We love Cake...

I am finding, more and more often as I get older that blessings tend to come in disguise some days, like SHEEP in WOLVES clothing! Recently, my school district decided to forsake our year round schedule and go back to a more traditional schedule. It will mean loosing many great teachers, over-packing classrooms and most likely the end to my fantastic enrichment program. It came as a blow to myself and others in our teaching community. Some others were pretty excited about having a more traditional schedule to go back to. It took me a lot longer to see the benefit to my family. When Alan and I came up with the year long full timing plan, it was understood that I would have to leave my school, the district and take my chances returning in a year. At this point, with the way the economy is going, it seems an unnecesary risk to leave a job I love, loose my spot in the school and the district and loose a year of pay IF WE DON'T HAVE TO. When we started this plan, it was a risk we felt ready to take but with the return to the traditional schedule, it seems now that I can keep my position and we can do our traveling for the two and a half months off every summer. We can have our cake and eat it to. And God knows, we love our cake.
The last few weeks it's been hard to see the forest for the trees, we were so focused on our plan that we couldn't see that the new schedule could mean that we really could have it all. The travel, and the salary, the security and the excitement. We can still give the kids the opportunities we wanted for them, the time we want together and the "on the road" experiances and a paycheck to boot, something that we wouldn't have otherwise had. I won't be worried about picking up odd jobs on the road just to pay for museum entrance fees, we can really enjoy our time with the boys the way we intended. and most of all, as I said before, I will still be able to keep my position with the school, which is vitally important with the way things are starting to turn around our district.
Really, it is the best of both worlds. It allows us to buy a smaller cheaper truck, a smaller trailer, save for retirement, all while showing the boys different parts of the country every summer.
Of course, if for some reason I DO loose my place in the district, there won't be any reason for us not to go full time, but for now, the safe bet seems to be this current plan, part time FULL-TIMING!
Some people may see this as the end of a dream a year in the making but in reality, it's just a smart modification. I'm not a big fan of the saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." But I do think however it doesn't hurt to mix those lemons with some sugar and vodka and make a nice lemon-drop martini, so that's what we'll do. Cake and lemon-drop martinis...yummmmm...

So, it looks like I have omitted some very KEY details that might serve to illustrate better the trip ahead! Let me fill in some blanks...
Alan will still be working and recieving benefits on the road. He is fortunate enough to work virtually so we will be getting a satellite card that he will use to do his night shift work from the RV. We will all be covered (Very well!) under his insurance for health, dental and vision. (And don't forget the mental health benefits, they may come in VERY HANDY!)I will continue to recieve a paycheck until August and all my coverage is under Alan as well. I will not be contributing to a retirement fund but the way it's going now, there won't be much of one by the time I retire anyway!!! When we get off the road I will boost my retirment stuff.
I am still struggling with the idea that I won't be bringing in any income but all of the research I have been doing indicates there are lots of unskilled labor jobs to be had on the road if we need to boost our income. There are also possibilities I can do some work with an e-school. Jacob will be enrolled in the Douglas County E-School to supplement his education.
The budget we have worked out seems to fit nicely with what we expect but I would feel better working a little now and then to pay for the museums, attractions, etc on the road. There are also lots of places that we can stay that give us free hookups with electricity and water for very little actual "work". We plan to boondock (Dry Camping: parking anywhere without or with limited amenities) about a quarter of the time to save on money and really enjoy the wilderness areas.
We will also have two cell phones, one for Alan's work and one to serve as a "HOME" phone so we will be available all the time. We will be including the kids in our blogging so that everyone will be able to see how they are doing on the road and hopefully watch Jacob's writing skills progress. We feel like SKYPE will be an invaluable resource in keeping the kids as well as ourselves grounded in their current communities.
The nice part about not having a house to worry about back here in Colorado also means that if this whole thing isn't working out we have a million options to choose from when coming back "off" the road. We can re-establish ourselves in our home community, or try a new one nearer to family we haven't seen in awhile.
I am so glad that loved ones are letting us know about their concerns, we understand that an important part of this decision is that everyone feels comfortable about it to some extent. We welcome your concerns, maybe you'll think of something we haven't considered yet! Please know too that we have spent a million hours researching the mundane details of this adventure but also examining our motivations and the reprecussions of this trip. We're happy to share our thoughts on these issues with you! Now, off to read my weekly RV newsletter!!!!nullnullnull

going green on the road

I have started researching ways to save us money on the road and Solar panels have become my latest obsession. It would allow us to "boondock" more often with less stress on a generator. I think I may need a LOT more background in electricity/amps and batteries before I can set really grasp what needs to happen with the panels. This guy in the link seems to have it figured out!

SUBSCRIBE????

I have been fighting with this site for hours but I THINK I have figured out how to subscribe. So if you make a comment- there is an option to subscribe via email... I think. I don't know! Someone try it and let me know!!!

How do I spell relief? DOGS

Well, two of the biggest issues have now been resolved- Molly and Shadow. My fantastic sister-in-law Camille (Crafter extrordinaire, animal lover and all around awesome chick) said that given she and Zeb were in a place where they could, they would take Molly during our year long trip. And I think my Aunt said she would take Shadow but I have to clarify, there was a lot of Christmas cheer going around! (mostly going around my area!) But we have been just miserable trying to decide how to proceed with the dogs. Shadow would be really miserable on the road, she is a cuddly home-body and likes the quiet, sedentary life. And Molly needs people desperately and hated to be alone. I hated the idea of leaving her in the RV while we were out site seeing, it just didn't seem like a good quality of life for either one. So we have tentatively figures out the dog situation and it feels so much better to have that major concern out of the way. Later this week, TRUCK HUNTING!!!!!DogFriendly.com's United States and Canada Dog Travel Guide: Dog-friendly Accommodations, Parks and Dog Parks, Beaches, Outdoor Restaurants, and Attractions

The What-If's sneak in

I think it’s easy to sound confident and self-assured about our decision to go on the road when there are people all around cheering us on. It’s later, when it’s quiet and still that the “what-if’s” come creep, creep, creeping in on their silent little cat feet.
Tonight the “What-if’s” arrived just as I was tucking Aiden into bed. I was kissing his head, and patting his back just as they arrived, peeking around the corner of the door frame to insert their nasty little ideas, un-willed, into my head. “What-if” something horrible happens to our family while we are on the road. Then it will all be my fault for coming up with this crazy idea.
The What-if’s and I are not strangers, not by a long shot. In fact they are the friends from college that show up and ruin everything just when you think you have it together. (You know, the ones that stumble up the driveway, trashed on Pabst Blue Ribbon or Boon’s Farm and reveal all the stupid stuff you did way back when, thereby revealing you are not the polished adult who has it all together- those friends). Yes, the what-if’s and I go wayyyyy back.
Now, to some degree, I come by it honestly. My maternal grandmother has turned a lifetime of worry into a, well into a piece of art really. Some of her more fantastic gems include not swimming in cold water because you won’t be able to have children. Cats in a house with a baby will suck out it’s breath. And, by far the best would be that girls shouldn’t learn to ride a bike because it would give them big ankles and who will marry a girl with big ankles??? How did she have time to do anything else? I mean between the worrying about cats, cold water and big ankles... there are just not enough hours in the day! Sadly, that is the Grandma whose genes I received. The one with the Lutian chin, the ability to gain weight by merely smelling bread, and an obsessive compulsive addiction to worrying. (Totally unfair! Why couldn’t I have gotten the genes from the tall, curvy grandma who never gained an ounce, had razor sharp wit and FANTASTIC nails? The one who didn’t worry a day in her life because she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that lemons, white wine and a pack of smokes could cure anything?)
Anyway, back to the what-if’s. Wasn’t that part of the original reason for this fantastic plan? To free my kids from the horrible what-if’s? To show them, and myself too that being mentally and emotionally flexible is a blessing? To jump into life with both feet, wade around in it and emerge soaking wet and triumphant? I don’t want the boys to be in their mid-thirties before they realize the effects of living life in a mindset of fear. I spent years making decisions because of fear, either fear of consequences, or fear of the possibilities, fear of the loss, fear of the unknown, fear of what others would say/think/do... All of it planted by those stinky little, cat-footed “What-if’s”
Yep, bad things can happen at any time, and lots of times they do. But so do good things, so we will press on and see what good things lie ahead. Despite the occasional appearance of the “what-if’s”.

Open range fifth wheel

open range, 399BHS

This is another model that we liked from the show... Cousin Dan sent show pictures, I'll post them this week!
I loved that the boys have a bathroom that opens to the outside so they can come in and out and not go all the way through the "house" they also have a TON of room on each side of their sleeping area. Lots of storage for the boys. It has the seperate dining table which is nice too.
It's an option...

On the Road schooling and laundry???

This is a link from the online RV newsletter I delight in reading each sunday morning. That is our planning day! This is a nice interview with a mom who home schools on the road. It isn't the best one I've seen but it does have an interesting perspective. I'll post more links for those who are interested in our homeschool plans.

In other news, as I am blogging, reading my RV newsletter and starting on hour THREE of laundry... I am thinking of how to organize the clothing for everyone. I am thinking each one of us will get to take seven to ten warm weather and ten cool weather outfits, store the off season ones in the "basement" of the RV. Plan two is matching tan jumpsuits with the names: Pilot, co-pilot, junior captain 1 and Junior captain 2 embroidered on the back in hunter green. Of course if we did that we'd probably only need, like four of each! It's an option...
The bigger issue is laundry! Do I want to sacrifice the 230 pounds and a couple hundred dollars to get the small stackable RV Washer/dryer? They take a lot of water (which is only an issue if we are boondocking) and can only hold a small amount of clothing. I have also heard that the dryers take forever. On the other hand, I wouldn't have to spend hours in a nasty laundry room, reading piles of old donated romance novels, use up a million quarters, haul laundry back and forth and deal with possible theft or grease stains from other peoples "ick" left in washers. (Honestly, if my clothes are going to be stained with cherry chapstick, I want to know it's MY KID'S chapstick, not some other slacker Mom's kid.
Hmm, I don't know, the more I think of it, the allure of being able to do a load while I am in my own home, teaching the boys or whatever is pretty appealing. It means loosing valuable storage space but I guess I could FILL the washer and dryer with stuff that would normally be out but put away while moving. Care to weigh in on the laundry issue?

Sundance by heartland

So this link refers to one of the top three models we are looking at. The floor plan shows the loft in the back room, which would free up a lot of floor space for school work, playing, etc. It's a nice size for an office back there if Alan starts working during the day.
I am hoping someone out there will give me some feedback on this one if they have any inside info on it. It's early in the planning stages and this is just one of three models but we liked it at the show. I really prefer a more traditional kitchen table and again, the boys room would be awesome. I post these mostly for my friends who have no RV experiance, like my sweet AJ who had a pop-up trailer in her head and STILL supported us in our trip. I love that about her! DEAR GOD! Can you imagine a year in a pop-up with my boys??? We had an awesome 20 day camping adventure this summer but that was camping!!! I don't think even two of the four of us would come home after that one! This is a good example of the "wheel estate" we are considering, somehting along these lines given that some kindly loan officer can be cajoled into giving us a loan! Maybe if I bake them some cookies???? No wait- I don't bake, I know, I'll sautee some shrimp scampi or Chicken Piccata- that oughta' do it!!

The Plan

Wow...
First Blog...

LOTS of Pressure...

There suuureeee is a lot of white space to fill... Hmmm, where to begin?

Alan says to start by telling everyone how this crazy plan began.

Hmmm...

So, we can't quite remember how or when the plan took root but we do remember it didn't take long to fully get on board. The responses when we tell people range between the eye roll with the implied, "what a flake"to an ear splitting screech followed by "I wish WE could do that!"
Early conversations centered around why it was so appealing, why wouldn't we wait for retirement, and, most importantly, if all four of us left in an RV together for a year, how many of us would come back? When we got down to it, it really felt like now or never. The boys will be in Kindergarten and third grade, no active social lives to pull them away from. They will still (hopefully) be eager to learn and try new things on the road. They will be easy for me to teach, (you know I can't do anything mathematical if it involves concepts past the fifth grade).
The logistics of how to pull it off were the first topics of daydreams. What's the point of falling in love with the idea if it could never happen? So we started to draft out ideas, look at the possibilities, weigh the pros and cons. Low and behold, a plan started to pull itself together, almost as if the RV God's were looking down and smiling at us, or, maybe it's that they are laughing at us, I guess we'll see. When the idea first starting coming up it was shortly after we had moved out of our home and into a rental. We had just lost our home and declared bankruptcy. It was a terrible time. We were devestated. It was our first home, the one we brought Aiden home from the hospital to. The place we had gotten our dogs. Each spare moment was streaked with our sweat as we worked seemingly non-stop to change it from a house to our home. It was ours, we loved it. When we had to give it up, we were crushed. We were leaving our neighbors too, who had become like family to us. We felt as though we were loosing everything all at once. We had sold a good deal of our things, we packed up our home and we moved to a home that a friend was renting.
A few months went by and we began to see what a blessing loosing the house had become. We were no longer working three jobs a piece, never seeing one another, always worried about how we would feed the kids. Now that we were once again renters, the stress had virtually disappeared and we were so much lighter for it. We sat back and started to process what had brought us to our current place. What had gone wrong, what had gone right and where we were at emotionally. It was about that time that things really started to fall into place for me. I was struck by the realization I had lived my life in fear for the vast majority of the last 30 years. I didn't want that for the boys. I didn't want their lives to be consumed by the idea that "stuff" is security, or that a house was home. I had such grief each time we moved, even from apt to apt. I wanted the boys to be stronger than that, and more flexible, less afraid. I had to begin living the ideas that I wanted them to embrace. And so the seed was planted... Maybe a crazy seed but a seed none-the-less!

It's a totally insane idea only in that it seems to go against everything we are, know and have been taught.
I mean, hey, if I dig deep and get back to my Checkloslavakian gypsy roots I am sure this will seem like second nature right?
Now, where did I put that babushka?