Thursday, August 20, 2015

"Home"

   Southern Utah and Las Vegas have become our "home" well at least our "home base". With most of our extend family in the area it seemed only logical. When we finally made it from New York City to home base we had a lot on our list to get done. As much as we loved our rig there were a few things that we need and wanted to do to it to make it fit our family and make it feel like home.



     First we took out the tiny table and chairs. They would not work for a family of 7. We then bought a utility shelf from Costco. It fit perfectly although we did have to cut off two inches from the top. We had wood cut to size at home depot for the beds and for the trim. We covered the trim pieces with batting and fabric using a staple gun then attached them to the shelf frame with screws. We had to adjust the bed levels after about a week because they were too narrow. This bunk is shared by our 10 year old Bobby, on top, our 11 year old Malayna in the middle and our 3 year old, Lindy, on the bottom. For the mattresses we used the memory foam toppers from Costco and cut them to fit. Lindy's mattress is on the floor and only goes about half the length, the other half is storage drawers from the Container Store. We are planning on adding curtains to each bunk.









    In the living room area we took out the two recliner chairs and little end table (can't find my picture of it). We also removed the couch that folded out into a sofa bed. We covered the walls with grey chevron vinyl wall paper from Target. (Vinyl wall paper tip- don't apply when it is hot outside or inside. Your walls will be warm and it will heat the vinyl and make is stretch.) A family of seven really needs a table for eating and school work. We put in a corner nook table that we found online at Walmart. It came in boxes so we assembled it inside. We found a new couch at Ikea. It is navy blue and fold out to a bed mat on the floor. Our 6 yo, Eva, and our 7 yo, CJ share the queen bed that is over the cab. We haven't changed very much up there.







    We haven't done much in the master bedroom. We did take out the window cover/frame things (don't know what they are called) and put in curtain rods and light out curtains. We got a new mattress from Costco, a 14 inch memory foam queen size (the sleep number bed kind of popped as we drove through the Rock Mountains) We had to use a long sharp knife to cut the length to fit the platform. We got rid of the ugly factory bedding. We added a corner shower tension rod shelf to hold our latest reading material and cell phones. We still plan on painting or adding more wallpaper and hanging some pictures. 


    We have also done a a lot of other things that are not very noticeable. We up graded the tvs, dvd players and the sound system. We added a few led multi color changing lights for the kids beds. We added window tint to all the windows. We added "stained glass window clings for the kids windows to block visibility. We added a rug under the table. We add a small kitchen cart to hold the blender and electric kettle. Command hooks are everywhere holding every thing. We added an under sink and out door water filters. 

    We have a lot more things we want to do to our rig. Hopefully time and funds will allow us that opportunity. It has been a lot of fun making our RV our HOME.





Until next time......I love you C,M,B,C,E and L.


Engine Trouble

     We knew it was bound to happen at some point. We didn't think that it would happen on our first real trip.

     From our last post we told you how just as were getting to Denver we started having engine trouble.

    After we got parked and settled into the back of the parking lot we started calling every mobile mechanic we could fine on google. Finally one of them answered.

   Zo and I decided to grab lunch and take the kids to the park while Colt waited for the mobile mechanic.

   After Colt waited for an hour the guy finally showed up looked at our rig and said he didn't know what it was and that he couldn't help. *useless*

   Colt being the smart man that he is and knowing something about everything wanted to try one thing...He drove the rig to a near by auto parts store. Spent about $400 (thanks fraud alert for the heads up) and drove the rig to the park.

    In the middle of a neighborhood on the side of the street Colt with 3 on lookers (Zo, Jer and I), changed the fuel filter in our diesel engine. After he cleaned everything up we had to go for a test drive to see if that fixed the problem. We piled 4 adults and 11 kids into the rv and went for a quick ride around the neighborhood.

    The problem seemed to be fixed!!

    Colt was a rock star and usual.

    As much as having engine trouble sucked, We are glad it happened when and where it did. We couldn't pick a better place to be stranded or better people to be stranded with!!

P.S  It has been almost 2 months and have not had anymore engine trouble.

Until next time, I love you C,M,B,C,E and L







Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Four Days Six States!

    After Bobby was released from the hospital Colt “brought the car around” and by car I mean 37ft RV.
     We were back on the road. We left Cleveland in the early afternoon. We dove for a few hours and stayed the night in another Walmart parking lot. We could have driven further but we were planning on making a special stop before the hospital and still wanted to make that stop.
    Helloooo……Goshen, Indiana! We are sure you are thinking, WHAT IN THE WORLD IS SO COOL ABOUT GOSHEN, INDIADNA? Well in that small little town lived a young man with a very big heart. Gen’s cousin Joseph.  We stayed the night and woke up bright and early and had breakfast with Joe at IHOP on June 24th! Our visit was short because we had to get going to make up for all the time we had spent in Cleveland.
      We drove 360 miles after breakfast. We made it to Nauvoo, IL just in time to do a few things before it closed. Colt had been there before so he knew what to pick for the kids since we only had time for two things. We first went to the visitors’ center then to see the temple, finally just in the nick of time we made it to the wagon maker shop and the black smith shop. We really wish we could have stayed longer but we had to move along.
  Another 134 miles were put in that day before we finally stopped for the night. It was late and we were tired.
    June 25th…..We woke up to weather alerts buzzing on our phones. The wind was howling and the rain was crashing on the roof. We were worried because we were still new to the RV thing and didn’t know how it would handle in the coming storm. We decided we should head out before it go too bad. We made it to Independence, MO at 10:30 am. We stopped at the visitors’ center and had a great time.  The kids really loved the pioneer play area they had.
    We were back on the road and we stopped for the night somewhere in Kansas about half way to Denver. We slept at a rest area. We were very excited about what was on the plan for the next day. The kids had no idea that we were going to see our best friends!! THE BESS FAMILY!!!
   June 26th……We woke bright and early to finish the 4 hours to Denver. The kids kept asking if there was anyway the Bess Family could meet us in Denver for lunch. We told them it was too late to ask them and that they were probably very busy. They sadly accepted the reasons and moved on.
   Unfortunately when the GPS said we had 30 miles to go until our designated meeting spot the RV lost power in the engine and we had to stop. Here we were on the side of the freeway with no exit for miles, we had no idea what to do and our friends were waiting for us only 30 miles away!
  We started driving after looking on line for what could be going wrong and searching for a mobile RV mechanic.  40mph is crazy slow after you were doing 70mph especially when you are so close to where you want to be and what should have taken 20 minutes is now going to take at least double that time.
   We finally made it to our meeting place and we got a hold of a repair person to come and meet us. Most importantly our friends pulled up and the look on the kid’s faces, the joy in their voices and the running into each other’s arms (the Bess kids had no idea either) will forever be a great memory for us. We just wish we would have gotten it on video, next time for sure.

   Engine trouble to be continued…….
IHOP

Nauvoo Temple

Eva in Independence.

Bobby driving the covered wagon

Malayna gathering food.
The Mississippi River










BFF! Gen and Zo were just as excited as the kids were!


Monday, August 10, 2015

....Continued

     The continuation of 2 Months.......  

    June 14th..... We were awaken by Bobby at 3 am. He told us he vomited in the bathroom and that now his hips were hurting. We cleaned him and it up. We checked his temperature (102*F) gave him some fever reducing medicine and back to bed we all went.

     6:45 am........Bobby woke up crying. We got up to check on him. He still had a fever. We asked him if it was still his stomach and hips that were bothering him. He told us all the pain moved to just his right side. *DING DING DING* Then we knew exactly what it was. We woke everyone up and got them in their seats. We searched for the nearest children's hospital. 

     Our plans to tour around Kirtland that morning turned into a trip to the emergency room. Luckily we weren't too far from Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, in Cleveland, Ohio. 

    After we found it we had to figure out how to get our RV around the campus and to find the ER entrance. Colt dropped Bobby, my Mom and myself off on the side of the road near one of the entrances to the hospital, while he drove around looking for somewhere to park a 37 foot RV. 

   Turned out we were on the wrong end. After following signs we made it to the ER. The nurse called Bobby back to triage, before I even got a chance to fill out the paperwork. They had him back in a room right after triage. The resident came in and checked him out right away. She said it did look and sound like an appendicitis but that her attending had to say for sure. The attending came in and did the same exact exam and agreed with the findings. The attending said they were going to skip the scan and just call straight up to peds surgery. The on call surgeon and her residents were down to Bobby's room in 5 minutes. She also said no scan was needed based on the exam and his story of how the pain started and progressed. 

   A nurse came and drew labs and started an IV. I tried calling Colt so he could come give Bobby a blessing before they took him to the OR, but there was no cell service in the hospital. My Mom left to go find him. 

    Colt was still circling the hospital when my mom was outside and got as signal. She told him there were 3 spots open in a row but that he would have to parallel park. Colt is amazing and perfectly parallel parked our rv, like a BOSS!(or so I was told). He made it to us just in time. We had to ask the nurses to stop wheeling Bobby away so we could say a prayer and give him a blessing. They were very kind and understood. 

    We followed them up to pre-op where they took one more set of vitals and the doctors came to talk to us about what they were going to do. 

     It was a very slow day for the staff there because while we waited the pre-op/post op nurses sat and talked to us about our life. They were very interested to hear all about our traveling life and all the place that we had been to. They thought it was pretty cool. While we were waiting for Bobby we had to figure out what were going to do with our RV and where we were going to stay while we were in Cleveland. 

     That parallel parking job Colt did was a metered 1 hour only parking spot. I stayed in the waiting room while Colt went and figured out what to do with our RV. We were very lucky that the doctors, staff and security personal were all willing to help us out with that matter. The head of security took Colt around in his car and showed him all the places we could stay for the next 3 days while Bobby was recovering. As luck would have it, the stop where the Ronald McDonald house RV normally parked was open because their RV was in the shop. Tender mercies from the Lord.  

    The surgery took longer than we were told by at least an hour, which had us worried. Finally the doctor came to talk to us. Bobby's appendix had already ruptured. She thought it had been leaking for a little while because he already had infection that was borderline gangrenous. She told us that normally kids go home the next day but Bobby would be there 3-5 on IV antibiotics. 

   Long story short 3 days came and went. 5 days came and Nana went home. On day 8, June 21st, Bobby went back to the OR to have fluid drained from his incision site. The Nurses at post op were surprised to see us again., but they did enjoy talking to us about our travels again. On day 9 Bobby had to learn how to take a pill. The antibiotic they were going to send him home with only came in pill form. We tried every possible way to teach him.

    Day 10, June 23rd, he was discharged!

    It was a long 10 days. Thankful for the hand of the Lord in making sure all of our needs were met. The kids loved taking care of their brother. We finally felt like a complete family again.


In the ER.




Just wanted to hold Mom's hand.

Made him get up and walk to the game room.

Playing Wii with Nay

Daddy brought him a present.

Bobby was in the hospital and we took the kids to the museum.

Our crew.

Sitting in the healing garden

    
Getting out!!






Until next time. I love you C,M,R,C,E and L.
    

Sunday, August 9, 2015

2 Months

     I can not believe it has been 2 months since my last blog update!

    If you have subscribed to our YouTube Channel then you kind of know what we have been up to. If you are not a subscriber you should do it!!!

   There is way too much to catch up on, to fit it into one blog post. I will try to break it up into a few shorter posts.

    Starting from my previous blog post..... We had just shared the exciting news about are new home on wheels. That was on Sunday, June 14th.

    On Friday, June 12th we left New York city. It was a bitter sweet day. We were excited to be going on our next adventure but we were sad to be leaving the amazing friends we made and the wonderful city that will always have a place in our hearts.

     We decided to make our cross country drive into a, road trip!
 
    Getting out of the city was a big task to undertake on our very first day in our RV. There are so many low underpasses, tolls to pay, different freeways and so many cars. We still don't know how we made it out of NYC with out damaging anything. That first night we stayed in a Walmart parking lot.
 
    June 13th. Our first stop on the way was Palmyra, NY. We wanted to check out the Sacred Grove,  for us this place has special meaning. It was really cool see the way people lived back in the 1800's.
The whole family living in a one bed room log cabin with a loft. We all looked at each other and said we could live there. Hey, it's a lot bigger than an RV. We also stopped by the Palmyra Temple to take a few pictures of the outside.

   Bobby had woke that morning saying he wasn't feeling good. He slept most of the morning and just didn't say much. He didn't get out of the RV to see any of Palmyra. We thought he was kind of sad to be leaving his friends in NYC, so we tried to give him some space and time to process.

    We (Colt) drove to Niagara Falls, NY. We got there in the middle of the afternoon and parked in the aquarium parking lot. The view was amazing! We were very excited to go on the Maid of the Mist Boat Tour. It took us so close to the falls. We could feel and hear the power and force of the water.
   
    We had to walk about a mile to the falls so we made Bobby come with us. He looked sad and miserable but the distance was too far for us to feel comfortable leaving him in the RV. The whole walk he complained about not feel well. While we were on the boat he just kept his head down. On the walk back he started to say that his stomach was hurting and would stop to rest every few minutes. We thought it was probably all the junk food we had been eating or that he had to poop.

    We made it back to the RV. Colt took a nap and I made dinner. After we ate and cleaned up we started on the road again. We made it to a rest stop just outside of Kirtland, Ohio, where we stayed for the night.

June 14th.......TO BE CONTINUED.........


Palmyra Temple









Until next time. I love you C,M,B,C,E and L.