My sister, Kim, and I had planned to celebrate our November birthdays in Vancouver, B.C the weekend in between both of our birthdays. Going away for the third time in about a month was truly decadent. I felt a bit spoiled and guilty but everything was coming together. Although Marty was slammed with work he finished everything just the night before I was to board the Amtrak train headed toward Canada. The kids were sleeping well and getting along great which always makes me feel better leaving.
Everything was going great. The train ride up was just gorgeous. I had forgotten how beautiful the view is form the train and was texting Marty photos throughout my ride up telling him that we need to plan a family train trip somewhere sometime soon. The kids would LOVE it. Below are a few landscape scenes from the luxury of my 'business class' seat. I have no idea how I was upgraded to business class but it was nice.
Kim and I walked from the train station to our awesome hotel - which she had a free voucher for and chose me to share it with... lucky me!!! We dropped our stuff of and then headed toward downtown. We walked and walked and then when we hit the shoe department at some large department store we sat down and were just pooped!! We weren't quite hungry enough for dinner but didn't want to go all the way back to our hotel and then venture out again for food. We spent some time taking silly photos and resting in this abandoned shoe section. No one seemed to care so we took our time.
Everything at home was going well. I received several texts and photos from Marty. The last one I got was a photo of Josie's drawing of our family on a chalkboard of a restaurant near our house. 
Kim and I were having an awesome dinner at a restaurant close to our hotel, laughing, talking, eating... until a dreaded text from Marty which read, "Oh, NO!! Someone broke into our house!" To say I felt completely helpless was an understatement. Because I was in Canada and only had my cell phone with no international plan it would've cost like $3.00 per minute to call home. We did talk for a bit but he was rightfully frazzled with the kids and calling the cops and assessing the damage so I just had to wait to find out the extent of it all. Kim was an awesome support and could completely relate as her house has been unfortunately broken into twice.
Whoever it was came in through the back play room door (ruining the most expensive and only custom made door in the house) then went up stairs to the master bedroom I presume looking for jewelry. Anyone who knows me would know that they left empty handed. I have NO jewelry other than some basic earrings and necklaces. Nothing of value. They dumped my entire side of the closet leaving Marty's side fairly intact. They rummaged through some hall closets and Benjamin's room. They left through the downstairs studio "only" taking Marty's really nice camera, a computer monitor, a few pairs of old headphones and some old cameras that Marty uses for the podcast. Obviously, everyone was shaken up but Marty handled it VERY well. The kids went over to our awesome neighbors and played their while Marty cleaned up and talked with the police. By the time I got back the following day everything was pretty much back in order. Our insurance company, Pemco, has sent us a check covering all of the stolen goods and for repairing/replacing the door and house damage. 
The feeling that someone unknown to you was rifling through your things makes you feel very violated. Although the more I talked to friends the more I heard story after story of when they had been broken into once or even twice. I guess we have been very fortunate to have this be our first time and to remember to be thankful that no one was home or harmed during the incident. The only thing they took were things that are easily replaced and our sense of security that although has not fully been restored is coming back bit by bit. It helps that we now have a pretty high tech alarm system on the house. Although it pretty much ruined my weekend away - I felt guilty having fun on our final day in Canada knowing that something traumatic happened to my family and I couldn't be home to help but also a bit wasteful knowing I had spent money to get away and I wasn't enjoying it. It was a small price to pay. In the long run I think it was probably better for everyone that I wasn't home. I would have been a complete mess and Marty somehow handled it all much less emotionally than I ever would have. Plus, I didn't have to see it all first hand and since everything looked normal when I returned it didn't take the same toll on me that it would have had I really seen it.
And the police even mistakenly left their finger printing kit... I guess just in case it happens again we can take the prints ourselves next time ;-) Here's to a better 46th birthday!!
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