Update and Earthquake

Oh what to say about our spunky monkey, that has more energy then we can keep up with. Miss Morgan has entered into the stage where words never stop. She says cute things like, "Momma your my Mommy" and gives me the biggest hug around the neck. Also says "Momma I yove you." or Thanks Momma, that was really nice of you to think of me." Morgan is also starting to sign a few songs like, "Tinkle tinkle yittle Star", "ABC's and "Old Mac Donald had a farm" at the top of her lungs in the car. She also loves riding her tricycle outside and loves swimming in her yittle pool. Never a dule momment around our house.

Aiden has had a busy couple of weeks and has been enjoying his summer. He finished up another swimming lesson session and attended Vacation Bible School at our church last week. This week he is attending Basketball camp and VBS in the evening at my friends church. So far he is really enjoying Basketball camp and really likes his coach. Its also nice having a few of his friends from school on his team. Aiden is still attending Karate 2 to 3 times a week and will be testing for his purple belt next week. I think we need to go back to school just to wine down a bit.

Earthquake update:

The earthquake that rattled Southern California on Tuesday might have caused devastation if it had taken place in some parts of the world, but relatively strict building codes ensured that most of the region's infrastructure -- homes, schools, freeways and rail systems -- rolled with the magnitude 5.4 punch, which was centered near Chino Hills and felt as far as Las Vegas.As aftershocks continued to reverberate, officials inspected airports, freeways and buildings, and reported little damage from the quake, which occurred at 11:42 a.m. and was the first significant temblor in more than a decade to be centered in an urban area of California. The biggest strains were felt in phone and Internet systems, which buckled due to overwhelming demand in the minutes after the jolt.

I happened to be at work, in a training, on the second floor, when the earthquake hit this morning. It felt like a gentle rocking that went on for about 40 seconds. I guess growing up in California, you just learn to ride them out and then go on about your day. You always get an internal panic feeling inside though, about your family and friend during and after an Earthquake that takes awhile to go away. I am thankful that all is well in San Diego and that no one was seriously hurt.

Baby Cousin

The kids got to meet their baby cousin for the first time last weekend. They love him so much and Aiden could not get enough of him. Everytime one of us got a chance to hold baby Alexander, Aiden would say "When can I hold him again?". It was so cute. Alexander is such and easy going baby and even loves sleeping. How nice is that?

Taking life as it comes.

My wonderful husband started the task of laying down hardwood floors in the dinning and family room 2 weeks ago. He had to remove all the carpet and grind down the floor to get it completely flat. Last weekend he laid more then half the room with hardwood and should finish the rest of the job by next weekend. I am learning to live with a house that is completely torn upside down and random things in each room to make room to lay hard wood floors. Disorganization is not something I enjoy, but I am learning to take each day as it comes.

I often don’t journal about the little details in my day to day life, but I thought this day was something worth writing down, so I can remember it. I tend to be a person who likes do as many things as possible in a day. Yesterday, was one of those days that was no different. I dropped Morgan off at her speech preschool and headed over to my sisters house with Aiden in tow. Got my sister and my nephew in the car and head over to the Dr's office, so she could get her staples out from her c-section. After the staples were removed we swung by and picked up Morgan from school and then head back to my sisters house. Little Alexander needed a sponge bath, so I helped her with that. I then started getting ready to head out to the beach for the afternoon. Morgan had other plans for my afternoon though. She was walking around the house on her heal because the top and bottom of her foot was red and swollen (probably a reaction to the bee string 8 days ago). So I called the Dr and got an appt for 2:00pm. This left me enough time drop Aiden off at the beach for his play date and get over to the Dr office by 2:00. We arrived at the beach for a few mins to eat lunch and watch Aiden play for a few mins before we had to leave.

Morgan and I said our good byes to Aiden and the other moms and head for the Dr's office. As I was getting ready to slow down on the freeway to take our exit, the brake peddle felt really soft. It slowed me down enough, but no real ability to stop quickly. I looked up and notice the brake light was on indicating that I had not release the emergency brake while driving . So I reach down and turn that off and thought I was good to go. I made it to the bottom of the ramp with my foot all the way to the floor. I had all these thoughts running through my head. As long as I leave plenty of room between myself and car in front of me I can stop. The car made it though 4 more intersections and the same thought pattern ran though my head. Each time it worked and I was able to stop.

Well as I approach the light I needed to turn at, I had lost all brake control. I could see 3 cars lined up in a row at the stop light and the same on opposite side. I franticly pulled the emergency brake up and got nothing. Oh my gosh I am going to have to crash into these cars in front of me or swerve into the on coming lane and risk that no one comes. By the grace of God, I quickly swerved into the lane where on coming traffice usually is and then made a right turn across all the cars that were stopped at the red light. I also avoid 2 cars turning right and left on either side of the intersection and was able to pull up into a parking lot and park my car, all with out brakes. It felt as though my heart had jumped into my stomach and my entire body was shaking. With out really thinking I grabbed Morgan out of her car seat and head down to the Dr's office, so we could still make her appt. By the time I had made it to the elevator, I had stopped shaking and called Tom to explain what had just happened. Thank the Lord that nothing bad happened to Morgan or any one else for that matter. Tom had the car towed home and replaced both the brake pads in the back, but he took the car in this morning because it does still not feel right. Life tends to alway be an adventure and you never know quite what it will bring.

A day at the lake.

We went and hung out with my Mom at the Lake near her house last weekend. My sister and I grew up here as kids and always had a blast swimming during the summer. It was quite fun to see my own kids enjoying it as much as we did. The auto focus got turned off on the camera when Tom was playing with it on the 4Th of July, so it was hard to get a close up of the kids out on the lake. We are learning so much with our camera and it is still quite fun to use even though I still dont understand everything about it. The picture of Morgan jumping into the lake puts a smile on my face. It show her true personality, living life to the fullest. She is such a risk taker and does what every she can to keep up with everyone. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend with family and friends.

Meet my nephew Alexander

Welcoming my nephew Alexander John. My sister gave birth to my nephew on 7/9/08 at or about 12:30am. He weighed 7lbs 9 oz 19 inches. Mommy and baby are resting and doing well.

4th of July

I can't take any credit for these photos, they were all taken by my talented husband Tom. Didn't the fireworks turn out amazing?? He used a tri pod and a bunch of different settings. Way beyond my level of photography. I tend to still use a lot of the auto settings.

We had a wonderful 4th of July, spent at our friends house that we meet through Aiden schools. They had a BBQ and swim party in the backyard for the afternoon. We got there around 3pm and headed up to watch fire workers about 8:30pm. I think Aiden only got out of the pool a handful of times, mainly just to eat dinner and cupcakes. He can not get enough of the water. Morgan loved the pool as well and swam all over it with her swimming floats. We have two fish on our hands. Hope everyone has a fabulous week.

Oh Summer

Oh the joyous days of summer. A bike ride in the late evening with the sunset kissing your face. Not wearing shoes as you run down the sidewalk to keep up with big brother. Mommy playing with her new camera, until we give her that look to put it away. Staying up past our bed times because we don't want to miss a minute of each day. This pretty much sums up the pictures above and how our summer is going so far.

On a side note: I was tagged my my blogger friend Denise. I need to capture my life RIGHT NOW in 6 words! So here they are:

Beyond Blessed
Loved
Happy

Thankful

Content

Sleepy

I tag anyone who would like to play along. It's fun and it makes you think about your life right at this very moment.