Eggs & Ham and Earthquakes?

"When will the Easter bunny come?" "Where will our baskets be?", questions like these and many others tumbled from Lucas' mouth as I got him ready for bed Saturday night. He was truly excited. Thankfully the excitement didn't interfere with his sleep and he was soon peacefully sleeping.

"Mommy, mommy" I heard being softly called Sunday morning. I went into Lucas room to find him lying there his eyes glistening, "Did the Easter bunny come?"

"Yes, but we're not going to look for the baskets until Daddy is awake." I knew I would be spending the next little while trying to contain the kids' excitement until it was an acceptable time to wake up Eric. Finally the time had come.

Lucas, Alex and Eric waited in Alex's old room while I hid the clues and the baskets; in our home the bunny fills the baskets but mom makes the clues and hides them. Alex began her hunt first. Her first clue said "TV".... "tuh, vuh" she sounded out. "It's just TV!" Lucas jumped in trying to help. Both kids were off and running with Eric desperately trying to keep up with the video camera. Five clues later and she had successfully found her basket. "Oh wow!! I love it" she declared over and over again when she saw the baby bed, stroller and other accessories for her baby doll. "Open it! Open it!""Let's find Lucas' basket first" I prompted.

I handed Lucas his first clue and he was off. He ran throughout the house following his clues, "wait for us" I would often plead as we tried to keep up to see these joyous moments. The final clue led Lucas to the garage; he opened the door "A BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!" He squealed. "I have wanted this for so long. How did the Easter Bunny know??"

A smiled a content and happy smile, Eric's smile grew wider too as he knew that this toy would capture a certain 5-year-olds attention more than his own recently acquired iPad that had been the obsession of the previous day.

It was a good morning. We ate breakfast and then spent the day watching General Conference. Alex cared for her baby, Lucas flew Buzz around, and Eric took notes on his new iPad, all in the comfort of our pajamas on this wonderful Easter Sunday.

The day quickly passed, before I knew it, it was time to get the ham in the oven. There is just something so wonderful and comforting about the classics like ham and potatoes on Easter Sunday. I slid the ham into the oven, making sure that there was plenty of room for the potatoes that would soon need to join it. I closed the oven door.

"Did you feel that?" Eric asked.
"No." I said, realizing that once again I was not going to feel the earthquake. Since moving to California there had been several small earthquakes, none of which I felt. Growing up in Illinois, I had experienced tornadoes, floods, blizzards, but never an earthquake. Is my balance so tippy that I can't feel them for some reason I wondered?

And then I heard it, the wind chimes which hung on my kitchen cupboard, with what should be a beautiful twinkling were eerily ringing unaided by any wind. I continued to hear more creaks and groans and this low deep rumbling. Eric stood up and looked around. I glanced out the window and saw Lucas swinging back and forth on the teeter-totter seemingly unphased by the shaking ground around him. The chimes continued to ring increasing in intensity. "Go get Alex!" I cried to Eric. Eric dashed up the stairs to get her. I stood there fixated listening to those chimes, watching Lucas swing back and forth, back and forth outside. I heard Eric's hurried footsteps across the upstairs floor. And then it stopped, the chimes gave a few more simple rings and then were quiet.

Eric came back down the stairs, "that was a big one!" he said. "Alex said; 'daddy stop, your shaking the floor'", as she assumed it was Eric's quick running which made the floor bounce and sway. I hurried over to the computer, just two days previous I had signed up on the USGS to be notified of any earthquakes over 3.5, no e-mail yet. I went to their site, a 6.9 in Mexico it said (it would later be upgraded to a 7.2). I was amazed. I noticed the responses of, 'did you feel it' quickly go up in numbers, I added my own response saying we too had felt it.

I walked around, in a bit of a high, a bit shaken and just glad it wasn't anything worse. Nothing had fallen over, all of the pictures on the walls were still in their places and Lucas continued to swing back and forth, back and forth. I looked at the oven only to realize I had not set the timer! Shoot, how long had the ham been in? I tried to remember what time it was when I put it in, but my mind was a bit jumbled. I took my best guess and set the timer. As time passed I realized my legs were tense... my leg muscles and had been ready for action, ready to run and now were finally relaxing only to be left slightly sore. I tried to concentrate as I worked on the rest of dinner, the potatoes needed extra time as they weren't put in the oven when originally planned.. and the ham. Well, my estimate must have been off as it was slightly overcooked. But it was a good Easter, one filled with laughter, happiness, a General Conference filled with wonderful messages of the Savior and his love for us, oh yes and a 7.2 magnitude earthquake.