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we had about 100 things to do on saturday, we were so super busy but decided to go ahead and stop by shangrila since we thought people might be there working, boy am i glad we did, when we pulled up and saw this i cried, brian cried, lela cheered and charlie yelled "look! my new room!!"
lots of things happened for the first anniversary of the fire, we are finally wrapping them all up. we had lots of bbqs with our meeting groups, attended lots of stick parties and of course met up with the attorneys against sdge. one of the fun things we did was attend the flag fields in rancho bernardo, they assembled a flag per house that burned and lined them up, the kids were amazed!!
overall the anniversary was more strange than anything else, it certainly does not seem like a year at all! we have made a lot of progress in our long journey home but sadly only 30% of the homes have even begun to be rebuilt so hope has been a hard thing to find among the victims. the hardest thing for me is all the time we have not had to just be a family, my kids have never spent so much time in the car and piper literally is twice her age and i feel like her life is passing and i dont have any time to notice!
pper has begun to really enjoy a nice cool sink bath. it has become one her favorite afternoon activities.
oh my gosh, we have a floor! i cant believe how FAST these guys work, its a bit of an art form. this was the most exciting day except for the fact that charlie had a raging fever and strep throat.
after we finally got our permit things really picked up at the property. i mean, REALLY picked up!!! i am completely in awe of how quickly these guys work and what a great job they do in the process! i have heard so many nightmare stories of workers making total messes at peoples homes, we have had NONE of that. i couldnt be happier! here is some of the latest. i actually have a lot more pictures but i havent downloaded them yet. hopefully they will be up this weekend....
heres the workshop/barn being completed on the outside. brian is over the moon..
one afternoon i stopped by to take some pictures of the workshop and was totally surprised that they trenched the whole place!! my heart skipped a little beat.
heres our new irrigation. i was so excited to learn that it will work on timers, i know that sounds dumb but i just figured id have go turn the handle. its like magic, only better!
like i said, there is soooo much more going on, rebar, sanding and we are pouring our foundation!!! i will put more pictures up very soon!!!
we had a surprising trip to the zoo with winkie and mom right before we headed to the airport. it was probably the best way to end our little trip. it was so fun to be around winkie and talk and let piper boss us all around.....
little baby girl, big big world
on our last day we met up with maw maw and walked the gardens and enjoyed the weather, piper really enjoyed herself.
ok, wheeling has the spookiest cemetary of all time and its right in the middle of town, i had to stop and take a million pictures, i felt like i was in micheal jacksons thriller video........
look at the face on these ones...
here is most most favorite place to shop. yesterday i put charlie in a charlie brown shirt from there, as he hugged me i picked up the hot dog smell that comes with gabs.... it was so good.
here is the park where kadie threatened to kick carrie purpurras butt in 4th grade....too bad she never showed up, it would have been pretty funny. also this park used to have the BEST merry-go-round.
heres the very short nature walk to took with piper
guess what, i think my turkeys followed me....
`the first weekend in october i went to wheeling, west virginia. this is where i grew up.
i took piper and she was so awesome, we were very lucky to have the seat next to us all the way to and from wheeling empty. however, us air was TERRIBLE, they wouldnt even give me a glass of water on the flight without paying 2.00, so i spent 14.00 on the way there just to drink WATER. doesnt that sound a bit illegal???
anyway, we had an amazing time, we stayed at sam and winkies house and couldnt have been more comfortable, i dont think ive slept that well in a very long time. piper was completely in love with the house. i really think it was her favorite part of the trip. i should have taken tons of pictures of her inside peeking around every corner to see what surprise awaited her.
oglebayfest was going on curing our trip and the weather was gorgeous!!! i drove around for hours looking at houses and taking cemetary pictures.
heres our first day, we went to oglebayfest and met beth and her family, i CANT believe i didnt get pictures of alice and piper together, i think i was so in awe of how beautiful wheeling ...........
these smiley face wood slices are a staple of my childhood
here is the house i grew up in. my room was in the attic....
here are a small sample of those house i was talking about, once again i am wishing i had a picture of winkies house):
most of these house are in my old neighborhood, i think about how many times i rode past them on my bike and never even looked twice, now i am so in love with them...
this picture better be worth a million words because i cant find them to express how thrilled we are!!!
