Home Sweet Home

 They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  So, a thousand words about our new home, a 43' Mobile Suites fifth wheel -love it!

 

What a busy day; we unloaded the Uhaul (outside), and slowly began the process of unpacking.  As I find more storage here and there, a unique feature, small details I've missed, I'm loving this rig more and more.  Kylee was ecstatic to have her dress up clothes back and promptly made herself at home, while I'm already planning shelving here, bookshelves in there to which Kyle says, "I don't want to hear about any modifications yet".  Wonder if he'll get tired of saying that before I'm finished scheming?  

 

So after 9 hours of unpacking, I'm whipped, but we made a dent...I think!?

Before

After

 

      

The first night in our new rig...ahhh.  Not exactly how I envisioned it.  The mountain view in my mind turned out to be the dealer's lot in reality, but I don't care.  It's just good to be home.  Tuckered out, I head to bed expecting a great night's sleep.  I'm awakened by "Ahhhhhh-hoo-hoo-hoo".  Kylee's crying and rubbing her head, but her eyes are closed.  Not sure if she's awake (we have a talker), so I sit on the edge of the bed and rub her back.  She sleepily tells me she hurt her head (eyes fluttering momentarily).  I think back to our conversations of the day as she told us she's going to marry daddy, then me, then Jejus and when she dreams, she rides unicorns in Heaven.  I begin wondering if she really bumped her head or if it was part of a magical dream riding a flying unicorn.  Smiling at the thought of her sweet dreams, there's a warmth in knowing that she's excited about Heaven.

This Is What It's All About

Once we settled into our cabin (home until Wednesday) Kyle started reading the cabin journal.  After reading about several bear sightings from the front porch, I jokingly said, "Okay Jesus, you have 5 days to show me a bear."  The only black bear I've ever seen was the rump of one as he ran over a hill, a bear butt does not count in my opinion.  Kyle sees them all of the time, so I've been anxiously awaiting my first real sighting for years.  Which brings me to yesterday.

Yesterday started with me noticing a beautiful tree outside my second story bedroom window.  The green  leaves are all trimmed in red.  While showing Kylee the "gorgeous, just gorgeous" tree, as she described it, a  raven flew past our window with bread in her mouth.  Not happy with the tree options in the area, she flew past a second time determined to find a place to eat her breakfast.  What an awesome way to start a day!

We decided to go to Cades Cove and enjoy the mountains for the day.  Heading out the door, I saw a stick bug.  Sure, I've seen them at the butterfly conservatory, but there on the wall, in the wild, I was thrilled.  It takes so little to make me happy.  No, really; they're like 2 1/2 inches long.  He was too high up for a pic, but it was enough just to see him.  Note to self: get a telephoto lens. Grinning from ear to ear we headed to the Cove.

Stopping to check out a cabin inside the park, we spotted a dung beetle. While he was interesting and it certainly was amusing to see him roll around and around on his ball of dung, something about his diet kept him from being too exciting to me.  Kylee on the other hand found him fascinating.  She could not get over (or stop giggling about) a bug that eats "poop".  We had to start walking away to get her to leave her great find, so we took a different route back to the car.  This one cut through the woods, where we spotted deer trails that headed to the meadow.

As we exited the woods, a bright white, round, spiky mushroom caught our eye.  Kyle had the camera and was a good distance ahead of us, so no pic of our cool find.  Note to self: need a second camera.  No sooner had that thought ran through my brain, I hear Kyle say the magic word, "Bear!"  I looked up in time to see a black bear running across the meadow.  Thank you, Jesus!  Giddy with excitement, I muse to my husband,  "How cool would it be if we saw another one?"  Ever practical, he reminded me how unlikely that would be, though he did acknowledge that seeing a bear at midday (which we had just seen) was pretty unlikely, too. Completely happy and satisfied, we finished our trip.

 









As we left the park, we noticed an abundance of cars along the side of the road, which can only mean one thing - BEAR!  Not only was it a bear, but a mama and her cub!  Both of which went about their foraging as if there weren't two dozen people on the bank across from them taking a bazillion pictures.  We sat for at least  10 minutes, watching mama and her baby in a rare, unforgettable moment.  With a sigh of utter contentment and a heart filled with gratitude to my awesome God, for not one, but 3 bears, the thought occurred to me, THIS IS OUR NEW LIFE!  This is why we're full-timing!

Oh The Anticipation

September 23, 2011 - This one's a little late; had to remember how to use blogger!  ;o)

It's been a LONG few months, but time has flown by in a flurry of  packing, truck loads to goodwill, truck loads to storage, give-a-ways,  and a couple good, long cries plus a spat or two with Kyle to round it  all out. The sheer enormity of the task at hand and the unforeseen emotion sometimes overshadowed the dream, but we persevered holding on to our hopes for our new adventure.  And that adventure is fast approaching!  

The house has been rented out since September 1  (we've been living in hotels), logistics (like mail and  internet) are in place and (finally) we got the call that our rig will be finished next week. Tennessee here we come!  We rented the biggest pull behind u-haul the store had and I'm not sure what surprised me more, that it was only a 5 X 8 or that all of our belongings fit!  Still stunned!  Slightly fearful.  So, with our itty-bitty u-haul in tow, we set out for the Smokies.  

Driving into the mountains, my second thoughts about full-timing and all the stress from the transition just melted away. The mountains are therapeutic; the smell of the woods after a rain, the color of the leaves starting to change, the sight of the smoke lifting off the mountains is both soothing and refreshing.  Ahhh...we're home, back in nature. This is what we've been missing; this is why we decided to full-time.  For us, there is no place we'd  rather be, nothing that relaxes us and brings what's important into focus like being back in God's creation.