Why the mess? "An EARTHQUAKE hit our house today!" And that's the story I'm sticking with.

August 23 was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day, low 80's - sunny skies - cool breezes = Perfect. We spent the day at Nama and Papa's and headed home around 1:30pm.

Both the kiddo's had to use the potty, Aidyn quickly finished and ran off to play with toys in the dining room and Mady sat in the bathroom taking her sweet time as usual... Then ... The house began shaking.

1:51pm
Aidyn came running from the dining room:
"Mommy! Mommy! What's that??"
Me: "I don't know monkey, go find your truck...." I walked down the hallway thinking someone was at the door, trying to determine all the loud noise and shaking.

                      ..completely puzzled, a million thoughts ran thru my head. My motherly instinct immediately kicked in, and I grabbed the 60" TV that was rocking from all the shaking as I stood there thinking. (Priorities first, right?!)
--Is the dryer off balance? No, I'm not doing laundry.
--Is someone really banging on the front door that hard? Looking at the door, the storm door was shaking and continuously slamming, terribly loud.
--Is there a natural gas line under our house that is bursting? No.. I don't think so.
--That's a helluva train! ... I turned to look, no train.
--A storm barreling thru? No, it's beautiful outside! Well, WTF!

After nearly 10sec of thinking and trying to construct ANY plausible explanation for my house shaking the way it was; One by one, pictures began falling off the walls. That's when it hit me, WE'RE HAVING AN EARTHQUAKE!

I pointed and barked at Aidyn to get outside immediately as I ran down the hallway and pulled Mady off the potty (Butt-naked / unwiped mind you.. yea, I know, Im a kick-ass mom, I know it). Aidyn had a fit that we didn't have time to get our shoes on, and Mady kept laughing that we were going outside. I didn't know what to do exactly in the event of an earthquake, I just knew I was at home alone with two toddlers and EVERYTHING in my house that was hanging on walls or sitting on tables was falling down. Of course I wasn't certain that it was indeed an earthquake, I just knew, for some idiotic reason, My.House.Was.Falling.Down. and it was time to frickin evacuate!

Of course while standing in the front yard with uncooperative Aidyn and naked Mady, my next fear crossed my mind. I've seen movies, I know how this happens: Is the earth about to split between my two feet? Will we fall into lava? Am I about to watch my house fall to the ground? WHY IS MY HUSBAND NOT HOME!

When it was finally over, we cautiously went back inside and my cell began ringing.

AK: (laughter/ half smiles / little concern) Did you feel that?!
Me: YES! Please tell me that was an earthquake and it is over! (slight panic/ lots of fear/ verge of tears, shaking)
AK: Yes, it was an earthquake .. yadda yadda.. it was so cool.. I just looked up waiting for the roof to fall wandering WTH.. I can't believe you felt that down there.. what did the kids think. (Still smiles. Is this a damn joke?! Im freaking out here!)
Me: Yes. I felt it here, and it was utterly horrible. I never, ever want to experience that again in my life! The kids and I are alright, Aidyn was pretty scared because it was so loud.. and Mady pee'd all over my shirt/hip because she was naked. Just tell me it's over! (first tear drops.)
AK: It's all over. It's done, promise.

At that moment we felt the first after-shock.

Me: WTF AK!!! YOU LYING JERK!! It's NOT over! I have to go, I have to save our house, TV, dog ... err.. KIDS! And btw. we will NEVER move to California, got it?! Click.

The phone lines were mostly dead on and off for the next couple hours in the state. Virginia and states following north all the way to Jersey etc. felt the earthquake that day. The best of it was centered around Mineral, VA and we measured to have felt a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that day. After shocks continued all afternoon, around 8:10p we had a 4.2 magnitude aftershock and many smaller ones hours in between.
See here, Im not making this up.

Everyday I strighten the house before the sitter arrives and I leave for work. On this particular day, I hugged my babies and took a look around, when Alicia (our sitter) walked inside with the expression "Wow!" at the emptied toy box, I responded,

"Yea, This house was hit by a darn earthquake today, look at the place!". And tomorrow, if we feel aftershocks, that will be my excuse then too! :)

A Big Summer for Madelynne!

With Ms. Annabelle on the way, we decided to use Summer 11' to take as many weekend mini-vacay's and see new things as we can. At almost 2 1/2, Madelynne is at the most fun age of learning, exploring and absolutely fascinated with anything having to do with outdoors. (Excellent for the kid, tortore on pregnant mama in 105 degree heat, daily.. but that's another vent.)

Bush Gardens
Before I knew I was pregnant, we choose to purchase season passes to Bush Gardens. It would be fun for the kiddo, and AK and I LOVE to ride ride's. However, it's turned into a summer spent quarantined in Elmo's land and swollen ankles. Our first trip to Bush Garden's, trying to explain where we were going was very difficult, Mady wasn't interested in going anywhere that morning, but to the park, so I admitted "Sure sweety, were going to the park. A really, REALLY big park!" When we arrived, her eyes were the size of quarter's! She pointed straight to the sky at a roller coaster and shouted:

 "Look Mommy! A Choo-choo!!! "choo-choo" has now climbed the hill and makes the first fall "OOOOOO, a slide?" poor kid is completely puzzled, with cris-crossed eyebrows as she watches this contraption of a ride make loops and people scream.
Then the light bulb goes off:
"IT'S A CHOO-CHOO SLIDEEEEE!!! Let's GO!"

My fearless child enjoyed the entire day without missing a beat. We visited Elmo and watched shows, took train rides, saw the baby Clydesdale and rode rides. Her first ride was in Elmo's world (or whatever it's called). We stood in the line and she waited patiently, I was sweating bullets that she would sit in the seat and immediately loose her marbles and scream during the duration of the ride. Finally, it was our turn, I placed her itsy-bitsy body in the seat and climbed into the one next to her. All the while trying to give her a pep-talk about how much fun this is going to be! ..... please note the picture below, she wasn't interested one bit. She's like "I got this mommy, you just sit back and hold on, im all over it."

She rode the entire ride with a smile ear to ear, waving at daddy and shouting "Wahoo!!!" The worst part was convincing her the ride was over, then it was onto finding ANYTHING else that was motorized and would take her for a whirl, fortunately, Bush Gardens has plenty for little one's and she rode most everything else her age and loved every bit of it :)

Tangier Island
For Ne-Naw's birthday this year we spent the weekend at Pop's river. It was nice to sit back and relax, enjoy the river, water, sunshine and family. The drive down was hellacious, storms this summer have been fierce and driving in them late Friday night was anything but easy. When we finally arrived, everyone headed straight to bed, because Saturday morning began at 8am.

We were all estatic to take Mady on her first boat ride, upon arriving she immediately noticed the ferry and got so excited! We boarded and the excitement wore off within 3m. We sat and waited for what seemed forever in the painfully hot heat, we were all cranky, sleepy and hot, then the ferry finally took off. We enjoyed walking around and soon she fell asleep in my lap on the front of the ferry enjoying the breeze.

Tangier Island was wonderful. Exploring how they live, eat and their community was amazing. Our first stop was to eat. Everything was served 'Family Style'. We enjoyed ham steaks, taters, the BEST fresh beats, green beans, cole slaw, dinner rolls, applesauce, and finally -- the best Crabcakes I have ever eaten in my life. Tangier is a crabbing island, and as a community they have mastered how to cook crabcakes! Delicious!

We explored the island for a few hours and then Ferry'd back home. On the way back, Madelynne threw her arms up and yelled to us "IM ON A BOAT!!" inspired from SNL's Skit, On a boat. She had heard us quoting the song all day and finally caught on, it cracked us all up :)

The rest of our weekend was perfectly relaxing. She enjoyed playing in the river with daddy, catching crabs and fishies. And I enjoyed catching some sun and relaxing by myself on the pier. It was well deserved and appreciated by all of us!

Winnie the Pooh in the MOVIES!
What better film for a "first movie" than Winnie the Pooh?  Mady enjoys a couple tv shows, and has seen Pooh better and can identify him, but we weren't quite sure if an entire movie would be able to hold her attention. However, I wanted to share this experience with her as a family date for the three of us, and really didn't want to miss the opportunity for such a perfect first movie.

That morning we woke up and talked about Pooh Bear all day, she was very interested in him and kept asking to watch the movie she already owned, I said "No sweety, we are going to see him at the movies! On a really big tv!" We choose the 11am showing, and after breakfast and getting dressed, we all headed out for our big day.

The moment we stepped inside, she saw the HUGE movie poster's hanging on the wall, it melted me that I forgot that all of this is absolutely new to her. She was fascinated. We stood in line and purchased our ticket. Walking thru the doors, she carried all our tickets and waited to give the nice lady her's. When the lady took them Mady smiled and informed her "Mady going to Ninnie-Pooh!" she took her stub and walked along with everyone else stright for the concession stand. (totally my kid, she's already hungry). I ordered her a Kid's Pack that came with a Juice box, fruit gummies, and a small popcorn; it was perfect for her.

Once we got to the theatre, she realized how dark it was and then immediately clammed up as she noticed the TV. She pointed and said "Wow! Mommy look how big! That's a BIG, BIG movie!" -- "Yes it is sweetheart." We choose our seats, and all made ourselves comfy. She sat back and enjoyed the entire movie. It was adorable. She was even in perfect American Girl que as she would grasp gigantic handfuls of popcorn and shove them into her mouth as if she had never been fed, without blinking from the screen. I was so proud. :) In the end, a theatre of toddlers all clapped their tiny hands together and we all said "Yay!" in unison. A Perfect Sunday.