Life Changes

Exodus from Smokey Mountains Tennesee

We were only in Tennesee for 4 weeks, we absolutely loved Tennesee and wanted to stay there. We had both been praying very hard about where we needed to move and what we needed to do. D finally came to me and said he felt we needed to go back 'home'. I didn't want to go, I tried to think of any other alternative but eventually after a couple of days I realized that the answer was clear. We packed up the trailer the next morning and we pulled out of Walland, TN.

It was hard to hold back tears as we drove away. I had to drive the car behind D for nearly 2000 miles!! Here we go:

The first day we drove 8 hours to Cincinatti Ohio. That was quite an ordeal. We were headed into some pretty thick traffic right as we got into the city and D snuck of an exit and left me on a crowded freeway. I was angry, I called him on the phone upset because I did NOT want to be lost in Cincinatti by myself!!

Thank Heaven for Navigation!! I called D and said I am going to the first hotel on the navigation and I'll meet you there.

The next day we visited the Creation Museum. It was very interesting but we couldn't afford any of the shows so we just walked around a bit.

Here we are in the museum, I don't even remember what this was. We didn't spend very much time in the museum. We had to park the trailer back by the buses and the dogs were in the trailer waiting for us.






We were back on the road and headed toward 'home'.

The LONG road home!

This was in Ohio or Indiana somewhere. We stopped for lunch off the side of the road and couldn't find a way back to the freeway so we took a LONG dirt road until we were finally able to find an on ramp again. You can see us driving along the road following D trying to find a way back.

We didn't tell our parents we were coming back, they had no idea. Dcalled his parents and told them to go outside. They walked outside and we drove up in the truck with the trailer on the back. They were shocked and very excited.

After 6 weeks living in the trailer, We find a Home

Trailer living here, is NOT the same as trailer living in TN. It was horrible. The trailer park manager was a nightmare! We were so anxious to get out of there.

We found a home, it is on a postage stamp lot which has been very hard for us to deal with but we are truly greatful to live in a home and not a trailer.

This is home for the next 12 months. Notice there is no table in the kitchen. We lived for about 3 weeks with no furniture at all. D flew back to Tennesee, loaded up our stuff and drove all the way back. It is a LONG drive.

Showing Off and Muddy kids, great combination!!

T is Being a Show Off!

Dont we all deserve a little showing off now and then.

Okay, so I'm showing off a little but, it's fun :-P I've had a lot of fun creating recipes lately so I wanted to show them off. This is my campfire grilled tofu and veggies in my homemade miso BBQ sauce. MMmmmm it's YUM!!

Roasted Garlic Tomato Cream Sauce

This recipe is my BABY, it is my special recipe! I am so proud of this one, man is it fabulous!

I roasted a bulb of garlic, made a fresh vegetable tomato sauce and a roasted garlic cashew cream and combined them with herbs and this turned out AMAZING!!

D said it rivaled anything he'd had at Macaroni Grill!!

Blueberry Cobbler

I created this recipe one night while craving a dessert which happens A LOT!! Much to my dismay because the scale just does not agree with my sugar binges, UGH, it's so darn unfair why can't sugar healthy?

Anyway, there are no refined oils in this recipe, the rich flavor is developed with a combination of nut butters that provide whole food fats, and only a few grams per serving.

Strawberry Banana Ice Cream

Okay, hold on to your sweet tooth, this will ROCK YOUR WORLD!!!

Dessert that is actually GOOD FOR YOU!!

This ice cream is fantastic, amazing, delicious, creamy and has NO refined sugar of any kind.

Bananas, strawberries, dates and oh so delicious!! You could eat this every single day and don't forget the chocolate sauce on top Mmmmmmm!!!

I also put a freshly made granola style topping on this too. Are you hungry yet?

Veggie Stir Fry in a Creamy Brown Sauce

That probably doesn't sound too exciting but this is very reminiscent of a dish you would get in an Asian restaurant.

It is awesome served over brown rice, YUM!!

and on to the FUN part......

Mud and Children, the Perfect Combination

Yeah, send your kids outside to play and you think everything is fine, until you check on them......They have covered themselves in MUD!!!!



I thought by nine years old K would have outgrown the PAINT YOURSELF WITH MUD stage....Apparently NOT!!
Here they are smearing each other with mud. Oh the joy of cleaning up after this mess.
They had a ton of fun getting all muddy, come to think of it they haven't had a shower or a bath in a couple days, UGH!



Oh well, it'll strengthen their immune systems, LOL!!






Here is my little drama queen posing for the camera.

D took the kids and put them in the trailer shower to clean them off. It was quite a messy process but at least they had a lot of fun!






Off until next time.......

The Comedy Barn!

Our Trip to Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and.....

The Comedy Barn!

Pigeon Forge is a great place to visit for families. It has a bunch of shows, rides, waterparks etc... but everything is FAMILY FRIENDLY!!



They have magic shows, comedy shows, The miracle, dinner shows, it is a very fun place to visit. We took some street shots of Pigeon Forge so you can see how fun of a place it is. It was so nice to have a night out and go see an excellent family show.

This is a photo of a race car track, Saloon and The Comedy Barn. They have go karts that drive 40 mph!
Don't forget that Dollywood is up here too....you can enjoy shows, roller coasters etc.... It's so cool.






Here is a dinosaur ride you can go on, it's expensive but looks like a lot of fun. If you want to see a lot of shows and enjoy the area you need some serious cash because everything is at least $80-$200 for a family of 4.
The Comedy Barn was great because kids were free!! It was the cheapest show, we loved it and the kids are still begging to go again.

We decided on The Comedy Barn and we LOVED IT!

The kids got to participate a lot in the show and they really enjoyed it.

Life isn't all doom and gloom these days.....Don't forget to have a little gratitude.

Even when times seem tough, the economy is crashing like a bowling ball thrown off the empire state building and the government is slowly trying to take control of every aspect of our lives we need to take a moment to just laugh and remember to find joy in the simple things in life.

We sat and watched the comedy show, laughed and watched the kids enjoy participating and in that moment, we found joy. Sure reality can slap you in the face the next morning but remember when times are hard you have to find simple things to look forward to, moments to spend time with your family laughing and finding joy in that moment amongst all the strife around you.

On to the show.....

Okay so instead of post a bunch of pictures I decided to do another slideshow and along with the slide show I will be putting up clips of the comedy barn show including the kids participation...so sit back and enjoy this moment with us...

Disclaimer:

For all you mom's out there with toddlers you may understand this. As you may notice watching these clips, K's clothes may look a little 'puffy.' Well, the little pill INSISTS on wearing pajamas underneath her clothes. This may be normal for a 2 year old, but my NINE YEAR OLD daughter insists on wearing her pajamas under clothes.....UGH!!!

She insists on wearing scroungy clothes which makes me feel bad because she is such a beautiful girl but what can you do. I decided the relationship was more important so I quit fighting with her....much to my dismay.

So here is my little scrounge muffin in all her scroungy, pajama wearing glory...I say this with all the motherly love in the world :-D

The Funniest Clip Ever!!!!

This is hilarious, this guys laugh is too funny.

This is just a short 2 min. clip from the DVD. When any of you come to visit us, you have to come to the comedy barn with us!

The Kids with the Comedy Canines...so cute!

Kids Dancing away!

Our Crazy, non-traditional, outside the box life.....

We LOVE it!

So there you have it, our latest family adventures. I must say, having an unpredictable, non-traditional life is so much more rewarding. Ddoesn't know what address to put on job applications, we don't live, we dont' live in Virginia, but the address we live at in TN is a campground ;-P
He finally put the campground address on his resume, whose going to know anyway. Well, I guess if they care, they care, what can ya do, that's life.
People ask where we are from, originally but then they assume that's where we moved from, nope, it's not, oh, where'd you move from; VA, and they wonder why, well that opens a whole new can of worms doesn't it. That warrants a response something akin to.....'Do you want the long or short version of that story?'
So we explain living in VA for 7 long months, people look at us like we've lost our marbles. Travelling around, going to school, not going to school, moving to TN for no reason. Hey, life is to boring to be traditional. Life's short, have fun.
Who says you can't move somewhere just because you want to, why do you have to have a reason?
People are so funny, they never think outside the box. It's like, you move somewhere if you have family there or if you have a job. NOPE! That's the BORING way to do it. Why not be crazy and move somewhere just for the heck of it and find a job AFTER you get there! Oh, no that would be too scary, you can't do that.....Well, not if you're a scaredy cat!
I've never been one to do something because it's what, "Everyone else does." D and I had talked about moving to Tennessee years ago, probably about 4 years ago. We don't do things sitting down, if we want to do it, we'll do it.
Our families are not fond of our adventurous nature, but what can you do. Some family has never been happy with what I do no matter what it is so I figure, what's the worst that can happen, they don't like me....oh wait, they already don't. I guess I've gotten over the wish that somehow, someway they would eventually decide to get to know who I really am and actually like me, 17 years later and they still don't know the first thing about me.
Anyway, enough of my ramblings, I can't dwell on those who hate me or life would be depressing and life's too short for that. If they want to hate me over petty misunderstandings over the past 17 years who am I to stand in their way....have at it.

Tentative plans to travel We do plan on traveling  in May, depending on Ds job situation. I'm a little worried about the trip, It'll be almost a year since we left and I'm not really one for a lot of attention, and I am a very private person, I have to have my own space, especially kitchen and bathroom.

We'll see how it all plays out.

Well, I'm off. Until next time.

Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains

We took a short trip to Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains!

I can't deny that some days here have been full of peace and joy and others have been marked by fear and stress. Being without an income and wondering when a job might come is stressful no matter how you slice it. We've had our moments of fear and doubt but things have been looking up.

Dave has been called for a second interview for one job and another job is also looking very promising. We are hopeful that something will work out, I'm sure it will.

We took a beautiful trip up the canyon to Cade's Cove. This is a beautiful area in the smoky mountains, it was beautiful!

It's been rainy and cold the last few days so we've been having a little 'cabin fever.' Last night we went to 'The Glowing Bowl' for dinner. It is the only vegetarian restaraunt in Knoxville.

Unfortunately Knoxville is a pretty run down city, but the yoga studio/vegetarian restaraunt was very nice and cozy inside. They had excellent, healthy food!

Kenzi and Camdyn had Soba noodles with steamed carrots, broccoli, asparagus, sesame seeds in teriyaki sauce.

Dave had a roasted tomato sandwich

I had a cauliflower, parsley and olive salad

and of course we had a chocolate shake for dessert!

Camdyn begged us to come back the next day :-D

Various Ramblings and Family moments!

Homework has been interesting, the kids have been major whiners lately. Probably because daddy lets them get away with just about anything if they beg hard enough :-(

Despite the joys and the trials of trailer living I have found that it has taught me more than I would have imagined.

I've learned to find time to pray daily however you can. Living in a trailer you can imagine private time is nearly non-existent. I think I took for granted having privacy, now I have actually found myself valuing my daily prayers more than ever before.

We have also found that going to the grocery store frequently is a BAD idea. You buy extra stuff every time you go. I walk past fresh pineapple or mangoes and how can I resist! Dave buys corn chips or soy ice cream sandwiches....of course he goes for the junk...UGH!!! What else is new.

Kenzi and Camdyn have become obsessed with Webkinz because there isn't much to do on rainy, muddy days out here. We are going to have to break that habit.

We've been listening to times tables songs and Kenzi has been frustrated because Cam is picking it up faster than she is.

We've learned not to lose faith no matter how dire things might look, the Lord is always watching over us and sometimes we may have to be patient but the Lord will bless us.

We may be moving to Nashville if Dave gets this job he applied for. We are praying that he will, we LOVE Nashville. In fact we all would really like to go back to the Veggie Cafe again too!

I made another slideshow of our photos, the slide shows are so much better!

Homeschool Recess and Good ole' Southern Life

Good Ole Southern Country Trailer Livin'

All the days I spent thinking that a big house and a fancy car meant happiness I must say were completely wasted.

I have had more fun in the past 10 days living in a trailer than I have had in a long time! We have had so much fun spending time together as a family, playing, sitting around the campfire, talking and enjoying the outdoors. We've been spoiled because we don't want daddy to have to go back to work.

The best things in life, don't cost any money and can't be measured or quantified. The best things in life are not actually things!

Can I just say: Don't ever let your husband fix anything!

I added the 'Happy Working Song' to my playlist for comedic effect as I tell you about our Broken Toilet!

As I am sitting here typing my Dear Hubby who thinks he's a fix it man, just broke our toilet! I'm not kidding, it is bona fide, true and true busted. Well, I guess I could cry or get upset but somehow I'm sitting here laughing. What can you do, those not very handy, handyman husbands [roll eyes].

So now it seems that I when I wake up every 3 hours at night to go potty I have no idea where I'm going to go, but in 30 degree weather it ain't gonna be outside!!!

I told Dave I might just sit on him to go potty to get him back for breaking my toilet. I swear if I didn't have a good sense of humor I think I might actually be having a fit.

You know what, it's not worth getting upset over, all I can do is laugh. Getting upset isn't going to fix the toilet, in fact it would just make the situation worse, so I'm just going to laugh about it and call a fix it man in the morning [Grin]

Relationships matter more than getting upset over a broken toilet. After all he was trying to fix it for me, because it wasn't filling with water like it was supposed to, but it was still usable. Now it's not even usable, I find that completely and totally hilarious. Trying to fix a still usable toilet and now it's not usable, that's a REAL fixit man. I can't help but laugh, it's so hilarious.

If you aren't appreciating your WORKING toilet right now, You should be.

Life sure has a funny way of throwing us curve balls,........ well in my case.......A LOT. Well, I wasn't actually posting today to tell you about my broken toilet, the fact that it happened while posting got me side tracked. I ran and took this photo of how he 'ATTEMPTED' to put it back together, UGH! Well, I guess it's just another bump in the road of our adventure. What can you do..

Yep, that's my not very handy, handyman hubby's toolbox. No really, I'm kidding normally he's pretty handy but he's a little bull headed in thinking that he can fix things that he really knows nothing about. Luckily I don't let him near the cars, LOL. That would be a disaster I'd have to have an even better sense of humor for.

I WAS going to post about the latest family fun we've been having in the campground. I swear there is a never ending list of fun things to do living in a campground!! It just gets better and better, well aside from the broken toilet, that's not a 'Better thing'.

I made a movie of bedtime in the trailer, Homeschool P.E. and Recess, more campfires and the kids FAVORITE......The Showers!!!

As I speak Dave is headed out to the showers to wash all the potty water off himself, Ewwwww, he stinks. That is so nasty! Oh the adventures of living in a trailer.

Okay, sorry, anyway, Here's the latest video.

Update: We are headed to a hotel, Thank Goodness. The whole dumb trailer smells like a sewer so we decided to forgo the roughin it and head for the hotel. I'm sorry but my adventure stops with pottying outside in 30 degree weather, I'm not THAT adventerous.

We're off to the hotel....wish us luck that a real fix it man can actually fix the toilet.....

Daily life of a Trailer Dweller

A Day in the Life of a Trailer Dweller

I've actually managed to continue creating recipes despite the fact that I have a tiny little fridge and virtually no counter space. I thought I'd share a photo of my Fresh Vegetable Marinara over Grilled Polenta.

I'm pretty proud of myself for continuing to cook fancy meals despite my very limited space. I made this out of whatever I could find in the fridge and cupboards, it was actually very, very good. The kids gobbled it up!!!

I've got a couple of slide shows to share with you but I thought I'd write a little about our daily 'goings on' for you.

A typical day in the trailer

Well, on Sunday it actually snowed a little here in Tennessee so we had to unhook the water from the trailer. It was a cold walk to the bathhouse for a shower and a cold walk back. I only had a few dresses and one spring skirt in the trailer for Sundays, all of which were short sleeved and short length [to the knee] So I went to church in spring shoes and a short skirt, FREEZING!!!

Much Respect for those who lived without our modern conveniences

I woke up this morning and did a workout, I actually did a great weight lifting workout: Triceps and Back today. I am doing Cathe's STS program, it is excellent. Anyway, the kids sat in the bedroom playing games, then I went out in the cold to the showers. I couldn't dry my hair because Dave had a job interview today, so I treked back to the trailer with sopping hair in the cold weather.

I immediately put the kids to work on their grammar, spelling and math while I cleaned the kitchen. Much to my dismay we had NO HOT WATER to wash the dishes with. I had a FULL countertop of dirty dishes from Sunday dinner and of coarse making cookies.

This was my first experience actually having to heat water on the stove, then pour it into the sink to wash dishes. It was time consuming. I heated water in my tea kettle, poured it into the sink, then I refilled the tea kettle and put it back on the stove to heat while I washed dishes, then when the water became luke warm I poured more hot water into the sink.

This experience gave me a lot of respect for those who lived before us without our modern conveniences. WOW, that was a lot of work just to wash some dishes.

One good thing is that there is no meat and no dairy in this house so even if the water isn't too hot we are not at risk for food poisoning issues that can be caused by not properly washing surfaces after cutting raw meat, YUCK!!!

You can't really get sick from salad that has sat out, or steamed vegetables or beans or rice so luckily that isn't an issue.

School Days in the Trailer

School has been great, in fact Camdyn has been learning his times tables with Kenzi. We sat and sang times tables songs today, then did times table flash cards so the kids will have them perfectly memorized, YAY!

Kenzi got upset because Camdyn was actually beating her to it on the flash cards, he knows a lot of his times tables and is only in 1st grade!!

We read scriptures today for awhile and the kids were very involved in it and enjoyed it a lot.

Kenzi has been doing some pre-algebra lately and she scored in the 98th percentile in Math!! I had them take a standardized test earlier this year and they did awesome in math. In fact it was a test that was supposed to determine whether they learned enough for the end of the school year but since Kenzi scored in the 98th percentile already I think she's doing pretty good!

Kenzi has been working hard on her English so hopefully she'll have equally awesome scores in English at the end of the year. I have a test scheduled for them in April or May.

Camdyn scored in the 98th percentile in math too!!

Camdyn is reading chapter books, Kenzi has been reading the Third Grade detective books and loving them.

Kenzi was enjoying her Brain Quest workbook today and did 5 pages in it.

Trailer Troubles

We have run out of gas, luckily the campground fills the tanks right on site for you, whew!!

The water line froze last night so no potty water, we were running to the bathhouse to go potty. It warmed up and thawed out, YAY! I bet you've never appreciated your toilet before.....well I must say, now I appreciate flushing toilets!!!

We have tripped breakers trying to vacuum.

Not having hot water and having to boil water on the stove to do dishes.

All in all its been an adventure, I'd have to say each of these things we found amusing. What can you do, it's where your at so you might as well enjoy the little quirks along the way.

I should NOT have done this!!!

I thought it would be fun to do a Heber Memories slide show.....stupid, stupid, stupid. After I made us all bawl our eyes out and miss our land and our horses I realized that the memories of our land and animals is still very fresh and the pain of leaving them behind a little to raw.

I thought some of you might enjoy this little movie about our Heber Valley memories.

Okay so I know what you are thinking........just move back to utah! Well life just isn't that simple. It sounds all nice but when you consider that our home in Heber is listed for $600,000 you realize that financially we cannot afford move back to where we love.

Well you say, there are cheaper areas, yes there are but consider this. Think of the one place in the world you wouldn't want to live, if I told you to live there you'd say no. Well living in a neighborhood is the one place we don't want to live, so the better option is to live in a state where there is a lot of beautiful open land where housing is cheap. We'd move back to Heber if we could buy our old house back but that's just not feasible at the time, so here we are.

I don't know where we'll end up living to be honest but I can say that the one thing that we will be doing is prayerfully making the decision, you can't argue with that.

So on to the next video..........

More campground fun!

Trailer living...White Trash or High Class?

Our First Campfire/Veggie Dog Roast

We have really enjoyed our trailer dwelling experience so far. The owner of the campground gave the kids marshmallows to roast, actually he gave them a whole smores roasting kit. Mommy doesn't approve of marshmallows but what are you going to do :-D

They roasted veggie dogs for dinner and LOVED it. I really consider veggie dogs to be junk food, So I roasted some sprouted tofu and ate a salad.



The kids and doggies enjoying the sun and their veggie dogs. Kenzi begs for campfires every single night, she loves them!!!

I am a HUGE fan of campfires but not so much in 30 degree weather, it cools off after dark. We've had some nice warm days near 60 and some colder days.

Kenzi eating her smore

Kenzi just got her hair cut at the salon with me on Tuesday. She has always hated taking a bath and getting her hair brushed so I finally decided to have her hair cut short.

It is a really cute style and she is able to brush it herself.

She now BEGS to take a shower. Kenzi and Cam LOVE the showers here, the bathrooms are private just like a hotel so they each go into their own bathroom and take a shower while Dave and I wait outside. It has been really nice to finally have her be willing to take a shower or bath without a HUGE fight.

Katie and Toby enjoying the campfire

The dogs enjoyed the nice warm fire too. Toby was exploring while Katie laid by the fire and rested. That tends to be a trend with them, Katie is always resting and Toby is always wandering around getting into trouble.

Katie and Kenzi!

At this very moment as I am posting this Kenzi is BEGGING Daddy to let Katie sleep in her bed with her tonight.

Kenzi was preparing blankets and a pillow for Katie to sleep with. It is so cute, Katie always watches everything Kenzi does, she follows her everywhere.

This is SOOOO Much better than watching t.v.

This was one of the greatest evenings we have had as a family. The kids ran around collecting wood for the fire all evening. They roasted marshmallows, ate smores, roasted veggie dogs, and Dave and I sat by the campfire and visited.

There is something about being outside enjoying the family that is almost magical. We used to watch the news before going to bed and the commercials for the shows on t.v. these days are appalling. The only show we have ever watched is American Idol, but I must say there isn't a single worthwhile show on television these days. The shows are either completely mindless, silly junk or vulgar, profane and obscene.

It is amazing how little by little we accept more vulgarity, obscenity and profanity into our lives as Hollywood sneaks it into television shows little by little. I have found that as we have avoided watching television shows for so many years, when I catch a glimpse of television while visiting someone's home I am shocked and upset by what is being shown on telelvision, including the Disney channel.

Maybe more of us need to turn to the simple things in life and give modern technology a backseat to the things that matter most in life.

Warning, Tandi is stepping up on the soapbox again...

This picture is hilarious! Both of my children are about as dramatic as they can possibly come.

The situation of living in a trailer due to financial hardship is not exactly something I would choose for myself. However, I must say the experience has been amazing none the less.

Leaving Virginia is almost like a distant memory. It was a very positive thing for our family, the high intensity of the people there can get to you very quickly. Neighbors never say hi or wave to one another, they just look the other way. Cashiers at the grocery store do not say a word to you, some cashiers at clothing stores will completely ignore you unless you ask to be checked out.

Virginians are more worried about guests taking off their shoes and using coasters, they care more about their carpet and their table than their guest. A traffic jam in D.C. looks like a Mercedes dealership. One neighbor told Dave he had lived in Virginia for 20 years and he said no one cares one iota for anyone but themselves. They worship their jobs and their money and they'd run right over you and never look back if you got in their way.

Despite the fact that I did not enjoy the arrogance, I learned a lot about what really matters in life. It really drove home the message of what happens when we forget what really matters in life and start focusing on finding happiness in money and worldly possessions.

The kids enjoyed gathering wood for the fire, in fact that's what they did the entire evening. It's really amazing to watch kids find joy in such simple things like gathering wood for a fire. It just goes to show that your happiness all depends on your mindset.

In this economy I think a lot of people are getting a BIG wake up call. When you lose everything it makes you evaluate what you put too much emphasis on. If when you lose your home you feel devastated maybe to put too much emphasis on the house and not enough on your faith, family and what really matters in life.

I found joy in the simple pleasures in life. Sitting around the campfire was very peaceful and enjoyable.

I'm grateful for the lessons I've learned from this experience. I may not have a dime to my name, or a fancy home but this experience is priceless.

I know the Lord loves me and is watching over me, I know he will bless us and we will always have what we need. I have my family and that's enough. Trailer living in my book, is high class!