Thursday, November 20, 2008

Welcome Home!


As if reverse culture shock was not enough, after only being in the US for a few weeks, the rain started and the town was in preparation for a natural disaster. Record breaking river levels were expected, which meant it was going to flood. And of course our house is right in the middle of the flood zone. So we started our day last Wednesday with these images.

A sandbag filling party was going on downtown and everyone was preparing for the worst. Our house is raised, so we just had to clear out our above ground basement, put everything in the garage loft or high up on shelves, try to clear out most of the firewood from the shed, and stack our porch full with garbage bins, BBQ grills, strollers, etc.


At one point we thought we were not going to get wet and all our work was in vain, but when we woke up, we were greeted by a swimming pool in what used to be our backyard.

It wasn't much better in the driveway either. Good thing we drove both cars to higher ground!

No damage though! Most of our neighbors were pumping water out of their basements for days, ripping out sheet rock, etc. Some even went without hot water for days due to damage. We are lucky our basement is above ground and our hot water heater, etc is all on the top floor of the house. We just had lots of mucky mess for 2 days.


Stay tuned for more Coombes adventures....

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Back in the U.S.A.

Well a lot has happened in the past month. We moved an entire household of a mom, dad, child, 2 cats, a couple thousand pounds of furniture and at least 10 suitcases back to Snoqualmie, Washington. To make matters even more tricky for us, we were all accidentally dropped off at the wrong terminal in London and had to transport all the luggage below onto a terminal bus and make our way to another building. (without the help of a luggage cart for a large portion of our airport journey!) And upon our arrival in the US, we were selected to go thru a special luggage screening due to our living abroad for 3 years. But we made it!



We returned home just in time to experience an American Halloween. First stop was a local pumpkin picking farm. It was so warm and sunny our first week home. Millie even picked her own mini-pumpkin.




Later that week, Millie went trick or treating for the first time. Here she is showing off her "Pretty Pink Witch" costume. She had so much fun walking to the neighborhood homes and getting chocolate and candies. She's only two years old, but she's already got a bit of a sweet tooth!



A goofy, silly witch!



We drove into Seattle 2 weeks ago and no trip there is complete without a visit to Pike Place Market. I was happy to see the cat shelter man was still there with his very friendly cats. Those of you who have been to Pike Place market will know who I am talking about...



We all miss England. At the moment we are still getting used to life in the United States again. I forgot how many commercials there are on the TV, and it takes some getting used to having to use a car to get anywhere again...but we will adjust...I hope.