The Gym and the YMCA incident...

Feburary 16th, 2015 I posted this to Instagram and Facebook:

• tarakarae'I never in a million years would have thought that this would be my view when I got DONE at the gym. I didn't even think it would be my view when I got to the gym. But working out at 5 am every morning has been *very surprisingly* my favorite! And I love being done at 6, and not having to worry about it for the rest of the day. I'm slowly transforming myself from a night owl to a morning person. And those who know me, know that that is no small feat!'

• Well, let me back up. Meg and Abbey Dabell had been going to the Y since November and taking a 5am class with a guy named Bo. They had mentioned to me a few times that I should join them, but seriously, 5am didn't even interest me in the least. I am no morning person. I just brushed it off and brushed it off. FINALLY...mid January I was ready and motivated, and must not have been in my right mind, but I finally agreed to go with them and test it out. I convinced Ben to get us a membership and started to go. And I went! The classes with Bo were M, T, TH and F. So, we had Wednesday to sleep in and rest. But other that that, I was going with these girls 4 days a week. And I felt good. It was mainly core conditioning and TRX and it was good to have friends to go with. It was a little social hour for me, and I love my work out buddies! Abbey would pick us up about 4:50-55 every morning, that meant that I got up at 4:40!!! Can you even believe that? I was kind of in shock, but I knew that I had to keep it up as long as I was motivated to go. I even went on mornings by myself that Abby and Meg didn't come! I was like a new woman! :) So, after a few weeks, on Feb. 16th, I took that picture of the moon and posted it.
• THE VERY NEXT DAY:
• February 17th, 2015. (Taylors Birthday) But there's a major story here. Abbey had already called and said she wasn't going that morning, I can't remember why. So, I texted Meg and told her I would pick her up. When I went to pick up Meg, she got in and then started to tell me how she hadn't even slept, like at all, the night before. I asked her why in the heck she was going to work out if she hadn't slept. She said that she felt like she was kind of on adrenaline and would take a nap that afternoon. And felt like she could get a good workout in. (Tender Mercy/Miracle #1) Kate had been up all night, so she slept with her, and kind of had little bouts of sleep here and there. Poor thing, I thought she was crazy for coming with me. So, we do the class. We're feeling good after and we're walking out to my van, and I was parked in the second tier of the parking lot at the Y facing away from the building and as we are passing the first row of cars Meg looks up and stops dead in her tracks. I look up and saw a big white 'Xfinity' service van parked right next to my van. No big deal, a little bit creepy, but nothing major. I would have just kept on going to my van, and just hurried and locked the door or something, but Meg stops dead in her tracks and says 'We can't go to your van. I've seen this before, I don't know if it was when I was half asleep last night, but I have seen this big white van parked next to your van, and we can't go to your van. We need to go get someone to walk us out.' (Tender Mercy/Miracle #2) So, thinking she was a little crazy, was like, ok, let's go. I wasn't going to second guess her instinct and feeling. So, in we go. And Meg the whole time is saying, you think I'm crazy don't you. And I'm like, no way, I don't want to go somewhere she has a bad feeling. I'm sure it was the spirit guiding her. So, we go back in right as Bo was coming out. We know him well enough to know that he is a good guy and would protect us. :) So, he walks us back out to my van, and we're just chatting and feeling better and this is what I see as I get to my door:

Then I stopped dead in my tracks and just gasped. I was in shock. Bo tells us to go inside to fill out an incident report, and he kind of checked things out around my van. Funny thing is, is that the YMCA has all of these signs posted saying that the parking lot has camera on surveillance for the 'protection of our members' So, I asked the girl at the front desk about it, and I guess the cameras don't reach the second level of parking. Bo said everything looked fine around the van. Everything looked normal with that Xfinity van parked next to us.  I had looked in and saw that my purse was stolen, so I was trying to remember everything in it. And my phone was in it too!!! :( I was most bummed about my phone. My whole life is on that thing! So, I called Ben with Meg's phone and we're trying to get everything figured out with how to get home. Bo offers to drive my van and we can drive in his suburban. Because it was still pretty cold outside and to drive home without a window sitting on a bunch of shattered glass wouldn't be that great, he offered to do it. So, I drove his Suburban, and he followed me in my van. He didn't even clean out any of the glass. As soon as I got home, I cleaned out the glass before I drove it to the Honda dealership to get the window fixed, and even after cleaning it out, it was totally splintery and uncomfortable to sit on. I can't imagine how uncomfortable it was for him to drive home in! What a guy, that Bo!

This is what I posted on Instagram and Facebook:

• tarakaraeYesterday morning I came out of the YMCA feeling on top of the world. And today, I come out to this. Purse: gone! (Luckily I had left my phone at home.)

After we got home, and I walked into my house, I realized I had left my phone at home that morning. Which never happened! I always took my phone to the Y in the mornings!!! (Tender Mercy/Miracle #3) I was seriously, SO happy. When I had my phone, it made everything else seem ok! Funny thing, when I got my phone back I had a few missed texts. One, I knew was from Meg's phone. As we were driving Bo's suburban back to our house, Meg and I realized that they had my phone, so we should text it. So, Meg's text said this: 'Really??? A Minivan??? What did you think you were going to get out of a minivan? This is your life, make better choices!' And I also had another missed text from Ben, apparently he had the same idea, except his wasn't so nice. It said something more along the lines of  'Hey dumbass, we have you on video surveillance, we will find you! blah blah blah' So, it was funny to see the difference! :) ha ha. Anyway,  I had maybe $15 in there in cash, and we were able to cancel all of my cards ( I don't have many). So, luckily they didn't make away with much, but the hassle of everything was the most annoying thing. I had to go get a new drivers license, wait for new cards to come in the mail. Get a new library card. I lost some punch cards that I was excited about. A few days later, I also realized that I had a $100 giftcard to Target in there from Christmas, and that TOTALLY bummed me out! :( The most annoying part was remembering or getting notices that my automatic payments for various things (like netflix) didn't go through, so I'd have to update my info, and most of the time, that meant having to wait for my card to get here. It totally sucked! 

I had to take it in that afternoon to get the window fixed  and even after cleaning out the glass, I have found glass pieces for weeks and weeks. Finally about a month to a month and a half later, it was all sorted out.

I called the police that morning to report it, and the officer literally could have not cared less. He was so uninterested and unconcerned about the incident, I really am surprised he even gave me an incident report number. But it happened, and then he gave me the kindly advise not to put my purse in plain sight when I have it locked in the car. Ummm...thanks!

Another twist to the story is, that night I got a text from a number, and it was a girl saying that she got my number from her sister, and I had taken pictures of her sisters family, but she was texting me to let me know that she had found my temple recommend (they are mormon) at a gas station on Appleway and Barker. (Tender Mercy/Miracle #4) It was like 10 at night when I got the text, but she said she had found it at pump 3 and so the next morning Ben went to that gas station and searched the dumpster and garbages by pump #3, but there was nothing more. At least I was able to get my temple recommend back. I met up with her that day and she gave it to me. Thank goodness for kind and honest people.

I truly feel like I was taken care of, and that Meg was my guardian angel. I really don't know what would have happened if I would have just walked straight out to my car. Maybe they were waiting for us, maybe not. I don't know. But I'm glad I didn't find out. I'm glad that Meg was strong enough to feel and listen and obey the spirit when she felt it, and that it didn't turn out any worse than it already did for us that morning! So thankful for righteous, wonderful friends and a loving Heavenly Father who was watching out for me! We kind of joke about it now in Bo's class about Meg's feelings, or 'visions' but all joking aside, I'm glad she hasn't had any more! :)
Oh, but you know what else, another bummer that I lost was my point and shoot camera. I had gone into Tucker's class valentines day party and did a fun craft with them, and took a whole bunch of pictures, AND,,,it was so fun, I had planned a huge and fun valentines play date with friends on the Friday before Valentines day since there was no school. I rented out the Evergreen building, and invited a whole bunch of friends, and it was so much fun. We had cookie decorating, and crafts and brought legos and riding toys, and lots and lots of yummy food. I took a whole bunch of pictures, and they were all gone. :(  It was a big ol' party and it was so much fun, but now I have nothing to ever document that it happened. Such a bummer!