Things that go bump in the night

So let me start this post by saying that Ryan is out of town this week for work. Normally, I do okay at night and try not to let myself get freaked out. Well, last night I had a hard time getting the girls to bed. Mia was crying and didn't want me to leave her room and then Addy came in and said she heard a noise and was scared and didn't want to sleep in her room, which is downstairs. So I decided to let the girls sleep in my room for the night. Around 3:30am Luke woke up crying so I went and took care of him. When I went back to bed, I heard a loud noise downstairs. It was definitely not the heater or any other noise I have heard before. I tried to convince myself maybe the cat had knocked something down. I crept out of bed and tiptoed to the kitchen, turning on the hall light. I looked over and the cat was asleep on the couch in the family room. That really freaked me out because I knew I hadn't imagined the noise. I stood in the kitchen for about 20 minutes trying to decided what to do. Then I heard a loud noise downstairs again. I picked up the phone and called our friends, Alan and Lynette Gifford. Alan happens to be a police officer and lives really close by and they have a newborn baby so I thought maybe someone would already be up with the baby. No such luck. It went to the answering machine so I hung up. I said a little prayer and climbed back into bed. The cat then climbed up onto the end of my bed. As I was lying there, I heard a loud noise yet again and watched as the cats eyes and ears perked up at the noise, too. I couldn't ignore it any longer. I quickly called the Giffords again and waited for them to pick up. Lynette answered and I told her quickly what was going on and asked if she would mind sending Alan over to check things out. She told me he would be there in 10 minutes. I tiptoed to Luke's room where I could watch out the window for Alan's car. It was a really long ten minutes. Alan arrived and I let him in the front door and quickly told him of the loud noises I had heard. He then told me he had his gun and he was going to go downstairs and check things out and for me to call 911 if I heard anything that didn't sound good. Right then there was another loud noise from downstairs and I could see from his face that he now understood why I had been afraid. He took out his gun and slowly walked downstairs. He then went from room to room while almost yelling "This is the police! Identify yourself!" I was so afraid. I couldn't hear exactly what he was doing but then heard him say forcefully "This is the police! Identify yourself! I will shoot on site!" I thought he had found someone. I called 911 and quickly told them what was going on and that Alan was downstairs. They asked if I had contact with him. I yelled his name but got no response. Within a short amount of time he was upstairs and he said everything was okay and I handed him the phone. He said he figured out what was causing the noise. He said it was the door to our storage room that wasn't latching. When the furnace would kick on or off the air would make the door slam but not latch. He then proceeded to check out the entire upstairs and outside around the house just to give me complete peace of mind. He said I did the right thing by calling and made sure I was feeling okay before he left. What a scary night but thankfully, one that ended well. Now I understand a little more why Ryan has wanted to purchase a gun for the past few months. I feel so blessed to have such great friends that I could call at 4am to rush over.