TALICEE'S JOURNEY

EARTHQUAKE, MANHUNT AND IRENE

The week of August 22nd was sure a weird week. Talicee started 1st grade on Monday. All went well. Still had 4 kids at home. Crazy but good day. Tuesday went off without a hitch, I thought. Since I only had the baby and the twins were on vacation, I thought I would take the kids to the pool one more time. Well while leaving the pool to go pick up Talicee, one of the lifeguards said did you feel that. I did not feel anything. I was walking. Trevor came out of the bathroom and said did you feel that and hear that. No what are you talking about. Someone came running up to us and said it was an earthquake. Yeah right, we live in VA. So when I got in the car, I turned the radio on. Yes it was an earthquake. 6.8 to be exact. We had had an mild earthquake a few years ago. Again I did not know what it was. I thought the kids were playing so hard that they were making the pipes rattle. Well, come to find out it was a small one and it had actually cracked my walls upstairs. So I thought, I'll go home and see what is left of my house. When we arrived, the dog came running out to us. I am thinking she was tied up, how is she off. She must have pulled something loose when it happened. Left the kids in the car and heading in to see if there was any damage. I got the life scared out of me when I opened the door. Randy was standing right there. He is never home during the day. I had forgotten that he had taken the trooper to work on that day and had come home early. Heart pounding, I asked if there was any damage. So far we have not seen any yet. He really searched the foundation, but did not find anything. Remember my house was built in 1929. Not the best built house. I guess the earthquake makes my body go out of kilter. My knees felt like they would buckle all evening long.

Wednesday, school started for the rest of the kids. So it was a really easy day. Just me and the baby here. Had another aftershock. I did not feel it shake, but my body was off again. The kids all had great days and love their teachers. Good, 1/2 way through the week. So off to bed I go. I had not been sleeping good, so I had my little pill in my hand and headed off to sleep.

Thursday morning I thought I was hearing a helicopter flying by. I prayed that if it was Lifeguard 10, that the person would be ok. We hear the helicopters and planes all of the time, nothing new. The helicopter kept circling around. I could not figure out if I was dreaming or if it was real. I actually thought we were being invaded, before I woke up. Sat up in bed and realized that the helicopter was circling my house. Why, what did I do. Flipped on the news and there was a manhunt not 2 miles from my house. Ok, what a way to wake up. Got everyone up and gathered away from doors and windows. Where we live, he could have been in our woods. Finally about 7 am they caught the guy. He had stole cars, burned a house and was trying to break into a friend of ours house. If he had gotten in the woods, it would have been right behind our house. Did not need this after the earthquake.

Then Irene was knocking on our door. The weather people did not know where she was going. So we were preparing for the horrible rains to come. Thank the Lord, they never came. That would have been the icing on the cake for the week. I need something calm to happen.

To end the week, Taylor had his first football game. It was with our rivals in the county. He played so good that night. It was a nice night for football and nothing out of the ordinary happened. We did win.

The drama that goes on in our life. I thought girls created drama, but my life in general seems to create the most drama. When my mother-in-law calls she always asked what drama has gone on this week.

I will post pictures of the game when I get my computer back. It is very sick and needed to be put in the computer hospital for a while. According to my dad, it is all of the pictures I take and store on there that makes it that way. So bare with me until I get it back. There will be no pictures for a while.