Earthquake!

Jav and I were going about our normal post-kids' bedtime things. He was paying bills online and I was moving around laundry and addressing Gabriel birthday party invitations (more about the big birthday boy later). I was walking from the living room into the hallway and felt the weirdest sensation of the whole house moving. I also heard things rattling. It was only for about 2-3 seconds, but the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I got cold chills all over. I went into the bedroom and asked Jav, "What the heck was that?" His eyes were wide and he pointed to our TV armoire and said, "I don't know but that whole thing moved."

We decided it might have been a gas well explosion. Other things flew through my head, like airplane crash, huge tree branch fell on the house, or earthquake. Although that last option flew back out of my head pretty quickly. I also thought about the Space Shuttle mission that exploded over Texas We checked local stations to see if there was breaking news, but nothing. About 30 minutes later, I realized Bones was nowhere to be found. He's usually bugging us to go to the garage for the night by that time of night. He was under Jav's desk and wouldn't come out for another hour.

We found out this morning that there was an earthquake, 2.5 on the Richter scale, the epicenter of which was near Waxahachie. WOW! I knew it! And as cool as it was to experience it, we were sobered to think about what it would be like to experience a quake measuring 9 or higher, like Haiti and Chili did.

On a lighter note, when I told Gabriel about it, he asked if "those two moles were making the earthquake". We checked out a book from the library a while back called "Earthquack" about farm animals feeling the ground shake. At the end of the book, it turns out that there was no earthquake, only a couple of moles digging some tunnels. So I explained that no, it wasn't moles. It was big chunks of the earth way down deep banging into each other. This happens all of the time, and we usually don't feel it.

But we felt this one, my friend.

Spying on the neighbors

A few weeks ago I was out doing my nightly rounds of watering and birdbath filling, when I heard a strange cry of some kind. It sounded like a bird, but one that should have been making noise during the day. It was coming from somewhere beyond the farthest back corner of our yard. I went back there and stood for awhile, waiting to hear it again and try to figure out what it was. Sometime over the next couple of days, I heard what I thought was a duck quacking in the same spot. Hmmmm. Then I realized it wasn't a duck, but a chicken. Jav heard it too a couple of times. We assumed it belonged to a family living next to our neighbors directly behind us.

Then Sunday I noticed those same neighbors, directly behind us (we don't know them very well), shooing something out of the back door into the yard. I thought they might have gotten a dog. Later in the day, Jav came to report that they had returned home from somewhere, got out of their truck and walked over to the side of the yard and greeted something. So he also wondered if they had a dog. Or something. I started thinking about the fact that they've been doing alot of yard work over in that corner recently. I mulled it over in my head so much that my curiosity finally got the best of me. After dinner I went out back to check the water dishes and nonchalantly made my way over to the corner and peered through our fence slats to see what I could see.

I reported back to Jav and Gabriel that I saw a shovel and a big pile of dirt, some type of box or feeder with holes in it up off the ground, and a pile of hay. And I faintly smelled a barnyard smell. Now my "Hmmmmmm" turned into a "Aha!" Something is definitely going on back there. Gabriel seemed really interested now, so I asked him if he wanted to walk back with me one more time to see if I could see or hear anything else. I never really stopped to think about the fact that I was teaching him it was ok to spy on the neighbors. At this point I just wanted, beyond all reason, to find out what was going on back there. We had warned Gabriel that he couldn't make ANY noise until we got back inside. We meandered around the yard a bit to make it look good, then headed back to the fence. I found a knothole just right for Gabriel and told him to try to see something. He was peering and all of a sudden got a weird little look on his face. I said, "Do you see anything?" He said in the most excited whisper I have ever heard, "YES". I said, "Really? What do you see?" He said, soooooooo excitedly, "A chicken!" I almost shoved him out of the way to see, and caught a glimpse of two beautiful heirloom type hens, one white and one spotted black, pecking the ground.

We ran back, laughing quietly, to the house to report to Jav. I can't believe these neighbors would try such a thing, they didn't seem like the type AT ALL to me. I have to say I am impressed and a little jealous. I would love to do it, but I have no idea how to even get started, to say nothing of the fact that I think there's a city ordinance against it. We are now wondering if they have to have a rooster back there too. Jav's going to try to talk to them if he catches them outside, just to let them know we are cool with it and ask if maybe the boys can come to visit and see them up close one day. Maybe we can even score some fresh eggs some day! But I relay the story because it will be one I will always remember, how gleeful Gabriel and I were to have discovered the mystery, and how much fun we had doing it.

Busy Labor Day weekend

This may be one of my very favorite pictures, ever.

This Labor Day weekend was a really fun, although exhausting, one. We started our journey Saturday afternoon by stopping at the mall to buy a new washing machine. Ours kicked the bucket the weekend before and we've been taking loads to our parents' all week long. Then Bennett, one of our two friends from the neighborhood Moms group, had his 4th birthday party at The Little Gym. We had never been there, and it was a great place for kids to romp around and have a great time! Bennett has his back turned in this picture, and sitting right next to Gabriel is our other neighborhood friend, Harper. She spent two days with us a couple of weeks ago when her mom had to start back to college before her Mommy's Day Out started back. I'm going to invite both of them to Gabriel's party, whenever we decide when and where we're going to have it!

Our little climber especially seemed to like the fact that he could go anywhere and we wouldn't be fussing at him to stay on the ground! The kid has no fear, whereas his older brother always errs on the cautious side. On a side note, I just walked in from doing some things outside to find Joel DANCING with both feet in the cats' water bowl. Water sloshing everywhere and his big brother belly laughing so hard he had tears running down his face. Which will inspire a repeat performance, I'm sure. Sigh.

Sweet picture of Bennett, his mommy Allyssa, and little brother Lachlan. We really like them, along with Harper's family, and hope they decide to stay in the neighborhood ever after the kids start grade school. It's so sad that we get great families that are just starting out, then they start to realize that the public schools are out of the question. Then realize that private school is too expensive. So even though they love this neighborhood with all of its mixes of people and beautiful houses and trees, they move. Something we are also going to probably wrestle with one day.

4:30 is a bit of a weird time for a birthday party, because both boys filled up on snacks and cupcakes, but Mommy and Daddy were really hungry by the end of it. We decided to take advantage of the boys being tired and went to Mercado Juarez for dinner. Good decision! The whole family slept until almost 8 the next morning.

Our fun Sunday activity was to try out Legoland for the first time. Our friends at church, Sonya and Matthew, have Aidan, who is about to turn four, and Seth, who is three months younger than Joel. We have always wanted to do something with them outside of Mass, and we finally got it pulled together. We didn't realize they were bringing Seth so Jav and Joel stayed at home. But I'm glad because Legoland is a ZOO. I just don't know if a 21-month-old needs to be there. There are many older kids running around and parents not really watching them. It was a cool place for my almost 5-year-old, though. I caught him a couple of times just staring everywhere, not sure where to go next. A little overwhelming! But he and Aidan had a good time. I was very proud of Gabriel for taking the "older kid" role and sticking with Aidan, even when Aidan seemed to be a little afraid to do something. He was very sweet. I tried to get some good pictures of the lego miniatures, but they don't really do them justice.

Dirk Nowitzki must be proud to know he has a Lego statue.

The Ballpark in Arlington.

Cowboy Stadium. I like it much better smaller, rather than bigger. I wish Jerry Jones' ego could shrink to this size!

Monday was our first really cool day after this brutal, awful summer heat. I opened up all the windows. The boys went out after breakfast and didn't come inside until lunchtime. I washed all the outside windows, something I've been needing to do for about a year. I'm not sure if surviving through this heat/drought makes us stronger or takes years off of our lives. Maybe both? But it was so nice to finally be outside and not be just drenched with sweat within two minutes. As soon as the boys came inside Joel started laying on the floor with his head down. This should have been a sign, but I just thought he was tired. But then he couldn't sleep and I noticed his cheeks were flushed. He had a fever. Of course. We've been all summer with nothing, but get him around a passel of germy kids and whammo.

Gabriel started back to school the next day. I can't say it's been a great summer. The weather and our loss of Molly made it one that has been pretty tough. It had its fun moments, but for the most part I'm glad to see it go.

The bigger picture

My husband never really paid much attention to nature before he met me. I don't think he really noticed birds, and probably killed the insects that he did notice. He was particularly not fond of spiders. Which makes this little story all the more compelling.

The lightbulb in our laundry room burned out a few nights ago, and neither one of us has had the extra energy it takes to pull a kitchen chair over there to clean off the light fixture and put a new bulb in. Last night I finally said something to Jav, and reminded him about cleaning it out since there were alot of dead bugs inside the light. He replied that he had been putting it off because of the spider that has spun a web all around the light. He said that it was such a clever place for a web, since we get moths in from the garage at night all the time, and he didn't really have the heart to tear it down after all this time.

Excuse me, but who are you and what have you done with my husband?

I agreed to try to very gingerly change out the lightbulb the next day, which was today. Jav stood below me and watched, and while I was carefully trying not to scare the spider, Jav said, "Oliver. That's a good name". I replied, "Yes. Yes it is." I looked to see if this was for the kids' sake, but they were no where to be seen. So I said, "Oliver, I'm really sorry about your web, but there's a whole bunch of it left that hopefully you can piece back together when I'm done." I gave the fixture to Jav and he just stood there looking at it, and I said, "You don't really want to clean it off, do you?" He shook his head. "OK, I guess it will be ok to put it back just like this." Oliver was obviously a little freaked out and stood hunkered down to the side while I finished re-attaching the light.

I checked an hour ago, and he seems to have moved back to the web like all is back to normal. Which Jav was happy to hear.

I have such a strong belief that all life on this earth is life given from God and therefore should be valued. It's not that I won't kill something, but it has to be something harming me or the ones I love before I'll get to that point. And now I guess my husband has seen the light and feels that way too, which makes me so very happy. It probably makes Oliver really happy too!