This is an email I sent very early yesterday morning.....that is because we were rudely awakened by an......earthquake! On awakening, I thought, in this order 1. tornado, let's get downstairs 2. plane crash-I could actually hear what sounded like very large hail hitting the ground after the initial rumble, so I thought it might be wreckage 3. Earthquake...hhmmmm...seemed unlikely at the time 4. Gas explosion-this actually made the most sense to me-either a house or a semi on the highway.
Those were my thoughts. Chris thought it was a raccoon or squirrel in the attic as the ceiling fan above our bed was fiercely shaking....or a gas explosion, but he was really leaning hard on the raccoon in the attic thought.

So-initially, I heard a rumble at the same time I felt everything shaking, (it was the shaking that woke me up) and I really thought the house was going down-it felt like a house of cards tottering back and forth before collapsing. That's one big raccoon. It shook and rumbled for a good 30 seconds. The house stayed put, and we don't have any damage that we know of-nothing fell off the walls, and no ceiling fans dropped on anybody. I'll go outside and look for cracks later. There is minor damage around the city and one of the "main artery" roads is closed due to damage.

Joseph slept through it, and is still sleeping., not so much with Jesse. When Jesse heard us up, he came out asking, "What was THAT?!??" He's okay now, but I have to admit we are shaken up a bit. (haha)

One woman just called in to the tv station-the earthquake cracked her house in half. This wasn't even on the New Madrid fault, which is one of the largest in the world.
A few more details-5.4 on the Richter Scale, and the epicenter is in New Salem, IL, about 127 miles away. Chris's mom called 5 minutes after because they felt it in Springfield, IL. I called my Dad (who is up at that time, earthquake or not) and he didn't know anything about it. Good thing I called to inform him and Mom

That's enough excitement for the day, and it's not even 6 a.m. Coffee time!