Sheesh, what a week

This year, my two oldest are attending a brand new, state-of-the-art, elementary school.  This place is kinda badass.  It is huge.  There's not a chalkboard in the entire building.  Everything is done on smartboards, which is going to allow them to expand how they teach (which will be awesome for my oldest).  They even have a rock climbing wall in the new gym!  All in all, we're very excited about the new school year.  

So Tuesday, I load up the kiddos, and we go to the official Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony followed by an Open House where we were able to meet their new teachers. There's no telling how many people were there.  We were packed into that building like sardines.  And since all but one of the grade levels are on the second floor, that's where the majority of us were..............when the earthquake hit.  

Did I mention that they just finished building this building at the beginning of the summer?  

Y'all, we thought that building was coming down.  "Earthquake" never even entered my mind.  

I had been talking to my son's second grade teacher at the building seemed to sway like a strong gust of wind hit it, and the teacher said, "I hate when tall buildings sway in the wind."  And then it did it again, only stronger, and I said, "Yeah.  That's not cool AT ALL."  And then it started full-on shaking, and she got this panicked look on her face and was all, "I think we need to go."  

My 3 year old, who was in the middle of getting a drink of water out of the fountain in her room, turned, spit his drink everywhere, and came running at me screaming.  My older two turned white as sheets, and I pushed them out the door and down the stairs to the outside.  People were yelling, kids were crying and screaming, and all I could think was, "Damn, I was really looking forward to them going to school here."

Needless to say, we all made it out of the building in one piece.  People calmed down when they realized that the building wasn't collapsing under the weight of every family in the neighborhood.  When word got around that it was an earthquake, there was a collective moment of "What the fuck??  An earthquake?  Here??" and then people started filing back out to their cars and heading home.  

**My husband, who works on the top floor of a 9-story building made mostly of glass, was also fine.  Although much more shaken than we were.**

So, all in all, even though the West Coast is giggling hysterically at our major freak-out over a little 5.9 tremor, I have to say, we had a very stimulating day.  Now I have to go pick up my kids and go buy hurricane supplies.  Because apparently Mother Nature doesn't think our week has been exciting enough.