Freedom

Now that we know we really ARE leaving, there is a certain freedom to spend an afternoon or even an entire day with friends...either here at our new place, wherever we happen to be parked, or at our friends' houses. At times, I feel like I'm throwing a monkey wrench into their day or week because it seems that life is so busy and full of obligations, but I know that our opportunities to share life like this are limited, and our kids are absolutely loving the chance to spend such intensive time with their friends. There will definitely be some withdrawal when we leave. They will be okay, I know, but I think we may see some tears over leaving friends...and that's okay, because people matter so much more than things, and when it is all said and done, the people are what we will really miss. God brought dear friends into our lives here, and we trust that he will provide friends along the way, too!

I Miss High-Speed Internet

Enough said, right? Steve has the cool EVO phone with all the bells and whistles, so he always has internet at his fingertips. I actually have internet on my phone, but it is a base model, and the effort it takes to get to a website is absolutely not worth it. In fact, assuming I'm actually able to pull up a website before there is another crisis that I must attend to, chances are good that I actually can't read it on my phone. I am realizing how many recipes I pulled up online, all the time, every day. I miss email. Sometimes, I just don't want to make a phone call; I just want to send an email. And sometimes texting is an acceptable substitute, but sometimes it isn't. I just plain miss internet at my fingertips. I knew I was dependent on it, but I didn't realize just how dependent I had become. I will live, for sure, but some things are just so much harder without it. Answering Alyssa's one million and one random questions, for one, figuring out what to make for dinner, printing coupons, getting directions, finding out if there is any wickedly evil weather headed our way....yeah, I'll stop now. ;)

Moving Day Adventures Continue

Hickory Creek, Site 37

Maybe one day Steve won’t need naps when we move. ;) I know it is stressful, really I do. We moved from Lewisville Lake Park, site 25, back to Hickory Creek today. The day went something like this: breakfast, clean up to prepare to move, and then to church for the 9:30 service, followed by a baptism information class for Alyssa at 11:00, pick up Subway with a whoooole lot of whine from Genna for lunch, rush to take off by checkout time at 1:00, then off to Hickory Creek only to be told, “Your site is occupied, and they have until 3:00 to be out. I’m going to have to ask you to turn around & leave.” What??!? I admit that I wasn't thrilled. I texted Steve to tell him we had nowhere to go. We ended up at Walmart…not my favorite place, especially on a weekend afternoon. Nonetheless, we did need to go shopping for things to eat, so it wasn't wasted time, and when we returned to check in, it went according to plan.

We had a back in site again, and although they don’t stress Steve out as badly as they did at first, they still get to him. While I was trying to direct him in, my flip flops broke, so I got to hop around on scorching hot pavement in just my bare feet. Not only that, but a police officer & another truck were waiting for us to get into our site, so they could get past, so that compounded the pressure, for sure. Soooo…now we have a forty-one year old, an almost three year-old (birthday this week!), a five month old, and a dog ALL napping in the master bed at 5:53 p.m. Not the best time for naps, I think, but it is what it is, and it is peaceful, so I’m not complaining. I am also delighted that we have a 50 amp site again, which means we can run two air conditioners at once. Plus, we have shade! I actually managed to summon up the gumption to cook dinner without excessive irritability. In fact, even though it is a haul to the bathhouse, I really don’t care! Something about being so hot (the car is already registering over 100 degrees & June has just begun) & having to feed a whole lot of people just gets to me. It is definitely getting close to time to head to more moderate temps, where I can hold aforementioned hot, sticky, sour milk-scented babe in my arms and actually enjoy it!

First Attempts to Use Our Reciprocal Museum Membership

Lewisville Lake Park,
Site 25 -- great site unless it is going to be blazing hot

Steve decided today would be a great day to spend indoors at the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History  and make use of our newly purchased membership to the reciprocal program for museums, zoos, etc. In short, make sure you read the fine print carefully because museums are always happy to sell you a membership but they are fastidious about making sure they are not missing another opportunity to make you purchase tickets despite your membership. Steve spent a lot of time on the phone and the internet, and we determined we would not be allowed in because our drivers’ licenses still have our old address on them, which is within 90 miles of the museum we wanted to visit, though far away from the home museum we bought the membership through. Now, to be fair, we did finally get a phone call telling us that they would honor it, but that was hours after our initial call & too late for us to go that day. Instead, we went to buy a bike helmet and tennis shoes for the eight year-old that has been growing & growing & had outgrown both of those things. Bike helmet=easy…tennis shoes=slow form of torture. Not sure how many shoes she tried on, and Steve lost patience early in the game, so I took over while he kept track of the other three. I was nearly ready to give up, when we finally found a pair that she said fit well and were comfortable! I bet it was at least 15 pairs, and she did point out that we had never had to buy her a brand new pair of shoes before because she had always gotten hand-me-downs from her big sister. There were none to pass on this time…so we had to do the hard work, but we survived! The reward for all that was a trip to the dollar theater to watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules.

I Thought Life Would Be Simpler By Now

I know that we're dealing with a learning curve here, and I know that Steve is still working, and that affects things, for sure. However, washing dishes, doing laundry, cooking, going to the bathroom, taking a shower...all those things that are basic & admittedly endless, even annoying & monotonous at times in our old house have taken some adjusting to in our new home. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, thank goodness.  

For example, we've learned our black water tanks are much bigger than we thought they were, which means no longer panicking about using the toilets here early in the morning or late at night or for the two year-old. Plus, I've learned that rather than deal with the stress of using too much water for doing dishes, it is a much better option to do dishes outside in dish bins, so the kids can actually help. I felt like I was drowning in the kitchen between meal prep, cooking, and clean up. In our old house, the kids did the dishwasher, helped with meal prep, and even were starting to do a fair amount of cooking, and I was loving it!! Learning how to do things so I can teach them how to do it, so I can delegate more responsibility to them is crucial. I was really feeling like I never got a chance to relax, and meanwhile, I was watching them play, play, play! Now, don't get me wrong, I get pleasure from watching my kids enjoy life, but we are also a family and we help each other and share the work. Soooo...I'm working on daily chore lists and figuring out how to divvy up responsibilities. 

And we even survived our first trip to the laundromat...five huge loads, $14.50, and two and a half hours later, all laundry was clean, dry, & folded! It sure was a chore to get it all sorted, and loaded into the car, especially since I first had to unload miscellaneous junk, items for donate, items for storage in order to make room for all that laundry, but it sure was sweet to have all that laundry DONE in two and a half hours!

Moving is an Adventure

Pilot Knoll

Site 21

First move since we moved into Hickory Creek out of our house. I think both Steve & I were especially nervous about making sure we were hitched properly. I was nervous about finding a home for everything, so we could bring our slides in. Did I mention that before we moved I had dreams about being so overstuffed that we broke the hitch? Probably just baggage, but I will admit that I'm simultaneously paranoid about having too much stuff & not having the right stuff. I think we would do well to purge a little more, so we have more wiggle room. Steve thinks we're okay, but...

Anyway, we did get everything squared away. We, I mean Steve, hitched us up properly, Steve dumped everything without getting any of it on himself, thank goodness, and we made it here to Pilot Knoll. Of course, it couldn't be without some measure of adventure. When we arrived at our site, it was still occupied, and even though it is a pull-through site, it required swinging wide in order to make it in...and right where Steve needed to swing wide, there was a Toyota 4-Runner. We had to locate the owner of said vehicle, which just happened to be a guy with the Dallas Christian Singles (DCS) group that was camping out next to us, and he informed us that he had a dead battery. We needed to find someone willing to give him a boost. Again, another DCS member, a lady that thought it would be no problem for us...Dodge Ram 2500 hitched to a massively huge 5th wheel...to just maneuver our way over to give the guy a boost, and then make our way into our camping spot. Then, the camp host came blasting through in his pickup, wondering what in the world was going on, and helped direct Steve into the site. Whew...we made it! And, lo and behold, an old friend we hadn't seen in ages, was sitting over at the DCS site, and of course, she saw what was going on, recognized Steve, & we had a chance to catch up!

Now, we're just hanging out here under the shade of some huge trees, enjoying the breeze & the sounds of lots of kids playing on the playground next to our site. We're supposed to go out tonight for an early Mother's Day dinner, and I have to admit that I'm not sure it's going to go so well. Tired kids, grumpy kids...

Update: I nixed dinner out, so we ate in, and our new friends from the DCS group, that just so happen to also have a BBQ catering business, Walker Texas BBQ, brought us a smoked chicken! In addition, we ended with a whole lot of brisket that I threw in the freezer, a bunch of bread, tortillas, and coffee! Yay for new friends! Yay for having the opportunity to share all the goodies that were shared with us with others along the way, too!

Meltdown Monday

We survived the weekend in the RV. In fact, it was really quite pleasant overall. The weather was beautiful, Steve wasn't working, and the setting was perfect—nice view of the lake & plenty of space between RVs. However, on Sunday, a cold, rainy front moved in. We made it to church somehow, despite the fact that stuff was still everywhere, and I was seriously having trouble finding clothes to wear. I mean, a clean pair of underwear, a clean shirt, and a pair of jeans is not too much to ask, is it?? Anyway, it rained all day Saturday, & the temperature dropped. Monday morning rolled around, and Steve left for work. Despite the fact that the RV was still a mess despite weekend efforts to sort through & find homes for things, I wasn't daunted because I had a plan. With miserable weather, I would simply pack up the kids & get out! Maybe a movie, a trip to the store...it would break up the day AND it would prevent us from using too much water as Steve was seriously concerned that we would overflow all of our tanks, black & gray, if we didn't use the bathhouse for most things for this ten-day stay. I didn't realize how much that stress was getting to me until I had prepped all the kids to leave & even had Jake fed, dressed, & strapped into his carseat, only to discover that my keys were NOWHERE to be found. I texted Steve to see if he had them or knew of their whereabouts. Not so much, it turns out. I had a meltdown. It was sooo phenomenally miserable outside the RV, and I couldn't go anywhere. There were tears, even sobs, and I missed my house. But...the big kids were amazing. They were delighted to discover toys & games that they hadn't had a chance to play with in months, and they occupied themselves well! Not only that, but big kids always know when mom or dad are at the end of their rope, and typically, they go out of their way to not make waves; they leave that to the two year old & baby. ;) And so, we survived. I buckled down & found homes for things that I didn't really want to mess with, and eventually, I discovered my keys in the drink holder of a sopping wet camping chair tucked away under the RV. ;)