Photos

Pool table makes a great seat, and learning about fuel efficiency is probably a good science project.

This was taken when Frank first got home in Oct and he was helping me finish this bathroom.

It is a new camera, or was, and I am still fuzzy sometimes. Frank is playing with the kids here (read-knocking over their blocks!)

Tad laughing at Nathalie as her blocks are knocked off!

The shower partly finished, I tiled this shower completely. It is now grouted and caulked.

Very fuzzy, Nathalie in "new" high heals." I wore a size 7 years ago, and when I was 15 my aunt bought these for me. I wear a 7.5 now, and Nathalie discovered these in my "get rid of"" pile. She was distraught that I would throw out such a memory! She was right, I moved them back to the keep forever pile, in memory of the balls. She donned them and claimed them forthwith.

And they fit her! They are actually 1 size too big but they are pretty stretchy. She wears these with camo!


Fuzzy picture of me tiling, Nathalie took this.

Working on the new truck. This was taken a few wks ago, they all 3 were under there checking on Knock. He is our friend, and he lives in the dashboard. He just knocks and we sometimes feed him snacks.


I like all of their brown boots sticking out.

I think Nathalie was doing more watching daddy than she was working. But I mean, I would be too!

Winter sewing

The army has packed the goods that we kept to ship to Ak, the things that I didnt sell. I kept out 1 sewing machine and 1 serger to carry in the RV with me and also because we dont have enough clothes for an Ak winter yet. I kept out a considerable amount of wool fabric.

Pants on the right are just pj pants for Nathalie, the piece was cotton terry, only big enough to make pants for her. She was wearing his pants anyway so I made new ones!

Pants in the middle are wool long johns for me. The only ones I own currently are boughten mens long johns and they are not very form fitting. This pair fits under my most fitted jeans so I will be much warmer. I have since then cut out a 2nd pr.

The last pair is my best. Tad told me that last yrs long johns "no longer fit in all areas." I said I could make bigger ones and he pointed out, that isnt the issue. The gender neutral fit doesnt work anymore mama... So, I made a tester pair of "boy" long johns out of some cotton and they came out great, I just used a strip of fabric in the center, no hole. These are a wool outer, thin cotton inner and have a hole on one side of the cotton, and opposite of the wool. He says they are a perfect fit!

Moving photos coming soon.

The new truck

This is our new truck, it isnt new just new to us. It is a 1997 F350, my favorite truck in the world. It has been for years! We couldnt find one when first shopping, nor did we have much money so we bought the old yellow truck which served its purpose.

Our 5th wheel travel trailer is behind the truck, will post pictures of that later. Frank and Eric put the bumpers on the 350 yesterday, these bumpers are just mean! We special ordered them a few wks ago, shortly after buying the truck. They are real bumpers, not a brush guard. They will be effective in saving the front of the truck and possibly us (in case of an animal going through the windshield) if we hit a moose. There are a lot of moose in Ak.

Last picture. We have new tires and cleaned up the inside, its a 14 yr old truck after all. Frank and Eric also installed a winch on the front, to pull ourselves out in case we get stuck. Pulling the big RV.

We sold every other vehicle we had. We have gone from 3 trucks, 2 cars, 1 tractor and 2 regular trailers to one travel trailer and 1 truck. We have packed the RV mostly and are almost ready to go.

Leaving

http://www.balancedpolitics.org/universal_health_care.htm

This is the best article I have read on the pros and cons of universal healthcare. It actually does present some decent pros. Most articles are either for, or against universal care. I am highly against it, for several of the NO reasons given here. Total loss of doctor/patient confidentiality. That is a pretty important part of our current medical framework.

I am in college and one of my classes has been topics in healthcare policy. I have learned many things through research on current and possible healthcare plans.

Other than that, I dont have any pictures because they are all on Frank's computer. I am finishing up 2 college classes (finals due the 19th-nearly there!), getting ready to go to our family's Christmas celebration in Tn, and getting ready to move to Alaska. We do not generally leave home for holidays but will this year due to all of my mama's other children being present, and us moving so far away.

Our house is sold (tentatively-these things can fall through), we have a signed contract and close in early Jan before we leave. We have our RV back, it was at a local shop being fitted with extra insulation, tank heaters and a inspection. Now are are further winterizing it ourselves.

We sold all of our vehicles (camaro, jetta, chevy 3500 and chevy s10), trailers x2 and our tractor. Much of our household goods were sold or given away, the remainder was shipped by the army or will go with us. We have a few things to give/sell to family in Tn that will leave next wk.

We paid a inspector to inspect our house, this is usually done by the buyer so that he/she can ask the seller to fix things. We chose the best inspector in the area, paid him to give us the list, we fixed the list and now hopefully there will be little on the list by the buyers inspector. We still have to have the septic pumped and the water tested.

I think we are all excited about the move, a little nervous (on my part) about living in a small space for a period of time. Even when we arrive, we plan on buying quite a small house that needs to be fixed up. We will continue to live in the RV while fixing the house. We are looking at foreclosures and short sales at this time.

The kids will have lessons in Ak, I have found teachers for dance, guitar, jujitsu and possibly art. There are many art lessons, but they are short and for large groups. Nathalie wants something a little more specialized. We will use the local library a lot at first because many of our books are packed and we will not have our goods delivered right away.

We are leaving a lot behind. I have left a lot behind in the past, this time feels farther. I am glad to move to Ak, there are less people, less rush. I was sad to leave my Sc homeschool group 3.5 yrs ago, very sad to leave my best friend who lived very close. Now I am sad to leave another very good friend living here. I have only a few good friends, and none of them live close except for Amanda and now we are leaving her.

We dont know where we will be long term, I dont promise I will even have this blog. It may go on the list of things to leave behind.