The Im Family

while taking a bath tonight ozzy fills a cup with water and says it full of dictionaries. me: "dictionaries!? do you know what a dictionary is?" ozzy: "no" Mimi: "it's a book that tells you what words mean. and there's another one called a thesaurus. do you know what a thesaurus is?" ozzy: "a DINOSAUR!"

as i packed mimi's new dance shoes in her dance bag this afternoon in preparation for class this evening, i was struck by the sheer size of her feet.  YOOGE ! when had they gotten so big?  didnt seem so long ago that i was buying those adorable little kid shoes.  i fetched her ballet shoes from when she was 18 months old and put them next to her new shoes.  and i cried.

on tuesday, august 23rd, around 1:50 pm, while the kids and i were home, we began to hear a rumbling sound, like a lawn mower, getting steadily louder and louder.  thinking at first there was some nearby construction beginning in our street, i went towards the windows to see, but before i got even a few steps towards the front door, the sound became a loud grinding and the whole house began to shake alarmingly.  i could hear things starting to fall off walls and shelves and crash to the floor.  mimi ran to me, calling out in a fearful voice, mommy, what's happening?!?  i think it's an earthquake , i said, as matter of factly as i could, trying to be calm while also trying to figure out what we should do next.  mimi clung to me, sobbing, "i'm scared.  are we going to die?"   i start moving towards the door, waiting to see if we needed to bolt out the door immediately or if it was going to stop soon, as all the previous earthquakes in the area had been...