Because I haven’t written in his baby book since 2001

AGE: 11.9

HEIGHT: 4’ 10”

WEIGHT: 67 LBS.

 

ADDITIONAL MILESTONE: FIRST ZIT

WELCOME TO PUBERTY, JACOB.

LOVE, MOM.

What we’ve been up to……..

We took a couple days to recoup from the trip to Colorado and back, the heavy pressing on the bus’s gas pedal really gave Joey’s foot quite a workout. By the time he went back to therapy he was able to stand on his healed foot, when just the week before he wasn’t able to support himself on that foot at all. He’s noticing improvements daily now but still says the top of his foot feels like it’s sunburned and then one of the kids stood on his foot and did the twist.

I’ve been going through the bus cabinets getting rid of as much stuff as I can. It’s much easier this time than when we moved in almost three years ago (Has it really been that long?). This time I don’t have to stress about getting rid of something I may regret later…..I just stick it in my mom’s closet.

For a week it got really nasty cold here, so we spent it inside catching up on seventy two hours worth of mind stimulating reality television. As much as I love watching reality TV, I would never be on reality TV.

Then the sun came back out and I came alive. I’ve been converting Jacob’s top bunk into Jewel’s new bunk, and I cannot wait to finish it. But I have to wait because my Mom (whom I’ve recruited to sew curtains) is having sewing machine issues, which have spread into my sewing machine also having issues. Now we wait a week to get them back. In the meantime I’ve been lacquering my flat black cabinets, that I’ve never been completely happy with, with a shiny gloss. Now I’m LOVING it! It’s a lot more work, and my body is aching over it, but it’s worth it. I’ve also recruited my Dad to build a desk in the bus, and he’s already cut me three new cabinet doors to replace cheap broken ones. We built a headboard for our bed, too. Almost everything I’ve been able to do for free or almost free. All the wood is leftover scraps or recycled from the original closet tear down. 

The worst part has been scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush and going through each and every single last item, down to paper clips and battleship bullets. I have yet to finish scrubbing (but I have to in order to finish painting the baseboards).

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Our chicken’s eggs never developed, which was a good thing because two weeks ago the feed store called and the SIXTEEN chicks my Dad ordered SIX MONTHS AGO were in. Luckily they didn’t make us take them all and then some died before they even made it to the store, so we only had to bring ten home. Then we had more of the Sultan’s (fluffy white ones) die, along with a couple other chicks and one of the two turkeys. Right now we have six chicks total, with one turkey, and we’re thinking that’s plenty. Although Jewel and I are trying to talk Papa into a couple baby ducks. But my Mom had to ruin it and remind my Dad that we will be leaving someday and then “they’ll be stuck with all these animals that Vicki’s ever wanted”. Hmpfh.

We’re getting the urge to get to the beach. Before we can go to the beach though we have to get beach cruisers. Remember last year when our bicycles froze and it made a funny picture?

It ruined each and every bike.

So yesterday Joey cruised Craiglist and found me a cruiser. Only when we got there to pick it up I refused it, then Joey promised he would make it shiny, and if I didn’t like it then, he would keep it for himself. Then we went to Wal-Mart and spent twice as much on tires and tubes than we paid for the bike. But I love it.

You can’t tell in the picture but there’s a red “pearl” over flat black. We spent the evening tearing it apart, sanding it, degreasing it, and painting it. He always amazes me.

Then today my Dad unveiled his latest creation:

Stilts. They’re beyond hard.

But a great way to get kids of all ages to come together.

Sunday’s are the best days here at Green Acres.

“This isn’t going to be some big romantic trip”

Now why would I think that? This was the first time we would be childless and we could take as much time as we needed. I must have missed the part where I would be driving the entire time. That’s all we did, drive, eat, sleep. Eat, drive, eat, drive, eat, sleep. Repeat three more times now.

Since our electric plug adaptor adaptors were stolen, and they’re a rare Canadian breed, we went without electricity the whole time. Also since I didn’t winterize before we left, we didn’t even want to find out if there was anything wrong with our water system until we got down to Texas, so we also went without water. And then, since I forgot to shut off the propane when we left in October, we were also out of propane. As if this all wasn’t joyful enough, our shit tank is still FULL. Five days of this, and no showers, ummm..yeah, not so romantic.

On the final day, our last two hundred miles, out of eleven hundred, I spotted diesel for only $1.99 and since Joey didn’t have his radio on I decided to pull up on his right (where he was making a right turn) and alert him to tell him to turn his radio on, and look..Cheap Gas! Only he didn’t see me and continued on with his right turn, right into me. Because of my brilliance and desperation to save a dime, we now need a new corner panel and lights for the truck, and the bus was seriously scraped between the front tires and the front door. I’m actually trying to forget the whole ordeal, so moving on…..

The kids did great with my parents, and really didn’t even miss us. I cried when we left thinking our plane might go down, and Joey had a talk with Jacob that if anything were to happen to us, they’d be living right there with Grama and Papa, and they DIDN’T have to go to school unless they wanted to. We like to cover our bases. :) My parents are really great for watching them and more surprisingly, respecting our wishes. I know it’s not always easy for them, especially when the kids stay up until four or five in the morning, or want mac and cheese at eleven at night, but they were super. Thank You, Mom and Dad!

In my last post I wrote so nonchalantly about First Class. I don’t know why I do that. It was actually kind of a big thing for me. I’ve always wanted to get bumped up to First, I hear about it all the time, but I’ve always been too chicken to ask. Since we were completely alone with this agent and there weren’t people waiting in line I felt brave. This is exactly how it went down: “Ummmm…uhhhh….I hear about people getting bumped up to First Class all the time…ummm…uhhhhh…..how could we do it?” I finally worked up the nerve, and then showed my ignorance by being on an airline that doesn’t even offer it. I just felt a need to clear that up.

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My Mom said Jewel told her she missed Dad the most.

Because he’s funnier.

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I discovered Windows Live Writer before I left, and I just knew it was the answer to my blogging dilemma. Then I decided it wasn’t because I didn’t always have an internet connection to blog while I’m traveling (with Live Writer I can be offline), I really just needed something interesting to blog about.…THEN I invented Mind Writer. When I’m driving I come up with the BEST blog posts, now if someone could just figure out the mechanics of Windows Mind Writer, I’ll be all set. In the meantime, for some real family adventure involving poop icicles you should check out Bluebird Family while they make their way up to Alaska. One storm at a time.

Happy Travels!

Frontier Airlines

Never heard of them before, but now I’m a fan. I’m also a fan of flying on a Saturday. We got to DFW early and walked straight up to the ticket counter. I asked about getting bumped up to First Class, since that’s how I like to think I roll, and she said all their seats are First Class. Then we noticed she seated us in the first row, so clearly she was teasing us. I was envisioning smoked salmon and champagne once we got on the plane.

We then walked straight up to the security checkpoint, which didn’t leave us any time to read the fifty two rules, so of course we’re up there hurrying to take off our shoes, remove laptop, and hunt down any metal we have on us. Joey also had to undo his two foot high combat boots. We made it through without having to have a body cavity search and then our Gate was the very first one after the checkpoint. Now we allowed plenty of time in case of lines, traffic, and far away gates, but everything was falling in line perfectly to give us a two hour wait to board.

They called for families with children and disabilities, and rows one and two, to board first. We decided against boarding first so we didn’t have to sit there and watch the entire plane load while trying to squeeze together to stay out of everyone’s way. When we finally get on the AirBus we learned the ticket agent wasn’t joking, there was no First Class, just First Row, and every seat had their own TV screens which you could pay $6 to use. We didn’t. What this flight did have was an all male flight crew, that flirted with my husband the whole way! The bald one asked Joey if I was his wife, and congratulated him on a job well done and then asked if I had a sister.( We almost told him I had a brother. :0 ) They were fun, and really made the flight enjoyable.

We had what I thought was a long layover in Denver but it ended up barely being enough time to get to the clear opposite end of the terminal to catch our little puddle jumper to take us over the Rockies to Grand Junction.

This flight was only about forty five minutes and it seems we were practically hugging the mountains. It was pretty cool. We were trying to make out all the ski resorts and mountains, and I was holding on to the barf bag.

Joey’s welder buddy that was supposed to pick us up was in a four wheeler accident earlier in the day and broke his arm so we had to get a shuttle to take us the forty five miles to our campground. Then we were HOME!

Words cannot describe how good it felt to be home, and then sleeping in our own bed. I slept so good I was up at SEVEN in the morning. Last night I prepped the inside for travel so I could have today to visit with my friend Lisa, while Joey takes care of all the outside stuff, including un-attaching our broken awning, loading BBQ grills, toy box & shoe box, checking oils and fluids on the bus and truck, and now it seems, charging up the batteries.

If all goes well we’ll be leaving today, taking the southern route through Moab, UT. It adds a couple hundred miles but it’s less stressful than the Rockies in a thirty four year old bus. Can’t wait to get back on the road again. (Yes, I will be singing it).