What a week!

I haven't had an embarrassing moment for a while, but I've had two this week. With those and the bombings in Boston, I'm ready for this week to be over.

My first EM happened Sunday at church. There used to be a girl in our ward named Nicole Hendricks. I grew up near a girl named Heather Hendricks. Nicole was back in town and in our ward on Sunday, and guess what I called her? Yep, I called her Heather. Even picturing her in my mind, I still want to call her Heather. Nicole, Nicole, Nicole.

And then there's today. A tall man dressed in fatigues jumped in my backyard. I actually screamed out loud when I saw him. And then guess what I did? I let him in my back door. He came in and asked me if I knew what was going on across the street. I had no clue, and it was at that moment that I realized that I just let a complete stranger right into my house with me, my kids, and no husband. I panicked and ran out the front door to call for help. It was then that I saw what this man was talking about. There were about ten other men hidden between parked cars across the street dressed in similar fatigues and holding the biggest guns I've ever seen in real life. All of them started screaming at me to get back in my house. So I ran right back in. Of course the fatigued man in my house asked me what the heck I was doing. I told him I'm home alone, and he didn't show me any id, and I got scared.

This man proceeded to tell me and my kids that we needed to stay toward the back of the house away from front windows. I thought that was all he needed, until 3 or 4 more guys jumped over my wall with more big guns, came in my house, and went upstairs.

Here's what the Internet said was happening:

"According to Metro police, a man surrendered to authorities after barricading himself inside a home on Wednesday afternoon near Blue Diamond and Fort Apache roads. He apparently had threatened to take his own life.

Police closed and evacuated the neighborhood.

A SWAT team responded as police believed the man was armed.

Following a standoff, the man surrendered peacefully, was arrested and taken into custody. Police located guns inside the home.

No injuries were reported and neighbors have since been allowed back into their homes."

It says we were evacuated from the neighborhood, but I'm pretty sure none of my neighbors were. I think they got some misinformation.

The sad thing is I was the last to know what was going on right across the street from my house. If I had my phone on me, I would have received all the calls and texts asking if I was okay. But I didn't have my phone, and I missed those. My whole street was barricaded so no one could get in or out, and I had no clue. Hence I ran right out my front door right in the middle of all the action. I'm sure SWAT (all the fatigue-wearing men) thought I was a complete nutcase.

It's been 5 hours, and everything is back to normal. We know the neighbors across the street, and they are a nice family. They have two kids who are only maybe 3 and 1. Such a sad situation. The husband either was or is still in the military, so I wonder if he suffers from PTSD. Who knows. I will pray for them and hope for the best for their young family.

I did manage to get two pictures out of my sons' bedroom window after the SWAT officers left my house:

At one time, there were 6 police cars in front of my house.

I'll go crawl in a hole now and wait for this week to end.

***Update: Kevin had his own crazy day at Park Towers yesterday.  First a guy showed up in a taxi with two women following behind him in his car.  He didn't live there, and Kevin wouldn't give him his car keys because he was obviously drunk.  The guy refused to call a cab to take him home, so Kevin had to call the cops to come pick him up.  When Kevin left work last night, the man's car was still at Park Towers.

Then an older resident called down to let him know that she had fallen and wasn't able to get off the floor.  The employees don't have keys to the residents' condos, so they had to call a manager back in to work to unlock the emergency box with residents' extra keys.  When Kevin finally got to the old woman, she was stark naked on her floor next to her phone.

I swear yesterday could not have gotten any weirder for our family.