16 - Despite how it may appear, the word obsession is all about me

I go through phases. Anyone who knows me can tell you that. Some of them stick, some don't. My fascination with becoming self-reliant hasn't faded... it's been put on hold a couple of times, but even if I'm not actively pursuing it, I still read blogs or search the web for whatever piques my interest. Given our near term living situation, my interests have been somewhat modified from gardening and canning to what I can accomplish inside a 39-ft fifth wheel.

In short, I feel like we as a society have lost valuable skills in this age of computers and instant gratification. Not that instant gratification isn't nice, but there is a price to pay when you become reliant on anything other than yourself and I feel like I have become a very impatient person... I'm ready to slow down. My grandparents knew how to do things that my parents stopped doing, and as a result, I never learned how to do them (they say you always blame your mother - I also blame my dad, hahaha). It's part curiosity, part contingency plan, but I am determined to resurrect some of that knowledge, and I am finding that others have already done the work for me, I just have to collate the material and do the homework.

In that vein I am always looking for articles on how to do things, how to make things - in short, new skills. I am lucky in that Mike is also interested in the same thing, just on a different level. Where I'm all about the food (how to grow it, how to preserve it, how to turn it into something tasty and good for you) and comforts (salt scrubs, essential oils to make natural insect repellents or bath salts or use medicinally), he is more interested in how to create power from wind, water or sun, and more technical things in that vein.

All that is a long segue into how I'm going to start using this knowledge while we're on the road. In a word: fermentation.

Fermentation fascinates me. I am giddy over it. The things I have been reading about its health benefits, how easy it is to do... it blows my mind. I am determined that Mike and I are going to be healthier when I have more time on my hands to actually plan for it and make it happen. I have gone a little crazy with it to be honest. But I think it's a good kind of crazy.

So far this week I have purchased:

Water kefir grains - Water kefir grains are little colonies of beneficial bacteria. There are also milk kefir grains... simple enough distinction - instead of water, you use them with milk... if you want to know more you can look here. When placed in sugar water, much like yeast, water kefir devour the sugar and turn it into something else. In this case, the resulting liquid, or "kefir water," is a probiotic drink. You strain the grains out, add flavorings if you wish, it can even become carbonated and is supposedly still sweet even though the sugar is basically gone. This is something I hope to drink instead of soda. I also hope to make my own (healthier) syrups to create "sodas" using carbonated water I make with my Soda Stream. I'm a realist... I love soda and I can't quit cold turkey (*cough* don't want to), but if I can find a satisfactory replacement, I will gladly switch over.

I love this site, and this lady explains it so much better than I can

Yogurt Culture - There are several different varieties of yogurt cultures available and I chose one that has a milder flavor and cheese-like taste - but more importantly - it cultures at room temperature - no oven required. It's called filmjolk. You take milk, mix it with the starter culture, sit it on the counter for however long the directions recommend (and a little common sense)... voila - you have yogurt. Take a few teaspoons of the yogurt to set aside as culture for your next batch, and as long as you have culture and milk, you have perpetual yogurt that you make yourself so you control what goes into it. And you can use milk from the grocery store, just not the ultra-pasteurized kind.

Cheese - I finally bit the bullet and bought a cheesemaking kit. This particular kit purports to make about 10-30 lobs of 8 different kinds of cheese. I know you can also make soft cheeses with milk and lemon juice as well, but I prefer hard cheeses and like to have options. I have been fascinated and intimidated by cheesemaking for a while now. It probably won't happen much in the 5th wheel, but I can envision making cheese and leaving it to ripen in a climate-controlled bug/rodent-proof section of our building. Soft cheeses could probably be made in the 5th wheel, but with humidity being something of an issue I don't see myself doing a lot of boiling. Which brings me to...

Pickling / Brining. I have been interested in canning too, but with all the steps and the rules and the botulism warnings I haven't dipped my toe into the pond. Did you know that you can make fermented pickles, pickled green beans, pickled okra, sauerkraut and kimchi without vinegar, and without having to can it? All you need is salt, spices, water and time, and magic happens. No boiling required = no humidity issues. I am really eager to get started on that. We love pickles, but in reading about what we are and aren't supposed to eat according to the Blood Type Diet, we aren't supposed to have pickled anything if it's pickled using vinegar. And that made us very sad. This possibility makes us very happy.

I read this and it made a lot of sense to me:

"The synchronicity of traditional cultures pairing fermented foods with heavy protein and fatty dishes is remarkable and speaks to the genius of humans who pay attention. The bacteria and increased enzymatic action of naturally fermented foods helps the human body to digest and assimilate these proteins and fats. In Eastern Europe you find sauerkraut with sausages, in India lamb dishes are often served with yogurt. Chinese pickled cabbage is often found with animal proteins, while in Korea kimchee, a spicy type of sauerkraut, is served with barbeque meats and fried dishes. Japanese fish and meat dishes are usually served with pickled ginger or diakon radish, all of which help the body digest easier."

Also intriguing is kombucha. It's another drink. When I read that it was tea-based I wrote it off. I hate tea. It makes me want to gag. I loathe it. (except for cold chai tea lattes) But then I read another article about the possibility of kombucha tasting like hard cider... and my interest was piqued. I do like hard cider. Kombucha is another one of those fizzy drinks that could potentially replace my soda addiction.

Speaking of hard cider... also printed off a recipe for that. :)

Jerky is another thing I am determined to make this year. I don't like store bought because it's usually got a lot of pepper and I'm not a huge fan of peppercorns, but there's also something off about it... it's rare that anything store bought tastes as good as something homemade, and I also figure it's high in sodium and full of chemicals. Also not sure what kind of meat it is... if it is meat. So I want to try out some recipes and see what works for Mike and I. He's going to be climbing towers, so he needs easy to carry food that doesn't require refrigeration and is nutrient dense. Jerky fits that bill, and despite our blood type... we are carnivores, so we aren't giving that up, maybe we'll just cut back.

I think it's neat that some of these things can be done perpetually (sour cream and buttermilk can be too). If I have milk, I have yogurt, cheese, sour cream and buttermilk. If have kefir grains and kombucha scobies, water/tea and sugar, I have healthy drinks. If I have salt, water and vegetables, I have pickled anything. I can even make fermented salsa. And I don't need electricity to make any of it. Hell, even if the power goes out and I need to refrigerate something to stop the fermentation process, I can make one of these (as long as it isn't humid out...), and I'm set. Also, fermented veggies can be lacto-fermented using whey that I strain off of my cheese... I don't need to buy another starter if I want to do that instead of using salt.

As another self-sufficient move - at some point in the near future we are going to go live with our new enterprise: Volunteer Tactical. Tennessee is "the volunteer state" if you didn't know, thus the name. We're going to have some really neat stuff, so if you're interested in firearms and other tactical goodies, keep checking back.

15 - Still going

The truck issue has finally been resolved. Sure we're still out about $2k, but all in all, getting back (most of) what we actually paid for the truck was a victory. The more we learned about the owners of the dealership, the more dicey things seemed, and I think if I were prone to ulcers I would have definitely been in trouble. It seems that the closer a deadline looms, the more stressful things become for me.

My top teeth are (supposedly) straight now, but my bottom teeth have three more trays to go after this one. Then I get to wear a retainer to bed for... god knows how long. The retainer is slightly more comfortable, but not by much. It sucks to have to keep wearing trays and brushing not only my teeth, but each tray as well. Having the engagers removed was no fun either, it involved the drimmel... my orthodontist sanded them off, and it hurts when the drimmel starts to warm up (literally warm up...). If I had to do it all over again, I would get regular braces. But my teeth do look better... I'm just dreading all the dental work that needs to be done at this point - lots of cavities resulted from these trays.

Mike and I are still preparing for our future. It's stressful to some degree, but the excitement sort of balances it out most of the time. Just so many balls in the air right now... selling the house, packing it up, still need a truck, RV has a couple of repairs needed, still need to find something to store our stuff in and have it built... and all the other stuff we had going on before that. We both get frustrated and then one or the other of us manages to diffuse the tension somehow to keep ourselves sane.

Part of being prepared for the future is to stock up on supplies so that for a few months we won't have to worry about shopping for most of our staples. This is in part due to uncertainty about our income when I'm not working and he starts his new job, and in part due to the fact that we'll be moving around a lot and things may not necessarily be convenient to us. I've been using Amazon Subscribe & Save and Soap.com to buy a lot of gluten-free products because we also want to cut back on our gluten consumption. We both feel like we may have a sensitivity to it and it's part of our goal to become more healthy. There are a lot more gluten free products around these days, but in smaller towns they may not be as widely available, and we can't necessarily have things shipped to us when we're on the road.

I'm loving Soap.com because they have good prices, they accept coupons (you can mail them in for credit), 2-day shipping is free for orders over $39, and you can create a "5 favorites" list of items that you order regularly then you get 10% off of those 5 items each time you order them. If you use WHEEL22809, you get 20% off your order and they donate $30 to Best Friends Animal Shelter. That code is good for all five sites (they have groceries, drugstore items, baby goods, pet supplies and home goods). I've been really impressed... their prices rival Amazon but the shipping is quicker and everything is packed really well. I also like that I can buy a single item, or a package if it's something I know we'll use (rice and beans for example).

And I'm loving the idea of meals in jars... having 'convenience' foods in the pantry that are quick and don't take much thought, but are homemade and healthy. I'm not just talking about brownies in a jar, cocoa in a jar or ranch dressing mix... I'm talking pasta and soup and casseroles like this recipe on Chef Tess' site for Chili. She's got a lot of great looking recipes, but there are others out there that are wise to this method as well. So I want to start playing around with it myself because I think it will come in handy for us.

So that's about it for now. Watching RV... it's funny but now that we're owners ourselves I can see little (exaggerated) nuggets of truth to it. The Long Trailer is a much better movie in my opinion, and probably a lot closer to the truth.

0014 - Coming together

It seems as if things are finally coming together. The truck battle may be... at long last... nearing its end. The dealer has informed our attorney that they intend to refund our money and take the truck back. To be honest, I am not jumping for joy just yet... not until the money is in the bank. These people have not shown much integrity up to this point. They've actually made that same claim before and backpeddled. Of course, this time they said it to our attorney, so if they back out again, they're going to face consequences.

So now, Mike is researching what we want in its stead. In some ways, the engine blowing up was a good thing. The truck we had was an F-350. It was black and it was pimp, so we called it Dolomite... we should have called it Dynamite, since the engine exploded. As far as towing goes, it was adequate; it towed more than we needed, but not by much. Now he is considering F-450's and Dodges. I don't really have a preference, but it seems like there have been issues with Ford engines in general, whereas I haven't heard anything negative about a Dodge.

I just can't wait until we can get a truck, have a hitch put on, and are actually ready to take the fifth wheel on its maiden voyage. I had hoped it would happen prior to our move, and I guess we might still be able to take a short trip ahead of time, but it just didn't work out like we hoped because of the truck.

Something else that moves us forward... I submitted my letter of resignation today. Feels weird. I've been at NASA for thirteen years. When I was hired on, I figured I'd be there for two, tops. I'm not quitting until May, but I need to start training my replacement, and my boss has asked me for an estimated date. It's not that he's pushing me out the door per se, but he has a budget to consider and he's trying to plan. Anyway... I have known this day was coming... but when I held the letter in my hand, it felt really real. It was a little terrifying. Left it on his desk on my way out this afternoon... so it is done.

Most days I have faith that our venture is going to be successful. Some days I worry about the 'what ifs'. What if we do this and we fail? How are we going to raise the capital required to get started? What if no one visits us after we open? What if the community doesn't accept us? It goes on and on.

I can't let myself get mired down in that kind of thinking. Gotta think positively, and ultimately I do believe in what we're doing and I think it will be successful. Just have to work it all out. I know that Mike isn't worried, and he has a way of making things happen. He also has a way of pushing me without realizing that he's doing it... I don't want to let him down, so I don't procrastinate like I might if I was only doing something for myself. It's good for me. He's good for me. Moreover, we're a good team. I'll stop gushing now. (I miss him)

Yesterday I rented a storage unit because I've started to pack up the house, and I need a place for the boxes to go. Haven't started moving the boxes just yet, but I hope to get started on that next week... it's too cluttered in here and I can't stand it. That's more forward motion. Hopefully I'll find a buyer without having to involve a real estate agent... I hate the idea of paying someone 6% of my net... profit margin is going to be slim to none already. And I hope it happens before we move.

This weekend I'm going to a Mardi Gras ball in Louisiana. My friend Kirk is going to be Queen of his krewe this year. He's been working toward that... pretty much since I've known him, and I've known him for almost 20 years. I'm happy for him.

Not so happy for my waistline... he has promised gumbo... brunches... more food... food after that... and then we're gonna eat... my 'diet' starts in earnest when I get back. I'm going to eat better, and at least one day a week I'm going to stick to foods that are beneficial for my blood type. I don't know if there is any merit to the blood type diet or not, but judging by what's on the menu it has to be good for me; it certainly can't hurt me. I need to drop about 50 lbs. No joke. I'm the biggest I've ever been and NOT happy about it. I don't feel good, I don't look good, and my clothes... I refuse to go up a size, so something's gotta give. The one positive thing about my blood type is that we're supposed to do stress relieving exercises like yoga, pilates and tai chi... all of which... I love! Nothing exhausting, no more sore knees. I also need to dig out my Method dvd's and get back to that. I feel better when I am active. Time to get off my butt and get active.

Tonight my goal is to make a list of everything I need to do... I have so much to remember that I have begun to forget things here and there. Not good. If I wanted to be anal about it, I'd put an MS Project together and track it that way - which is tempting... but I think just a list will do for now...

0013 - Scotland pics

Unfortunately all the pics posted from the bottom up, so that's how you have to read the blog for it to make sense... just think of it as a series of emails and it's not so hard. :) I took over a thousand pics... it's hard to reduce the trip down to just a handful, but I don't have time to sort through them all at the moment, so these are what I consider to be the absolute highlights.

Scene on the pulpit at St. Giles

My new favorite window at St. Giles

Holyrood Palace

I see dead people. The Necropolis in Glasgow... I could stay all day...

Hmmm... how come image number 665 looks slightly evil?

Glasgow Cathedral

Auchentoshan Distillery tour. Awesome guide, awesome tour, awesome whisky... if you like that sort of thing. Actually, I found a whisky that doesn't make my butt clench. It's called Bruador and it tastes like liquified honey. Seriously. Getchoo some.

Ghosts at St. Conan's Kirk!!! It was so cold and humid that when I breathed out and used a flash I got this cool effect.

For perspective. It's gargantuan. And the sycamore is even bigger. (sorry, I'm a sycamore girl... go team sycamore)

The Birnam Oak... 500 years old. Famous because of Shakespeare's MacBeth (witches in the Birnam Woods) and because it's the oldest tree in Scotland (possibly the UK).

The Whomping Willow?!?!? Really it's a 300 year old sycamore in the Birnam woods, and it's next to...

Atholl Arms Hotel (far left) across the river Tay.

Dunkeld Cathedral in the snow.

A few days before we arrived there was a windstorm in Scotland... 160 mph winds... knocked over quite a few trees in the Birnam Woods. This is one of the rootballs. For perspective, Mikey is about 5' or so.

I TOLD you I was the Queen High Mistress of the Universe. And now I have a picture of me sitting on a throne (non-porcelain) to prove it. ;p

Me shooting the Wallace Monument with a cannon at Stirling Castle. They wanted me to do it, otherwise they wouldn't have pointed it there.

0012 - Everything old is new again

I've decided to write thank you notes to some of the people in Tennessee who were so nice to us; Mike and I thought it would be a nice gesture. It's old school, and people rarely do it anymore so I think the effort will be appreciated (if they can read it). Technology is cool and all, but sometimes when I run across a card in my grandma's handwriting, or get a letter from my aunt Rose, it makes me smile; extra effort was involved, it feels more personal. There is a distinct difference in the way a handwritten note makes you feel, maybe because everyone has different handwriting, so it's like an extension of the person.

Sent Mike off today. I hate these days in so many ways... the dreading of it, how it casts a pall over the last few days we have together as we steel ourselves for yet another separation, the bittersweet last embraces, me attempting to hold back tears (and not very well I might add), the long drive to the airport and back, saying goodbye, coming home to an empty house, the point when his shirts stop smelling like him so I finally give in and wash them. I'm glad this is the last time. In four months he'll be home for good. This time was particularly difficult for me. I know going back is even harder on him. In some ways I'm glad Monday is a holiday, in other respects work keeps me busy... it's part of the routine and it might have been better if it wasn't a holiday.

Speaking of busy, the enormity of what needs to happen in the coming months is starting to weigh on me. Now that we've seen the land and done the up front legwork we have to start coordinating everything, not just on the land, but I need to start packing the house in earnest and get it on the market. In addition, I still have that damn truck to deal with, we're still fighting with the IRS, and now I have to start getting 2011's tax information together. I just have to bite it off piece by piece and not let it overwhelm me, which is easier said than done.

It's 11:15 and I should be exhausted, but I'm wired and will probably be up until late into the night. Tomorrow I plan on tackling the closets... packing some of our things, transferring others to the fifth wheel. On Monday I need to see about renting a small storage unit to stash the boxes so the house won't seem so cluttered. Right now I feel like a box hoarder... I hate clutter so it's really wigging me out.

0011 - Things in motion stay in motion

Busy, busy month. Went to Scotland with Mike and Mikey, used Craig as our driver for the third time, and as usual he made the trip effortless for us. First couple of days there was snow, and it was gorgeous. I never really realized what the 'crunch' of snow sounded like because it rarely snows here. On the second evening, Mike's gallbladder started acting up. We were staying at Castle Levan in Gourock at the time, it's a nice place run by a Czech couple who wanted to own a castle and sold their home in England to make it happen. Mikey really liked it, partly because it was a castle, and partly because it is supposedly haunted. By the fourth day I was on the phone with a nurse from our health insurance company because I thought we were going to have to go to the ER in Edinburgh, but with a little Tylenol (equivalent) and some z's, he made it until Christmas Eve, when we did go to urgent care. They did some tests, gave him some morphine, we scheduled an appointment with a surgeon for that Tuesday, and then surgery followed on Wednesday. In the meantime I was battling a nasty cold, feeling pretty crappy myself... but nowhere nearly as bad as he did. I was just glad that if it had to happen, it happened while he was home, and not while he was in Afghanistan. It's partly because of the quality of care, and partly because I hate feeling helpless... I want to take care of him when he's sick, not sit here and worry, unable to do anything.

After a couple of days to recover (it was outpatient laproscopic surgery), we flew to TN to see our land. In a word... scary. At first. There are two ways to get to our property, and the way the GPS initially took us was full or sharp twists and turns on narrow streets that looked horrifying when we thought about what it would be like to pull the fifth wheel behind us. The land itself was also a bit shocking to see in person... we thought we had more cleared, level land and actually drove by our property without recognizing it.

Then things got better.

We spoke to a wonderful lady at H&H Hardware in Gainesboro and she steered us toward a contractor who can not only level our land, but also run the water line and put in the septic. He reminds us of a friend of ours, very straightforward and easy going. Things were a lot less scary once we got in touch with him... after that we could envision what the land could be. Also spoke to my cousin Jason, who is going to do our concrete work, and I think he has a good handle on everything, so we need to put the two of them in touch with each other and I think we're 3/4 of the way there.

Everyone we've met in TN has been incredibly nice and it seems like we stumble onto the answers we're looking for, sometimes like magic. We managed to get the water, electric and all the rest somewhat lined up while we were there. We also got in contact with a real estate agent that has a piece of property that sounds perfect for Nashoba... waterfall, building that was used as a youth camp, across the street from a river, more acreage than we were looking for, and at a decent price.

On the way into TN we also stopped by a wolfdog sanctuary. Was really nice to see all the woofers and also see how he set his place up. He was a really nice guy who had lots of good advice. He's not open to the public, but since I volunteer at St. Francis he let us drop by for a visit. Small world too. One of the volunteers I work with, Natasha, brought one of the wolfdogs to him from Texas. He looks like he's happy with his pen mate, he was lucky she found him and was able to find him a good home.

Came home, relaxed for about a day, then drove to Austin to see friends and family.

On our second to last day there we went to Red's Indoor Gun Range in Pflugerville and shot for a while. As I was changing out a mag, the range officer tells me to clear the range, and they herd everyone out into the shop. Because of the urgency I thought someone had shot a finger off, or a gun exploded in someone's hand. Turns out that a man had chosen to commit suicide. He was about 70 years old and had recently found out that he had a bad case of cancer and left a note on the front seat of his van saying that he didn't want to be a burden. We didn't know that until the next day, we just knew he was on the floor and blood was pouring out of his head. Tried to figure out every possible scenario that it could have been accidental, but it was pretty obviously intentional, even before they proved that it was.

Mike is the one that actually told them to call 911. He was standing back from the lanes, watching me shoot in one lane, and his sister shoot in another lane. He happened to be looking around, heard a somewhat muffled shot and saw the guy fly straight back, still clutching the gun. He tried to alert the range officer but he was on the other end of the range, so he ran out, assessed the situation in a quick glance as he ran by (as he has been trained to do) and realized that the guy was dead. He calls it a 'through and through'... in one ear and out the other.

I didn't see anything as I walked by. Mike said that was intentional, he was trying to shield me from it. I did look through the window afterward and see the man lying in a pool of his own blood, his ear all fucked up, ear protection gone, and I remember thinking it was weird that the blood wasn't as dark as mine, that maybe he was anemic. Part of me wishes I hadn't looked, part of me probably would have imagined worse if I hadn't looked. I think everyone was in shock at that point. One young guy tried to stop the blood from coming out, he said he tried CPR, but what he really did was put his hands on each side of the guy's head. He came out with his hands covered in blood. I felt bad for him; I told him he needed to get tested because no one knows what kind of disease this guy might have had, not trying to be mean, just practical. Everyone who worked at the range was very nice and helpful, the police were personable, it was handled as well as it could be.

For most of the night I was pissed off. There were two children on the range at the time. The mom was able to shield the little boy from it, but the little girl happened to turn her head and saw it. If this man wanted to die, so be it. He could have parked his van in a garage and let the carbon monoxide put him to sleep. Instead, he came to a public range, rented a .40 caliber Ruger, put it behind his ear and blew his brains out in front of a bunch of strangers. Luckily no one else was injured, and no one saw it actually happen... we were just left with the aftermath... the memories of what we did see... the time we spent making statements to the police, waiting to be released... the millisecond of fear that one of us might have accidentally shot him (impossible)... the questions... making copies of our driver's licenses.... the extra trip we had to make the next day to retrieve our weapons.

People who knew him may choose to remember him fondly... I do not. To me he was a selfish asshole.

That night when Mike finally fell asleep I had a mini meltdown. It started with me thinking that I felt bad for not feeling sorry for the guy, felt bad for feeling nothing. Then all of a sudden I was wracked by sobs that I was afraid might wake Mike up. After I had a good cry I was okay... I got up and took a shower, then went to bed and fell asleep, but it was about 3 am at that point. Woke up feeling groggy and listless the next day, partly due to lack of sleep, partly due to the wine I drank the night before... probably also due to what had happened. I'm not going to let it stop me from going back to a gun range. I've been to several over the last decade and this is the first time it's ever happened. You just can't predict the future and it could have happened anywhere.

We came home Tuesday evening after having drinks with a friend in Houston. Yesterday and today were 'normal' days... doing stuff around the house... shopping for groceries... taking out the trash. I told Mike that I really like normal days with him around, doing normal things like normal people.

Neither of us can wait for his stint in Afghanistan to be over. Four months doesn't sound like much, but when you're on the home stretch every second seems like agony.

One last weird coincidence. An attorney we're working with for something completely unrelated is going to introduce us to an attorney in Nashville that wants to do work for a wolf sanctuary. She said he's willing to help us with our charitable status filing, which is about a $10k value... don't know if he's planning to do it for free or not, she just mentioned a number - but I do know that, from what I've heard, it's a monumental task and we will be grateful for the help. How cool is that? It was completely random.

0010 - Still still

We still don't have a truck. Turns out that the people who sold it to us are complete frauds and it only got 94 miles down the road before the engine blew. We need a new engine. Sixteen thousand dollars.

Thousand. Thousand. Thousand. Thousand. Thousand. Thousand. Thousand. Thousand. Thousand. Thousand. Thousand. Thousand. Thousand. Thousand. Thousand. Thousand.

It looks worse than that ^, really, it does, but that ^ gives you an idea what sixteen thousand looks like. (sense of humor... still got one, but barely)

There is now an attorney involved. That's the very short version. The longer version includes lots of stress, irritation, (giving way to) murderous rages, heartburn, research, the development of ulcers, and the writing of letters - and it takes place over the course of... well, October 23rd and counting. On the upside, my brain is working in ways it hasn't in years, and if it weren't happening to me it might almost be fun. I considered law as an occupation when I was younger, but lacked the confidence and didn't pay attention when my mother told me not all attorneys argued in front of a judge. Oh the naive innocence of the young... I may have missed my calling and I can't even blame my mother - what is this world coming to?

But this wasn't a blog to grouse about the truck (hiss), it's a blog to grouse that the maiden voyage we planned after Christmas will not be happening. We're bummed. We were excited to take CC out for the first time and get a taste of what it will be like for the long haul. We had a nice RV park all picked out and everything. Now we'll be staying in a hotel room. *sad face*

Wait.

*happy face!!!*

Because in just two 'short' days, my stepson and I fly to Scotland to meet up with my favorite husband and tour my favorite vacation spot in the entire universe. We even spend the first night in my favorite place, in my favorite vacation spot, Birnam/Dunkeld and we eat at my favorite restaurant in Scotland - the Atholl Arms Hotel (looks like someone with a lisp cursing doesn't it? I can't be the only one who thinks that). It's been six very long months and it's been hard on us, but I have a very considerate husband who goes out of his way to keep in touch with me, and we are able to talk almost every day, which makes it bearable (but not easy). Anyway, we will have three weeks together and are planning to do a lot of traveling to see family and friends, as well as our land in TN, so our foul moods are slowly giving way to smiles and good humor again.

Forgot to mention - yesterday at 10:30 am we officially became TN land owners!!! Now the fun really begins... we have a building kit to put together and utilities to run and septic to install. No rest for the wicked.

Anyway, since this is a season to be thankful, I want to end by saying that we are extremely fortunate to have some amazing people in our lives. From kind acts by strangers, to friends so wonderful that we probably don't deserve them, we are reminded daily that we are the lucky ones. 2011 has been a good year for relationships; I've reconnected with people that I've wondered about for years, and spent more time than ever with my family, both of which make me happy, though there are people I still miss and hope to see again soon. I'm lucky that my friendships are pretty much eternal. Whether I see them every day, or once every year or two, every friend is important to me. So thank you to everyone who has touched our lives, whether you know it or not, but especially to our friends and family.

So have a merry Christmas, or whichever holiday you celebrate, and may 2012 be our best year ever (capped off by the election of a new President just before the world ends on 12/21/2012). ;p Next time you hear from me I'll be posting pictures from our trip.