Grateful, mindful and ready. A True Xoxo Girls Challenge

It's the first of November.
Happy Day of The Dead for those of you honoring loved ones who have passed.
I am honoring my Grandmother, Guillermina Martinez Hernandez, who passed last year.
A post on that later this week.

My day will be spent figuring out how to get to my daughter in the Bronx whom I haven't seen in 5 days due to bridge and tunnel closings during Hurricane Sandy.

We fared well through a historic storm and even though the recovery will be long, things could have been much worst.
I was reminded more than once than once this week, that scrapbooking is first and foremost a way to tell your family history.

Here's my take on the November True Xoxo Girls Facebook Time Line Sketch

For the True Xoxo Girls November Challenge: Facebook timeline sketch. Please swing by and join the fun.
Materials: American Crafts Ready, Set Go papers, Doll Thickers , Hambly circle transparency, Basic Grey alphas, My Mind's Eye journaling stickers and Maya Road star pin.

Doesn't this look like a killer challenge? I think you should try it!

We watched the water creeping our way and wondered if we would need to take in our neighbors on the first floor.

Things got really scary when the electric plant across the river exploded and lit everything up in eerie shades of blue. 

Then the whole east side of Manhattan went black. Only the Empire State Building still shone.

Sunday Mayor Bloomberg issued a mandatory evacuation order for everyone in Zone A.  We sent Lola to Grandma T's but decided to stay. A closer look at the flood zone map revealed that our building is actually in "Zone C"- but Zone A is literally across the street. The water never came close but all our escape routes were cut off- bridges and tunnels were all closed due to flooding. This was only a category 1 storm. Next time we will ALL leave.

Just some of my thoughts.

The water receded and when morning came, our neighborhood was fine.

Thank you Mom Teresa and Mom Reyna for being so AMAZING during the storm- you two are the  parenting examples I know.

Thank you Dave for being strong and smart when I was freaking out. 

Thank you New York City. 

We will get through this and the next one too.

Day of the storm we visited the pier. The water was already on level with
the board walk. Never seen anything like it. 

Feeling grateful, thankful and blessed,
Michelle