Sunday, November 27, 2016

Gifts from Afar

We brought a few gifts for the kids from the cruise....Stacia was excited to get a couple of dolls. She missed the fancy ones from deployments....

Stacia loved her t-shirt

Of course we brought back some Mayan chocolate....

The source of Stacia's amusement

We're Going to Fit

The boys have taken the bunks and Stacia is currently sleeping on the jack-knife sofa. Nolan suggested we  make a hammock for her. She wasn't 100% in agreement with this option.

And that is the only photo we took of this busy day! It sounded easy to take the RV to the Caboose and move things over.....we knew where our challenges would be.  The first adaptation to the plan is we couldn't open the slides on the RV - so we couldn't reach the closets or dresser.  We brought all the kitchen stuff in, all the bathroom stuff, all the electronics, all the school stuff, and the guys moved all the stuff from the basement (storage bays) of the Caboose to the RV.

There comes a point in every RV move-in where you look at piles of stuff everywhere and your little living space and think, "This is simply not going to work." I remembered this moment from a year ago  - we couldn't even WALK through the trailer.  We pushed through and got the kitchen, bathrooms and basement organized. We bought 4 30 gal  Sterilite tubs to organize things that won't fit in the RV which were in the Caboose (Kitchen appliances not used every day, extra food storage, summer clothes) and moved them to the basement. Michael said the tubs fit perfectly and he used them to categorize stuff coming over from the storage areas of the Caboose. We also moved the school tubs from the van to the basement.

I do have quite a bit less workable counter space in the RV. It looked  the same, but when you actually use the kitchen and need to remove the covers on the sink and stove you realize it's less. I'll get some sort of makeshift something to create more space. I DO need to be able to fit a mixing bowl on the counter.😊

The bathroom is also smaller - but we moved cleaning supplies to under the kitchen sink, laundry hamper to our room, and towels to the deep shelf above the washer/dryer.

We reached a point where the couches and our bed were FULL of clothes and we needed to come back to the park so we could put the slides out and keep organizing.  We all looked at each other with relief to note all the kids' clothes items have fit.  They didn't even need the storage cupboard I'd left for them in the living area. We were able to put all the school stuff in that spot - even the GIANT Tapestry of Grace Teacher's Manual (it's been in the van and I move pages in each week). We moved their plastic drawers into 1/2 of the closet and they each got a big drawer in our dresser.

We still have the office stuff and all the wall decorations to bring over today.  We need to clean the Caboose and try to get it to a consignment lot.  We decided to try to stay here at the county park for the remainder of our visit - as it takes time to keep hooking and unhooking the RV and putting things away to drive.

It felt odd not to be at one church or another this morning, but we have 4 days of doctor appointments coming up and we need to get moved and deal with the Caboose. We'll be able to sell the van after the trailer sells...and we need that money to buy a towable vehicle.

We are going to bed  confident all the essentials from the Caboose will fit into the RV. It was a good time to go through everything - we have a couple of  yard bags full for St Vinnies. Amazing how stuff collects in a year, even in a tiny home.