Head Bump

I was finishing up putting the kids to bed last night.  Bryce was in our bed reading, Caroline was downstairs having her usual "Bertie Time," and I was reading a book to Piper in her bed.  She is on the bottom bunk and after we finished the book, I told her she needed to go and use the bathroom before I tucked her in.  While she was in the bathroom, I leaned over the bed (the bottom bunk) and was straightening the blankets and rearranging the stuffed animals and then I quickly stood up and WHAM!  I hit my head.  HARD.  Very hard.      I fell right to the floor.  I didn't black out but I couldn't get up - it hurt so bad!  I cried out it hurt so bad and Piper came running.  They both asked if I was okay and when I said no, instead of immediately thinking, "I should get help!" Bryce came over and kind of laid down on top of me in a kind of hug.  I know he thought he was comforting me and I wasn't laying there unconscious or bleeding so I guess he didn't realize I wasn't messing around.  I told him to get off and get Daddy.  They both went running downstairs and Jason was upstairs in a matter of seconds.  I guess my mom told Bryce to get an ice pack out of the freezer and the next thing I hear is Bryce arguing with Jason about how quickly to get upstairs with the ice pack.  I guess Bryce was trying to wrap it up in a towel as he was walking up the steps and thereby slowing the process down.  Finally, the ice pack arrived and I just laid there with it on my head and took deep breaths.

I laid there for about 5 minutes breathing.  I couldn't believe I was crying - tears were just falling out of my eyes...I don't cry over boo boos!  I was kind of in shock.  I had a big bump forming on the right back side of my head.  Finally, I sat up.  Caroline was right there sitting by me - she hadn't said a word but she was obviously very concerned.  Jason helped me to stand up.  No double vision, no nausea, just feeling shaken up and pain in the back of my head.  I went right to the medicine cabinet and got some ibuprofen.

Miraculously, bedtime was a snap.  No one complained.  No one cried.  No one engaged in any monkey business.  They just went to bed like they are supposed to.  Wow.  They knew I felt bad and it wasn't a joke.  I made it downstairs, made the kids lunches for today and then sat on the couch for over an hour with an ice pack on my head which really seemed to help.

I slept really well (no one woke up in the night either which has been a pattern the past few weeks!) but when I woke up and got moving, I realized I still didn't feel great.  I kind of felt like I was in a fog and my head hurt.  3 ibuprofen later, it's still not much better.  The lump is smaller but very tender.  I just feel like a bit of a zombie.  Of course everyone says to go home but with the schedule of the next week (off tomorrow for walk through and then off Wednesday for a week), I just don't feel like I can.

Jason jokingly told me that I can't be injured - he needs my man power next week for moving.  He's right - we are a pretty good team when it comes to moving our stuff.  In fact, last night before my injury, I got all the stuff stashed around the house that we've been accumulating collected in the basement.  I even got our new sheets from our new bedding set washed.  YAY!

So hopefully this is the last injury/illness of the days leading up to the big move.  We need all hands on deck!

Bike Retrieval

Jason was the neighborhood hero yesterday.  He helped the police nab some punk teenagers after he saw them steal a bike from our neighbor's yard - it was kind of exciting.

When I got home, Jason and Bryce were playing catch in the front yard.  I went inside to get changed and when I looked outside, I saw Jay talking to our neighbor (Sophia's mom) from 3 doors down.  I went outside and asked what was wrong and he said some kids had just stolen a bike from the backyard of our neighbor 2 doors down (Rosa's house) - they weren't home but their bike had been sitting outside next to their deck, not locked up.

Jason said that before I had gotten home, these 3 teenage boys came walking down our street.   He said they looked middle school aged (9th grade at the oldest?) and they were fairly well dressed.  They had gone back between Sophia and Rosa's house.  He heard one of them say something like "there's just woods back there" so he thought maybe they were looking for a short cut or something.  At that point they left and I actually saw them at the entrance to our development when I got home a few minutes later.  When I was inside, one of the boys came back and kept walking up and down the sidewalk across the street.  He would look at Jason and then used his phone to make a call or do something.  Jason said he went back between the two houses again and all of a sudden shot out on a bike and hauled off down the street.  Jason immediately knew what had happened.

He called the non-emergency number for the police and an officer showed up within a few minutes.  While Jason was talking to him, over the radio another officer informed him that they found 3 youths with a bike not too far away.  The officer asked if Jason would come with him.  Jason agreed and got into the back of the squad car.  Now, here's where I wish I'd had my camera.....to see MY law abiding husband get into the back of a police car.  Ha!  Jason said the officer sped down the road and found two other squad cars with the 3 boys and the bike.  The officer told Jason if he wanted to lay down he could so the kids wouldn't see him.  Jason did but then sat up but hid his face behind a seat rest and identified the kids as the ones he had seen.  The officer put the bike in his trunk and brought Jason back to our house.

Since Rosa and her daughters weren't home, Sophia's mom stored the bike in her garage and the officer gave Jason a paper to fill out for his statement and said he'd be back.  Jason wrote his statement and gave it to the officer and he told him that unless Rosa decided to press charges, they didn't have criminal case but that they were informing the kids' parents and I am pretty sure they probably scared the hell out of the kids - they had the one who stole the bike in the back of one of the cars.

So an exciting evening.  I think the kids learned a valuable lesson in that they know now why we're always harping on them NOT to leave their bikes out, even just for a little while.  They also saw how serious the police took the situation and showed them how easily they can get into trouble.  I'm thinking this is a good thing to remember when THEY are teenagers and one of their friends wants to get into some mischief.

I'm guessing these kids were not hardened criminals just a couple of kids that were bored and lacking in supervision.  However, the officer did remind us that aside from not leaving things out that can be taken to also remember to shut your blinds when you're not home.  He said that if criminals can't see what's inside the likelihood that they will break into your house is much less because they want to KNOW what they are coming in after and not wasting their time.  So there's my safety tip for you for this Friday.

We Survived the Earthquake?!?!?!

For the most part, my family kind of "enjoyed" the earthquake. 

I was in a staff meeting on the ground floor of my building.  My building is this weird, concrete, early 1970's bunker building - everything is concrete and to be on the ground floor, there is nothing underneath you.  I was using a laptop that was projecting up onto a screen from a projector that is attached to the ceiling.  I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the projection on the screen was vibrating just slightly.  My first thought was the lady next to me hit the table and caused my computer to shake but then I realized, duh, the computer shaking wouldn't shake the projector hanging from the ceiling.  I looked at the screen and again and the vibrating of the projection continued - no one else seemed to notice.  I looked up at the projector and wondered what in the heck was going on upstairs to make the projector shake.  Then I made eye contact with a guy across the table and he joked, "Hey, Erika are you making the screen shake?"  He barely got the words out of his mouth and the rumble started.  There were about 15 of us in the room and a bunch of us all of a sudden had the same realization that it was an earthquake!  The first thing that came to my mind upon the realization was about the recent, rare earthquake in Colorado.  But we're on the east coast!  We all decided to get outside and it was funny to see everyone flooding out of the building. 

By then the quake was over but everyone was just in awe/shock of what happened.  Thankfully no one was panicking - most people were trying to call family/friends on cell phones but most of us couldn't get a call through.  So, what's a girl to do?  Resort to the internet!  I got on Facebook on my phone and was just amazed.  Seeing the "holy shit was than an earthquake" posts over and over was just surreal.  Twitter was the same way.  At first it was just Baltimore people but then I saw friends at Ocean City posting.  I even had a friend in Chapel Hill, NC post she felt it.  Everyone around me was amazed at hearing that! I then started texting Jason and everything was good on his end and he had called home and all was well there too. 

We all calmed down, went back into the building and finished our meeting.  As soon as it was done, I used my office phone to call home.  My MIL and FIL had been sitting at the table with Bryce and Piper (Caroline was at a friend's house) and my MIL said that the table had started shaking and she yelled at my FIL to stop shaking it!  Obviously they figured out quickly he wasn't the one shaking the table. 

I'm just glad that the 5.9 earthquake didn't really do any damage and most of us had a good laugh about it and can say we now know what an earthquake feels like.  It's a crazy week in Baltimore especially with the hurricane a comin'! 

Let's hope today's a little less eventful!

Piper Strikes Yet Again

I almost forgot to post this in the excitement of my job news.  We had to get the carpet shampooer out again for a mess Piper caused, but this mess was not as pleasant.  Um yeah, poop.  And my poor mother was the person who had to initially deal with it since it was when we were at work.

Piper was up in her room supposedly taking a nap and pooped.  However, the basket full of 3T clothes that belonged to Caroline (I had just brought them upstairs) was too tempting and she decided she wanted to try them on.  So, instead of calling for my mom, she disrobed.  There were poop butt marks all over the carpet, on her blankets, on the rocking chair, and on a bunch of the clothes in the basket.  She even tried to put on a pair of the Dora underpants she found.  Poooop!

My mom did her best with some wipes and then Jason shampooed the carpet after dinner.  I swear this little girl is trying to sabotage my carpets.  What gives, Piper?  Always up to something, that one.

"Paralyzing" Storm?

Geez, the local weather guy on the Baltimore Sun shows us in the "paralyzing" zone. 

Good heavens. And, gulp, he mentions another storm on Tuesday. This weekend would have been our grocery weekend so Jason and I did the menu/grocery list last night and he is going directly to the store this afternoon when he gets off at 3:30. 

 It will probably be a little nutty. But we are running out of food. And while the kids are pretty much over this weird "mini-flu," Jason and I both have tickles in our throats and today I feel this weird pain in my chest every so often which I hope is NOT the congestion settling in that they all 3 had. Vitamin D, do your thing. I cannot be sick and feverish cooped up with the kids all weekend. At least this weekend I will NOT be having any beer or wine to send me into a migraine tailspin. I've learned my lesson there. So.....let it snow????

I lost a year of my life tonight...

I had it SCARED out of me. OH.MY.GAWD.

After dinner with Kelly, Jesse, and Lydia, we ventured out into the backyard so the kids could play on the swingset. I put Piper in her swing and got her going and then decided to venture over to check in on our Carolina Wren baby birds that are living in our bird house. It's actually a blue bird house that Jason put in this spring but it seems another small bird has taken a liking to it. On Sunday, I got some great photos of the mom and dad bird going to and fro bringing food to their babies. The bird house is really cool since it's wooden and opens on both sides. One side for cleaning and the other side has plexiglass almost all the way up on it so you can open it and see inside without disturbing the nest. (You can see in the photo the mommy/daddy bird peeking out which is the only way in and out of the little house.) This photo was taken on Sunday and as the parent bird came and went we could hear the baby (babies?) chirping away so I figured that since it had only been a few days that the babies were likely still there.

OMG, I wish I hadn't looked.

So I venture over to the birdhouse, pull up the latch, and pull open the right side. It was all the way opened and I looked up. Cue the HORRIFYING music. There, hanging over the top of the plexiglass was a SNAKE. OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.

I could not react fast enough. I ran away, flailing my arms, YELLING! I was so freaked out that I couldn't even say anything semi-intelligible, all I could do was yell some crazy mumbo jumbo because I was freaked out beyond belief. Adrenaline pumping and heart racing. Jason was up on the deck and saw the whole spectacle and kind of gave me an irritated look and yelled, "HEY, you just knocked a baby bird out of there!"

Finally, I got my wits about me - "IT WASN'T A BIRD, IT WAS A SNAKE!!!!!!!"

That certainly got everyone's attention (as if my hooting and hollering hadn't). Jason went out there and the snake was still laying on the ground nearby. I guess once he got there, it moved away. He noticed that it wasn't (gulp) swollen in any parts so it clearly hadn't (gulp) eaten anything. (For the record it was only about a foot long and was black and silver - I have no idea what kind of snake it was but Jason said he sees them all the time when he mows. If the mowing was left to me, I would be hiring a lawn service.)

But, Jason opened the other side to assess the damage - in nest was a dead baby bird. Now here's where the debate begins - Jason doesn't think the snake killed the bird, he thinks the bird was already dead and the snake happened by. I don't know about that. We have no idea how long the snake was in there, granted it may have been too small to eat the bird, I don't know.

Caroline and Bryce were quite concerned by the whole incident, no thanks to their mother's crazed psychotic reaction. And I wasn't thrilled that they knew the baby bird was dead. Caroline decided for herself that she believed that the baby bird died beforehand. They kept asking why something like this would happen in nature and so we talked about the food chain and about how that is just how things are in nature. They seemed okay with it and Jason (the birdhouse landlord) cleaned out the birdhouse for it's next tenents and threw the remains out with the trash. I joked with Kelly that the birdhouse would be haunted by the dead baby bird.

As for me, well, I still have a terrible case of the heebie jeebies. I keep getting the shivers when I think about that moment of where I saw the snake. Um, did I mention how much I hated snakes BEFORE this? Granted, the snake didn't even seem to notice me, but that makes no difference to me. I keep feeling little tickles on my ankle or foot and keep thinking about that damn snake. Ew.

It's going to take me a long time to get over this. I may be permanently scarred.

Black Widow

Ew! Look what we found in our backyard last night. Yep, a BLACK WIDOW SPIDER! (Notice the distinct red hour glass on her belly.)

Ick! I get a chill just thinking about it. Especially considering where we found it. Hiding in the corner of the kid's playground.

Caroline, Bryce and I were engaged in a game of "Tickle the Daddy Long Legs" with a long blade of grass after dinner while Jason cleaned up dinner. We have OODLES of these Harvestmen bugs around right now and they are all over the playground. Fortunately, these arachnids are completely harmless and since we taught Caroline about them, she knows it's okay - under a parent's supervision - for her to "tickle" them with a stick or something.

So we were fully into our game when they found two of them under the clubhouse part. I was close behind and Caroline commented on the other black spider that came out. I'm sure that these two harmless bugs are what brought the Black Widow out of her hiding place and as Caroline describes it, the two daddy long legs immeadiately started hugging because they were scared. I kind of thought they were up to something else, but hey, I'm an adult and I can think those things.

But I noticed that black spider quickly and saw the red hourglass marking IMMEADIATELY. I shooed them away and told Caroline to go and get Daddy and to tell him "Black Widow." Jason came out, took one look and agreed with my diagnosis. He went and got a flashlight (it was sunset), bug spray, and long pliers. He shot the heck out of that thing with the bug spray - super powerful stuff - and that spider kept on wriggling around. I felt kind of bad killing it but I'm not leaving something like that out there. Particularly since we read that most Black Widows find a place to live and stay there. Not my idea of a safe place for my kids to play considering they are on the ground a lot. By the time Jason got it out of its little nest, it was almost dead and we put it in a plastic container to show his dad and brother since they have a lotof interest in that kind of thing.

We actually weren't that suprised to have found one since we found a Black Widow on the house not long after we moved in. But still, not something you want to find on your child's playground.