What Month Is It?

It's 6:08 pm right now and 97 degrees. Two hours ago, my car thermometer read 100. Seriously? Triple digits? I'm not complaining... well, maybe a little. We have had to run the air conditioner and I really don't want to pay for that. Here's my confusion, last week it snowed in Utah. My poor sister's are freezing and I'm melting. Where's the happy medium? It's as if we can't figure out that it's spring. Not winter. Not Summer. Spring!

Abby was in the back of the car with the reddest little face you ever saw. Preston was sweating so much it was in his eyes. When he wiped it away, he left two pretty streaks of dirt across his face from his oh-so-clean hands. He felt better after a shower, and is now lounging in nothing but jammie bottoms. Trevor is braving the heat with Carson at, yet, another baseball game. I love him for not making me go. I'm sure I'll have some hot tired boys walk through my door in a little while.

On the menu? Chinese Chicken Salad. There's no way I'm slaving over a hot stove tonight!

On a less bellyaching note, my baby boy has the hiccups right now. I revel that feeling. He's really been a monkey the last couple of days, moving non-stop and kicking like Ronaldinho (that's for my Bergholm boys). I've said it before, but I just LOVE being pregnant!

What Would You Take?

So I have to write a bit about the fires last week (and this week too). Partly, because it needs to be documented as part of our family history and partly because Trevor's sister, Chelsea, said I had to. She's so bossy:)

Saturday night the fires got within a few miles of us. Neighborhoods all around us were being evacuated. We never felt any immediate danger, we're in a pretty protected area, after all. Having said that, we thought we should be somewhat prepared, if we were to be awakened in the middle of the night and told to leave.

So, Trev and I sat down and thought about it. What couldn't we live without? If we had, say, a half an hour, fifteen minutes or even five, what would we want to load up? We have two vans that could possibly fit a lot, if we had the time. In this house, filled with 10 years of collected junk, this is the small list we compiled, room by room, of our greatest treasures (besides the kids and our own lives). Keep in mind, this is if we had a half hour to pack.

The Office (7 minutes)

~All the vital paperwork (which surprisingly has always been stored in an uncharacteristically organized manner). Including Birth Certs., Wedding Cert., Social Security Cards and our Taxes from the last few years. Sounds like a lot, but it's the easiest thing on my list.
~All our past photos that are on Cd's. Amazingly organized as well.
~Computer tower, for all the pictures I've been to lazy to back up. Heaven help me if this computer crashes.
~Journals (in the bookcase collecting dust)
~Trevor's Mission Scrapbook
~My Camera*
~Address Book*

Front Room (5 minutes)
~Photo albums
~Wedding video
~DVDs*

Kitchen (less than a minute)
~Prescription Meds

Front Hall (less than a minute)
~Purse/Wallet/I.D.

Family Room (more time than we'll ever have, but it was on Trevor's list-definitely the first things to be chucked off the list)
~XBOX*
~T.V.*

Master Bedroom (5 minutes)
~Cell phones/Phone chargers*
~Wedding Albums
~Temple Bags*
~Trevor's money clip
~Shoes*

Boys Room (2 minutes)
~Blessing Outfits*
~Shoes*

Abby's Room (2 minutes)
~Blessing Dress*
~Shoes*

Hallway (Less than a minute)
~Baby Albums

Garage (5 minutes)
~Dog Food
~Boxes to put all previous mentioned items in.

And all the clothes we can pack before our time is up. You may have noticed the asterisks. Those would be the items we would have to sacrifice if we didn't have the time. Of course, it would all have to be sacrificed if there were only time to save ourselves, which, in the case of many here in Southern California, was their experience. I can't imagine losing everything. It was interesting to see what really mattered to us. I would have expected to say how funny it was that things like T.V. and video games didn't matter. Guess they do in our house, but they're at least at the bottom of the list.

My First Time...

to feel an earthquake. A real life earthquake. I've been dreading this day for 2 years, 6 months and 23 days. Two hours ago, we were hit by a 5.8 beauty. It only lasted about 30 seconds, but long enough to have me unnerved. It feels a lot longer than that people!!! The whole house was shaking, no more than that, it was rocking, rumbling, shuttering, trembling, you name it. It was, to say the least, unsettling. My insides were mush for a half an hour. Nothing major to report in the way of damages. Things fell off shelves and I still need to check for cracked windows. I could actually hear them rattling and crackling in their frames. Freaky. Preston and Carson were in their room on the top bunk bed. Preston said he felt like he was going to fall off. Yeah, no kidding. The kids weren't upset by it at all. Pres had a great analogy later, though. He said it felt like his room was on a train. That's pretty true, just multiply that by 10.

*Update* They downgraded the size to a 5.4. It was originally reported as a 5.6 then UPGRADED to a 5.8, then downgraded to a 5.4. That doesn't fly with me. You don't UPGRADE me and then downgrade me. So I'm still calling it a 5.8. After all, it was RIGHT UNDERNEATH ME!!!!

It took me 1 1/2 hours to get a hold of Trevor. He wasn't panicked or anything, but he knew I'd be upset. It seemed like we talked to everyone but each other. He didn't even know the epicenter was 2 miles from our house until Courtney told him. Then the emails started. I copied them here for posterity's sake.

Trevor: I can’t get through the phone lines. PLEASE let me know you’re okay. I’m having Vance send Cindy over there to check on you.

Brenda: Just got your email. I really REALLY didn't like that. Grr. I'm turning on the air to cool down. I need it in more ways than one! Carson didn't freak about going to swim today. It was the first day I didn't have to put him in the water by force. :)

I love you and I don't ever want to do the earthquake thing again.

Bren

Trevor: Okay, I’ll make sure there are no more earthquakes. How did the kids handle it? What were you doing at the time? Did anything break? Is the T.V. okay?

Brenda: The kids were fine. I didn't freak out, (okay, I did, but I kept it to myself) so they didn't get upset at all. The kids were in their room, playing on the top bunk, Preston said he felt like he was going to fall off. I was in our room folding laundry on our bed and Abby was with me. It took me about 5 seconds to figure out what was going on. Then I kept thinking to myself, "Why isn't it stopping, why isn't it stopping?!" I didn't expect it to last that long and it felt like it was getting stronger. I got off the bed and picked up Abby and went to get the boys, but by the time I got to the hallway, it was over. I called to them and asked if they were okay. Preston came out and said they were. I paced around upstairs, holding Abby, shaking. I didn't really know what to do next. I wasn't crying or upset or anything, just shaking inside. The boys just kept on playing. I turned on the T.V. in our room and started trying to call you. Then I thought I should see if there was any damage downstairs. I grabbed my cell phone on the way down and kept trying to call you. I got through on the third try and was in the process of telling you we were okay, when we felt the first aftershock. That didn't help my nerves. I started calling my mom and it took several tries to get through and she wasn't even home. Then I called Heather, again several tries, and it went straight to her voicemail. I was on my 5th try at Becky's when Courtney got through to my cell. I talked to her for a few minutes, then your mom got through on the house phone. Cindy came by next, and by the time we had to leave for swim lessons I had talked to Ashley, Chelsea, Gina, your dad, Becky, and my mom. It felt like everyone but YOU! My dad called when I got home. While Cindy was over, we were asking the boys about it. Preston said it felt like his room was in a train. I thought that was pretty cute. I can't get the noise out of my head. Hearing the earth actually move. Not just the window rattling but hearing the earth move under you. That was the worst part. I'm with Cory, I'd rather be in a tornado.

When are you coming home? And what do you want for dinner?

I love you,

Bren

P.S. Robbie sent me a text, "you are now baptized a member of California". I replied "thanks, but I would have preferred to remain a non member. Cory called and asked, "What's shakin'?". Hilarious. He cracked himself up over that one. Conner's coming over tomorrow. Oh, and your TV is fine. Only the antiques fell off the shelves. I'm glad we were upstairs:)

A Bad Sign?

This picture doesn't do it justice. I took it this morning when I should've taken it two days ago. The fires were bad but are quickly getting better. They came no where near us but we got tons of smoke and ash. Firefighters from my home county in Washington are here to assist. Mom called to tell Trevor, "Don't worry, we'll bail you out of Hell".

I Miss Fall

It's my very favorite time of year. I love seeing school supplies at every store. I love the colors of FALL. I love the smells of FALL, apple cider, pumpkin pie and sharpened pencils. Everything is crisp and beautiful. It's such a sweet release from the hot and sticky summer. Anyone who knows me, knows I prefer being cold to hot. I could go into detailed examples of this (the snowed-in cabin trip), but I won't. If I'm not mistaken, it's FALL right now. I wouldn't know since it's 88 degrees today. Now, I'm not complaining (much), but FALL is something I really miss from Washington and Utah. I love freezing my tail off at a football game and love climbing into bed as fast as I can to warm up. San Jose was lovely and very predictable. I liked that it felt like FALL most of the year. Not here in the I.E. though! There is, however, an upside to this. I love FALL, but it seemed to not last very long in Utah. In fact, my beautiful sister Heather (I'm trying to suck up to her so she'll start her own blog-she's the only one I haven't broken yet) emailed me some unbelievable pics Saturday. It snowed there! Hard! In September! I felt guilty today because Preston didn't have any clean shorts, thus had to wear pants to school! But it snowed in Utah! I will say, I only minorly miss snow. I love the temp but hate the precipitation it brings. I've never had a garage until now, so that might play into it my hatred a little bit. I never liked having to scrape my windows, especially if I was in a hurry, which I more often than not, was. The first snow would catch me off guard and I'd end up scraping my windows with a cd case since the handy dandy scraper had been removed from the car during the summer and, since I was always late, didn't have time to search for in the house. If I could have chosen when it fell, (at night while I could watch it with a mug of hot chocolate, wrapped in a blanket, with the kids playing quietly with their wooden trains near the fireplace...what? It could happen.) and how long it lasted (a day, maybe two) I could really like the snow. However, it's too unpredictable and dangerous to drive in (I always worry about Holly driving to work). I recall the weird Octobers in Utah. It was always warmer than it should have been but always snowed before Halloween. How does that make any sense? I can't get over that it snowed in September. September! So, I'm torn. Would I rather be here sweating, or in Utah where it's already snowing? I'll pick here since FALL is bound to come sooner or later. But tell me, is there anywhere that holds on to FALL for more than two weeks? Have fun all you Utahans! I wish I could say I was jealous!

Heather's handsome Harrys.