My Mother was Insane… :)

I think about the past 10 years of my life and consider it a complete turn around.

My mother passing away…. Getting married….. Having three AWESOME HAPPY HOOLIGAN CHILDREN…  Buying, fixing up, having a house fire, and selling a handful of houses…. Living in a 5th wheel for a y ear……   Getting divorced (filing for it.. trying to get divorced)……..   Going back to College full time while working full time while doing the SINGLE MOM thing full time……   Living in a travel trailer for a few months…….   Taking a job 3000 miles away and then moving with said 3 happy hooligans across the country to a city where I know no one……..  AND NOW… the trip back —–

WOW.  I am SO HAPPY to be where we are today.  Life is hectic and planning this trip BACK EAST is a bit stressful considering the chaos behind it all but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  The kids are excited about living in a motor home… the kids are excited about seeing a couple new fun things along the way on the venture back east… and they are good.  Very GOOD…. compared to where they were only one year ago.  Educational experience overload. Yes.

What I hope to share with them someday is the foolishness that my mother instilled in me as a young woman.  My mother would embarrass me and poke fun at me in public all the time.  I realize now that it was her GOD GIVEN RIGHT as a MOTHER to do those things but at the time I completely (almost) hated her for doing those things to me.   She got a kick out of it and now I honestly can not wait to play fun games with my kids and be all sorts of insane in public in front of my own children just to embarrass them so they can remember me as the crazy lady just as I remember my mother as that same woman (unfortunately she passed away when I was 21 so she never got the opportunity to meet my children)… but oh man.. she would have LOVED to had known them and been a grandmother.

Basically I saw this other picture (below) and thought of my mother.. and a slight twinge of pain shot through me as I had felt sad because I will never know that feeling of being FOOLISH with my mother because I still had so many embarrassing moments with her (towards the end of her life I was just coming out of my shell of not wanting to be embarrassed and I too would act a fool in public with her around.. together we were insane.. they should have locked us up .. LOL)

Basically I know her personality was a bit off the path as most and I love that about what she was and who she helped me become….   I wish I could get on these little motorized carts now with her and just run amuck in public… terrorizing the “normal” people out and about… all the while LAUGHING at ourselves and our insanity….

I day remembering the good times brings back so many happy thoughts/memories.  🙂 Keep those who you love CLOSE to you and ALWAYS make sure you tell those who you love… that you LOVE THEM…  time is fleeting…  it really is…  and you never know when someone else’s or your time is going to run out.

Wyoming is wonderful…..

When I get the down time I cannot wait to go through the 10,000 photos I have from the journey so far…..  I’ll be posting from every stop and the roadway sights along the way…. Wyoming is by far the most beautiful place I’ve seen … Other than the ocean of course.

We haven’t even hit the halfway mark yet….. What a WILD 2 weeks it’s been. I will never get enough travel to fulfill this drive to see and do and go…..

🙂 *Happy day bloggers!!!!!

Take Vacations … Happy People …. The time is now…

 

I wish I could constantly be surrounded with people who “get it” about travel – seeing new things – doing new things –

But for now….. I’ll just surround myself and amuse myself with these posts of quotes/pictures that make my heart happy.

If I sit still too long I get antsy. I like seeing and doing new things. I can not sit at home all the time and just be in a ROUTINE without the opportunity to try new things or venture off past the horizon….

All I can hope is that everyone out there somehow gets this travel bug before they’re too old to act upon it…
Such a happy life…

I am content. And THIS is a vacation of sorts. I am happy now. The time is now. (I think of the song.. shining happy people now by REM)

NOW — I can NOT help but insert the video to go with it… MUST LISTEN. MUST appreciate. Must dance along. 🙂
Enjoy the ride.. this is life. Today. Now. And it’s Hilariously Awesome.

Smiles and Ambition and Dreams and Motivation. Yes, Please!

 

 

 

Upstate New York – Winter time —

After spending 12 months in the desert…. completely ‘skipping’ winter… I realize how beautiful it is and although we choose the ‘best year’ to miss in upstate New York — (apparently it was pretty rough this year)… I have to say I only missed the beauty of it all.

I did not miss the bitter cold. The ice. The sleet. The rain. The freezing rain. The frozen mud. The hats/gloves/coats/boots/mud/water and salt stains/slush. 🙂

I simply missed the beauty of it all… the WOW of the blue sky behind snow covered hills/trees.
The ice sickles dangling from buildings. Watching water drip drop as it melts wishing for spring to come….

But I greatly DISLIKE the cold. Always have… always will. The views are truly to die for though… they are *sigh* wonderfully made.

Wander. Lust.

Driven for adventure.
OK with not knowing what’s around the corner.
Content with what I have today.
Grateful to have health.
Blessed with happy children.
Excited to see & do new things.
Breathing and praying through the uncertainty of it all.
Living every day with trust that everything will be okay.
*even with occasional hiccups/overwhelmed/stressed out days*

Hope for the best. Trying to share some of the country with the kids.
Anticipating the copious amount of learning for both myself and them from the trip.

This pull inside me to just go a little further, check out the next adventure, experience something new just because it’s new….

Will it ever cease? Will it ever fade?

I HOPE NOT.

Having Experiences are Worth More than Having STUFF

If I can instill ONE thing into my children that rages so strongly inside of me….. It would be this….

Do not collect STUFF (or collect it but don’t hold it as high importance)

But rather..
GO
SEE
DO
FIND
EXPLORE
RESEARCH
TRY and FAIL
ASK QUESTIONS
and KEEP SEARCHING

Make sure you collect EXPERIENCES

(The kind of experiences you can transform into out of this world stories you can tell over a camp fire)

Another one of my favorite quotes that I try to live by and set an example by….

Says SO MUCH in so few words… and I love it….

Have Less
Do More

Words To Live By.

You Only Live Once

 

When are you going to go somewhere or try something new?

What are you going to do with yourself that is incredibly awesome today?

Whose life can you possibly influence in a positive way?

 

Hope Now – Everything Rides On….

Addison Road —-

 

 

 

Hope is just about the only thing that has got me through YEARS of sheer uncertainty, chaos, and some days overwhelmingly stressful wonderful life.

 

 

HOPE.

 

Yes. Please.

 

 

RVing with Kids (The human ones)

So the question is —- Am I an adrenaline junkie? Do I enjoy this? The planning is fun…. the stressful moments actually doing it all is not always so much fun. Travel with 3 kids. Driving with 3 kids. Camping with 3 kids. Hiking with 3 kids. Yes. (in hindsight) I loved every single planned/unplanned bit of chaos during the first time around (when we drove from New York to Arizona 11 months ago)…. and so far I love every second of it….. so I must be.

The first time we drove across America….. it was interesting to say the least.  I think NOTHING went as planned other than the route and the destination.  Kids loved seeing new things.  Kids hated sitting in the car for hours on end.  Meeting new people every time we stopped was part of the adventure. Mechanics are incredibly nice to you and talkative when they want your business… 😉 —– The first time we towed a 20 foot travel trailer and it took us almost 2 weeks….    People told me THEN that I was crazy for wanting to go on a long road trip with kids….

Now it’s time to make the trek back across America….  The kids have no concept of time (not REALLY) and can not fathom how long this trip is going to take us….  AGAIN.  I know they’re going to ask me (just as they did on the way to Arizona….) “ARE WE THERE YET?!  HOW MUCH LONGER?”   The second question isn’t possible to answer for them because they don’t understand when I tell them it’s only 25 more hours to drive (which might take a week)…. I will just keep telling them to look on the map and consider how far we’ve gone and how long it took us to get this far already….  maybe they can wrap their heads around the idea of time a little bit more by the time we get back to New York…..

They are excited about the trip again.  They are excited about their “NEW HOME” (temporary home on wheels) and they LOVE their new SPACES inside the motorhome.   They have already helped me put up the map (where we tracked our route last time) and they have spaces for their books, crayons, papers, toys, dolls, blankets, etc….   They make the trip exciting for me… but I know they’re going to lose the thrill of it all fairly quickly……