Guest Blogger - 3 Bay B Chicks and a earthquake readiness plan.

My guest post is from 3 Bay B Chics Blog.
The 3 Bay B Chicks are comprised of three long-time friends, Thuy, Kacey, and Francesca, who love their little corner of the world in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Their blog began as a way for friends to help one another remain sane after becoming parents. The three of them offer something a little different to the blogosphere each week. Kacey is the resident style expert, Thuy is the queen of bargains and tips, and Francesca writes mostly about her everyday experiences with her kids.

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As evidenced by my tendency to drive like an old lady, I have always been a cautious person. Since giving birth to our son, I’d like to think that my sense of cautiousness has taken a more focused and productive path. You see, my family lives in earthquake country in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Because both my husband and I commute across the Bay Bridge to work, I feel inclined to be even more prepared than the average person.

What does this mean exactly? For starters, I followed the guidelines at Ready.gov to prepare food and extra supplies that my family would need in case a natural disaster strikes. In addition, I took these extra steps:

Put an extra pair of shoes underneath our bed (next to the baseball bat) in case we need to run out of the house and there is shattered glass on the ground.
Packed an emergency kit for the car, complete with water, cash (cash is king!), extra change of clothing, coats, and trail mixes.
Assigned an out of state emergency contact because the network will be flooded with calls to the area.
Last, but not least, I created a “What To Do If I Die” file on the computer for my husband.

Okay, I know that last one sounds incredibly morbid, but as the one who takes care of all the paperwork at home, I thought my husband should know about the bills he’d need to pay, the numerous accounts to keep track of, where to find our son’s medical files, who our life insurance contact is, etc.

Basically, the computer file contains a rambling of all the things that my husband would need to address in the event that I pass. I did take care to also write beautiful and heartfelt notes to my family in the file. It’s not all instructive! J

In spite of my various disaster preparedness efforts, when I saw this Life.doc book on sale recently, I thought it might help me to organize my rambling thoughts a bit more.

The book is broken down into the following categories:

Emergency plan
Family basics
Medical history
Insurance
Finance
Legal issues
Contacts (housekeeper, babysitter, etc)


It is certainly a cute little book and, after investing the time to list all the insurance policies and bank account numbers, I felt so much better about our emergency preparedness. Once I completed the various forms, I also scanned them, encrypted the file, and e-mailed it to myself so that if I couldn’t grab the Life.doc book quickly, all would not be lost.

Though I must admit that my “What To Do If I Die” file worked well, filling out the Life.doc folder made me realize that I was missing lots of information. The book is definitely something that I could easily grab if I was running out of the house, as all of our information is now nicely consolidated in one place.

Now, if only I could plan for the little things in life, like dinner!!

-Thuy