Been a long time

Seems I don't have much to share that would be of any interest to anyone.

We did go camping for 7 nights at a campground about 20 miles from our home. Brent continued to go to work each day. It worked out well. It was chilly a few nights...in the 40's. That is cold for Florida. We are heading to Southern Illinois for Christmas, so it gave me a clearer idea of what type of warm clothes I will need.

Since I watch Mackenzie during the week, she stayed with us a few nights. She had to pose at the entrance of the RV park.



Thanksgiving dinner turned out great.



Brent has went back and forth on our truck for sometime. This past weekend he finally decided to trade in our 07 2500 for a gently used 08 3500. We also traded in another vehicle we had in the garage. So we did ok with all the trading. Getting rid of the car was just another downsizing thing marked off of our list. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are packing to head north in a few days. I hope we can stay warm.

Happy Holidays to all.

Julie

Looking forward to this week.

So excited, the plans were to leave Wednesday evening and set up in the dark, camp thru Sunday. We made a slight change and are now camping Sunday to Sunday. We are not going far from home, so Brent can go back and forth to work M-T-W. Mackenzie is going to stay with us Monday and Tuesday night, she is so excited.

This will be a great Thanksgiving..hoping the weather cooperates.

More to come.

Yard Sale

We had a 2 day yard sale this past Friday and Saturday. We made about $180.00, got rid of lots of junk. We had wonderful weather. Going to donate the left overs. I am sure there will be more stuff by spring, for another sale.

Looking forward to going camping over Thanksgiving.

Small Update

We survived our weekend in Daytona for Biketoberfest. I didn't take as many pictures as I normally do at these things.

Here we are at the campground, Kona is guarding the bikes.
Kona and Lilly enjoying being outside, they just love camping.
This is my besties and I. The guys are looking at the bikes at the Rat Hole Bike Show. Then we went shopping, at a Harley Davidson outlet..yippeee!

Every day I go through a different part of the house and reorganize stuff. Sometimes it goes into the yard sale room, some gets filed into the trash. We are moving at a snails pace, but at least we are getting organized.

I love reading about all the other people that are in transition and the ones that are on the road.

Keep the blogs coming.


Julie

Biketoberfest

We brought the rig home from storage on Sunday. Getting it cleaned up and ready to go to Daytona for 4 days. Bikes are all cleaned up too. We are hoping for a tad bit cooler weather, it has been unseasonably hot and humid here in NE FL.

Pictures to come next week. :o)

Purge..purge..purge..stuff

What a waste of money spent in the past. I again am going through closets. Where does all this stuff come from. No wonder last time we did a PCS we had 9 or 10 crates in storage, took 2 different trucks to deliver it, all the crates would not fit on one truck.

I just went through the Christmas stuff. I didn't open the ornament boxes, just the sit around junk. I have not purchased Christmas decor in quite a while. So must of this stuff is 10 years plus old, lots of snowmen. Keeping a few of the pieces, but the big stuff is going.

I saved ornaments for each kid, as they move out I give them their box of ornaments. Our son moved out in March, so I will give him his box. The daughter has hers already. Our big tree will be kinda bare. So maybe the big tree needs to go. This year we are going out of town so we are not putting up a big tree here. I have a small pre-lit tree I will put up in the RV. Only taking a few ornaments for it.

I never acquired a lot of fancy Christmas stuff so parting with all the cheapo stuff is not too hard.

When the time does come for us to sell the house and full time we will be getting a storage unit. I know many people say they are a waster of money, but somethings I just can't part with. We have Brent's grandmothers China among other things that belonged to our grandparents. Then there is all Brent's tools. He wants to keep most of it. We will come back to this area a few times a year, maybe we will be able to downsize each time. Also there is that thought if full timing doesn't work out..we will have some things to start out with.

We have been really good about not purchasing stuff. By the time we put the house on the market the house may look bare. Hope it will show well. Potential buyers are not looking at our furnishings..or shouldn't be, they should be looking at the house itself.

I have lots of craft books that I need to part with. Some of the crochet ones I still use I will keep, but I think I have talked myself into purging the plastic canvas books from the 80's. Lots of cross stitch too. Lots of embroidery floss too. I might keep it in the small case I have it in. Would take forever to replace. Who knows might start cross stitching again. But I am sure I won't be doing plastic canvas.

Back to purging...until next time................

Quotes

Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is
the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in
August, so here is the column once more:"


1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents
will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it..
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is
all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never
blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to
you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an
answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save
it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ''In five years, will
this matter?".
26. Always choose life.
27. Forgive everyone everything.
28. What other people think of you is none of your business.
29. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.
30. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
31. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
32. Believe in miracles.
33. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or
didn't do.
34. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
35. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
36. Your children get only one childhood.
37. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
38. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
39. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab
ours back.
40. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
41. The best is yet to come.
42. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
43. Yield.
44. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.
45. Friends are the family that we choose for ourselves.

Zoo

Yeah it is Friday, Brent is off work so we decided to take Mackenzie to the zoo. It was quite sunny as you can see. She couldn't open her eyes for the pic



Better now

From now on we will only go to the zoo in Florida during the cooler months. It was just way too hot. We only stayed a few hours.

I sure need some advice on posting images. I had a heck of a time getting them in the order I wanted. I hope I am missing something easy. Help!!!!!!!!!!!


Julie

Eliminating

Not much going on around here, just going through things. Yesterday I cleaned out kitchen drawers, I have way too many kitchen gadgets, I sold Pampered Chef at one time for a short time. I removed all the gadgets out of the drawer and put them in a box. As I need to use something I will put it back in the drawer. Eventually I will be able to see what I do not need/use.

I was going through the kids (that no long live here) closets. Found some college books that they said they had tried to sell back, but the place would not take them. I went to a place near that house and was able to sell 3 of them. Money in my pocket.

I am the worlds worst about over buying food and such. I just went through all the spices and condensed the double containers.

If it takes us awhile to sell and get on the road, at least things will be nice and neat.

I love warm weather, but I will be ready for some cooler temps. It sure seems like this year it has been warmer than before for this time of the year.

The little one is napping, think I will nap too.

Until next time..........

Julie

Giving this a shot!!!

A little intro:

I am not much of a writer, so bare with me. Brent and I have been married for 24 1/2 years. We have 2 children Justa 24, and Broc 20. Justa is married to Chip and they have a beautiful 3 year old daughter. Broc is in school full time, works fulltime and lives on his own. He has a wonderful girlfriend, Erin. We also have 2 spoiled dogs. Kona and Lilly.

Brent retired for the US Navy, November 1, 2008. He is working as a contractor on the Navy base. I stay at home and watch our granddaughter Mackenzie. She keeps me busier than any job outside of the home.

The reason I wanted to start this blog is we are trying to simplify our lives. We are planning to downsize and live in our 5th wheel, and be completely retired. The housing market is a big hold up right now, but we are downsizing now....so when the market goes up a bit we can make the big move.

We did live in our 5th wheel for about 4-5 months in 2008. Brent was stationed in Virginia and I stayed in Florida. After he returned from Iraq I went to Virginia and we stayed in several campground on different military bases in the area. We then traveled the east coast for a little over a month. We thought we had to get back into the real world. Jobs and the normal Ameican Dream.

We have come to realize that is not what we want. While Brent is still working, we keep simplifing things. Pretty much only buy what we need and get rid of items we no longer use. We have had one yard sale and are planning another real soon. We have acquired way too much stuff since we have been here, Six and 1/2 years is the longest we have lived any where.

We try to utilize our RV about every month to six weeks. We pretty much stay local, it keeps things in working order. We have a toy hauler,we both have Harleys. We are looking forward to Biketoberfest in October.

Enough babbling for today...I hope this is not boring you and I can keep it up.

Until next time.........

Julie