A Word of Warning.....

A word of warning: Curious baby + i-Phone + Mummy's front teeth = another trip to the dentist.......

Don't panic, it wasn't so bad that she was banished behind bars; this is the cute scene that greeted me yesterday morning at 5.45am....I think she was ready to get up and get to some mischief making don't you?!

Week 10 on the boat.

We are now nearing the end of week 10 living on the boat (yay- we have made it to double figures!)  I must admit that things have been pretty tough the last couple of weeks given the crazy heat and humidity that we've been experiencing.  We are all looking forward to the time when the house is completed.

Without a doubt my favourite part of the day is first thing in the morning.  When Doug's work schedule permits Doug, Tabby and I enjoy an early morning walk together around the marina before the heat becomes too intense.  Since the marina is also a nature reserve we've been privileged to see so many different types of wildlife on our early morning strolls.  Here are some of the creatures and critters that we've seen on our travels:  osprey, heron, egret, ducks, geese, seagulls, turtles, raccoons, crabs, horseshoe crabs, woodpecker, praying mantis, sea snakes, possom, owl, deer, fish, stingray, jelly fish, lots of different types of birds,  HUGE spiders and lots of nasty, biting bugs......

We had another thunderstorm on Thursday night/ early Friday morning.  By no means was it as fierce as the land hurricane a few weeks ago but the thunder and lightning was directly above us throughout the entire storm.  It was so close that it struck a beautiful, old pine tree about 100 yards from the boat.  As the lightning struck, it made the most tremendous sound and everywhere seemed to shake.  The lightning hit the top of the tree and has torn a huge strip of bark all the way down the tree off.

Some people are saying that the tree will die as a result which would be a great shame as it is beautiful and more importantly it's home to the woodpeckers.  I'm hopeful that it will make it.

House Update...

The house is coming along really well.  We visited yesterday and were pleased to see that most of the brick work has been completed.  The siding is now on the house and most of the shingles.

Doug and I are extremely happy with the way the house looks.  No one house looks the same in the neighbourhood and before building began we were given a list of the brick, siding, shingle and tile colours for the house.  It was difficult to imagine what all the colours and textures would look like to together but we both agree that we have quite a pretty house in the making.

We were also surprised to see that our neighbours' house is taking shape.  Given the continued progress we're still optimistic that we may be able settle towards the end of August.....

House Update

We visited the new house again today.  They have completed most of the brick work on the outside of the house and a good amount of the plumbing and the wiring has begun.  The pre-dry wall inspection has been booked for the 25th of this month so we are really pleased with the progress that is being made.

Once we had looked at the house we took a trip over to the model home to  measure some spaces for furniture.  We are well known by the sales staff that work there and they seem to take pity on our sorry homeless state and tend to encourage us to spend as much time in the house as we like.  Like true boat dwellers we needed very little persuasion to relax a while in the model.  Tabitha loved exploring and crawling around while Doug and I took simple pleasure in walking around barefoot on the carpet- such luxury!!

Unofficially we have been told that there is a good chance that we will be able to move in during the last week of August or the first week of September.  Although I've enjoyed being on the boat much more than I expected and have relaxed into an organic, carefree existence where having a wash that consists of baby wipes and a couple of pieces of chewing gum seems perfectly acceptable.  I am thrilled at the prospect of having a home again particularly since Tabby began crawling.  However, being incredibly impatient this still feels like an eternity to me so I've had to indulge in a little 'time chunking' to get my head around things.

Let me explain a little more about this concept.  Time chunking is when you block together weeks, days or months into manageable periods of time so that it seems easier to wait for the thing that you want.  I'm sure that I am not the only person in the world to do this but it does seem as though I have done a lot of it over the years; as a teacher I time chunked until the next holiday, I time chunked until the next visit to/from Doug before I moved to the US and of course I did some MEGA time chunking during our  horrific visa journey.

So it would seem that we have a good 6 weeks still to go....in time chunk terms this means that we have about 2 weeks until Mum and David arrive for their visit, 2 blissful weeks with Mum and David and then (hopefully) just 2 more weeks until we're back in a house....there.....that seems much better than 6 weeks spanning out in front of us.......fingers crossed!

                                                  In the car on the way to the new house!

PS- Wishing you better soon Granny.  Love you xxx

Crawly Baby

Apologies that I haven't been a reliable blogger these past few weeks- since the big storm (which actually was a land hurricane) the internet connection at the Marina has been unreliable and every evening when I have sat down to share my news the connection has been down.

It's been a very exciting week for Tabitha.......after lots of shuffling and wriggling she has finally begun to crawl!  Doug and I are both very excited and although we are celebrating her reaching this huge milestone I am also a little anxious, life will never be the same again.  All of a sudden the boat seems even smaller and more intense, particularly as Tabitha follows me and is literally head-butting me in the ankle everywhere I go.  She's just adorable and I am so proud of her.  She has also begun to try to pull herself up on things so I'm sure that she will be walking before her first birthday. 

Here's a clip of the little tyke in action: 

It's hot!

It's no lie that the majority of English people are obsessed with the weather.  We have good reason for this preoccupation as apart from that one sunny day which is declared as being our summer, most days in the UK are grey and gloomy.  As a result of this I've never had much sympathy and always felt a little frustrated by people who moan about the weather being too hot and humid. 'poor you' I would always think to myself...'It must be really terrible having all that glorious sunshine and warmth..'  'Oh, what a shame that your hair is all frizzy..'  But now as I find myself moaning to Mum on Skype about the terrible heat and humidity I can see the same words running through her mind as she sits there politely smiling back at me in her jumper.  

Since last weekend we've had soaring temperatures of around 95-100 degrees (around 38 centigrade).  Tomorrow and Saturday it is expected to go up to 102 (yuk).  The heat and humidity are quite disabling, it is too hot to take Tabitha out for walks or to the pool after 9am or before 7pm so we're spending as much time as we can playing inside the boat with the air conditioning on.  Yesterday we did discover a new fun way of keeping Tabby cool using the cockpit and the water hose.  As you can see Tabitha was loving the water, she really is a water baby!  

House Update....

We're back from our epic cruise across the bay and not once did we set sight on the infamous Chessie (the Chesapeake equivalent to Nessie!)  We arrived back into the Marina on Sunday lunchtime having left St. Michael's early in an attempt to sail before the sun's heat became too intense.

Last week we missed our weekly 'check on the house' fix, so by Tuesday we were both itching to head out towards civilization and check on the progress.  To break up the monotony of the drive and add a little spice to our life, Doug and I have begun to play a game to not look at the house until we are physically on our street (oh yes, we live on the wild side!)  We both cover our eyes (leaving a slit for the person who is driving of course!) or look the other way so that the progress on the house is a surprise until we get there.  You'd be amazed how much willpower this involves and how much nervous anticipation is built up in the short time that we do this before we look.

Imagine our surprise, relief and excitement when we were greeted with this sight......we have walls and a roof!

The builders have done so much work in a period of 9 days, it's quite amazing.

We understand that the next step is for the builders to finish putting in the external windows and doors and then they will begin to work on the inside of the house.  Who knows what we will be greeted with by next week?!

                                                Tabby and I standing on our front porch