Wait, you're selling your motorhome? Well, we did put it up for sale because we were thinking that we bit off more than we could chew with the leaky roof and some other repairs that needed to be done. I also wonder about having such a big rig, especially when we start to travel. But now we're wondering if we should just fix it up anyway at this point. At any rate, we still own it.
Is Michael still doing solar? Yes. We're going to give it another go. We have struggled with sales, but there are some great potential deals in the pipeline. But we are also moving forward with other business pursuits to keep our family afloat, namely my music website, www.teaching-children-music.com. I've been working hard behind the scenes to make some new materials, and I'm actually very excited about them. Internet marketing has been a dream of Michael's, and making music materials has been a long-time dream of mine, so I am hopeful that we can make it work together.
Where are you now? We are visiting Utah. When we thought we had sold the motorhome, we made plans to visit family until we could purchase a new rig and get our feet under us again. We feel like we needed to visit our elderly grandfathers, and it's always nice to see our siblings and parents. We went to Cache valley for a few days and we are now in Vernal. But we plan on going back to California early next week. Our landlady would probably appreciate it if we didn't keep the motorhome in her driveway indefinitely. She's been an angel to work with. My Dad was able to give Michael some great pointers on RV repair, as well as some aluminum he's had in storage for some time that will aid in a do-it-yourself roof repair that feels more doable now. We're not homeless, we've got an RV.
Money has been very tight, but we purchased a Legoland
pass last January, and we had a wonderful opportunity to go
Brick-or-Treating before we moved. It feels a little surreal to be
pinching pennies like we have, and to sandwich a theme park visit in the
middle. It was so enchanting. While most of the things they passed out along the Brick-or-Treat
trail was small treats, there was actually a $10 Lego set at one stall-
how neat! At the end of the day, we happened to
be on the boat ride when they paused the ride so we could enjoy the
fireworks. There wasn't a better place to watch them in the whole
park. There were people on stilts, jugglers, and loads of extra little
attractions, such as an futuristic girl with a theremin-type contraption
to communicate with aliens, and a man in a fortune-telling booth that
scared the kids because they didn't expect to see a real man in an
arcade-like box. We went swimming in the Lego Chima wave pool too.
Imagine that in October! Anyway, we have really enjoyed our Legoland passes and have made some great memories there.
How are the kids? They've been real troopers. I'm impressed with how they have taken everything in stride. With the crazy move, I let them have a lot of screen time and we have developed some bad habits. School hasn't been a priority this last month; I've been resting on my laurels in a way I know I wouldn't have if they were "behind". But I did bring supplies with us, and we started up again here in Vernal. I love doing school with them, and it's been nice for Grandma and Grandpa Spackman to see what we do. Piano has been a great exception to our slacking nature during the chaos. Something has clicked for Peter and Helen and they now rather enjoy piano and they need little prompting to practice, especially Helen. Yay! They are also starting Saxon 5/4, which is a big milestone for us. Having the two big kids doing mostly the same work has been very nice for me. Peter is more advanced by his own right, but it shows more in his reading material than anything else. Peter doesn't like writing and Helen loves it, so there you have it. We struggle with writing and spelling, but we are working on it. Patrick is playing Big Brainz by himself, and is working through the John Thompson primer. Ruth is mostly just playing starfall lately, just because she can do it on her own. I do the BrillKids programs with her, including a few books I brought with us, but that's about it. I also brought our educational DVDs which we use sporadically. She is beginning to sing more, and overall is becoming more verbal. Philip is beginning to crawl and sit up on his own. He is friendly and lets most people hold him. He gets a lot of compliments both on what a big baby he is, and especially what a happy baby he is. It's true, he really is a little sunshine in our life. Assuming he gets to be a part of the action, that is. Like most babies, he prefers to be held most of the time. It's been so nice to visit family.
A new chapter of our life is starting soon!