Where has the last month gone...

Where has the last month gone I ask myself as I type these words.  I can't quite believe that it's been a month since I last physically sat down and wrote my news.  A lot has happened in these 4 short weeks, maybe that's why......

Shortly after Mum and David's visit Doug, Tabitha and I fled from Jubilee.  Even though our house was still far from being complete the time had come for our own sanity, health, marriage and general well being to re-establish ourselves on firm ground and bid farewell to our floating home for 14 weeks.  We moved into our friend's basement...oh yes, we're moving up in the world.  When I say basement I use the term loosely- it's wonderful, a fully self contained flat with a kitchen, bathroom, huge living area and two bedrooms.  We are staying with our wonderful, kind friends Kaaren and Tom who were also looking after Jack and Twiggy for us while were on the boat so it is great for the whole family to be reunited.

Tabitha is just thriving.  She is crawling everywhere at top speed, pulling herself up on to furniture and yesterday she managed to balance on her own for 30 seconds.  She has fallen madly in love with Twiggy so much so that we think her first word is "iggy"- Twiggy of course.  Here's a clip of a popular game for the pair....Tug of war.....

The house is in the final stages of completion.  We now have less than 2 weeks until we move in!! Everything is finished apart from the carpet.  We have the final inspection next Thursday and exchange the following on the 27th.

Nearly done, no grass yet...

House Update...

Things are coming on so quickly with the house and we have finally been given a completion date of the 27th September.  Last Friday we took a trip out with Mum and David to check on progress.  All the internal dry walls are in and walking around it actually feels like a house!

Here's a picture taken inside.  As you can see we're all smiles at the prospect of the house nearing completion except one.....can you spot the grumpy face..?!

Over the last week Tabitha has taken to expressing her feelings using her facial expressions.  This particular face seems to be a favourite and is practiced many times a day.  It communicates many things in baby speak, namely; 'I don't like this, I'm not hungry, I'm full, the sun's in my eyes, I have a dirty nappy, I don't like that smell and I don't want to go in the car seat'.

Hotel Seashadow

The next 2 weeks are very exciting, not only is it the Olympics which is hosted in my beloved  and much missed London but Mum and David are staying with us.  Space is tight aboard Jubilee so thanks to the kindness of our marina neighbours Allan and Linda, they are staying aboard a Catalina called Seashadow.  They have been with us since Tuesday and I am greedily lapping up every minute I can spend with them.  Tabitha is loving having her English 'Granny' and Kiwi 'Koro' (Maori for old man) staying with us.

                                                 having fun with Granny by the pool

                                                        story time with Koro

Since Mum and David arrived we've spent most of our time around the marina.  Mum and I have been walking and doing some yoga while David has been frantically swimming in preparation for his big swim from Jersey to France at the end of this month- a wapping 22 miles!  If he completes the epic swim not only will he be one of the 17 people in the whole world to complete this amazing physical feat but he will also the oldest.  Check out his blog: davidcolemanswims.blogspot.com- he's very funny.

It's been a hot one this weekend and we decided that we would dust off Jubilee's sails, consume some sea-sickness pills and take a mini cruise to the bay-side town of Oxford.  Before we set sail on Saturday, we made sure that Tabby had time to cool off in a makeshift pool with Joey- what a brilliant invention Meg and Jim, those carts have so many possibilities!

                                                              just splashing around.....

Our trip to Oxford was short as we wanted to try to make it back across the bay before the wind picked up but we had just enough time to walk around the quaint town; so many cute houses with white picket fences! and of course we just HAD to sample some the local ice cream- rumor has it that it's the best in the area, so we put it to the test...all in the name of research of course...!

                                                               picturesque Oxford

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