My parents got us one of these cool new digital picture frames for Christmas that links up with online services such as Dropbox, Facebook, Google photos, among others. As I was setting it up I connected it to old albums I had on Facebook and Google so the kids would have some pictures to look at and reminisce over. Watching the pictures pan through, I was alarmed when I saw photos of myself from just a couple years ago. They simply did not look like the person I feel like I have always been on the inside. There was an old profile picture from Facebook that showed our wedding picture and that was the only one I recognized as myself.
Over time I had gotten up to a maximum of 293 pounds at one point. I remember watching a video that was taken at our daughter’s T-ball game at one point in the midst of it all and realizing that the large lady in the background was myself. It was alarming to me as I didn’t recognize the figure as myself at all. As time went on and my desire to change increased, I was overwhelmed with where to start to the point of paralysis. I eventually learned about the year-long program through Precision Nutrition dedicated to daily lessons and bimonthly healthy habit formation that would address not only my physical health but also my mental, emotional, and spiritual health. At this point in time we had two older daughters and a baby in the house. I felt I didn’t have the time to seek out different counseling and nutrition and personal trainers to help me. So, the package bundle that Precision Nutrition provided in its online coaching format seemed appropriate for me. I really battled with feeling worthy enough of paying the monthly fee and taking the time daily for myself. It turns out it was the best thing I could have done for myself. And for my family. Over the course of that year-long program I ended up losing 50 pounds of weight, gaining a more slender body, and gaining confidence in myself and in my new healthy habits. I was called an athlete for the first time in my entire life. I still have more weight to lose but I’m continuing my healthy habits daily. My husband was also affected by this program in watching me go through it and sharing what I was learning. He would do the workouts with me and would eat the same foods as me and he also began to notice improvements in his physical health and his energy levels. At the time he was working at Boeing. He had been an engineer with them for nearly 12 years. For the past few years prior to this I could tell that my husband’s passion for engineering seemed to be waning. His skill set and natural gifts seemed to be more working with people. He was exploring in his free time what he was passionate about and looking for what would be his next pursuit in his life. By the end of the Precision Nutrition program I ended up as one of their finalists in their transformation contest they hold. The transformation that he saw in me was not just a physical one, but was almost more dramatically in who I was becoming. It was inspiring to him and he realized that so many people in our world today are facing similar problems with their health as I was. He learned of Precision Nutrition’s certification program for certifying health coaches and he signed up without hesitation. His program went over the science of nutrition and the body and then went over coaching and the psychology of change. It took him nine months to complete and he finally received his certificate this month. He is passionate about helping people to improve their health and their lives. He left his job with Boeing to pursue his new business, You Better Health, where he conducts individual health coaching over the phone. Throughout my program I had learned all about living deliberately and not getting sucked up in the swift current of life or the shoulds of our culture. The program had us reflect on what we could do, what we wanted to do, and how we wanted to live our lives. As I reflected on that it turned out Brian had also been. We shared our dreams and it turned out we both desired to travel and learn more about the world. And so the idea of full-time traveling was born and we quickly jumped on board this new lifestyle. We were ready to move past our suburb home that frankly we were having a hard time keeping up with anyway. There is so much out there that we wanted to explore and show our children. The idea of road schooling our kids seemed very natural for us. Recently we visited a museum in Santa Fe as a part of our roadschooling lifestyle and my husband took a photo of me enjoying one of the interactive exhibits. I look at this photograph and it looks like me again. It looks like the me that I feel like inside. I am proud of that. And when I see the old photographs of myself that I don’t recognize, I can look in the eyes of that version of myself and remember where I was emotionally and mentally, physically and spiritually and honor the person that I was and the things I was working through. But I can say with 100% certainty that I am glad that I took that first courageous step towards getting help and addressing deep-seated unhealthy habits I had acquired over time. So here we are now in our fifth wheel in New Mexico experiencing life and living deliberately with our three kids. Healthy eating, exercise, and stress recovery are all a part of our lives. As I continue with my weight loss journey and my healthy living journey, I work on my healthy habits daily. I also signed up for the certification program through Precision Nutrition so that I can pay it forward and help other people in their journeys of transformation towards health and well-being. My husband now is passionate and excited to do his work. He keeps a journal with him that he jots down ideas for his clients in and he looks forward to his conversations with them and seeing how they’re progressing. I believe the problem solving capabilities of an engineer do come into play but he’s also able to use his creativity and his natural optimism and hope and ability to connect with other people to really help those who are on their own health journeys. Another word or two about the fact that I had established my Etsy business, Pretty Sensitive Ears, back in 2009 with the hopes that someday it would fuel Brian being able to pursue a new venture. We have taken the earring business with us on the road and fulfill orders wherever we are. This business is also a business of helping people. I design, make, and sell earrings for sensitive ears out of hypoallergenic materials such as niobium, titanium, surgical steel, and Argentium silver. We also had begun homeschooling our children when they were in kindergarten. We were used to the role of student and guide / mentor in their education. Road schooling has a similar dynamic though the routines are all tossed up in the air. We definitely make use of classical literature, living books for mathematics, and unschooling principles, learning from the experiences we have, the things around us, and always exercising curiosity. Make no mistake that the decision we made was not an easy one. We had a comfortable life in our home, in our neighborhood, in our community. But we felt there was more out there calling to us. We prayed over this decision extensively. We definitely felt led to this new lifestyle. There have been bumps in the road and there will always be bumps in the road. But the highlights seem a little higher and the excitement of seeing our children getting to experience the world and getting to learn firsthand has been invaluable to us. The advice Precision Nutrition gave at the end of their program was to dream big and crazy about what it is you want to do in your life. Then find someone out there who is doing that thing and learn from them and how they got started. How did they take that first step? And figure out how you can take YOUR first step. Put away the distractions in your life and get towards really deliberately living it. After all, we only have one life to live and tomorrows are never guaranteed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you or someone you know would like help getting healthier and establishing healthy habits (in the midst of the chaos of daily living in a society that is overscheduled!), I highly recommend getting in touch with my husband. His one-on-one coaching follows the teachings of Precision Nutrition and is less than half of their fee. Let him help you change your life for the better. YOU ARE worth it! Visit You Better Health and fill out the contact form to schedule a free consultation.
2 Comments
Santa Fe…! As we were driving to Santa Fe, NM, the girls were singing the song from Newsies and once we pulled in Ashley asked, “Why did he want to come to Santa Fe anyway?”
Our first glimpse at the city was full of wonder. The architectural style of this city – with low adobe buildings the color of the landscape – makes the land seem so vast and unpopulated. The sky seems so big and the mountains in the distance are so beautiful. It seems there is a view no matter where you are. While in Santa Fe, we celebrated Thanksgiving. We opted to order our turkey and main sides from Whole Foods. It was worth it to not have to attempt to cook a turkey breast in our tiny rv oven and to not have to attempt all the cooking of the sides in our limited kitchen and counter space. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving we did bake a banana cream pie and a cherry pie. And on Thanksgiving day we made Creamed Corn in the style of Rudy’s BBQ (which we had eaten in Texas). It turned out very good. We also celebrated a birthday during this time. Baking at a high altitude of nearly 7000 ft was challenging – a lot of math to adjust the various ingredients. The cake turned out a little dense, but super delicious. Altitude did give us headaches at first. The first couple of days we had to take it easy. Especially for someone with asthma. We thankfully did not have any complications due to altitude though. We stayed at Santa Fe Skies RV Park. We really like it here. They had a walking path around the entire perimeter that we used for bike riding too. The goat heads (spikey burrs) made deep puncture holes in the tires though! Brian visited a local bike shop and found out that he could buy this liquid stuff to put into the tire that would seal over the puncture holes if they occurred. We really wanted to take advantage of the mountain biking trails here, but cold weather set in along with colds. So that will be something to do when we visit Santa Fe again some day. Fortunately, before the cold temperatures and cold virus set in, we were able to get up to Bandelier National Monument. This place is HIGHLY recommended. Here there are cliff dwellings from ancient people who used them 10,000 years ago. They have a walking tour that is self guided with cavates (caves) that you can climb into. As we approached the cliffs, Ashley pointed out a gear type shape on the cliff face saying that it looked like a sun. It was fairly faint but definitely there. A volunteer approached us and we were able to ask her about it. She said that there were petroglyphs (carvings) across the cliff surfaces and especially further down the cliff side that were visible in the sunshine. It was so fun to try to spot them and point them out to eachother and to try to decipher what the shapes could be and why they were put there. We enjoyed thinking in this way, attempting to solve the mysteries thousands of years old. The girls earned Junior Ranger badges here too. In Santa Fe, we got to visit the Loretto Chapel with it’s incredible miraculous staircase. What a beautiful church. And how incredible to wonder at the craftsmanship, materials, and structural integrity of the staircase. Our girls each picked out wooden carpenter’s rosaries from the gift shop. Befitting souvenir! We also visited San Miguel Mission which is the oldest continuously used church in the US. It is constructed of adobe and was built on a site of a native dwelling from the 1200/ 1300’s. The church was built in the 1600’s. It housed a bell made in Spain in the 1300’s. The girls got to ring it! Next door to this church was the “Oldest House in the US”. It was also adobe. Small and very interesting. Santa Fe is the oldest capitol city in the US. While in Santa Fe we also toured the Cathedral Basilica St. Francis. A beautiful cathedral with a wooden altar screen with images of Saints. Beautiful stained glass of Saints throughout reflecting rainbow colored light into the church. A great faunte in the center of the aisleways. And most amazingly impressive was the collection of relics from Saints, Mother Mary, and the Holy Cross. I stood in front of them and try as I might, I couldn’t even get my mind to fully wrap around the significance and incredibility of these. Still. We attended mass here and it was such a beautiful experience. Afterwards they had a party for the kids for St. Nicholas. The priest attended and he seemed to have such a great relationship with the kids and teenagers in the parish. We enjoyed this. We decorated a friolita in honor of our beloved kitty, Reggie, who passed away at the beginning of 2016. It is a paper bag that will be filled with sand and a lit candle for Christmas Eve. I wish we could be there to see it. We visited Meow Wolf interactive art museum. This is a place that blew us away. The kids felt it was creepy. There was definitely that element as there was a mystery that can be worked as you venture through the different rooms. We were simply taking in the interactive nature of each room and the surprising elements each beheld. Interactive art. It definitely evoked many different feelings and thoughts. We’d love to go back someday and unwrap the mystery story behind it all. We visited the Georgia O’keeffe museum and learned about her life and art. The kids were free here! And they were given sketch pads and pencils which they fully utilized. Natalie began adding color to her sketches when we returned home and it got her to pull out the pastels to experiment with a different medium – like O’keeffe used. The museum was small, but an enjoyable outing for us all. We had some overnight snows a couple of times – but it quickly melted off as the sun came up. So one afternoon we drove up into the mountains to the Ski Santa Fe resort (which had not yet opened) and found some snow. The drive was unique in that there were bare aspen trees all around with evergreens sprinkled here and there on the mountainsides. The aspens looked light gray covering the mountainsides. I imagine in the Fall it is breathtaking. The humidity is pretty low in Santa Fe this time of year. And the temperatures were in the 30’s during the days. The night times were getting down into the teens some nights. We had purchased vent cover insulation for our bathroom and bunkroom vents and they were truly handy. We also purchased a small space heater and used it in combo with our electric heat fireplace and it did a good job of keeping us toasty. We used the furnace for a couple of days and ran through the propane pretty quickly. So we relied mainly on electric heat after that with supplementing with the furnace if need be. We also had purchased a heated water hose and are extremely glad we did. The RV park had a heat strip connected to the faucet and our heated water hose kept our water flowing! We experienced mostly blue skies and sunny days. There was one amazing lightning storm that surrounded us. And of course snow and a couple days of high winds. As we write this we have departed during a high wind, very cold morning. Temperatures will be dipping into the single digits or below zero. We’re headed on now. J We had hoped to visit the Native American Culture and Art Museum while we were here, but couldn’t fit it in. We’d love to return again during the summer for the Indian Art Market and when the Rancho tours are happening and when we could fit in a visit to a pueblo. I wish we could stay to participate in the Las Posadas experience here at Christmas time (reenacting Mary and Joseph’s search for an inn). On our way to New Mexico we listened to Sing Down the Moon by Scott O’Dell and Josefina (an American Girl historical fiction book). These two books helped make the area, history, culture, land, etc, more familiar and approachable for our kids and were well enjoyed by us adults as well. Knowing the historical significance of an area makes it so much more deeply enjoyable. We made it into Albuquerque once. We enjoyed New Mexican fare at Monroe’s. We had soapapillas and carne adovada. Pretty delicious. I went with Christmas style (red chiles and green chiles). :) Amanda Would Disneyland be Disneyland if it had been named “Meow Wolf”. No. It is not descriptive enough. Concise, yes. When an establishment/business has a lot of horsepower behind it then you can create a new name and it can catch on (like Google and Bing), but “Meow Wolf”, come on. What is this place? Also, I thought it was “Meow Woof” like it is some kind of place for cats and dogs. In due time, maybe the Meow Wolf will become a household name. First my Aunt Bonnie recommended that we go there because her grandkids really like the place. Then I heard on the Albuquerque radio station that if we have relatives coming into town and they are looking for a fun thing to do, then hit up the Meow Wolf (from a man who sounds like he is in his fifties). The security guard at the Georgia O’Keefe museum politely asks me where we are from. I say “Washington State” (because of course if you say Washington then anyone in the mountain, central or eastern time zones will think you are from Washington DC), and the very next thing she says is “have you been to the Meow Wolf?”. OK, OK, OK, we’ll go. If you ever have a chance of going then stop reading. SPOILER ALERT. If not, I understand, Santa Fe is not exactly on the way to anywhere for most of y’all reading this. But seriously, think back to what Walt Disney was trying to achieve when he was first envisioning Disneyland… go ahead, I’ll wait… take the fantastical wonder and sense of enchantment, the element of surprise and joy, the ability to captivate an audience from age 0 months old to 120 years old, all of the curiosity. Meow Wolf achieves it. There, I said it. Walt Disney did a pretty good job too, don’t get me wrong, but he also went with a crazy high budget and depends on the rides/attractions being scary and has too many songs. Meow Wolf is low budget, there are no songs, and does not intentionally try to scare you at any point (although some things are a bit creepy). The general public also prefers the Moew Wolf to Disneyland (per dollar), as evidence by the fact that Google ratings gives Disneyland 4.6 stars and Meow Wolf has 4.8 stars. Secondly, I’ll take this work of mostly visual art and compare it to the audio art of Trent Reznor. That’s right, now I’m making comparisons to Nine Inch Nails. The Meow Wolf is every bit as cutting edge, unique, and complex: in its own way. And this is coming from a huge Nine Inch Nails fan. The Meow Wolf is in a league of its own. It took the contributions of over 500 people to pull it off, but they did it. Colors, light/shadows, textures, surprise, “where am I?”, “how’d they do that?”, “What’s this?”, “Where does that lead to?”, “We’re under the ocean”, “We’re in outer space”, “Oh, that is too cool”... The exhibits seem to have no end and each seems to be more compelling and interesting than the last. When we left we were in such shock that we couldn’t talk about what just happened to us for about 48 hours or so. OK, I could keep going but I think you get the point. Brian Santa Fe from the perspective of... ...Ashley: The mountains are so close. All the buildings have flat roofs and are tan. It’s very cold. I liked the snow when we went up the mountains. ...Natalie: The sky is so blue and it feels close and huge and beautiful. The view of the mountains was really pretty. We went to the oldest church in the US and we got to ring a bell. The sunsets were all different colors. The stars were so bright. ...Jovie: I hurt my lip. L (She stumbled at Bandelier National Monument on the concrete path and hurt her nose and lip and cheek. It has healed up alright but it was pretty traumatic for her.) Now I’m 2. (She has been starting to recognize some letters and numbers!) Texas Our arrival in Canyon Lake, TX, saw hot temperatures and the surprise of day time mosquitos. We parked the Big Wheel at a storage facility and packed up our belongings for three weeks of stays at timeshare properties. The first was a week long stay in Canyon Lake where we got to spend time with Christina and John and their friends and family as we prepared for their wedding day. The temperatures were very high – 80’s and 90’s – and yet we saw people wearing sweaters! Shopping for sandals and shorts proved difficult as the stores had stocked their fall and winter clothes here as well. Thankfully we found what we needed on some clearance racks! I suppose there is a temperature change for people who are native Texans. We arrived just after the peak of the butterfly migration, but there were still butterflies everywhere! Christina and John’s wedding colors were blue and yellow and as they were married, yellow butterflies flitted around….you just can’t plan that!! The reception began and shortly after a Texas thunderstorm began too! Everyone joined together in saving decorations and such and we all took cover. The beauty of my sister is that she was not about to let rain ruin her day. John and Christina grabbed an umbrella and began dancing on the deck – the umbrella soon cast aside. Rain soaked and smiling. Their first dance was appropriately an original song they wrote and recorded with a musician friend with a lyric “your kisses roll through me like thunder.” As the rain finally came to an end, a double rainbow appeared and the reception carried on. We had Texas bbq for dinner – brisket, pickles, onions, bread, sweet tea, etc. We left the next day and headed north to Lake Travis which is west of Austin. The temperatures cooled a bit then. We headed into the city of Austin and visited the Lady Bird Johnson wildflower center which was beautiful and fascinating and we got a good look at a variety of butterflies. We had kolaches from a food truck, visited the state capitol, and a state history museum as well. Texas history is very interesting and rich, including winning independence from Mexico and then joining the USA. We’ve found that Texans have much pride in their state and a strong state identity. We later learned from our new nieces that Texas history is taught in many grade levels in school and they have a Texas pledge they say each morning along with the Pledge of Allegiance. We also learned that so many of the names of places in Texas are names of heroes during the effort to gain independence from Mexico: Houston, Lake Travis, Seguin, among others. One of the evenings in Austin, we drove through a park to get a glimpse at a spring fed natural swimming pool and got a surprise seeing fireflies light up the lawns! It was the first time any of us had seen fireflies! We also tried Rudy’s BBQ for the first time there. We all enjoyed their food – bbq brisket and chicken, cream corn, potato salad, cole slaw. It was delish! We were a little surprised that the kids loved it! Our next leg took us all the way down to Galveston, TX, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Our timeshare was on the opposite end of the island of the tourist area. It was amazing to see all the houses built on stilts as tall as a full story – many turning the space below into car ports. This is to protect the homes from high water levels during storms. We visited the beach where the sand was like the consistency of brown sugar – you could pack it into balls! We buried Brian in the sand and made him look like a mermaid – er, merman. There were pelicans there and fish jumping in the waves. Christina and John joined us and we took a ferry boat ride and saw dolphins everywhere! We were introduced to a new Texas favorite treat – Bahama Bucks. Shaved ice in a gazillion flavors with ice cream in the base (that’s the Bahama Rama Mama). We toured the Bishop’s Palace – a Victorian home built in the late 1800’s out of stone for a politician with ornate and rich details throughout. Later the home was purchased to be the home to Bishop Byrne. This house was incredible. There was even a conservatory where the original lady of the house kept her fern collection on pedestals! One evening we rented a surrey and had a ride along the beach. We also took a day trip to the Nasa Space Center. That was an incredible experience. We got to go into a Space Shuttle and its 747 transport. We got to listen to an astronaut speak about his experience on the shuttle and the International Space Station. It was homeschool day, so the place was busy with extra hands-on activities for the kids to dig in to. Our next stop was a weekend up in Dallas to visit old friends. We spent to quality time and had a great time relaxing and catching up. We then returned to Canyon Lake to pick up the Big Wheel from the storage facility we had parked it at. It survived! We hooked up and took it a few minutes down the road right by the lake to where we parked it for the next month. (As they say, “Home is where we park it!”) We stayed at Lake Pointe RV Park on Canyon Lake, TX. It was a great park. There was a play set and pool. Lots of room to ride bikes and a trail that went way down by the lake shore. There were also deer everywhere! Brian took the kids to swim one day and they found a random frog in the pool! We rode our bikes down to the lake shore and found a dinosaur track in the limestone! And the deer ate our Jack O’ Lanterns the night we put them out! The park was pretty quiet except on the opening day of Deer Season. Every spot seemed to be taken and people coming and going. Deer hunting is big! We heard several shots in the nearby areas that morning. Brian got to go fishing for catfish with our brother-in-law. It’s a night time sport best done during a full moon. They were out there super late…and have some fishing stories! No noodling (apparently it’s a thing to put your fist in the water near a ledge and the catfish will attempt to bite on at which point you yank your arm out of the water – hopefully with your fish too!). We were able to get library cards through the local library and enjoyed getting to visit and check out books. We walked the 1.6 mile dam for the girls’ American Heritage Girls’ walk-a-thon. We visited a small museum that shows dinosaur tracks that were discovered when the owner of the property began blasting into the hill country hillside to create an RV park and discovered tracks in the limestone. There were tracks from an iguanodon, acrocanthosaurus, and a giant slug type animal that dragged along a giant twisty type shell. The small museum building held fossils of all sorts and arrowheads too. We learned how this part of Texas had long ago been covered by a sea and that the limestone that covers much of hill country was created from crushed sea shells. We got to go fossil hunting near my brother-in-law’s parent’s house and found clam shells and rudist fossils – the nearest thing to them now is coral though they were much bigger. The geological history of the area was so fascinating. We also got to visit the Alamo where we really enjoyed the magnificent diorama that is set up in the gift shop / museum. It helped the kids to picture the battle that ensued there. We got to walk along the beautiful River Walk and visited San Fernando Cathedral where Mexican General Santa Anna holed up before the Alamo battle and where Davy Crockett’s remains are held. Later we visited San Antonio again to go to the San Jose Mission which is part of the Missions National Historic Park and is a World Heritage Site. The girls participated in their Junior Ranger program and I must say I was so proud of their insight, curiosity, and most of all, their respect for the property, buildings, visitors, and Rangers. This place was amazing. What an incredible look at life in a mission! The walls, dark and small living quarters, ovens, wells, church, aquifers, mill, education buildings, and gardens, are all there. We drove on afterwards to visit Mission Concepcion (also part of the same park) and it was unique in that it still had some of the original frescoes on the walls. The girls also earned Junior Ranger badges at the Lyndon B Johnson National Historic Park. We got to see his boyhood home which was fascinating to us all – sleeping porches to beat the heat and breezeways were an integral part of homes before electricity and air conditioning! We got to head down to LBJ’s ranch then which is still operational (we got the unique experience of stopping on the road because a calf was nursing in the middle of the road!) and learned more about his presidency and life. We got to attend a rodeo with our family. Barrel racing, roping, bull riding, and even a bucking bronco! All this was followed up with live music afterwards and dancing. It was so entertaining! We had some of the best pecan pie in the tiny town of Gruene (pronounced Green) next to the Gruene Hall which is a live music dance hall where apparently Willie Nelson and many more country music stars got their start. The restaurant, called the Griste Mill, has such an amazing ambience and rustic feel. It used to be a mill on the Guadalupe River. Big timber beams, giant windows that hinge open outward, and even more giant fireplaces throughout. The more unique taxidermy decore included a Long Horn Cow, turkeys, catfish, and wild hogs. It was there that we learned about the wild hog problem in Texas. Apparently, it’s always hog hunting season because they reproduce at an alarming rate! We have to say that throughout this stay in Texas Hill Country we were treated with such kindness, politeness, and hospitality by family, friends of family, and strangers alike. Our air conditioning ran 24x7 but our electric bill was not too bad. We were ready though toward the end of our stay to find some cooler weather that would feel a little more like Fall to us native Washingtonians. We missed the definite color change on the trees too. As we sadly said goodbye to the family and friends in Texas Hill Country we steered our Big Wheel toward Lost Maples State Natural Area where we hiked through some gorgeous landscapes and found some autumn colors. This Texas State Park was breathtaking. Their campground was so peaceful (and out of cell phone coverage range!) and is somewhere we would love to visit again. The girls were able to work on a Junior Ranger badge for the Texas State Parks there too. The Rangers even checked out a backpack with pamphlet guides, maps, compass, binoculars, magnifying glass, watercolor pencils, and more. We stayed at a Harvest Host in Canyon, TX, called zBar winery. They had very delicious wine! And it was crazy cold and crazy windy there! We put out all the stabilizers and the RV still rocked all over. The next day we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch off Route 66 in Amarillo, TX. We were able to pull the Big Wheel right off the side of the road and park on the shoulder to take a quick stop at this public art installment. We did bring paint, but it was so icy cold and windy out that we did not get much chance to add to the art. Brian let the girls make their mark with a Sharpie instead. And from there we left Texas and entered the next part of our adventure…New Mexico! We have learned a lot already. It’s hard to break from ingrained routine that is created based on the climate you live in. In Washington, we homeschooled in the morning when our energy was fresh, and then headed outside in the afternoons. In Texas, we slooowly came around to the idea that we had to get outside in the morning because by afternoon it was too hot to be able to even sit outside! We have all gone through some emotional adjustments to leaving behind the familiarity of home in Washington and our friends and family. We have learned to redistribute household responsibilities between my husband and myself. Since he is home now instead of being gone 9 hours each day, we had to sit down and decide again which roles we would each be filling in our family. We installed an adjustable pressure regulator and three jumbo canister water filtration system in the fifth wheel. We learned that we are not making use of the small outdoor refrigerator in our outdoor kitchen and that converting it into a freezer would be much more useful. We are all learning better discipline when it comes to getting something out, focusing on finishing using it, and then putting it away where it belongs. This is necessary as there isn’t room to leave unfinished things out and it is crucial that things are put away when they are done. Our kids’ room is cleaner than their bedrooms in our house ever were! We also already have taken a few trips to donate things from the RV. Some was stuff we decided we really truly didn’t need in here. Some was stuff the kids have grown out of. But what we are seeing is that it is important to be ever evaluating the things in our home. If they are not used, they need to be promptly donated. This is valuable to us – we don’t live with the extra clutter – and to others – we donate the items so others can make use of them now. We have learned that when we get somewhere new to explore we need to research our interests and opportunities (looking online at Trip Advisor, checking for National Parks, gathering interesting brochures, checking for local events online, and getting recommendations from family, friends, and other Fulltime Families) and then we each pick our top thing to do and make sure we do those things first to be able to satisfy each of our interests. Then we can continue fitting in other excursions on the list as time allows. We are finding that with our three kids ranging from toddler to near ten year old, we best handle a day off between excursions. But we can’t stick around the itty bitty RV living space too many days in a row or we all start to go a bit stir crazy. We are basically learning, adjusting, and figuring out the happy medium that our family will operate at in this new lifestyle. We are unschooling with the opportunities around us, but also using various resources (Life of Fred, American Heritage Girls badgework, Sunday School book, Jesus Calling for Kids, read aloud classics and historical fiction books, experiment kits, pocket microscope, pen pals, service projects, and art supplies, etc!) for some subjects and keeping the kiddos engaged on our off-days. It’s an eclectic blend that feels natural for us. So far so good! J Amanda During this time, I (Brian) completed my level 1 certification from Precision Nutrition. The health coaching business is now moving ahead at full steam. If you know anyone looking to improve their health and need some help, please keep me in mind. The website is www.youbetterhealth.com or contact me at [email protected]. I talk to my clients once per week for about 20 minutes and we agree upon a habit for them to work on. On average they are losing 1 pound per week, so it is going well. I am really enjoying it. I really look forward to the calls. It is an odd thing for me to enjoy my work so much. At my office job, people would often ask me how work was going, and me response was along the lines of “fine”, “can’t complain”, “shouldn’t complain”, “the benefits are good”. I look back on that and realize that the answer really was “I am tolerating it. It is low stress enough and pays me well enough such that I am not getting depressed, and I don’t have a hard time coming to work in the morning.” But it did become more and more difficult to tolerate as time went on. I felt that I could be doing more with my life. Building airplanes is important so that people can go on business trips and families can be connected periodically and so that people can take vacations to far off places, but when you are one of X thousand people working on designing, building, and getting an airplane delivered my work felt insignificant; that if I left they would just find someone else to do my job just as well as me. I felt myself starting to pick on people to keep me entertained. I eventually treated the whole job like a big joke. The health coaching is way different for me. Now I think about my health coaching job when I am not actually working because I genuinely want to do the best that I can. I keep a notebook for ideas for clients. I want to find the right answers every time. Changing the lives of my clients is my responsibility as their coach and I take it seriously. And in seeing their success I feel that I am doing something important in the world. Its also really cool that the work is an integral part of my life, because I too, of course, continue to try to get better at eating better and incorporating the right types of exercise into my daily routine. The kids and Amanda are involved too, so I really couldn’t ask for anything more… Speaking of my new responsibilities- I am now the primary homeschool teacher for the kids. Amanda is still responsible for Sunday school though. I also took over the role of discipline chairman. All I had to do was threaten the kids with laps around the big wheel for daytime misbehavior and burpees when it is dark, and they have been perfect angels ever since. Brian .Hello,
Texas is hot but sometimes it is not too hot. We went to Bahama Bucks more than three times. They serve ice cream with snow cones in one. They are very good. Who would’ve known that ice cream and snow cones go together?! There are so many deer I can’t count them all. Some are babies. I like it here. The warm is sort of good. We went to Galveston and stayed right along the beach. The water was warm and the sand was great for building sand castles. On Canyon Lake we went on a boat for Dad’s birthday. The water was cold and very clear. We went under the boat and in the shadow of the boat we could see our feet. We saw dinosaur tracks right by Canyon Lake. They look kind of like a claw or something like that. We went to a place where they’d started to make an RV park and found dinosaur tracks. It was super cool. We earned three Junior Ranger badges. We earned them at: LBJ Living History Ranch, San Jose Mission, and Lost Maples State Natural Area. We went to Lost Maples on our way out of Texas. It was really cool. We got to go on a hike and collected fall leaves to decorate the RV. The hike was beautiful. Some of the leaves on the trees were changing colors but the rest was really pretty too. We got to cross a stream on rocks. I miss everyone. Love you! Love, Natalie. We left our house behind on September 2nd. That was tough. Saying goodbye was very difficult. But it is not goodbye forever, We'll be back in 9 months from now for at least a little while (a month or so), so that makes it a little easier. Someone (Jamie) suggested that we have a song that we play each time we take off from a location. Since the fifth wheel had officially been named the Big Wheel, our song naturally became CCR's Proud Mary, due to the lyric "big wheel keep on turnin". Our first stop: Lynnwood Recycle Center to get weighed. Now that we have downsized from 2150 square feet plus an oversized 2 car garage down to ~391 square feet (which, by the way, takes approximately 1100 hours or so), now it is time to see how we did. Turns out we came quite close: over by 359 pounds. Which means that we had to downsize an additional 10% or so... not too bad. Some of the items that were easy to let go of: one of the two 20 pound dumbbells, one of the 8 pound dumbbells, one 5 pounder, both 3 pounders. Also we then downsized our 50 pounds of dehydrated survival food (beans, oatmeal, powdered milk, etc) that we bought from Costco a few years ago down to 12 pounds. Of the croquet set, badminton, and tennis rackets, we got rid of the croquet set. Many other things had to go and really we had it to loose. Plenty of "maybe" items that made their way onto the Big Wheel but didn't have a place and were not as useful as we once thought they would be. Anyways, after a week in Mom and Dad's driveway in Auburn, WA, it was time to hit the road. Couldn't find a place to dump the tanks until we got over the pass to Cle Elem. And it turns out the bumper mounted receiving hitch to bicycle rack, with 4 bikes on it is not a good way to carry the bikes. It gets bouncing back there way too much. The bikes got pretty beat up coming over Snoqualmie pass, and we lost one. I had just been depending on the two flexible straps to hold in each bike. But once we lost a bike, I pulled out the ratcheting straps to lock them down tight. Even then I lost the front wheel off of another bike the next day. After a bit of research as I write this 3 weeks later, looks like the best way to mount the bikes is on top of the cab of the truck, but that set up is going to cost us about $1150 new so we are trying to find the Yakima Q-tower, Q clips, 58 inch cross bars, and 4 bike racks on craigslist or ebay but no luck yet. Anyways, we spent a night near Coeur d'alene Idaho, in the driveway of a family friend. They foster kittens so the girls were in heaven. There is nothing quite so cute and lovable to a young girl than a baby kitten. Puppies are a close second. We had previously made reservations for a time share stay a week before Amanda's sister's wedding, where Amanda is the maid of honor, Natalie is a junior bridesmaid, and Ashley is a flower girl (later turned glitter girl). With taking a voluntary layoff from Boeing which was basically an offer that I couldn't refuse, my last day was set so we had 9 days to get down to San Antonio. We honestly thought that this wouldn't be too difficult, being that I had made this drive (albeit in the opposite direction) in 4 days with the same truck and Big Wheel earlier this summer. But that was with 3 adults, no children. We have 2 adults and 3 kids, so we are officially out numbered. The passenger seat is officially the hot seat. It is action packed with keeping the kids entertained, leading up games, finding interesting things nearby on the internet, managing food and drinks, etc. This is where the Garmin really came in handy. I don't think the co-pilot could have handled that extra responsibility. Each time it was my turn to drive it was a bit of a relief. Each day was supposed to take about 5-6 hours of driving. And each day it inevitably ended up taking us 8 hours. Each morning we would leave sometime between 11am and noon. This is not leisure time, but it is spent eating breakfast, getting everyone ready, cleaned up, stowed away, then getting the outside disconnected and stowed. Then it is nearly lunch time so pack a lunch up so we don't have to stop for so long, go pee one more time before we go, and finally "Big Wheel keep on turnin". So we tended to roll-in at each stop right before or right after sunset, around 7 to 8pm. And twice we lost an hour on the way over (sort of not fair, but an investment, I suppose, since were coming back). Our three nights and two days in West Yellowstone were awesome though. The south entrance was closed due to fires, but it snowed the first night and we woke up to snow in the park for my and the kids' first ever day in Yellowstone. Luckily Amanda had convinced me to bring our winter gear with us. I had vacuum packed and tucked away most of it into the depths of the Big Wheel just a few weeks prior, but was glad we had it now. Gloves, hats, heavy coats, boots, all were needed. Back in Everett we owned 4 umbrellas. Amanda wanted to bring all 4 of them and I convinced her that that was too much, we would only need one. Well when we were walking the boardwalk at the Mid Geyser Basin and there was sideways snow, she let me have the umbrella because Jovie fell asleep and I was carrying her. Needless to say we wished we had all 4 umbrellas. But of the tens of thousands of objects that were evaluated one at a time during the downsizing process we haven't run into very many things that we have needed that we got rid of (maybe less than 5 after 3 weeks). It is a testament to the hard work that Amanda put into getting us ready to go. When we left West Yellowstone, the closures in the park forced us to exit via East Yellowstone, down through Cody, Wyoming, through the Wind River Canyon and into Shoshoni, Wyoming. That was certainly the most beautiful of any of our 7 days of traveling. We stayed at Raspberry deLight Farm through Harvest Host. After some back and forth consulting about how I would maneuver the Big Wheel and where exactly to place it, and needing my 4-wheel drive for the first time through the compacted fields, we were set. The girls picked corn on the cob for dinner and picked raspberries for a pie they made later that night. One of the three videos below is from the farm. Then we pressed on to Loveland, CO, the next night, Capulin, New Mexico, the next night, then Sweetwater, Texas, the following night and finally Canyon Lake, Texas. By the time we got to Loveland we were all getting tired of being in the truck. The girls were champs about it though. We listened to several audiobooks (The Last Battle, The Jungle Book, Come on Sea Biscuit). The last 1 or 2 hours of the drive each day were always the most difficult. So if the drives would have actually taken just 5 to 6 hours then our drives would have been just fine. By the time we reached Canyon Lake, our final destination, we all promised we would never drive so long in such a short amount of time again. But we were here, and it was time to store the Big Wheel and stay in our timeshares for the next 19 days. We reserved the 3 timeshares (in Canyon Lake, then Lake Travis, then Galveston) long before we even considered full time RVing, so we kept the reservations. A video camera and mobile hotspot allow me to keep an eye on the Big Wheel while I am away, which is pretty cool. - Brian Natalie: In Idaho we met kittens and they were so cute. When I grow up I want to have 2 kittens at all times and 2 cats. We saw the colorful pools in Yellowstone and they were pretty cool. I helped pick and wash raspberries and then we had a raspberry pie. In Colorado we played in a big cool playground. In New Mexico we saw a red moon. We saw a ton of windmills in Texas. Ashley: There were kittens in Idaho and they were cute. One of the kittens was clawing and playing with my sock. They were super cute. I could have stayed and played with the cute kittens for two days but we had to leave after one day. It was snowing in Yellowstone. Some of the snow falling off of the trees landed right in front of my face. We got to see a waterfall bigger than Snoqualmie Falls. There was a coyote in Yellowstone. Then we went to a raspberry farm and we ate corn on the cob that we picked and we got it for free because we were staying there. We got raspberry sugar from their store. We listened to the Frozen Soundtrack so many times that we got bored of it, but it was Jovie's favorite and she would say "drink of frozen again" so we kept playing it over and over. When we got to Texas it was 95 degrees. Amanda: Pretty crazy going into Yellowstone that first day...the visibility was pretty low at some points and we certainly couldn't see out to the mountains that were around us. The buffalo pictured below looked like a bear to me when he first stepped out of the woods and onto the road in front of us...there was a slight moment of terror! Old Faithful was slightly anticlimactic in front of a totally white snow-scape....white on white on white.... Yet driving around in the cold with the steam all around certainly pointed out the fact that we were on a volcano...simply amazing! The girls earned their Junior Ranger badges and received a cool wooden pin marking the 100th anniversary of the National Parks. The Every Kid in a Park program for 4th graders and their families saved us $90 in entrance fees over our time visiting. It is very strange coming back from such adventures to the comfort and familiarity of our own home, no matter where we are. I saw an oil rig for the first time in Wyoming. In Sweetwater, TX, we saw windmills as far as the eye could see. We also saw the pieces of one being driven on oversized load trucks...those blades are behemoth! The day time mosquitos are buggers in Canyon Lake, TX. I tried a mosquito bracelet and the darn mosquitos bit me right next to it...! My good bug spray that I researched (Sawyer Picaridin) seems to be doing an okay job...I think they are just excited for some fresh meat?? Jovie: Let it go! Let it go! Let it go! For the first time in forever... The cold never bothered me anyway. Plop. Our house is all ready for the market and will be listed today. It's been a whirlwind month of downsizing, selling and donating stuff, preparing our house and yard to go up for sale, spending time with friends and family, researching this / that / everything, obtaining our new truck and RV, and finally throwing what we thought we'd need for our first 10 days in our RV and departing our driveway while our house goes up. Literally - throwing it in. ;) We've been so blessed to have friends and family helping us - from giving us food for thought, advice based on experience, helping hands, caring for our kids, volunteering their time, and good ole elbow grease. We are humbly honored to have such wonderful support in our lives. It is bittersweet. Trading off the totally wonderful life we've been able to live for a lifestyle we feel will better fulfill us all. And while we've reached the completion of Phase 1 and take a moment to reflect, we are a little sad, a little scared, but all the more thrilled at what lies ahead of Phase 2. Phase 2 - still much to wrap our heads around there...sell house, get rid of remaining stuff, efficiently pack RV (affectionately deemed "the Big Wheel" by our kids), tie up loose ends, make plans and reservations, and hit the road!
In this in-between time, we are staying close to Brian's work and using this bit of time to gain wisdom. Wisdom that can only be gained from experience. Things like - how to level your RV on a super uneven RV site, and how to chalk tires on a leveled RV, and how to vent an RV when your smoke alarm goes off from cooking, and how to use an Instant Pot pressure cooker, and how to use a washer/dryer all-in-one unit and not load it so it vibrates your entire 39' RV for 3 hours, and what sort of cleaners can be used in an RV toilet, and on and on. This is valuable stuff. We have a list going of things we will need to obtain and things we will need from the stuff in our garage. We are working on organizing our thrown in stuff and identifying anything that really doesn't make the cut of securing a spot on the Big Wheel. Things to remember, in the words of: Jovie: Got to ride on a big kid swing for the first time. Drew a tree and bubbles with her *new* crayons and paper (cause Mom forgot the others in the garage and got some cheap while picking up RV stuff at Walmart). There's also a "bug" (spider) in the "wind" on the "dow" (on the outside of the window). (She emphatically told us this *several* times!) Ashley: The park here at our RV park is really cool. It has the biggest swings ever. The first night we stayed in the Big Wheel here it was very sloping down and I had to sleep on the couch. And I lost my pillow in the middle of the night. Natalie: It was hard to leave the house, but this is absolutely awesome. We get to play more than do chores for the first time ever. And I'm really excited to explore new things. Amanda: Really proud of how the hard work at our house and yard turned out. Really proud of our kids for learning that it doesn't need to be about all the stuff. Really proud of myself for realizing I don't need stuff "just in case" and life is more about living and creating memories as a family. Also, the feeling of "just wow" as we drove away from our house into the orange glowing sunset (that in my sheer exhaustion I referred to as a sunrise - lol). Brian: I've parked the Big Wheel in 5 different locations so far, and little problem with keeping it mostly level. But now that I have the whole family in it away from home, I can't get it level left-to-right in this totally sloped slot. A few of us were dizzy inside it was so lopsided. There was some stumbling. We pulled out the hide-a-bed for the kids to sleep on so they wouldn't roll out of bed (their beds are forward-aft, and the hide-a-bed is side-to-side). And we all had to make sure that we were sleeping with our heads higher than our feet. Amanda and I had a terrible night's sleep. It could have also been due to my pillow being needed for staging and all that was left was the watermelon pillow from Aunt Christina that we have to return, so it made the cut for coming with us. The next day I learned about leveling blocks and all was level with the world again. First morning breakfast included bacon in the Big Wheel. We were hungry and excited. Yup, I set off the smoke alarm. Nobody told me you can't cook bacon in a fifth wheel. Ah yes, the adventure begins. |
AuthorBrian - Health Coach, You Better Health Archives
December 2016
Categories |