Earthquake!!

   Yes that is right.  A earthquake in Maryland.  It was yesterday, but I had a busy day so I am just getting around to writing about it. 
   
     Now living in Maryland I never thought about earthquakes.  The just don't happen, right?  That is how I see it.  In fact I was under the impression that there were no faults under this side of the country so we were good.  Well I was wrong.

     We were at the pool when it hit.  In fact we were getting ready to come home.  It had been a day with the boys and I was looking forward to nap time when we got home. I was sitting on a lounge chair putting Little B's diaper on when I felt the first little movement.  At first I thought the chair was going to flip over and we would have round three with my injured back.  But I was wrong.  My next thought was a large truck just passed by, but I did not hear anything.  Then the ground beneath my feet felt like it was rolling.  It felt like I was on a boat, but I was not.  O was standing just a few feet away from me, saying "mommy what is going on?  Why is the ground shaking."  I looked at this man who was working at the pool, and he said "that's an earthquake."  I shook my head yes and he ran and cleared the swimmers from the pool.

  It was only about 20 seconds long and it was done.  I don't think I was scared, but excited and weirded out.  I finish packing the kids up, we got dressed and headed home.  The part that I did not like was that I was unable to get a hold of my hubby.  The phones were not working. We were right across the street from where he works but I could not see anyone leaving the building when we drove off so I headed home thinking it was no big deal.  It took 45 minutes before I got a hold of him.  He was fine.  It just unnerved me to not be able to get a hold of him.

All in all I have to say I survived an earthquake.  It was an experience.  It was only a 5.8, I can only imagine what something bigger would feel like.  I have to say I don't want to know.  I am good with the one we had.  I don't needed to know what any larger earthquake feels like, nor do I need to experience one again.  Done check that off the list of things I have done in my lifetime.

20 years of friendship

    Last night I went out to dinner with my friend Kristin.  We went to celebrate our 20 year anniversary of our friendship.  That is a long time.  It was 20 years ago in August that I meet Kristin when we first started band camp in high school  She was a year older than me but we both played the flute.  Our friendship started there and has build and grown into a wonderful relationship that we have now. 

     We have been through the think and thin with each other.  We have been through boyfriends, and break ups,  going to college and the tuff times with taking classes.  We have  been there for each other with set back in school and with family.  We have been in weddings and watch as we each met the men that are now our husbands.  We made it through her divorce and her second marriage. We have been there for each other with the birth on my children and now is the time that she is trying to start her family, yeah!

     Dinner was fun.  It has been a while since we have gotten together just the two of us and had time to chat.  It was fun to be out and just talk about our lives now an in the past.  We talked about  all the proms and dances we went to and with what boys we went with.  We thought back to the funny stories of our first kisses and when she told me she had sex for the first time.  We went from remembering the past to talking about our current lives and what is going on now.  Her new job, what my plans are for the weekend.  How my boys are.  We even had time to talk about the future.  Will I go back to work in the classroom, what she thinks she will do once she has a baby.  How are things going on the baby front.  It was one great dinner and conversations.

I don't know what I would do without a friend like Kristin.  She has been through the thick and thin with me. Don't get me wrong, there are a few other friends of mine that are very important to me, but I just have not known them for as long as I have known Kristin.  I hope that we continue to have such a good friendship and that in 20 years we can go to dinner and look back at our lives again.

If I were still teaching

    Today would be my first day back to school after a summer off.  The teachers were back and started their hard work of prepping their classrooms.  This is the second year that I did not go back.  I am finding it weird that I am not going back.  I will have to say that I am happy that I am not going back.  I don't know what next year will bring I maybe back or I may not time will only tell.  But this year I am happy to be home with my boys.  This is the best job ever.


    I have been asked several times lately if I am going to go back to the classroom and I always respond with I am not sure.  I would like to say that I was a good teacher.  I seem to have people tell me that I was.  I ended up doing many different workshops where I taught my fellow teachers how to do different things in the classrooms.  But I would also like to think that I am a good teacher for the simple fact that I was honest and took a leave to raise my children.  I don't think that I can be a good teacher and a good mom.  I don't think that I can raise a family the way that I feel a family should be raised and be a teacher at the same time.  I believe in the fact that I know this and admit it makes me a good teacher. 

   As the start of a new school year has begun in the school around me it has gotten me thinking about what I am going to do with my teaching.  I don't think I want to go back.  I am thinking that when the letter comes next year and I have to check either to return or resign I will resign.  I just don't think I can be that mom who is also a great teacher.  To be a teacher takes so much time and time that is not in the work day.  Time from home and family life.  I also want to be able to be there when my kids get home from school as well as be able to be present in their schools and classrooms. I want the to know that if they are in trouble I will be there.  I just feel like I can not give the boys 100% and give teaching 100%.  One will fail and I know myself, I will not be happy with that.  So this year is my year to figure out what I am going to do.  I have my masters and I worked hard for it.  I would like to use it if I can.  I am thinking about maybe teaching a college class.   I don't think it will be the same as teaching children but I may surprise myself.  We will have to wait and see.

But for now I am going to focus on my job as a full time mom.  I am going to give it my 100%  We will see where it takes me.

I am doing it for these boys.

Water park

  Today hubby and I pack up the kids and headed to the water park.  Now we have never been to this water park and the sad thing is it is only about 40 minutes from our house.  I will have to say one reason we have not been before is it is pricey, at least I think, to get in; but thank you to groupoun I scored tickets at half price!  Yes!


    So we headed down to check the place out.  We got there right  before it opened stood in line and were able to score some good seats right by the pool.  This was good because as the day went on the seats were gone.  The boys had a blast.  The park is perfect for a family with children O and Little B's age.  There was a baby pool for Little B but we spent most of our time in the main pool.

    There were two big water slides that O was not tall enough to go down and then about 5 smaller ones that all landed in the same pool, which was great for O.  He was able to go on his own down the slides all he wanted and he always ended back up in the same pool and we could keep our eyes on him.

 

 
There is also a lazy river which I made O wear his life jacket but he still had a blast.  All in all it was a great day.  The weather was amazing, sunny and 85 degrees.  We could not have picked a better day.  We will be keeping our eyes out for more coupons for this place and hitting it again.

I can't believe it has been 16 months

He is 16 months old today!

  I just can't believe it.  He is getting so big and right before my eyes. 

Today we took a boat trip.  We went out for the first time on our little boat.  We have gone out on my parents boat but this was on our little boat.  Little be was a little confused.  I think he recognized it from being in our drive way but was not sure what to think when it was moving on the water.  The trip was short and he screamed for half, he just got tired and it was time to come home.  We did not  go fast but we drove around looking at the big houses that we would love to own.

It was a great trip.  I think Little B enjoyed it. 

Happy 16 months sweet little boy.

Road trip to . . . Ohio

  Last weekend was our summer trip to Ohio.  Both of my parents are from Cleveland and so other than my parents and brother the rest of the family is in Ohio.  So going there has been part of my life and has become part of my boy's lives.  It will be sad when it is not part of our lives anymore, and I am sad to say that  might happen sooner than I would like to think. 


    I think visiting Cleveland is fun.  It is fun to see my family, and it is fun to see my sons learning about a different state and seeing family they don't normally see.  The fact that both my great grandfathers are alive means that when we go there is 4 generations in one location.  I just think that is cool.

  The boys did great on both the trip up and the trip home.  6 hours is a long time to sit in a car.  We decided to do the trip during the day and they both did so well.  I was not sure how Little B would do since he is still rear facing but his seat recline back enough that he was able to watch some of the movies.

    We went up an extra day so that we could do some fun things in the Cleveland area.  Of course it rained but we still hit the Science Center.  I wanted to go to the zoo, but we will have to save that for next trip.  The Science center was good and we even took my uncle.  I think we all had a good time.

   O seemed to really enjoy himself even though it was all a bit over his head.  I don't think he really understood what all the displays were doing but he had fun playing with all the different things.

Now the big his was the kid room and the ball pit.  The outside water area was closed since it was raining but I don't think my kids even missed it.  They loved playing in the ball pit.

  We did visit family while we were there.  I would have to say one of my favorite times was when my grandfather was playing ball with Little B.  It was the oldest and the youngest playing and it was cool.

 While we were there we got to meet the newest addition to the family.  My cousin had a baby, so here are the new cousins.  I know they are not first cousins but they are cousins and that is cool.

 We did have good weather while we were there.  I was in the mid 80s which was much better than the 101 that we left.  We got to take the boys swimming in the river.  Now I say river but it is only ankle deep.  They seemed to have a good time.

There was basket ball to learn how to play:

and lots of games and running in the yard.

I would have to say that it was a great trip!