Sunday, February 18, 2018

2018 - what will you bring?

It's January 1st 2018. My husband is NOT feeling well and I"m sitting on the couch in front of the fire with my dog Matilda thinking of what is to come in this next year.

New years is always some sort of slightly magical time of year, like somehow because it's a new year we somehow have this new chance to be better and start better habits, break bad habits, and be better people than we were in the past year. Of course we don't need a new year to do this, we could start this any day, but for whatever reason, January 1st is the time to make improvements.

The major thing this year is that we will be moving to Colorado. I'm really excited for the adventure, but also sad to leave my family. Not counting moving to Chicago for school for 1 years, I've never moved far from my home town before. I know we're doing it, we're making preparations - it's real, but it does not feel real yet. I suppose it will not feel real till we're pulling out of the drive way, or maybe when I tell my bosses and turn in my notice, maybe when I get a offer for a new job, maybe when our primary house sells and no longer belongs to us, maybe when I say goodbye to our friends and family before we leave. I'm sure it will feel real soon enough. One really cool think i'm looking forward to is that, before we head to Colorado to start jobs and such we're going to take a tour of America, go down through Southern Illinois, to MO, AK, MISS, TEX, NM, AZ, NE, UT, ID, OR, WA, ID (again), MO, WY, ND, SD and finally to Colorado Springs. We're going to live in our camper trailer till we find a house, not sure how long that will take. I'm not sure what Judah will do... He does not want to paint anymore - and wants to do something else as soon as possible. We'd like to open a campground - that was the original plan, maybe run a hunting business in the winter, or rent our RVs. We have a few ideas. I have interviews in January - 2 of them, i'm pretty excited about them. I'm also going to see if my bosses want to keep me and let me get my own work in CO to run... Does not hurt to ask...



If all goes well the rental house will close in the end of January (this month) We will list our current residence middle of this month, hopefully it will get an offer fairly quickly, and we will close maybe middle of march and hit the road. I think the Tour of America will take about 2 months or a little more, that means we'll be in "The Springs" around the end of May. Thats right in time for school work, so that's probably good timing. I wanted to miss peak tourist season but also not have problems with the weather, so I think leaving mid march hopefully will be perfect.

Another thing I want to do while traveling is have a really good diet. I got this awesome breakfast sandwich maker from my sister for Christmas, so thinking we'll use that a long for breakfast/lunch, and buy more organic food... Then have smoothes every day and do a lot of grilling and veggies for dinners. I'm sure we'll eat out too - need to try the flavor of the places we visit, but to save money we'll do a lot of our own cooking too. Also we'll be doing a lot of hiking, and I want to go running everywhere we go too. The hiking trails will be different than the running trails so will be fun to see more/different trails. I'll probably pick flatter eaiser trails to run on, then more difficult hikes/climbs for the hiking part. I'm hoping Judah will join me for a lot of the running... but fine with doing them alone too.

Matilda is also coming with us, She's been on a diet for a month or so and is losing weight somewhat slowly. I'm trying to get her into condition so that she can hike 5ish miles with us with out being sore after.. it's a little difficult now because it's really cold right now and I'm having trouble being motivated to take her out... We did go out yesterday with my sister and her dogs for a 4.5 mile run/hike. Tails was really sore after, but seems fine today. I don't get it. I wonder if it's just like me after a long run... she just recovers faster... I just want to make sure i'm not hurting her, I want everything I do with her to help her live a better life, I don't want to take her out for too long and over do it and cause any problems down the road... It's tricky.

All for now - happy new years!