We’re Leeeaving…On A Jet Plane……

Don’t know when we’ll be back again.

(Seriously, I don’t know when we’ll be back).

After the accident we decided it’d be better, more comfortable, easier, and plain more fun to come down to Texas and stay with my parents while he recuperates. We made the decision to leave the bus parked in our RV spot not just because I couldn’t drive it but primarily because we didn’t want to lose our spot. They were extremely hard to come by, and we knew we were coming back in a couple months, so it was a good, practical decision. Up until three days ago that was still the plan.

Three days ago I got a call from the RV park saying someone stole our electrical adaptor that connects our bus to electricity, meaning our fridge/freezer is no longer working, and then just for icing on the cake….they’re shutting down the campground and we have fourteen days to get the bus moved. Only when I did the math ,we actually have only eight days! We threw around a handful of options, but by the next morning we had decided on one. Joey and I are now waiting to board a flight to Grand Junction and rescue the bus and truck (Joey’s old Ford) and bring everything down here. Turns out since we’ve been gone the drilling rigs have stacked up and left, the pipeline has stopped and basically it’s becoming a ghost town. It’s crazy to think just a few months ago it was booming, and now it’s dead.

So our plans have changed once again, we’ll stay in Texas until he’s officially released but we will be living in the bus. Joey now can take his time finishing up the flatbed build on his truck, the Dodge, and we can do all those little things we’ve been wanting to do to the bus that we can never do because it’s kinda hard to do when living in a campground things.

They’re boarding…gotta go!

Some Guys Have Harley’s

Observations by Jewel

Our little white hen lays little white/blue/green eggs.

Jewel: “She’s laying a new egg everyday. They must REALLY love each other.”

Chickens 101

*New Update Below*

When we got the chickens the day after we got here in Texas, I was hoping we'd be here to witness the first egg laying, but doubted we'd actually be here THAT LONG.
Ta-da:


That poor hen, too, she can't get away from that ruthless rooster. He grabs the back of her neck all day long, briefing squatting on her back, causing Jewel to say matter of factly, he's taking a baby.

We never planned on letting them raise their chickens but now there's no choice. The kids will not let us eat them!

Jewel's even numbering them. We're not quite sure why, even she doesn't know, but it's good she did because from now on the ones that aren't numbered are getting stolen before she knows they're laid. She's going to grow up thinking chickens only lay seven eggs, but until we can think of another way to not get run over by chicken poop, we have no choice!

We're not too sure how these chicks will turn out, really. She spends hardly any time during the day laying on them. Instead she roams the yard being pushed around by the rooster or RUNNING AWAY FROM HIM. If she could speak, she'd say: Polygamy!

UPDATE: I spoke with Jewel about gathering any and all new eggs for our consumption, and explained to her that we'd be buying them from the store anyway so why not use our own. She agreed and has now added Official Egg Collector along with her duties as Official MailGirl

Unschooling myself

I just can't grasp aperture and f stops and shutter speeds and which controls the light and what controls the depth of field. It's all too confusing when in the back of my mind I'm thinking, did I thaw anything out for supper? I usually give up trying completely for a while, and then beat myself up because there's something really wrong with me if I can't make myself get something that I really want to get. The other day I admitted out loud that I just don't think I'm ready for the DSLR. It's too much camera for me.

Later that day the kids were jumping on the trampoline so I figured I'd use their play for a little practice. (The sun was going down so I had to play with light, plus the fast movement.)

Jacob is my inspiration. He doesn't know how to give anything but a nice shot.

He doesn't know it but he's my silent encourager.

These speak Pure Joy.




We're having fun jumping and snapping, until Jonas realizes I'm taking pictures of him, too. Normally he runs off and I stop. Not this time.

He stares right into me and gives me a mean face.

At least what he thinks looks mean.
As he's scowling he's just getting closer to me. Could I ask for better??

It's tough trying to look mean when you're so damn cute!

Give him another ten minutes though and try to take his picture again...

He's pissed now!

He then said: "Delete them"
I cried: "But I can't!"
Him: "Delete them"
Me: "I'm sorry"
Him: "Delete them"
Me: "IT'S LIKE ASKING ME TO CUT OFF MY FINGER...."
He then stormed off and didn't speak to me for twenty four hours.

I'll always have Jacob.


As much as I really wanted to respect his wishes, I just couldn't do it! I may have failed him that day but I truly believe in the long run he, and if not him, his future partner and/or kids, will thank me for it. I cannot let him grow up without any photos of his childhood, that would be regrettable.

Besides learning that I'm a selfish photographer, I learned that adjusting the aperture allows me to control the light. Yay me. Then the next day I tell my dad what I learned and he said "F-stop also controls the amount of light (AND THEY WON'T BE ALL BLURRY)".

I'm back at square one.

We do still live in a bus, after all

When we went up to Colorado and the bus, to get Joey's truck, I was secretly a little nervous about being in the bus again. I was afraid after spending all this time spread out in a stick house that I wouldn't be happy to see the inside of our little bus.

Luckily, I felt right at home and could imagine myself living here again, someday..when it's not winter.

Now....it's been another couple months since we were there, and Joey and I have since talked and learned that he shared the same fears, and had the same happy realization, that the bus is our comfy home. But what about the kids? How do they feel about it? Are they going to break out in little sad faces when we tell them that we're going back to the bus soon? Much to our surprise....They're actually looking forward to going back to the bus!

Jonas misses having the toilet two feet from his bed, and he's already looking forward to re familiarizing himself with all his sleeping animals (his words).

Both boys say what they miss the most are their beds. I made that bold because they were very loud in letting me know they miss their beds.

Jewel is just happy to be with us, wherever we are. AS LONG AS SHE'S WITH US, she says. I love that.

So....we should be leaving Texas soon, and getting back to our normal life of not knowing where we'll be tomorrow, and I, for one, can hardly wait.

what did we leave the house for again?

My last post made it sound like we actually never leave the house, but the truth is we haven't become complete hermits. Occasionally Joey finds something on Craigslist that he has to have for his truck, mostly toolboxes, so we venture out to pick those items up, so when on one such trip we heard over the radio that Kat Von D was going to be in downtown Dallas for a book signing, no one had to twist our arms! We arrived at the book signing only twenty minutes after it started and they were already almost out of books and wristbands that were required to see her. There were about a thousand people there! Luckily there wasn't a line we had to stand in the whole three hours, that's what the wristbands were for. There were six colors, with only one getting in line at a time, and we were the last color group. We read some books, bought the kids a Reptile & Snake field guide and a Star Wars comic book, then once we realized we still had a long wait we went across the street for some mexican food. Not long after we came back they called our color and we were finally in line to see Kat Von D!

We ended up getting in line right behind the most interesting sisters, which turned out to be the highlight of the night. Heather recently became an unschooler herself in order to pursue her dreams, she realized school wasn't helping her to get there. I immediatley congratulated her on that decision and I thought her mouth was gonna drop. She's not used to other people, especially adults, encouraging her to not go to school. The older sister, Johnny Appleseed, is in the process of opening up a vegan/raw foods cafe in Dallas, called Bliss Cafe.

The four of us talked non stop about unschooling, living on the road, following your dreams, surrounding yourself with positive people and discarding the naysayers, that before we knew it we were already at Kat's table.

Since we only bought one book, only one of us could go to the table, so we decided I would stand back and take pictures. Oh, she also wasn't posing for pictures. She was very nice though! Joey told her the book was for our daughter who loves sharpie tattooing anyone that will let her. She asked where she was and then signed her book with lots of XOXO's.


This was my leg for about a month. If I could take the pain I'd probably have them all permanently tattooed on. For christmas she got a kids tattoo gun, but in the end, the sharpies are the way to go.

This night was a perfect example proving that it's not about the destination, it's all about the journey. Veer off the path and you might just find something better. Hope you're enjoying your ride as much as we are ours!

Green Acres

First thing anyone tells you when they hear you're going to Fort Worth is, You gotta go to the Stockyards. My family has lived here three years now, and this is our third, maybe fourth visit, with each visit lasting from one week up to four months. We have yet to see the Stockyards. Some travelers we are. We can't help it though, my folks have this great pad that we really find no reason to leave it.


When my parent's were looking for a place here in Texas they knew they wanted to get something big enough for us to park our bus at, so they spent months trying to find the right place. Most places here barely have room to park on the street, so finding this place was like finding a needle in a haystack. They're even on a hill that overlooks Fort Worth, when anyone will tell you there are NO hills in DFW. Their ultimate plan though when they retired was to get a place near my brother and then travel, travel, travel. They also have not left their Green Acres, as they've lovingly named it. Instead my Dad has finally gotten his own John Deere tractor that he's always dreamed of, and have immersed themselves completely into transforming their place into a little something for everyone. They want us to feel completely at home here, and they've done almost too good a job of it.


Besides the Organic Tribe visiting, we've also had Cliff and Heather from Iowa come over. It was good to see friends from Iowa again, and Joey really enjoyed talking to Cliff about his tour in Iraq.


The weather here is so sporadic, you never know what you're going to get from one day to the next. We've definitely learned to take advantage of the good days though!
Whether it be a redneck hayride for the kids

Listening to my nephew jam on the guitar, jump on the trampoline or pogo stick, swim in the jacuzzi, or just watch the kids ride their various wheels




or just surf the net or watch TV, there's never a boring day.
It's always fun to watch the chickens watching us, too.

The rooster doesn't always join the hen, but she can be found here almost the ENTIRE day.

He's usually wherever we are in the yard. It's funny to go through my pictures and find him in so many of them. Jewel and her cousin in the jacuzzi, there's Brownie. Joey working on his truck, there's Brownie again.

One day we had uninvited visitor's, though.

A herd of mini horses! They were rampaging the neighborhood and stayed to graze in the neighbor's backyard for a while.


Even the bad, as in bad I mean fricken COLD, days, aren't so bad here. We stay inside sipping cocoa by the fire, waiting for the sun to pop back out.

Special occasions we get dressed and go a couple miles to my brother's house where he's got the ultimate indoor entertainment pad. We had a Korean food night one night where my sister in law out did herself. It was my idea, but somehow she did all the work. We also had Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve there, as well as the Superbowl Party. I've also learned one thing by all these gatherings: I think I know why I like living in an RV so much....I'm never expected to entertain. I'm just there for the party!

Another bonus about Green Acres, the sunsets:


And since I never see a sunrise, my Mom grabbed my camera to show me what one looks like here.


So...besides physical therapy three days a week still, my constant texting with Angela and whining about my excessive weight gain, this is what we've been up to. I love my life.