Merry Christmas Card from The Pods

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Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful and very mellow Christmas! Nice and quiet. Santa brought the boys perfect gifts. Everything will fit nicely in the camper. So happy that Santa knows what our family needs!

Curren got his much anticipated ipod touch 4G!! Zane got a whole new collection of trolls. I got a mini razor, mini blowdryer and soon to get a mini chopper/blender. Greg go a mini electric razor, books and healthy munchies. Mini is the name of the game this Christmas.

Now that the big day is over it is time to knuckle down and get the show on the road! Today I am finishing up curtains for our bed area, Greg is hoping to get some work done on the camper, but again it is raining. I feel like we live in Seattle! I better get used to it though. We are leaving in February.

We have much to do to leave on our deadline of February 1st. We still have to rent out our house, sell everything, finish the camper and house and organize my business to take on the road.

We will get there. Greg and I have done it once before and we can do it again!

Love to you all,
Danielle and The Pods

The boys are free

We finally did it, we are homeschoolers. We got the boys into a great program called Coastal Academy. They are funded by the State of California. They supply all the lessons and books, but also will reimburse up to $55 per month per student for extra activities or lessons. I will be the primary " teacher" and feel blessed to teach my two boys. Of course their last day was a bit sad and will we probably have a few more sad days. After all they have been at this one school the whole time. We will give hugs and reassuring words when needed, but as I told Zane today after he got a little teary , " there is absolutely nothing in this world that a slurpee won't fix" and I was right. I love my boys
Greg

Everything must go!

We are moving toward our goal everyday. It is definitely becoming more real now that we are getting rid of so many things. We went through the whole house and eliminated many things that we won't need or won't be able to fit in the camper. Between Greg and I, we have over 6 huge black trash bags full of clothes. We have piles of books, housewares, toys and electronics. The hardest thing for me is going through my shoes!! I have so many and most won't be right to our life in the road. Do I store them? Sell them? So many decisions! Everything is stacked up in the garage ready to sell. Tomorrow is the big garage sale and we hope to rid ourselves of all this stuff. It is amazing how many things we found that we didn't know we had and how many doubles of things we have too! We found 3 full bottles of rubbing alcohol, 3 big packs of soap, extra Tylenol bottles, toothpaste, heating pads and the list goes on. Our cupboards were so full of junk we didn't need, use or know we even had!! If feels so good to unload.




















Now the fun part is watching Greg improve the camper daily! Here are some pictures of Greg's projects. His to do list is monstrous and overwhelming, but we will get there. We have done this once and we can do it again!

Moving up the departure date. Are we insane?

After working 60 to 70 hours a week for about six weeks getting a remodel done, I finally have some spare time to get back to working on the RV. Some of the items I am working on are, putting in laminate flooring, upholter dining area, wallpapering walls.




It is weird how things work, the other day Danielle and I were talking how in the world are we going to be able to sell all of our stuff. We live in a homeowners association and of course do not allow garage sales. The alternative would be criagslist but listing everything with pictures, but would take forever. We were getting frustated and decided not to worry about it, so we just put it off to later date. Two days after we got a letter from the association management company. It was a notice about the semi -annual garage community garage sale and it will be on November 13,2010. Just two and half weeks way. It is weird and wonderful how He works in our life. With added vigor we dug into all the closets and downsized. It was wonderful to not worry about should we keep this or keep that. We just can't keep them, we intend to sell everything and not have storage except for keepsakes.


We have a couple reasons to move the departure date. The first is we got the notice about garage sale. The second is we got our new LOWER mortgage rate payment, which will allow us to rent out our home. I think renting out the house has comforted the boys a bit, knowing that we can always come back. Even if we don't. So the sooner we go the better. We plan on renting the house out beginning of January. We will of course stay in the southern california area for the first month, because you can't beat the weather. It will also enable us to work out the bugs running Danielle's business on the road.

Other than that we are hopeful for the future and continue to work on the home and rv.

Peace to all

Greg




Oct 30th - Still going strong


Here are some progress shots.









Teddy breaking in the new carpet!

Well, the past couple weeks have not seen a progress on the motorhome due to deadlines at work (60-70 hours per week) not fun. Couple of additions to camper since last posting.
1) installed canoe rack with two rollers which we are then able to strap to top
2) installed secondary house battery ,still need to connect
3) installed new flooring we were going to go with cork but found line a laminate bamboo at 1/4 cost so guess which one we went with.

Other than that not much on camper. I think the most difficult part will be sorting thru house. We have been able to sell a few things that we never use and will continue to sell. it is amazing when you start to organize your life inorder to downsize. I found out that I have a least 4 complete sets of SAE and metric socket sets. To the person that said " he who dies with the most toys wins" probably died when he/she finally realized how much stuff clutters their life and has robbed them of the most precious things in life ( time with their family and the freedom to enjoy it). Enough for now.
Greg

Still plugging away!

We are still plugging away toward our goal of leaving for our big adventure. Several things have changed since our last post. We are no longer going through Mexico and Central America. There have been too much in the news about all the violence going on with the drug lords. We are not willing to risk being in the crossfire.


Plan B? We are going to explore the good ole USA and hope to go up through Canada and maybe Alaska. We will leave mid to late March and head east to Arizona to start our adventure. More on that to come.....
























As for the camper, we are working hard. Well, when I say we, I really mean Greg! He has been working diligently and it shows. He has installed solar panels, welded a rack for the canoe and a latter to reach the roof, the flooring is done, most of the painting and upholstered cushions in the dinette area. I sewed curtains for the boys bunks and will soon be putting up wall paper. It is really starting to look like a home.

Here are some of the projects Greg is working on. Painting the inside, tiling the bathroom and kitchen counters, flooring and a lot of work on the engine. After all the basic cosmetics we will upholster all the custions and paint the outside.

The long journey has begun

Well, after much consideration and discussions, we have decided to wander again. It has been in the back of our minds (Greg & Danielle) for the past couple of years. I guess we have grown tired of the mondane and as most of you know we are always looking for that next adventure.

With the boys getting older, Curren now 9 and Zane about to turn 7 , we decided as a family to go on another road trip.

But, not any old road trip. We plan on circling North and Central Americas for a year if not more, but with a twist.

We will be volunteering our hands and minds at least two day per week to those less fortunate then us.

We feel, as parents raising two young men that it is vitaly important for them to experience life beyond the gates of community and to truly see how lucky they are.

A little about the name we chose for our trip, Pragmatizo.

About a year and half ago at our church North Coast Calvary ,they had a guest speaker that really touched my soul. he was a pastor from South Africa. He discussed the idea that what we have ie: homes, cars, toys, items and even ourselves are not ours, but are to used for Pragmatizo

which means " by His hand" for the betterment of other less fortunate. I know I have heard it all before but this time it chord with me because this pastor put his money where his mouth was. When his was going to college they brought into their home a couple of orphan girls. They knew then and there that their home was needed not for their use but for the use of God's work.

The next step after our decision was to find the right vehicle. After building and traveling in our

tent trailer around the country for a summer and traveling in our custom made offroad teardrop trailer, we knew we needed alot more space.

http://pragmatizoblogspot.com/

We found on craigslist a 1984 ford fleetwood jamboree rallye with bunk beds in back for the boys and a queen up front for us. We went down to the location and found out it was a tow yard. They wanted just to get rid of it out of their yard. The price was right $2800.00. So we bought it without us being able to test drive it. I know it was a gamble but we put our faith to the test and when we told the manager of our plan( a really nice guy) he tested drove it for us with me in shotgun. Everything ran like a charm.

Next phase gutting it