One week later ~

~ I have discovered the source of the mysterious beeps that went off in our house at 2:22 AM that fateful night.  Yes, I have.

Please leave a message after the beep... 

 Does that give you a clue?

On that particular night, I brought my brand new iPad into my bedroom and placed it on the nightstand.  Right next to my head.  RIGHT next to my head.  And at precisely 2:22 AM ... BEEP!

Four times.

So, fast forward to last night.  We took Elizabeth out to dinner at a new restaurant in Dallas that is completely gluten free.  Completely, you ask?  Well, we thought so.  They advertised it as such.  And I believed them.  However, they lied to us.  It was only moments after we arrived back home and I heard, "Mom?  Can you come up here?" that I knew we were in trouble.  There was panic in poor Elizabeth's voice.

And I went.  And about five hours later, we had finally settled her gluten-spoiled tummy down and I settled into the guest room directly across from Elizabeth's bedroom.  I was available for water delivery and "Gluten Ease" pill runs and perinial reads from the huge medical book my mother gave us years before.  Believing Elizabeth had contracted the flu, I even had Theraflu ready at her disposal.  But it wasn't the flu.  Nope, it was gluten.  And it was upchucked around 2:00 in the morning.  The after effects of the gluten contamination, though, remain with Elizabeth still.  Sigh.

Anyway, I stayed across the hall.  And I had my iPad on the nightstand beside my bed.  And guess what?  At about 3:30 AM ...        B E E P !!!!

But once again, I didn't believe it had come from my iPad.  I didn't even consider that option.  Nope.

The next morning, Elizabeth, feeling a tad better, pointed out to me that my iPad was beeping ... everytime I got a new email.

So ... okay.  The beep is my fault.  The beep was my fault on that night, too.  Still can't explain the blue light flickering in my living room ... nor the strange car in my driveway ... nor the weird car that stalked me and followed me home ... but the mystery of the beep has been solved.

And my daughter?  Doing fair to middlin'.  We've been sittin' here for nigh on four hours watching every I Love Lucy dvd she owns.  And heck, she owns them all.  We'll be here for another two days, I fear.  If I'm late to work tomorrow, you'll know why. 

We may not even make it to Florida in twelve days since I've just noticed she has all of her FRIENDS dvds lined up next.

......  How YOU doin'?

:)