A Little of This…A Little of That. I’m Back.

Hi, everyone. What a summer. It flew by. I am in disbelief that we are less than a week away from Thanksgiving and almost at the end of the year! I’m not ready, but I think it’s time I get back to blogging.

Where do I start?

Summer

Happy Anniversary to us

4 years. We’re still so adorbs 😉 . Hubs eyes were a little closed, oopsie.

Colorado

We went to Colorado Springs and stayed on the Air Force Academy base for the hubs’ birthday in July. It was beautiful. I spent some of the time in the RV working, but there were definite fun times spent exploring (and eating lol). K and hubs snuck out a bit so they could explore, too.

Hubs and Bella at the top of Pikes Peak:

All of us up there. Doc was safe and sound in his terrarium back at the RV-too cold up there for him:

Hubs doing what he loves:

Our RV spot at the Air Force Academy:

Cadet Chapel at the Air Force Academy:

Bella in Denver:

Florida

After we got back from Colorado, K went to her mom’s and hubs, Bella, Doc and I went home to Florida to see the family for about ten days or so. It was great. One night, Bella decided she wanted to run through the Everglades and give me a heart attack. She came back completely wet (ummm alligators!) after a 10pm dip and looked at Earl and me like, “Where were you two? You missed all the fun!”

Got to get down to the Keys and my heart was so full of joy it could have burst. It was very hard to leave. I was devastated when the hurricane affected it so badly down there. On the way back up to Miami, I left my phone on a table at a Dairy Queen. Fun times…

Ahhh a REAL mojito at the Tiki Bar. The mahi sandwich (not pictured) was soooo good, too:

The biggest changes…

We stayed in the RV until late October. Best laid plans. Had it just been the two of us, it would have been fine. But with a tween, a Great Pyrenees and a terrarium for Doc, it got tight. After six months it was with a heavy heart I looked at hubs and told him something had to change. I had to admit that theory as far as K loving it didn’t match up to reality. Full-time RV life had to be put on hold. We still have the RV, of course. My brother is staying in it for now (story for another time). We rented a “luxury” apartment (remember Arkansas is cheap) for a year and put house plans on hold.

Why?

We don’t want to stay in Arkansas. Yes, we like it here, but it’s not our “forever.” I feel like the most indecisive person on the planet, but it is a constant struggle for me to commit to being in one place. However, the one place to which we commit – it won’t be Arkansas. So we seriously asked ourselves if it was the right thing to put our hearts (and money) into building something we’ll stay in five years then leave. We’re sitting on it. We have the house plans, the builder and our land. And it’ll stay ours, but we know we want to end up in Colorado and Florida – and back in a higher end RV. So there you go. It makes more sense to build in Colorado, so we’ve been looking for land there, too. We’ll still buy in Arkansas, we just don’t know what and where.

The apartment we’re in is really nice. I love it and we’re happy here. K has her own bathroom and she loves that, too. I’d stay and be just fine, but of course, we’re spending rent instead of investing. And Bella needs more room to roam. Our problem is we have too many options. What a problem to have, huh? So part of this year, we’ll be figuring that out.

I’d love to restore an historic home, but again, that affects K. She’s almost 12. She needs her space and some sort of semblance of “normalcy”. I don’t do normalcy so well, so I am learning. It’s extremely hard for me, still, not to be able to pick up and go. I know it’ll come in time and I need to stop pressuring myself to have it all figured out. We have a roof over our heads and we’re happy. It’s a good life. Stay tuned on the house front. As for the land, we do have plans for it, too. 😉

Work

I can’t remember if I told everyone how absolutely miserable I was at the hospital. Well, I was. It lasted a month and a day. I started 22 May and I think my last day was 23 June. My boss quit the day after I did. It just wasn’t for me and believe me, the strong woman she is, it wasn’t for her either. I’ll leave it at that, but they were not what they said they were and it was not going to work. Glad I found out sooner than later.

I went back to one of my loves and took an Event Director position with a DC-based company and I’ve been there since June. LOVE working from anywhere I want…

and I do travel a bit, too. The team is cool and it just fits with our lifestyle so perfectly. In December I head up to DC for a week to be with the team then I’ll fly home a few days then up to Maine – one of four states I have left to visit! I always imagined I’d be going in August or something, but hey… December in Maine. I can take it, right? 😉

I was in DC in August for my first event with the company, then home a week, then back to Florida for another event. It’s not as much travel as I used to do – even if it seems that way. I’ve been home since then and it’s been wonderful.

I did get to meet Rick Steves (I am a total fan girl) in DC at one of my events (his company was a sponsor), Richard Cicero and his K9 in Florida-it was a large military event, and of course there was actual work to be done, too:

Setup time – just one of the plenary sessions. There were two of those and up to TWELVE breakouts happening at once.

What else…

Baby L turned one in July – can you believe that? And she smashed the heck out of that smash cake ha!

I caught my first largemouth bass:

Bella is up about 29-30 pounds since we got her. She’s past 600 followers on Instagram ha! She was 71 pounds when we rescued her and she was 96 pounds when we were last at the vet for her checkup. By now she is up to 100! She is a part of the family and goes just about everywhere with us. When she can’t come, she loves doggy daycare the few times a month we do take her. And she LOVES chasing after other dogs at the dog park. This was in Jasper when my mom came to visit earlier this month. Look at our girl! Isn’t she a beauty?

K is playing drums like her daddy. M is about to go to college next year – ACK! And L has been living in Houston, thankfully not affected by Harvey.

So what’s next?

I have NO idea hahaha. In all seriousness, we feel like we’re still catching our breaths and getting ready for the holidays. I am hoping to get away with hubs ALONE for a few days after Christmas. I am sure I’ve missed a few things, but I’ll sign off here.

Happy Fall, everyone! Let me know what you’ve been up to!