Stop Shaking the Dang House!

My adoring kidlets decided that waking me up in the middle of the night was a good idea. I am not sure why they thought that was necessary, but it happened regardless of my feelings on the subject. Whenever that sort of event transpires, I mandate naps for all involved parties sometime during the following day. Today was no exception. What made today a little different was that I continued to rest on the couch for a few minutes after the kidlets awoke. They were playing quietly together just a few feet from me, and I figured that I could get away with closing my eyes again for a bit.

Needless to say, I was more than slightly annoyed when the couch started jiggling. Without opening my eyes, I announced that whoever was shaking Mommy had better stop. I continued to bounce. I also heard the basement door rattling and various other items throughout the house were also jiggling. It was as if the whole house was hiccuping gently but rapidly. Since our wood floors can often shake objects on the other end of the house if someone jumps up and down on a particular beam, I figured the kidlets were clowning around somehow. Miffed that the offending party was not stopping their jumping, I became a little more stern in demanding that whoever was shaking things had better quit it or they'd get in trouble. My eldest claimed that no one was doing anything, but I've heard that comment often enough to not take it seriously.

At that point, I was supremely annoyed that they would lie about their misbehavior, so I sat up and informed them that they needed to stop shaking the dang house NOW! Three completely motionless, and starting to get freaked out kidlets sat just out of arm's length from me, and once again professed their innocence while the house continued to shake. To say that unnerved me is an understatement.

I got up and ran across the living room to see if I could find a vibrating truck, or construction equipment outside. It was pretty dang quiet at that point, except for the sounds of things rattling inside my house, so I did not seriously expect to see anything obvious. The kidlets and I just looked at each other, and I wondered aloud whether we had just experienced an earthquake. The kidlets just shrugged and went back to playing quietly, and I took out my trusty laptop to see if there were any earthquakes remotely close by us.

Turns out, I had just accused my kidlets of causing a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that was centered hundreds of miles away from our house. Oops.