Hatched

As I was sorting laundry, Dillon was riffling through my wallet pulling out it's contents. He brought me over two pictures. I asked him who was in each of the pictures; the first he told me had Daddy in it. The second was of "Baby Nannie." It was his newborn picture and I told him it was from when he first hatched. His reply: "from an egg mommy"

Shaken

I was sitting at the computer in my kitchen reading an email from the church about the Wednesday night service. Tiffany and I were discussing the topic as she was picking up the top of my entertainment center. The next thing I knew the ground was shaking. And then the walls. Everything was rattling and I kept waiting for it to stop. And it didn't. I ran down the hallway covering the expanse of the entire house to get Dillon and it was still shaking. I didn't know I could run as fast as I did. I opened his door and he was standing in his crib screaming with the look of terror on his face. I scooped him up in my arms and ran to the office doorway so that I was near my niece. My heart pounding I asked her if it was still moving and she said yes. I thought it was, but I also thought I was crazy and my mind was playing tricks on me. It was the longest, hardest earthquake I remember and she and I were both shaking. It measured five point four. And it turns out that I live only a little more than five miles from the epicenter.

After it stopped, we decided to go out into the front yard - just in case. We sat on the front lawn trying desperately to call Jason and Susan but no phones were working. We sat outside for what felt like forever, but was really only a few minutes and decided that we were safe. The house was still in one piece. No sooner had we gotten back inside and the aftershock hit, this time it was a three point six. Again we made a beeline for the front yard. This time we saw quite a few neighbors mingling outside too. As we sat in the grass, I saw smoke rising in the distance, but not that far away. We heard the sirens of the firetrucks and after a bit the thick, black, billowy smoke dissipated. After getting phone calls from my brother, my mother-in-law, my dad, Susan and finally Jason we went back in to survey the damage. Nothing to bad - Our wedding picture and Jason's baby picture fell off of a shelf, our family picture fell off of the fireplace, a picture of Dillon was hanging by only one of it's two nails. Stuff fell of the closet shelf and out of the bathroom medicine cabinets. A bunch of drawers and doors had opened in the kitchen. My cereal bowls all fell over, but luckily not out of the cabinet. Some glasses also fell over and a corner shelf came dislodged. The worst damage was outside - a chunk of concrete fell off of the top of the fireplace and it looks like a brick or two might be loose.

Last night I hardly slept and my nerves are still on edge. With every little noise or creak, my mind decides that it's another earthquake. While I am not necessarily fearful of earthquakes, they still scare me a bit, who and I kidding? The scare me a lot. I know that God is ultimately in control of the situation and that brings me an unmeasurable amount of peace.

Orange County Fair

Yesterday Jason, Dillon and I went to the Orange County fair. It was the first time I have been in four years and the last time we went I swore up and down that I hated the fair and would never ever, ever go back. It's not that I didn't enjoy the fair four years ago, it's that some rude hooligan decided to key the side and hood of my new car. I know that it's not the Fair's fault, but still, I was never going back.

Well, Tuesday, Tiffany was over and told us that they were going to the fair and Jason said that he really wanted some of the Australian Battered Potatoes that they have there and decided that we were going to the fair. We ended up having a really good time. Dillon rode on a bunch of rides and visited the petting zoo, I got to look at all the artsy exhibits (I especially enjoyed the themed table settings), Jason ate a ton of food (and I ate a little bit, too), and best of all, this time the car didn't get keyed (I wasn't taking any chances of it happening to my new car and instead made Jason drive his car.)

Wordless Wednesday: Splish Splash

Broken Vows

A long time ago I made a vow to myself. I would never let my kids watch Barney. There really is nothing wrong with Barney, he's just annoying. His voice grates on my nerves, his laugh makes me cringe, he is so over the top that I want to vomit and Dillon absolutely loves him. And Baby Bop.

One night a few months ago we let Dillon watch him. Only once. And then before we went to my mom's for the Fourth of July I went to Target to pick up some DVDs for Dillon to watch on the long car ride and what did he see? "I see Barney, Mommy" The kid has an amazingly enormous memory. It had been forever since that big purple dinosaur graced the television in our house. Fast forward to a few days ago... it's six thirty in the evening and Dillon is super hyper and it just so happened that the only show on is you guessed it... Barney. So we let him watch it. And now he wants to watch it all day every day. "Where Barney go, Mommy?" "I want see Baby Bop." Uggghh. I have created a monster. And broke my vow to myself. And I am sure that this is probably only one of many "when I'm a parent" vows.

Palm Springs

Last weekend, Susan and I headed out to Palm Springs for a four day scrapbooking retreat. It was such a long, productive weekend - I was able to finish sixty-five pages. And besides being productive, it was super fun! I squeezed in a massage, there was a pajama party and an ice cream sundae bar.

my car loaded to capacity with all our stuff

Susan and I at Ruby's Diner

Susan hard at work

the big group

me and Susan

us at the pajama party

Wordless Wednesday: Ice Cream

The Big Two Zero Zero

Wow! I have made it to post number two-hundred! Amazing! Usually at these monumental posts, you're supposed to do some kind of "facts about me" post, but I've already done a ton of them, so I figured that I would do the fun Photobucket one that I see from time to time. If you want to play along on your blog, here are the rules...

1. Go to photobucket.com.

2. Type in your “answer” to each question in the search box.

3. Use only the first page!

4. Insert the picture on your blog.

1. What is your current relationship status?

2. What is your current mood?

3. What is your favorite movie? (it's a tie)

4.Who is your favorite band/singer?

5. Where do you live?

6. Where do you work?

7. What do you look like?

8. What do you drive?

9. What's your favorite T.V. show?

10. Describe yourself.

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11. What are you doing today?

12. What did you do last night?

13. What is your name?

Bad Blogger

The other day I was called a "bad blogger." While, yes, I have been neglecting my blog a bit lately, I wouldn't say that I was a bad blogger - just a busy blogger. Between Dillon's Mommy & Me classes, going out of town for the Forth of July, coming home and then working VBS at our church every night for three hours - not including the approximately two hours of driving time, heading out of town on Thursday (yes, just four days after I got home from Bishop) and just life in general, I have had so little time to read blogs and even less time to devote to my own blog. So, now things are a bit slower in my everyday life... My calendar doesn't look like a coloring book page with stuff filled in almost every little box - there will be more time for relaxing in the backyard playing with Dillon, more time to breathe, and more time to blog.

Fourth Of July Getaway

For the Fourth of July, Jason, Dillon and I headed up to spend the long weekend at my mom's. It was so nice - we headed up on Wednesday and came home on Sunday. We had a great time visiting, playing, relaxing, bowling and watching fireworks. Dillon absolutely loved the fireworks. He kept shouting "more irewooks daddy" and was even holding sparklers. He was so worn out after all the excitement that he actually fell asleep while I was holding him - he hasn't done that since he was an itty-bitty. It truly was the best Fourth of July I've had - probably ever.