Angry with God...

I love God with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind. And sometimes I yell, scream and question Him.

I am not the first believer to shout out in frustration to God - David wrote psalms shouting at God, Jesus quotes one "My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?" Job questions why God even allowed him to be born. Isaiah questions why he asked to talk to people who do not listen or hear and instead ridicule him.

God took it all. He didn't banish these men from Heaven or His Kingdom or even from continuing to do His work. He asks Job "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?...Have you ever in your life commanded the morning..."

Isaiah reminds us that God's ways are not our ways and His ways are higher than our own.

David falls weeping and reminds us of God's faithfulness. "As for me I will call upon the Lord"

I don't understand God at times. When He gives good gifts to His children and then watches as the joys are ripped away. I get angry. I yell. I scream. I weep. I cry out in tears and rage questioning the Almighty God  - asking "Why?"

I am thankful that God knows my heart and He is with me in the pain. His Spirit comforts me and reminds me that He alone made the Light, He created my face, He will heal my heart and the hearts of those I love, He is in control - not me. I fall at His feet.

Where else could I go but to the Lord.

Thank you for loving me enough to let me pound my fist on Your chest, Father, and for holding me tight until I fall at your feet.

Frog Pond....Afton NY

I feel bad about my rant on Afton, NY yesterday.

I was making my now famous Tabouli Salad and needed some more fresh ingredients. It was pouring down rain but decided to see if Frog Pond was open anyway.

Frog Pond is a farmer's market shopper's dream. Rows and Rows and even more Rows of fresh fruits and vegetables. It ALMOST made me want to really get into cooking and baking. A real chef could have come home ready to make fresh apple pie, pumpkin pie, butternut squash soup, vegetable soup, pumpkin soup, breads of all sorts. If you are a real baker or chef - come visit - I will buy if you cook :)

I needed basil, red onion, cucumber....I bought all that plus honey crisp apples (my favorite), tomatoes, carrots, red peppers, hot peppers, sweet peppers, broccoli. All for $8.50. Good food - inexpensive and 3 miles up the road. I love it!  I already had so I didn't buy but would have: plums, pears, red cabbage, brussel sprouts (they are really good if you know how to cook them and I actually do). 

I hope they are still open when we come back up in a couple of weeks. As long as we have hummus and tzatziki  we will be set for lunch and dinner.

OHHHHH and most importantly the people were so NICE! The man who was doing running the cash stand was amazing - he did it all in his head out loud. Seriously impressive and pretty funny too. The people in line were very friendly and chatted about making squash and apple pies - I listened and drooled.

I went for a quick trip to Horton's - of course they were as helpful and nice as always. So..I decided to go to the Bakery - just to see what they had. Cold rainy day and they do make the most amazing soups (not as good as Nina's...). Of course they had my favorite in the crock pot - pumpkin thai soup - I had to! The girl was polite and my order was correct.

Afton could grow on me...I do love a small town.

"I was born in small town...I can live in a small town..."

I love that song! I was born in a small town, love living in a small town, can talk to sweet Jesus in a small town and will probably die in a small town. I am overwhelmed at times when we are in Long Island but as long as I stay in my comfort zone of Locust Valley, Glen Cove, Brookville, I am okay. I LOVE NYACK.

Nyack is one of my favorite small town in NY. It has the water, the Nook, Rockland Bakery (you all know my relationship with bread by now), several pastry shops (again with the breads) and Black Bear where I can watch the Colts. I can walk from Leah's into town for coffee or run to the Nook and continue on for miles jogging along the Hudson. The people are friendly and seem glad you there and enjoying there town. Oh and spending money in their establishments!

If we stay in NY I can see us settling in Nyack. It is close to LI - just shy of an hour away and close to my  other favorite small town Gardiner. We have amazing friends in Gardiner/New Paltz area. There are also some great restaurants, delis, bakeries and farmer's markets up there. If it were closer to LI it would be an even tougher decision. For now....being close to family and the airport wins out. But, Jan Jan don't be surprised if we end up moving in next door (i.e. your front yard) with the RV for chunk of the summer :)

This is our second trip up to Afton and I am so very disappointed in the people who live here. It is as if we were plotting to come through to buy up the land and build a mall! The first two weeks we came up most everything was closed - it was July 4th and apparently the time shops closed up before the busy season began. The Main Street Bakery was open and Marian had told us it was outstanding! She was right. The fresh baked cookies, scones and deserts....I need a moment.... Good coffee and amazing salads - fresh produce from local farmers - yummers! But, the people that worked there were so rude! Our order was always wrong and never once did I complain. I tipped very well knowing I would be in there daily for the next two weeks. Nothing but rudeness. How fast could I leave please is all they seem to care about.

The one place where the people were friendly in town - the hardware store - not the big True Value up the hill (they were also very very rude!) but the local one on Main St - Horton's. I went True Value one time because Horton's didn't carry something we needed (sheets of drywall) and I told Andy I would rather drive to Oneonta the Home Depot.

On a side note we spent some time in Bainbridge at pizza place and coffee shop in  Oneonta and nothing but kindness.

Now we are back in Afton for the week. Andy stopped in to the Bakery to surprise me with an oatmeal raisin cookie (yep, he loves me) and he said the same lady was working there and was still incredibly rude. I went for my run this morning and decided to stop by the local bar to see if they had the NFL ticket. The guy literally shook his No and turned his back to me.

So very sad. If you are from a small town...please be nice to the tourists, newcomers, etc. I know they increase the traffic (I lived in mountain town - I get it!!), they raise the gas prices on the weekends, increase the wait at your favorite brunch spot but they also bring in some revenue. Being a small town should feel like home even if it is not your own. That is part of the charm and what sets us apart from the City.

What is your favorite small town? Post some pictures, comments, stories, best places to go, etc. I want to stop in!!

More firsts.....

Nothing changes more than our schedule! Our cross-country road trip was going to be in October, then December, then November, then possibly Jan, back to Oct and now....probably sometime in November. But, that is subject to change! That is part of the fun of this whole adventure. The reasons are a mixture of jobs, money and time but we are making it all work! Here is what we do know for sure - Christmas in IN, January in Denver and Salt Lake City (trade show season for the outdoor industry) and 99% sure February in Natchez, MS. Everything else changes daily.

So with January in Colorado approaching only months away we have been talking about researching how to live in the the RV in COLD weather. Just talking about thinking about it.

We are now up in Afton, NY about 4 hours north west of NYC. It is beautiful! The leaves are changing and the sun is shining. Oh and it dropped to 37 degrees the first night we were here. Uh...we may want to start doing that research about now!

The first night (no space heater) we just got under all 4 blankets and we were fine...until we had to get up in the morning. Whew! Chilly. I got on the computer to some of my favorite full-timer Blogs and found that using a ceramic space heater was a good idea in the RV for a quick heat fix. Andy went to the local hardware store Horton's (the only friendly people in all of Afton, NY - I am not kidding! More on that latter) and purchased a Pelonis space heater. It heats the RV up quick! We also had some of the silver bubble wrap sheets for the windows - we just put them up - not attached or anything yet.

We have now done a lot of research and have a lot of work to do! We will get a good trial run when we come back up to the lake house the last week of Oct/first week of Nov for more remodeling on the lakehouse. Andy wants to work some different skirting options and insulation. I have noticed the biggest heat suckers are the front chassis, the exit window (by our bed!) and the bathroom. I am sure he will make this place tight and energy efficient. As long as he doesn't take away my space heater I will be happy :)

Up until this week we have been staying at the marina or in front of Leah's house so we have had access to a shower. That all changed two nights ago when we arrived in Afton. A plumber is coming next week to install a shower but until then we have one shower to use on the premise - our own in the RV. We read the manual and it was pretty easy - hit the button that says HTR which is next to the one that says PUMP. Whola - hot shower!

Of course there is where we see how green we really are. How much water is really used when we take an average shower? The average 5 minute shower uses 10 Gallons of water. Well....we only have a 40 Gallon Tank (Marc, is that right) so that is only four 5 minute showers! Plus we need that water to flush the toilet. So....we need to stay well below average. After spending a few weeks up here this summer with only a sun shower we did get pretty quick and efficient.

Andy took the first shower last night - a well deserved one after tearing apart the font deck and pouring concrete for the new one. Whew! I earned mine after a nice beautiful run this morning. The water was so hot it almost burned my scalp - I screamed and added cold to the mix. My shower was probably only 2-3 minutes.

Exciting stuff - showers in the RV and gearing up to live in the Rockies as an RVer. I am stoked!!!

Oh Indiana, Indiana...

I was born and raised in Mooresville, IN. For the last 4 years of high school all I could think about was leaving IN. I went to college in Bloomington and still only wanted to leave the state. In Jan of 1998 I moved to St Louis, MO; in Feb 2003 I moved to Denver, CO, Feb 2005 Silverthorne, CO, Sept 2009 Portland, OR - as far west in the US as I could go (almost). In May 2010 to NY - as far east in the US (almost). Now...I miss Indiana.

I am not moving back (I promise, Andy).

My room at my parents is not the same - it is set-up as a guest room - but it will always be my room. Marcus and Cari would the say the same. Some of our high school stuff still remains in the closets. The high school has been expanded but the smell and feel is the same. I am still a Pioneer. The restaurants around Mooresville have not changed much - Gray's Cafeteria has had some recent fame being on Man vs Food but the mac and cheese hasn't changed. Biff's is open again and though I have not been back in to try a Bismark I hear they are still sweetly amazing.

I am thankful that via FB,Marcus and Jamie I have been able to keep up with some friends from HS. It gives me even more reason to come home. Having TRUE friends makes a big difference. Learning over the years to be a good friend has made all the difference.

Getting over my ego, myself or whatever obstacle I dreamed up - good therapy made me see it was crazy. I always came home for holidays and when Josi was born I came home 8 times a year. But, I never really did anything - I didn't want to interact with anyone from HS. Just see the family in and out in 3 days. Now, a week is not long to see everyone and enjoy what IN has to offer: renewed friendship, Colt's games and some great restaurants (next article).

We will probably never live in Indiana but going home will always mean going there. I am proud of my up- bringing and have truly enjoyed remembering all the good parts of my childhood. I am thankful for an amazing family who told me I always had a place to call home. 

There is a hole in the sky.....

When Andy and I bought our first home aka House Car we knew we needed to replace the A/C unit. As Earl was threatening to hit the east coast Andy was removing the original unit at Manning Imports. He was on the roof of the RV most of the day and came to a few conclusions.

One was that the previous owner failed to mentioned the reason the A/C didn't work was because they had clearly attempted to drive under and underpass that was not quite 10.5 feet high! The cover didn't fit because it was not meant for our Coachman! Bummer.

The second thing was that we needed to replace the entire unit not just the fan and it would take 7 days to arrive. Double Bummer!

Did I mentioned Earl was heading our way - you know the Hurricane??

Okay...so this is what we had - a nice sun roof in our home! We had to drive up to Nyack - about an hour north for the next job. The storm was brewing!

Andy covered it up (no picture) for the drive up. I had to drive the Pathfinder with trailer and tools so I couldn't keep an eye on the hole in the ceiling. The sun was shining, he covered it up, we should be fine. Now, we are more than a little nervous about water - remember we already had an indoor water fountain and hope to not install another!

When we got up to Leah's house in Nyack we realized Andy had lost the cover he had put on! Thank goodness no rain or birds or other foreign objects came in. He re-applied the cover - it was really quite impressive using wire, duct tape and a dome feature - I wish we would taken a picture. Then we waited for Earl to hit....and waited and waited and waited.....no rain, no hurricane, nothing - just a lot of heat and humidity with no A/C...but not rain inside our home..whew!

The A/C came in a week later and we drove down to Manning Imports for Andy to pick it up and install it. THEN the rain came and it cooled down. No need for the A/C but very nice to have the hole replaced - much much nicer!

We also found that we have 2 heaters! As winter is approaching it is good to know. We actually turned the propane heater on for a few minutes the other night - it was toasty warm - very nice.

The week that was hot, humid and we had the whole in the roof...we were also parked on a tilt. Our bed was flat but the rest of the RV was slanted and it was ANNOYING! Cabinet doors slamming on my head, uncomfortable to sit at the dining table as I am falling forward, more slamming cabinets. I asked nicely that when we returned from LI that Andy park flat.

 Check out the orange levelers....Ahhhh so much better!! Love it!!

I have so much to write about Nyack!! We are LOVING being up there - a great little town. More to come..keep reading! Please please make a comment, subscribe, email, tell me what is going on with you!!

Pictures....

We had a great New Year and I wanted to post the couple of pictures we remembered to take. I need to be better - pictures really make a difference..I know!

Here is our dinner table at Nina and Stu's. We are digging into the famous traditional Matzo Ball Soup. It is not a Jewish Holiday without it - unless is one where fasting is required!

This one of my favorite dishes (besides Stu's Matzo Bri - it is by the far the best!) it is Potato Knick - it is potatoes and a bunch of other yummy things Nina threw in :) We had it the next day with breakfast too - so good. 

Now all I can think about is all the amazing food at Passover! I am not sure if I want to go eat or go for a run to make room!

What is your favorite holiday dish? Come on...I want some feedback!!