Lots of Smiles on a Sunny Sunday

Why are these two Martin girls so happy you ask??? Because they only have to make it through one more weekend on their own before Matthew comes home!

Not So Wordless Wednesday

The November Nor'Easter 2009 hit our neighborhood pretty hard. These first few pictures of were taken before the highest tide cycles hit. At it's peak, the water was over two feet higher than it was here but I wasn't around to photograph it because we evacuated to my in law's house.

side yard

backyard completely submerged

backyard off of deck

view of some neighboring apartments and some very unlucky cars. I'm told the white Accord wagon was almost completely covered with water during the highest tides!

View from the driver's seat as we fled Oceanview

Fallen tree after the Nor'Easter had passed.

side yard with lots of debris

backyard full of pine needles and crap once the waters finally receded.

Top water line was as high as our fourth step!

Wet, stinky garage with some seriously soaked drywall.

Over 30 inches of water in this part of the garage!

One of our big trees is now leaning pretty badly and will have to be chopped down just as soon as we can lay our hands on a chainsaw.

After a few days of good weather, a really hard working father in law, and some very generous volunteers from our church, I'm happy to report that our clean up efforts are nearly complete. We've done all we can do without professional help. Our insurance adjuster will be visiting on Saturday afternoon- hopefully we'll get the go ahead to hire a contractor to start ripping out the soggy drywall and treating for mold.

We feel quite fortunate to have suffered relatively minor damage compared to many of our neighbors. Our home is at the highest elevation on the street and is new enough to be subject to building codes that require the home to be built on at least a 6 foot crawl space if it is located in a flood zone. Our actual living space is dry and to our knowledge, the water in our crawl space did not breech the duct system or get into the insulation and floor trusses.

FEMA officials were here surveying the neighborhood yesterday to determine if our area will qualify for any federal assistance. It probably won't make much of a difference for us, but we're hopeful that Oceanview will qualify so some of our neighbors (particularly those renting and without insurance) can get some much needed assistance.

32.5 Weeks!

My 15 Seconds of Fame

http://www.fox43tv.com/dpp/news/local/localnews_wavy_hampton_Peninsula_Ocean_View_residents_ready_200911111258000296766

A Home For Hank

After much procrastination, I finally got around to starting, and nearly finishing, work on Hank's nursery- with a ton of help from my parents. This bedroom used to be our office. Over the past week, we have moved out the humongous table we used as our desk, a filing cabinet, and lots of pictures. We had a painter come in and paint the ceiling a lovely shade of light blue (which you can't see in any of these photos) and gave the baseboards and trim a fresh coat of white. We repurposed an old dresser from our guest room, added a changing table rail and had it painted white as well as two end tables that were in the guest room. All three red lamps were collecting dust in the attic and the couch was already in the room. The crib was purchased from Craig's List, was thoroughly scrubbed down and graced with a brand new mattress.

On my last trip to California, Ann and I found this fabulous fabric (seen in the quilt hanging on the wall) that has both helicopters and trains so we had a quilt custom made and found some bedding from Pottery Barn Kids that had a similar enough stripe to look cute but not be too 'matchy matchy.' We had lots of extra fabric, so we cut out and framed a bunch of little pictures in hand painted frames.

Finally, we got this great rug from Pottery Barn Kids as well- it really helps to pull all the colors together and finish up the look.

I'm still on a quest for the perfect pair of white floating shelves to flank the window. We're planning to use them to display our train and helicopter collections. It feels great to have the bulk of this project completed though. I just hope Matthew and Hank like it! Thanks Dad & Ann for all your hard work!

Wordless Wednesday

Have You Heard The One About The Angry Panda????

There is no real punchline to follow up the title of this post, but it just seemed to fit this picture! I thought I was going to be the smart mommy this year and do a dry run with the costume the day before Halloween so I would have plenty of time to photograph my precious panda before the big night. She was SOOOO NOT HAVING IT!!

I'm kicking myself for spending $50 on a costume from Pottery Barn Kids right now!

I guess I really can't blame her for being scared of the panda head after being exposed to this! I was trying to show her how cute and funny it could be, but somehow I think I just made things worse!

The only time she was reasonably happy was while she was running away from me and the panda head!

She finally gave up on running and decided to protest like this!

Even though it is supposed to be 80 degrees tomorrow in Norfolk, I think we'll attempt to wear the whole get up (minus the panda head of course) and just pin a sticky note to her that says "stubborn panda" so everyone will know what she is supposed to be!

The moral of this story is.... don't waste your money on expensive costumes with head pieces until your child is old enough to be reasoned with (or bribed!)

Happy Halloween!