My earthquake brings all the boys to the yard.

Yesterday we had an earthquake. Yep, that's right. The 'quake of 2011. So bizarre. What I thought was the train next to my office barreling by, turned out to be a 15-second long 5.9-er originating 125 miles south in VA. I'm sorry, but DON'T WE LIVE IN MD?! Natural disasters are not something that frequent my life, until recently. We get little pieces of hurricanes in the fall, which is normal but now apparently we get hit by tornados and quakes. We're not equipped for such weather and frankly we need a bit more warning and time to prep, k?  Great, thanks. Good talk.

Selfish Smorkin

Not a good friend, Mega.

'Quake of 2011 Damage at The Carter House = Minimal-to-none. However, Fry took a pretty serious fall ending in a face plant. None of his other friends (you know, Megatron or Smorkin Labbit) were brave enough to rescue him. Poor, Fry.

Fry Face Plant.

Reset.

I'm back. Serious delay between posts and I need to apologize to myself because it's really unacceptable to not take a few hours a week to expand my creativity and force myself to write....shouldn't be so hard since I love it.

Anyhoo, just got back from our annual August Maine trip. Each year (for the most part) we take the hour and five minute Airtran flight to Portland, ME, where we're greeted by an ear to ear smile from Henry and the sweet (ear piercing) voices of my 8 and 5 year old niece and nephew - Jade & Hank. We head to a sacred place on this earth -- The Maine Lake House (also fondly known by the Smith/Clinton clan as "The Maine Attraction") -- where we're greeted by our other million family members for a long weekend of lake adventures!

Family can be stressful and frustrating and something that you can't even come up with words to describe...can only shake your head at. I realize this isn't only MY family that's this way, and that you can definitely relate. Everyone grows up and becomes their own, true self they'd been looking for the whole time, which is usually very different from the next person...and that's OK. In fact that's normal. Just takes adjustment. Take patience. Takes appreciation. These long weekends with my siblings and parents and nieces/nephews are SO special to me, and Maine, similar to NC, happens to be the perfect place to hit reset, restart, Apple-->Sleep, whatever you prefer. Just step back and really get down and dirty with some serious family hang-out time. Get to know who we've all become as the other 360 days of the year gone by have change us gradually, making each visit different and unique and just plain awesome.

To my Smith/Clinton/Martin/Penny/Grotzka families all over the damn creation --- LOVE TO YOU ALLLLLLL!! Each one of you is important in my role and the self I have become, so LOVE and THANKS.

Here are some pics for documentation of our time in Maine-ia 2011. I know there's a common theme including the most beautiful baby you've ever laid your eyes on, but he's just so damn photogenic! ;)

Jade and Grandon playing with Luke on the beach.

Babies LOVE Jeremy. Proven, scientific fact.

Standard.

Just had to include this for obvious reasons.

More Grandon, Jade and Luke.

Cousin Fun!

Jammin'

Sonny's Fam & Luke Marley

Uncle Ben & Aunt Marta w/ LMP.

Anniversary Rock for me & J-money.

Morning Playtime.

P.S. Alex, we missed you like you don't even know this year!!!! See you in September though for some more serious hangout time in OC. Get pumped, Handy. :)