Friday, August 23, 2013
Illegally parked, move NOW!
OOps, we completely blocked the whole streets mailbox when we stopped to say Hello to friends. The mailman was NOT so happy...SORRY ABOUT THAT!!! It was either block the mailboxes or block several driveways... It seemed since it was already 2pm the mail should have already been delivered and it wouldn't have been an issue. Especially since it was a quick stop. Oh well...
Thursday, August 22, 2013
A friends new adventure...
In high school I had the privilege of having Mrs Michener as my Drama teacher. She was awesome. A young, funny, smart, INSPIRING- free spirit lady who was so easy to talk to. By far my favorite class to go to. She taught me far more than stage directions.
This is the same person who helped change policy in the Tacoma School district for sunscreen use. This Lady isn't just a talker, she makes changes for the better happen...and I get to know her!
I'd like to invite you to follow her latest journey...
Her families story of rescuing a 30' 1958 Airstream and the journey of restoring it. I can guarantee it will be an incredible journey. :o)
This is the same person who helped change policy in the Tacoma School district for sunscreen use. This Lady isn't just a talker, she makes changes for the better happen...and I get to know her!
I'd like to invite you to follow her latest journey...
Her families story of rescuing a 30' 1958 Airstream and the journey of restoring it. I can guarantee it will be an incredible journey. :o)
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
On the road again...
We are headed to an adventure in the Jemez Mountains. I am excited to again enjoy its beauty. There were some terrible wild fires earlier this summer so it will also be sad to see all the damage the fire did.
We have lots of hiking, fishing and other fun things planned. Can't wait!!! Pictures to be posted next week from our adventure!
We have lots of hiking, fishing and other fun things planned. Can't wait!!! Pictures to be posted next week from our adventure!
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Great Storage tips I've found online and from experience
First of all. Life has been crazy since moving to our new place! Good crazy and very bad crazy. I've recently lost my Grandmother who meant the world to me and its been difficult coping with her loss. I'm thankful for my supportive Papa Bear, family, and the power of prayer has carried me through.
Life keeps going though and I know there is lots of Blessing to be thankful for and new Blessing to look forward to.
Today I want to talk about Organization. It is an absolute MUST in RV living. I, myself am VERY unorganized but have learned to be better at finding everything its place in the RV. I have learned that in RV living a messy living space causes life to go from Bliss to Cranky very VERY quickly.
EVERYTHING SHOULD HAVE ITS PLACE
We do not have lots of kids. It is just the 3 of us with 2 cats and a dog. A very big dog at that but life is a little more simple for us than families doing this with more kids. I have found an excellent family through YouTube who have done an incredible job at organizing their life in a RV. Please check out the Norton Family on YouTube. I believe they now live in a house in Utah as their journey was just temporary but temporary or not they sure did it right! They have an assortment of videos from family fun to using an Ipad for homeschooling to organization. They have turned their Toyhauler RV cargo area into an excellent room for 5 of their kids. It made me realize a Toyhauler could work for us too even though we don't have any toys to haul, we could certainly use it to create an excellent space for Buddy Bear.
Some items I've found to be THE best at organizing (if you watch the Norton families videos you'll see they use them too!) are and why:
Plastic drawers- they are incredibly versatile. and create drawers in closets to organize more pants, shirts, socks and undies! I have found that I only hang items I ABSOLUTELY need to have wrinkle free. I am a stickler about my scrubs being wrinkle free. I hate to walk into work all wrinkly. I feel like it says "I'm a slob and will provide sloppy care" so I HATE wrinkles in my scrubs and they are hung up. Papa Bears uniforms are important too so we hang those to keep the wrinkles out, as the Military has zero tolerance for a wrinkly uniform. Anything else is folded and organized in a plastic storage bin.
We have 2 small wardrobes on each side of the bed and 7 sets of scrubs hang perfectly with a slender storage container in it. We use these slender storage containers to keep our socks, undies/bras and under shirts. By using the storage bins in closets and not hanging every item you will have more space and be able to keep more clothes in the RV. Not only are these great for clothes but homeschooling supplies, bathroom supplies...endless possibilities!
Plastic or Canvas over the door shoe organizer. HOLY COW.. LOVE these! We use these in the bathroom mostly since our Aspen Trail bathroom has ZERO counter space and VERY little storage. We have the small 3M Command hooks securing it to the wall above the toilet. It keeps mostly all my products like hair spray, makeup, hair pretties, brushes and combs but also Papa bears shaving items and Buddy Bears lotions and hair brush. I also keep a bathroom cleaner and sponge for cleaning in it.
You can use these in other areas of the RV too. I know one Momma that organizes her craft and homeschool supplies in these.
Plastic bins secured with Velcro. If you are traveling from place to place, this is a must to keep your hard work organizing everything intact. 3m Command makes a great cheaper version that I really recommend. I use these in our cubburds to organize food items and my spices. Also in my drawers to keep my utensils organized.
ADD a Drawer- These are great for added storage under the dinette table. We NEVER use the dinette as a bed so the adding a drawer or two under it was easy decision for us. Even if you did use the dinette as a bed area there is enough clearance for these drawers. We keep our forks, spoons, and butter knifes in these to free up one of the drawers in the kitchen area. I like to cook and have lots of gadgets and utensils so I need all the drawers I can get!
Life keeps going though and I know there is lots of Blessing to be thankful for and new Blessing to look forward to.
Today I want to talk about Organization. It is an absolute MUST in RV living. I, myself am VERY unorganized but have learned to be better at finding everything its place in the RV. I have learned that in RV living a messy living space causes life to go from Bliss to Cranky very VERY quickly.
EVERYTHING SHOULD HAVE ITS PLACE
We do not have lots of kids. It is just the 3 of us with 2 cats and a dog. A very big dog at that but life is a little more simple for us than families doing this with more kids. I have found an excellent family through YouTube who have done an incredible job at organizing their life in a RV. Please check out the Norton Family on YouTube. I believe they now live in a house in Utah as their journey was just temporary but temporary or not they sure did it right! They have an assortment of videos from family fun to using an Ipad for homeschooling to organization. They have turned their Toyhauler RV cargo area into an excellent room for 5 of their kids. It made me realize a Toyhauler could work for us too even though we don't have any toys to haul, we could certainly use it to create an excellent space for Buddy Bear.
Some items I've found to be THE best at organizing (if you watch the Norton families videos you'll see they use them too!) are and why:
Plastic drawers- they are incredibly versatile. and create drawers in closets to organize more pants, shirts, socks and undies! I have found that I only hang items I ABSOLUTELY need to have wrinkle free. I am a stickler about my scrubs being wrinkle free. I hate to walk into work all wrinkly. I feel like it says "I'm a slob and will provide sloppy care" so I HATE wrinkles in my scrubs and they are hung up. Papa Bears uniforms are important too so we hang those to keep the wrinkles out, as the Military has zero tolerance for a wrinkly uniform. Anything else is folded and organized in a plastic storage bin.
We have 2 small wardrobes on each side of the bed and 7 sets of scrubs hang perfectly with a slender storage container in it. We use these slender storage containers to keep our socks, undies/bras and under shirts. By using the storage bins in closets and not hanging every item you will have more space and be able to keep more clothes in the RV. Not only are these great for clothes but homeschooling supplies, bathroom supplies...endless possibilities!
Plastic or Canvas over the door shoe organizer. HOLY COW.. LOVE these! We use these in the bathroom mostly since our Aspen Trail bathroom has ZERO counter space and VERY little storage. We have the small 3M Command hooks securing it to the wall above the toilet. It keeps mostly all my products like hair spray, makeup, hair pretties, brushes and combs but also Papa bears shaving items and Buddy Bears lotions and hair brush. I also keep a bathroom cleaner and sponge for cleaning in it.
You can use these in other areas of the RV too. I know one Momma that organizes her craft and homeschool supplies in these.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Our Smoke detector works...
SO- We are a young family of 3 with 2 cats and 1 GIANT dog living in a 28ft travel trailer (named Aspen). We are loving life and making great memories. Although we are not constantly on the road (our jobs keep us stationary) we enjoy traveling and seeing the beautiful things around us. We are not "crazy, dreadlock wearing crunchy granola loving people" just average, normal people who don't need 2,000sq ft of house and big bedrooms to define who we are. We enjoy life much more when its simple!
We've gotten a few weird reactions from family and friends but for the most part a lot of people have said they wanted to do the same thing.
Coming into this we didn't realize the Full time RV living community included young families with kids until I reached out for support. I thought Full time RV living was only for old retired people but you'd be surprised on how many young families you'd find who live full time in their travel trailer, fifth wheel or RV. I came across one family who has 12 kids in their RV! Yikes! God Bless those parents! I have one and thats plenty! I will say, we are the ONLY young family in our campground and have so far possibly driven away 1 neighbor (they moved to the otherside of the campground, Papa Bear says its because the site is bigger and their truck and trailer fit better but I think its because they got tired of hearing Buddy's hollering and carrying on while playing outside lol!)
So today is Day 42 of Full time Camper Living and this whole time we thought our Smoke detectors were working. Thank goodness we did not learn this lesson the hard way! Papa Bear assumed that the dealer activated the Smoke detectors when they handed it over to us but his assumption was brutally inaccurate. On day 39 he went to check the battery and realized this whole time the little plastic tag blocking the battery was still in place!!! Thank Goodness we didn't have any fires!
This morning, just like every morning I made Buddy bear his waffles.Except today I did it the lazy way and threw in some Eggo waffles into the toaster not realizing a little hand had turned the "browning dial" to 7. I sat half asleep on the toilet to go potty to take care of morning ritual #1 while ritual #2 was
Now that I am calm and can laugh hysterically at the situation, I am thankful my Buddy has payed attention in school and knows what to do if a Fire Alarm goes off and that he was thoughtful enough to grab his Mama out of the bathroom.
There is never a dull moment and I am glad our smoke detector works.
-- Mama Bear
Oh, we are full timers...this is our home...
Hi There, Ho There...how do you do? Welcome to My Life as his Camping Wife. We are a full time RV living family. We are just beginning this awesome journey but so far have no regrets and have no desire to go back!
Today marks Day39 40 41 of this crazy, awesome, new adventure. (it took me a few days to write this!)
This blog has been created to share our experience. Our crazy times, our pull- our- hair- out- in- frustration times and our stomach-hurts-from-laughing-so-hard-times. Maybe even share how we run things along the way.
I will be sharing everything....EXCEPT our names and faces.
Throughout our stories you will know us as Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Buddy Bear.
Living Full time in a Travel Trailer is something we have talked about for years and have spent the better part of the last 4years researching travel trailers. Going back and forth over whether or not we should take the plunge. Papa Bear and I both knew we could make it work and the idea of how much $$$ we would save was very appealing!
In November 2012 we decided we would at least get one for when we travel and see the neighboring states, when we go to Disney for Thanksgiving and go camping. We drove up to Sonny's Camp and Travel and met with Stephen. Papa Bear had been emailing with him for a few days about a few different models. We got a late start that day and it is a 3hr drive to Duncan, SC so we really should have left before 11am but we didn't.....instead we left at 1pm and got in a little after 4pm. They close at 5pm during off season. oops! Once we got there we were immediately met by Stephen and he showed us all the models we had emailed him about. and of course we turned into the annoying people that could not decide on the same camper. I liked one and Papa Bear liked another. We kept saying 'Can we look at the other one again?' and Stephen- being such a patient and nice guy would say "sure, no problem, take your time..." By the end of it all we decided on one and of course by that time everyone but Stephen had gone home for the day. HAHAHA! What makes it worse is that when we got home we started looking at the 2 campers we couldn't decide on online and then saw another and decided it was the PERFECT compromise between the 2 campers Papa Bear and I liked!! Only bad thing was it was not at the Duncan, SC location but in the Concord, NC location...so Papa Bear sends Stephen another email and Stephen has the camper brought down from their NC location. A week later we drove up to Duncan to pick up Aspen!! Buddy Bear was just thrilled to go to Duncan to see campers! He had not been to look at Campers since he was 8 months old and of course did not remember it. I remember we went to an RV show at the Tacoma Dome and Papa Bear carried him the whole time in a Baby Bjorn baby carrier. We had given Buddy a piece of pretzel to chew on and he just held it the whole time and even fell asleep holding it. By the time we got it from him, the pretzel had his finger indentations. We must have looked at a hundred campers that day. and thousands since that day!
We drove Aspen home from Duncan and parked it along the side of the road. The neighborhood we lived in did not allow parking of recreational vehicle for more than 3 days. We were leaving for DisneyWorld in 4 days. We asked for permission to park it there till we left for Disney and HOA was nice enough to say it was ok. We 'played' in the camper every night and even cooked dinner in it a few nights. We felt like the biggest dorks 'playing' in the camper in our driveway but we didn't care. We were having fun. My Buddy Bear loved being in the camper. The best part-- we were making memories.
For me, it was the night we made a big spaghetti dinner and played Candy Land at the dinette that I knew I wanted to Camper live full time. I'm not sure when it clicked for Papa Bear but by the time we got back from Disney we had made the decision to give notice of moving out of our house the first of the year. We ended up moving into the Camper mid-December to help give Buddy Bear a better Christmas and to secure a really great spot at the campground.
I think our original plan was to only Full time Camp till we moved to New Mexico but we quickly started to feel like we never wanted to go back to a real house.
This is our story, we hope to meet other Full time families and share our great experiences with them. WE also hope to show that Full live RV living isn't just for the old folks. ;o)
Till next time--
Mama Bear
Today marks Day
This blog has been created to share our experience. Our crazy times, our pull- our- hair- out- in- frustration times and our stomach-hurts-from-laughing-so-hard-times. Maybe even share how we run things along the way.
I will be sharing everything....EXCEPT our names and faces.
Throughout our stories you will know us as Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Buddy Bear.
Living Full time in a Travel Trailer is something we have talked about for years and have spent the better part of the last 4years researching travel trailers. Going back and forth over whether or not we should take the plunge. Papa Bear and I both knew we could make it work and the idea of how much $$$ we would save was very appealing!
In November 2012 we decided we would at least get one for when we travel and see the neighboring states, when we go to Disney for Thanksgiving and go camping. We drove up to Sonny's Camp and Travel and met with Stephen. Papa Bear had been emailing with him for a few days about a few different models. We got a late start that day and it is a 3hr drive to Duncan, SC so we really should have left before 11am but we didn't.....instead we left at 1pm and got in a little after 4pm. They close at 5pm during off season. oops! Once we got there we were immediately met by Stephen and he showed us all the models we had emailed him about. and of course we turned into the annoying people that could not decide on the same camper. I liked one and Papa Bear liked another. We kept saying 'Can we look at the other one again?' and Stephen- being such a patient and nice guy would say "sure, no problem, take your time..." By the end of it all we decided on one and of course by that time everyone but Stephen had gone home for the day. HAHAHA! What makes it worse is that when we got home we started looking at the 2 campers we couldn't decide on online and then saw another and decided it was the PERFECT compromise between the 2 campers Papa Bear and I liked!! Only bad thing was it was not at the Duncan, SC location but in the Concord, NC location...so Papa Bear sends Stephen another email and Stephen has the camper brought down from their NC location. A week later we drove up to Duncan to pick up Aspen!! Buddy Bear was just thrilled to go to Duncan to see campers! He had not been to look at Campers since he was 8 months old and of course did not remember it. I remember we went to an RV show at the Tacoma Dome and Papa Bear carried him the whole time in a Baby Bjorn baby carrier. We had given Buddy a piece of pretzel to chew on and he just held it the whole time and even fell asleep holding it. By the time we got it from him, the pretzel had his finger indentations. We must have looked at a hundred campers that day. and thousands since that day!
We drove Aspen home from Duncan and parked it along the side of the road. The neighborhood we lived in did not allow parking of recreational vehicle for more than 3 days. We were leaving for DisneyWorld in 4 days. We asked for permission to park it there till we left for Disney and HOA was nice enough to say it was ok. We 'played' in the camper every night and even cooked dinner in it a few nights. We felt like the biggest dorks 'playing' in the camper in our driveway but we didn't care. We were having fun. My Buddy Bear loved being in the camper. The best part-- we were making memories.
For me, it was the night we made a big spaghetti dinner and played Candy Land at the dinette that I knew I wanted to Camper live full time. I'm not sure when it clicked for Papa Bear but by the time we got back from Disney we had made the decision to give notice of moving out of our house the first of the year. We ended up moving into the Camper mid-December to help give Buddy Bear a better Christmas and to secure a really great spot at the campground.
I think our original plan was to only Full time Camp till we moved to New Mexico but we quickly started to feel like we never wanted to go back to a real house.
This is our story, we hope to meet other Full time families and share our great experiences with them. WE also hope to show that Full live RV living isn't just for the old folks. ;o)
Till next time--
Mama Bear
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