Fare thee well

We are heading out of Houston early tomorrow morning. We were scheduled to stay one more day but serious winter weather approaching our new destination had us changing our minds and our travel day. It has been a lovely time here in Tomball. This rv park caters to an older crowd that are still young at heart. 

The kids have enjoyed getting to hear some stories of "the good ole days " from several of the residents. And this little spot on the map had enough to offer that Kerrie and I got to enjoy a day full of shopping and laughs. 

The day before thanksgiving we were able to have dinner with friends/former coworkers we met in Arkansas!  What ablessing  and treat that was! 

Thanksgiving day was fairly quiet for us but didnt lack for good eats. We started the morning off with regular chex mix and a  7 layer cookie chex mix. Next we got out the crackers, cheese, pickles, and olives. That carried us through to a dinner of steak, hashbrown casserole, green beans, sourdough bread, cranberry sauce, and a pecan pie cheesecake for dessert. We were all very full!  

Black friday saw us shopping at the Faire. It was much warmer than when we had gone the previous Sunday. And while we were there some of our best friends from the San Angelo area were headed our way!  So the rest of the weekend we enjoyed their company at the Faire. And as a Christmas present we had formal pictures taken at Whimsey's Muse there. 

We also snapped these photos. 

We spent as much of Monday with our friends as we could before they headed back home. 

Our next stop is Quinlan which is situated right between our folks houses. We are looking forward to celebrating Matrims second birthday, Russ' mom's birthday, and then of course Christmas. We will ring in the new year there and then head back to Austin. Our semi-permanent slot will be waiting for us.

The adventure and blessings continue!

Moving...again

Yes I know, we live in an RV and are always moving!  And after buying the new RV we spent time in Dallas with our families, then headed for Austin, and are about to head for Houston.  But, though that may be the case, I'm not talking about us this time.  Lex and Matrim have stepped out on their own feet now.  It is bittersweet.

Before they got too busy getting settled in we did get to spend some fun time with Lex's friend Ryan and his kids.  They are a fun bunch!

We also took Matrim out with us for a day so that his momma could get some things accomplished without his "help".

And so he shopped....till he dropped.

He is such a sweet little boy!  We will miss having him and Lex with us, but are so glad they are able to start living their own lives.

Our next stop is Houston.  Texas Renaissance Faire here we come!!  This year we are hitting closing weekend instead of opening.  We will be going all three days following Thanksgiving!  We can hardly wait!  And what makes it even better is that some of our best friends will be joining us!  SUPER excited!  So what will we do while in Houston between now and that weekend?  Well for starters I have some sewing that needs to be done, kids still have schoolwork, and Russ is researching schooling stuff for himself too.  But life is settling in nicely in our home on wheels.  The cats are as happy as ever.

Though they do try to hide when they can tell we are getting ready to put them in their kennels for travel. (See her peeking around the corner of the bed?  She was yowling "NOOOOOO"!)

We will be back up in the Dallas area to spend December and Christmas with our families again.  Then come January we have a semi-permanent spot here at Hwy 71 Rv Park in Cedar Creek, just south of Austin.  We do love this park and the people here.  Next year we will still be taking trips here and there a few days at a time, but we will have our spot here to come back to.  It's a great place to be!  Oh and just so yall know, we do have room for guests in our lovely new home so give a holler if you want to come visit...no matter where we are!  I promise to do a post soon with more pictures of the inside of our new rig.  Blessings!

On The Road Again....

We did it!!!  October 1 we rented the Uhaul and got it loaded,

on the second we cleaned the house,

 and closed the door for the last time. 

And then on October 3 we signed the papers and turned over the keys to the house we had called home for 5 years.  We then caravanned to Austin to unload the uhaul into a storage unit and catch our breath.
Then on October 7 we left Austin in the early morning and drove to Nacogdoches, TX and pulled in to Genuine RV.  As promised they had our new home ready and waiting!

We sat down to do paperwork only to discover we had left the Title to our little Bullet trailer in the storage unit in Austin!  Russ and Mykhal turned right around and drove back leaving the girls and Grandson with me to begin the process of transferring all our things from one trailer to the other.  The folks at Genuine were just fabulous in making sure we had everything we needed including the use of one of their trucks for the night since Russ wouldn't be back until really late.  We girls got most of the household transferred over but just got too tired.  Russ and Mykhal arrived back around 11pm or so and were as dog tired as we girls.  The next morning we got the paperwork done along with some shopping in their little store while the kids finished the transfer and cleaned up the little trailer.  We commenced settling into our new home and making sure any little items that were out of whack got fixed.  We were told several times to stay as long as we liked there on the RV lot, but we felt ready to pull out on the morning of the 10th.  I called our favorite Ft. Worth area RV Park, Cowtown RV and made reservations for a month.  The folks at Genuine walked us through the hookup process and sent us on our way.  Towing and parking the new rig was a new experience but we finally got situated at Cowtown.

We did bring along a few decorations and so I got those put up.

It's beginning to feel a bit more like home instead of just being on vacation.

Our kitties have settled in well too and really seem to love all the windows.  We really thought all the moving around would bother them, but we were quite wrong.  If anything they seem happier than ever!

We will be staying here at Cowtown until Nov 10.  Our families have needed a bit of assistance from us which we are only happy to be able to give.  On the 10th we will head back to Austin for a few days to pick up some things from the storage unit that we didn't bring with us (like winter clothes!).  Then on the 14th we will head for Houston so that we can meet us with some of our best friends and go to the Texas Renaissance Festival!  We will also be sharing Thanksgiving with them and I can hardly wait!!  December 5 will find us once again Dallas bound and making new friends at Sunset Rv Resort in Quinlan, TX.  We will be just minutes away from all our family in that area!  Will make a great place to have grandson's SECOND birthday and give us ease in spending Christmas time with our folks.  Where will the new year find us?  Only time will tell!! The adventure only gets better!

Contract!

The next phase of our adventure has begun!  We signed a contract on the house this morning!  So excited!!  Russ and I had gone on a trip over the first part of the week to check potential rvs. We had a wonderful time in Nacogdoches at Genuine RV. We were able to compare side by side our top contenders and did indeed change our minds on what we thought we wanted. We have chosen the Palomino Sabre 36QBOK as our new home. Closing on the house is anticipated to be early October. The timing is just right!
In other news we are now a 4 driver family. Yep Mykhal passed the driving test and is all legal on his own. He took Kerrie to the library this afternoon as his first drive without an adult in the car. They made it there and back with no issues.
Lex is working hard on her training and anticipates being through around the time we close on the house. Matrim is growing like a weed and knows he is too cute. We spend lost if time laughing at his antics. Mykhal is making good progress on his remaining high school requirements as well. Kerrie begins high school this fall and has found a passion in fashion design. We are working on finalizing her graduation requirements.
So life is still never dull around here!

Great pix

These are the pictures taken by the media team our realtor hired.  They do good work!

Like Mother Like Son

Just too much fun not to share!!

Progress and waiting

Well life has had a singular focus since the last post.....getting ready to move.  Only this move doesn't require getting everything packed up it requires getting rid of most everything!  It's part of the challenge of going from 1800 sf to 400 sf of living space.  Sounds crazy no?  Well we did it.  Russ and I have been married for 22 years and so we had 22 years worth of "treasures" to go through.....and the kids had their own.  There were boxes that had been sealed for 10 years but we still opened them....sometimes wishing we hadn't!  But the drudgery commenced and EVERYTHING was gone through to value it for "give to a specific person", "pack for storage", "donate", "sell", "goes with us", or "trash".  Literally TONS of junk that wasn't usable to anyone along with other debris has gone to the dump.  We sold off almost everything that had value, and the rest is being donated to a local thrift shop.   Once all that was done we began work in earnest to make the house look fresh and attractive.  I think we have succeeded.

This is part of what use to be the garage and has been turned into a bedroom.

 This is one of the bathrooms.  We put in new "fancy" toilets that have the slow closing lids and the 2 flush buttons.  One is half flush and the other is full.....I'm sure you can figure that one out.

Here is the kitchen.  Oh how I do love the way it turned out!  Not enough to want to stay here though!

The master bedroom.

The master bath.

The living room.  We can actually enjoy relaxing in here now!

The front of the house.

The shaded west/back side.

Kerrie's room.

Mykhal's room.

So there you have it.  The only bedroom that got repainted was Mykhal's.  It's a nice creamy yellow with brown trim now instead of bright crayon blue and green.  

We are enjoying things being a little slower now.  Once the donations are gone ( tomorrow yea!!) we will take all the stuff we have piled in the "bonus room" out to the old craft building and start sorting through it for what we really do feel we will use and have space for in the 5th wheel, what needs to be packed for storage, and what just needs to be donated as well.  Will be nice to have a place to spread everything out so we can sort it all again.  

And now just for fun here are a few of my favorite pictures of Grandson Matrim.  He is growing so fast!  

This is my favorite of the ones I took of he and his momma.

 Can I help you Boompa?

MMMMM chocolate chip cookies!

Higher Uncle Bud Higher!!

And as we wait for the right person to come to us and buy the house, we are helping to plan an RV Rally for next year for those who have the same brand of RV we are getting!  Going to be loads of fun!