Weekly Mileage #58

the boys checking out the tanks and jumping in front of a helicopter

Last week was a crazy busy, stressful week, and I'm glad it's over. (fair warning: this is a long post)

Sunday after church the kids and I hopped in the RV (which of course takes prep work- clothes, food, etc, so it's not just a matter of hopping in and going) and drove down to NC. Mr M had to work, so he stayed home. I've driven the RV the hour and a half to the dealership, so this 5 hour trip was a stretch for me. This was a good thing though, as it gave me the opportunity to really get comfortable and build my confidence in driving the RV.

We went to NC to help my sister load up her U-Haul and clean her apartment as she prepared to move to IN. She'd worked hard and had a lot of the work done already, so everything went very smooth Monday and she was even able to check out of her apartment several hours earlier than originally planned. No last-minute, down-to-the-wire-shove-everything-in-the-truck-and-call-it-good rushing around, which was nice. Driving the RV down meant Sunshine could keep an eye on the boys in the RV, out of our way, as we moved furniture and cleaned. They watched movies and played with LEGOs and didn't get underfoot, so it was definitely a good choice.

Another sister flew in Monday evening to help drive the truck, and Tuesday morning we all hit the road, trying to out-run the storm that had been dumping rain on us all night and was moving north. We weren't successful, and it rained most of the trip home, which made it a lot more stressful. That, and we were on a timeline to get home so we could get Sunshine to her Irish music class, but we had to stop and empty the black and gray tanks along the way.

We don't have a convenient, close location for cleaning out the tanks and they needed to be emptied before the renters picked up the RV the next day, so I had to find a truck stop kind of along our way (there weren't any actually on the way) that had a dump station. Only they'd stuck a pipe in the ground for your sewer hose to connect to, and it was elevated about a foot, which meant gravity couldn't empty the hose. Such a frustrating, time-consuming process that I got to do in the rain. I'm so glad we have a box of disposable gloves just for such occasions. Lots of fun. But in the end, I did get the tanks emptied, I didn't make a mess, and I had dry clothes in the RV to change into.

We made it home with half an hour to move car seats around and start bringing things inside, then we loaded up again and took Sunshine to class. When we got home, I really wanted to just lay down and rest, but I had to clean all our stuff out of the RV and pull the bedding off the beds so I could wash them and get everything ready for the renters.

300+ year old white oak- too huge to fit in the picture

Tuesday night as I was getting into bed I checked my calendar and remembered that we'd rescheduled Sunshine's piano lesson for Wednesday morning (we'd missed it while we were gone). On our way home from that we stopped by Walmart to get a couple things for the RV. When we arrived home I couldn't find one of the items I knew I'd put in the shopping cart, and it wasn't on the receipt. I really needed it (clear Gorilla tape to protect the very thin veneer on the edge of the dinette table), so we went back to Walmart, where we found the roll of tape on the paper plate shelf, right where Ocean had put it while I was deciding on a package of paper plates to purchase. He'd tried to tell me something was there, but I didn't understand what he was saying. Next time I'll pay more attention to what he's saying.

Oh yeah, and on the way home from Walmart the first time we almost got T-boned by a lawn care truck that wasn't paying attention and crossed the highway that we were driving down, missing our rear bumper by inches. I'd seen him start to move forward, so I'd sped up a bit, which was good, since he didn't stop like I thought he would. He totally didn't see us, and when I looked in my rearview mirror I could see him staring at us with an "oh crap" expression on his face as he realized how close he came to hitting us. That got my heart rate up, that's for sure.

In the end, the RV was ready, but I didn't quite finish my "how to use our RV without breaking it" book before our first renters picked up the RV Wednesday afternoon. Luckily they had a full time RVer with them and they were just taking the RV to a local farm and sleeping in it, so they didn't have any problems.

River playing a ball game- you set the ball on the little foot pedal, step on it, then hit it with the bat when it pops up

Thursday we had a field trip to Ash Lawn-Highland, James Monroe's house just down the road from Monticello. We've been there before, but it's been years. Maybe before the boys were born? Our tour guide was very good at keeping the kids engaged, which was no mean feat, since they ranged from 4.5 (River) to 12 or 13. I'm not counting Ocean since he was on my back in the carrier and couldn't have cared less. He did enjoy the games at the end though.

Sunshine and Ocean playing with the hoops

That evening, Sunshine skipped her last Activity Days meeting and went to Young Women to help set up for the fundraiser they were hosting Friday night. She turns 12 this week (eek!), so she'll be able to attend YW camp in June, which means she needed to help with the fundraiser. Afterwards, she had her interview to receive her Faith in God award and to move up to Young Women. After working on the Faith in God requirements for the last 4 years, she finished the last of them, just in time.

Friday morning we took Sunshine to her co-op, only to find that the power was out (they'd sent an email right after we left the house and I didn't see it) and they didn't know when it would be back on. I decided to hang out and see if it would come on quickly, which thankfully happened about half an hour later. I was able to leave Sunshine with the co-op coordinator and then the boys and I rushed home to meet the renters who were bringing the RV back. They beat us by a couple minutes, but it was close. The RV was in good condition, so we signed the return paperwork and I breathed a deep sigh.

But I only relaxed for a couple hours, before it was time to get ready for the Young Women spaghetti dinner. Sunshine returned home from co-op, changed into an 80's inspired outfit, grabbed the bowl of gluten free spaghetti I'd made, and headed out the door to go to the church with Mr M. The boys and I followed a few minutes later, since there was no need to have them running around longer than they needed to be.

after the dinner, with one of the table centerpieces
and yes, her pants are pegged, though it's hard to tell :)

Saturday morning Mr M took the boys on an outing so I'd have some uninterrupted time to work. They went to a super hero-themed carnival thing for military kids (April is Month of the Military Child) and the boys had a blast. They met super heroes, played games, ate cotton candy, got their faces painted (well, River did, Ocean wanted nothing to do with that), played with bubbles and nerf guns, and checked out the helicopters and tanks.

River grabbed the biggest Nerf gun he could find- it was almost as big as him!

I spent the morning finishing up my 75 page "how to use our RV and not break it" book (I need to come up with a better title 😊), then planned out themes and blog posts for 4 different blogs for the next year. With that much writing to do, I need to be organized so I can work ahead and stay on top of things. I only plan to post once a week on three of them, so that makes the work load easier to handle. This blog is the one that's hardest to work ahead on because I talk about what's going on in our life, but because I have a consistent pattern to my posts, I know what's coming and can think about them during the week.

River blowing bubbles at Spiderman, River showing off one painted cheek, and Ocean giving Spiderman a high five

In the afternoon, Sunshine and I went to her recital. We've missed the last couple recitals because of scheduling issues, so it was nice to finally make this one. Sunshine broke out her fiddle and played some of the numbers, which her teacher and I were really pleased with (did I mention that she switched to piano at the first of the year? so she hasn't done much with the fiddle the last couple months). The recitals run more like an Irish music session, where musicians join in on the songs they know and sit out the ones they don't know. Since the kids learn different songs at different times, there's always at least a couple kids not playing each song. I think it makes for a much less stressful performance situation than the standard recital.

waiting for cotton candy, blowing bubbles, playing in a tunnel

Ocean woke up Sunday with a fever and a cough, so I'm thinking he picked up some germs at the carnival Saturday, poor kiddo. Hopefully the rest of us don't get it since we're sick and tired of being sick.

With all the crazy busy-ness, I never managed to exercise last week, other than helping my sister load her moving truck. This week I'm looking forward to less craziness so I can fit in some exercise. Over the last week and a half I've been working on changing my sleep/work schedule, which should help with the exercise issue, but I'll talk about that more later in the week.

Still sitting at:

4 hikes towards #52hikechallenge

56.91 foot miles towards #365milechallenge

85.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge