Celebrating the New Year with friends

Happy New Year! 2011 is almost gone and in 45 minutes it will begin a new year!
Travelling grace for those on the road and God's blessings to all our friends, family and acquaintances!
We have taken our first trip to Ocean Lakes Camp Ground! A little tight for our taste but our friends like this camp ground! And we are close to the beach! A little noisy tonight as almost the whole campground is on the beach shooting fireworks!
Dru, Heather, and Stephen came to spend the night Thursday, we got to meet Stephen's girl friend Summer; a very sweet and pleasant young lady!
We had stuffed Jalepeno's and delivered them to our friends yesterday and then Larry wanted to have a cookout... so we fixed Portabela mushroom swiss burgers and everyone brought side dishes! We ended up with about 20 people here! It was great to be around so many friends. One of our friends Lance brought his fire pit here and we shared a camp fire! Then it started getting a little chilly so everyone dispersed to their campers to get warm; meanwhile we were warming by the fire until the Class A wanted to park his rig on the site we were using LOL we got everything moved quickly.
All in all it was a great time... kids are leaving in a minute and we will have the rest of the weekend to be with friends.
Saturday we watched the Polar Bear Club run into the ocean! There were about 250 people including children; it was warm though! A nice 68 degrees and the water was 58 degrees so it wasn't so very bad! - We however did not partake in the festivities! We only watched!
Awesome camper we are really enjoying the extra room and all the little extras we have now. This will be the one we take full time! Woooo Hooooo!
Later! Hope everyone had an awesome Christmas! Thank you God for allowing us to be part of your kingdom!
Loving the Lord and all praise to Him!

New Camper!

We bit the bullet! Our new camper arrives Thursday, we bought the Landmark Mesa 2012 model.... It's considerably bigger than our present Big Country 3250TS by about 7-8 feet! IT has everything we both wanted in a camper and we have taken all our stuff out of the Big Country and are anxiously awaiting the new one to arrive.......
It's outside color scheme is Chocolate! How cool is that! Here's a few pictures....

An island! Wooo Hoooo! lots of counter space! All leather furniture..... facing entertainment center are the recliners.

                 Steps away from the entry door! Always a plus! Still a lot of storage in here too!

King bed! lots of storage - even under the bed has storage!  Shoes no long will be on the floor! There's a shoe rack at the back of the closet!
The washer is located in the middle of the the camper in the bathroom so it's not on the pin, going to be so much nicer!
Three more days! Yup! EXCITED!

A wonderful day today!

Well waking up at 4:30am wasn't so wonderful LOL, but the rest of the day was! Larry and I took Stephen to the Myrtle Beach International Airport so he could fly to Michigan to spend time with his sister Heather and her hubby Dru. Stephen made all flights and is now safely with Heather and Dru.
Larry and I decided on a date day! We had breakfast at Bob Evans and proceded to visit a couple RV dealers! Funny that one of the dealers had one that we wanted to see, we weren't impressed with the layout after we looked at it in person. So we went to another RV dealer, and we really like it but Larry hit his head on the bedroom frame and we decided that for long term living that absolutely would not do so onward to another RV dealer! Did you know that they can close traffic on a state highway for a parade?? LOL We ran into two of them on two different highways!
 Finally arriving at the last RV dealer we spent some quality time in this one.... and yea it's a Heartland Bighorn! We discussed a lot of things and now have to make the decision as to whether we go into debt for awhile to get it or wait ..... decisions decisions!
We stopped at McLeod's and picked up some green tomatos and Muscadine cider YUM! and a treat of a little ice cream!
We are back at the house now and waiting for stuffed shells and garlic bread to finish cooking.
A wonderful relaxing day with my sweetie, I really appreciate the little things like spending the day just being together with no real agenda just being together! God blessed me with an awesome man! Thank you God! :)

Getting into cooler weather....

Since Thanksgiving we have had some rain and cooler weather, don't mind the rain but cooler weather means that not long from now it's going to get cold! YUK not a big fan of cold weather.
Heather lives in Michigan and told her Dad that they got 4 1/4 inches of snow yesterday! Glad it's there and not here!
Funny about people in the South; when they forcast snow the first thing that happens is all the grocery stores empty of bread and milk! Yea I get confused about that, but the most amusing thing is that the town basically shuts down, schools close, and the one snow plow in this town rides around showing everyone that we have a plow! Pretty funny! We actually saw it last year and the blade on it wasn't even scratched!

Today Larry and I went to Staples and discovered that they not only can make business cards, but will screen or embroider T-shirts! I am going back in the morning to get some business cards for my business. And will find out more about the T-shirts..
We have been busy with Craigs List, well Larry has been! Sold a few things and mostly ignores the spam.But at least it's slowly getting sold.

We had a house full for Thanksgiving, we ate breakfast with Dru, Heather, Matt, Stephen, Michael, Barbara, Rob, Samantha, Tracy, Larry and myself! Then the Turkey, dressing, cranberries, mac n cheese, deviled eggs, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, almond pound cake, spice tea........And even after all that food Barbara and I got up early that next morning and did a tiny bit of shopping.... I really loved all the family time, my daughter went home with all the carosel horses and curio cabinet, all the Christmas decorations I had stuffed in closet and the baby grandfather clock. The rest of the turkey went home with Barbara and several gallons of spice tea. We packed that van so well you couldn't get another thing in! There was just enough room for the two girls to sit with their seatbelts and that's all! Had to laugh at her because she called me when she got home and told me that the clock would not chime correctly! We went through the reset process and then I asked her if the chains were hanging correctly - HA! guess not because when she checked the chains the clock sounded correctly!
Well now that I've rambled a bit I will stop - LOL
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Prov. 3:5-6
Live as if your last day is today! Love as God loves you! (I am glad that this earth is not my home!)

Thanksgiving

Well after an awesome Thanksgiving with my family; Dru, Heather, Matt, Stephen and Michael, Barbara, Rob, Michael Samantha, and Tracy; Breakfast and turkey dinner with all the trimmings.....
Grandbabies, daughter and son in law on their way home. House is quiet! We actually packed my daughter's van with as much as she could carry! More stuff gone :) and she wants to come back and get more! Nice huh?? 
Granddaughters made their own placemats; they were unique and very well made.
Today we finished the leftovers that weren't taken by daughter and son and had pizza for dinner....
Well now that more stuff is gone we have discussed repainting the walls in the living room - a more neutral color but later. Our walls are beach colors and we enjoy them but a prospective buyer for our home  may not.
Daughter called and they are almost home. God is so good to us......Thank you for travelling grace for them..
Thank you Dear Lord for all Your loving kindness........

Sunday before Thanksgiving

Just a few days away!

Samantha, Erin and Tracy

Getting ready to have a few family members here, should be interesting to say the least! We will put Barbara and Rob along with Tracy (youngest grand daughter) in the camper, Samantha (next youngest grand daughter) wants to sleep with Grandpa and Grandma!
If my sister comes we will put them upstairs on air mattresses -  since we don't have any beds other than the one we sleep on but it will work out.
Heather and Dru will come, along with Matt, Stephen and Michael but they will not be spending the night so dinner will be the traditional turkey, dressing, lots of gravy, deviled eggs, green bean casserole, corn on the cob, mac n cheese for the little ones, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie spiced tea and whatever else goes along with that sleepy time meal! (And of course paper plates ) Heather and Michael are both on vegetarian diets so a 20 lb turkey should be enough??
Thinking that I will enlist my two grand daughters to make cookies and decorate them; that should keep them busy while the real cooking stuff gets going! I also have construction paper for turkey name place markers that they will make for dinner...... oh yea and gotta have the chalk for the sidewalk drawings! LOL These are the things that Grandparents do!
The weather will be warm in the 70's so we won't be stuck inside the whole time.
This will probably be the last Thanksgiving we will spend in our house; will I miss cleaning three bedrooms, huge kitchen and family room? Not at all! I do love a clean house but the smaller area to clean the easier it will be to keep clean! (Just my train of thought - although we will have our home on the road it will be large enough for us and small enough to keep clean!)
I have seen campers with dishwashers! Well my thoughts on that is that it will not be necessary because it's only the two of us and how many dishes can you dirty that can't be cleaned in a short time, so space for storage wins that one! At least with me....I got the washer/dryer and that is more important.
Larry posted that I wash when there are three pieces of dirty clothes! LOL well maybe :)
Sunday, time for rest and rejuvination... awesome Church service and left over home made pizza for lunch....time for a nap!
Lean on Christ - He is the Only way!

What to take.....

As far as taking stuff there are several things I feel will be necessary..... with that said; what do I feel is necessary? Well there's the sewing maching, it's portable and easily stored. Bread machine, everyone love fresh home made bread right? (maybe it will become a gift later???) Stand mixer, of course that has to go with! (sure does make mixing a breeze)
We have some stoneware that we like to use and it is the same pattern that Larry grew up with so it will have to make the trip with us too! We will have to pack it carefully and in a lower place to travel. (I'll figure something out!)
Let's see that took up the desk cabinet with mixer and bread machine, and some closet space with the sewing machine. Under the entertainment center for the stoneware.
There's clothing to consider also, we have minimized our wardrobe to a manageable amount so I don't think that's going to be an issue. now that we have a washer/dryer we can maybe minimize some of that too??
We'll see :)

More to come! Smile and let God lead you, He knows the way!

A woman's view

A perfect world? Not hardly! But with God's guidance and only through God we can do all things!
I wanted to make this in conjunction with our cloudsandoceans blog in case there were any girly issues to talk about......the feelings of leaving somewhere that you have been either for several years or all your life can be intimidating so going full time is an exciting adventure that both Larry and I are looking forward to doing and there are several issues we have talked about and there are many more we are preparing ourselves for in the future.
Leaving a foundation type home can't be an easy decision for many so making sure that is what you really want to do is very important.
Dispersing of your treasures; who gets what? Well that depends on how long you have had your treasures, how many family members you will share these things with.... lots to think about right?
Taking inventory of what you will take and what will be given to family, (even extended family might want some of the treasures you've collected all those years) charities etc is a major undertaking in itself, but with patience and fortitude it can work. We have managed to reduce our "stuff" quite a lot and only have a few things left to live comfortably until we take the "plunge" into full timing.
A perfect world...... well we all have our views of what this should be right?
Trying to decide what to keep, sell, give away, give to children or family is a slow and sometimes difficult thing to do especially if what you have gathered is from many years of treasures. However taking into account that most family will gladly accept the items/treasures you partake to them it may not be an issue. It was not for us.
Should you store somethings for later when you decide to stop travelling? I personally think that would be a waste of money spent on storing something that could be kept with family or just purchase what you want later. Of course if there are treasures you just cannot part with then storage or family can hold them for you.
With that said, it's time to decide what can be taken on your journey without overtaking your living space. How do you decide what will be needed and where would you store it?
Depending on the size of the camper and your storage space you could take quite a lot but still will have to be very careful with where the items are packed and if they would be easily accessed.
One thing to be careful of is not to infringe on space needed for necessary items and space needed for relaxing comfortably.
What do you take? Well depending on how much space you have for storage for items and what kind of weather you anticipate living in. You can take what you need and still have enough space to be comfortable.
Now that brings up more things to write about so until later - Smile and let God guide you...