Earthquakes and busy times

So this past week has been jammed packed, complete with a St.Paddy's day feast, Texas Breakfast I hosted here at the house, Cooking club, game night-again here, baby shower, basketball awards and girl scouts.  The family has been going since Wed.  and Alan and I have had a time of it.  Not only have I been too occupied getting the house clean and cooking my ass off, I managed to forget to call my mom on her birthday.  I have been really sucking on the family front...My apologies family..

We'll begin the story on Wed. I wanted to have our traditional  St. Patrick's day meal. Potato pancakes, smoked sausage and green applesauce.  I decided we needed to share our tradtion with friends, so Alan and I invited the hospital crew over to eat with us.  Just a side note here: the year I married Alan I changed the traditional potato pancakes for zucchini pancakes, it was a decilious change.  Since then the kids, Alan and I have foregone the potato for zucchini.  But this year I thought I would offer both.  That and I wanted to make enough for my cooking club on Friday.  For all of you who have made potato pancakes, you know that although making the pancakes is easy standing there and cooking then is a whole other ball of wax.  It takes forever!!  Anyway, our friends loved our meal and all was good. 

On to Thursday. I offered to host a Texas Breakfast for my girlfriends.  I have been craving biscuits and gravy and I have two or three Texan friends that have been as well.  So I had a big ole Texas breakfast, it was so nice to just sit around and gab Thurs morning with my girls, but still a bit stressful considering I had to clean and cook all over again.

Then on Friday I had cooking club, but I also had to make a diaper cake.  I offered to make a diaper cake for my girlfriend Stacy's baby shower.  I also offered to make the cake, so I baked the cake Friday night after I got back from the cooking club soriee and then finally hit the sack.  

So Saturday..The BIG day!!  First and foremost we had a basketball game to go to.  The plant nursery was open as well, so we hit the nursery first to get our free plant ( You can't buy plants here like you can in the US.  There is no Lowes or Walmart to run to and get a house plant and the NEX doesn't sell any, so PWD-pblic works dept- has a nursery set up and is open every other Sat.  Anyone can come and take away ONE plant for free) and then off to the game.  I of course had to leave the boys to play the game while the girls and I ran to the NEX to get more supplies for my baby shower cake I promised to make. Once Adam's game was over we headed back home to hit the kitchen.  Mind you the house is now a big mess and the dishes are piled high.  I had no desire to wash dishes for the like 10,000th time and Alan, well Alan was busy.  Anyway between Alan and I, we got the kitchen cleaned and I started on the cake.  Now I am not a baker.  I hate baking in general, but cooking, that is my thing.  Alas, I was having trouble getting started on the cake so my amazing husband stepped up and took over for me.  He made the icing-his delectable butter cream- and iced the darn cake for me.  Beautiful I tell you.  Another side note here- I am PMSing, so Lord knows decorating the cake for me was a challenge for poor Alan.  But he did a great job.... Now I am sure you are wondering why I was having trouble getting started on a cake I promised.  Well, as I was finished making the raspberry mousse filling I felt a vibration under my feet.  We live off a main road that runs to the prison so I thought for a second it was a large truck.  But the vibration continued and started to get stronger, for a spilt second I thought it was thunder.  It sounded like thunder, but the vibration turned from a vibration to shaking and A LOT OF IT!! Mind you by the time I realized we were having an earthquake, a mere seconds, the house was really being shaken.  I hollered at Madie who was in the kitchen with me to come get in the door way with me, Alan had already gotten Adam under the table and was already on his way down from upstairs with a sleeping Maegan.  The shaking continued.  It lasted for a good minute or two.  Like I said enough time for all of earthquake virgins to understand we were feeling an earthquake and for Alan to get upstairs and back down with Maegan.  He even got her under the table a good thirty seconds before the shaking quit.  It was so freakin' scary.  All I kept thinking was Thank God we have good contruction...Madie and I had to have a good long cry.  She from fright and my from both fright and adrenaline.  It was amazing, frightening and exhilirating all at the same time.  A few minutes after the first quake we got a few aftershocks that didn't last long at all.  So we got back to making and decorating the cake, when BAMMM we got hit again.  This time, none  of us panicked, we got to the doorway and under the table and it was over.  Mind you by this time Madie and I are beyond frazzled and the rest of my family, well they were great of course.  The boys were excited and Maegan was indifferent.  After a good thirty minutes of nothing more Madie and I ran to the store to get yet more crap I forgot.  Apparently on our way there we had yet another earthquake...Alan got on the Geological Society web page.  Apparently we live on a fault line.  The same fault as Haiti! The epicenter of the quake was about thirty miles away in Guantanamo Bay City...That first quake was a 5.6, the second was a 4 somthing and the last one Madie and I didn't feel because we were driving was 5.2.  Yeah I was prepared for hurricanes, not too worried about those in fact, we have hurricane proof housing and there are caves we can evacuate to if it is a big hurricane.  But earthquakes...had no clue.  No way to describe the feeling of having the very ground beneath you move. Other worldly.  I have a whole new respect for Californians and anyone else who lives with this all the time.  It was very unnerving...

So the rest of Saturday Madie was on gaurd.  If she heard any sort of deep bass noise she would get all glassy eyed and turn toward us to see if we needed to take shelter.  However, by Saturday night she seemed better and we sent the kids to bed before all our hospital friends came to play games.  I made fried avacados, something I had at our cooking night, and they were a huge hit...a good time was had by all.  So off to bed Alan and I go, only to be awakened at 3 am by Maegan needing water.  She went back to bed, only to wake again at 4:30 and get in bed with us.  Needless to say I couldn't go back to sleep.  I was up until 6 and was all kinds of willing to NOT go to church for the first time since getting to the island when Alan reminded me he had to be at work at 8:30..then as I am drifiting back off to sleep, now I am pissed mind you, woodpeckers started pecking our roof.  It started with one of the little bastards, then two more joined in.  I figured that must be God telling me that I had to go to church and to get my lazy butt out of bed.  So off to work we sent Alan, then off to church.  I dropped the kids at CCD and then ran to the store once more for one more blooming thing for the shower, ran to the house to get both the shower cake and the diaper cake, ran to the Bayview resturant to set up for the shower and drop off the cakes, and then back to the church to get the kids.  I got the kids, got to the shower, was incharge of all the games, and got all the presents taken care of and boxed up.  Then I got the kids together, and Alan who walked from the hospital to the resturant, and we headed home to change clothes and get ready for Adam's basketball awards.  Once we got home he decided to forgo the awards, which is when I should have had a nap, but alas I didn't. I had took Madie to girl scouts to make sea glass jewlery.  Then I was back home to get dinner ready.  But Alan and I decided to have a quick "crap" run and get a movie, and he had to go back to work once more.  So I dropped him off, went to the movie store only to find out I had no wallet and while I was trying to remember when I had last had it, Adam started getting upset and apologizing.  He said he had it at the shower, and he left it on the table.  I then got everyone back in the car and went to the resturant, mind you they aren't open past 2pm, it was about 4:15, but the officer's bar is open at 4:30, which is in the same building.  So after spending twenty minutes trying to find someone who had worked the lunch shift I left, sans wallet.  We went back to the hospital to get Alan and tell him about the wayward wallet and finish our treck.  Truth be told I was exhausted and pissed by this time.  Exhausted, anemic- I get that way around that time of the month, and PMSing.  I was a pleasant person I tell you...Anyway we got back home, ate and I headed to bed.  Yep I was asleep by 6.  I was semi-aware of the kids and Alan getting ready for bed and all that but quickly fell into lala land.  Only to be ripped out of sleep at midnight by a miserable Maegan.  Her "gina" was hurting her.  And once again I got her in bed and couldn't fall back asleep.  So I was up until 3.  I got back in bed and was almost asleep when Maegan got up once again.  She was whimpering, but went potty and seemed fine.  Then at 5:15 I heard her whimpering again and sent Alan who was up to get her.  Apparently she was having none of him and stayed in her bed.  While he showered I hollered at her and she came into bed.  She was burning up with a fever and she croaked her throat hurt.  ARG!!!

So the day has begun.  I gave Maegan some Motrin, sent Alan to work with the car, got the kids on the bus this morning and have called all my girlfiends to tell them that I was not going to make it snorkeling this morning.  Now of course the Mortin has kicked in.  Maegan has had, count them, TWO pancake and sausages on a stick, and is dancing around to Sid the Science Kid.  She has also come in and asked me to help her put a band-aid on a scratch on her nostril.  "Do I look wierd Mom?" 

"Umm yep you do!"

A shrug of her shoulders, a quick little jig and "who cares? You think I am beautiful huh!"

Yes I do.

So now you are caught up with what I did just this week.  It has been a long one.  I am hoping to hit the gym at 6 tomorrow morning.  My girlfirend Terie teaches total body conditioning on Tues and Thurs.  I went Tuesday past and felt sore all week, but it was a great workout.  Hell I even ran.  I haven't run in a good ten to fifteen years....other than that, I am going to work on getting my bottles ready for the craft fair in April and I have crafts I want to get done BEFORE the end of April so that I have all my gifts ready for when I come home...

Know that I love you all and think of you constantly~

bird crap

Yep, I said bird crap....Well really I want to call it what it really is, but I'm trying to keep this entry somewhere under the PG rating....

Okay so bird crap is what happens when you don't roll up your windows at night.  That's right my friends!  This morning the whole family went out to the car to go to work and school when low and behold our car had become a roosting spot for birds overnight....

Imagine if you will this scene: the kids and I are in a rush to get to school and of course we are waiting on Alan...so the kids and I walked up to the car oblivious of the chaos we are about to be a part of.  As we approach the doors we hear flap, flap, FLAP!  Birds!!  I swear there were like 6,000 freakin icky yucky birds in our car.  Their wings were a going and they were squawking, although not as loud as the Chronister's...the darn birds had a hell of a time getting out of the car, and by the time they did we were all in hysterics.  Madie who says she loves animals but in reality is scared to death of them, Maegan who thinks all animals were put on the earth just for her and Adam who wants to disect the damn things to see how they work.  And then you have me.  I have seen the Hitchcock great The Birds, and I tell you it scared the hell out of me.  Complete with nightmares and all....I HATE BIRDS.  I do.  It is that simple...anyway, you can imagine all of us screeching, the 20,000 birds screeching...and the neighborhood watching. 

Yep...the kids waiting for the bus across the street, the moms waiting for the kids to diappear and Alan.  He walked out of the house just as the last bird took flight.  Once the comotion and hysterics ended the street started laughing.  First the punk kindergarten and high school kids waiting across the street started giggling and then our neighbor lady starting gawfing and then, the damn little traitors, my children.  YES MY CHILDREN started cackling.   I wasn't ready to laugh.  I wanted to get a gun and shoot first the birds, then the neighbors and finally my children, who laughed all the way to school. 

I did finally get a good laugh out of the whole thing when we got to school and both Madie and Adam had bird crap on their bums...Yes, it was a great day, oooh and the bird poop...EVERYWHERE..we must of scared it out of the roosting birds.  How in the world do you get bird poop out of upholstery???

Hoe your days are free of birds and their poop.  I send you all my love....

Revelation

First and foremost, we can have visitors again...wait I think. Well they lifted the leave and liberty ban at any rate, so Alan can leave the island come May.  Now all we have to hope and pray for is that the command lets him take a full month off....Pray people, pray.  The man hasn't had a day off since we got here, he NEEDS to be able to take a break....

Secondly.  I was sitting here blowing my very stuffy nose for like the trillionth time reading Facebook.  I am looking at a friends status that says she is celebrating her son's ten birthday and am blown away.  My thoughts:  Good Lord, TEN...Geeze I thought she was my age, that would mean she would have to be like a teenager when she had him.  Hummm let's see, 33-10 is what 23..23!!!  WHAT THE $#%^ ??  23, that isn't young.  Crap, I have an eight year old...When the hell did this happen.  She's eight!!

Then I channeled Joey Trib from "Friends,"- Why God WHY???  Aging sucks...I am just now getting into the body I wished I had had in High School and yet, well wait a minute...I'm not that old.  I mean hell I still have a good 50-60 years left right?  So really I am still a newbie...Ahhh see all's good in the world again...

And that my friends is a look into the crazy that is Monica...I send you all my love