It's (Not) the End of the World as We Know It

"We're Still Alive!" Celebratory Brunch

This morning just before 6 a.m., Emma Vance woke herself up by rolling over onto her belly while dreaming--and then forgetting in her sleepy state how to roll over to her back. She was pretty disoriented and upset--as was Oscar. Since the baby had woken him up out of a peaceful slumber, he realized that he had the urgent need to go potty. So I walked E.V. downstairs with me to let him out, where it occurred to her that we were up waaaay before we normally are. ("Is it still dark out, Mom???") This realization brought a smile to her baby face, and before long we were up-up. She was all giggles and babbling as we let Oscar back inside and crawled in bed. (Of course we had to wake up Ryan to join us in our early morning party!)

Since the world was supposed to end at 6:11 a.m. (EST) today, and since we were up already, we decided to indulge E.V. and snuggle and play for what might have been our last fifteen minutes on Earth. I looked at Ryan and told him that although I knew I should put the baby back to bed, if this in fact was our last few minutes alive, I'd rather us all be together, hunkered down in our big bed, dogs and all. I do have to say that there was a quick moment there, right before 6:11, that I held my breath. Call it superstition or whatever, but if someone pinpointed the exact moment in time you might die, even if you didn't believe them, it's only natural to panic a bit just before that moment occurs, right?

And then the world breathed a sigh of relief as 6:11 passed quickly by.

We had a weird schedule this morning since we were up early but not functioning, and when we all got up and running, we decided to celebrate it NOT being the end of the world by having brunch at Cracker Barrel. In the moments before we actually left our house and entered the world, I do have to admit that the thought crossed my mind--what if there had been some terrible disaster and we just weren't aware of it yet? I mean, we didn't have the news or radio on, and it did seem eerily quiet outside with no cars zipping past our house...

And then I breathed a sigh of relief as a noisy car passed quickly by.

So, there you have it, folks. No apocalypse, horrifying natural disaster, zombies rising from the graves, solar flares, etc. Turns out the Mayans were wrong, and I'm happy for that failure on their part. Now, onto living the rest of my life...