I told him so!

We have renters for our house!!  

Henry was so worried that no one would rent our house.  From the very beginning (back in January), I kept telling him that everything will work out.  And it has!  Step by step, everything is falling into place for our move.  

We have a signed lease in hand from a couple with 3 kids (ages 15 b, 7 b, 4g) and a 7 lb Maltese.  They are moving in July 1st, and the lease is good for one year.

So when do WE leave??

I believe we are leaving Sunday, June 22nd.  We plan to head to Milwaukee first to visit with my mom, grandma, and step-dad.  Not sure how long we will stay there.  

We got our RV!

My birthday couldn't have been a better day.  Henry got up first at 4:00 am.  I got up around 4:20 am.  We got ready, packed up the truck, then woke the boys up at 4:55 am.  Thankfully, they wake up well when they know we are going on a road trip.  Scott ended up taking a 45 minute nap, but the big shocker was that Sage slept for over 2 hours (if not 3!) in the truck.  He never sleeps on road trips...just like me.

Birthday Sunrise

We got to the RV dealership at 10:15 am.  We unloaded all of our stuff into our RV's basement which was parked in the big garage.  (And yes, the under storage in RVs is called the 'basement').  We didn't even go inside it yet because they told us it still needed cleaned.

Henry took our truck to the 'hitch place' to have our Bed Rug and 5th wheel hitch installed.  This was going to be an all day job for them.  Our sales guy, Mike Wood, followed him and brought him back to the dealership.

By now, it's 11:30 am, and we are all starved.  As we were driving in that morning to the dealership, I noticed a Fazoli's restaurant right down the street.  We had ate at a Fazoli's years ago safely (Sage has severe peanut and tree nut allergy), so we decided to walked down to get some lunch.  I asked the girl taking our order if they had an 'Allergen List', and she didn't know so she asked the manager.  The manager came over to me and asked, "What is this that you speak of?"  I had to explain to her what an 'Allergen List' was, but as soon as I said, "You know, something that shows if there is eggs, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, etc. in each dish" she understood, thankfully.  They do not have such list, but she went in the back to read labels for us.  They do have almonds in a salad there, but the spaghetti with meat sauce and meatball and breadsticks were safe for Sage to eat.  (And boy did he love those breadsticks!)

Birthday Lunch at Fazoli's.

My eyes were way bigger than my stomach.

Funny side story...before we walked down to Fazoli's, I asked one of the sales guys at the RV place if I could stick some of our stuff in an empty office so we wouldn't have to carry it all down the street.  He said 'No problem', but then he said, "You guys are going to WALK to Fazoli's??  You guys be careful!!  There is a lot of traffic out there!"  I laughed, and said, "You think this is a lot of traffic?"   He said, "Yeah, I'm from a really small town and this is a really busy place compared to where I'm from."   I grew up mostly in Chesapeake, OH.  This place....Elkhart, IN reminds me so much of Chesapeake.  Teeny tiny, although it is a little bigger and 'busier' I guess.  I just thought it was so funny that he thought Elkhart was such a big and scary place that we shouldn't walk 2 blocks down to Fazoli's.  After I told him that we live in Columbus, OH, he goes, "Oh yeah, you guys probably have a Wal-mart and everything."  Ha!  Yeah, like 20.  He was such a nice guy.  He even let me put my cupcakes in their staff fridge.

SO....after lunch, we walked back to the RV dealership and sat in their lounge area that has 2 recliners, a couch, and a TV with cable.  So the boys enjoyed watching cartoons while Henry and I read and rested.  Then around 1:30, we were told that we could finally go in our RV (our new home!).  It was still parked in their garage.

We met Josh who was the guy who walked us around and taught us everything about the RV.  He asked us, "Have you all ever owned an RV?" (assuming to get a gauge on how much he had to actually teach us).  We said, "Nope, this is our first one."  Ha!  He said, "Wow...well, go big or go home, right?"  We did both.

Josh was a hilarious character.  Like stand-up comedic hilarious, but better because he wasn't trying to be funny for a paycheck.  You could just tell that was his normal personality and that he loves life.  We videoed bits and pieces of our walk-through with him so that we can refer back to it if need to.

After the walk-through, we then sat in our new RV and ate my birthday cupcakes which were delicious.  Then I called my momma.

They filled the RV up with water for us so that we could flush toilets!  (Yay...I was so worried about that!)  I bought some needed supplies from their little store like a sewer hose, water filtration gauge, RV toilet paper, water hose, and electric converter.  They then pulled our RV out of their garage and parked it alongside the building so that we could stay all night in it.

Our first night in the RV went smoothly.  We had lights because we also have batteries in it....just like a car battery.  We only ran our generator when we went to sleep so that Henry could use his c-pap machine (he has sleep apnea).  (Oh, I forgot...we did run the generator when we watched some TV too).  We took showers, used the toilets, and washed hands.  It was so weird to be able to do all this just sitting in a parking lot, not hooked up to anything.  The boys both fell asleep just fine.  In fact, Scott fell asleep around 5:30-6:00 pm and slept until 10:00 pm...got up, took a few bites of dinner, then went right back to sleep.  Getting up at 5:00 am wore him out!  As for dinner, Henry went and picked up KFC.

It's beginning to look like home. 

Books and Light Sabers.

 Testing out Scott's new bunk bed.  

We were just pretending to sleep.  

Playing with Henry's new i-phone.

Henry reading one of the MANY manuals 

on our new RV.  Sage eating

popcorn while watching TV.

Scott took a 3 hour nap, got up, took a

few bites of dinner, then went right

back to sleep.  

We woke up the next morning FREEZING!  It was sooooo cold in the RV!  We should have tested out the heat, but we didn't.  Around 9:30 am, Dave from Dan's Hitch came to teach us how to connect the RV and unhook the RV to the truck.  Henry can not say enough good things about Ryan and Dave at Dan's Hitch.  They were so extremely knowledgeable and just NICE people.  While we were learning about the hitch, the boys made themselves a picnic breakfast of chips, popcorn, cereal, and juice.

Getting ready to take off.  

As you can tell, Scott LOVES it!

We finally pulled out of the RV dealership around 10:45 am for first time ever with OUR RV attached to our truck.  Such a crazy thing!

We headed first to the Moose Lodge because they have a big parking lot that Henry could practice backing up in and circling around to see exactly how the RV turned when we turned the truck.  He did a FABulous job backing up!  He tried it 3 times, and all 3 times he did great.  He credits all of the youtube videos he watched on 'backing up your 5th wheel'.

We were all starving at this point and decided

 to stop at Bob Evan's for brunch.  

On the way home, we had to go through 4 toll booths which are so narrow, BUT our truck and RV fit (ever so tightly, but they fit!).

Here she is!  Look how little the boys look 

compared to it.  (I say it's a 'she'...we need to

come up with a name for her).  

I'll post more pictures especially of the inside in another blog post.  This one is getting too long and taking too long to do!  (Oh, and I still need to figure how to make the videos work on the blog).

Crickets

Sorry for the delay in posting pictures of our new RV!  I promise I am working on it!  We do have it, and we made it back home safely with it on Saturday.  We had to spend yesterday grocery shopping, mowing grass, doing laundry at the laundry mat, and washing the truck and RV.  Today, we are clearing out our master closet (which is a JOB).  Hopefully, later today or tomorrow the blog post will be up all about our experience of getting our new home.

I'm getting an RV for my birthday!!

Tomorrow is my birthday!  I LOVE BIRTHDAYS...including my own!  I will be THIRTY-SEVEN....37!!!  Couldn't be happier about that.  People whine and complain so much about turning another year older.  I think they are crazy for whining about something like BEING ALIVE!

GUESS WHERE WE ARE GOING TOMORROW!?!?!  

YES!!!  WE ARE GOING TO PICK UP OUR RV!!!

We didn't plan it that way.  It's just how things have worked out.  When Henry told me last week that he was taking 'next Friday' off of work so we could drive to Indiana to pick up the RV, I had no idea the day would actually be my birthday.  He didn't either!  When I sat down to write on my calendar ('cause I do that...I WRITE things down with a pen...on an actual paper calendar) that we were going to pick up the RV next Friday, I then saw it was my birthday!  How perfect is that?!

A friend/neighbor who is starting up a bakery business is making me some cupcakes.  Vanilla and Chocolate Buttermint ones.  We will eat them in our RV on my birthday!!  I'm so excited about that.  Ha!  

Henry and I have dinner plans for this evening at my favorite restaurant.  He asked me what I wanted for my birthday.  Uh...an RV!  He said, "No, something else."  So I said, "To eat cupcakes in our RV?"  He said, "No, something else."  I said, "Dinner at my favorite restaurant."  So that's what we are doing, but he says he feels like he needs to get me something.  Nah.  I'm good.  

The only stinky part about going to pick up the RV on Friday is that we have to get up at 4:00 in the morning!!!!  Ugh.  Not looking forward to that part.  Why do we have to get up that early?  Because before we are able to bring the RV home, we have to get a hitch installed.  SO...a place in Indiana, not far from the RV dealership, is installing our hitch.  They are open 8-5, and they said that the sooner we drop off our truck, the better because it will take 4 hours for the hitch and about 1 hour for the bed rug to be installed.  It's a 5 hour drive for us there....so we are hoping to get there around 10:00 in the morning.  

Then here's a fun element to this weekend trip.  We will be staying in our RV Friday night ON the dealership lot!!  Not sure how this will work out.  We will have electric since we had a generator installed in our RV, but we will have NO water!  We will take water to drink, but we will have no water for our toilets! And some of you know...I have a hamster-size bladder!  Yeah.  No clue how this is going to work.  It's not like I can go pop a squat in the parking lot.

We are a bit nervous about driving this thing.  Well, Henry's just nervous about having to back it up.  I'm nervous about the whole driving it thing.  We're nervous about it fitting in our neighborhood....as in literally fitting down our streets.   (Don't worry, neighbors!  It will not be here for long!  Promise we are leaving!)  Prayers for safety please!  

Stayed tuned for pictures of our new home!!  

We're still here!

We're just plugging along getting closer and closer to our move date...which we have no idea what it is!  We just know we are getting closer to it!

We have had 5 house showings which is way less than we anticipated, but that did include 7-8 people.  There are quite a few calls on it, but our Realtor does a pre-screening over the phone before he agrees to show it.  There have been people with bankruptcy and evictions on their records that he has turned away.  I feel bad for these people.  I really do.  However, we can not, can not, can not afford to do what we are getting ready to do if our tenants do not pay their rent.  SO....we have to be picky.  We also may change our views on 'No Pets' allowed if the right person/family comes along who will take care of the house and pay rent!

When we have house showings scheduled, the last thing I want to do is cook a meal and then clean up after the meal. (Most of the time, the showings are right at meal time...cause it's always meal time!)   We've been eating out more than usual.

Last night, we went to BW3s.  This was the FIRST time we have ever taken our boys there.  With Sage's peanut and tree nut allergy, eating out in restaurants is a bit challenging.  I had heard good things about BW3s being 'good with allergies'.  I first went on their website and found that they displayed allergens for each and every one of their dishes.  I saw that Sage could safely eat there.  Once there, I told our server about his allergies.  She said she wasn't sure about their usage of peanuts or tree nuts, but she would notify the kitchen.  Within a couple of minutes, a manager came over to me with a book (same thing that I had viewed online).  She wanted to make sure that the hamburger bun was safe for Sage since it was manufactured on equipment that uses:
Milk, Eggs, Sesame, Sunflower, Poppy, and other seeds.  We thought that was great that she double-checked like that.  (It was safe).

He wolfed down his cheeseburger!

Scott got the courage up to ask

the hostess for a hat.  

He was nervous, but after

he did it, he said, "That wasn't hard."

For weeks now, I have been putting everything that will be going into the RV into a corner in our living room.  It got to the point where I forgot what exactly was in that pile!  So I drug it all out to make piles for each section of the RV.  (And of course right after I did this we get a call that someone wants to come see our house).

Today was another donation pick-up!  

Today was also lab day for me!

Praying for a clean bill of health

before we take off!

It's almost been 7 years since 

my cancer diagnosis.  

All will be good.  

The boys got bows and arrows for Christmas.

They are just now getting to try them out.

They are both really good!

I highly recommend this archery set.

Easy to use and so far...durable!

Bow and Arrows

I like it, too!  

News Story on Family on the Road

A news crew did a segment on a family on the road from Florida.  The family was currently in Las Vegas.  They have been living on the road for 4 years with 4 kids in a 5th wheel.  When asked how long they could see themselves living on the road, the husband said, "Forever".

Watch the 4 minute video here:
Family on the Road

You can click on their blog to see behind the scenes of the filming.  It took 8 hours of filming to make the 4 minute news video!
Fulltime Families

Bed Rug and Caddy for crafts

After researching and researching, Henry decided on a Bed Rug for our new truck.  It's a carpeted liner that he and I should be able to install ourselves (that's going to be comical!).  We watched a youtube video on how to install it, and it looks easy enough.  (There's a youtube video for everything!)  We bought it off of Amazon.  (You can get everything off of Amazon!)  We do worry about the liner staying put and secured.  We do still need to get our 5th wheel hitch installed so we might just have who does that also install this Bed Rug.

It is AMAZING and a bit disturbing how many craft supplies / crayons / markers / pens / pencils / glue / etc. we had accumulated.  TONS and TONS!  I have pared down to just what I think we will actually need.  (Why do we need 1289 crayons?!  Or 8763 pencils?!)  Everything fits nicely in this lazy susan-style caddy.  

Pencils, thick markers, thin markers, 

colored pencils, permanent markers, 

dry erase markers, pens, crayons, glue, 

glue sticks, hole puncher, stapler, 

staples, scissors, magnifying glass, 

calculators, window crayons, 

chalk, and pencil sharpeners.

Mother's Day 2014

I awoke before everyone else which is rare.  Usually little Scott gets up before me.  I like getting up before everyone else to enjoy a quiet house with no one needing or wanting anything from me and no 2 boys fighting.  My quiet time didn't last very long.  Scott's radar detected that I was awake.  I will be grateful for those 20 quiet minutes.

Henry made us all a breakfast of eggs, sausage, and toast.  Any meal that I don't have to cook is marvelous!  And any meal that I don't have to clean up after is even better!

Henry took the boys last night to Target because Scott knew what he wanted to get me for Mother's Day.  "A pretty dress."  His words.  So Henry took them, and Scott picked out a pretty dress.

He did a good job!  Not a dress I would pick out myself, but sometimes it's nice to get a new perspective on fashion, even if it's from a 4-year-old.

Sage also picked me out a cool shirt.  It's a tied-dye shirt that he says looks like an eclipse.  I like it, and it seems very appropriate for RV life.

They also picked out cards for me.  Henry asked Scott what message he wanted him to write to me and look what he said:

Sage's card was about mom's losing their bladder function and for me to be careful when I'm laughing because I could pee on myself.  He thought this was hilarious.  Happy to report I do not have this problem.  (yet)  Ha!

So what fun thing do I do on Mother's Day?  Go to the Laundry Mat, of course!  Our dryer quit working this week.  I haven't been to a laundry mat in a billion years.  I know some are 'sketchy' so I wanted Henry to come with me...hence why we went today...on Mother's Day.  Once the work week starts, Henry won't be able to come with me.

Sage kept busy playing his new GameBoy.  

Henry and Scott stayed busy on their i-phone and 3DS.

Scott did make a friend there, but I wasn't sure if 

that little boy's mom would appreciate me taking a picture

of her son....so I didn't.   

It took us 4 washers and 4 dryers to complete our laundry which equaled $15.00.

We got Wendy's for the boys, and Chiptole for Henry and me.  Then, home so I could fold all those clothes (because I was not doing it in the laundry mat!).  I don't mind folding clothes because that is when I watch shows on Netflix.  I'm currently watching 'Say Yes to the Dress'....which I have NO idea why I'm into this show.  I could care less about wedding dresses.  Ha!

After laundry was folded and put away, I started going through more of our stuff in the basement.  It really shouldn't be taking as long as it has been to go through everything, but wow...I have to go through every single item that we own and make a decision on it.  Is it trash?  Should I donate it?  Should I sell it?  Or is it going to go to storage?  I have came across SOOOOOO many awesome treasures.  So many items trigger wonderful memories....and some trigger not so great memories.  Old cards from people, old letters from friends and family (SOOOO glad that I have actual letters and NOT texts), obituaries, birth announcements, my hospital bills from my births, my cancer journey records, all of Sage's doctor records from when he was sick all the time when he was itty, my old pay stubs from when I was in the 'working world', my old business cards, all of our old bills since 2006, all of our house buying documents from our 3 houses, tons and tons of pictures, some pictures are of my great-great grandparents, my pa-paw's old war photo albums, every party decoration I have displayed for my boys, my MIDDLE SCHOOL cheerleading jacket!, my mom's wedding dress!, my souvenirs from my 2000 England trip, my college notebooks, Henry's college notebooks, Sage's old school work and art work.....oh my....I could go on and on and on and on.  Just trust me....we had TONS of stuff packed away in our basement.  I'm still not done, but almost!  I see the light!

While I was doing laundry and going through stuff in the basement, Henry had the boys outside playing with neighbors.  He then came inside to cook dinner.  What a treat!  He grilled steak, corn on the cob, and baked potatoes.  Again, any meal I don't have to cook is marvelous!  Any meal I don't have to clean up is even better!

Little Scott was soooo worn out that he literally fell asleep while eating....he still had steak in his mouth!  (Don't worry, I forced him awake long enough to make him swallow).

So here I sit, blogging away while Henry and Sage play 'Plants vs Zombies' (they are both obsessed with this game....and actually Henry is EXTREMELY obsessed with this game!).  Soon I will have a treat of ice cream with cinnamon, honey, and chocolate chips (oh, and milk...I always add milk to my ice cream...is that weird?)

Wish I could be with my own momma and nanny today, but hopefully soon I will be!

Moving right along...

I feel like I could sleep for days!!  I actually took a nap today, and I do.not.take.naps!  I had to get up at 6:30 am this morning to leave at 7:30 for the homeschool curriculum sale.  However, when I have to get up early, I make myself wake up over and over and over throughout the night because I'm worried that I will oversleep.  So...I've been awake since 5:00 am (well, except for my 40  minute nap).

So...

Yesterday, a pediatric cancer charity came and picked up about 23 boxes and some misc. items from us.  So glad to have all of that out of our garage/house finally!

Look at that pretty truck in the background!  

Bye Bye car seat!  We've had it for over 8 years.  

I can't believe I didn't cry over that one!  

Also yesterday, we had a plumber come out and give us a quote for installing a new water heater.  Wow.  $275-$300.  Just wow.  We were given several quotes over the phone also from several different people.  Seems $200-$300 is just what they charge.  Crazy.  Since they all say it will take about 2 hours to complete....and 20-30 minutes of that is waiting for the tank to drain.  SO...lesson is....Henry should have been a plumber!  ($100-$150/hour....nice!)

ALSO yesterday, Sage took his annual test.  We have gone to the same administrator for the past 4 years, and he has taken the same test each year.  It's called the Woodcock Johnson Achievement Test.  The administrator is Dana Gingrich.  We recommend this test and administrator to any local homeschooler.  Sage did really well on his test.  So because he tried his best we made a stop at Target so that he could get some new Pokemon cards. (Have you heard?  Pokemon is all the rage).

Sage having his first Starbucks drink ever (lemonade)!  

And picking out Pokemon cards.

Yesterday, Sage also had a playdate with a friend down the street from us.  Good news!!  This friend has a cat, and Sage did NOT have an asthma attack!  Yay!

Yesterday, we also made another trip to our storage unit.  Scott stayed outside with the neighbors to play while we took Sage and another buddy with us.

Today was the homeschool curriculum sale.  I took 9 bins of items.  I came home with 3 bins of items....so it was a success!  The last 15 minutes of the sale, I put signs on my tables that read, "Everything is FREE!"  That did the trick.  I didn't want to bring stuff home.  

I took Sage with me to the sale, and there were 2 kids there playing with Game Boys.  He loved them (the Game Boys, not the kids...although, I'm sure the kids were great too).  He just HAD to have one!  He had some money saved up so Henry took him tonight to get one.  Scott went too, and he got a new 3DS game.  (He also had money saved up).  While they were gone, I started cleaning since we have a showing tomorrow at 5:00 pm (or at least we are supposed to!).  Henry is now painting our upstairs stairway wall.  He just got done, and asked me to come check it out.  I instantly noticed that the paint doesn't match the other walls!  (I had painted the other 3 walls in the summer).  Ugh.  More painting to do!

House is Listed!

Finally, after deciding to move in January, our house is on the market (to be rented!!).  We had the Realtor put down that it will be available June 15th.  (That is soon!)  

Our garage is still FULL of stuff.  A pediatric cancer charity is coming to pick up about 15-20 boxes of stuff this week.  I have about 5 boxes of educational supplies to take and (hopefully) sell at a curriculum sale this week.  We still have to go through all the stuff in our master closet and the storage room in our basement.  Considering how full our house was back in January, it is looking pretty bare now.  

This is the piece of the puzzle that Henry has been most concerned about...finding tenants for our house.  He will tell you it hasn't been a concern to me at all.  I keep saying, "It will be fine.  It will all work out."  I have faith.