Sunday night Josh and I made a grizzly discovery. We were just settling into bed. I thought I heard a noise outside around our garage. Josh peeked out our window towards the garage. Nothing was out there, but what was discovered was frightening in its own right.
What you are looking at is our bedroom window from the inside with three points of impact at the intersections of the faux panes (it’s all one piece of glass).
We were dumbfounded. Our sweet little children or a very odd and random criminal? Josh thought it might have been Jude because Jett wouldn’t have hit the window in a calculating manner.
We were also perplexed because we’d been gone most of the day. We went to church in the morning and then right afterwards we went to Josh’s parents’ house until 4. And then we had a quiet evening at home always under our supervision. There was no way either one of them would have had the opportunity to do it Sunday. It had to have happened sometime before, but when? I had no idea.
The next morning, I had a talk with Jude. I told him that Mommy and Daddy found our window broken. He immediately knew he was in trouble. And he said, “I did it.” I asked him if Jett was there and he said no. I asked him what he hit the window with. He said the brusher. I held up my hair brush, and he said no – the brusher. We went from room-to-room finding something that could resemble a brusher. And then I found the instrument of destruction:
The amazing thing about the broken window was that he only broke through the first pane of glass, but didn’t reach the second pane, so no outside air had been coming through. Plus, the window was behind blinds and a curtain (ok, towel – I never have gotten around to decorating my bedroom). Who knows how long we could have gone without noticing it.
Now to come up with a creative punishment. Actually several. I explained to Jude that since he broke the window, he was going to have a lot of jobs around the house. He picked up lots of little messes yesterday and I made him scrub the walls in his room where there had been a crayon attack a few months ago. And what might hurt the most – the next time Grandma Jan comes to pick them up for their weekly date, Jude won’t get to go. Only Jett. I’m going to be asking him to do special chores throughout the week to remind him that what he did was very serious.
In the end, I’m glad he didn’t get hurt. A piece of glass could have easily fallen out and cut him. And at least there wasn’t a complete hole in the window to let in the frigid January air. But I feel like we entered a new level of trouble-making with Jude. I hope I’m wrong – Lord, do I hope I’m wrong.
I have to admit that I was actually relieved it was Jude and not an actual juvie roaming the streets of your small town. I need to warn you that as the mother of boys you are going to need to have the name/number of a good glass repair company on hand. I can help you with that. :) However, I hope the next time you’ll need to use it is when they “accidentally” throw a ball at the window. Ummm yeah that happens too. Jury is still out on whether it was accidental or not. But the good news is I think it’s just a matter of boys enjoy destroying things not that they are headed for a life of crime. I hope so anyway otherwise my kids will be joining Jude in juvenile detention.
Brilliantly written. I laughed really hard. :) One day, Jude’s wife is going to LOVE this story…and then she’ll have boys of her own and take comfort in it!
Jessica, cute story, I know though when its your own kids, its crazy. Hilary was my boy!!! Very mischevious!! She even faked like she was dumb in school, just to get more attention and I had to go have conferences with a bunch of people to see if she needed to be in special ed, she did fool them, threatened to tell everyone at a concert over the microphone in 2nd grade that I had big, ok I will just say it, Boobs!!!, instead of listening to a pastor during a childrens sermon (not Tom) told me where his tie pointed (think about it), on and on, I have a million stories about that kid, so yea, enjoy them and keep writing things down. Barb
[...] not adjust your computer screens, this is not the window break of January 2009. No, this is another window broken, hence the title of this [...]