We're still here!

     I've been feeling bad for quite some time that the blog has been so incredibly silent the last 2 months. It just seemed like we weren't going new places and doing exciting things so why bother? Then I remembered that I love to read about the normal nitty gritty in other people's lives so here we go! I'll take you on a picture post of the last 2 months. 

     At the beginning of May we were still in San Angelo, with Eldon working 3 days a week at a local hospital. He also started mowing for the State Park a few hours a week as a volunteer. It's a great way to get our area of the campground mowed in a timely manner as well as the trails we want to hike :).

     
     We still don't have a quote carved onto our table yet because we can't settle on one. I don't think it will be either of these 2 but who knows. We aren't usually indecisive so I know when we find the right one, we'll know.

My mom has a fabric store and had been saving the samples she receives from her suppliers and Makayla kept piecing them together . I helped her a little but tried to stay our of it and let her learn from her mistakes. She is quite pleased with the size of her "blanket". It's taken her over a year because she just added on as mom gave her more samples.

Mr. Fishy is still alive, in spite of being vigorously stirred around with a spoon,  being fed "coffee", and even dumped completely out of his bowl. He's like a cat and has 9 lives! At least he's well loved by his owner!

Michael lost his first tooth!

Eldon and the children built this popsicle bridge one day. It held Ethan's weight without breaking!

I enjoyed watching the Harvester ants behind our RV work together to drag a cutie slice into their hole.

We went to another new park.......

.......and back to one of our favorite places in San Angelo - the river walk!

They had a blast taking an old computer apart one day. I was amazed how Makayla stuck to it!

Biking on top of the dam at O.C. Fisher Lake. It's like Kansas- flat and endless :).

     We had planned to be at my parents for 3 weeks in June before we ever started in San Angelo. My dad has a chicken barn with 20,000 layers and we enjoy doing their chores for short periods. They are currently on a cruise to Alaska and also spending some time visiting my brother and sister in Colorado. Their church (also what we consider our home church) had VBS the week before Eldon's scheduled time off so he brought the RV and us up then drove back down and worked his 3 days. 

     Makayla, Michael, and Emily all had SUCH a good time at VBS that it made the separation well worth it! The last night the parents were all invited to a program the children put on and it was so fun to see each class work together and share what they learned! They all did an excellent job. I didn't think about taking pictures until afterwards but another kind lady had taken of most of the classes and shared with me! I don't have one of Michael's class but just imagine a dozen hyper 5 year olds, guided along by 2 beautiful young ladies! Pretty sure they can handle anything after a week with that crew :)!

The 4 year olds might have been my favorite! Emily just adored her teacher and they sang Jesus in the Family at the program. So cute!

The 8 year olds. They had a lot of fun and Makayla was so happy to make some new friends here!

My sisters, Melissa and Melody, have 2 kittens that have gotten an overdose of love since we are here. Strangely enough, Ethan was terrified of them for at least 2 weeks!

My dad made an outdoor "kitchen" for all the kids and they pilfer anything they can to add to their stash. It entertains them for hours! Mud pies, coming up!

     When Eldon brought us up, he stayed for 3 days before he headed back to San Angelo. We finally had enough saved that we could go.......camper shopping! We have been trolling online for months and had a good idea of what we wanted.
-5th wheel
-no longer then 40 feet
-generator
-2 a.c.'s
-toyhauler, with the happi jac bed (it goes up......or down :) )
-queen loft area
-bathroom separate from the master bedroom
-second bathroom a plus
-under $30,000
     Whew. Pretty picky, I know! We'd narrowed it down to a few models that had everything on our list and were thrilled to find a few in the Dallas/Waco area. Friday we headed towards Dallas to check out a few. The 2 Keystone Raptors we really wanted to see were both dirty and stank and none had exactly what we wanted. We also browsed some new ones until our heads ached and I was feeling fairly discouraged till it was over.
    There was a 2010 Keystone Raptor an hour and half south so we made arrangements to meet the guy on Saturday. We'd had our eye on this one for a while but it was cheap-only $25,000 for all it promised to have so we were sure something was wrong that it hadn't been snatched up already. We laughingly made each other promise that we are NOT buying it today (we may be known for spur of the moment decisions) and hoped and prayed that it would be everything it said or just awful.

It was e.x.a.c.t.l.y. what we wanted. And it didn't stink. It fact, it was super clean. And the man was extremely nice. I finally just went outside because I couldn't handle the perfectness anymore. Eldon got done with his questions then told me we have to at least eat lunch before we make a decision :).

As it turns out, we brought it home that day! It just felt right. We knew. And the guy took a personal check. Who does that for that amount of money?! He even knocked a couple hundred bucks off since some other guy who was looking at it broke the black tank valve.

     That was Saturday. Brought it home and messed around a little, figuring out how it all works. Sunday afternoon Eldon headed back to San Angelo so I was solo parent. I worked at wiping out the cupboards and everything even though it was clean........it just felt like I should. My sisters helped me so much by cleaning and keeping an eye on the children. It also helped immensely that the 3 oldest children went to VBS every night and it was just Ethan and I for 2 whole hours. I started moving stuff over too. I didn't think that would take long though..........you know, we live in an RV, we don't have much stuff. What a joke!

And it rained and rained and rained.

Just to make you smile

Our garage! I was so very thankful that we could pile it all in there and put it away one box at a time instead of having the mess spread everywhere.

Although, it did spread everywhere. And no matter the chaos, one still needs to create pretty things if the the urge hits, right???????

Eldon came home late Wednesday night and helped me haul all our stuff over Thursday and Friday, in between rain bursts. Then we needed to clean and advertise our travel trailer. Happily, a man came from Arkansas last week and paid cash!

Licking the salt block at Tractor Supply just because we can!

Father's Day 2017.......this man totally deserves his own post but........this will have to do! As you can see, his children all adore him! I'm incredibly blessed to raise these munchkins with a man of God who puts spending time with his family above all else except God.

Our crazy little chicken man. He loves to go with Eldon to walk the barn and pick up floor eggs! Amazes me how he's scared of kittens but not 20,000 chickens!

Flying the drone

    That was longer then I thought! Hoping to get pictures of the new camper and post about that soon!

     As for our future, we've committed to stay in San Angelo until the end of September. It's a long time to be in one place but we have a good place to stay, good pay, and love the city! We do have a 2 week trip planned to Arkansas the end of July and hopefully will sneak in a few weekend trips to localish destinations. We'll be at the Albuquerque Balloon Festival from October 3-17 then we plan to hit the open road for a few months (after we help my dad get his chicken barn cleaned out and ready for the new flock). Pennsylvania is on the slate for Christmas but after that's it's wide open and we're so excited to see what doors God will open. Michael's praying Montana :) :).