Better late than never, right?

It is normal to take two months to post your next blog right? I guess I can throw the pregnancy card and say I was tired, or I forgot, or something along those lines. Ha! Well, regardless of the reason for my non-existence in the blog-world, I am back and ready to commit to consistency. We will just call it my 2009 New Year's Resolution. 

I guess I have one valid reason for not blogging. Let me show you with a picture:

Yes, what you are seeing is correct. Our house got broken into on Christmas. It was a sad and sickening feeling. Colby and I were in Kansas celebrating Christmas and my birthday with his family. We arrived home on the 26th around 10:30pm to our front door wide open and busted in. We walked in to our living room to our t.v stolen:

Then we walked to the office and found no laptop:

And even more delightful was how they opened our remaining presents underneath the tree. Don't worry, they didn't take them. I guess they didn't want my scrapbookin' gift for my friend. LOL. They could have scrapbooked everything they stole for memories. Good idea. not...

Needless to say, it is hard to blog when you don't have a laptop. We still have not replaced anything as we have been dealing with insurance stuff, but we do have a good friend living with us for a while and he graciously lets me borrow his computer! Thanks, Brett! 

I have a few words of advice from what I learned from this. 

#1. I learned from a friend's blog post, that "a lot of builders are using inadequate materials for the safety of your home, specifically, inadequate screws for the deadbolt plate." Click here to see pictures of what builders are using versus what should be in place. 

#2. LoJack. Why didn't anyone tell me about LoJack before? LoJack is a software based computer theft recovery service that tracks and recovers lost or stolen computers. So, if your computer is stolen, they can track it. I SO wish I had that. It's not the computer I am sad about. It's the pictures, the music, the documents, the life that was on that computer. Sad day.

#3. Back it up. I did not back up anything so that is partially my fault. I hope I will do this, as monotonous as it seems. It is worth it. 

#4. God is better and bigger than any material item. I do not want to get all "theological" as to why my house was broken into. I am not going to say it was "God-ordained" or anything along the lines. HOWEVER, to be real honest, I spend a lot of time with my laptop (working on business, facebook, blogs, etc) and my husband spends a lot of time with the tv (shows, video games, movies, etc). It was good for us to have a little "reality check" about what is truly important. 

And conveniently the next day in my Chronological Bible Reading was about Job and how he had everything and lost everything and his first response was to worship (Job 1:5). I am going to be real honest, when I walked into my house broken into I did not fall on my knees and worship. But when I read this scripture, I had a different perspective: "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." - Job 1:20

I am so blessed.