Saturday, March 27, 2010

I think I am getting old. 
I am 47 today.
Wasn't it just yesterday that I was 22?
Oh well. I will survive. 

I'm having a good time today. 
I am doing nothing. 
Except cooking since there is no where good to go out and eat. 
London Broil, mashed potatoes, salad and rolls. 
Yummy. 
And don't forget the Boston Cream Pie.
Happy Birthday to me. lol

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Some prior renovations = part 1

Over the three years we have owned this rig we have done several bits of change to her.
I will be showing you some of the prior fixes as well as what we are doing now.

One of the first things we did in the rig was to change the table area.
Don't you just love all the pink and blue?
 
We use our table for many things. Eating, schooling, crafts, games...
You name it and it happens on the table. 

One big problem we had was a lack of space for school books right where we needed them. 
We did this change in small steps to see if it was going to work. 
We started by taking everything out of the slide and removing the carpet.
We then laid sticky tiles for the flooring. 
 
Then we simply put the table back in the hole with only 2 
of the chairs to see how that worked.
 






  

Our daughter sits on the end of the table in a folding chair to eat, so this worked well for us.
About 2 weeks later (and a 180 mile trip to town) we continued where we left off .
We painted the walls a nice light gray.
Then built a bookcase that would hold our daily school books.
This set up was supposed to be temporary but we did the change back in August of 2007.
It has worked extremely well, we just need to make it more permanent. 

Missy

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Irritations of living in an rv

Even though I have a very high end rv (even though it's older) there are things that are irritating. 
We have spent a good deal of money this winter on propane to keep the rig warm.
We won't even discuss the electric bill. 

So in my re-doing this week I took off the trim around the window.
 Looks okay. At least at first glance.

What do I find on closer inspection? 
A small piece of foam insulation 
 covering a 1/4 inch of open area. 
 On 3 sides of each window. 
Yes, that is a Bic pen in the opening.
Do you see an Orange run coming to my future? 
Caulk, insulation, foam insulation.... by this winter my window will no longer leak vast quantities of wind.
Hopefully I will spend less on propane also.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Youth Group Anyone?

My daughter is almost 13. She very much wants to be involved in the youth group of the church we (sorta) attend. It takes a bit of effort to get her there and it breaks our heart that she does not get to go more often.

We found a church that we love. It is only 120 miles (one way) from the Canyon. We like the people that we have met and love the pastor. We would love to find a church closer as the weekly fellowship means so much to us, but this is where the Lord has us right now. We have tried all the churches here in the Canyon and just can't make ourselves attend them. We really struggle with this part of living here. It is very isolating.

So, we make the drive as often as we can. We either stay in our little truck camper or stay at the local Holiday Inn Express. 

She is now trying to make friends with in the group so that if she get the chance to go to summer camp she will know someone. Ah, back to the distance struggle. We all try to make it work and wonder when God will let us move back to civilization.

Missy

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Home Schooling and The Community School

I have been homeschooling some child or another since 1991. Yes,18 years or so. I remember in 1996, getting pregnant with my last daughter. I was standing in the bathroom with the little pregnancy test strip, and sobbing on my husbands shoulder.... "I have 20 more years of homeschooling" sob...sob... It is very funny now but then I had 2 teenagers and could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
It was not funny for about 4 days. Okay, maybe 4 months.

Jump forward 13 years, and we are still going strong.
It really is a lifestyle and not just a schooling choice for us.
God has asked this of us.
We are committed to completing High School with our daughter and sending her on to college.
And we are doing well toward that end.

So what happens when we move to a community that is wholly centered on the local school?
(yes, there is a K-12 school in Park)
When there is nothing that happens that is not related to the school?
When the entire community uses the local school except us?
When we are the only known homeschoolers in a 90 mile radius?
When the school is a low performing school in one of the lower performing states?

We just keep on doing what we have done forever.
We realize that there are lines we won't be able to cross.
Barriers that we won't be able to break.
Friends we will never have because of our choices.
Though those things are true wherever you live, here it is magnified by our smallness.

On the flip side, we get to have our weekends in the middle of the week, do school when it suits us and take trips at the drop of a hat.
Oh yes! We also can give our daughter a really good education.
It works for us. 

Saturday, March 20, 2010

My Home

I live in an RV.
 Just like Robin Williams without the flying poop. 
Okay, so mine is a fifth wheel and not a motorhome but it is basically the same thing. 
Without the engine.

We are, technically, full time RVers. We live in our RV all the time.
Unfortunately, we don't get to travel like we would like.
Money is the reason we live 90 miles from nowhere. 

Our current home is a 1993 Royals International Emissary. 
It is 40 feet long and has 2 slides and I thank God for every single foot of it.
This rig was produced by the Carriage RV company and the Royals line is 
their top of the line unit. 
It was quite the thing when it was produced. 
When we bought it, 3 years ago, 
we were only the 3rd owner and it had been taken well care of. 
As you can see from the pictures, 
it still has a serious case of the 1980's recreational vehicle decorating thing going on. 
It seriously needs to be dealt with.
That is my project for this year, if everything works out. 
This was supposed to be last years project but we ended up doing appliances instead.
We have done some work on the rig and I will show that to you in subsequent posts. These were the pictures
that I took in May 2007 just before I bought it.
We now have 3 of us living in here. 
It makes for a tight squeeze sometimes.
Mostly it makes for a close family and a 30 minute clean up. 
You really learn to love those you live with and learn to cope with the daily issues that come up. 

So get ready to follow along on the Great Decorating Experiment of 2010. 
Should I tell you now, or later, that I am a lousy decorator?

I have the greatest husband

Really, I do. 
We had our anniversary last weekend and we went to town. WhooHooo... 
Hey, going to town is a red letter day for us...
Even if it looked like this on the drive. 
We headed down on Sunday evening after he got off work. 
I found a cheap hotel and we spent the night. 
 (Note to self, Nasty hotel, skip it next time)
We even had good food, which is amazing in itself.

Monday morning we got up and had breakfast at Wildflower Bread Company. 
Thank goodness they finally opened one in Flag. 
We discovered them in Prescott and just love the food. 

Finally, what I have been waiting on for over a week.....
 A trip to the local Home Depot.... Yes, I love orange!
Orange does wonderful things for me.
Orange can keep my house together and make it look better. 
If there was a 12 step program for tool-aholics I would go. 
Tools make my day.

So, back to the wonderful husband part of this.... Look what he bought for me.
Look at my anniversary gift.
Isn't it just the coolest thing you have ever seen?
I am so jazzed, so stoked, so .... whatever... 
I am showing my age now so I will shut up.
But I really do have the best hubby ever.



















Thursday, March 18, 2010

People can be very strange

I mean it. Really strange creative...
Look at what someone did. 
 The plow scooped up a huge slab of snow and deposited 
it on the side of the road. 
The next time we drove by, this is the sculpture that greeted us.
 
I really like the carving done on the snow, the addition of an eye and snout.
It looks like one of those carved bears. 
Even the tail is cute. 
I tell you, people can be very strange..

And no. It was not me.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Snow....

The snow  has been everywhere.
I hear people claiming that it is almost spring.
Then it snows 6 more inches.
It is tough for a Texas transplant.
We thought the first year we were here was bad.
We had a whopping 54 inches of snow that season.
Of course, most of that arrived about 4 days before we returned. 
We had to learn to shovel it.
That is hard work.
Move forward to this winter.
September 30th, 2009 the heater went on. What the???? No,no,no... heaters go on in December, right?
No, not here. It was still September.
So, along comes December.... 3.5 feet overnight. 
 Okay, I can handle that. Not that it really melted, being as it was December and all.
We had pockets of more snow in December and January. Nothing too bad. It was manageable.
Then comes January.
6 inches one day...it melts some
8 inches the next day....it melts some
Then we had the big honker of a snow storm.
45 INCHES OVERNIGHT
 Yeah, really, 45 inches
And it stayed and stayed..and to add injury to the insult... the roof of our local half price bookstore collapsed.
And it snows, and snows, and snows....
We have now had about 125 inches this season and more is due.
 I feel trapped in the house and unable to do any of the projects that are on my schedule.
I am waiting diligently for the sun to shine and the ground to melt.
I know it will happen.
I need to remember this in July when it is hot.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

18 Wonderful Years

Today is my anniversary. 
I have been married to my husband for 18 years.
18 wonderful years... 
Though it seems like just yesterday that we met and married in such a whirlwind.
He can be funny. Actually very funny. We both have a very warped sense of humor. 
In fact, he just let me know that he has been married to me longer than he worked at Lockheed Martin.
We have had the usual good times and bad times.
 The births ...
and the deaths.
We have survived through it all and are stronger for it all. 
We have loved each other and spent many, many hours together.
Most of them in very small spaces.
I have been blessed to be married to him. 
He has led me to know myself better
and to know Jesus better.
He has shown me things I may never have seen otherwise. 
To my wonderful husband.....I thank God for you every single day. 
I love you.