SOOOO tired...

Well we survived yet another anti-climactic tsunami warning. At 2 am we decided that it didn't sound like anything was going to happen worth evacuating for. We checked the evacuation maps and and it turns out we're technically right on the edge of the evac zone. So we hunkered down and just waited. At about 3:30 it sounded like there was a minor wave down in Waikiki and that was about it. After a few phone calls from worried friends and family I drifted off to sleep around 4 am only to be woken up at 6 by my alarm- if only I had thought to shut it off!!!
Needless to say, it's been an incredibly long day. I managed to get an hour nap this afternoon but I'm so incredibly exhausted at this point I actually feel weak and woozy. Thankfully the boys are tucked in for the night and I'm about 10 minutes from doing the same.
I'll write more later. But right now I'm too tired to really formulate thoughts much less type them...

Less than 3 hours and counting...

Well if you missed my first post, we're in a tsunami warning. The first wave is expected to hit around 3:07 a.m.

So you might wonder what I'm doing? Right now I'm just waiting. We're in the evacuation zone. It's actually eerily quiet here. But we're waiting for about another hour. Jack is of course getting sick and the boys went to sleep really late tonight so we want them to get as much sleep as possible before we wake them up. I'm actually kind of anticipating they'll wake up sooner than later, the sirens are all going off and the military police are canvasing the area telling everyone to leave. But I want to assure everyone that I'm not crazy, we have 3 hours before it gets here and we only have a few blocks to go.

So I've done some laundry, packed our bags, cleaned the kitchen and the living room :) At least if my house is going to flood I'm not going to have garbage and toys everywhere!

Prayers going out to the people in Japan, what a horrible, horrible event. It sounds like it's just complete devastation over there. I was really not concerned about this tsunami warning after last years anticlimactic warning but after hearing that this was the worst earthquake to hit in 140 years I'm definitely more concerned...

Times like this I'm thankful that we're in the military. Sounds like things out in town are just nuts. Gas stations are out of gas, traffic is backed up everywhere, just complete chaos. Thankfully we only have to go just across base!

I'll update whenever anything changes...

Here we go again...

When we got home from church this evening I hopped online only to see that Japan had a massive earthquake. GREAT.

We had a tsunami warning last year and it was just awful. We had to evacuate for hours, Jacob had to go to work because his shop runs the base news channel, and absolutely NOTHING happened. It was probably the most anti-climactic event I've ever lived through.

Well we're in a tsunami warning right now. The first wave is expected to hit just before 3 a.m. The sirens already went off once. And of course, just like last time, the phones are basically down. You can't really send texts or make phone calls- I assume this happens because so many people are trying at the same time. It's incredibly scary though. There is absolutely no way to get ahold of anyone. I woke Jacob up (because he was of course already sound asleep as this is all happening) and he tried calling our neighbor who works for the military police and his chain of command, but no luck, no phone service. So hopefully nothing crazy happens. And hopefully we don't get evacuated at like midnight. Last time it was like a scene from an apocalypse movie, tanks with Marines in full gear rolling through the streets with loud speakers, banging on doors, telling everyone to get the hell out. Definitely not what I want to be doing in the middle of the night. And of course we live in the tidal zone! I can actually see the ocean from my driveway, it's about a block, maybe a block and a half from our house.

Ugh. It's going to be a long night...

What I've done today...

So I haven't done a whole lot for anyone but myself today. But sometimes days like this are necessary. I've been sewing like crazy recently but I haven't sewn anything for myself. Until today!

I had these two old dresses in my closet balled up in the corner for probably about a year now. I'm notorious for buying things I like and then they don't fit. LOL. Of course I never return them. But today I had a brilliant idea to turn the dresses into skirts! I just cut off the top of each of them (which was the part that didn't fit- I'm much too top heavy, nothing fits!) and just sewed across the top! I had to add elastic to the one because it was gigantic when I removed it from the top part. But the other was gathered enough that I just had to clean up the edge. Easy peasy! And I LOVE them. I absolutely adore the fabric which was why I bought them in the first place. And now I can actually enjoy them! Conveniently I was just about to endure the horrific task of trying to find some new skirts for church.. and now I don't have to!! YEAH!!

And my real success of the day is....

A cute little cover for my Bible! I have terrible eyes so I had to find a large print bible and I love the King James Version so I was left with virtually no "cute" options. It's actually a really ugly maroon color. I've always disliked it but I dealt with it because it was the version and the size text I needed. Jacob once tried to buy me a case for it but it too was horrific- It looked like a "Barbie" case, bright pink and sparkly, not quite my cup of tea. So I set out to sew myself one I liked! I absolutely love this fabric but I'm down to almost just scraps of it and I can't find anymore anywhere. But thankfully there was just enough left for this! It was surprisingly easy to do too. I added a little brown button down on the bottom right corner for some embellishment and made a little page marker to match the case (the one on the Bible is ugly maroon too!) but you can't see it all that well on here but it's there! 

So day two of no facebook has turned out to be incredibly productive :) 

Why I ditched Facebook

Ditching Facebook was something I've talked about doing for awhile now. But I just never worked up the courage to do it. Lent was my catalyst.


I find Facebook completely perverse. Don't get me wrong, social media does indeed have a place and does do good things. But what I see most frequently is not that. (I'm going to go ahead and use the word "we" although I'm mostly referring to myself, I'm not pointing my finger at anyone else, but I do think these statements apply to others, surely they do.) We use facebook updating our status 10 times a day about what color our poop was, how many times our kid cried, that we're pissed because the lady at the grocery store gave us the stank eye, that someone cut us off in traffic, and so on. Let's be honest, none of this matters. I shouldn't get upset because someone cut you off in traffic, and quite frankly neither should you. It's life. By having this soap box to stand on we begin to think that it's ok to complain and moan about the most rediculous things. Society seems as if we're no longer able to deal with day to day things. Everything is bigger than it should be. And most of it isn't even important. It's this "celebrity" mentality that we get caught up in. Like people SHOULD care. But they don't. They may say they do, but chances are they really don't. 

And "friends" on facebook... I know people who have 100's of friends. Now I would challenge those people to give me 10 facts about a quarter of those people, real facts, not stupid status update facts. As we begin to invest our time and energy into these fake relationships our real relationships inevitably begin to deteriorate. Instead of sending someone a hand written note or a thought out email we drop someone a note on Facebook with some short, meaningless, impersonal thought. There's no real relationship involved there. When things go south in your life those status updates and notes won't hold you while you cry. They won't comfort you when the world's falling apart. You need real life people to do that. The computer will never be able to hug you, no matter how many times you use "(( ))" or "***" or any other weird use of punctuation, those things don't replace tangible, real relationships.

I also find myself falling into this trap of envy. It's so easy to be envious of what others have when it's up in your face all the time. Everyone's lives look so honky-dory online. But I doubt they really are. So much of what I see on Facebook is completely fake. But our human nature doesn't necessarily get that. Whether that person's life is truly perfect or not is irrelevant when their "perfection" is right there all day. And I'm human. I get jealous. 

Somedays it's SO hard to see people complaining about how crabby their kids are (which I know I've done too!) when Jack's been screaming and literally bouncing off the walls because he's completely disregulated from a bad day at school. What I would give to have regular good old temper tantrums. It's hard not to envy others being able to go out and do whatever they want as a family regardless of fluorescent lighting, crowds, and noise levels. I can't help but envy those moms who can take both kids out to the grocery store alone. I can't do that. And I hate it. And facebook just brings those things to the surface. What I'd give to be able to watch some trashy reality t.v. instead of arguing with the school over Jack's education and having phone call after phone call with the insurance company and tutors to get him the things he needs. 

Which then brings me onto the whole babies and pregnancy thing. It's been well over a year now since I have wanted to get pregnant again (I've stopped counting). And it's been almost 5 months since we lost Zoe. Seeing EVERYONE (and I mean that, for real, EVERYONE is pregnant or just had a baby!) going on and on about morning sickness and ultrasounds and midnight bottle feedings and diaper changes HURTS. It really hurts. 

Now I realize most of this lies within me. I get that. But I do think that facebook is going to be the downfall of our society... ok maybe that's a bit dramatic, but there's some validity to it. People don't even know how to spell anymore. People don't know how to have a meaningful conversation. People don't really interact with one another. People don't even know what's real and truly important anymore. And that's sad!

So I'm ditching the facebook for awhile. Lent is a time to draw close to God and realize what has been done for us. A time to deal with our passions and our demons. To come to know ourselves and truly know God. And that's exactly what I'm going to try to do. 

So here we go. Day 1 almost down. It's been surprisingly easy so far. I've thought about it from time to time but I've managed to keep myself busy and so it hasn't been too much of a struggle. It kind of feels like I've cut one of the chains holding me down. Who knows, maybe I won't go back after Easter... 

Facebook!

I'm off the addiction. Just logged out for the last time until after Easter. I'm excited but nervous... I hope I can do this!

Hopefully with all the extra time I'm going to have I'll be able to do more bloggin!

Wish me luck folks!