Living is messy

Have you seen the movie RV?  Well, I had an "RV" moment on Christmas day. Thankful it was not like the one in the movie.  You can see it here: RV Movie Dump Scene
Well, I had dumped our "black water" tank and had partially flushed it out once and intended to fill it full of water from the outside fresh water flush point.  So, here I am outside filling the tank up however, I have no way of knowing how full it's getting.  Therefore, I holler at Stacey inside the motor home to check the system panel and tell me when the black tank shows "red", meaning full.  She yells out the window; "it's still yellow". Then she proceeds to go into the bathroom and she decides that she should visually check from the top down via the toilet.  Well...flushing water into the tank from the outside is putting positive pressure upwards.  So when she steps on the flush pedal and opens the valve......booosshh!!  Screaming.  "AAAHHH, SHUT IT OFF, SHUT IT OFF"!  I pull the black valve and turn the water off.  Luckily, I had already flushed the tank and we had no "chunks".  Funny now but, at the time...not so much.  Ah, Merry Christmas to all!

Preparing

2012, the year I can retire from the Air Force, has arrived!  Just 5 weeks to go. My official retirement ceremony is scheduled for February 14th...Valentine's Day.  I hope Stacey and the girls like that gift!  I've heard it many times from those who have gone before me..."it went by so fast!" I never paid much attention to those words or if I did, I'd be thinking to myself; "yeah, right. How can 20 years go by fast!"  Well,  I am saying..."it went by so fast!"  Funny how that works.  I liken it to trying to tell someone without kids what it's like to have kids.  You just can't "get it" until your there.  I've spent over 24 years that encompassed education, training, deployments, exercises and contingencies to get to the position I am at and in just 5 weeks I will just take off the uniform and that's it.  Done.  Seems very much anti-climatic to me.  I see the scripture of Isaiah 40:8 in such a new way..."The grass wither and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."  I am but a vapor in the wind.  I am grateful that there is a bigger picture than just me.
These past few weeks have been fast and furious.  We've been moved out of our house for about a month now and we will have had it cleaned, carpets cleaned and rooms painted by Monday the 9th of Jan.  At that time, we will have it ready for rent along with our other house in Southport.
Amongst all our comings and goings back and forth to our house, we celebrated our first Christmas in our motorhome.  We had fun decorating our poor little "Charlie Brown" tree that fit on our dashboard.  It looked funny with full sized ornaments hanging off of it.  Our youngest, Hailey was concerned that Santa would be confused and would not find us in our motorhome.  I assured her that he would do just fine.  And of course he did!  She made cookies for him and left a note that told him to: "Go easy on the cookies.  You gotta watch your weight."  Hilarious that she was conscious of Santa's weight problem!
We are still organizing, reorganizing, downsizing and adjusting to our significantly reduced living space.  It is a HUGE switch from a 2,200sq/ft home to a 37.5 foot motorhome.  However, we are all finding it agreeable.  It takes so little time to clean up the space and it forces us all to come together.  We are outside much more and oh...did I mention we also have two dogs with us.  They gottta be walked and not just let out in the backyard.  My plan was that we would only take our oldest dog, Molly, a lab-mix with us on our travels.  She is the quiet one and easier to manage...except around strange dogs...then she goes Cujo.  I was hoping that we could have someone to keep our other dog, Indie, a 1 year old cocker-anian (cocker spaniel/Pomeranian mix).  Having two dogs can be a challenge on the road.  I'd rather not...however, I think I would be deposed as a result of a mutiny by the women of my motorhome!  By the way, that's all there is in my house...women.  Even the two dogs are female.  I am and will be learning a lot...trust me!