April

Thora finished a level of ABC Mouse, so she got to pick a parent date! Mimi's Cafe is always a favorite of hers, and she chose to have me take her there for breakfast. She loved talking to the two ladies in the background, neighbors on a breakfast away from their kids. She and I had some interesting and fun conversations...I don't remember anything but, "Mom, let's not be rich." "Did you just say, 'Let's not be rich?'" "Yeah, because then we would be mad at people."

Okay, girl. Let's not be rich.

And then we went to Sprouts and Lori thought the above conversation was too grown up and lamented that Thora isn't her baby girl anymore. She said Thora needs to stop growing up. Thora didn't appreciate that.

We got hit with another snow storm and then driving to swim lessons, Katie and I both saw this view and were shocked because we've never seen this mountain range so covered! This is one of my favorite views in the city!

I love how his face looks when he's freshly awake and wants to cuddle his momma!

I equally love how peacefully he falls asleep in the van after whatever awesome activity it was that expended his energy.

Oh, goodness. It feels weird to blog about the bus stuff here, but it is part of our timeline and story. So this is when we successfully found a place to park our bus at my friend Amy's house. And then when we actually brought our bus over, the driveway was too steep and we couldn't get the bus up. So, fail.

Floor plan ideas. Sketching was fun in the evenings.

At the ERC:

Katie isn't always a builder, but when she is, she loves it!

"Vroooooooooom!"

"I can't get the lungs back in!"

This girl hiked the Incline with me and we had a blast!

At the bailout point, 2/3 up. Shortly after this, she said she wished we had gone down then. I corrected her, "No, you don't. You wanna know why? Because you can do this and then you're gonna be able to tell everyone how awesome you are for doing this hard thing." She giggled, knowing I'm right.

I stopped us about every 15 minutes so I could reapply sunscreen. Do you know how annoying and excessive that is? Oh, my chest, face, arms, and legs were fine and I didn't even bother with those. But the top of my back still burned. What the hell?! I can't win.

WOOOOOOOOT!!!

And we finished! She did great running down the trail...could have something to do with her being competitive with Tommy and wanting to do something he didn't. Hahaha!

Katie knows that the past few times I've climbed the Incline, I've ended with a crepe from Paris Crepes. So, we stopped in Manitou Springs to get her French treat. She's a big fan of snakes (owning up to her Slytherin sort) and wanted a picture with this light bulb sculpture that looks like it has a snake inside.

A seven-year-old girl who loves Fancy Nancy could not be more excited to finally get to eat at Paris Crepes!

And we found a place we can actually park our bus!

Two layers of sunburn. One from the zoo, one from the Incline. Ridiculous.

More floor plan sketches!

This lady! She and her husband David and fabulous little babe Mae moved back to Denver from their stint in Portland and she asked on Facebook if anyone would be able to help them move in on a Tuesday. Do you know how much I love being a stay-at-home homeschooling mom with complete control of her schedule and flexibility?! Enough to drive from Colorado Springs to Denver, drop my kids off at my mom's house for a Grandma day, and go help Justine get settled into her new home. We haven't seen each other since high school and it was fantastic!

And then we drove home and Thora and I raced to my bedroom to shut ourselves in from everyone else (namely Samson) and watch Ant-Man and the Wasp, her current favorite flick on Netflix. I only look slightly crazy from that run up the stairs to beat a three-year-old chasing me.

Mmmmmmm, bunny cuddles! Jumping up on the couch to cuddle me was a new thing here.

I really love my girl!

WE BOUGHT A BUS!!!!

So...in case you haven't heard, we bought a bus!! "What the heck did you do that for?" Good question, friend, good question.

I've known myself for a long time and have come to accept that I simply can't sit still. I want and need more from life. I need to be out exploring, seeing, doing new things. And so when I saw a video years ago of a family from Argentina who is driving around the world with their two and then three kids because they want their kids to have open minds and broad horizons, my heart leapt in my chest. There they are, driving this old car, no air conditioning, figured out a system for putting eggs in the engine and after a certain distance or time of driving, they know the eggs are cooked...oh, my gosh! I want that! And then reading other stories of people who live nomadic lives whether for a year or forever and it makes my heart sing. The Scandinavian Viking blood is strong with this one.

Last year, when Shad was away for boot camp, I loved the freedom of roadtripping with my kids. We had such fun trekking around the country, visiting friends and family, going to places we've dreamed of or seen on tv or read about in books or seen marked on our wall maps. I had 7 months of road trips planned out because that's how long I was expecting my husband to be gone. And then that all came to a grinding halt. That was sooooooooooo hard for me! All the stress and emotions of the military life suddenly pulled away from us, the 6 years of our future that we thought we had just planned and settled, feeling set back further than we were before, Shad feeling like a failure, and all those road trips gone. And I was stuck in one place to deal with it all. And I'm a runner. I run away from crap when it happens. "Nope. Let's NOT deal with this, let's just LEAVE."

Things settled a bit for me, but it's still been a very real struggle. And then one night in April, all the emotions just came pouring out of me. We had tried to make things work here, we had tried to make things work with China to be elsewhere, and failed and failed and failed. And yes, I know the stinking Thomas Edison quote. Don't think it doesn't just play on loop in my brain during these times. It does. But there I was on the couch, thinking about all the dreams we've had and the plans we've made and how they just keep falling through. And another quote popped into mind: "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" I just lost it. Completely lost it.

Next morning, Shad got on Craigslist and there was a bus, already in progress of the Skoolie conversion, just 20 minutes away from us. As stated in the previous post, Shad and I looked at it, thought about it and discussed it briefly, and decided to jump on it. How many times do you talk about a dream and then just have it show up in your face like that? YOU ACCEPT THE GIFT!

So it was Friday that I had my meltdown, Saturday that Shad found the bus, Sunday that we saw the bus, and Monday that we purchased it and made it ours.

My day on Monday involved telling the kids the plan and watching YouTube videos of skoolies during lunch so they'd understand. We'd pause after videos and discuss elements and designs we liked and wanted to see in our own skoolie:

Tommy: curtains on the kids' bunks for privacy and personal space

Katie: sliding chalkboard door separating the kitchen from the sleeping space

Dancy: bunk curtains and a desk in the parents' bedroom

Thora: a fan and a clock

Samson: curtains on the windows

Dancy was so excited, she wanted to take pictures.

We had swim lessons that afternoon, so Shad and I made the plan that he'd have a mobile dinner prepped for us that we could eat in the car on the way to the bus as soon as we got home to pick him up. Hooray!

This is our bus! It's also the "watch out for horse poop" picture.

The bus had already been gutted, rust purged, insulation and silver lining installed, floor boards down, roof sealed. And loads of gear collected!

Honking the horn is one of life's great pleasures!

Ahhhhh, bus!

Some supplies. Gonna sell that water heater and get one that's not gas. I'm not having propane.

RV fridge.

Escape hatch! I just decided this morning that it will have a Marauder's Map pasted over it and say, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good!" I was shrieking with delight when I thought of that and Shad came running to see what was wrong!

Queen bed platform already built. We do need to modify it, though. And a shower basin on the left.

EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

And then we met horses! Because...horses!