Settling in

We have been busy settling in. We are living in the RV 99% of the time only going back to the house to work on it. We are still waiting for it to be rented out. We are hopeful that it will rent soon now that mostly everything is out. We still have a little work to do but then we will be done.

We have been here a little over a month now. It is now our new normal. I think we have all settled in pretty nicely. We have mostly figured out how things will work best for us, but are easily changing things around as we go to see how to best do everything. Especially where organizing is concerned. I am pretty sure this will be a never ending project. Now that we have everything here but some tools I can finally get down to the nitty gritty of finding a home for everything. For some things this is easy, for others I feel like I need a can of Crisco and a big strong person to just shove it all in there. For instance my closet is fine, lots of room left, the kids' closet is pretty full but still ok, The Hubby's closet on the other hand.....I have clothes handing on his door handle. LOL He bought some space saver bags today so I will be putting some cold weather clothes of his in a bag and squishing the daylights out of them. Under the RV is another tricky spot. I was so organized with totes for this and that....until I went to put them int he storage bay. THEY DIDN'T FIT! The bins were just inches to tall to fit in the door. Hence the trip for space saver bags. We got 2 bins of coats into less space then 1 bin would of taken up. I am pretty sure they are my new best friends. Space Bag BRS-86112-6, 2 Piece Cube Combo Vac Bags (1 Large and 1 Extra Large) Clear, 6- Foot by 2- Inch by 13- Inch (Yes, that is an affiliate link) We got the ones that you can roll out the air since we don't have a vacuum with a hose. I was a little worried they would not work very well but they worked AMAZINGLY well. I want to get some more big ones and see if I can put the sleeping bags in there so they take up less room too. That would help a TON.  So the under storage bin is looking good....now for the inside.

Dishes are another fun item. We obviously do not have a dish washer. So that is not me. Originally I had the dishes trying on a drying mat because that was smaller when not in use. We quickly learned that this just not work as well. There is just not enough air circulation to dry the dishes so we recently bought a dish drying rack. We just got a small one from Target with a tray on the bottom since I have to leave it on the counter but I want this one from Amazon. Progressive International Collapsible Dish Rack (yes, another affiliate link, I have to pay for it some way. LOL) That way it will take up less room when storing it. Did I mentioned to storage needs in an RV? Yeah, there is no space. LOL

We have been keeping busy with lots of visits to Kings Dominion. We got season passes so we could go for a few hours here and there. When it gets crowded that is about all everyone can handle. Cat Boy has been doing super well there. We get him the special access pass each time we go that we can go through the exit since he does not do well with waiting in line or people he does not know touching him. I don't think we could manage the park without it when it is even a bit busy. The staff at guest services is great, I just go up tot he window and ask for the pass for him because he has Autism. They fill it out and hand it over. No fuss, no muss. We do not let him use it if the lines are short because we do want to build up his ability to be able to wait in lines. We have not yet been if it is super busy but the pass says when the lines are really long they will give us a return time. So far that has not happened but we try not to visit during peak times. The pass has also been great for his anxiety. He started off not wanting to do any roller coasters because he could not see the whole ride. We watched a few you tube videos after the first trip and that helped. We have now moved up from him on riding the coaster in Snoopy Land. all the way to all the coasters that do not go upside down. He wants to get on them though but has told me he is not to that level yet. The next level his mind will let him get to includes Anaconda. So we are working on that. It has been amazing to see his growth. Monkey goes on anything and everything that he can but is still to short for some things and The Boy has rode every roller coaster. That was his goal and he did it. He LOVES them. I think tonight we are going to take a date to there and just ride coasters together. We met one of Cat Boy's old ABA therapists and her girls there the other day. We had a blast even if she did pick the HOTTEST day to go. The Boy loved riding the coasters with her and has a picture of them on the Intimdator 305 hanging by his bed so he can see it every morning as soon as he gets up.

Cat Boy on his first Roller Coaster with The Boy

Monkey and The Boy on the Drop Zone

Princess in the water park

  

Princess on a ride. You can see Monkey and Cat Boy behind us
. Selfies are not good. 

We hope to be hitting the road soon but are waiting for our house to be rented. So hopefully soon. Not sure where we will be going yet but I can't wait to get started.

Deciding on a new home

When we took the kids to look at RV's for the first time we thought we wanted a 5th wheel or a class C. We knew the class A's were nice, but there are WAY more then we wanted to spend.

We looked at a few 5th wheels first. Those are the ones you attach to the truck bed. They were really nice and some even came with washer and dryers. They had a bunch of space and great floorplans that would work for our large family. However after looking at them, even some used ones we quickly realized that they were out of our budget as well because we would also need to buy a truck that was powerful enough to tow the 5th wheel AND could fit 6 people. The cost of the 5th wheel and the truck was more then we wanted to spend to get started, esp since we wanted to pay cash for as much as we could

Next, we looked at a Class C. Those are the ones with the little van cab and then it juts out into the RV. As soon as we walked into the first one we knew it would not work for us. First, they are expensive since they are a car and an rv. Second, it is just one open space and we wanted bedrooms. Since we will be living in these full time we wanted it to feel as much like a house as we could. What might work for weekend trips and a few vacations here and there would NOT be ok for every day living. Plus we could tow a small car behind it but we don't fit in a small car. So we would still need to drive 2 vehicles everywhere which is fine but kinda defeated the purpose of getting one that can be driven.

We went home after the first day of looking and did more research. We though we knew what we wanted but we were wrong. We now knew we wanted a U shaped dining table, a BED for each of the the boys (some have couches you can fold into beds ect but we wanted them to have a 24/7 bed), a bedroom for the boys with at least 1 bumpout but ideally 2, a bumpout in the living room, an outdoor kitchen would be nice but not a need, and as many cabinets as we could get. So we took the knowledge we gathered that day and hit the internet. We decided that a travel trailer was our best bet. A few days later we had a list of models we wanted to look at and we went looking again. We hit 3 dealerships in VA that day. 2 of them the salesperson was NOT helpful at all. They just kinda took us to the ones we asked to see and that was it. The 3rd was great, He was new at very excitable. You could tell he was still enjoying this unlike the other 2 who were just showing us units because they had to. He showed us a rig we LOVED. Everyone talked about it all the time. Since we wanted to pay cash we needed to wait till we sold off some stuff before we got it. Oh course you see what is coming, just DAYS before we were going to buy it, (I am NOT kidding it was like 2 days before), I went on-line to check for the unit like I did EVERY day, and it was GONE. I knew they had 2 so I quickly called to put a deposit down on it, The guy on the other end said he had JUST got an e-mail from their other location that they had someone to buy it. In less then 24hrs the 2 rigs had sold that had been sitting there for over a month. We were CRUSHED.

I searched and searched the internet for that same unit. Of course I found a couple but they were all for $4,000 or MORE then the one we were looking at. No go! We were considering another model site unseen and having it delivered. I just wanted something before there was nothing. Yes, I was flipping out a bit. We had sold almost everything, The hubby had started his new job about 1 1/2 hrs away, and we had no RV. Logically I knew it would be fine but logic goes out the window when you are in the process f flipping your life upside down. The Hubby took to the internet again and came upstairs saying get everyone ready we are heading to Richmond. So we did, I had no clue what he had found and I am not sure he was 100% sure either. We returned to a dealer we had been t before and got a MUCH better salesman. He showed us the unit we wanted to look at, went inside with us and pointed stuff out, answered questions, and was very helpful. We LOVED the unit. Even more then the one that we lost out on. The kids were bouncing off the walls saying BUY IT, BUY IT NOW BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE DOES!!!, So, we did!

The rig. Keystone Cougar X-Lite

 We went inside to do paperwork. The Hubby and I were excited and wanted to be sick all at the same time. The kids were just plain excited! The Boy must of made me assure him at least 20 times that it was our rig now. The whole way home I would just randomly yell out, "Oh My God we bought an RV!!!!!". We ended up with an Keystone Cougar X-Lite.

 

 
 



The kid's room.

My kitchen



Princess running up and down the hallway. She is in the kid's room.

The boys sitting at the table.

Our new adventure

So we are starting an new adventure. Selling everything, renting out our house, and moving into a RV to travel the country. We are super excited to get this show on the road. The most common question we have gotten since we started telling people is, why. Thought most everyone thinks it is cool and wishes they could do it, they want to know why we decided to do this and why now.

As far as the why, that is easy. We have always talked about doing this. Even before we had kids we thought it would be fun to be able to travel the county and see everything. Of course we figured that this would be something we would do when we retired, So the idea has always been out there. The Hubby also seems to think that we should do the same thing on a sail boat but I am just not digging that idea, especially with 4 kids.

 So as far as the why now, well timing just worked out. Back in Sept 2013 The Hubby left his job of almost 12 years and started his own company, Erilis Technology Solutions. (Shameless plug for his company , check it out for all your IT needs.) His continued to work for his old company for a while but under his new company, He had some time off at the end of March and we went out to KY for his brother's wedding . While I was driving home I turned to him and said, "Let's do it.". He of course asked what I was talking about and I said travel, let's sell off everything, get an RV and travel. You are looking for another contract anyway, let's look for something that will let us travel and see the county.He of course said ok right away as I knew he would. So a couple days after we got home he came into the living room and said if we are seriously going to do this I need to know so I can tailor my job search to it, and we need to start getting rid of stuff. I said yep let's do it will talk to the kids tonight at dinner. So we did. They were varying degrees of excited. The Boy was hesitant, he wasn't sure about leaving his friends, Pokémon Leagues, and just the logistics of living in an RV. Monkey was following suit with The Boy. He was excited at first but when seeing The Boy's hesitation he followed suit. Cat Boy was all over it like white on rice. He wanted to go NOW. He asked if he could bring a few things and once we assured him he could bring them, and of course his cat, he was all in. We decided we would go the next day to see some RV's so that the kids would get a better picture of what we were talking about and see it was just a TINY house on wheels. Once we walked into the first RV they were ALL SOLD. 1000% all in. They wanted to leave yesterday. This is how this adventure was born. There was still a TON to figure out, and a TON to do but we were on our way to the next adventure in our lives.

King Cluck part 2

I know you are all waiting on the edge of your seats to see how King Cluck is doing! We forgot to check on him after a week, and didn't get around to changing him till about a week and a half after we started. I think part of me made myself forget because I was scared that I would open up the bag and we would all pass out from the smell. So we brought it down and all held our breath. I think I was the first one to breath, and was happy that all I could smell was the rubbing alcohol. So we took him out (ok ok there was no WE, it was ALL me, the kids were not touching him, no matter what!) and brushed him off.

 I asked the kids if they wanted to don a glove and tough him but they all said no. I couldn't get either of our ABA therapists to touch him either. In fact I am pretty sure Mrs. J would of been in the other room in I had not made her take pictures! She is having mixed feelings between being amazed by this and freaked out. LOL  He is definitely getting tougher feeling. The breast is the softest part on him, but still does not give much when you push on him, and his winds are pretty dried out already. I can't wait to see what he looks and feels like next time.

We then mixed up another mixture of salt and baking soda and covered him all over again. There he will sit for another couple of weeks. (Yeah, yeah, I know it should be checked in one week but it has already been over a week since we did the first check.) I have kinda checked him and the mixture does not look that we so I have not been in a huge rush.

Blast Off!

For The Boy's birthday earlier in the year he got a rocket kit. I had put it up for later and we totally forgot about it. We recently found it again and the boys have been begging to do it. We needed to get to the store to get a 2 liter bottle of soda and drink it. This of course was a big hit with the boys. LOL This is The Boy after we had taped up the contraption.

We had to take our paper, wrap it around the clear tube and tape it up. Making sure it would slide off the tube, Then we had to punch out the wings for the bottom and the cone for the top. I saw we but this was ALL me, it was way to hard for the kids to do it. I used a glue gun to glue the wings on the bottom and the cone on top. Once I finished all the boy's rockets we headed outside! Here they are with their rockets.

We would put the rocket onto the tube and then stomp on the bottle. This would force the air out of the bottle, through the tire tube, and push the rocket off the clear tube. We had to make sure the top was totally glued onto the rocket or else to much air would leak out and the rocket would not shoot. There was a lot of rocket repair after shots that had the rocket land on its' tip. The kids had a blast and even loved blowing into the tube to blow the bottle back up. As we went we had to re-tape the bottle to the tube and it was starting to leak air. We got some pretty good shots off and it went farther then I thought it would a few times.

King Cluck

Meet King Cluck.

He will soon be mummified. We are studying Mummies and what better way then to mummify something. Of course when I told The Hubby we were mummifying a  chicken he thought I meant some bacon wrapped chicken for dinner. Imagine his surprise when he came home to a blob on the fridge. LOL You can see above the items we used. We chose a Cornish Game Hen since it is smaller and will take less time and materials.

We used the rubbing alcohol to wash the hen off and kill the germs and hopefully lower the smell level.  Here you can see Monkey prepping King Cluck for his bath. Cat boy was going to bath him but even with the gloves he decided mom should do it.

Next we mixed 2 parts salt to 2 parts baking soda. We will check King Cluck every few days and replace this mixture whenever it starts to get wet. We used 4C salt and 2C baking soda. I think it was a tad much for our little hen but not by much. I think we might make a HUGE batch next time and then just use what we need each time we change it out.

Here is Monkey helping me load up the cavity with the mixture. We made sure he was nice and full and then both him and Cat Boy made sure the bottom of the bag and all of King Cluck was covered.

Here is King Cluck all covered. He will sit in the back for the next month or 2 on top of my fridge. When the mixture gets wet we will take him down, Clean him off and re-cover him. Of course I will blog that as well. For now I just hope he does not stink.

Sailing

So today The Boy and The Hubby are out sailing. They are doing the mixed couples race which is a little over 10 miles up the Patuxent River. When they get there there is a little raft up which they might hang out at if the rain stays away. Last year was the first year they did this race together and got there in about an hour and a half. They didn't time themselves officially because they were not a mixed gender team but afterwords it was decided that a kid sailing would count. After all having an 8yo as your crew was not an advantage. LOL This year he is 9 so still not an advantage. I sailed this with The Hubby 2 years ago and it was HOT with no wind. We were gone about 11 hrs. It was NOT fun. The weather today looks perfect. Here are some shots of them from Thursday Night Racing 2 nights ago.