Farewells

Air Force bases are full of turnover - it's the way of life.  That doesn't make it easier, just familiar.  When I left in August - I expected the goodbyes or see ya laters for this group was done! Surprise.

"X" and I often joked last year she would be the "last to leave." God has a sense of humor. She said goodbye to me in August. I said goodbye to her tonight. I doubt she'll be back to say goodbye to me again when we leave Beale in Feb....or March...

We went over in the afternoon so the boys would have one last "youth play date," and all could say a farewell. "X"  was the Protestant Parish coordinator and worked closely with Michael during our time at Beale, she was also a special teacher for Stacia and close friend to me..... Mr. X was away for over 2/3's of our time together - but we've sure had fun with him once he got home. We are blessed we were able to be back at Beale at the right time to say a "real goodbye" to this family.

So.....in the evening we headed across town to say a "real goodbye" to X with an Italian dinner at Jennifer's.

Part of the Gang...Jen and X in front, Hope, Mindee, Me, Maria and Rachel

It was a fun night to relax, laugh and share with old friends and to honor X and the role she played in each of our lives.  I have been wanting to connect with Maria and it was wonderful to have that opportunity last night, as well.

Two treasured Chapel Gals

I taught X to hug, she taught me to smile, and no one taught the camera to focus.

Seriously, emotions are high. Friendships are valuable and treasured. This is the friend who simply came over and sat with me those first days when the possibility of Parkinson's was raised and we still weren't sharing what Michael's tests were for....she just came and sat and stared at the trailer and dreamed with me....and never pressured for info Michael didn't want shared.  This is the woman with whom I spent hours cleaning and organizing chapels. This was my partner in Daniel teaching.....and retreat planning.....and Wednesday lunches. This is my fearless co-partner in snake chasing. ::snort:: This is a woman who knows how to be a friend.

Beale is a lonelier place this morning.

My heart however is much bigger for having had X in it for two years.

*Yes,  *I*  know her name  - but you don't need to know it. And, X, I know you'll eventually read this - just grab a tissue and smile. God did a good thing when He crossed our paths.  Thanks again, for.everything. 

Reminder from the "Wiseman"

Our unique traveling Wiseman reminded us this evening that Jesus is Pur - the Holy Lamb of God. He is worthy of our worship today and every day.

Everyone likes a hunt....

Is he in the media cabinet? 

What about the food cupboard?

Some really get into the hunt...taking apart seats

Perhaps under the dinette benches?

Finally, found on top of the PUR filters

What's this sitting on the filters behind the Instant Pot? 

Where will Gumby, the Wiseman, show up next? Only time will tell. 

The Traveling "Wiseman" is Back!

I love this time of year. We slow down and focus on the amazing gift of Jesus coming into our world and into our lives.  The frantic hustle and bustle has disappeared from our Decembers.

Last year we added a few Traveling Wisemen to our celebration.

Alas - this year they are in storage with the rest of the set - but - we have THIS

Yes, I did. I hid Gumby. He's standing in for The Wisemen this year in the true spirit of Semper Gumby. Stacia doesn't seem to mind.

She remembered that last year we shared a reason we adored Jesus each morning...and we tried to tie them in with where The Wisemen had been hidden. She excitedly shouted, "We adore Jesus because He's a fruit!"

She quickly realized that wasn't quite right and amended, "We adore Jesus because He fills us with the fruit of the spirit."

The funny thing is we hadn't even remembered to try to tie the hiding place in with a reason for worship.

We've added a few more fun decorations to the Caboose. Some teeny, tiny candy canes to the tree and these darling Victorian hats to the cupboards....oh and a couple of bows. I scored at the Thrift Store.

Michael assembled this fantastic flag pole for me. I brought my flags for each season with me. We placed it so we can enjoy it from our dinette and our neighbors can enjoy it as well. Right out there with Featherstone, my Flamingo.

We've read the Jotham's Journey books for years....in several states, two different countries....we gave them a break for a couple of years but Stacia is old enough to enjoy them now...and the boys like them too. This year a new book came out- Ishtar's Odyssey. It's going to feature The Wisemen journeying to Bethlehem.  We're only one night into it - but we're liking it. Though the kids are not keen on having a Persian feast.

Possibly prompted by our rousing, nightly, slightly torturous, singing of hymns at Easter, the kids requested a Christmas Carol. Why didn't we think of STREAMING A YOUTUBE version for background last spring???? 

This Great Blue Heron likes to hang out in our loop - quite a ways from the lake -  about .5 a mile.  He came up, stared at Featherstone, seemed to imitate Featherstone, and then lost interest in the pink bird and headed over to inspect our neighbor's Christmas lights.

Hmmm....in other excitement we are simply making huge tracks in our book school - dreaming of when we'll hit the road and will appreciate being ahead in the books as we step back into hands on history. 

Three Month Nomadiversary

Already! Today we celebrate our 3 month nomadiversary! Three months of being nomads - full time RVing.  We've not made it as far as we envisioned - but it's been good.  We had a month of moving every two weeks, a month of moving every 3 - 4 days and a month of not moving at all.  I think we've experienced a wide variety of the full-timing lifestyle. Our perfect stride seems to be to move every 10 - 14 days; this allows for a solid week of book school in between sight-seeing and traveling.  IF you have specific questions, feel free to ask. Maybe I can answer questions at our 4 month nomadiversary!

 Just the Facts -  In our first 93 days on the road:

·         We've averaged $25.22 a night. Our budget was $30 a night for "rent."

·         We've stayed in 4 Fam Camps, 6 State or County Parks, 6 private parks and boondocked twice in family's driveways.  Fam camps and boondocking allowed us to come in under budget as most private parks are over $30 a night.

·         We've spent $162 in laundry. That's $54 a month we'd forgotten to budget.

·         We've traveled 2889 miles. We quit counting when we arrived back at Beale.

·         We've spent $1479.66 on gas. Our budget was $400 a month. We were WAY over on that at the start of November. Being stationary is really going to bring this number down. We spent $150 this month. Our lower space rent and gas expenditures are being banked for future adventures in the spring.

·         We've spent $169 on tourist fees - this includes a $90 membership which will give us entrance to science centers and museums around America. This isn't bad for all the things we've seen and experienced.

·         We used 66 gb of data a month on our mifi - and are grieving the loss of the plan on 30 Nov. Now what?

·         Our wifi range extender has helped "some of the time."

·         We can fit a tiny Christmas tree in here. (Guess who added that?)

 

Unexpected Observations

·         Campgrounds and RV parks are FULL - not simply with "snow birds."  The parks are full of 20 and 30's who have found RV's to be sustainable housing whilst the housing market takes too much of their paychecks.

·         It is easy to witness different generational ideas of boundaries in an RV campground/park.

·         It's surprising how much energy it takes to always be looking ahead to where you'll "park" or "sleep" for the night. This is giving us new insight and empathy into part of the life of a homeless person.

·         Weather factors in much more in day to day life. 

 Benefits

·         More automatic family time - it doesn't take intentional effort to find time to connect. Stacia volunteers that it takes an intentional effort to disconnect.  We've often laughed as we remember Jared's famous line - "There's togetherness and then there's WAAAY togetherness."

·         We needed a sabbatical - we're getting it.

·         Less time spent cleaning.

·         Great conversations with people from a variety of geographical areas, living in RV's for a variety of reasons, in a variety of generational seasons of life. These are people we most likely would not have met without staying in campgrounds and hanging out in laundry rooms.

·         Visiting different churches - though always being a visitor may be a drawback.

·         With small cupboard and fridge space much less food gets wasted. I buy what we plan to use - we use it.

·         I don't wash the same load of laundry four or five times because I forget to move it to the dryer.

·         While we forgot to budget for laundry - I DO think using a laundry room with many washers/dryers is a BENEFIT. I enjoy the conversations and it does save time.

·         WE NEVER HAVE TO PACK and we get to see new and fun places! It's WONDERFUL. Many of you know how I hate to pack - and how we love to travel. This allows for both.

·         When we were traveling, we enjoyed the variation of views outside our windows.

·         Catching up with old friends, loved family and elder Gherkins.

·         There are no flat surfaces for clutter to collect.

Favorite Places

·         Snoqualmie Falls

·         Grays Harbor Lighthouse

·         Mount Saint Helens

·         Skyscrapers in Seattle

·         Air & Space Museum in Seattle

·         Valley of the Rogue State Park

·         Oregon Vortex

·         Beach at Fort Stevens

·         Fort Clatsop

·         Chittenden Locks

Favorite Experiences

·         Geocaching

·         First time catching fish (10 fish - she says)

·         Bike riding in the Redwoods

·         Climbing the top of Grays Harbor Lighthouse

·         Kite flying on the WA coast

Drawbacks

·         Campground/Resort Wifi simply doesn't work well.

·         No "set" flesh and blood community when we're traveling. Though we do have lots of online community. I really miss being part of a body of believers and growing in Christ-likeness with a group of women. I miss mentoring.

·         Clutter  - a continual war must be waged against the caboose becoming filled with clutter. Everything has a place and needs to be put up immediately - this doesn't always happen.

·         We've had a few odd experiences at the showers here at Beale.

·         Some of the washers/dryers in laundromats are really grungy. 

Indoor Decorations DONE

Our celebration of Christmas is a bit unorthodox. As Stacia indignantly proclaimed, when hearing we don't celebrate Christmas, "We DO celebrate Christmas on Christmas. We give gifts on New Years or St Nicks day or something."  A very nice summary. We have cut the giving budget way back. Shopping is a breeze. Our focus is Jesus through this busy month...and on the 25th we have a great big party for Him, open stockings (a concession to Stacia) and discussing ways to give more of ourselves to Him in the upcoming year.  We ring in New Years with a family gift exchange - and more.

All that to say, when it came time to downsize and move into the trailer, I didn't think we needed a lot of "Christmas Decorations." They didn't seem that important to our celebration. I brought one item.....it could serve double duty...useful in both our Advent and Lenten journeys....

The journey begins

I quickly discovered the problem - aside from this table -  we have two other flat surfaces in the trailer.. That's it. I'm not exaggerating. 

I cannot give up my only cooking/counter space

Possibly cover the stove top with a butcher block (something I've been
thinking about anyway) and move it all as one when cooking?

 We are toying with somehow mounting it on this wall. For now, we'll pull it out each night, but that will make it hard to watch the progression of Mary and Joseph through the season.

 Stacia began asking about a Christmas Tree weeks ago. It became apparent this mattered to all the kids. Nolan suggested we hang one from the ceiling. An outside tree was considered - but the winds are ferocious. I looked at wall trees - but was unwilling or unable  to pay the price. ::snort::  She suggested wreaths, window clings - and some small tree. We usually decorate the day after Thanksgiving - followed by popcorn and Muppets Christmas Carol. We didn't do that this year. Evidently, we must keep some old traditions while we forge new adventures.  Today, after church, we headed to Lowes and Wal-Mart to see what we could find.

We found the perfect little tree on our way into Lowes. Michael doesn't want a bunch of stuff to haul around with us. This one is real (which I hoped for) and we'll just put it on our table. We have dreams of planting it out in the wild, marking it with geocaching coordinates, and coming back to visit it in future years.....

We briefly considered this to go OVER the Trailer.

Christmas would really be special with a 6 ft singing bass mounted on the side of the Caboose (trailer). NOT.

Stacia safeguarded the tree and we headed home to decorate!

Whilst the men-folk took care of winterizing our water supply.....did we mention it's been cold....

It's not snow - but when you packed for 70* - it's COLD. 

Stacia and I streamed Pandora's  Chris Tomlin Christmas station and began decorating.

The guys came in and rearranged the clings on this wall - to get everything to fit. I thought this was a window cling - since it needed to be on a wall, we have some more window space.

 

We  were relieved to have our little tree dressed for the season, and celebrated with the sought after popcorn and Muppets Christmas Carol. 

 Stacia and I will probably go to the BX after school and look for a candle for our Advent Wreath (none at any store we went to) and a few bows or something for a bit more color in the trailer. If you have a brilliant solution for what to do with the wreath - please do share. 

Geocaching with the D's

We left the camp and headed to the bowling alley. The D family met us there.

This doesn't look like the  bowling alleys in your area?

It turns out the bowling alley was closed. We opted to go geocaching instead.  We split into male and female vehicles. The ride out to the spot for our searching to begin provided extra socializing time. ::grin::

We found to caches today.  We're aiming to hit 100 finds before the end of this year. We're at 98. We had a .61 mile walk to our first find of the day.

Stacia directed the gals

 The way we search is for each person to walk away from the find when they find it and say, "Found it." This allows others to continue searching until they find it themselves. Sometimes it works better than other times. ::wink::

The first small cache

The second find was off the road on the way back to the vehicles.

The search is on

I found a squirrel's cache 

2nd find - another small cache

 

The weather was perfect to be out hiking and searching.  Even Yuuki had a great day!

Look at those ears

 

This turned out better than bowling. We had lots of time to visit and being out in the weather was fantastic.  

Mail Call

Nolan's permit reached him today.....exciting. Michael got his license too, but we didn't feel the need to take a photo. Nolan can continue "Driver's Ed" with a "permanent" permit now.