Month: August 2008

Nothing terribly exciting is happening right now. We are having trouble with with our internet connection device. I spent all day with no internet, talk about living in the dark ages!  Figures we would get a lemon of whatever this thing is. The company is going to FedEx us a new one this week. I’ve just been plugging along, doing the homeschool thing with the kids during the day. I LOVE the flexibility and being able to go to class in our pajamas. Now that the tropical storm is done, we’ve been going swimming in the morning for PE class. Its so hot I’ve been going swimming with them. The pool is a good size, we can do decent laps. Caitlin is practicing diving underwater. I’ve been trying to do some of the swim strokes we saw on the Olympics, and now Ian is attempting some of them too. Its so cool. We went to Target today and picked up some closed top straw cups for the kids. They can certainly drink out of normal cups and glasses, but in such a tight space cups were constantly getting knocked over. Caitlin is all excited about hers, its got drawings of Dora doing rhythmic gymnastics, just like we saw on the Olympics. She can’t wait for the winter Olympics, and doesn’t really understand why she has to wait two years. Yesterday we met a couple who just arrived in a giant motorhome, and chatted for awhile. Turns out they’ve just been doing exactly what we are planning to do. They’ve spent the last 2 years driving around the States and through Canada. They spent the previous 3 years on a boat, travelling around. Now they have to come back to Florida and work again. The woman is from Washington state, and said its too cold and rainy for her. I asked if it rains for a little while each day, or all day long. She said all day long, and the temp is 40-50 degrees on top of it. Hmmmm. I just got done telling Sean how sick I was of getting wet every time we went outside for anything during our 5 days of solid rain. I’m still not ruling Washington out though, we’ll have to go experience it for ourselves. I’m still trying to get a family portrait in front of the rig, but its not working yet. Sean still has to work all day, on the weekends we’re doing errands, or just plain forgetting about it. One of these days.

So for my birthday today, the sun came out all morning long. I was right, it was a sauna outside. But it was still nice to see. Shortly after we woke up we went to Krispy Kreme for some hot, fresh glazed donuts. These are my favorite donuts in the whole world, and there is a store right down the street from our park. Then we came back to the RV, and I went back to bed for some more lounging around time. Sophie came with me and snuggled next to me. I didn’t actually get back to sleep, but it was still very peaceful, the kids stayed out of the bedroom. Then we went out and did a little shopping. I found some shoes that I had been looking for. Then we went and bought some cupcakes at Target. The kids had been bugging me like crazy all day for that. They love birthdays because they get cake. We had a nice low key dinner at home, easy prep for Sean, no dishes for me to do. As we came out of Target, it started raining again and hasn’t stopped. The trials will read this book review involve diabetics and chronic disease patients, and are expected to provide some insight into how healthkit will work on iphones in actual practice. Poor Sophie, all the rain kept washing away all the pee mail, so walks have been a little boring for her.

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Tropical Storm Fay was predicted to become a hurricane and head straight for us. We had planned to stay with some friends in a real house tonight. Instead, Fay didn’t become a hurricane last night, and is crossing the state farther south than it was supposed to, so we spent the afternoon visiting and doing our laundry. Their house is almost 45 minutes away in the pouring rain, and I must say, I LOVE our truck in the rain. Its so heavy I never felt any of the wind gusts. It felt like it would just plug along through anything. One nice thing about approaching storms – the weather right before is perfect. Yesterday evening was overcast, and breezy so we played outside for a long time, then ate dinner outside, and walked around the campground afterward. Well, Sean and I walked, Ian and Caitlin ran from puddle to puddle, splashing their way around the park. They had great fun. The downside to continuous rain – we just noticed a water leak in the shower. Hopefully it won’t damage anything before we can try to fix it. Not sure when that will be though since we are supposed to have rain all week long now.

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This might be our first trauma-free day!  And it was even a moving day. We found another park yesterday that we liked better, so moved today. Its SO much more pleasant, lots of trees, prettier buildings, more people, etc. And to top it off, we are right down the street from a Krispy Kreme. I can’t wait for tomorrow morning. Yesterday we cleaned the A/C filter and found the major air vent has been closed the whole time. No wonder it took 6 hours to cool down last time we moved!  Today it didn’t take nearly as long. Sean just talked to one of the new neighbors, a guy who lives here permanently. This guy was here in 2004 during the hurricanes, and said a tornado made a direct hit on this park. It was about 20 feet from his trailer, but only took out his awning. The guy was inside hiding under a mattress.

At least the drama for today occurred early, but a bit too early. At 530 this morning, our LP gas alarm went off. It was a really loud, rude awakening. It went off every few minutes for awhile. We still don’t know exactly why. After doing some reading, it sounds like lots of things can set them off, anything that gives off gases, hair spray, new carpets, even dogs. I would blame Sophie, but it kept going off even when she was nowhere near the sensor. I don’t know how the kids slept through it, but they did. I was wondering what was going to happen next week, that could possibly top our first week. Now I know – a nice little hurricane. Even if it makes landfall as a hurricane, it will most likely be downgraded to tropical storm status by the time it reaches the middle of the state where we are. Still, I’m not ready to ride that out in an aluminum box, so we will be staying Tuesday night at a friend’s house. That will actually be pretty fun, they were our next door neighbors 6 years ago, so we’ll have lots to talk about, and hope the trailer is still upright when we come back.

So, after a week full of hellish moments, the big drama for today was. I forgot to fill the ice cube trays, so I had no ice for my soda. Finally, a relaxing day where nothing major happened. We went back to the neighborhood for dinner and had a great time with the neighbors and the new people in the house. I did find out today that Ian can stand on his bed, reach around the corner, and open the top pantry door. Apparently malted milk balls are a great motivator for him. He couldn’t actually reach them, but not for lack of trying. document.

Its been a busy past couple of weeks. In short, we had the house on the market for about a month, when I was contacted by someone interested in leasing it for 18 months. Since this would allow us to leave Florida as soon as Sean’s work obligations are fulfilled, rather than hanging around for who knows how long until the house sold, we agreed to lease it. Now a nice Australian family lives there. The only drawback to this was they needed to get in right away, to register their kids for school, which starts August 18. We can’t leave Florida until mid-September, so here we are, in the RV, hanging out around Orlando for the next month. So far, it pretty much stinks. Nothing has changed except now we live in a shoe box. We are still stuck in this wretched heat. We moved in last Sunday, and every day has brought a new disaster, or some kind of calamity. All while Sean is still working full time. Sunday – we got here pretty late in the day, so the RV was a disaster area with boxes of stuff everywhere. We quickly found that the master bedroom mattress was like sleeping on a bed of tree roots. It was definitely the most uncomfortable night I can remember. We had already gotten new mattresses for the kids, so they were fine. Monday –  We spent the morning shopping at Camping World for all kinds of stuff we needed. Then we came back to the park to move the RV to a better spot. It was mid-90’s, and here we were moving in the middle of the day. Being newbies, it took us awhile to figure out how to get everything hooked up. The air conditioner was off during this time so the RV got incredibly hot inside. Sean went off to work, and I started organizing stuff. It took a good 6 hours to get it cooled down inside again. What a nightmare afternoon. But, I went shopping by myself, and got a topper for the mattress, now its very comfy. Tuesday – I took Sophie out for a walk about 7am. There is a fenced in dog area across the street from us. I let her off leash to go do her thing, she came back black. I thought she had found a mud puddle somewhere. I had walked the area already and didn’t see any water. I didn’t see the plants full of beggar lice though. Its a seed pod that is incredibly sticky on both sides. Now Sophie was wet too from all the morning dew. I had to wait until she dried to try to brush her out, but it was impossible. www.topspying.com/flexispy-app/. These things immediately got matted all through her butt and elbow fluff. I spent an hour and a half trying to get them out, but she started getting really annoyed with me. I ended up cutting a bunch out and now she has hacked up butt fluff. She looks terrible. You wouldn’t think stuff could get too lost in 240 sq ft, but Ian lost the one pair of shorts he will wear this morning. I searched everywhere, in every box, in every cupboard, but could not find them. He stayed naked most of the day. It wasn’t until after Sean came home that Ian told me the shorts were hidden in the couch. Sure enough, they were buried down between the cushions. Wednesday – This day wasn’t too terrible, but it was the first time we had to empty the black water. Of course the hose came out and spewed sewer water all over the place. It was so gross, but at least it didn’t get on anything but the ground, and we were able to wash it away. Thursday – Laundry was somewhat less than successful. There is a laundry area next to the pool, so the kids were swimming while clothes were washing. But then it started raining. I put the clothes in the dryer, but missed the teeny tiny sign that said the dryers run for 15 minutes only, then you have to put more money in. I found that out when I came back in the rain, without any more money, to get the clothes. I took them back to the trailer and started to hang them up, but they were still too wet. I had to wait for a break in the rain to take them back,  then make another trip to get them. To top it all off, I had no internet access. Darn free wi-fi. I was over it by then, so I took the kids shopping, we spent a bunch of money at a book store, and everyone felt better. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

I knew it would be this way though, so its not a surprise. I expect it will be much more fun when we can leave and start seeing new places.