I finally uploaded some pictures off of my camera. When I was in Seattle earlier this month, a friend drove me to Snoqualmie Falls. All of grainy look in this photo is actually mist. The look-out gazebo that hangs over the cliff and gives you a better view of the falls was being inundated with mist so bad that I didn't want to risk damaging my camera (you really got wet standing there).

There is a resort that sits right next to the top of the falls - I bet it is a nice place to stay with an amazing view (and probably and amazing price too).

We are thinking about karate or tae kwan do for Zachary. He really needs something to help boost his confidence, and I think the discipline would be good for him. There is a one week karate camp - that cost about as much as a month (maybe even two) of karate lessons. Chris was considering the camp, but I wonder how much of the day is spent on karate - is it really intense - making the total number of karate hours equal to a month of lessons (making the cost worth it). I doubt it.

I'm really excited today. Today I made the hotel, airline, and park ticket reservations for a little trip to Disney. I am actually going there for a conference with work. My hotel/food/airline is paid for. The perfect time to take the kids along, stay an extra day, and take the kids to their first Disneyworld trip. One of the work days is only 1/2 a day, so it really works out well. My sister is going to come with us (Chris can't go - it is during the semester and he has to teach). She will stay with the kids and take them to the parks while I'm working. I'm really looking forward to it. This has been a possibility that I've known about for about a month, but today I solidified the plans and made reservations. We got great airline rates ($181 round trip, non-stop flights). The kids don't know yet. I'm trying to decide if I should use it as a carrot and tell them now - though I can't get my money back, so even if they DON'T behave, we are going (and I HATE idle threats), or if I wait. But I'm so excited I don't know if I can hold it in. It is only 2-1/2 months away, but that can be an eternity to a 6 or 7 year old. I don't know if I'm ready for the "how much longer till Disneyworld?" questions. Philip's been doing the "how much longer till my birthday" thing since May - and his birthday isn't until August.

Still no word from the insurance company. I'm going to have Chris call the adjuster tomorrow to see if he has the report from the engineer, and to see what our status is. Word on the street (ok, in the news/on the radio/etc) is that the insurance companies are dragging their feet as long as they can. There is an August 29 deadline to settle claims (1 year anniversary of the storm). And what I've heard is that they don't have to pay if it isn't settled by the deadline. What I find VERY hard to believe is that if you are in a dispute, they can just ignore you, not return your calls, and not give a judgement on your claim - just holding out for the deadline so the whole thing is just dropped. That doesn't seem like it can be completely true. Otherwise, no insurance company would pay any claim, and just wait it out until the deadline has passed. I'm still hopeful that everything will work out, and Chris assumes we will be denied and stuck with a sinking house that had no signs of sinking prior to the storm. So typical ... I'm always very optimistic, and he is ever the pessimist.

I found a new Vietnamese Noodle place that opened not too far from my office. Picked up dinner last night (instead of cooking). I was hoping to avoid cooking tonight too, but the kids weren't crazy about the dinner. Actually, Zachary just wasn't feeling well and did not feel like eating, and Philip refused to try anything I put on his plate. He ate 2 shrimp, several bites of plain white rice, and left the rest. Of course at bedtime he claimed he was hungry. I told him his plate was still waiting for him at the table (truthfully, it had been sitting out long enough and had seafood in it - that I wouldn't allow him to eat that - but I would make him another plate of the same thing). His dad gave him 1/2 a banana (I wouldn't have done that), and he went to bed, still somewhat hungry. I'm not a short-order cook, and you eat what the familly eats. But, I need to make sure that I make things I know he will eat interchanged in there with giving him new foods to try. I know he will "eat when he is hungry", but I'm not trying to tortute the kid. I just want him to get over this "I don't like anything but junk" attitude. He hasn't been allowed junk at all recently, I'm hoping that helps.

It's still hot out there. I'm hoping to take the kids swimming again tonight after dinner, but it depends on how fast I get dinner cooked.

Summer heat...

Darn it's hot!! REALLY hot. Today would be a great day for the swimming pool, but our country club is hosting a swim meet tonight (pool is closed for it) and I've got a PTO board meeting.

Last night was good though. I got home from work and Chris had the kids finishing up dinner. We all changed into our suits and went to the pool for a couple of hours. We swam until about 8 o'clock, went home and all showered the chlorine out of our hair. Chris put the kids to bed while I ran over to the past PTO Treasurer's house to get the financial records and files from him (I am the new Treasurer).

Today I spent my lunch hour at the Farmer's Market. I got some really long pole beans (I think they called these asparagus beans or something like that), fresh corn, cucumbers, and sprouts. I also got my farm fresh eggs, butter, and heavy cream. But it was so hot outside that I was ready to come back to the office.

Insurance company comes out again

Well, we finally got someone from the insurance company to come back out. My adjuster has had my supplemental claim (for the slab leveling) for months. After many phone calls and Chris finally taking over the phone calls (he is not as nice as I am), they sent an engineer to the house Wednesday. Chris said he didn't do much - took 3 measurements and asked that we fax him a copy of the report from when we had the house inspected by Cable-lock.

Hopefully we will know something really soon.

I spent nearly a week in Seattle - what a beautiful city when you can see through the fog/clouds. Really though, it was a neat city. I stayed downtown at the W (REALLY nice hotel - with great cocktails) - our tradeshow was just a short walk from the convention center.

I got to see several friends while I was there - that was a bonus. I stayed the night with my friend Bonnie, we got to hang out, we cooked together (ok - she did most of it, I made mango salsa and stir-fried the asparagus), walked downtown Seattle a bit, and just enjoyed each other's company. She is a great person and such a wonderful hostess. She's got a great dog too, Maggie - the sweetest thing. Friday night two other of our friends came over (Tracy, and Andrea with her 3 kids - the older two had grown SO much since I met them when they had a trip here to New Orleans, and I hadn't even seen Caleb, the baby). Saturday we drove to Snoqualmie Falls. We had lunch at the cafe made famous by Twin Peaks (GREAT burgers!!!). I took a bunch of pictures but haven't loaded them off of my camera yet. That afternoon I had a massage in my room, relaxed, slept, read some of my book and just relaxed.

Sunday, I got to see my best friend from elementary school (and still my best friend in the world - we always pick up as if we talked yesterday even if it's been 6 months or a year), Desi. She was in Seattle (she lives about 3 hours south of Seattle) with a friend for the friend's graduation. We had brunch at Ivar's, right on the water with a great view. Then we walked back to my hotel and had a drink in the lobby lounge before they had to get on the road to head home and I had to head to the convention center for the opening day of the exhibit.

Tuesday I got sick. At the show, I started feeling very very cold. I was shivering, bone aching kind of cold. On the walk back to the hotel after an early dinner (Linda went shopping, I wanted to go to bed), I broke out in a horrible sweat and got really weak. But I made the walk back without collapsing. The flight home Wednesday was pretty uneventful - I slept most of it (something I NEVER do - I just can't get comfortable enough on a plane to sleep - but I slept most of both of the flights home). I got home Wednesday evening and had a fever of 103.5, and I was coughing horribly. This lasted, and lasted. Finally on Monday I went to the doctor and found I had bronchitis. He gave me an antibiotic, some prescription cough syrup, and instructions.

Today is Friday and while I am still coughing (and feeling some pain in my chest from it), I feel 100% better than I did earlier this week. I hate missing work, but couldn't make it in Friday, Monday, or Tuesday.

Wow .. I'm REALLY behind on this thing...

A lot has happened ... yet not a lot ... since my last update.

In mid-January we got a FEMA trailer in the front yard of our house. Very lovely ... but at least we have a place to cook, for the kids to do homework and hangout, etc. We are luckier than some ... our house is 2 stories and the interior of the upstairs was undamaged. So, we are sleeping in our own beds/bedrooms and using real (full size) bathrooms instead of the little tiny shower in the trailer.

We have walls that are mostly painted (still need some touch-up by the painter, and some trimwork re-done). We are waiting to install the glass french doors between the back den/office and the dining room until after the house is leveled.

That leveling ... that is where we are at a stand-still.

The flood waters got trapped under the house (when the waters receded, what was trapped in the pocket under the house couldn't recede and slowly soaked into the ground). The water soaking into the ground and sitting there caused the ground to "become like jello" and the pilings to shift. This caused the house to tilt forward nearly 5" (from the front to the back - the back is 5" higher than the front).

According to the engineer who inspected the house, it was clearly caused by the flood and was not uncommon during the storm. I have the inspection report from when we purchased the house in 2000, showing that the foundation and pilings were solid and that the slab had no sinking/tilting. Since we live in an area (most of Greater New Orleans) that sinks, that is really important when buying a house - are the pilings stable?? Since the house was 32 years old when we bought it, and level with stable pilings, that meant that the house was not settling and that we were considered "safe" from sinking. The fact that we now have sunk and are tilting nearly 5", such a short time later, with an event that clearly CAN cause the pilings to become unstable, this should be a clear-cut insurance claim with our flood insurance. The flood caused the house to sink ... according to the engineer we had inspect it.

The cost to level the house and install new pilings is approximately $30,000. If we tried to sell the house today, any mortgage company for a buyer would insist that this be corrected before they would provide a mortgage on the property. Effectively dropping my property value by $30,000.

The insurance company is stating "we don't cover normal settling", and is giving us the run around. We sent the proof (copy of engineers report, and the initial inspection report when we bought the house) over two months ago. He told me 2 weeks ago that they want to send out their own engineer for an inspection. We are still waiting for that.

In the meantime, we can't do anything else. My cabinets have been delivered but can't be installed. It would be a bad idea to attach them to the walls prior to leveling the house - because the process could cause shifting that may tear them away from the walls or cause the sheetrock to crack behind the cabinets. The same with the flooring. I'm installing tile flooring in our downstairs - and it could possibly crack during the house leveling. So we can't do that either. The glass french doors in the dining room (dividing the den/office) can't be installed because the glass could crack during the leveling process.

All we have left to do inside is install flooring, cabinets, and counter tops (and I am not having my appliances delivered until after we install the flooring so that I don't have to deal with moving them back out in order to install the tile), and finish some touch-up on the painting. We've been at a standstill for months and I'm so tired of cooking in the FEMA trailer.

I love to cook and want a real kitchen, with an oven and 4 regular size burners. But at least I have a place (without a mother-in-law) where I CAN cook ... so really, I should be very grateful. It could be worse.

We are having new carpet installed upstairs in a few weeks. But that is unrelated to the storm damage ... it is just wear and tear and kids damage - beyond time to replace our carpet which appears to be original to the house. We should have replaced it when we bought the house.