The TsuMommy

Who knew that before falling asleep last night we would be under a tsunami warning?  Who knew that there would be so much devastation in so many places following that horrific earthquake in Japan?  The sirens started sounding off at 10pm last night and the news said to expect a significant tsunami about 3am.  While I knew that we would be under no immediate threat (we live about a mile in from the coast but we are WAY up high) I still was unable to sleep last night.  After seeing some of the aftermath footage in Japan, sleep was the last thing on my mind.  They said that from the time of the quake until the 23+ foot tsunami hit Japanʻs shores, the people only had about 15 minutes.  How scary.  Hawaii had plenty of warning.  On an island, you cannot help but be close to the ocean....unless you live in the middle.  I couldnʻt imagine being out somewhere with the children and experiencing an earthquake of 8.9 magnitude nevermind a tsunami 15 minutes later.  As much as I LOVE the beach and love the ocean, I am almost always on edge when there (if I have the kids with me).  Perhaps it is the pessimist in me, or the worry wart or perhaps it is just that "mama gene".  I am always wondering what my escape route would be if I had the 3 kids with me.  15 minutes given the right circumstances, can seem like an eternity...during a natural disaster that is nothing.

Fortunately, the kids slept through the hourly sirens.  Well, not Addley, but she doesnʻt sleep much anyhow.  Unfortunately for Scott and I, the sirens and the constant cell phone vibrations from worried friends and family kept us up.  It reminded me of hurricane Katrina days.  Statewide, schools were closed today.  Most kids would be excited, mine were disappointed.  They were supposed to be participating in Jump For Heart Day.  Dayton was asking a bunch of questions about the tsumommy.  He watched some of the news, and for a 5 year old, he was pretty stunned by the damage the ocean caused.  He kept saying "wow, that wave took over the whole town."  For any of our friends that may have friends or family affected by this disaster, our thoughts are with you and for any of our friends and family thinking of us, we thank you.

Making Time and Taking Time

We say it all the time, "I need to make time for this or for that..."  How does one actually do that though?  It is impossible to make time, to have more hours in a day...it seems like a nice concept, a luxury even.  I am always behind in my blogging, in my picture uploading, in my picture taking even and I cannot figure out why.  We live in a day and age with so much technology that is supposed to help us stay organized and "make time" (so to speak) and yet somehow it complicates things.  For instance, back in the day (actually not all that long ago) we used film in cameras and took them in to get developed and voila, a stack of pictures to put in a photo album.  Now we can take literally hundreds of photos and save them on this tiny piece of plastic.  Am I the only one that is literally years behind in having pictures printed?  Like right now for instance, I have a huge list of things to do and yet Iʻve decided to "take time" for myself to blog.  It is a beautiful sunny day outside and I can think of a million better things to do than sit in front of a computer, but the only way to get one thing accomplished is to let other things slide.  If any of you out there have found some method to keep your life balanced, please share...I have yet to figure it out.  I wanted to share some pictures that need sharing.  Some special ones from Christmas that have not yet found their way into a photo album (but one day will).

This is a picture of Grammie, YaYa, Dayton & Saige.  The kids LOVED their time with Great-Grammie and I know she equally loved her time spent with them.

My beach babies are getting too big!

This is a good example of why I am literally years behind in printing pictures - I take too many!  I LOVE sibling pictures; especially when they donʻt know Iʻm taking their picture.

Great Grammie taking it all in!  This was her first trip to Hawaii.