Catch Up Time Again & Time to Plan for Our Next Adventure

Greetings on this very wet and rainy night here in Edmonds, WA.

We have 11 more days of selling Christmas trees.  We have sold 164 trees so far and have 77 trees on the lot.  We are expecting one or more two deliveries this week before our final weekend.  We are actually open till 5:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve.   We have had one tree stolen from the lot ~ found out that is not unusual.  Frustrating to say the least.

One happy family with their Christmas tree.

Ali peaking out from behind the trees.

The drilling machine.

 Friday morning we decided we had better do some laundry.  It had been 19 days since we had done laundry and we were running out of some of the necessities.  This is what 19 days of laundry looks like:

After doing laundry we stopped at Edmonds Lutheran Church which is right behind Safeway where we are parked.  I went in and asked Sue, the church secretary, if we could fill our water tank in the motor home after explaining that we are selling Christmas trees just across the street.  She said sure!  We also found out that they have a Christmas Eve service at 8:00 p.m.  Guess where we are going?  God is so good, he gave us water and we now have a Christmas Eve service to attend!

We have had a few visitors.  Saturday afternoon, Dee & Tim brought us down our mail and the license plates for our Jeep and a great birthday gift.  A little heart that is now hanging in my kitchen window (I will get a picture and post it next time) that says "Welcome to our home on the road."  I love it and you see it as you enter the motor home.  We laughed a lot and even sold a couple of trees while they were here.  Total count for the day was 27!  Our best day ever.  We also got another $3 tip - that makes $18 in tips!  


We also had an unexpected visitor at midnight Saturday night.  A lady banged on the door at midnight and said she found her tree.  So Ron got up, went to the tree.  She said it was $21.  WRONG it was $41.  She thought that was crazy and so walked off.  No sale.  It was close to 1:00 a.m. before we were able to get to sleep.  She should have at least bought the darn tree!


Saturday night we got a job offer from the Escapees Co-op campground in Hondo, TX.  We also got a job offer from Childs Meadow Resort and another campground about an hour from Salinas.  And we also have the request to rejoin the carnival for next year.  First I was stressed because we didn't have a job and now we have choices.  Choices oh my!!!  Answer to be found later in this post.


Sunday morning found us facing a horrendous downpour.  It was raining so hard that Ron let me sleep in.  We finally got a break in the weather late in the afternoon.  Our friend Bryan and his two kids, Evan and Lauren came by for a short visit.  They brought us treats from Starbucks!  Love them and those coffees!  

Sunday afternoon I needed to make some change.  We have a change jar so I thought I would grab it and make some change for the cash box.  And this is what happened:

This is what happens when you pop the top off the jar and it goes crashing to the ground.

Close up of the change.  It went all the way down the side of the bed and all along the foot of the bed.  Fortunately it was a plastic jar so there was no glass.

This is where the change belongs.

We sold 17 trees yesterday.  In the evening Fran, our collector, and Chuck, the tree owner came by to get our money from the sales from Saturday and Sunday.  Ron told Chuck about our job offers.  Chuck told Ron we have a job with him for next year selling trees if we want it.  He says we are doing a good job.  That was encouraging to hear especially since we have nothing to compare it to.


Today we got off to a rather slow start.  The sun was shining when we got up.  We did some clean up inside the motor home.  I think we have as many needles inside our house without a tree if we did have a tree.  We swept the inside of the motor home and hung our blue rug up on the fence to dry from all the wet shoes on it over the weekend.  Ron also did some sweeping outside.  It was a pretty quiet day.  We were both on the computer this afternoon when there was a little knock on the door.  It was Kristy and Kodie!  They made a detour on their way home from Children's Hospital to come and visit.  We had a fun time catching up.  Kodie was anxious to get back on the road as she had been promised a lunch treat at McDonald's.  While they were visiting we had a customer so we all went outside.  Kodie decided she needed a fresh tree.  She was on the hunt.  She found just the right size tree.  Ron then found her a special little tree stand.  Kodie knew you had to pay for her tree.  I made a tree sign and Kodie paid me 25 cents for her tree and tree stand.  Then it was time for them to go home.  Kodie had to find the tree a safe place in the car for the journey back to Bellingham.  

Ron & Kodie with her tree and receipt.

Kodie anxiously awaiting Mom so they could go to McDonald's.

And her tree tucked safely in for travel.

I then took advantage of a slow day and took a two hour nap.  I laid down on the couch and slept for over two hours.  While sleeping it started to rain again.  Remember the rug we hung up to dry ~ well now it is really wet as it is still outside.  It won't be coming back inside for awhile now.  Oh well.


Then we had some phone calls to make and some emails to send.  What was our news that we needed to share.  We are happy to say we have accepted the positions in Hondo, TX.  I will be the Office Manager and Ron the Outside Property Manager.   We are excited to accept these positions and start planning our new adventure.  We start our new jobs on Monday, March 14, 2011.  So now we start planning a new trip too!  I will share our plans for the route, dates of travel and where we will be stopping in the days to come.


Thank you all for your prayers of support and encouragement as we searched for work and watched to see how God would open doors for us.  As we begin this new adventure I will continue to share our praises and prayer requests.