First full haircut

Victoria and I had a little girl time yesterday. I took her to a kids hair cut place I found and then we went to the salon so I could get a pedicure. She sat in my lap the whole time, eating goldfish and watching me get my pedicure. She was so great I could not believe it! She even put her toes under the fans too :)


Is this kids hair cut place too cool?!


Hairdresser could not get over how much hair she has.


Wow! I am hot!


I really like this place! they gave me my first pop!
She did pretty good with it too.


This is what Danny did to the wall in the playroom. When we asked why he did it, he denied it at first. Once he admitted doing it he brought us the play tools he used to do it and then explained that he was doing what he saw us do and the people on tv. I told Dan we must be watching too much HDTV. So he is having to help Dan plug the hole and then clean the whole play room. He can not play in the play room all weekend either.

Growing up and talking!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Howdy!

The only child I know that LOVES to clean!!

Sorry it has been so long :)
We have been busy cleaning up the yard. Luckily we did not lose any trees, nothing hit the house and the backyard pool is almost gone. The ground is so saturated that walking on it is just gross.
I can not even describe the smell that comes from the back yard and the culverts out front. But lets just say it is truly nasty. You have to hold your breath and breathe in and out of your mouth while working outside.
Dan went out to the marina Sunday and was able to get a work boat to go out and check our boat. Turns out at least one boat hit us on its way to the trees. He said there are some pretty good size gashes, dents and rigging wrapped around our mooring that did not belong to us. He also said that all the boats were still in the trees and boatus and sea tow were working on trying to get them freed.
The big boat that was hung up on a pilon was patched and moved and there was a surprise under it! 3 more boats! Dan said the first dock is considered damaged beyond repair and will have to be totally replaced.
We were so very lucky!
Danny finally went back to school yesterday! woo hoo!! He was going stir crazy.
Victoria was very unhappy Danny was gone during the day and kept asking for him.
Yesterday we hit Home Depot and went out for a quick lunch. When the waitress asked her what she wanted to drink, I said milk just as she yelled out "doda" (soda). Smart a** :)

Fav Foto Fro-Fay!

See - we can fit two cars in our garage! first time for everything :)


Dan and Danny filling the generator with gas. We had to run it for 24 hours as we had no power. Can I tell you how much I heard "and YOU said we did not need one!!" I had to eat crow for a long time :) We were able to run everything in the house. We did not need to run the AC as the temp stayed in the hi 70's.
We invited one of our neighbors over for coffee this am as they did not have a generator and had no power.


The kids on their makeshift beds in our room last night


The girls in bed with us last night


During a lull we ran up to the base to check on our boat this am. This is a dock at the marina on base. The dock is under water and the boats were bobbing all around. There were several boats that had broken loose from either the dock or the moorings and were against the trees. There was a motor boat sunk at the dock and a sailboat that was being slammed into the dock and had two huge holes in it. So sad.


This is across the street, his yard has flooded and now the street is flooded


Our next door neighbors front yard, all under water. Their back yard is worse than ours.


The backyard "pool"
Unfortunately we are supposed to have rain for the next 1 1/2 days!!
The worst is during high tide when the water fills up the street and comes up our driveway and almost to the back porch.
Lots of streets are flooded and too many homes have lost their docks.
This is the storm that just will not end.
I know this area needs rain, but we didn't need it all in one week!!

Since starting and stopping this blog entry the tide has come in and it has started pouring again!

The back yard is quickly disappearing!


The water is coming up our driveway now :(

Does anyone know a stop rain dance??

Can I tell you how stir crazy we are going to be by Monday am when Danny goes back to school!!

School Starts and a little thing called Fay

So excited about his first day of school :)


Danny's class starts out the day walking the path around the playground, here he is with a couple of classmates and his teacher. The bigger kids have to do 7 loops (1 mile) before school starts. I think the kids really like Miss Suzy because she is so tiny :)


The outside part of the classroom, the kids plastic picnic tables are against the wall to the left out of sight. On good days the kids eat snack and lunch out there.


Danny's classroom all ready for the kids
He has had 2 days at school and the teacher says he is doing great!
We have been getting books on cassette and Danny loves to listen and turn the page as he follows the story. We have been running up to the library after I pick him up and getting one or two books.


Oh Yah!
We move 400 miles away and Fay makes landfall at our old home and now looks like it is coming to our new home!! Who ever heard of a hurricane STRENGTHENING over land?? Dan is in his usual panic mode. The boat has been strapped and tied as much as possible. All our outside stuff is inside or tied up. The shed passed inspection today and has 4 tie downs too.
They are saying the river will rise 3-5 feet!
Danny is very upset because they have already closed school for tomorrow.
Let's hope it heads out to sea and keeps going!!

On a side note, I saw the podiatrist again today. I have a bursar sac on my heel right where the achilles tendon attaches and it has been painful for a couple of months. He has me wearing a heel hugger and taking anti-inflammatories. The pain is much better, but not gone. So he feels it will become chronic pain if we don't take care of it - SO I have to have surgery. I will have a walking cast for 3 weeks! yikes! We are going to hold off having it done till my mom is down here full time in October so she can help out. I am not looking forward to it at all. Luckily it is my left foot so I hope I can drive quickly.

On to hurricane prep activities :) :)

A Day at the Beach

We decided to head over to the ocean at Jacksonville Beach today. We wanted to have a fun family outing before Danny starts school tomorrow. It is actually pretty darn close too :)


Follow me to the beach


You want me to do WHAT in the water?? get sandy and wet?


Checking out the ocean waves (I love this pic)


Look Birds! They both loved playing in the sand and water. Victoria kept chasing the birds all over the beach, didn't matter where we were :)


Took this picture at the Mayport Naval Air Station turning basin, lots of really BIG boats!
This base is right on the Atlantic Beach! They have some beautiful real estate!


The kids were fascinated by the boats and fish on the river and docks in Mayport, this little village is right next to the NAS.


This is where we had lunch! It is right on the river in Mayport. Dan and I walked here to have lunch 14 years ago when we were traveling the US coast in our sailboat. It brought back such memories :)

This is how we ended the day:



They were both so tired!!

For those of you that know Dan, YES he is watching Hurricane Fay intently :)
Can't believe they are talking about it making landfall at our old house :(

Fav Foto Fri

Danny trying to convince Victoria to go down the slide at the school playdate.
Unfortunately the weather was not great, rained off and on. But the kids seemed to have fun and it did not take Danny long to head off with a couple of kids to play :)


Danny was a little shy around the kids he didn't know, but Ms V. had no problem walking right in the middle of everything


This is how you keep the kids happy while you are waiting for the rain deluge to let up so you can get out of the car and go shopping :)


Say Cheese!!
I went to open house at Danny's new school. I got to meet his teacher and several other parents and see his classroom. This is one lucky kid! His teacher is really nice! The class size is 7! The class has an outdoor terrace that she is going to use a lot. Her husband even made a science table for the kids to play at outside. The terrace also overlooks the large pond that Danny fished at during camp.
Danny has to be at school at 7:45 and will meet his teacher and class at the playground where they will walk around the track for 15-20 minutes. This gets some energy out and some socialization done before they get to class.
He will start afterschool Karate and sports next month :)
He is so excited he keeps asking when Monday will be here :) :)
I am going to be the art mom, need to be at school every Thursday for art class :)
I think Victoria is really going to miss having him around, she follows him everywhere. We may look into some classes or two mornings a week at a preschool so she can play with kids her own age.

Wordless Wednesday

Formal uniform for Mondays, special events and field trips


Regular uniform for Tues-Thurs.
On Friday he gets to wear his PE uniform all day :)

Danny starts Kindergarten on Monday! Tomorrow is open house and a play date at a local playground for all the kids grade 2 and under. Danny was really scared and nervous, till we went to the school today to fill out all the paperwork and get some uniforms. He could not wait to try them on and then cried cause he has to wait till Monday for school :) :)

We decided to go with the private school that he went to camp this summer. The classes are so much smaller than other private and public schools around here. His class will have 8-10 kids. They really stress other activities as well as academics. He will start playing an instrument, learn Karate and T-Ball. They have a really large Art building that has a whole room of computers. They also have an acre playground and a pool. He will start off the day walking around a track with all the other kids. This helps the kids get some energy out and some socialization done before settling into class.
This school also stresses community participation and leadership skills.
We are so looking forward to this!!

finished with the playset! :)

Bye Bye grampy! Love you :)


Saying goodbye to Grampy at the airport, very sad. He acted out Sunday and Monday. He kept saying he was sad :(


Yes, that is a lot of mulch! Grampy is gone so we had to do it all by ourselves :(


The finished playset!! Both kids love it and want to be on it all the time.


This would be the mole that the dogs were going crazy over! They chased the poor thing all around, Danny screamed and Victoria was blowing kisses at it :)


Dan's new toy :) His new portable shed. It was delivered today and boy is he happy!!
I am happy too cause it means I will be able to park in the garage!! woo hoo!

Another Busy Day!

This is what Grampy did first thing this am, he called it stretching to cart 5-6 bags of mulch with the wheelbarrel.


We took a trip over to the Jacksonville Naval Air Station. My dad spent two months here a very long time ago with the marines and wanted to see it again. Alas he did not remember any of it, they have made too many changes. We also drove down to the marina to check on the boat.


Dan and Danny got their haircut on base while the rest of us checked out the PX and the Commissary. I have never seen Dan with hair this short!! :) cutie :)


Danny and Grampy at lunch at the Budweiser Brew House on base, you can see Danny's hair is high and tight :)


This is what happens when you say Cheese!


Checking out the planes on base


Grampy gets into the princess thing :)


AFter we got back to the house we decided to finish off the last couple of items on the playset. We also laid out the wood to set a boundary around it.


Victoria learned the climbing rocks quickly


Checking out the swings with Grammy


Victoria has figured out the slide! and loves it :)


Setting up the play area. Dan had a plan :)


Both kids helped us!

We had a great dinner of spaghetti with Dan's infamous homemade sauce! We all ate, relaxed and then watched the Olympics!
GO USA!!

Danny thinks Grammy and Grampy are staying, he does not realize that they are leaving tomorrow :(