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Moving Day..

We were going to pack on Saturday and move on Sunday. On Saturday morning, we realized they were calling for rain and decided to move Saturday instead.

Mitch called up some guys - Brandon, Josh, James and Cameron - and they came over and helped carry furniture out. The piano was tough and pretty heavy. I know the guys were thankful we only lived on the 2nd floor, although they probably wished we were on the 1st..

My mom and dad were such a HUGE help!

Thanks everyone for helping!

Kris carrying clothes out of the closet to the car

James gathering logs they threw off the balcony

Sarah, Jess, and Kris packing up the refrigerator and freezer

Mitch doing what he does best

Load #1 and #2

After 2 huge loads, some of the guys got thirsty --

THE MOVING CREW:

After two days of work.. we are in the new place and working towards getting unpacked.

books on the shelf and not in the box!

Earthquake?!

So, apparently there was an earthquake this morning (see news article below).
Mitch and I both missed it. Our apartment is less than a mile from the epicenter - but I think we're just used to the train going by so it didn't wake us up.

WASHINGTON - A 3.6 magnitude earthquake woke the Washington metro region Friday, rattling homes and startling people.

The U.S. Geological Survey says it happened at exactly 5:04:49 a.m. about 3 miles under the earth's surface.

Right after it happened calls from all around Maryland, Northern Virginia and as far away as West Virginia started lighting up the WTOP newsroom phone lines.

"It was centered in the Germantown-Gaithersburg area," Randy Baldwin, a physicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Information Center, tells WTOP.

The earthquake woke WTOP listener Christy in her four-bedroom home in Bethesda.

"I was terrified. Then it was a huge jolt and my bed actually went forward from the wall," Christy told WTOP.

The USGS received 6,500 reports about this quake. While minor, this quake was out of the norm for the region.

Baldwin say the area's last earthquake was 2.0 in 2008. The region also had a 2.7 quake in 1993.

Barbara L. Thanos writes on WTOP's Facebook page: "Here's my experience. Sitting at my desk at work, by myself, and all of a sudden the computer, calculators, phones etc, starting moving, building rumbling etc. I work in Gaithersburg! Thought the building was coming down. I've worked there 26 years and never felt anything like that! I ran downstairs and out of the building to see if something hit it. Scary. Husband called and said, 'Gaithersburg just got hit with an earthquake!'"

Dave Garcia of Gaithersburg called WTOP.

"I was pretty scared," Garcia said. "I got rattled out of bed. I thought it might be a transformer, but it shook the whole building."

"I live less than a mile from the epicenter. It was crazy," e-mails Mike in Germantown. "It was really foggy and suddenly there was a loud rumble. Then all the furniture in my room began to shake and rattle and soon, the entire house started shaking. It lasted around 10 seconds and it was STRONG. Probably stronger here since I am so close to the epicenter."

"It woke me up," WTOP listener Amy Zimmerman tells WTOP. "My bed started to shake. Things fell off the shelf."

Some listeners say the earthquake felt like an underground blasting or a truck hitting a building.

On WTOP's Facebook page, Jill Lasheski of Germantown writes that she quickly woke up her husband.

"I grabbed him and said Earthquake! We are use to trains going right by our house, but this felt different- really shook our house! But did anyone else feel an after shock about 10 minutes later?? It felt the same but weaker and shorter."

D.C. emergency services says there are no reports of any damage. No injuries have been reported. The utilities reported no problems. Metro also reported no problems.

Amy Vaughn with USGS says there is a world of difference between a California earthquake and an earthquake in Maryland.

"In California, a 3.6 is almost laughable, whereas out here it's huge news," Vaughn tells WTOP. "This can be felt in a larger area, like 10 times larger an area. And, that's based on geology."

Vaughn says because of the area's sedimentary mountain ranges energy spreads farther.

"When something shakes, it goes everywhere," says Jessica Sigala, a geophysicist with USGS, about earthquakes on the East Coast.

Sigala tells Federal News Radio the bedrock is different in the eastern U.S.

"I have heard from some people that they have felt aftershocks," Sigala says.

Preliminary reports from USGS said the earthquake was a 3.7.

We're moving!

We are so excited to move into Mike and Sarah Thompson's beautiful basement apartment in Laytonsville, MD! Mike and Sarah (and baby Blake) go to our church, and were looking for someone to rent their basement apartment.. we saw their post in the Classified Ads and decided to give them a call.

We are moving in 2 weeks and I've been packing!

Here are some photos of the new place:

Door to Bedroom #1

Bedroom #1

Hall

Bathroom

Living Room and Entrance

Living Room (not our furniture)

Fireplace

Kitchen Full View

Kitchen View 2

Bedroom #2

Vacation at the beach

So - we just got back from a week's vacation at the beach. We went to Lewes, DE and we really had a great time.

The last day there was our 9 month-iversary of being married (see picture below)

Sunrise at the beach on our 9 month anniversary

Allie's nephew - Caleb

I think I was taking a nap here in this photo

I love Caleb

Mitch and Nick

With friends

Mitch and Caleb

Yay!

This was our set-up. We took up a lot of space. It was awesome to just drive the truck right on!

Dinner was a blast every night!

Another Update

Once again, I've failed you in keeping this updated. I hope to be more of a blogger one day - for now apparently the updates are coming in 2 months chunks..

We were Ninjas at the Next 2010 Conference in Baltimore this year. We loved being Ninjas and hopefully we can do it again in Orlando next year!

Since celebrating our 7 month anniversary - we've now celebrated our 8 month anniversary by going to see Riverdance at Wolf Trap. Our friend Gavin got us tickets :)

Then, Rhea and Dave got married on June 5th!! It was a beautiful, outdoor, weekend-away, wedding-event. Mitch and I were both in the wedding party. Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Lam!

Mitch got an "employee appreciation" award, and because he works at a hotel, that meant we got to stay at the Hyatt Regency in Bethesda to celebrate our 1st anniversary of being engaged.

The next day we went to the National Cathedral to re-visit the proposal site. See Lydia's post if you can't remember, or want to see it again.