Earthquake!

For those of you who are not local friends, you may or may not have heard that Oklahoma has had a series of earthquakes the past couple of days. The epicenter for these earthquakes was a little town named Sparks, Oklahoma, which (according to Google Maps) is 56 miles from where we live. I would certainly not describe our experience as dramatic, but it is fair to say that we were shaken up (pun fully intended)!

On Friday night BJ and I both came down with the dreaded GI bug that seems to be getting passed around telepathically around here. Silas contracted it more than a week ago, but BJ and I had remained unscathed so we had hoped that it would pass us by. Not to be, however. Eight days later we were both sick with it, but at least it wasn't long-lasting or ridiculously hideous, as some GI bugs tend to be. On Friday night BJ and I slept in separate rooms (because of the illness), and at 2:13AM I woke up to experience the first earthquake but BJ did not. This one registered as a 4.7 on the Richter Scale and succeeded to shake our walls and rattle all of our doors. Tex and I both flew up to sitting positions, but once it was done ten seconds later I was too weak to investigate and thus went back to sleep. BJ and I met in the kitchen at 5AM that morning and looked on the internet to confirm that it was an earthquake, but he had not felt it.

Saturday was our recovery day, and we spent the entirety of it team-working with Silas, eating chicken noodle soup, and lying in the living room watching endless football. Seriously, College Game Day was on in the morning and football did not go off until the conclusion of the OSU game at 10:45 that night. (As a brief aside, the Cowboys pulled off an ugly win, but a win nonetheless. The urgency of the game zapped nearly every ounce of strength I thought I had until...)

EARTHQUAKE!

At 10:53PM, BJ and I both (still sitting on the couch of course) felt the first shakings and heard those first rumblings, and we both just looked at each other. My thought process to him, Marshall- and Lily-style, was "See? This is what it was like last night." We both seemed to think it was cool. For a few seconds. And then it didn't stop. In fact, not only did the shaking not stop, it began intensifying and getting louder. Light fixtures were swinging and the ground was most definitely shaking beneath our feet. It's safe to say that we were both scared at this point and I shouted, "Silas!" as the responsible mother I try to be. 28 weeks pregnant, I'm pretty sure I leapt over the arm of the couch (an unwise move, as it would prove to be once adrenaline had worn off) and ran across the house followed by a frantic Tex back to Silas' room. The earthquake was most intense at this point and I remember feeling the ground shaking under me as I ran, and once I threw open Silas' door, well, he was sleeping peacefully in his crib. There was actually a smile on his cute little face. I stood over him for a few seconds ready to grab him, but the earthquake started dying down. Since it was far less intense, I jogged back into the living room where BJ was and we both stood there, and I stupidly said, "It's still shaking!" And then it stopped.

And that is our earthquake experience, friends. Quite likely the largest earthquake our family will ever experience, as it was the largest in Oklahoma history: 5.6 on the Richter Scale. No damage, no injuries (minus my ridiculous pregnant-woman soreness within three minutes of the earthquake's conclusion). Just a scare and some phone calls to family members while we continued to watch our light fixtures swinging about for minutes after it all ended.

This photo sums it all up nicely. Enjoy your day, friends!