Sunday

Today was a nice day. We went to church, then had lunch with my mom, then we came back to the house. While the kids took their naps, we cleaned up the house for the showing. Then we went shopping for a few things for the RV while we had to be away from the house. Wal-mart apparently has a seasonal RV section which was nice, since we avoided paying shipping on several of the things we still needed.

When we took the things back to the trailer, we managed to fix the furnace vents. When we had the water tank repaired, the mechanic forgot to put that part back together, so he had mailed us some foil tape to fix some parts. We finally got that taken care of.

It's so hard to believe that tomorrow is June! June has seemed so far away, but now it's right here. Less than three weeks until we leave!

Big workday

Today was our big workday. We actually got a whole lot done.

I took another couple of things over to my mom's house, but more importantly, I organized all of our "resupply" boxes-the boxes that my mom will either send us or bring with her when she meets up with us on the road. Thanks to my couponing, we have plenty of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, soap, cleaning supplies, etc. to last us well beyond the two years we're planning even after the garage sales. Since I'm not sure if I'll be able to find newspapers regularly, I don't want to count on being able to get more while we're traveling. Plus, we already have this stuff anyway. And knowing that I've been getting all of that for free or better, I just don't think I could handle walking into Wal-mart and paying $3.99 for a bottle of shampoo. This way, we won't have to buy those things, but we won't need to make room for two years worth of shampoo and toothpaste, plus I know my mom will enjoy being able to help us out by bringing the boxes.

I also organized the things that are already in the trailer. I've managed to free up so many storage tubs at home that now we have more than will fit in the trailer, so I need to add a few tubs to my pile of things to return to the stores. I'm still feeling very good about the space we have in the trailer for storage. Hopefully we still feel good about it in a few more weeks.

While I was working on that, Jeremy did a lot of cleaning. Someone is coming to see our house tomorrow, and Jeremy was awesome and did a lot of the sweeping, vacuuming, and scrubbing. Tomorrow afternoon while the kids are asleep we'll just have to clean up the last bit of toys and breakfast crumbs.

After we show the house tomorrow, the next item on the agenda is getting ready for Jeremy's parents coming. Yea! We are really looking forward to their visit.

Another day, another truckload of stuff

We brought a whole truckload of stuff over to my mom's for storage again today. It makes me wish I had more time to really weed through everything and sell more of it off. There shouldn't be this many things that we can live without for two years but we still want when we come back. Oh well, it is what it is because we're in a hurry.

Tomorrow is our last big workday until crunch week. Jeremy's parents are coming this Saturday (woohoo!) and on Friday my brother is graduating from high school. I'm hoping to pack up the boxes for our resupply (my mom will either bring them when she meets up with us or ship them to us) and finish organizing the boxes already in storage so the space will be ready to just bring in all the furniture when we move it over. We also need to get some of the smaller touches done on the trailer, like buying screws to mount the toilet paper holder. Small but important details. :)

It's going to be a fun couple of months. We're really excited to have Jeremy's parents here-they haven't seen the kids in person since last summer shortly after Rinnah was born. And soon after that we'll start on our adventures, and the first month or so is packed with fun adventures and visits with friends and family.

More preparations

Jeremy has really been helping a lot around the house lately, and Rinnah was very cooperative during Ian's nap so I got several more boxes packed today. I'm hoping to make our move on the 19th as easy as possible, since we're trying to take only one day to

-move all the furniture out of our house and into storage at my mom's,
-move everything we need into the trailer
-clean our entire house

and somehow squeeze in meals and naps for the kids.

There's a lot we can't pack up yet, since Jeremy's parents are coming and obviously we'll want to have a place for them to sleep, and chairs to sit in, and food to eat. But there are still some things to pack and sort. Today I sorted through most of our medicine and decided what to take and what to pack in a resupply box. I've also packed up the cases to our dvds (we're just bringing the movies in a big album) and all our music cds. Lots of these things I wish we had more time to sort/sell/give away, but we're feeling kind of crunched so it's just winding up in boxes. We'll probably be kicking ourselves when we have to unpack it all again.

Love the stroller

Wow, we should have bought this earlier!

This thing is amazing. I can push and steer it with one hand, even with both kids in it. On our first walk, Rinnah fell asleep. Rinnah, who hasn't gone to sleep for me in less than 45 minutes for the last three weeks. She fell asleep. So I came home for the debit card and shopping list and we walked to Aldi, about a mile away. In the store, I felt like I could blow on the handlebar and that would be enough to push it. Super easy to steer and spun right around the corner. Rinnah ended up sleeping for most of the walk, about 45 minutes. I guess she loves the stroller too. Ian was excited about the huge canopies that actually come down far enough to keep the sun out of his eyes. And there was a perfect little handlebar console thing with pockets for my phone and keys. We took it for a walk to the park tonight, and Jeremy was equally impressed. Now we just need to find a deal on the waterproof bag so we can haul it around in the back of the truck.

From Preparations

New stroller!

We ordered a double stroller about a week and a half ago. It was a crazy 50% off coupon code and I wasn't sure if the place would honor it, but sure enough, we found a big box at our doorstep today when we got home from my brother's birthday dinner. It is a very snazzy stroller. The only disappointing thing is that the tires don't arrive inflated, so we need to take it down to the gas station to fill up the tires. Maybe tomorrow we can get it ready to go for a spin.

My camera also arrived today. Woohoo! Two great packages in one day. I haven't gotten to try it out yet, but the note said they found a problem with the circuit board and they supposedly fixed it so the error won't happen anymore. I sure hope it's fixed, because I have really missed my camera these last few weeks.

We also made an appointment today for a fourth try to get our screen room installed. Maybe this will be the time it really happens!

Memorial Day

We had big plans for today-we were going to go to Springfield and take the kids to the zoo, then come back to Jacksonville and have a cookout dinner at my mom's house.

Then last night the kids got hit hard with colds. Both of them were up most of the night, so much that I was never in bed for a 30 minute period myself. Jeremy was up a lot helping too. Between the fact that we were all exhausted this morning, compounded by the raging thunderstorms outside, we opted out of the zoo trip.

Instead we spent a lazier day with a cookout lunch at mom's, buying some lawn chairs, and organizing a few things in the trailer. Now that the couch is moved out we can get a better idea of how it's really going to be in there. It's so exciting every time we go in there to dream of all the places we'll be going and people we'll be seeing. We can hardly wait to hit the road!