Brett's Version of the Quake - aka, the boring version

So this is what happened, at least as I remember it two and a half weeks later. 
On Friday, 3/11/11, things got crazy.  Everything was actually slightly “crazy”
starting two days before.  Our Operation Readiness Exercise (ORE) kicked off. 
My job was to be the JAG/Fighter Wing Staff Agency representative in the
Emergency Operation Center (EOC) for the day shifts.  The EOC is a bunker with a
representative from every agency.  We were flowing along, with all the urgency
that the exercise requires.  Around 2:50 pm is when it happened.  I had actually
gotten up from my seat and was in the kitchen area when the earthquake began. 
The walls began rumbling and the ground began rocking.  I decided to get under
the doorframe to wait it out.  It kept going and it was by far the biggest
earthquake I’ve ever felt (we actually had a 7.0 or something just a couple of days
prior). I was wondering how strong people were feeling it above ground, figuring
I was feeling the least of it.  Near the end of the rocking the lights flickered
out, to a bunch of groans.  They came back on quickly as the backup generator
kicked in.  The supervisor of the EOC floor announced that the exercise was
paused and we should pull out our emergency response checklist for “major
earthquake.”  As my computer was booting back up, I reviewed the legal office
responsibilities in a major earthquake.  There weren’t many, just dealing with
people filing some claims for damages on the back end.  The Public Affairs (PA)
guy was next to me and looked at the checklist I was using.  He cussed as he saw
all the work PA was going to have to do.
                Every unit on base (15 or so units?) has a Unit Control Center
(UCC).  We call the UCC with different taskings, they get the job done and then
report back to the EOC.  I contacted our UCC and said we had to get 100%
accountability of everybody and to conduct a sweep of the facility to determine
any damage.  Reports came in shortly about how chaotic it was outside of our
bunker.  They expanded the accountability from active duty military on duty to
everybody in your unit (civilians and military), including family members.  I
figured this would be a good time to call Rachel.  Luckily our phone was still
working (most phones were down, but ours didn’t go out until later that night). 
Rach and the girls were fine.  The Department of Defense Dependent’s Schools
(DoDDS) fall under the FWSA, so we needed to contact the schools.  All of this
accountability became impossible once we realized that most of the phone lines
were down.  The EOC/UCC lines must be super charged powerful, because none of
those phone lines had an issue.  Our UCCs only issue was they were now sitting
in the dark with nothing but flashlights and some recall rosters.  The cops came
to us and said to get the message to the schools to not let the kids out because
the streets are crazy.  But this came too late because the kids had already been
released and parents were already picking them up.  The DoDDS situation became
more serious when we heard the earthquake was an 8.9 and we were told it was
close to Tokyo.  Five different school sports teams were down in Tokyo for the
weekend and this caused a lot of worry.  It basically took a day to locate them
all.  Some were stuck on a bus, some were stuck on a train, but all 5 of them
ended up eventually making their way to the Air Force Base down in Tokyo and
were fine.  In getting the 100% accountability our office was worried about one
of our guys. They were driving back from Tokyo Disneyland and nobody knew
exactly where they were.  Turns out he was actually in Sendai for the quake,
driving on a bridge that starting swinging, but he wisely didn’t stay in Sendai,
and kept on driving and made it back to the base fine.
                My shift change came at 6:00 pm and I headed home.  Rachel had a
little candlelight picnic on the floor laid out, and our friend Chelsey and son
Keaton were there.  They just moved into a 9th floor tower apartment and didn’t
really want to be there.  I guess I should mention that the earthquakes were
still coming.  There wasn’t just one big quake.  Every 5-10 minutes there were
earthquakes for the first two days.  When the big ones would come we’d blow out
the candles so the house wouldn’t burn down.  The candles were great, as were
all of our flashlights.  We were on a bit of a flashlight kick a few months
beforehand, and that worked out well for us.

                Marie and Keaton alternated between being scared of them and
thinking they were funny.  “It’s shaking! It’s shaking!” was said a thousand
times that night.  Most of the times it was shaking, but sometimes they just
imagined it.  Although they usually felt it before I did, I guess toddlers can
feel earthquakes like dogs can hear high pitched noises.  We hung out for a few
hours that night then turned in, with Chelsey and Keaton sleeping in the living
room.  Chelsey’s husband Andre was working the night shift for the exercise, and
as a civil engineer guy was very busy responding to all the damage around base. 

                I think I woke up twice that night for some of the bigger
earthquakes.  A real big one woke me up at 4:30, but it was time for me to get
into work anyway.  I wasn’t about to shower in cold water.  People were going to
have to handle me without a shower until the water turned warm (it ended up
being Sunday night when we had warm water).  I did my work thing.  The EOC was
one of the few places with power, so I wanted to get in there and find out what
was going on.  When I got in a was shown a few tsunami clips off CNN.com and I
couldn’t believe it.  That was the first time I realized how big of a disaster
this was.  Work was insanely busy that entire shift.  I had to ignore people for
a second to squeeze off a real quick email to the family.
                I went to my car after my shift and found a note from Rach that
they were over at the community center.  They did an amazing job in quickly
setting up this place.  They had some phones ready to go, some burgers/hot
dogs/pizza for sale, a little play area for the kids, and briefings every few
hours to get information to people.  I think it’s harder than ever these days
for people to not have access to information.  Computers, TVs, cell phones,
etc., were all down.  Not to mention house lights and the gas pumps.  I headed
over to the community center and spotted Rach amongst the masses.  Rach waited
like an hour and a half for a 5-minute phone call to her family.  She woke her
dad up at like 3:00 am, but he didn’t mind.  Then we stood in line and bought
our burgers. 

                The power was still out the next day, on Sunday.  The earth was
still shaking, but its pace had begun to slow a bit. I had to work but Rach made
it to church.  They just had Sacrament meeting.  The church lights came back on,
but it was very cold because the heat wasn’t on yet.  The message, as I
understand it, was to get ready to serve.  Later that day our power came back
on.  We turned on the news and the Fukishima nuclear plants caught our
attention.  While watching a knock came on our door from Tom.  He’s in the
branch presidency and said we are gathering food/clothing/supplies for our
neighboring branch in Hachinohe.  These people were in a much more critical
situation than we were.  I helped him with some of the names on his list.  In a
matter of hours 3 vans were loaded up, and the next day were taken to Hachinohe.

                I guess I don’t need to go into a day-by-day journal about what
was going on.  This has been a very memorable two weeks.  Rach took Pres Obama
up on his offer to head back to the states.  Hopefully they are having fun and I
get them back before too long.

Hello Sanity, thanks for popping in.

Well, I guess I am blogging again. Hmmm. Not really sure how i feel about it. I dont have pictures to post, but I suppose I owe the blog an update anyhow. I'm not feeling very "sane" these days, and probably shouldn't be blogging, but here I am. Feel free to take any of my emotional rants (should there be any) with a grain of salt. Or don't read my blog. Whatever, it's all good.

I'm at my parents house in Emmett Idaho now. I've eaten a dinner I didn't have to prepare. I can hear cartoons playing on a big screen and in living room, entertaining a certain two-year-old. And Mina sleeps.

A week ago I arrived here coming off one the the worst plane rides ever known to man kind. It was a 747 full of maybe 50 adults and over 100 children, mostly under the age of 2. I wistfully call it, "the crazy bus in the sky." Brett would laugh so hard ever time he talked about the flight, "It's going be INSANE!" he would say. Insane was an appropriate word choice, but all in all the other kids on the flight weren't too bad. Yes, my seat was kicked the ENTIRE flight across the ocean, and the flight attendants looked like they wanted to shoot themselves, but really I think it wasn't too bad. It was more a series of events with Marie that led up to her on her knees screaming bloody murder, "I WANT OFF THIS PLANE! I WANT MY DADDY! I WANT PIZZA!" over and over in sequence as people deboarded the plane. All of them valid complaints, in which Mina sympathetically cried along.

and honestly, there is so much more to write. So many completely out-of-control moments, some have to do with the earthquake, but most have to do with having a newborn after an earthquake. And I just don't think I could ever do them justice in words, so I'll have to skip them here. Maybe someday when I can laugh about them they will find a niche on the blog.


But a serious update for everyone is necessary.


I'm here in Idaho, but Brett is still in Misawa. I opted to partake of a "Voluntary Departure" out of Japan that was geared toward pregnant woman and children under 2. Officially because there are "alot of unknowns" with the nuclear crisis, and the stability of life in Japan as a whole. When I left the air base they were conserving energy strictly. This meant using one appliance at a time, only two lights on at night, and other various things that aren't really condusive to raising a newborn such as keeping the heat at 64F. I feel like a "wuss" for leaving. But I am. I feel like I abandoned Japan. There were so many opportunities to volunteer after the quake, but I couldn't do any of them. I couldnt even find the time to make no bakes for a french rescue team (yes, you can tell I am Mormon because I was asked to make no bakes after an earthquake, cute and weird). At one point I thought I could pump milk for orphaned children of Sendai and have it freezer packed and sent down there. But I can hardly, barely make enough milk for Mina, and that alone is depressing enough. Anyways, it was thoughts like those that made the decision clear that i had to get out.
Coming back... is a bit up in the air. They may send us back at the end of the month... they may wait 3 months. So in a way it's like a voluntarily sent Brett on deployment. Ugh, anyways... why am I blogging about this? It's super depressing.
So essentially I am here and I dont know for how long.

Marie is hanging in there, but she misses her dad. Grandpa stays home and takes good care of us though. And it's been fun seeing my brother Marcus alot.

 And thats all I have for now. I will leave you with what I started blogging a week after the earthquake. It's unfinished and unedited, but I gotta take care of babies, so you'll just have to get "my jist."

Peace, love, and please, no more earthquakes,

rachel.

Wow. I don't know where to start. How can I write anything and do this last week any justice?

But before I start I want to give the basic updates.

We are alive. We are ok. The girls are fine.

...hmmm.. what else really matters?

We just learned that dependents will be offered a free roundtrip ticket back to the states. So for the first time in days I can say I am pretty happy. Free trip home? I'll take it. I just wish Brett could come. But the best part is that it is NOT an EVACUATION. I heard rumors that it would be and I almost fell apart. Mina and Marie's safety is top priority, but leaving Brett behind would be feel devastating.
So good news is that in awhile the girls and I are coming back to Idaho. Don't worry, we'll squeeze Utah into somehow. If I were to guess when we are coming I would think maybe 1-2 months. Mina doesn't have a passport yet so since they are not evacuating I think it will be a while untill we get her stuff together (if it's possible, seeing as they do the paperwork in Tokyo).

...........

Well no better place to start than the beginning.  


I was sleeping. A miracle nap really. The girls both asleep at the same time. I should have known something epic was about to happen. (A week prior I gave up on naps completely).
I felt a shake. Not like before. Since I've moved here I've felt several tremors. Maybe once every 3-4 weeks. It's more a curious exciting thing. But this one was strong and mean from the get go. In the past if there was a tremor and I was in bed I would hesitate (just as I am typing now, the room starts shaking ... DANG IT STOP! I Have a two year old you are pissing off!... sorry.  ... OK it passes, so I can continue).  I would hesitate and kind of debate if I should get Marie out of bed or not. Usually I fall asleep before I can decide. But this was mean and THANKFULLY I didn't hesitate, grabbed Mina and ran to Marie's bedroom where she was sitting up confused and upset, saying, "It's shaking, it's shaking!" A phrase we now hear  from her on a regular basis.

I picked her up and ran to the door frame (later I learned it doesn't matter where you are as long as there is nothing above your head, but I think I remember my elementary teacher standing under the doorframe in gradeschool, so I think that's where that instinct came from).
It shook. But only shook. The walls didnt tear apart, the floors didnt break. Things would pop off shelves and break out of cabinets, but hardly anything would be broken in the end. I sat on the floor. Mina sleeping soundly in one arm while Marie sat on my knee, trying to burrow a niche into my shoulder at a panicked speed.  Marie was still yelling, "mommy, mommy it's shaking!" And all I could think of was to say, "oh how funny. It's like a giant is outside.... (oh wait, that sounds super scary)... I mean, it's like we are on jello! Whoa this is fun!" To this Marie repeatedly demanded, "I NO LIKE IT!" I told her I didn't either and we should tell it to go away. So we spent several moments shaking our fingers telling the walls to "STOP IT! We NO like YOU!"

(that's all I wrote on my original post so I will try to finish it up here):

Two minutes of that proceeded by large tremors every twenty minutes for a while. The power was out. My friend and her son spent the night as her husband work Civil Engineering in a 24hour shift trying to repair the base. And then two days later the power came back on and we saw the devastation of Sendai. Our favorite baseball town, two hours south of us. And even twenty minutes south,  Hachinohe, where we go to the mall and where i got my ultrasound was smashed up by the Tsunami pretty bad. The whole experience felt like being locked in a dark room and then coming out to find so many people dead. It was and still feels horrific, but in a way I am thankful I felt preserved. Preserved. No other word could describe it. Misawa Airbase now serves as the contact point for most all the incoming rescue teams, and even the citizens of the base are doing all they can to rebuild the lives of the people of Japan . 
God be with Japan.

First Bath

It's fun to see how different these two are starting off to be. Marie was ragin' during her first bath. Mina took a different approach. She was awake, but just sat with one chubby fist under chin, contemplating life.

 

Of course Marie had to supervise/try to get in the infant tub also.

So little, yet so much to think about.

New Schedule

Since Mina's birth we've tried to keep our schedule as normal as possible. Marie still attends Diichi about once a week. Here she is in her play smock.

A lot of people have asked how Marie is adjusting to the baby. The truth is she is doing fantastic. She hasn't shown any signs of jealousy (as of 4 weeks) and the only response is that we noticed she stopped eating after the baby was born (similarly to how she stopped eating when we moved to Japan). But with a little adjustment we got her not only back on track, but eating healthier. Our trick is to give healthy things sugary names. Cucumbers, for example, are now only referred to as "green cookies." Whole wheat bread is called "jam cake" and so forth.

 

Uhhh... Brett is into getting her to make weird faces. Don't do it too much, Marie, or your face will freeze that way.

 

Mina is feeling super cozy in her decked out car seat! She also likes to sleep here on occasion to. It's ironic that we have almost a dozen baby contraptions to sit in, but really all you need is a car seat for the first 3 months. But it's still fun to put her in different contraptions. I hope when I am too old to stand up and Mina is taking care of me she will remember how fun it is to move around and sit in different contraptions. She can sit me in all sorts of recliners and I'm sure I will think it's just dandy.

 

 

Bonding with Dad.

 

Night Night.

The Sweetness

Every once in a while I question why I chose this path of motherhood. It doesn't pay the bills. It's definitely not thinning or glamorous. But  little reminders sneak up on you. I call them, the sweetness.

Swimming Lessons

All good things come to an end, including swim lessons.

In December I thought it would be a good idea to get one last big "mommy-daughter" activity in before Mina arrived. So we signed up for 2 month long swim lessons! Sure I was 7 & 1/2 months pregnant, but we gave it a go anyways.

We went twice a week for the whole two months... almost. When Mina arrived we had 3 swim lessons left to complete our course. Luckily, one of the too generous people in my ward offered to help. We really didn't need any help when Mina was born, however we did need someone to take Marie to swim class.  Thanks to Rose Marie has completed toddler swim.

Of course I only remembered to bring the camera once, and it was the only day they were wearing life jackets. Marie doesn't like the life jackets, they impede the fun.



It was a really fun class, with only 2 or 3 students each time. Once or twice we were the only ones who showed up.

This is her teacher, Hiroko (don't you just love that name?).

She said Marie had a lot more upper body strength than most of the 4-5 year olds she would teach. Looks like we might have a rock climber on our hands when she's old enough.

You might ask yourself, what does a toddler really learn in swim? Well, Marie learned how to kick, paddle, float (with mommy's help), blow bubbles, hold her breath under water, open and close her eyes under water, splash alot and yell really really loud in a public pool. Good job Marie! You're my little mermaid!