Final Resting Place (at least the last place we'll see it)!

This afternoon Meggan and I went downtown to the City-County Building (which is always just such a joy) to get a release from the Police Department in order to be able to view the Jeep at the towing company it was taken to after the high-speed chase on Saturday. We could go and look at it and also retrieve any personal property that was his (fat chance, but it was worth a shot). Plus we just wanted to see it...

I could tell it was really hard for Jason to see it when we first drove up to it, but I think it was also therapeutic in a way for him to have some closure in his mind. I truly do believe that he felt more violated than I did when we walked out 4 Saturday mornings ago and the Jeep had disappeared from the driveway, just because it was HIS baby and it was HIS car (I get to drive the soccer mom minivan...). So this was a way that he could truly close the book on it and move on and know that at least it had been located and the jerk got caught!

We had to take our camera so that we had some pictures to show everyone how bad of shape it was in. After seeing the Jeep and smelling the ashtray-like odor that was eminating from it, I suppose we can suffice it to say good riddance and just put this whole experience behind us...

These are NOT Jason's pants, nor his gallon-size bottle of PineSol (whatever that's used for)!

For those of you that know anything about Jason, it was hard enough for him to see the outside appearance of the Jeep but may have been even harder for him to see the inside. His Jeep never really had so much as a little bit of dust on the dash. It smelled so bad (neither one of us smoke, so that smell is quite distinct when it's flowing from what used to be your vehicle).

He did find his bank keys - so that was worth it all in itself and gave him a sense of relief, I could tell! We didn't find his briefcase for work in there, nor his CDs, but we weren't really expecting to either. That is our garage door opener sitting on the driver's seat there, but we bought a new one and de-programmed that old one merely a few hours after we realized the Jeep was stolen.

What an ordeal. We are just glad we all came out of it safe and sound and that it's over with. We are enjoying Daddy's "magical" car, as Meggan puts it (kids are so darn funny)!

Good night! I'm off to sunny (I hope) Palm Desert, California, bright and early in the morning for my third work trip out of four. Should be kind of fun! :)

May the Jeep Rest in Peace...

As many of you know (and many of you may not know since I can't remember if I ever even included it in my posts), Jason's Jeep was stolen right out of our driveway just over 4 weeks ago. I will set the record straight right now and say that yes, the keys were accidentally left in it, but that still doesn't give someone the right to steal your vehicle.

Jason has been driving a rental car since Saturday, March 28, which the insurance company does pay for since we have that coverage. On Friday he called to see what we needed to do next, as they had told us we would need to wait about 30 days and see if the Jeep is found. They told him that since there had been no activity on his case that the rental car coverage would end on Saturday and offered him a settlement for the total loss of his Jeep. He accepted it and they would be sending a check to our insurance agent's office overnight so that we could pick it up on Monday.

This meant we needed to buy a new car ... NOW! We didn't want to pay for the rental car ourselves and were actually somewhat excited that the waiting was coming to an end and we would just be able to put it behind us and just go purchase another car. My mom came over around 2:00 on Saturday afternoon and stayed with the kids (Jordan was sleeping from 1:30 until about 5:30, so it was just her and Meggan for the most part) and Jason and I took off to the dealership to see what we could find.

We ended up buying a 2007 Toyota Camry, tan in color, and it's a really nice car! It's used but it's new to us, with only 28,000 miles on it. A few hours later we were finally signing the papers and I followed him to Enterprise to drop the rental car off. We were so excited -what a great feeling to just be able to move on!

Even longer story short, I saw there was a message on our answering machine at about 10:00 on Saturday night. It was left at 6:00 and it was the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department trying to get ahold of Jason Dew and let him know that his 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee had been recovered and towed to Hick's Towing and that he needed to call them and they would let him know what he needed to do next. I WAS FREAKING OUT! What would the insurance company do? We can't return this car we just bought. Oh, man, are we going to be screwed...

I called our neighbor (yes, at 10:30 at night), who is a police officer, and he went out to his car and looked up the report on his computer. The report listed the incidents of the attempt to pull the Jeep over, the kid (yes, some 18-year-old kid) deciding to lead the police on a high-speed chase, hitting 2 parked cars and side-swiping another as he tried to pass it on the right shoulder of the road, and ultimately running into a chain-link fence in someone's yard. At this point he decided to get out and take off on foot, at which time the officer released the K-9 dogs to track him down. They found him hiding in a house somewhere nearby and he was arrested. Let's just say this isn't his first run-in with the law, or even his first vehicle theft... It was nice to know that he had been caught and was arrested, nice for us personally!

So yesterday I headed to the insurance agent's office and picked up our settlement check and gave them the title to Jason's Jeep. They handed me the check and said they would take care of us. Since the Jeep is now most likely pretty much totaled anyway, I'm sure there would have been a settlement either way. So our nerves were settled down and we were just happy, again, to be able to have this whole horrible experience behind us.

I'm sorry that was such a long post, but it's a long story to tell. I just pray that nobody else ever has to go through this experience. The good news is that we were not hurt and they didn't attempt to come in and rob us or anything like that (he has a few robberies on his record as well). He very easily could have opened up the garage door and come in, and we are so thankful that we were all safe!

Thanks for listening. I'm gearing up for my last work trip until the end of May and getting ready to head out to Palm Desert, California, tomorrow. It should actually be a pretty nice trip, even though I have to work! :)

Weekend Fun!

The guys had their first base ball game of the season on Saturday, and everyone had SO much fun! Of course, the weather being 70 degrees with a nice breeze helped out!!! They played at Craig Park, which is their "home field" here in Indianapolis, against the Hoosiers, and they won both games (and decidedly so, I might add)!

We made it until about the third inning of the second game before the kids had reached their "boiling point" and we couldn't put them off anymore to go to the playground. So off we went, and I got a few good pictures!

Aren't they all so cute??? :)

Helping Jordan climb all the equipment (she's such a good big sister)!

Everyone playing in the sandbox (Meggan and Rachel working on building their sandcastle)!

These two really just crack me up when they're together ... they just LOVE spending time with each other!

Of course, Jordan saw them and had to play copy-cat!!!

The Barretts came over to our house after the ball games and ate supper with us and played outside for a while before they had to drive back home to Ohio. We really do so miss them being here and enjoy it so much when they come to town for a visit! Thanks for the late night we're sure you guys had and for spending some time here with us and having a little more of a chance to visit a bit! :)

We went to church and Sunday school and Meggan sang in choir on Sunday morning. Then we just enjoyed hanging out the rest of the cold and rainy Sunday together at home until ChristCare Group in the evening. Another fun and busy weekend!!!

Hope everyone is having a great start to the week so far!

Meggan's "Bob" Haircut!

Meggan informed me a couple weeks ago out of the blue (we weren't even talking about hair or anything of the sort) that, "If we went and had Grandma cut my hair, I wouldn't care if she cut it in a bob." So since then she's been talking on and off about getting her long hair (it was at about the middle of her back at least) cut off to her shoulders, or in a bob.

Yesterday afternoon was the perfect time to get this accomplished, so here are the pictures!

She's loving her new haircut!

Here's a picture of the back, "right at my shoulders, Mommy!"

Here are also a couple of pictures of Jordan "helping" me with some of the filing. That bottom drawer has our taxes folders - he's just reminding everyone that tomorrow is tax day... :(

Sorry about the snot-nose there ... kind of a given for the poor little guy!

Hope everyone's week is starting off well!

Easter Weekend!

So Jason and the kids survived without me last week while I was in Las Vegas for work (I knew they would)! :)

Easter weekend brought Grandma and Papa to Indy for a visit - and they had FUN!!! They got here early in the afternoon on Thursday and picked Meggan up from school, so she LOVED that! Any time she gets to leave school and not have to go to after-school care (you'd think that was the torture chamber or something, according to her) makes her more than happy! Then they played outside a while and then walked up to Nancy's to pick Jordan up. They got to go to Chick-Fil-A for supper because the school was having a fundraiser that night and then back home for a little more playing!

Friday was no school for Meggan and Grandma and Papa stayed home with the kiddos. They went to the mall and looked around and hit the playground, got some cinnamon pretzel snacks, and then hit McDonald's on the way back home for some lunch. It was a rainy day, so they must have played inside with Barbies or something with Meggan while Jordan took a nice nap. Then they headed to the airport to pick me up and ran to my open arms when they saw me! We hit O'Charley's for supper and then headed home to play a tiny bit before heading to bed!

Saturday was a busy day with swimming lessons and an Easter party at the Julian Center that our ChristCare Group was hosting. It's a center for women and children dealing with domestic violence, I believe, or if they need a place to stay, so that was an interesting one to explain to Meggan. She understood, of course, but it was a little difficult to know how to really put it into words for her to know enough information but not know too much information... We hit Kroger for a few things for Easter dinner on Sunday and to make an egg casserole that I volunteered us to bring to church Easter morning and then headed home to play a little more.

Meggan wanted to show Grandma and Papa her big bike (without training wheels), so we got it out and I was jogging with her. She seemed a little more sure of herself than she has before, so I let go down the sidewalk. She went down the sidewalk one house the first time, then made it down the sidewalk a couple houses, and then I told her to just keep going. She made it to the stop sign at the end of our street!!!!!!!! She is now officially a big-girl bike rider. She even went around the big block yesterday afternoon with Jason! He told her that now she can ride while he runs in the neighborhood, and you should have seen the look in her eyes! Now he will just have to let her try once we get a little more free time and the weather stays nice (it's pouring down rain again today).

It's Monday again now and Grandma and Papa have taken off for Iowa this morning. Meggan always hates to see them go and cries when they leave, but at least it's just until next month this time since her birthday is coming up soon! It will only be a little over a month before they will be back for her 5th birthday party, so it wasn't quite as hard to say good-bye as it is some other times. :(

We love you, Grandma and Papa! Thanks for coming to visit us and for all the love and all the fun!!!

Happy birthday to Grandma! She loved her 50th Anniversary Barbie!!!

She loves her new capris outfit from Grandma and Papa! Now if it will just be nice enough to wear them (although she is wearing the shirt at school today with some different pants)!!!

Happy Easter to all!!!!!

Getting Ready for a Roadtrip!

As I sit here listening to the thunder and the rain, it's hard not to think about all the things I need to get done before we can take off to go to Iowa for Crystal's baby shower this weekend! The good thing about being a freelance court reporter is that you have some flexibility in your job and the days and hours you work. What this basically means for me is that I sign out and don't work on the day that we're leaving for a trip anywhere and I run all the last-minute errands and stuff that we've forgotten to do in order to be able to go on our trip. I usually also pack that day and whatever else we think of that needs to be done.


That will be what my day tomorrow consists of. I'll sneak in a run first at the Y hopefully and then will be running a few errands before I pick Meggan up at Nancy's house at nap time and head home to get everything all packed and also loaded into the van. We are picking her up at nap time because Jordan is staying behind this weekend with Daddy and I don't want him to be awake when I come to get Meggan and leave without him. :(


With it being Spring Break this week, we have had a pretty laid-back week. We've been at home hanging out every night other than Monday night when we went to Target and got Jordan's 18-month pictures taken, and it's been really nice! Though the week started out on an interesting note Saturday morning when Jason's Jeep was stolen (yes, right out of our own driveway), we've managed to have a pretty normal week and recover quite nicely. The good thing is that everyone is safe and they didn't even try to come into the house even though the garage door opener was right there for them to use if they chose to, and as valuable as the Jeep is, it is also replaceable if worse comes to worse. It is such an odd feeling to know that there's people like that and that they came in our neighborhood and stole OUR car. But there's really nothing we can do about it anyway, so we just wait to see if we ever hear from the police that it's been found...


As always, Meggan and I are very excited for our trip to Iowa and Jason is excited to hang out "just the boys" this weekend too! Not that he doesn't want to come along, but since he has to work Saturday morning and Jordan is NOT a fan of 8-hour car rides quite yet, they're perfectly happy to stay behind and hang out at home together. Although it will be pretty short-lived and busy and tiring, it's going to be very fun and there's nothing more exciting than celebrating the upcoming arrival of a new baby (especially when said baby is no longer taking over MY body and it's someone else that gets to experience the joy of pregnancy and I just get to enjoy the tiny baby)!!! :):):)


Hope everyone has had a great week and that everyone here in Indy enjoyed their Spring Break if you've been out of school this week!


Here are a couple pictures of the kids riding the horse this week and wrestling with him too!