Our day was much more exciting today

Today started out fairly normal.

Clara had her final Toddler Time in Nature class. And it turns out... she loves nature! It became very clear to me I need to get this child out in it more.

There was a lot of this...

And some of this...

And with all that admiring of nature going on, she and her little friend brought up the rear...

Sorry for the blur, but I just love her face

(On a sidenote - In what will be a case of blogs colliding for some of you, the sweet little munchkin behind Clara is another Clara, and is often featured on this widely popular blog written by her very awesome and talented parents.)

We then returned home, I started getting dinner ready for later, and had some lunch. Nothing out of the ordinary. Until I was standing over the stove stirring a sauce and the house started shaking like crazy, like nothing I've ever felt before. And it wasn't stopping.

For some reason an earthquake didn't even cross my mind.

My first thought was that it was the washing machine. But then my brain, realizing in a matter of seconds that it wasn't on, naturally moved on to house exploding. I'm not sure what could cause it to explode, but I was sure it was about to.

With the whole house still shaking, I walked from the kitchen into the living room and saw Luke sitting on the floor and Clara standing near him with a pretty freaked out look on her face.

At this point Ryan was in the room and I'm not sure what I said to him, but I scooped up Luke and headed outside, hoping Ryan would grab Clara. I wasn't going to be in the house when it exploded!

As soon as I looked outside, I saw the windows shaking in the house across the street. It wasn't just us! Just as the shaking stopped, my mind immediately switched from exploding house to earthquake.

That's when one of my neighbors came outside and asked, "So that wasn't just my house?" My sentiments exactly. At that very moment, our dog and cat escaped through the front door (it was bedlam!). I sat Luke in the grass and we chased them down.

Upon returning inside, L from GIMH was calling me and we discussed how freaked out we both were. I don't think I stopped shaking for about ten minutes.

Ryan then left for work, where it was sure to be a busy day for him. He was on the air from 2:30 until 4:30 and we were glued to it at our house.

Turns out the epicenter of the 5.8 quake was about 40 miles from our house. Craziness!

We didn't have any damage, thankfully, and nothing was even out of place except one picture that was off-kilter.

And is anyone else reminded of this cameo appearance by my news-anchor-moonlighting-as-an-actor husband on a now-canceled NBC primetime show? Hopefully today's quake wasn't as mysterious.

So since Ryan wasn't coming home for dinner and emergency rules applied, the kids and I ate in the living room. We also had some fun with laundry baskets...

What a day! And one we'll be recounting for years to come, I'm sure. And here I thought I had nothing exciting to share!

Oh.. and I am having more ice cream tonight. I had vowed to space my sweet indulgences out a bit but, again, emergency rules apply.