Shakin in our boots

After all the years of earthquake training in the Utah school system, years of practicing jumping under our desks and standing in door frames in preparation for the big one that's bound to hit someday, I had never experienced a real earthquake. Until today. Brian hadn't either. We'd both felt little tremblings and rumblings, but today we experienced a bonefide certifide quake. A 5.8 to be exact, with an epicenter a couple of hours south of us, and tremblings felt clear through New England. I must say, I'd be perfectly fine if we never "experienced" one again.

I was home on my computer, and my first thought: "WHAT is my upstairs neighbor doing?" But when the shaking got worse, and before long the whole apartment was shaking and shifting, my second thought: "Earthquake, or is DC getting bombed and I'm feeling it?" Either way, I was terrified. When things started falling off the walls and the shaking continued, my thoughts slowed down, and I had to work to not panic. That's when I guess the years of training kicked in. I headed for the pantry door frame, then quickly realized that getting squished by all of our canned corn and beans in the worse case scenario probably wasn't ideal, so I stumbled over the shifting floor to the bathroom door frame. Little did I know, an hour and a half north, Brian was huddled under his desk at work (image = priceless). The shaking felt like it lasted forever (I later heard a report saying up to two minutes). When it ended, I pow-wowed with our neighbors (I did manage to shakily throw on some clothes first, unlike one of my neighbors who was in her cute boy short undies and a t-shirt...I'm telling you...that's how scary the shaking was), stayed a bit at one of their apartments (she was babysitting 5 kids, and was a bit shaken up), and tried to call Brian and family. At first I thought I couldn't get my phone to work because my hands were shaking so bad...then I realized the lines were jammed. 4 hours later, they still are.

Quite the crazy and scary experience. I'd venture to say that between this, and the bear circling our tent last year, I've had my two most frightening experiences ever while living in good ole Virginia! But hey... I guess we've picked up a few more memories and stories to tell, eh? :)

All safe and sound here... and praying for no aftershocks. :) Oh...and Brian got off early, and I've finally stopped shaking so I suppose all is well! :)

I feel snazzy

I was so excited to see THIS yesterday, that I had to share! After a couple of years of designing wedding albums, and running a website, and renewing business licenses, for some reason this made it feel official. I'm a small business owner! (Who works at home in her pajamas, but never you mind that :)).

Woo woo for being featured on thebrideandgroom.com!

Mood Boosters

Well, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that I'm no longer ticked and that fall is right around the corner! The bad news is that I know fall is on its way because Tink has some new acorn dings. Yep. Acorns. In early August. Ha. At this point, you just have to laugh. I've found a good shop, and Bri assures me we'll have a garage soon. When that day comes, Tink will be going in for a full-blown pampering session and her bum injuries and accessorizing acorn dings will all be good as new. So on that note...

Back to the good news. The good mood magically appeared shortly after my last post. Or maybe it wasn't magic at all. Could've had something to do with this:






But if the stylin', GQ-esque toddler fashion wasn't what did it, I guess it could've been snuggling with a cutie-batootie boy:



Or maybe watching the two most adorable kids ever loving the gifts from Auntie Am and Uncle Bri Bri?





Or maybe I just get a kick out of seeing my 2 favorite little maniacs get that mischievous look in their eyes...




If it wasn't the monkeys, though, I guess it could've been the view from my bed at Bear Lake:



Yep, my summer trip to Utah was much needed and much, much, much enjoyed! Only thing that could've made it better: Brian being there. I think I maybe, kinda, sorta, might have found time to miss him a bit amidst all the camping, and playing and family fun. Maybe. Possibly. Ok...my dixie camping cup would probably say I definitely did:



I hated to have him absent on yet another Utah trip, but at least he had a good excuse. A long weekend out to South Carolina to visit his family and see our cute niece Sienna's baptism! He enjoyed himself immensely, and was thoroughly entertained by the three little Palmer Princesses... even though I don't have all his pictures to prove it.

(Hmmm... Alisha, Brian's sister in the back, isn't technically the third "little Palmer Princess" I was talking about... but since I'm working with the photos I have, we'll go with it. Ok Princess Alisha? :))

Morale of the story: I think we might be closely related to some of the cutest kids EVER. While this is slightly disturbing (I mean really...do you think it's fair that the bar is set that high? :) We are bound to disappoint someday...), it's mostly just loads and loads of mood boosting fun.