunny errand at the pet store and found out that we could not drive down our street when we returned. Both ends of it were blocked by police cars!!!
My cell phone was dead and to top it off our boys were home alone!
(how is this for drama?)

I spoke to the nearest officer and asked him if I could go home because my boys were home alone. He wanted to know how old they were and was I thankful that I could say: 17, 15 and 11. He said that he would have to ask his commanding officer. I asked what was going on and being a nervous wreck, I kind of spaced out until I heard him say "and the guy has a gun and the SWAT team is on their way."
Unbelievable!!!

As it turned out, I had to leave my car parked around the corner from my street and the lieutenant had to escort me down the street to go and get my boys. He said that I would be walked back and that we could not stay in our house.
As he walked us down the street, he pointed out to Joy and I which house (around the corner) had the guy in it "being stupid" with a gun. -So, glad he doesn't actually live on our street.

Joy and I went in and rounded up the boys telling them we had to leave the house right now and that there was a police officer waiting for us outside. That was a shocker, but they obeyed quickly and in no time, we were being walked back down the street.
-Nathan likes to point out that we were being walked towards the house with the gunman in it which didn't seem very safe actually... lol. Oh well!

I was SO grateful to just have all my children together! Next on the agenda was to decide where to go since going home to make dinner wasn't an option.
Guess what I found out? You can be gone all day and have tons of things to do and places to go...but when someone makes you leave your home, you draw a total blank! Or at least I did, I was still so nervous!
When we finally got a hold of my hubby on his cell, we decided to meet at our favorite pizza place close to home.
It was one wild, loud meal. I'm sure the waitress thought we were crazy, talking about a "gunman" and "this policeman" as the kids gave Dad all the dramatic details. : )

After we ate, we had just a few minutes before we had to leave for an awards ceremony for the Royal Rangers and the Impact Girls Ministry. We thought we could skip it, but the outpost commander told my hubby that he had to be there no matter what and that he would bring a uniform that he could wear, since he couldn't get into our house to change into his. I thought that was pretty odd since it isn't everyday that you have to deal with a gunman and evacuate your house. I mean, really?
So, he headed off to the ceremony in his work clothes and the kids and I headed home to find out what the situation was like and guess what? -It was all over!
The police were driving away as we pulled up. I still don't even know how it ended. One of my neighbors said that they had a "tank" out there. I thought she must've been exaggerating but my hubby said that the SWAT team does have a vehicle that look similar to a tank...

Andrew and I changed in a hurry and I grabbed my hubby's own uniform (in case he would have time to put it on) and rushed off to the ceremony and walked in late.
And do you know what happened?
At the end of the ceremony my hubby was honored for his 7 years of service in the Ranger ministry.
The senior commander (who said he HAD to be there) was so choked up that he couldn't even speak. When he could speak again, he said something to the effect that 'no one knows how much he put into his class each week" and that he didn't think "there was a better man in the room." WOW! (there were lots of awesome godly men in the room, but I totally agree!)
Now, I'm glad we didn't let a crazy guy with a gun spoil that moment, after all! : )

-When people wondered where the rest of our kids were, we filled them in on our very eventful afternoon! Apparently word got around and as we were leaving, one of the guys said to Andrew "Hey, I heard that SWAT was at your house today" LOL
Umm, not exactly!

-And that was the end of our CRAZY day!

~Becky