NEW Truck!!!

We got a new truck today!!  We really did it!!  Now we really have to buy an RV because pulling something heavy is what this truck was designed to do!  Check it out!!

2014 Chevy Silverado 

We have spent many days researching them online.  A big resource was actual RV forums where you can post questions and other RVers will answer your questions.  We wanted personal experience stories about what works best for everyone when pulling their RVs.  Time and time again people recommended 'Duallys' and 'Diesel' for what we will be pulling.  We thought we would go the used route, but man...these heavy duty trucks are hard to come by.  So this beauty is brand spankin' new.  We spent 2 days visiting dealerships and also called around to several just searching for one.  Henry also has a friend in Florida who works at a dealership.  He was trying to work us a deal down there, but couldn't beat the deal here in Ohio.  So no point to drive all the way down to Florida.  Two (or was it 3) trucks were sold before we could even test drive them.  March is 'Truck Month' here (which means lots of good rebates on them), and wow...they were really flying off the lots since it was the end of the month.  We traded in Henry's Prius for this gas guzzling diesel truck.

Henry saying his final goodbye to his Prius.  

The boys were thrilled that we FINALLY picked one, 

and that their days in car dealerships were over for a long while.  

It's ours!  (And the credit union's!)  

Black truck with black leather...in Florida...awesome!

The boy's love it!  For it being a diesel truck, 

it is actually really quiet while driving

...at least while you are in the truck.  

I don't really know what this means, 

but I'm told it's pretty important.

It's a Dually! 

 (For you newbies, that means there 

are 2 wheels in the back on each side).

So what do I think about it?  I love it!!

White is the new Orange

Once upon a time, I wanted an orange kitchen.  And boy, did I get an orange kitchen.

Painting in progress...

Not shortly after painting it orange, I no longer wanted it orange.  It just wasn't the 'right' orange...not the orange I had envisioned.  We painted it orange about 4 years ago.  Now that we are moving and having to 'neutralize' our house, we finally painted it again.  However, white was not what I wanted either.  I was struggling with the paint choice.  I had the paint swatches up on the kitchen cabinet for a couple of weeks trying to decide on the most perfect color.  My MIL came to visit, she picked a color within seconds, and solved my indecisive dilemma just like that.  The color is called 'Pearl', and I swear it isn't 'white' on the swatch, but man, on the wall....it is white.  We stuck with the brand we like which is 'Olympic One'...paint and primer in one.  We were ready to have to paint 3 coats of this super light color over the orange, but guess what!?  It only took 1 coat!

Finished product!

It took us 1 day to paint it all (we also had to paint an orange beam in the living room).  Then it took me 1 whole day to scrub it from ceiling to floor with a bleach/water solution.  It was disgusting.  You can now eat off the floor, or the stove, or the cabinets, or off the baseboards, but actually....no eating or breathing is allowed in here for 2 months.  I don't want to have to clean it again.   

Bye Bye Bunk Beds

Sage had a set of bunk beds in his bedroom.  They are gone.  We sold them.  You might ask, "Where is he going to sleep?"  Exactly where he always has...in the king size bed in the master bedroom.  (We're not a normal family, nor have we ever pretended to be).  His room looks so bare now...even with all the stuff still in it.

Oh, and see that lamp in the picture.  This lamp is ancient.  I'll never forget getting this lamp as a Christmas present from my great-grandma when I was about 8-years-old.  There were 2 huge boxes...one for me and one for my sister.  We were so excited because what was inside those huge boxes had to be awesome because the boxes were so big!  You can imagine our disappointment when we opened them to find a lamp shade in one box and the lamp base in the other box.  BUT look!  I still have the lamp!!  It is about 29-years-old!  The lamp shade bit the dust a few years ago just because it's been moved soooo many times so that shade in the picture is kinda new.  BUT the actual lamp is ancient.

And no...I am not selling it.  Some things are just irreplaceable.

Mini-Van for Sale

We are taking a major step towards our goal of living in an RV.  We are selling our very much loved mini-van.

I remember the day we bought it clearly.  It was 4th of July 2009.  I had just given birth to Scott 3 weeks earlier on June 12th.  I was still recovering from my c-section.  Car shopping was not what I wanted to be doing...at all.  I had a newborn who wanted to nurse non-stop, and I was just able to stand and hold him at the same time.  (It took me 3 months to recover from my c-section!  So just 3 weeks from giving birth, I was still struggling).  We went to the car lot thinking they would be closed since it was a holiday.  We just wanted to look without being pounced on.  Well, they were open, and after sitting there for 3 hours, we drove home in our new mini-van.

We have now had it for almost 5 years, and I love it.  It has been good to us.  It has never left us stranded anywhere.  We have lots of memories in it.  We have taken many trips in it...including West Virginia, Florida, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Connecticut.

We had it detailed today, and the guy did amazing job making it look like we don't have kids.  If you are local and need your vehicle detailed, call Matt Richardson at 614-309-4386.  

If you know someone who is looking for a great, reliable mini-van, let us know!  It's a 2005 Honda Odyssey Touring Edition.  We have it priced at $9,999.

Silence is Over!

Whew...it's hard for me to keep silent (not blog), but the past couple of weeks we have been sick and busy busy!

Last week, Henry flew to Texas for training for his new job.  (I don't broadcast to the world when he is out of town).  He learned lots and feels like this is a great job fit for him.  Yay!

While he was away in Texas, his momma and sister came and stayed with the boys and me.  We just hung out, did our normal routine, and added in a mall shopping trip and dinner at Red Robin. Yum!  (LOVE that Red Robin is safe for our peanut / tree-nut allergic son!)

They left Friday morning, and Henry flew home Friday night.  We then got in the van early Saturday morning and drove to Connecticut.  (I also don't broadcast to the world when we are all out of town).  It's a short 10-hour drive from our house.  I say 'short' because we are used to 17-18 hour drives to Texas and Florida.  It was pretty awesome to eat breakfast in our home in Ohio, then eat dinner in Henry's uncle's home in Connecticut...in the same day!

The reason for our trip to Connecticut was to celebrate Henrys' brother's birthday.  He would have turned 44 on Sunday (March 23rd).  You can see the post about his death here  BIL's Death
His final resting place is in New York, a short drive from Connecticut.  Family from Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia, Florida, and Ohio were all there to celebrate his life.  We all miss him like crazy.  We all met at the masoleum (30 of us!), then headed to Outback Steakhouse for lunch.

(Super happy that Outback Steakhouse

 is also safe for our peanut / tree nut allergic son!)  

The boys had to take a dip in the hotel pool.

Thank goodness for a husband who doesn't mind 

getting in the pool with them!!  

Indoor heated pools are always still too cold for me!

We got to eat pho twice!  

The boys love pho!

  It is the only soup that Scott will eat!

On Monday, we went to an Italian restaurant

 for lunch to celebrate Henrys' cousin's birthday.  

It was soooo good! 

 (And yep, it was safe for our peanut / tree nut allergic son too!)

Birthday girl!

We got there Saturday around 6:30 pm and left Monday around 1:30 pm...so it was a super quick trip, but we packed in lots of visiting and.....lots of eating!!  Our boys did.not.want.to.leave.

Now we are home and tackling our to-do list.  Will our move date ever get here?!?!

Great Finds

When we decided to try out this 'living in an RV full-time' thing, I was amazed to learn how many people actually do it already.  I realized it's kinda like anything else in life...if it doesn't pertain to you directly, then you just don't really know about it.  That's how homeschooling is too.  If you're not in the 'homeschooling world', and then you enter it, you will be amazed at how it truly is this 'secret world'.

While researching this RVing lifestyle, I have came across many blogs, websites, and facebook pages put out there by families who are living in an RV.  There are two sites, though, that can be your 'one-stop shop' websites on the internet.

The first being Fulltime Families which is about...you guessed it...families who live on the road full-time.  It also has a lot about roadschooling on the site as well.

The second website is Technomadia.  This site isn't geared towards just families, but to anyone and everyone who currently lives in an RV or is interested to learn more about doing it.

There is a great link on this site to some couple blogs, family blogs, and solo blogs...all by people who are not retired...(which means they are all working and living in an RV :-). I thought only retired *folks owned and traveled in RVs.  Nope.  Not anymore.   Non-retired Rver Blogs

Technomadia also just released a new way for RVers to connect with one another called RVillage.  This site allows you to meet and connect with other RVers who are staying right in your RV park.  So if you are in XYZ Travel Park, you can go on the site and see if anyone else has signed in as being there and who they are...single adult, family with kids, retired folks.  You can 'meet' and 'chat' online first and then schedule a time to get together in person.  This is really great for introverts.  I'm not really an introvert, but it will be nice to instantly see if anyone on the site is also at the same travel park we are at that have kids.

*I'm not sure why I decided to start using the word 'folks' during this blog post.  It is not in my normal vocabulary.

I'm a beast...

Half-bath is now painted too!  Have a mentioned how much I do not like to paint!?  I have painted 3 bathrooms in 8 days....that is impressive to me!  We (I) still have lots to paint including master bedroom, 2 stairways, kitchen, and laundry room....and probably master closet too.  Little by little, things are getting checked off the to-do list before we can move into an RV.

Same 'Parchment Paper' by Olympic One was used

 in this bathroom 

like the other bathrooms.  

 

Week In-Review 3/2 - 3/8

This was a busy week for us.

Sunday 3/2
I worked at church this day until 12:15.  Henry went to his 2nd job at 4:30.  I started painting our master bathroom thinking I would just tape it off and do the trim.  I ended up going ahead and just finishing it all by 9:00 pm.  I learned that it takes more time to tape off and trim a bathroom than it does to roll it.  (I did slice my finger open on the shower head...don't ask...which resulted in me not being able to hand wash dishes or even wash my hands for 4 days because it was such a deep cut).

Master bathroom is now painted!  Paint color is 'Parchment Paper' by Olympic.  I like their low VOC paint.  On the color sample card, the color did not look white.  As I started to paint, the color just looked white.  Then I realized, "Well, parchment paper is white."  After the paint dried, though, it has a yellow tint.  Whatever.  It's painted.  Done.  

Monday 3/3
This morning I woke up, rubbed my eyes with my caked-on dried paint fingers which resulted in me getting a dried spec of paint stuck underneath my eye lid...like it implanted itself and wanted to stay for eternity.  Wild how a tiny spec of paint in your eye feels like a huge rock in your eye.   Sage had an appointment to get his teeth cleaned.  Henry came and met me at the dentist to take Sage home so that I could go to my eye doctor to have the paint removed from my eye.  I also made another trip to Lowe's to get more paint.   Home to do schoolwork with Sage.

Tuesday 3/4
I have no memory of this day!  Ha!  Must have been a normal, quiet day.

Wednesday 3/5
This day, 7 people came to our house through-out the day to buy some of our household goods/toys.  We also had an auto glass repair company come to our house to replace our windshield in our van, but only to find out they brought the wrong glass (because I answered a question wrong when I made the appointment).  I also painted the boy's bathroom this day.

Boy's bathroom is now painted too! 

 I just used the same 'Parchment Paper' color in here too.  

Thursday 3/6
This is our homeschool co-op day.  Sage takes a 'Aspiring Authors' class as well as a 'Writing with Legos' class.  Scott takes a 'Seasonal Storytime' class (which is basically a preschool class).  We then rushed home, ate lunch, then I took Scott to his 'real' preschool.  (He goes to his 'real' preschool Monday-Friday, but the bus usually picks him up and drops him off at home).  Then, I had a dentist appointment to have a cavity filled.  Then off to the library and Kroger to get party supplies.  Then home to do schoolwork with Sage...and it was only 2:00 in the afternoon by this time.  Then the guys came back to replace the van windshield for real this time.  Then I went to a friend's house to pick-up packing materials.  While Scott was in the bathtub, I cleaned his room and his bathroom.  The boys (including Henry!) cleaned the basement after bath time.  Oh...and we let Sage open up his birthday gift from us which was a Go-Pro camera!  His birthday is not until the 12th, but he is having a sleep-over with his neighborhood buddies on the 7th so we wanted him to  learn how to use his camera for it.

Friday 3/7
This morning we were out the door early to make it to Children's Hospital for a 9:15 am dermatology appointment for Scott.  He has a mastocytoma on his leg...which is basically kinda sorta like a birthmark that should disappear when he hits puberty.  They just measure it and take pictures of it.  He actually 'graduated'...they told him they no longer need him to come in to have it monitored.  Yay!  Then to Wendy's for a super quick lunch in the van.  Then, I dropped Scott off at preschool, then went and picked up Sage's cake for his sleepover.  Home to clean the basement bathroom, do dishes, boxed up all the items for sale that have been sitting in our living room, and ran to Walgreens to pick up Redbox movies.  I made a dinner of fried pork chops, mashed potatoes, and carrots for all of Sage's buddies that came over for the sleep-over (Sage requested this dinner).

The boys doing a 'Picture Search' at the dermatologist.

Sage's 9th Birthday Cake (Picture on cake was taken last summer).

These are his bestest friends, and they all live in our neighborhood.  He is going to miss them like crazy when we move.  

Having dinner together.  

I have learned that girls have 'slumber parties'.  Boys have 'sleep-overs'.  

Pokemon is all the rage.

Cake Time!  They all ate someone's head.  

Fun times!

Pancake/sausage breakfast

Saturday, March 8

After getting a total of 5 hours of sleep, the boys were back at full force playing like their lives depended on it at 7:00 am.  I made them a breakfast of pancakes and sausage.  Then at 10:00 am, they all made their way home.  Henry then went outside and took our Christmas lights down.  Yes, I just said 'took our Christmas lights down'.  Ha!  It's either been beyond freezing, ice covered, snow covered, or we have just simply been too busy to take them down.  Thank you for being so patient with us, neighbors.  While he did that, the boys played outside with the neighbors.  I made a Target, bank, and Kroger stop.  Back home to scarf down some lunch, then off to another birthday party!  A boy that was at Sage's sleep-over had a bowling party on this day...so the boys got to see each other more!  It was a fun party!

Bowling party!

They might have been a little tired from the sleepover the night before!

Home around 5:00 from the party to play with a neighbor friend while I got to visit with the mom. Henry worked his 2nd job this night as well.  I was hoping the boys and I would get to bed 'early', but we didn't hit the hay until 9:00 pm (which yes is early, but I was hoping for earlier...I was soooo tired!)  

Here it is Sunday, March 9th...been up since 5:00 am with a sick, throwing up Sage.  Poor guy hates throwing up...who doesn't, though?!?!  Thankfully, he has peacefully been sleeping for a few hours now.  Got word that 2 other boys from the sleep-over are also sick throwing up this morning. I'm on the 3rd load of laundry, made muffins, have done dishes, and updated this blog. Up next...painting our half bathroom!   I need a nap.  Or two.

Video Time

This isn't our video, but I hope to one day make one like it.  I've been following this family's blog for a while.  They set out to RV around the country for one year, but here it is almost 2.5 years later, and they have made it their lifestyle now.

Go RVing with Newschool Nomads

Not so great news

As you may know by now, Henry is from Florida.  The Daytona Beach/Port Orange area to be exact.  Some of his friends still live there.  One being one of his bestest friends.  We were sooooo excited to live closer to him and his family.  He is married to someone I really like, and they have two kids close in ages to our boys.  We were looking forward to seeing them more than once a year.

And then...now we won't.  This friend got an amazing opportunity that he couldn't pass up.  The job is in Michigan.  Yep, the state up north.  The state that is pretty close to where we currently live.  So we are moving down there.  They are moving up here.  Booooo.....

We, however, are happy for them!

Still Looking

Today we went to RCD in Sunbury to check out a Class A Winnebago Motor Home.  You can click on that link to see a rocking video of the motor home.  It is the smallest (shortest) one we have looked at - it's 36' 4" long.  I would love a longer one, but then again, once you hit the 38'-43' range, some parks just simply don't have spots for RVs that long so it limits where you can stay.  Also, the shorter it is, the less you have to cool or heat.  Mr. Salesman told us that we could take it to Alum Creek Park and stay in it for one night to really get a feel for staying in it.  He said some people realize the next morning that it is not going to work for them, but sometimes they wake up saying that it's the perfect one for them.  (This dealership is located right in front of the park...pretty smart of them).