Yesterday at 11:40 I sat down in the comfortable dentist's chair for my yearly routine exam. As my dentist said open wide, the earth started moving... then rolling... then BOOM! A violent Secondary Wave (or S Wave) shook the building and the entire second story back and forth, well it was more like up and down. My dentist, g-d bless his heart, yanked me out of the chair - because it's hard to get out of those things when you're reclined back. The lamp above was swinging back and forth violently, kind of like a weighted seismograph pen! We ran into the hallway where other employees were freaking out. I told everyone not to worry... "I am a geologist!" For some reason it seemed to calm them all down... LOL! They asked me what I thought and I told them that it was a magnitude over 5, but under 5.5 and under 50 miles away. I have been in A LOT of earthquakes and I've even worked for the USGS at CalTech with Lucy Jones and Tom Heaton one summer... so I know! After the dentist finished my aftershocky exam, I got in my car and headed over to pick Shayna up from school. The phones weren't working so I turned on the radio to hear that the EQ was a mag 5.4 centered in Chino Hills (~29 miles)... I was right!!! I bet those people in my dentist's office think I'm brilliant now. I should get free cleanings and check-ups for a year!
(as a side note, we had picture frames fall and shampoo bottles fall in the shower... also on our east-west wall, the pictures on the wall are both tilted the same way... I guess I should post a picture of that)This is what I put next to my bed last night! I also wore clothes to bed...because I don't want to go running out of the house naked!!!!
So, we were on our camping trip 2 weeks ago and Mark's mom had made a batch of her famous "Lynn's Pickles." Let me tell you... they are a perfect blend of sweet and spicy! Today, while on a shoping adventure at Costco, I called my mother-in-law to ask her if this "other" brand of pickles would do. She said that as long as they were crunchy, kosher dills, buy them. So I spent my $3.99 and bought a gallons worth of pickles. I made my first batch tonight. Here's a picture - I will let you know how they turn out after pacing in front of the frig for the next 4 days while they swim in sugary/spicy goodness!
Yes, it's that time of year when people all over the country are celebrating how old they really are... Last night, I celebrated my 20th high school reunion at a former classmate's beautiful house. Although there were only 14 (out of 69) of us in attendance, it seemed as though our class was well represented. It was really neat to see everyone, their spouses, and some of us brought our kiddos along. When I was 13 years old, I remember when my parents went to my mom's 20th high school reunion - boy, did I think they were old!!! It's funny, everyone there last night looked pretty much exactly the same as the day we graduated from Montclair College Preparatory in June of 1988... young and happy!
Last weekend, we packed up the van, once again, to go camping in the Sierras (80 miles east of Fresno) at Wishon Village, with Mark's family. It was Mark's dad's birthday last Saturday (Happy Birthday, Art) so we celebrated in high fashion. We were camping at an RV park, which has extra large lots to allow for one more camper, tent, vehicle, etc... So, Mark and I decided to "camp-out" right next to Art and Lynn's motorhome. It was wonderful. Every morning we awoke to a freshly brewed pot of coffee along with scrumptious zucchini bread... oh, it gets better... we also had a bathroom, shower, and couches! I think the next time we go camping, we're going with the parents!!!
Mark's cousin, Dan, brought their boat along. We had ablast cruising around Courtright Reservoir. We beached the boat and had some lunch with an awesome view! The kids played around in the water, while the adults sat and soaked it all in.
Here is a cute one of Shayna's cousins, Cooper and Kaitlyn.
Here are all of the kids (l to r): Cooper, Shayna, Kaitlyn, & Grace.
The kids also had a blast racing down the hill! No major injuries to report.
Here's a shot of the whole group (l to r): Beans, Jim, Mark, Lynn (aka Grammie), Kaitlyn, Shayna, Art (aka Grandad), Kristi, Cooper, Dan, Lorie (aka me), Grace, Donna, & Scout.
It was a great weekend and hopefully the first of MANY camping trips!!! I will leave you with some of Shayna's fantastic photos:
Last night my Uncle Mark and Aunt Jackie invited me to go with them to the Dodgers / Marlins game at Dodger Stadium. Like always, they had great seats. Before the game started, my cousin, Brian, and I hung out on the center field warning track waiting for some batting practice (BP) fly balls. It was awesome! Every time a ball was hit towards this gated area, people would attack one another for a BP ball. A $3 ball... Brian was given a ball by one of the Florida Marlins' players, but I had to fight for my $3 ball. A ground ball off the bat of an unknown Marlins player came my way. It must have taken 30 minutes for that ball to roll all the way out to centerfield. It finally arrived and a mass of people pushed us down and into the warning track dirt... for a $3 ball! Well, this was war and there was NO WAY anyone else was gettin' that ball! Needless to say, I got the ball, along with a few scratches and warning track dirt embedded in my knee and a bruised wrist, which really doesn't hurt if you're holding an official Major League Baseball ball!Check out the huge cut on my thumb!!!! Haha!!!
It was a great evening of baseball and fireworks... oh and I got to meet Kenny Landreaux! He played for the Dodgers back in the 1980's!
Here is a cute shot of Shayna with her new hat and sunglasses that her Grammie sent (thanks, Grammie Lynn). Shayna has started saying, "YEAH, BABY," while holding her Fonzi thumbs up... I just don't know where she gets this from???
Mark and I are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary today. Time flies so fast! Tonight, Mark and I will be celebrating with Harrison Ford, as we are going to go see the new Indy movie. It will be a great night and pretty much low key. Happy anniversary, Mark, you are a wonderful husband and father!
Yeah... Yeah... I know... It's been forever since my last post... Sorry! We just got back into town after spending some time with the family in Henderson, Nevada. It's my parent's 40th wedding anniversary on July 14th, but we celebrated it last night at an awesome Italian restaurant. We also had time on Saturday morning to take some professional portraits of the Oleesky (& Bartee) families.
It was a great weekend... it actually felt like a mini-vacation because we stayed at a hotel. We had a "blast" watching fireworks with Shayna at my brother's friend's country club. We layed out on some towels on the first tee of the golf course and watched almost 20 minutes of professional fireworks! I left my camera in the car, so sorry, no picts... Shayna loved it so much that she told me she had "Happy Tears." It doesn't get any better than that!
I know that this Blog (or Web Log) is titled, "Shayna," but it's really a place for me to write about the daily happenings of the household. I will post a lot of Shayna and William things here. This Blog will be a mixture of both her and other fun things going on the homestead.
Yesterday at 11:40 I sat down in the comfortable dentist's chair for my yearly routine exam. As my dentist said open wide, the earth started moving... then rolling... then BOOM! A violent Secondary Wave (or S Wave) shook the building and the entire second story back and forth, well it was more like up and down. My dentist, g-d bless his heart, yanked me out of the chair - because it's hard to get out of those things when you're reclined back. The lamp above was swinging back and forth violently, kind of like a weighted seismograph pen! We ran into the hallway where other employees were freaking out. I told everyone not to worry... "I am a geologist!" For some reason it seemed to calm them all down... LOL! They asked me what I thought and I told them that it was a magnitude over 5, but under 5.5 and under 50 miles away. I have been in A LOT of earthquakes and I've even worked for the USGS at CalTech with Lucy Jones and Tom Heaton one summer... so I know! After the dentist finished my aftershocky exam, I got in my car and headed over to pick Shayna up from school. The phones weren't working so I turned on the radio to hear that the EQ was a mag 5.4 centered in Chino Hills (~29 miles)... I was right!!! I bet those people in my dentist's office think I'm brilliant now. I should get free cleanings and check-ups for a year!
This is what I put next to my bed last night!
This is what I put next to my bed last night!
