The long, long winter . . .

Another snowy day in Michigan . . . it feels like winter has been here forever! We've had snow since before Thanksgiving, and there's no end in sight! With almost 2 months of winter left, it'll be awhile before we start seeing green grass again.

From ROAMING FREE 2010

Once today's storm came to a stop, I took Casey out for a walk. She loves to run and jump in the snow! It doesn't bother her at all!

From ROAMING FREE 2010

From ROAMING FREE 2010

When Tom got home from work, he and Nicolas went out to clear the driveway and sidewalks. It's beginning to feel like a weekly occurance!

From ROAMING FREE 2010

Other than the snow, it was pretty uneventful around here today. I paid bills and downloaded tax forms. Our gas and electric bills for the last month were enough to pay for 2 months of campground fees - we can't wait to get on the road! I spent some time looking through the "Families on the Road" website. There's more families out there than we thought! I only had time to read through a few blogs, but I'll go back there soon. I made our August camping reservation, which bring us to 5 trips this summer . . . two more to go, and we'll have a full schedule.

That's it for tonight . . . almost time for "Criminal Minds".

We made the cut . . . again!

Today was a stressful day at work. Ford was making another 10% cut in salaried workers in January, and today was rumored to be "the day" at our location. By lunchtime we knew that we were both still employed, and with a mixture of relief and disappointment, we returned to our desks. Since the house isn't even up for sale yet, it's best that we continue to work a while longer, but it's not the same place it was 20 years ago.

With that behind us (at least for a few months!), we can get back to planning our summer travels. We just made a reservation at the Platte River Campground at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (http://www.nps.gov/). One of Michigan's finest areas! It's a national park campground with only one loop of reservable electric sites, so difficult to get into - especially in July! We managed to get a site, though, and so do some friends of ours. We're planning a tubing trip on the river. It's a shallow, easy river for canoeing or tubing, and ends up at the beach on Lake Michigan. We're looking forward to it! We're looking at the River Ridge RV Resort, north of Grand Rapids (http://www.michcampgrounds.com/riverridgervresort/index.php), for an August trip. It looks like a really nice RV resort with lots of activities for the kids. That just leaves Labor Day weekend to figure out . . . still working on that one.

Nicolas survived his midterm exams, and is glad to have them behind him! This week is "Catholic Schools Week", and full of fun & games, not many classes; it's a nice break before they get back into the swing of things. We have parent-teacher conferences this week, so we'll see how he did on the tests then. I wonder if I'll have to have conferences with Tom once we start homeschooling? lol . . .

I've been researching homeschool options. It seems like there are several ways to go. There's traditional curriculums, with books, workborks, etc.. Another option is online or CD based curriculums, and then there's actual online schools - completely internet based, with online teacher support and chat-based classroom discussion groups. This last option looks pretty interesting to me. No books and workbooks to lug around in the RV, and the interactive aspect of it would go over well with Nicolas, I think. It also lends more to him being responsible for his progress, which is good at the high school level, I think. I'm still researching, so any suggestions/comments are welcome!

Marci's Free Day!

I took the boys to school this morning, stayed for Mass, went grocery shopping, and now I'm home and ready for my "Me Day"! Tom is picking the boys up from school this afternoon, and they are going to the Autoshow with a couple of other Dads and sons . . . so I'm on my own tonight and free to do whatever I want!! I think I'll do some sewing, and some reading, work on the kids' school yearbook a little bit, maybe get in the RV_Dreams chatroom for a while . . . whatever I feel like! I love evenings like this!

I've got lots of ideas for blog posts I want to do - to help all of you get to know us a little better, just have to find the time, and get some pictures together! Now that I know how to add pictures "where I want them" in my blog, I can be much more creative - thank you, "Geeks on Tour"! I was getting a little frustrated with Blogger, and the fact that it always put my pictures at the top of the post. Then, along came the Geeks' newletter and notice of a video on how to use Picassa web albums to get around that. I was SO happy - she must have been reading my mind!

That's about it for now . . . I think I'll go make some tea - it's getting chilly again.

Cleaning and Purging

Nicolas' and Bryce's room is the cleanest I've seen it in awhile! The weekend was cold and snowy, so we stayed inside and cleaned. The boys got into a purging mode, and emptied out there toy closet - putting everything aside for selling at the next Mom 2 Mom sale. They make a killing with toys at these sales, and they love it! They are much better at getting rid of stuff than I am - no emotional issues there! I'm getting better, though, slowly but surely.

Guitar Man

Here he is -- the guitar man! Nicolas loves to play his guitar for a crowd, and he can't wait to put on a show for you!

This is their "study room". Nicolas' guitars are in here, too, and he's surrounded by his other favorite thing - Mustangs!

Back to normal!

Well, all the Christmas decorations are packed away for another year, and our tree is out on the burnpile for the next bonfire. We had a wonderful Chrismas season, and it was sad to un-decorate the tree, but now we're moving on to other tasks -- like making summer camping plans!

The boys had another day off school today - for cold weather. Lucky them! Good thing I work at home on Fridays, so I didn't have to make any special arrangements. They slept in a little, and spent the rest of the day playing on the computer, reading, and putting away boxes of christmas stuff.

As for those summer camping plans, we're staying close to home this year. We had two big trips last year - Branson for the RV Dreams Rally and then Nashville in July, so we're taking it easy this year. I read about a nice wine region in Ohio, in the NE corner of the state, so we're going to check that area out. We have a couple of favorite state parks in Michigan that we'll go back to this year, also. I just made a reservation for April in Indiana. We're going to spend a few days at the trailer factories, going on tours and checking out their toy hauler models. We're planning on visiting Heartland, Forest River, Newmar, Crossroads, Americamp, Sunnybrook, K-Z, and I think one more that I can't remember. It'll be a busy and educational couple of days!

We'd LOVE to go to another RV Dreams Rally in Texas in October, but at 1600 miles, it's just to far to go when we have to turn around and come back home! Now, if things change around here, and we're full-time by then . . . well, that would be another story! I'll be back!

Nicolas is done studying for the night, and he's playing his guitar now, so I have to go take a picture. He wants me to post it on the blog!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

It was a pretty typical January morning in Michigan. A couple of inches of new snow on the ground, and more on the way. It was a balmy 33 degrees when I headed out to w*rk this morning, but the weathermen were promising MUCH colder temperatures for the drive home (5 degrees by 4 pm).
Now that the Christmas Season is OFFICIALLY over (even for the Catholic Church), I need to get serious about getting my tree down. The thing is, we recently moved our "family room" to our newly finished basement. The tree is in our new "grown-up" living room, taking up what would be an otherwise vacant corner. Not a lot of motivation to get it out of there - other than the fact that it stopped drinking water about two weeks ago! The boys want to leave it there, but even the hardiest of firs will EVENTUALLY start dropping needles (probably whole branches when it get brittle enough!)
So, that's our agenda for tomorrow. The boys will be home from school (Teacher In-Service day), so I'll put them to work . . . UN-decorating the tree.

Meet our family

We are the happy parents of two wonderful boys, Nicolas - age 12, and Bryce - age 10, and one dog, Casey - age 3. They can't wait for the day we start full-timing in the RV! By the time we hit the road, Nicolas will be starting high school and Bryce will be in 7th grade. They are both looking forward to attending "RV School of Mom", and learning all about this incredible country of ours. Nicolas is an avid guitar player (not shy of a crowd, as those of you at the 2008 RV-Dreams Rally will remember!), and also enjoys basketball and cars. Bryce is a big sports fan, especially baseball, and occasionally acts as "roadie" for his big brother! Casey is a "boy's dog", as she loves to run and rough-house with her "brothers".

Welcome to our blog!

Hello friends!

We are preparing to embark on a new adventure, and although the "to do" list is long, we are looking forward to it. For now, we are taking down Chrismas decorations and helping Nicolas study for mid-term exams, but on the list also are de-cluttering the house and preparing to put it for sale in the Spring.

As we develop this blog, documenting the sale of our house and the move to our new RV home, we hope you get to know all of us. Thanks for joining us!