Catching Up- FINALLY!!

I've been told that it's been WAY too long since I've posted any pictures.....So, here's some catch-up pictures......
This is a picture of my new scooter. It's pretty fun to ride down to the Rec Center and to get the mail. I actually didn't ride it as much as I'd have liked to because they had Boreas Pass Road closed for a month while they resurfaced it, and I'm not about to take the back way down!


The girls "dressed up" Grandpa................




Chillin' out in the back yard.
We had a WONDERFUL tea party with Katie's REAL china tea set. 'it was a birthday present from Lauren and Charlotte.... What pfun!







Aunt Rhoda took a cake decorating class, and the rewards of her labors were enjoyed by all!

Vittoria even seemed to enjoy The Wiggles concert!
Who has MORE energy? Jay or Alina?
Josh's "road rash" from last week's bike accident.

This is Molli's and Dad's birthdays celebration at Cin Zetti's.

The snow is returning to Breck..... I wish it could be summer always!!!! So, there you have it.....

It's been a while!

Geez I guess I haven't posted in a while! Here are some pictures from the past month or so at the Noga household...

Here is baby girl Noga's blanket...

Alina LOVES the hat that she got from the Derek Pflum pfamily for Christmas last year.

I can't believe I'm posting this terrible picture, but this is at 31 weeks

We went to a pumpkin patch a few weeks ago - they had lots of fun farm animals, and Alina really enjoyed running all around with Tata close behind...

Boo at the Zoo was this weekend, Mommy and Alina went with Shandi, Tanya, Damian, and Jonah.

Watch out, Grandma... Alina liked Shandi almost as much as she likes you!

Jonah was a spider!

Notice the giraffe in the front... and the back!

I'm so bummed this picture turned out blurry! She kept asking me to take more pictures, and for some reason they kept turning out blurry. This is a cute one, though.

This is the only one that didn't turn out blurry :(

And today... 38 weeks!

Mrs. Russell's House

While in Louisiana we worked on Mrs. Russell's in Slidell, LA. Lots of good things happened. Her house was a week away from her being ready to move in but had been that way for two and a half months because not enough volunteers. Well, they have some volunteers but not with the right skill set, or lack there of as the case may be, to get the job done.

Wendy and me the first day waiting to go to the house.


This is what we saw when we arrived. Trim work and tiling were the main goals.

The house before.

She wants to have this area screened in but Northshore will not cover that, but the framing is there and I think if she provides the screen someone will help her get it installed. This is also where I spent most of my time on the ramp and in the garage in the back. It was full of trash and I installed a washer and dryer in there.

Mrs. Russell was elderly and in a walker. The railing on this ramp needed work and I thought it would be nice to add a step at the far end leading to the yard.

Look! I cut wood! That was exciting for me. That was a post for my ramp.

Remember all the trash I told you that was in the garage that I got to move? There it is. Lots of it was wet insulation and moldy drywall.

Wendy did a lot of tiling. A lot.

This is the after ramp. We build her a little shelf at the other end with some scrap wood because the step idea was just not going to happen. Not enough material and no way to cement the post for the bottom step. :( I was sad when we came to that conclusion. But you can see there is now also a railing for her on the ground as well as the ramp (both sides!) And that's Kathy, we built the railing together. She was one of the co-leaders.


This flag was from the church next door that blew into the Methodist lot during the storm. The Methodists returned it and the other church had it framed as a gift.

Where we slept (below) has a little spot where they fly the flags (above) of every state that is represented by volunteers. They have had all 50 states and 27 countries. Our week was California, New York, Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota.



This is the truck the contractor drove. Very manly. I thought of Jay driving around in it to all of his jobs.

Diane was a hoot. Her grand daughter teaches her things about being hip. She came with her two sisters. At dinner that night I had alligator sausage and turtle soup. Tasty.

Jean, one of the sisters.

Susie, the other sister. They spent a lot of time doing caulk work and trim.

Amanda, one of the other people on the trip.

Jodi and one of the co-leaders, Eric.

Everybody


And that's it!

The 9th Ward

Here are some pictures from my trip to New Orleans. I'm not known, and for good reason, for my photography skills, so I hope these can give you an idea...

The houses there still have the paint on them from when people went through and looked for bodies. They can't get it off. They have tried washing and other things but it won't come off. So on all of the buildings they were able to save and the ones that have not been demolished have it. On this house it is on the left of the door in reddish paint.


The levee. I thought it looked like a cement wall and was a little disappointed. I'm not sure what I thought it would look like. Locks in a river, I guess, for some reason.

I thought there would at least be a bunch of water on the other side. Disappointed there, too. Grassland.

This is one of the houses from the Make It Right Foundation. They were very modern and fancy. Yes, please, I'll take one for free.



The houses don't have foundations and sit on stilts. As you can see in the new house they have changed how tall those have to be. These are stilts from an old house. And a stoop to no house.