Sister Act

Caroline here. I heart my sister sooooooo much. Every time I come back to Mommy's house, the first question I ask is "Where's Emily?" And guess what? Emily hearts me just as much as I heart her. She laughs and smiles every time she sees me. We are the best of buddies :)

C'Mon Irene.....Go Away!

Hurricane Irene was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The worst part for our family was a raging case of cabin fever from being in a house together for 48 hours straight. We lost power on Saturday night right after we went to bed and it was back on by noon Sunday. Here are some pics I took during our weekend: Just getting started....Saturday 4 PM
Sky getting darker....Saturday 6 PM

Winds really got going....Saturday 6 PM

Frog holding onto our window screen for dear life

Next day....beautiful weather and many trees down

Valero gas station sign blown out

Street light broken, but other than that...not much damage!

Shaken, Not Disturbed

As everyone in....well, the world, knows...Virginia had a great big earthquake on Tuesday. It registered a 5.9 on the Richter scale, just a mere 10th of a point away from "major earthquake" status. It was the biggest one in Virginia since 1897. But enough facts that you could get from any news station. Here is my personal account of that day:

The kids and I had just dropped off Caroline's hellian friend Lauren at her house and were in the CVS buying orange tic-tacs to replace the ones we had eaten from Timmy's stash, amongst other items. Suddenly, the floor starts swaying. I think to myself "Hmmmm.....that feels like a huge semi barreling down Rt. 301....I hope it stops at the light." I seriously thought it was just a big truck that was about to run through the intersection and get in a huge accident. Then it gets bigger and there is more swaying. And now all the customers are just staring at each other with big saucer eyes, like "Seriously?? That can't be.....an earthquake?!" And it goes on for about half a minute and then stops. The lady in line in front of me freaks out and starts yelling about the quake and how she needs to call the sheriff's office. Her kid starts freaking out too, because her mom is freaking out, and now the rest of us just want her to shut up. The manager just shrugs his shoulders and says to me, "I lived in San Francisco for five years. That was nothing." I smile, nod, pay for my stuff, and head out. Caroline immediately has a bad headache (stress related?) and we head home. The whole amount of damage at home: candle holder fell off a shelf, several of Caroline's toys fell off the bookcase in her room, and some pictures are crooked. We spent about 27 seconds cleaning up and about 4.5 more hours watching the news and trying to reach Timmy by cell phone.