Saturday night surprise!!

R left for his Dad's 70th B-day in AZ this past weekend which left me home alone with the kids. We had a jam packed weekend full of B-day parties and soccer games. I was just winding down on Saturday night when I decided to hit the sack and go to bed. Just as I was drifting off to sleep I heard a loud noise. I thought our basketball hoop fell down in the backyard since it sometimes does that from the crazy West Texas wind. However, when I got up to check, I realized it was still standing. I still kept hearing a noise which sounded like rain. I checked.... no rain. I walked into the family room and the "rain" got louder but still I couldn't hear rain. So I opened the laundry room door and much to my surprise, there was water spraying EVERYWHERE from the water heater. I quickly called R, thinking the water heater exploded. I started to move everything out of the laundry room (including the boxes and boxes of soccer snacks I just bought) when I heard a knock and some voices. I opened the shutters in the kitchen and much to my surprise I saw a car in my yard and realized that it had crashed into the HOUSE!!!! I was in such a state of shock!!! Luckily, R called the owners of the house and also a friend and they came right over to be with me and the neighbors across street came over and they all stayed with me until 3 AM when everything was secured and resolved.

I guess the teenager who was driving, peeled out from across the street and lost control and that is what made her hit the house with such force. There was TONS of damage but luckily it was not to the MAIN area of the house.

Car in the house
laundry room from the inside
Outside room damage. The whole north side of the house shifted so we can't even get in this room to see the full amount of personal property damage.
The car crashed into the bricks which pushed the water heater, freezer and refrigerator so hard that it moved the patio wall out about 1 1/2 feet.
Cleaning up the mess on Sunday
The hole through the laundry room into the back yard. (she just missed the gas line by inches)

It was a very scary night. Unbelievably the police never boarded up the house or anything which left me with a hole into the house all night. The owners were able to put in a lock on the laundry room door so no one could actually get into the house. Lots of people offered for us to come stay with them but I decided to stay at the house to protect our stuff from any possible looters (we're on a very busy street and the hole was pretty obvious). The laundry room, outside room and garage were all damaged and most of the walls will probably need to be taken down and redone. Luckily, the owner has been great about everything and he's taking care of all the house issues. Our freezer and refrigerator were destroyed and whatever else we find when we get to open that room so we'll need to see about getting those replaced. WE've got a long road ahead of us but I'm just so thankful no one was hurt. I was just in the laundry room 30 min. prior so we are all definitely lucky. I'm so thankful for the neighbors and friends that were there for me while R was gone. It was so touching to see the outpouring of love from everyone, even as the "new-be" in town.