Tropical Storm Fay

The beginning of the week brought a lot of anticipation about whether or not Tropical Storm Fay would turn into a hurricane.

Yes it was. No it was not. Yes it was. No it was not.

It was coming up the central part of Florida.

It was going to hit Tuesday.

All schools were cancelled.

The government offices were closed.

All the ma and pa stores closed.

The Media warned all day and night,

"Look out!"

And....

Nothing happened.

It sprinkled....

For a min or two.... Here and there....

Boring!

Then it was supposed to go out to the ocean and be gone.

HA!

Wed night it hit the Atlantic Ocean and stopped going east, paused, then headed west.

Directly over us.

Then it stopped.

And rained...

And rained... All day Thursday...

And rained.

And rained.... All day Friday...

And rained.

Yes Caleb, it is still raining. Its Saturday....

Look at the house across the street in the picture. See the lake behind it?

Your not supposed too...

This is today. It is still raining. But the winds are gone.

There was no school Tuesday or Wed. Then, because the storm missed us, they said school was in session on Thursday. It was raining so hard Thursday morning, I told Christina to stay home. She didn't want to, of course, so I drove her to the bus stop, along with some of her friends we saw walking on the way.

By the time it was Zachary's turn to get on his bus, the storm was so bad we said,

"I don't care what the school says, we are not letting him go to school in this!"

By early afternoon, Seminole County announced that any student that missed that day, would NOT be counted as absent. The storm was so bad that most of the kids didn't show up.

Christina got home safe and sound but was mad that she COULD OF stayed home without consequences!

This morning we woke to partially blue skies.

Then it started raining.

Again.

The things we noticed about this storm. There was no Thunder or Lightning. None.

The News Media go way way OVER BOARD in the storm coverage. I record Days Of Our Lives on DVR everyday. Not once, all week long, was Days on. Nope. All storm coverage. It was hundreds of miles from us on Monday, but Tropical Storm Fay was the center of every TV station. There were no daily TV shows on all week. Even the cable channels had banners scrolling across the top and bottom of the screen.

We do have weather channels for crying out loud!

Good Grief! I can only cringe when I think about what storm coverage will be like when we have a HURRICANE!!

We have had a lot of flooding in the surrounding areas, but our neighborhood seems to have been planned very well. We have a lot of little lakes and most of them were pretty full. With one being about 2 feet from the top.

So far our rain fall total from TS Fay is 14.73 in. Wow! Our yard was great! You'd never even know it had rained looking at the grass. Our front door however didn't fare so well. We have a porch over our front door that extends about 6 ft out. The wind kept the rain coming in straight at the front of our house. We had to put towels down in front of the door to prevent getting water in the house. We went thru 12 towels. Beach towels! I washed the first 4, and kept the cycle going for 2 days. We will be emailing the rental company that they need to weather seal the door. I'm glad we were home!

So, I guess I can say, that us DRY ARIZONIANS have survived our first tropical storm, without too much damage! Lets hope we can be this fortunate for all the future storms that will come this way!

Hollywood here we come!

Thursday we went to Hollywood.

Hollywood Florida.

I want to come here again. It has a 5 mile boardwalk.

No cars. Only people.

There are stores galore, and every kind of eatery you can imagine.

We rented this bike and rode up and down the boardwalk for 1.5 hours.

Then there was this playground the boys played at. It was a boring one. No slide or swings. So that ended fairly quickly.... Because they discovered this on the other side of the playground.

Mike and I sat in the shade and watched them and the people. Once they were thoroughly soaked, we took them to the beach to get even wetter. Then we discovered that the bag with the extra clothes in it was still at the hotel.

So they got to pick their own pictures/sayings on clothes at a cute little shop. Caleb loves pictures of sharks and Zachary was excited to get a shirt saying Daddys best buddy.

Monday was back to school. Zachary started 2nd grade, Christina 11th!

We took Zachary back to school shopping, and he picked out all his own outfits. Isn't he a sharp dresser?

Well, we had our first 'major' storm, although it turned out to not be too bad at all.

Tropical Storm Fay came in very very slowly Monday night, Tuesday, and it's still here today. Some decent winds, and a good amount of rain. But no thunder. No lightning.

This was last night. We are in the area of the last 'O' in Orlando. You can see the eye south of us. Luckily, it veered off to the east a little bit, so we didn't get much excitement. But I stocked up just in case. Lots of water, and easy food. Made lots of ice. We have so much camping equipment and supplies, that I am not worried if we had to be without power or water for a week. I guess the water is the biggest issue after a storm because of bacteria that easily gets in it. Yuck! Nascat is finally getting use to the kitties and is starting to play with them. Although they still think he is being mean. Maybe he is still being a bit of a bully. Nascat kept wanting to go out in the storm last night, so we let him out back. It was raining pretty good, but he didn't care. He came back an hour later soaked. What a wierdo! There is no school again today.

Yesterday Mike and I took apart the boys closet and replaced the shelf about 2 feet lower, and added 2 new shelves. Then we pulled out their beds and furniture and gave the room a floor to ceiling cleaning.

I don't think that Mike wants to do any projects today tho.

I just asked him and he just smiled at me. heehhee!

My sister in law Michelle is doing better.

Here is the web site to get updates on her and baby John.

Continue to pray for them.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/michellemattingly

Michelles awake!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Michelle came out of her coma! She is talking, and still has her sense of humor! Yeah!

Baby John is stable. He needs lots of time to finish growing.

Michelle has even been able to see Elektra. But not John yet.

The transplant seems to have taken well, and she is recovering nicely!

My mom came home last night, but she will head back on Sunday.

My brother has to move out of his house by the end of the month. This was all set in stone before Michelle became sick.

The good news is they got base housing that is a one story. (they were set to get a 2nd floor)

My brother Frank is still there. He is babysitting Elektra.

His school gave him a 6 week medical leave. He didn't want that long, but I guess its mandatory.

Thank you for your prayers, and for continuing to pray for them.

**************************************************************************

Tomorrow Zachary gets to meet his school teacher for 2nd grade. Then he has a DR appt for his 7 yr well check. After that, we are headed back to Miami for one last Hoorah before school starts. I'm sad that summer is over. It went by much to fast. Whatever happened to school starting after Labor Day? I miss those times.

NASCAT is starting to warm up to the kitties. When he does playfully swat at them, they think he is still being mean, so they run. At least they are sharing the same food dishes without growling. Except Freeway. She refuses to go near the kitties. But then again, she is still like that with NASCAT.

Please Pray for Michelle and John

It has been a very long week for my entire family. My sister in law, Michelle, (Leonard's wife) who is 26 weeks pregnant, had a sickle cell attack on Sunday, the 3rd. http://www.emedicinehealth.com/sickle_cell_crisis/article_em.htm She received a full blood transfusion. This is something she has had before, and the blood transfusions have always done the job, and Michelle always recovered. For whatever reason, this time, her liver stopped working, and started dying. Wed morning Michelle slipped into a coma. She was put at the top of the national transplant list, and within 48 she had a new liver, and a newborn baby. John Jakob Mattingly was born 8-8-08 at 11:03am. (due date 10-31) He is 2 lbs 9 oz. & 40 cm long. He is in the NICU. He had to have a blood transfusion as well due to the toxins in his blood from the bad liver. They are both in stable condition. Michelle is still in the coma.

This is Michelle's blog, so you can get to know her better. http://babymattingly.blogspot.com/

This is the website that you can leave them messages and find out updates.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/michellemattingly Mean while, Mike had to work in Tallahassee on Tuesday and Wed, so the boys and I drove up with him.

All of the houses in the area are built like this. We found this tiny playground. It helped the boys get out some energy before the 4 hour drive back home. The sail boat in the background ran into the beach (it was low tide) and got stuck. We saw the entire thing. We got back from Tallahassee Wed evening, then headed out Thursday morning since Mike had to work in South Miami on Friday. Christina brought Catelyn with us. She is the one that is like a second teen daughter to us. Mike got done at work at 1pm, then we headed down to Key Largo.

I didn't get any pictures of us snorkeling. I left my phone in the truck, and I was too busy enjoying watching the kids snorkel. Zachary got it down the last time. So he was off and snorkeling before we could get in. Caleb has been practicing wearing his goggles in the hotel swimming pools lately, so he was excited to try it in the ocean. He got in, ducked his head under, and swam around for a few minutes, taking a breath, and looking down. Then he decided to try the snorkel. 1 minute later, he got the hang of breathing, and spent the next hour swimming all over and discovering all kinds of fish and crabs! It is so incredibly fun to watch them discover something like snorkeling, and to watch them enjoy it so much.

These birds came right up to him looking for food, so we threw them some cracker crumbs. Our gramma Ginny and papa Bill wanted to buy the boys a Big Electric Truck for Christmas. (they bought my brothers one years ago, and I was soo jealous I was too old for it.) So, even tho it is a long time until Christmas, they wanted me to keep my eyes out for one we liked. While shopping with Zachary for his birthday presents, we found one. It was originally 379.99. It was on clearance for 299.99. We had a coupon for 20% off, so after taxes and etc, it was only 268.42. I called gramma, she agreed, good price good time to buy. So we did! The boys got their Christmas present a few months early. Oh well, more time for them to enjoy it!

And are they ever enjoying it!

They have already driven circles around our house!

You soooo know I am going to add NASCAR decals to it!

It has a trunk to carry stuff, so it will be perfect at the races in Feb.

Another reason why parents go gray....

We are praying very hard for Michelle, Leonard and Jakob. Please continue your prayers for them, as they will need them for a long time coming.

Happy 1 Year Anniversary

Wow! I can not believe it has been 1 year since we moved here. It really has flown by.

So how have we all dealt with our big change this year? I guess over all, pretty well. It definitely took me the longest. Although Caleb still says he misses our old home.

I wasn't sure how I'd feel about Florida after 1 year. That was my time frame to decide to stay, or go back to Phx.

After 1 year, I can positively say, I love it here! I don't want to move back to Phx. I miss my family and friends very much, but I really love living here. I wish everyone could move here!

The first few months were the hardest. I was so use to having my family and friends around us all the time. When we went back to AZ in Dec, I wondered if I would want to stay there. However, after just a couple of days, Zachary's skin on his feet started to crack, and his skin on his body started to dry up. As did mine. By the end of the 2 weeks, his feet were so cracked he didn't want to walk on them. It really made my mind up for me, that for his benefit (and mine) he needs to be in a warm moist environment. His feet healed after just a week at home, and has not occurred since. I decided at that point, that even if I am far away from my family and friends, we need to be here and I had better learn to enjoy living here. So I started embracing Florida for all its potential! And what a wonderful time it has been!

We have traveled all over the state. From the northwest end, Pensacola, to the far southwest end, Key West. We have visited, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Vero Beach, Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Naples, Florida City, Daytona, St. Augustine, Cocoa Beach. Having been to some of the places 2 or 3 times. We have played in the Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico. We have seen several rocket launches, 2 space shuttle launches, gone to Kennedy Space Center 5 times, camping twice, experienced the Daytona 500 while camping infield, Universal Studios more than a dozen times, the Science Center 4 times, Jungle Land once, DisneyWorld once, and half a dozen marine wildlife parks or Zoos. (Christina has also gone to SeaWorld, Cypress Gardens and Busch Gardens. Today she is at DisneyWorld)

We sit out on our patio and watch the deer, turtles, snakes, wild turkeys, ducks, herons, frogs, hawks, owls, squirrels, and other wildlife that I don't even know what they are called! Cruised to the Bahamas, and saw our family grow by 3 kitties. We've enjoyed having visit us, Michelle and Elektra, my parents, and my brother Frank. I've written 68 posts (as of this one, not included my recipe blog). Mike has traveled to Washington 3 times, once with the boys, twice to CA, and we been to Az once. Ok, is that all the places we've been this past year?

Its been quite a year!

I am looking forward to our next full year here. My brother Frank plans on moving here the first of next year. It will be so nice having a family member close by. Maybe eventually I can talk Mom and Dad to coming out. Its a long shot, but worth a mention every now and again. :) There is simply so much to do here. You can not be bored living in Florida, and if you are, you've either lived here 100 years, or are a very boring person.

Of course, we haven't had to deal with a hurricane yet, or a tornado in our neighborhood. And Central Florida has many lightning strikes. It also has its typical problems of cities outgrowing before enough roads are done. No decent MASS transportation, some very poorly performing schools (not Seminole County tho, we are in an A+ school district). Bad politicians. (Presidential Election 2000 anyone? 2008 primary? Hello? Horrible politicians!) A housing market that won't recover for a few more years. Poor water planning, as Florida is constantly worried about the 'drought' we are in. (We only get 59+ inches a year.)

But of course, every state, every city has its pluses and minuses. As long as the pluses continue to out weigh the minuses, we will be living in Florida for a very long time to come.

So to My Mikey, I say, I am sorry I was a big pain in the ass for a few months after moving here. I am totally over it! Thank you for moving us to such a beautiful place that has been wonderful for Zachary's and my skin. And has provided our family with great places to visit and things to do. Thank you so much for being a wonderful husband and daddy! I love you X' 2 and so do the kids! Ok,enough mush and reminiscing! Lets see, its Sunday, Mikes been gone 4 nights and its starting to feel like 40 nights. Why? Because I think the boys are trying to drive me crazy! Normally Mike is here for them to help bounce their energy off of. When he is tired of it, its my turn. It usually works pretty well for us. Unless the other parent is missing... And its raining outside... And lightning... And no friends can play... And they are BORED!!! Everytime the sky clears I scoot them outside. RUN!! YELL!! PLAY!! CHASE EACH OTHER!! Sometimes I get a minute or two of quiet. Oh, don't get me totally wrong, for the most part, they are behaving OK, its just that they think because its Hurricane season, they can be tropical storms. As long as I can keep them below a category 1, I guess I'm doing ok. One thing I am having a hard time dealing with is the POTTY mouths. HOOOly Cow. These 2 boys (and their friends are just as bad) use the words Poop, fart and pee like they are the 3 most common English words. I cant stand it!! Time outs don't obviously work, so I have been giving them a different punishment. Every time I have to correct them, or punish them I give them an extra paper to do. Zachary has to do 10 pages a day of school work and Caleb does 2 - 3. So getting in trouble several times really adds up. Yesterday Zachary had 17 pages of school work he had to do and Caleb 6. They did not like that at all. So I am hoping today they will behave better. I am about ready to wash their mouths out with soap. I told Zachary that, and he said "You will go to jail for that mommy, its against the law." What? Where did he get that? And in today's age of "its a sin to spank" could I really get in trouble if I did do it? It is 2:45 here, and I have only had to get on them once! I made them sit down and do the paper right then and there. Maybe its not the best way to correct them, but it sure has been effective today!!

Geez, what innocent faces. Don't let them fool you. I made the kids funnel cakes. It tastes just like the ones we get at the park. Except I didn't put ice cream, chocolate sauce and strawberries on it.

Mike is having a wonderful time in WA. I got a nice email from his dad, saying how much Mike helped him around the house and community. Mike loves doing things like that, and his parents really appreciated having him there. (and they had him all to themselves for 24 hours! When we the last time THAT happened?)

Sat night he went to a Mariners game with Kevin and some friends of Kevins.The boys were excited to see these pictures of Daddy. Tomorrow Mikey comes home!! Yeah! We are counting the hours...31.

Happy 1 Year Anniversary to US! We made it a year!!!!!!!

Passing Our Time By

Mikey got to CA safe and sound. He got in late Wed night, and worked all day Thursday. Then he met up with Leonard, Michelle, and Elektra. They had dinner at Hooters and had a great evening! (that's all I can say, because, so far, that's all I know!)

We are having a nice time hanging at home. Christina is driving more, so we went out driving for a little bit yesterday. I really wish I had brakes, and a steering wheel on my side. She has done real well so far, but I am a paranoid passenger. I don't think I help her very much either. "Look out for that car!" "MOM, its 2 parking spaces away" "Slow down, your turning too fast" "Its slower than you turned last time" "Speed up, you almost cut them off!" "You just told me to slow down." Ugh, I'm not very good at this. I swear I age every time I ride with her. Caleb loves to go out front and ride his tricycle. I'm trying to get him to ride his big boy bike, but this is a start. We made frozen Yogurt Popsicles today. Raspberry! Yummy! Its so simple. Couple cups of Greek (or plain) yogurt, 1/2 - same # cup frozen fruit, couple Tbs to taste Confectioner Sugar, blend till smooth, put in Popsicle cups, insert sticks, and freeze!

Wed night Christina has several girlfriends stay over, last night she stayed over there. She has been busy almost every day this summer. Her best friend, Katelyn has been over or with us so much, I feel like I've gained an extra daughter! Now I know how my parents felt when Ursula went every where with us! They always said they thought of her as an additional daughter. I don't get it. The boys chase the kittens, grab them, hold them, swing them, and are generally pretty rough with them. We are always telling them to BE GENTLE. Well, the cats must enjoy it, because they sleep snuggled next to the boys. All 3 cats!All night long, no matter how much the boys move around, those cats snuggle right in. Zachary is waiting for his favorite show to come on in our room... SpongeBob. Mike should be up to Seattle today. Provided the camera he worked on behaves it self. Have fun with my hubby! Send him home safely to us! Check out my Recipe Blog, if your interested, I have a few new recipes on it! http://myfamilysfavoriterecipes.blogspot.com/