Pictures of Our Family

     I don't like posting pictures of us very much because I like to keep my kids off of the internet, you know what I mean?  But since it's mostly family that reads this, I figured it was time for some recent pictures.  :)

Baby Girl

 Baby Girl is our little gamer.  She currently enjoys Spider-Man 2 on the PS2 because it's a sandbox game where you can run around and do whatever you want.  She likes tying up the bad guys in the web stuff and running across town with them to throw them in the water.  And she thinks Spider-Man is really funny.

 Lately she's been building cities with the Legos. I like what she designs, it looks cool.

 Face paint at Little One's end-of-year school celebration.  She wanted a fish, so she got a fish.

There was a lady there dressed as Winnie the Pooh who was reading books to the kids.  When we walked by there were no other kids there, so we sat down and Baby Girl wanted to read her a story.

Oh yeah, she can read now.  Very well, too.

 Little One

 Little One has finally become interested in what's on the pages of books rather than just the feel of the pages as he flips them.  He likes to go through simple books before bed, which is great!

 

His class was growing bean seeds, and the seeds just got big enough to take home.

At his school celebration he got a hungry caterpillar.  I think he would've been happier with a bunny because he loves the bunnies that we see around our apartment in the mornings on the way to the school bus, but the lady didn't hear me when I asked for one, and hungry caterpillar suits him, too.

 This was Friday at his school, second-to-last day.  All the kids in his class got a certificate and the teacher said nice things about them.  He is an active kid and he loves to do the hand motions to the songs they sing.  His speech is coming along very well and he loves school and he's always happy to be there.

 Mc

 This is Mc's hair after growing it out for 9 months; the longest strands were 8" long.

Doesn't he look awesome?!

I love it!!

He had to cut his hair for an interview so it's short now, but it was fantastic while it lasted.  :)

This is a hairstyle I like to call The Geralt (named after a book & video game character we know of).

And this is him now.

 Me

     Yeah, you don't get a picture of me.  ;)  I have gained a lot of weight lately and I feel ugly.  However, I recently acquired this jewelry from the silent auction at the auction-fundraiser for Baby Girl's school, and I feel that this represents me well enough.

The bracelet came like this with a little boy and girl just like my kids, and I thought that was cute.

It also came with a necklace-locket, which was empty at the time but had the red jewel attached to it.
(pictured below)
I didn't know what it was when I bid for it along with the bracelet, I just though they were pretty.  It was only afterward when I got the catalog with the jewelry that I found out it's from Origami Owl, which I found out is a custom jewelry company where the charms you can order are super-tiny and they fit into a necklace, bracelet, or even I.D. badge locket.  Apparently these are fairly popular right now, and at first I dismissed the idea of getting charms for the necklace because I thought it was pretty as it was and I don't like going with the crowd.  But after thinking about it some more, I liked the idea of subtly expressing personal things about me... and it's cheaper and less permanent and far less painful than a tattoo, which I had briefly considered getting a few months ago.  ;)  So I looked through the catalog and chose the charms that best represented who I am.

This is me:

(And if they come out with a man and woman dancing together, I'll add that charm as well.)

     Well, that's our little family.  We're all healthy and doing well.

     Little One's last day of school is this Tuesday, and Baby Girl's last day is this Friday.  To tell you the truth, I'm glad school will be out because that means Little One and I can sleep in!  Neither of us are "morning people", and I have to wake up at 6:00 every morning and wake him up at 6:30 to get him to the bus on time.  It's been a difficult few months because of that, and we both need our sleep.

     Mc's side of the family is having a family reunion at the end of this month which we're all excited about, and then the kids are going to spend all of July at my parents' house!  They love being at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and I have a long list of projects I want to do around the apartment while the kids are gone, and some fun things in Seattle with Mc on the weekends, too.  I think it'll be a fun summer for everyone.  :)

Earthquake Forecasts

     I wrote about this on Facebook this morning, but I want to write about it here also in case some of you aren't on Facebook that much.

     There is a guy called Dutchsince-- that's his online handle-- who forecasts earthquakes using a computer program that tracks earthquakes when they happen.  The media are trying very hard to discredit him right now by saying that because he's not part of the USGS (United States Geological Survey) and because he's not from an academic entity then what he says isn't credible.  But I've been following him on Facebook for a few weeks now ever since I heard about him, and his earthquake forecasts have been correct!  The government and even the USGS are still leading people to believe that earthquakes are unpredictable and that you never know when or where they'll happen until it's too late.  But that's a lie.  We have the technology to track and forecast earthquakes 3-7 days out, and Dutchsince has been doing that for years!  He wrote an article back in December explaining how he does it:

http://dutchsinse.com/12152014-how-to-forecast-an-earthquake/

     I understand if you're skeptical about it.  So watch his forecast videos for yourself on YouTube and find out for yourself if his forecasts end up being correct, and learn what's going on with our planet during this time of global seismic unrest.  Because our Earth is in turmoil right now.  There are volcanic eruptions and large and small earthquakes happening all over the world right now, but we aren't hearing about them in the mainstream media because 1) none of the big ones have happened in the USA yet, and 2) they would rather bombard us with junk news like Bruce Jenner's sex change and Kim Kardashian's latest outfit choice and who won the latest sporting event, rather than telling us, "Hey, we might get an earthquake here, here, and here soon, so be prepared."

     At the end of Dutchsince's videos, his message is: be prepared!  That's the point of his weekly forecast videos-- he wants to show people what they can expect over the next week as far as earthquakes and he wants to get the word out so people can be prepared.

     Be prepared for an emergency and for natural disasters which are most likely to happen in your area, be it tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, etc.  Get those 72-hour kits put together and have at least one month's supply of water and medications and food that you'll actually eat for everyone in your family.  There really is peace of mind when you're prepared and when you know you won't die from hunger or thirst or lack of necessary medications during a disaster.  Over the past two days I've gotten our 72-hour packs together-- I should have those done by today-- and even in our small apartment I've found room for food and water storage.  It can be done.

     If you're feeling overwhelmed and don't know where to start, here's an excellent checklist from the Red Cross website to help you: http://www.redcross.org/prepare/location/home-family/get-kit 

     On that website, look at the tabs on the left.  There are articles on there for if you have kids, for seniors, if you have disabilities, and if you have pets, all of which I recommend reading through.  It's best to take the time now to read and research and to get supplies together, before an emergency happens.

     And one last link: this is from a woman who tested her 72-hour kit and here are the lessons she learned from that experience.  http://thesurvivalmom.com/36-lessons-learned-from-testing-a-72-hour-kit/

     So to my friends and family who read this:  I love you all, and I hope you'll be prepared to survive during an emergency and that you'll experience the peace of mind that comes from being prepared.