*Your fiery energy is pushing you to explore the world-- or at least your little corner of it. There's always more to discover, so get out there and find something that feels right to you.*
This is just about right since we are starting our 31 day adventure next Saturday! About damn time.
PEACE
Here is what my horoscope said today....couldn't be any closer to the truth!
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Well, it's getting to the end of November, you could imagine how much has changed...A LOT! Let's see, man it's hard to go back. I can tell you that in the beginning of October I went on a week long RV trip with Dad & Syd. It was fun and a learning experience in a bunch of different ways. We started here and went through Tennessee, stopping in Chattanooga & Nashville.
Went through St. Louis and saw the Arch in all of its glory and then headed to Denver where I got to scare the living shit out of my brother for his birthday (that was super fun & weird being back in Denver, especially without J').
I also got to see my best Russian bestie and found out she was 7 months pregnant! That was exciting. Let's see, what else...we took Rascall (the tabby cat) from the main house so we would have a mouse catcher. We were having terrible problems with rodents...not anymore! He does a great job. He's also getting fed regularly and getting some attention and love, so it works out for all of us.
Silly Kitty[/caption]We are definitely moving over to the other side of the mountain. We were already 100% on it, then some crappy things happened over here and it just made us feel that much better about our decision. Oh, my mom came for a visit. It was a great visit and we are so glad she was able to come out when she did and see the things & meet the people she did.
Savannah is definitely in her terrible two's....what a brat! Oh yes, we found out that B', got a humungoid tattoo on her rib-cage that is not impressive at all. We asked her to please go fix it with a certain artist...we'll see if she does, if not...not our problem I guess!!
We are coming up on Thanksgiving, which should be nice. B' is coming up and we will spend it on the other side of the mountain since everybody over here is in Florida on vacation for the next 5 months. We are also planning on getting out of here in January in the van. J' is really working hard on Joon Van.
He is doing an awesome job with everything, it's going to be cool to see it all pieced together. We will probably leave January 1st and be back by Feb. 1st. Our plan is moving around Florida, beach to beach! That's where we belong baby!!! Then hopefully, when we get back we will be close to, if not ready to, move in over there. Even though some (more) crappy events have come up in the past couple of months, we have our heads high and keep our love & laughter strong and are staying positive. No matter what, we have each other and that's all that matters.
Kissing in a tree...house[/caption]PEACE
So today I sat for a good straight hour and a half and just did chord after chord, exercise after exercise. At first when I sat down today I had very little organization going on, so I had to get a notebook and write down some things to get it straight in my mind. I found a couple of really good Youtube videos that I can easily understand and they are helping me get the right sound and the right finger placement. One of the guys channels; JustinGuitar, makes it easy to really hear what you're doing right and wrong. The other guy Kairosity, gives you good drills and teaches you the parts of the guitar as well. I think they are really helping me. My fingers are getting calluses on them for sure to where most of the time they just feel numb.
It's cool. I think if I keep doing this daily or at least several times a week, I'll be getting better in no time Wee-hoo
PEACE
Yesterday, I came to a decision that I was going to learn how to play the guitar. I have been wanting and wanting for years to learn how to play some kind of musical instrument, especially the drums but always the guitar. I've always been the girl that hung out with a lot of musicians and worked at some music venues in Denver but never the girl that was the musician. I remember going out to the Boulder mountains on Full Moon Midnight Hike Night, (that's what we called it, when everybody would meet at the base of the mountain about 10:30 p.m. or so with their instruments and we'd hike up the mountain during the full moon and then sit and play for hours). Anyway, I remember going with them all the time and always wanting to be able to be more than just a voice. Well, yesterday was my day of decision. What better time than now when I don't really have that much going on. J' works during the day so it would be a perfect time to learn with no distractions to me (or him). And my dad who has played the guitar since his teenage years lives right here and would love to teach me some things. So, at that moment I called my dad and asked him if I could borrow a guitar, he said yes and that he would teach me some basics. I went over to his house today around 2 o'clock or so and sat with him for a good hour and learned the chords of D, E, A and E minor.
I then came home and practiced. My fingers hurt pretty bad and I guess they will for a while. I'm getting the chords but I get them confused and can't move to another chord quickly....I know I haven't even had it a full day and I want to be Numero Uno! It's just how I roll. Needless to say, I'm super duper excited wee-hoo and can't wait to actually learn it to where I don't have to think about it. I know it's going to take weeks and months...haha...and I'm so not the patient type! I guess I gotta learn somehow huh! Oh and my dad said that if I learn how to play, then the guitar, Esteban, will become mine! So there's a goal for me. Well, I'm off for the night, we are hitting up Lake Burton tomorrow on a pontoon with a sea-doo....it's gonna be awesome!
PEACE
Another day working on the van, well J' is working on the van. I go up to the plateau with him to be of assistance when needed. Yesterday, both calipers were replaced on each side and the tires were rotated.
Daddy's lazy helpers[/caption]The van is still pulling to the left when you brake (even after the repairs), so we went and got brake hoses to fix that problem. A little bit into that repair J' had to go back to town, 3 stores later he ended up ordering a part that we'll get tomorrow. We had to re-order the hitch from U-haul because they didn't have the right one - so that should be here in a few days. While we were testing the brakes yesterday we accidentally ran over a base block (before even leaving the plateau) and it ended up breaking off the ground effects on the driver side - haha, so instead of taking those off later, they got taken off today!
Ooops[/caption]The middle seats are out, the seat belts in back are coming out right now. Savannah is definitely enjoying the van, she's been in it every single second we've been out here at it. She's tried out every single square inch of the carpet and every seat and her hair proves it.
The bed tester[/caption]As for me, I did some maintenance on my tootsies. They needed some TLC. I painted them and put some cute polka dots on them, then a little bit later I laid down with Nanna in the van and totally messed them up so I had to start all over - so I got my nails done today!
Sydney and Dad popped over last night, it was a nice surprise visit. Syd brought me some sprouts - so I'm excited about that, I guess they only take three days and I'll have full-on alfalfa sprouts. My garden is doing pretty amazing. I learned today: I must water every day and not be lazy because my plants are water whores!! One day without water and they start sulking (wilting). So, WATER, WATER, WATER!!! Something else I've learned: Don't bring full packets of seeds outside unless you plan on planting them THAT DAY! Oh, and don't forget to bring the packs of seeds back inside... you never know when rain will bless you with its presence!!! Needless, to say, I brought about 10 packets (all the seeds we had) of different seeds outside, I was going to plant a couple of them. I had a longer day in the garden then planned and got lazy and didn't bring my garden bucket inside. The bucket got rained on and all of the seeds came out of the bottom of the packets & were all over the bottom of the bucket so I dumped it out in the woods. Thirty dollars of seeds - gone! I threw a couple of pumpkin and watermelon seeds in some holes we have and today I saw actual plants coming from them. It's just funny. Hopefully, I'll get a lil' bit of something for my big mistake. Buck gave me some zucchini- they are doing good. My maters are coming along nicely, actually everything is coming along so great!
I'm surprised at myself that I've done this good of a job, it's really hard-long work...so I'm proud of me!
My Garden[/caption]So for today, it's been another productive day. It's time to feed the pups and go rinse the sprouts.
PEACE
After three years of talking about being able to live a traveling lifestyle, step one has been accomplished! We bought an Astrovan. We had a 1995 Yukon for the past 8 years (6 years for me). For years we looked at what we were going to pull behind the Yukon; R-pod, 5th wheel, etc. Were we going to get a class C instead, did we want a bigger RV, do we want something completely different than all of that???? The questions were endless and the options are endless....if you have the financing. J' has been working on the Internet trying to get us on point with our "dream", but it's been a little harder to make the desired amount than we planned. Recently we decided that we would start small...small means not a lot of money! haha After looking and looking and talking and talking we decided on a Chevy Astrovan. We wanted one that was All Wheel Drive or 4 WD, had good mileage, and wasn't a piece of shit ~ pretty much a good trade for the Yukon; something that would suffice for getting rid of the truck. About a month ago, J' came across a van on Craigslist. It was a 1995 champagne color AWD Chevy Astrovan. It had 58,000 miles on it. We called the lady (Linda) and we were going to go see it...but didn't know it was a 3 hour drive, so we had to nix the trip. J' put the Yukon up for sale on Ebay about the same time he saw the CL ad...he put it up for sale 3 different times. We had to keep lowering the price and changing the ad, it seemed like some people were selling the same truck just way shittier and older for more, so we finally got it down to $3000 (I think)... I actually think the winning bid would have been like $2,801 but this guy jumped in at the very last second and won the bid with $3,003.33. So on June 1, 2011 we sold the Yukon to a guy named Mike, for his son and he just loved it, they drove 4 hours one way to come pick it up!!
Good-bye Yukon[/caption]The same day, we turned right around and drove ourselves 3 hours and 10 minutes to Greenville, SC on the motorcycle (and we hadn't even seen it yet)! We took it for a test drive and decided that there were things to work on and fix but it would be a fair trade to the Yukon so we bought it!!! YES, WE BOUGHT IT!! I had to drive it home because I don't drive motorcycles... yet. The drive home was an adventure all by itself, let me tell ya! Since it hadn't been driven in years and when it was driven, it was driven by a teenager, this thing was all over the road. I had both hands clutching the steering wheel going down I-85 literally thinking I was going to die. It pulls to the left when you brake, and not just a little...it pulls. It started hiccuping, we stopped at a rest area and then it wouldn't stay on when you would start it back up. Once I got it to go, it would start to go, then would pull back, it was jerking me back and forth so much I didn't know how I was going to even get on the Interstate. A lot of that went on the entire ride home, but yes, I did get it home. We spent the last two (full) days cleaning it inside and out, since they were nice enough to save the last 16 years of cleaning to us. Yuck!! It is quite immaculate now though and we are ready to start this entirely new book of our lives with this new vehicle. Everything is changing around us for the better so this is OUR new start. We are so excited and I think The Van is pretty excited too!!
The Van[/caption]
Our celebration dinner at Hardees![/caption]
