Shake, Shake, Shake!
Today was quite normal, considering, up until it wasn't! My great niece arrived early, as did my granddaughter, and the kids played together while the baby slept. I got them all together around 10:30 and took them into my work, brought them home and then made lunch. Something has to give here. I've only been watching the baby for two days, but lunch time is a zoo. Everyone is hungry at the same time and then someone is unhappy when I have to feed the other. My normal routine used to be to feed Dakota, my six year old, and then put on a tv show I enjoy and take my lunch and a cold soda into the livingroom and give myself 30 minutes to regroup. Little granddaughter doesn't think this is a great idea. She has been sleeping all morning, has a full belly, and is wide awake. She is not quite three months old so she can't really play or occupy herself, so I found myself eating lunch and, instead of watching Ghost Hunters or Supernanny, Natalie and I laid on the floor on her blanket and watched Baby Einstein.
Around 1:50 the baby was asleep, the kids were playing, my teenage son was in his room and my husband and I were standing in the livingroom. I had a friend on the phone. There was a rumble and then our large tv started shaking and the remotes fell to the floor. We were confused and my husband made a move toward the tv as the whole house started to shake! I couldn't quite comprehend what was going on...this is Maryland, after all. I looked at the outside wall and stupidly made a move to possibly hold it up? and my friend on the phone screamed that it was an earthquake! My teen comes running through the house and out the door and then...it stopped. We all looked at one another in confusion. The little ones were gathered around and one was amazed and one was crying and scared. The baby, of course, slept through it all. Did we really just experience an earthquake here in Baltimore, Maryland? We went outside and all the neighbors were out. Everyone was a bit shaken, literally, and wondering if it really was an earthquake or if there was a plane crash or a bomb or??? I tried to call my daughter, who's baby I have, and my mother, but phone service was dead. Pictures were askew on the wall and in the bedroom a few had fallen to the floor. The kids were chattering about what happened and now everyone was starting to think that since we were all safe and there was no damage, it was pretty darned cool! The news picked it up and it seems that there was a fairly large quake centered near Fredericksburg, Virginia and the ripple effect went all the way up the Eastern Seaboard to Canada! There was a little damage in Baltimore, but the chaos was much worse. Buildings were evacuated, libraries closed, people were in the streets. Then everyone decided they needed to get home and the streets emptied of people and became jammed with cars. The subway was down, the public transportation backed up and the highways in a gridlock. Incredible! And of course, the news played it all over and over and over. Washington DC and New York felt it as well, and I can only imagine the momentary terror they must have felt after all they have been through in the past.
Football was cancelled for my husband and older son tonight and my younger son's baseball practice would have taken us on the dreaded clogged highway, so we decided to have a nice family night together. We had dinner, laughed and joked, the guys played a video game tournament and then we took the dogs and all went for a walk..well, my husband and younger son and I went for a walk and my teenager walked the dogs in the other direction. I was told there might be girls to pick up along the way, so he couldn't bee seen with us. Sigh. Now everyone is back, clean and fresh and ready for bed. Now we can all say that we have lived through a real, true earthquake! Amazing! Next in line for us looks like it will be a Category 1 hurricane this weekend. I hope we fare as well during that one.
Around 1:50 the baby was asleep, the kids were playing, my teenage son was in his room and my husband and I were standing in the livingroom. I had a friend on the phone. There was a rumble and then our large tv started shaking and the remotes fell to the floor. We were confused and my husband made a move toward the tv as the whole house started to shake! I couldn't quite comprehend what was going on...this is Maryland, after all. I looked at the outside wall and stupidly made a move to possibly hold it up? and my friend on the phone screamed that it was an earthquake! My teen comes running through the house and out the door and then...it stopped. We all looked at one another in confusion. The little ones were gathered around and one was amazed and one was crying and scared. The baby, of course, slept through it all. Did we really just experience an earthquake here in Baltimore, Maryland? We went outside and all the neighbors were out. Everyone was a bit shaken, literally, and wondering if it really was an earthquake or if there was a plane crash or a bomb or??? I tried to call my daughter, who's baby I have, and my mother, but phone service was dead. Pictures were askew on the wall and in the bedroom a few had fallen to the floor. The kids were chattering about what happened and now everyone was starting to think that since we were all safe and there was no damage, it was pretty darned cool! The news picked it up and it seems that there was a fairly large quake centered near Fredericksburg, Virginia and the ripple effect went all the way up the Eastern Seaboard to Canada! There was a little damage in Baltimore, but the chaos was much worse. Buildings were evacuated, libraries closed, people were in the streets. Then everyone decided they needed to get home and the streets emptied of people and became jammed with cars. The subway was down, the public transportation backed up and the highways in a gridlock. Incredible! And of course, the news played it all over and over and over. Washington DC and New York felt it as well, and I can only imagine the momentary terror they must have felt after all they have been through in the past.
Football was cancelled for my husband and older son tonight and my younger son's baseball practice would have taken us on the dreaded clogged highway, so we decided to have a nice family night together. We had dinner, laughed and joked, the guys played a video game tournament and then we took the dogs and all went for a walk..well, my husband and younger son and I went for a walk and my teenager walked the dogs in the other direction. I was told there might be girls to pick up along the way, so he couldn't bee seen with us. Sigh. Now everyone is back, clean and fresh and ready for bed. Now we can all say that we have lived through a real, true earthquake! Amazing! Next in line for us looks like it will be a Category 1 hurricane this weekend. I hope we fare as well during that one.
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