“I think there are some strangers in our house,” is the last thing you want to hear when you are lying in bed in a deep sleep. That is exactly what woke me up last night around 2am. This has happened twice before: once was when someone decided to enter our house while Kinsey and I were getting ready for bed, and they ran out when Kinsey started screaming that we had a gun, and the second time we thought we heard someone trying to enter our house from the back door. That turned out to be a squirrel scratching at the door for some reason.

Kinsey woke me up by grabbing my shoulder and whispering in my ear. I was completely out of it, but I tried my hardest to listen… Sure enough, I faintly heard some voices. That is when my entire body got that chicken skin, my stomach got tied up in about 49 knots, and adrenaline woke me right up.

I started getting out of bed, as quietly as possible, reached into my night stand and grabbed my BB gun, and the hunting knife I keep next to me at all times. I told Kinsey to be extremely quiet, and that if something happens, to run out of the back door and call 911. I didn’t want her to call right away, because part of me felt like the voices could be coming from outside. Sometimes people like to have parties on Monday nights… maybe. So there I am, walking as slowly and as quietly as I can towards the voices.

Once I enter my hallway, I can hear the voices slightly better. They sound very calm, going back and forth, and they are speaking in Spanish. I can’t really hear what they are saying because their voices are so low. Still, I don’t know if they are outside or inside my house. I look at our alarm, and noticed that I had forgotten to turn it on. More knots in my stomach. Left hand holding the knife, right hand holding the BB gun, both hands shaking slightly.

clock-2-am-casonI make my way towards the front of the house, and realize that the whispering is coming from my son’s room… now my heart starts beating fast and hard, my breathing speeds up, and I start thinking of my next move. I decide to get closer to hear what these two men are saying. All I hear is “blah blah blah, amigo”, and “blah blah blah hermano”. Do I just barge in? Do I start yelling, which is what worked last time… but this time people seemed to be in my son’s room. This is different. I am half way down the hallways when all of a sudden, some mariachi music comes on, with a guy screaming in Spanish, asking if I am ready to buy a new car for low, low prices… So I go inside Cason’s room, to realize that he must have somehow set his alarm clock to 2am, and on a Mexican AM talk station. I walk back to my room, and notice that Kinsey is “hiding” under the covers on Facebook. Crisis averted, so our house break in record is 2 false alarms, and 1 legit one.
Alarm was set, and all was well… except going back to sleep. That did not go well. In fact, it was almost impossible, thanks to the adrenaline.