Correction

As of yesterday morning at 6:25 am I can no longer claim to be a local, can no longer feel settled here, can no longer consider myself a Californian. Literally, my world was shaken at that moment. You may have heard about it on the news but in case you did not, you should know an earthquake that measured 4.4 on the Richter scale happened to be my alarm clock on St. Patricks Day. Unless you've experienced one, you will never know how unsettled it makes you feel. I jumped out of my bed after the wobbles ceased and stood there, heart beating, hands shaking, weak….wondering what to do next. I just walked around the house for about ten minutes as I tried to collect myself. George called and said he had been in Pre-Op when everything started to shake and he said it was a little blurry for about 20 seconds. I would not know, my eyes were shut when it happened. The whole room cheered for George when he casually mentioned it was his first experience with an earthquake. No one cheered for me. I got out my bible and began to pray, Lord- please keep us safe from danger. I was truly afraid. Get me back to NC where we watch hurricanes come to shore for days on end, laugh at news anchors who hold the same stick as "debris" props time and again, where we have time to fill up the bathtub with water, make our way to the Harris Teeter for bread, milk and eggs and replace our flashlights with fresh batteries before all hell breaks loose. I will take that any day of the week over the sneak attack of an earthquake. Now I feel like I need a crash course on what to do in case of an earthquake. *Note to self - research online*.

Before all that happened we had a really nice weekend! Friday George came home at noon and we packed the car for San Clemente to visit our surrogate family here. We arrived around 2:30 and spent the afternoon on the beach. We went to Beach Fire for dinner and got Mahi Tacos and Calamari. For dessert, we happened upon a great little froyo place that even had a special treat for my non-dairy husband. The Chocolate Bliss Shake had their signature frozen coconut base, homemade raw almond milk, agave nectar, cocoa, and chocolate nibs. All organic, no refined sugars. It was fantastic. Saturday we were treated by Evey to a wonderful breakfast at a beach front local joint where the waitresses greet her with hugs and kisses. I got an egg white scramble with spinach and feta, and all sorts of veggies and Georgie and Evey split an order of blueberry pancakes. Norma Jean and Evey also split an egg scramble. Big George ate his and then finished everyone else's leftovers. Once we returned with bellies full, we spent the morning at the neighborhood pool. Georgie loved it and big George and I loved the hot tub!! Saturday night we had dinner with Steve, Flora, Evey, Norma Jean and the three of us. Flora made a beautiful salad and Steve picked up seafood soup from Nick's, their favorite restaurant. It was perfectly light but filled us up for our trip back to Pasadena. We then said good bye to our surrogate family here in California (so thankful for them!). It was a much better trip than our previous one over Thanksgiving, except for the fact that Susan, Ryan and Will were not there. That would have made it the perfect weekend. Sunday we had a full day. George went in to work in the morning and met us at church. My softball game was at 2:00 and then we had two parties in a row. The first one was a three year old birthday party for Baz who lives on our street and the second was a family potluck at the Skinner's house. We had lots of fun but ate way too much corned beef and cabbage. We got home and crashed. Monday was spent in a fog since Georgie and I are both sick and because I started the day with an earthquake. I managed to go to the post office and the grocery store and then made our way back over to Baz's house to finish up the leftover corned beef and cabbage. Now I have really had enough of that meal until next year. We played in the bouncy castle left over from his birthday party from 3-7pm. Lots of other neighbors dropped in and by the time they served us the meal, they had quite a crowd for the second night in a row. And I thought I was tired!! Today was George's half-birthday celebration at school. Since his birthday falls in the summer, we celebrated today. The theme of the week is the color black so I made chocolate cupcakes with black currant/ dark chocolate almond buttercream frosting. I also made black bean/ black rice with black tortilla chips and black seedless raisins. I think he had a great time and felt very special today. He finally took a nap today, YES! Here are a few pictures for you!