We did it! We managed to move ourselves into the camper on Saturday, as planned!
Everything went swimmingly all day until around 9:00 in the evening when we saw on the local radar that storms were coming. As we were lying in bed last night, I asked Steve if we should bring in the slides, just to be careful. Sure, he said, let's do it. So we got out of bed and brought in the first slide, which was our bed.
However, as we were trying to bring in the second slide (living room), it died. And the third slide (kitchen) wouldn't move at all. Oh well, we said, let's just leave them and we'll deal with it in the morning.
The storms came through with a vengeance. Amazingly, Joseph and Jonny slept through it all; I have no idea how! I was just SURE we were going to have two little boys in bed with us by the end of the night. Nope. They slept through it all. The other boys? Not so much. They didn't get much sleep, and neither did we.
In the morning, after all the bad weather had passed, we hooked up the truck to the camper and tried to make the slides work. No matter what we tried, they wouldn't move. Our bedroom slide is stuck "closed", and the other two slides are stuck "open". Unfortunately, Steve's and my clothes are in the dresser, which the bedroom slide closes up next to. So we can't get any clean clothes! (LOL) That's fine for today since we're just working at the house anyway, but Monday morning Steve needs some clean clothes to go to work! Not sure what we're going to do about this situation...
So here we are at the house today, finishing up the packing. We rented a storage unit yesterday, and Steve and boys are filling it up today. It's finally starting to feel "real".
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
ARGH! THE STRESS!
Several people have told me that I needed to update the blog... yikes!
Okay, as of today, April 24th, we are still in the house. What happened is this:
We tried to get out of the house a couple of weeks ago, but the campground was full. We drove around to a few other places, but they were so incredibly expensive. We decided to just spend the next two weeks in the house and save the several hundred dollars it would have cost us to stay in the camper at a commercial RV park.
So for the last two weeks we've been packing up the house while we're still in it. We've moved out a lot of furniture in an attempt to "stage" the house. We've boxed up a lot of our belongings. We've segregated out more things to be donated. And we're nearly ready!
For the remainder of this week, we will be in the house trying to pack up the rest of our things. On Saturday we WILL be moving into the RV. We actually have a reservation at one of the military campgrounds in San Antonio starting on Saturday. Then we'll take the next few days to wrap things up at the house, because...
On MAY 1st the house goes on the market! (eek!)
At that point, our focus will shift from the house and back to homeschooling. We have a lot of catching up to do over the summer before we hit the road. We also have some outsourced classes to finish up, spring football camp to attend, public speaking club to finish up, etc. May is actually looking rather full.
So there's the update. Bottom line: we're still here... for now. But soon we'll be out of the house.
Okay, as of today, April 24th, we are still in the house. What happened is this:
We tried to get out of the house a couple of weeks ago, but the campground was full. We drove around to a few other places, but they were so incredibly expensive. We decided to just spend the next two weeks in the house and save the several hundred dollars it would have cost us to stay in the camper at a commercial RV park.
So for the last two weeks we've been packing up the house while we're still in it. We've moved out a lot of furniture in an attempt to "stage" the house. We've boxed up a lot of our belongings. We've segregated out more things to be donated. And we're nearly ready!
For the remainder of this week, we will be in the house trying to pack up the rest of our things. On Saturday we WILL be moving into the RV. We actually have a reservation at one of the military campgrounds in San Antonio starting on Saturday. Then we'll take the next few days to wrap things up at the house, because...
On MAY 1st the house goes on the market! (eek!)
At that point, our focus will shift from the house and back to homeschooling. We have a lot of catching up to do over the summer before we hit the road. We also have some outsourced classes to finish up, spring football camp to attend, public speaking club to finish up, etc. May is actually looking rather full.
So there's the update. Bottom line: we're still here... for now. But soon we'll be out of the house.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Goodbye, Cocoa.
Ohmygosh! Has it really been over a month since I posted last time?!? I can see that keeping on top of this blog is going to be a real struggle for me...
Since my last post, we have learned that the government furlough is not going to be as devastating as was originally billed to us. Yes, Steve will still have to take mandatory unpaid leave, but it won't start until later, and it is going to be once a pay period instead of once a week. Whew!
In other news, the decluttering continues. Three truckloads to Goodwill, one scheduled pick-up to Salvation Army, one scheduled pick-up to Rainbow House (a local charity for brain-injured adults), and a donation to Habitat for Humanity. Oh, and a drop-off to Half Price Books. Not to mention that a ton of stuff has been sold or given to local friends.
And yet, somehow, I still feel like we're swimming in STUFF! Ack!
We made it through Easter, then took off the next day for Colorado Springs to give up our doggie to my niece Pam. Pam's mother Vicki (my sister, who lives in Mississippi) came along for the ride so she could visit with her daughter. So we made the trip: me, my sister Vicki, my two youngest children (Joseph and Jonny), and not ONE but THREE dogs. (Vicki brought along her two dogs.) What a trip!
We drove straight northwest through most of West Texas, ending the first day in Amarillo. (Sing it with me! "Amarillo by mornin'... up from... San Antone..." Anyone else a George Strait fan?) We stayed the night at a Motel 6 in Amarillo, then continued to Colorado Springs the next day.
We saw miles and miles and MILES of West Texas (and WINDMILLS - acres and acres of windmills!), strumbled across an extinct volcano in northeast New Mexico (Capulin National Monument - who woulda thought???), then arrived safe and sound in Colorado Springs.
We spent two fun days in Colorado Springs while Cocoa got acclimated to her new surroundings. Then, with many tears, we said our goodbyes to our doggie Cocoa.
We started the two-day trek back home again. This time we stopped to enjoy Capulin National Monument by eating a picnic lunch while there and by climbing to the top of the volcano. It's nearly 8000 feet up! I was huffing and puffing when I climbed out of the crater at the top! I'm not used to such thin air!
Then back to the same Motel 6 in Amarillo, then back to San Antonio the next day. (Oops! I forgot to mention that we took a wrong turn out of Lubbock and ended up taking an alternate route home again. No worries - we still got home.)
The only glitch along the way was that on the FIRST DAY of our trip, I lost my credit card. I think it slipped out of my sweatpants pocket when I got out of the car to move something around in the cargo area. It was super windy, and I think the wind caught my card and off it flew! So somewhere floating around the dusty roads of West Texas is a defunct credit card with my name on it. Thankfully Vicki had her credit card, and I could also still use my debit card as well. It worked out in the end.
Once we got home again, we spent a day resting, then took a day trip up to Austin to visit the state capitol building with our homeschool group. At the end of the day, we celebrated Jonny's birthday by having some Peter Piper Pizza fun (woo-hoo), then ice cream and cake at home.
And that brings me to today, and I'm bushed. Today we had our kitchen cabinets touched-up by the refinishers in preparation for selling the house.
Which brings me to our upcoming plans:
We hope to be moving into the RV this coming weekend! We need to get ourselves out of this house soon so we can clean it up, pack it up, and put it on the market. The plan is to have the house listed by the end of April. With eight people living in the house, it's just easier to sell the house with all of us OUT of the house.
So big changes are upon us, and they are quickly approaching. I miss having my furry little shadow near me all day long, but I know it's for the best for now. We have big changes quickly approaching!
Since my last post, we have learned that the government furlough is not going to be as devastating as was originally billed to us. Yes, Steve will still have to take mandatory unpaid leave, but it won't start until later, and it is going to be once a pay period instead of once a week. Whew!
In other news, the decluttering continues. Three truckloads to Goodwill, one scheduled pick-up to Salvation Army, one scheduled pick-up to Rainbow House (a local charity for brain-injured adults), and a donation to Habitat for Humanity. Oh, and a drop-off to Half Price Books. Not to mention that a ton of stuff has been sold or given to local friends.
And yet, somehow, I still feel like we're swimming in STUFF! Ack!
We made it through Easter, then took off the next day for Colorado Springs to give up our doggie to my niece Pam. Pam's mother Vicki (my sister, who lives in Mississippi) came along for the ride so she could visit with her daughter. So we made the trip: me, my sister Vicki, my two youngest children (Joseph and Jonny), and not ONE but THREE dogs. (Vicki brought along her two dogs.) What a trip!
We drove straight northwest through most of West Texas, ending the first day in Amarillo. (Sing it with me! "Amarillo by mornin'... up from... San Antone..." Anyone else a George Strait fan?) We stayed the night at a Motel 6 in Amarillo, then continued to Colorado Springs the next day.
We saw miles and miles and MILES of West Texas (and WINDMILLS - acres and acres of windmills!), strumbled across an extinct volcano in northeast New Mexico (Capulin National Monument - who woulda thought???), then arrived safe and sound in Colorado Springs.
We spent two fun days in Colorado Springs while Cocoa got acclimated to her new surroundings. Then, with many tears, we said our goodbyes to our doggie Cocoa.
We started the two-day trek back home again. This time we stopped to enjoy Capulin National Monument by eating a picnic lunch while there and by climbing to the top of the volcano. It's nearly 8000 feet up! I was huffing and puffing when I climbed out of the crater at the top! I'm not used to such thin air!
Then back to the same Motel 6 in Amarillo, then back to San Antonio the next day. (Oops! I forgot to mention that we took a wrong turn out of Lubbock and ended up taking an alternate route home again. No worries - we still got home.)
The only glitch along the way was that on the FIRST DAY of our trip, I lost my credit card. I think it slipped out of my sweatpants pocket when I got out of the car to move something around in the cargo area. It was super windy, and I think the wind caught my card and off it flew! So somewhere floating around the dusty roads of West Texas is a defunct credit card with my name on it. Thankfully Vicki had her credit card, and I could also still use my debit card as well. It worked out in the end.
Once we got home again, we spent a day resting, then took a day trip up to Austin to visit the state capitol building with our homeschool group. At the end of the day, we celebrated Jonny's birthday by having some Peter Piper Pizza fun (woo-hoo), then ice cream and cake at home.
And that brings me to today, and I'm bushed. Today we had our kitchen cabinets touched-up by the refinishers in preparation for selling the house.
Which brings me to our upcoming plans:
We hope to be moving into the RV this coming weekend! We need to get ourselves out of this house soon so we can clean it up, pack it up, and put it on the market. The plan is to have the house listed by the end of April. With eight people living in the house, it's just easier to sell the house with all of us OUT of the house.
So big changes are upon us, and they are quickly approaching. I miss having my furry little shadow near me all day long, but I know it's for the best for now. We have big changes quickly approaching!
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