Quite a scare......

The past few days, we've had a couple of very real scares. Both of these incidents were things I've feared ever since we moved to South Texas and they both came to fruition over the past 48 hours! I had mentioned both on Facebook, but I wanted to document them here for memory's sake.

Last night, I worked until 11:00 PM. When I was almost home, I saw that the road to my house was closed. I assumed it was a car accident. So I went the long way through our subdivision. As I got closer to my end of the neighborhood, I was stopped by an officer who questioned where I was going. I told him what street I live on and he told to me to go ahead but be careful. I drove two more blocks my street where another officer stopped me and questioned where I was going. He again told me to be careful and go straight into my house. I asked him what was going on and all he said was that there had been an aggravated robbery and the suspect was hiding in the area and that they had a gun!!!

As I drove slowly down my street, I noticed five or six police right in front of my house. I pulled into the garage and closed the door before I got out of my car. I ran into the house where Brett was sound asleep (he had to leave for work at 3:30, so 4 hours from then) and immediately made sure all the doors were locked. We always lock our doors here, but once in awhile we'll forget. They were locked, so I woke Brett up and then saw the police spotlight out our bedroom window. The police were searching our backyard! I then ran and checked on Kayla, who was also sleeping soundly.

I realized that this situation could get very dangerous very fast if both the police and suspects were armed, so I grabbed Kayla and we sat in the middle of our house away from all the windows and outside walls. I've heard enough of Brett's reports and seen enough crazy movies that my imagination was going wild. Just then, we heard some pretty loud banging and shuffling that sounded like it was banging up against the east side of our house. I'm actually quite sure they caught these suspects either in our side yard or the next-door neighbor's yard!!!! Immediately after, the police seemed to clear out.

Brett texted the Edinburg Police PIO who was kind enough to find out the details for us. Apparently, there was an aggravated robbery a few miles away which led to a chase of the suspects. They stopped in our neighborhood, ditched their car and took off on foot, apparently on our street. By the time Brett's contact responded, they had caught two suspects, and like I said, by now, the police were gone as far as we could tell.

We put Kayla back to bed and then we tried to go to sleep. That didn't happen for a long time. We both laid there thinking and talking about what had happened. It was a crazy night.

I know that crime happens anywhere and everywhere but I really hate how much crime there is here. I think I know too much with Brett's job being what it is, but it doesn't change the fact that I don't feel safe here, and we live in a nice neighborhood! McAllen metro area was recently rated the #1 place where people don't feel safe, and this is why! I'm so grateful for police officers and law enforcement officers everywhere that regularly put their lives at risk to protect the rest of us. I'm not going to lie, I look forward to moving to a less-crime ridden area in the future.

Incident #2 wasn't nearly as scary in comparison, but its something I've feared. We went to the South Padre Island while my friend Leah was in town visiting on Wednesday. We had lunch and went to the turtle refuge and then headed to the beach. Fifteen minutes after unloading our stuff at the beach, a storm rolled in. We saw the buildings down the beach being struck by lightning so we decided to head for cover. After about 20 minutes, we realized the storm wasn't going to roll over, so we headed for the car. Once inside, we checked our phones to find out there was a tornado warning only a few miles from where we were. The next 40 minutes involved driving in torrential rain, weather warnings popping up on our phones, checking the radar, and watching for tornadoes.

As a disclaimer for the weather man, there was only a slight chance of rain that day, and Brett had been sick all morning. He almost didn't come at all, but decided last minute to join us. Needless to say, he wasn't thinking about checking the radar as we drove to the island and the sun was shining and the wind was calmer than usual. So we were all pretty surprised when dark clouds rolled in. Texas weather can change in a flash.

We didn't see anything, but the rain wasn't safe to drive in, so we got off the freeway at Brett's station and waited for the rain to slow down before finishing the drive home. I realize that weather threats and concerns are just a part of life, but I grew up where the worst thing that could happen was an earthquake and the real concern was blizzard and snow. But blizzards and snow don't destroy homes or kill people in parked cars!

Needless to say, I'm very happy and full of gratitude that we are all safe and sound and that we are watched over. I don't want to live in fear because that's no way to live, but its impossible to pretend like these things don't happen. The only thing we can do is be prepared for emergencies and be cautious in our activities.