Shift Happens

August 13, 2014: First day of First Grade at a new school--my new school, where I will be teaching third grade 2 days a week this year.  Also our 9th wedding anniversary.

August 18, 2014: Matthew's first (and last) day of preschool. They wanted him three mornings a week from 9-12. Mark and I insisted on only two.  He cried at drop-off but quickly recovered. He was social and used his utensils at snack. He was content when I picked him up.

And then we never returned.

Mark and I looked at Matthew's schedule, which would be preschool followed by a nap, followed by Isabella's school pick-up, followed by homework and then dinner-- two days a week, then a full day in day care, then a full day with my mom. Even though we feel very lucky to have so many loving people take care of Matthew, we felt it was too much time away from us and home. The Preschool staff didn't seem to agree with this logic, but that's why we're the parents. :)  Preschool will happen, just not now, and we are very happy with that decision.

August 21, 2014: At one in the morning Isabella wakes up with a 102 fever and sore throat. She has only been in school 6 days and ends up missing the 7th and 8th day (which I know because she was keeping track) due to strep throat.

August 23, 2014: The Whittons come to town for a wedding. They are good friends who used to live in Napa and we got to meet  up with them for a short time Saturday morning in downtown Napa. Natasha and Theo (mutual friends of the Whittons) also joined us. Theo, Naomi and Isabella used to have play dates as babies, when us moms were in survival mode and needed the sanity of being surrounded by other brand new moms. Now they are 6, and in the first grade, and each have siblings, and play dates are as beneficial for them as they are for us.

We ate a Sweetie Pies, walked along the river, and I even popped into the Running store for a brief moment to dream about all the thing I want to buy.

August 24, 2014: 3:20 am - Mark and I were awakened by a horrible rumbling and shaking from a 6.0 earthquake. While it was a scary 10 seconds of wondering how long or how bad it would be, the realization of what happened wasn't truly felt until 4 am when we started talking to friends who were hiding out in their cars or commenting on the disarray of their homes. A few hours after that, when the power returned, we saw pictures and comments posted to Facebook about the severity of the quake. While we felt it something fierce, we did not experience the movement and jolting that other parts of Napa felt. We live on rock, as does most of those who live on the East side of Napa. I don't want to make light of the situation but the picture above, shows the extent of damage in our house: a picture on the mantle knocked over. There were a few books fallen over on some shelves; a few pictures fell off the walls; some items shifted in our closet. In other words, there was no damage. We were so lucky.

Two days later we explored downtown Napa to see the damage to the buildings--the very area we visited with the Whittons. The Running store windows are now boarded up, streets are taped off, huge trucks for clean up and restoration are now parked along the curbs and the media is all over the place. So much can change in an instant!

August 28, 2014: My anxiety kicked in on Thursday evening--not from having a new job or from a decent sized earthquake (although I admit I woke up terrified at one this morning from yet another 3.4 aftershock) but because I managed to get our family involved in some weird scam on Craigslist, and for about an hour that evening I was pretty much convinced that someone was going to show up at our house and quite possibly do bodily harm to one or all of us.

I posted our table (above) to sell on Craigslist and foolishly passed on my name and address to some guy with an LA based number, who claimed to be an oceanographer working at sea, but was willing to pay me my asking price plus shipping, without ever seeing the table in person. (yes, the question begs to be asked: what does an oceanographer need a pine farm house table for, anyway? And why in the WORLD did I fall for it?!) A counterfeit check was sent, followed by several text messages pressing to know what happened to the money. When I didn't respond, I received a phone call from a Napa based number. It was a man asking for me, wondering what happened to his money. The reception was awful, which bought us some time to get the sheriff over to our house. He was awesome and put our minds completely at ease when he explained that this was a common scam and the guys involved weren't local; they purchase disposable phones and patch calls through local numbers, etc, etc. The sheriff took the check for us, traced the numbers, which were untraceable, and that was the end of it.

Needless to say, it's been an eventful two weeks.  But today is August 31 2014, a day of rest, and I am gladly relishing in it.