I know eventually I'll laugh about this (and some parts are funny even now)

I have been fighting off a cold for a few days. So last night, I took some Nighttime-sniffling-sneezing-coughing-aching-stuffy-head-fever-SO-YOU-CAN-REST-medicine before I went to bed. The night before, they worked like a charm. Last night, I laid in bed - WIDE AWAKE - until 1:30. At 1:30, I finally got up and got on the computer to research some of the questions that had been occupying my busy brain. How to make the cutest Little Mermaid birthday cake ever...Where to find cute Little Mermaid invitations...(Yes, her birthday is still six weeks away)...Rules of the pool for pool parties...(E has said he wants a pool party - 10 weeks away)...and other random musings. I stayed on-line until 3 a.m. at which point I finally decided to go back to bed. Not because I felt sleepy, but because I knew I'd be exhausted today.

About five minutes after I'd climbed into bed, the hallway light went on. I laid silent, wondering which kid was about to appear and climb into bed with us, making it even more difficult for me to fall asleep. No footsteps. No one appeared. I propped up on my elbows and peered down the hall. "Evan, is that you?" The light went out and nothing... Corin woke up about this time and asked what I had heard. "It is not what I heard, but what I saw. Someone flipped on the hallway light. Should I go check?" Corin said he'd go check. He went down the hall, first to Evan's room and then to Pressley's. He returned and reported that I must have been imagining things. They were both sound asleep under their covers.

I insisted that I had not imagined the light. I was tired, but not crazy (yet).

So, my sweet husband knew he'd have to go downstairs. He got about halfway down the hall and turned back. "Do you have anything heavy?" I answered no. He stooped to grab something and headed back out. I asked what he had found. "Pressley's guitar." OK. Let's stop a second. You have to get the mental picture. This is no ordinary guitar. It is the hot pink and purple Dream Dazzler's guitar that P got for Christmas. I doubt that he could have done much physical damage to an intruder with it, but he sure could have annoyed them right out of the house.

So I lay in the dark and listened. First note I heard out of the guitar and I was poised to call 911. I heard some doors squeaking and then, finally, Corin came back upstairs. He checked this kids rooms again (including bathrooms and closets this time) and came back to bed. He reported that nothing was disturbed downstairs but one of the french doors leading into our side yard was unlocked. Bad move, Corin. When I asked if he had checked the office (and closet), he had to admit he hadn't, so it was back down the hall for him. Obviously, he found nothing and he went right back to sleep.

I, on the other hand, laid awake for another hour straining to hear any little creaking floorboard. All the while obsessing about the fact that Elizabeth Smart and Jon Benet Ramsey had been taken from their beds while they slept under the same roof with their parents. I was inclined to go sleep with one of the kids, but I knew I couldn't pick one kid over the other, so I'd have to wake Corin up to send him to sleep with one of them too. I decided I'd be better off just listening for movement in the hallway. Who knew this would be the method that would finally allow me to drift off to sleep for the next 3-4 hours.

Oh, add the fact that the kids had school pictures today, so I had to get them up, have them coordinating with each other, tame two heads of crazy hair, AND pack them extra outfits for after the pictures because it is St. Patrick's Day (and they're Irish for goodness sakes) and their picture outfits were not green...I've had better days.