The Aftermath....

It is 4:45 pm and I am too pooped to peep! In the last 24 hours I have put the following in the freezer: Tortilla Lime Chicken, Beef Stew, Bean soup, Mexican Stuffed Shells, Chicken Almondine, Taco Soup and Sweet Potato and Sausage casserole, and a big helping of peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough and baked the following: 4 loaves of french bread, one loaf whole wheat bread, 1 loaf cinnamon raisin bread and a dozen chocolate peanut butter cups. I am honestly sick of my kitchen right at the moment! I am glad though that I won't be having to cook anymore til after we get back from vacation. Oh vacation....how I long to be enjoying you...soon...very soon....
This morning got off to a weird start. I got up to *ahem* use the facilities about 4:30. I couldn't fall back asleep so I decided to check on my stew that was cooking in the crockpot. It is a little disorienting to wake so early and smell food cooking! So I walk to the kitchen in total darkness because, honestly, who wants lights at 5 am???? I check on my crockpot and glance out the kitchen window and notice that my son's lawnmower headlights are on in our garage. My oldest keeps his mower here (he lives across the road) because he doesn't have a garage. He doesn't have a car OR a drivers license either but that is ANOTHER story! Anyway, I knew he wouldn't be up at that hour and, since it was dark when we got home last night, I knew we didn't leave them on accidentally. So I wake up hubby and tell him about it. He gets up and we go outside to investigate. Then he tells me to get the pistol out of my truck and I am thinking " It's 5 am! What could he possibly want to shoot?" (in my defense, it was early and I never even thought of someone actually being in our garage) but not wanting to argue when he so obviously did NOT want be up, I got it. He searched all over the property and even went driving in his truck down the road. Now, where we live is out in the middle of nowhere, way in the country. He didn't see anything but some thing got the dogs around us all riled up (except for the Lab sleeping on my bedroom floor who was completely unaware that ANYTHING was going on! Nice guard dog). He tried to make the lights on the mower come on without using the key (it was still in the office and hadn't been taken) and nothing made them come on so he is convinced someone was out there. Nothing is missing but it really gives me an uneasy feeling. We have sort of been lulled into a false sense of security out here in the woods. We have never had a problem nor has anyone around us. I would hate to think that that is changing. Hubby has been working on the barn to get it enclosed so we can secure it but it will be awhile before that gets done and we leave for vacation next week. Glad my in laws live across the road. I know they will keep an eye on things for us but they never would have seen the mower lights on at 5 in the morning. I am still surprised I did-I NEVER get up that early but for some reason I just could not go back to sleep. So long story short, I have been up for more than 12 hours and I am E*X*H*A*U*S*T*E*D!!! I still have another 4-5 hours to go before I can go to bed...WWWWAAAAAAAAAAA!!! But, hey, I don't have to cook ;-)