----->>> In a Home Named Destiny: January 2013

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Winter Get-Away

After our wonderful Christmas we had planned to head straight down to Arkansas to meet up with Aunt Wendy at her ranch. Unfortunately the weather had a different plan in mind. This whole side of the country was hit with rain, snow and ice storms. Nashville saw the least of it thankfully but we were kind of stuck. So we spent many nights in a Walmart parking lot and then moved to another Walmart closer to the 40 so we could be ready to head west. I think after the five or six days of just waiting around we both started going a little nuts! So we tried basically everything to entertain ourselves. Finally after a week of hiding out we headed to the ranch! We took two days to get there even though it is possible in one. It's nice to take your time and just enjoy the drive instead of feeling rushed. It was also nice because it gave us time to stop at a truck stop and take a shower. It is not as bad as you think...... I see your judging eyes!!! It was especially refreshing because it had been a few days since we last got the opportunity to do so. The problem with the winter time and a motor home is that your pipes, tanks, and pumps will freeze up if they have water in them. So you have to start getting creative with things. I call it glorified camping!

We fought through a couple of rain storms on our second day of travel and Aunt Wendy got stuck in another storm so instead of being all together for New Years we spent in another Walmart parking lot in Hot Springs, Arkansas. At first we were kind of disappointed but we ended up having a really fun night just the two of us and rang in the new year just right!

Pictures above from left to right, top row then bottom row

1. Documentation of our truck stop shower

2. Gumby and Centipede guy- our traveling buddies

3. Me and Destiny in our first snow storm

4. Glitch at the gas pump gave us SUPREME gas for only $2.97!!!!

5. Gumby playing in the snow

6. Happy New Year- so excited for 2013

7/8. Enjoying a Starbucks with our gift card, and Jordan giving you a CHEERS!

9. Amazing latte from Fido in Nashville

Excited for some sun shine

We get a fireplace for the next month

Jordan's in heaven

Big windows, lots of sun!

Our cozy living room

Grampa's amazing fried catish

We have being loving the time at the ranch with Wendy. Jordan has been in heaven because he gets to go fishing whenever he wants plus he can play his music as loud as he wants without disturbing neighbors. Aunt Wendy lives in the A-frame house on the property so we get the four bedroom, two bathroom log cabin to ourselves. It has been so much fun. No one has lived here for a lot of years so we have just been working on cleaning up the place! If we are not doing that we are outside doing chores like burning trash, fixing broken pipes, cutting up firewood, fixing up the chicken coop, prepping ground for the garden....... and honestly we have never had more fun doing chores. This place is gorgeous. It's on 20 acres and has the perfect view of Hot Springs. It is up a little mountain and there are great decks on both houses, it's incredible. It has also been a lot of fun just sharing meals with Wendy and enjoying conversation. Again, it's that communal living type of thing that Jordan and I have really come to love. We like villages. We love how people can work together to get things done. We love the conversation and the fellowship.s We love the real. The raw.

The lake on the ranch, awesome trees in the reflection

Gorgeous

Monday, January 7, 2013

10 Secrets

So I have been reading this fiction book series writen by Karen Kingsbury and in the last book I found something extremely inspiring that I wanted to share. In the story the following list was in a letter that a mother (who had recently passed away) had left for each of her six children. It was her secrets to a happy, thriving and lasting marriage. I understand this book was all in a pretend world but I couldn't help but share. Jordan and I had fun discussing them, what areas we were strong in and what areas we could improve on. If you're not married.... sorry this one may not be applicable.

10 Secrets to a Happy Marriage

1. God has you here to serve one another. Love acted out is serving.

2. Women need respect and nurturing. Love your wife so she knows you'd lay your life down for her. Continue to date her and admire her. Share a hobby- find something can do to have fun together.

3. Laugh often.

4. Be patient. Love crumbles quickly under the weight of unmet expectations.

5. Spend more time trying to fix yourself than your spouse.

6. Keep short accounts. The Bible says, "Do not let the sun go down while you are angry." Make it a habit to forgive.

7. Determine up front that divorce is not an option.

8. Learn about love languages. Not all people show love or receive it the same way. You want a back rub and your spouse want a clean kitchen. The love languages are fairly simple: acts of service, time, physical touch, gifts, and words of affirmation. Learn them. Love is better received when its's in the language that person speaks.

9. Words of affirmation are a love language for all men.

10. Men are born to be leaders. He cannot lead unless she gives him the confidence to do so. If you love your husband, build him up. Confident men do not seek love outside the home.

We would love to hear your comments!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Unbelievable

We have some exciting news to share this evening! While we were working up at Amazon I got to know a lady named Cathy. She was full of character and had a zeal for life. Often during our lunch breaks she would share her knowledge of the open road and rv life with me. Once I expressed our interest of working up in Yellowstone for the summer she nearly jumped out of her seat with excitement. Cathy couldn’t wait another minutes to tell me about her experience up there. She began to explain that she had worked at a little mom and pop trading post two summers back. It’s 30 hours a week, right in the small town of West Yellowstone, and right in the back yard of the National Park. The owner was wonderful and always hired a work camping couple (full time motor home dwellers) for the summer. A few days later she gave me an email address of where I could contact the owners. Fast forward two weeks…….

Last night I emailed the owner with our resumes and our interest of working for her. As I waited to hear back from her I had a phone interview set up with one of the largest corporations in Yellowstone, for a front desk agent. I was slightly irritated with all the corporate humbo-jumbo during the interview that seemed to last forever. The job was sounding less and less appealing as the man kept talking. In between him clearing his throat and dropping the phone (literally) I was tempted to hang up. But Jordan and I made an agreement to take any job we could get- we have dreamt of Yellowstone for a long time so whatever it took. But we just really dislike working for large companies where you are just another number to them. We want to build relationships and add value to small local shops. So I continued the rest of the interview. It had been an hour of a grueling conversation and it basically went nowhere. We decided to find out where Jordan’s application was and get them sent over to a different department where we could both have jobs. The conversation ended after that and before I could clear my head of all the corporate frustrations the small town employer had emailed me back with a request for us to call her the following day. So this morning after we packed up Destiny from another Wal-Mart stay I dialed a number in Montana with high hopes. The phone call lasted about ten minutes and by the end of it we were hired! Apparently she was grateful that we had found her because she hadn’t even started looking for her summertime employees yet. It ended up saving her a bunch of time and set us up with work until September. She was willing to work with our late start date (at the end of May due to a wedding Jordan is in!). It was simply a miracle. We have had some problems with other employers in Yellowstone because they want us there at the beginning of May. We even get the closing shift from 3pm-11pm three days a week, which works perfect for my little night owl of husband’s schedule! We are so overwhelmed with excitement that our dreams of Montana and Yellowstone are coming true, not to mention that we will be able to eat and pay our bills! And on top of all of that we will get three days a week to explore and truly enjoy creation.

“For I know the plans I have for you…” Oh how this verse becomes more real every day that we journey into being free. By living this life of simplicity and minimalism we have begun to truly appreciate every single small blessing. We continue to choose gratitude as our attitude each day and now I see every moment what a beautiful gift this life is. It’s exploding from my every pore… and I hope that with this journey we are on others will be able to taste our passion for life and people and get inspired. The joy and freedom that can be found in trusting in our Creator alone in EVERY detail of your life changes and transforms everything. We have been recounting memories since the very first time we got back together and how many times everything has just fell into place. That number is overwhelming in itself. I find that when we surrender all and are willing to go anywhere and do anything God opens all the right doors at the right time! You should try it, seriously….

Lord, you know the plans you have for us. Thank you!

Christmas

Our last days in Kentucky were bittersweet. On one hand we were extremely grateful to kiss our jobs goodbye but we were strangely sad when we started to notice our neighbors disappear. Everyone had other adventures planned, family to visit. We did get to say goodbye to some and called others to make sure they knew how grateful we were for all their help. We have grown quite accustom to our little site on the bluff and campground life. The last few nights it got really cold and on the very last night it even snowed a tiny bit! Right as we were packing up to head to Nashville one of our neighbors came over to say goodbye and encourage us. She has been living in her RV full-time for seven years and is very seasoned in this lifestyle. She gave us a lot of helpful tips, uplifting comments and ended up giving us some beer and shampoo (which I actually had just ran out of that day without her knowing). It's the little gifts from people who have nothing more than you do that mean the most! Maybe one day we will be able to meet up with some of our first full-timer friends on the road! Thank you for everything you have taught us and all your kindness.

Destiny's first taste of snow

A last hoorah with some of our friends from Amazon

Margarita celebration for our last day!

God's gift to us!

Holidays have a funny way of bringing out your want and need of family. Yes, we are pretty independent little gypsies wandering the country but one thing we cannot rid ourselves from is our love of our family. No matter how crazy, or wonderful, or insane any of 'em can get- we couldn't love them more. We have been pretty blessed to have such great families... on both sides. We have no fear of the "in-laws." Every Thanksgiving for the past four years we have missed them dearly but this was our first Christmas away and hearts were aching. So when we were invited down to Nashville to spend the holiday with Cody and his mom we quickly accepted. At least it would be with a family and one that we really enjoyed spending time with. Our hearts were very full this holiday season. It's funny that we only met Cody two months ago through Jordan's friend Kuntal, from Fallbrook, who at the time was in Berlin while we were in Nashville. We hung out with them a little bit on the 23rd, then on Christmas Eve we went back around dinner time. I had brought some chicken over and Cody turned it into an amazing Chicken Marsala. It was so wonderful. We just sat around the table and enjoyed the company. We actually almost burnt the kitchen down that night, his mom was toasting coconut for a Christmas pie but the pan was a little too close to the broiler. The flames started coming up through the stove and when we opened the oven door they were flying out. Luckily this is not the first time Cody has dealt with this kind of thing (he is a manager of a catering company)- it was out before we knew it. After all that was over the boys serenaded us with some music. It was almost surprising how well they played together. It felt like they had been doing it for years. One would play a song that he knew while the other did back up. Cody pulled out a harmonica that his mom had given to her father before he passed and was overwhelmed with joy when Jordan played it just like her dad use to. It was a wonderful Christmas eve.

Jordan and I left around eleven to head to our Wal-Mart. We pulled in and just I was putting Destiny into park a police officer came and knocked on our window. Scared the crap out of me! Apparently since Walmart is closed on Christmas nobody is allowed to stay overnight. We were a little confused and frazzled unsure of what to do this late at night so we just turned back around and parked on Cody's street hoping that no one would mind! Christmas morning came quickly and we were just like little kids again. We tried to sleep in longer but we were too excited. I pulled out some apple fritters and made some coffee. We had some presents that people had mailed to us at the campsite. Jordan and I gave each other stockings too. A few days before Christmas we went to Target and had a $40.00 limit to find presents for each other person. We split up and went on a hunt. It was a lot of fun, kind of felt like a scavenger hunt! We are really trying to live small but it is always fun to have a stocking! Jordan's mom also sent us stockings so we actually got to open two- even better!!! After that I made us bacon and sliced up avocado. It was a wonderful morning on a random street in Nashville. The beauty of our little turtle shell anywhere is home!

Around 11 or 12 we headed into Cody's. His mom got us some small gifts and we brought a bottle of wine. For most of the day we sat around the kitchen table again, they were hustling and bustling preparing a big southern Christmas feast and I guess we were the entertainers. We all just told each other stories, laughed, and enjoyed the company. We watched Christmas movies, had wine, and ate til we could not eat anymore. They spoiled us rotten. Cody's mom is a massage therapist so she even gave us all shoulder and neck massages. Just before we left for the evening they let us use their wonderful, hot shower. (We can't have water in the motor home right now because the pipes will freeze and explode! It get's a little tricky!)

It was 9:30pm when we left our friends but we didn't even feel tired. We almost, for the first time that day, felt really really sad that we weren't home. It was only 7:30pm back home and we knew the night was still young there and everyone was awake! But instead of letting ourselves go to that place we decided to go see a movie instead. Neither of us have ever gone to the theater on a holiday but we needed an escape. So the Hobbit in 3D it was. We were anxiously awaiting the movie to start but after 20 minutes the manager turned on the lights and came in to tell us the polarizer for the film and broke and there would be no movie. Although it was Christmas so he let us go watch another movie that had just started and gave us each 3 movie passes to any 3D movie at any Regal theater I guess it was a 1 for 4 deal kind of night. We watch the other movie and made it back to Walmart around 3am and slept with smiles on our faces and full hearts.