The Peterson Family: A Little Bit of Everything

I’m sure you’ve all heard by now that we had an earthquake here on Tuesday. Yes, we felt it. Yes, it was strong. No, our house didn’t fall down nor did we lose a chimney. Precisely one minute before the quake Kyle had finished installing a new electrical outlet under our sink. I was ushering the girls out of the kitchen and into the playroom when the house began to shake. After a quick, “What is that?” Kyle yelled, “Get out of the house!” Personally, I thought it was the new electrical outlet exploding. Once the shaking stopped we came back inside and turned on the news where it was confirmed that we did in fact have an earthquake and this was not a terrorist attack (Sad world we live in when that is your first thought, but it is to so many around here who experienced 9-11). So, interesting experience with no damage to our property. And now I can say that I’ve lived through an earthquake.

A few days ago I went to throw some towels into the washing machine when sitting right on top was a snake. In case you forgot, I hate snakes. This is the third snake I’ve seen this summer, yet the first one I’ve actually seen inside my house. After the last snake adventure, Kyle took me outside and gave me a snake killing lesson. I was hoping I would never have to use my new skills, but sadly, I did. This snake was a baby, only about 10 inches long or so. Of course, Kyle was at work. Why does this always happen? He is never around for these types of things and I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m making up the entire snake thing because he hasn’t seen any. So, in my opinion I really only had one option and that was to get it out of my house. If I didn’t, I would have a snake just wondering around. So, I took a towel and pinned the snake down. Then I got another towel and rolled it up in a ball. I took the towels outside and opened them up. When he came slithering out- I chopped his head off. I have a feeling this snake situation isn’t over yet but hopefully I don’t find any more in my house. Gross.

We are now gearing up for Hurricane Irene. I’ve only been in one other hurricane before and ironically, it was the Hurricane Irene that happened in 1999. We are expecting rain, strong winds, flooding and loss of power. Our neighbor has generously invited us over in case our power goes out since they have a generator. So, we may be hanging out with our neighbors. Only time will tell how much rain and wind will hit us but it is unlikely that we will see a lot of structural damage from the storm.

This is a queen. You know what kind of queen she is? A DRAMA Queen. When she doesn’t get what she wants, she does this:

Yep, she’s 14 months old. I don’t even want to know what she is going to be like when she is 14 years old. I always thought that Hannah would be a “fun” teenager but I have a strong feeling that this is the one that’s going to give us a run for our money.

In addition to her new temper tantrums, she is also perfecting her climbing skills. She got up there all by herself when I thought she was playing nicely with toys in the playroom.