If ye are prepared ye shall not fear

We woke up this morning at 6:00 sharp to a piercing, loud, long siren. We'd heard it before, but not for a few months. We started grumbling about why we randomly hear that noise when, a few minutes later, my mom called to tell me a tsunami was heading to Hawaii.

We then waited and watched the news for hours, hoping and praying for what ended up being a very favorable tsunami event. Hawaii was very, very fortunate today.

I started thinking about emergency preparedness. We have 10 gallons of water, plus a box and a half of Costco bottled water. We have a year's worth of food storage. We have 72-hour emergency kits. We have batteries and portable radios. We have lots of extra toilet paper. Today I filled all of Nadine's bottles with water, just in case we lost service.

I am so grateful we have had and do have living prophets on the earth who command us to be prepared for an emergency. I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet and that God speaks to us through him. I know it is important we be prepared for all kinds of disasters; financial, natural, emotional, spiritual, etc. (have you read this month's First Presidency message?).

Doctrine and Covenants 38:30 says, ". . . if ye are prepared ye shall not fear." I felt that today. The idea of an incoming tsunami was frightening, but I was comforted. We are fortunate to live on a hill and we are outside the "inundation areas;" further, as I stated earlier, we have stockpiled most of the supplies necessary to help us through a disaster.

When the tsunami warning was issued, residents flocked to the grocery stores, Costco, and gas stations to get food and water supplies and gas. The lines were horrendously long. I am so grateful church leaders have, for years, implored us to be prepared for emergencies. I was worried, but I wasn't fearful. Todd was home; we were together and we were prepared, and I knew we would be ok no matter what happened.

Today we were quite lucky and definitely blessed.

Our adventure in babysitting

I can't do it Captain, I don't have the power

I miss this blog. And I am lame because I tried to get rid of it just two weeks ago. Dangit. I'll try to be strong and not post too often. But post I will.

Apparently I am just antsy. I'm not sure why, but I seem to be taking it out on my blogs. I am lame. And weak. It reminds me of the title of my first blog post: "But I also know, that you know, what a weak-willed person I am."

But, and also, I can't post pictures of spiders on the baby blog. Not next to cute Nani.

This spider was sitting on the plants outside our gate--the very same plants we brush against when we take Nani out in her seat. I saw it early one morning when I returned, luckily empty-handed, from the trash ("rubbish" in Hawaii). I screamed, then ran into the house to get my camera and the Raid.

Then I stood as far away as possible, and then I contorted my body to keep it further from the spider while allowing myself to get a good picture. I think it's a jumping spider, and I swear it was preparing to pounce. After I took a picture I sprayed the spider. And screamed when it fell, continually screaming as I ran into the house. Ugh. I think it's dead, but I didn't stick around to check, so who knows. I dare it to cross our pest controlled barrier, though.

The body of this thing is the size of my pinkie to the first knuckle. No lie. I don't know what kind of spider it is, because I learned not to Google spider pictures. Here it is compared to a penny.

I'm not fat, I'm just big-boned

Adventures in babysitting

We need some advice on paying a sitter.

Pfantastic Picture Plethora

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

I am at the computer too often and for too long.

I realized this a few weeks ago, but today I've finally decided to do something about it. The "something" is this blog is now going to become the "front page" for the baby blog, the blog that tells people when there's a new post on our private blog.

I enjoy blogging; it's a nice release for me. But it takes up so much of my time. Time I could spend mothering, or napping, or reading, or talking to actual human beings, or napping, or showering, or exercising, or napping. And really, as much as I enjoy posting my musings and receiving responses to those (I'll be honest and say comments are the best part), the more important blog is the one with pictures of an adorable baby who is thousands of miles away from our extended family. So those photo updates will be my main focus.

And if something fun or wonderful happens, I may post pictures of that on the baby blog. But what I really should do is call people and tell them myself. I've been using the computer as my lifeline to the outside world, but it's too impersonal; I forget to call people about cool, funny, etc. things because I've already posted those things for the world to see. When I get lonely I need to reach for my phone, not the one-way communication that is the Internet.

So there you have it. Effective immediately, this blog is just a notification tool.

I'll probably revamp my Facebooking soon too.

Baby blog updated

She laughed! See the video.