**WARNING** Rant Session

OK...I try to take most things in strides and brush off the bad and try to look for the good, but I believe this week I have had more than my fair share! So to update everyone I will share the good, the bad and the ugly.

THE GOOD: The house has a closing date of March 31st. YAY...God bless you Rusty for sticking in there with us! We have to fix a few minor things on the house and hopefully will be out from under that monster.

Ben has been able to work a couple shifts on the Service Co. He enjoys working on this truck because they do all the medical assists and wrecks in addition to the house fires. He told his captain that he loves working there and would be more than happy to transfer. The captain acknowledged his interest and we'll see what happens at the next transfer.

THE BAD: Ben is still extremely frustrated with the entire Paramedic testing program. His refresher course is coming up next week. I hope that this helps him out a great deal. We will see how it goes.

THE UGLY:
1. Monday afternoon I got a call from my friend Ashlie from work. She had spent most of the morning at the St. Thomas Orientation for employees. She was there with another girl from work who is being trained how to use our software and generally how we work at the sleep center. She was expressing to Ashlie how she was so nervous about our software and how she had never worked this program before. Then she made a comment to Ashlie that about made her chin drop to the floor. The girl said, "Oh well, I guess it won't be that bad. Mom says I will be ok because even a MORMON can do it." Ashlie said, "Excuse me, what did you say?" Ashlie knew that the only LDS person at work was me!

This girl's mother who said this, Karen, is a PRN employee that I have NEVER met. Karen's comment implied that people of the LDS faith are not smart, directly put my intelligence down and was inappropriately singling out the LDS faith in a way that doesn't even make sense to me. My religion has nothing to do with my intelligence level nor my work ethic and skills. How can you make a comment like that about someone when you do not even know them. My only conclusion is that this woman has worked with some people on the B shift who knew me and it might have been mentioned that I am LDS. She then might have known someone in her past who was LDS and she is now associating me to be just like that person.

I immediately called my supervisor and complained about how offensive her comment was, even if it was not intentionally directed towards me. My supervisor was shocked and said that none of the full timers have had anything negative to say towards me, which is nice, not that I really care how they view me. Paul said that he is going to handle the situation and speak with Karen about how she needs to be careful what she says and that she can not make blanket statements like that about anyones religion or gender affiliation. If she feels a certain way then she and her daughter need to keep their views at home. I have recently learned that Karen used to be a teacher at Vol. State and she likes to take her book smarts and use it in a way to make herself feel as though she is intellectually elevated above those around her when in actuality I have heard she is horrible in the application of those thing in which she feels so intellectually advaced in. If there is one thing I will defend it is definately my intelligence. I have worked very hard for my credentials and me degree. I'm not the quickest learner but I am good at what I do and my work reflects that. My patients speak highly of me and the doctors have nothing bad to say so she can take her comment and shove it!

2. I came home this morning, unlocked the front door, went to the back door and called for my dogs...they didn't come. I called and I called and I called...no dogs. It was pouring down rain so I walked outside to try to coax them in...my dogs were no where to be found. No holes under the fence where they got out. No damage to the fence. The lock was still on the gate...so where were my dogs? I panicked. I ran through the entire house calling and searching for my dogs in the false hope that I had made a mistake and left them inside when I left for work. No...no where. I called Ben in a panic and he told me to immediately leave the house and wait for him to get home.

Ben got home the same time the cops arrived and they searched the house. No sign of anything being stolen. Strange...The only thing missing were my dogs. No obvious signs of forced entry. The cops were baffled but told us there was really not a whole lot they could do. Ben and I briefly told them what had happened a couple weeks ago when a Kirby salesman came by at 9pm at night and giggled the door handle seeing if anyone was home...Not knocking...Not ringing the door bell...trying to OPEN my door. Yesterday a teenage girl came to the door while I was getting ready for work. I told her I didn't have time to listen to her because I had to get ready for work. I am just wondering if the saw my car leave and took the opportunity to poke around...but still why take NOTHING but my dogs?

While we were standing there talking hopelessly to the cops, I see a dog pop up in a yard 4 houses down...It looked like Sammie. I screamed for him and he came running. I was so relieved. I knew if Sammie was there...Surely Pepper was nearby. Ben went running down the street looking for her. He found her but she did not recognize him until he got very close to her. Once she recognized him she followed him back home. They looked scared and traumatized...We thanked the cops and they left knowing there wasn't a whole lot they could do to help us figure out why this happened.

We got the dogs inside and inspected the yard one more time...nope...no way to get out of the fence. The ONLY way the dogs got out was by the front door...so WHO came into our house and WHY did they do nothing, take nothing, and let the dogs out? We inspected the front door a little closer and noticed visible damage to the lock. We had a locksmith come by and replace ALL locks and add deadbolts to ALL doors. He had to completely replace the guts to the front door knob because of the damage from the burglar. Pepper has not been herself since today. She is acting very sore. She wont go upstairs without coaxing and she won't get on the bed without help, when she usually bounds and jumps all over the place. We are hoping that whoever came in the house did not kick or hurt her in any way. Thankfully Sammie is acting fine. If Pepper has not perked up by tommorrow then we are going to take her to the vet to get checked out for any internal injuries. We feel so violated after this incident. I just can't make sense of it. Why come into my house and the only thing you do is let my dogs run loose in the neighborhood? My dogs are well behaved. They do not bark that much; no more than any other dog in the neighborhood. Both neighbors to left and right have dogs....so they understand...sigh...I just don't know...