Flip Flopped, Upside Down, Twisted Around and Back Again

Disclaimer: There's lots of details and bunny trails so I hope it all makes sense and ties together in the end haha!

     What a year we've had! We are currently living in what feels like some alternative reality compared to just a year ago. We felt some shifting coming toward the beginning of last year. We had been praying over what that would mean for our family and wrestled with staying in KC or stepping out and pursuing Rick's career with the company he worked for. We put our KC house on the market not sure if we'd be moving on or if we'd be staying and settling into a long term home. We started looking locally for property and found literally a dream of my heart. It was a real log cabin with a great front porch and huge back deck on 5.5 acres. The property sat at the end of a private road so no neighbors behind or even beside it because of the way it was situated. My heart instantly fell hard and thanks to Pinterest I started dreaming how I'd put "Cabin Rules" prints up and decorate with moose pillows and even a red flannel throw blanket. We'd have a garden, bees, chickens and maybe goats and other animals down the road. It was truly idyllic. At the same time I was dreaming of settling into a long term home Rick was earnestly wanting to work towards a promotion with work and in our case that meant moving away from KC. An opportunity to move to St Louis was presented to us and we had to decide whether to stay and try to buy that cabin or leave and for the first time in our marriage follow a career over ministry.
     See when we were in high school we were involved in our youth ministry at church, then when we married we became leaders and He desired to become a youth pastor himself. So every life decision we made after that was ministry minded. We did in fact become youth pastors and decided it wasn't our calling after all. We still wanted to make ministry (of sorts) our life pursuit and made the decision to move to Kansas City and participate in an internship at the International House of Prayer (IHOP). We were going to give it a year or two and decide if we would stay or move back to FL. Once we got there we were sold. It was everything we desired for our family and more. We loved KC and there was so much to do with Jaidyn and I absolutely loved the different geography than what I saw in FL growing up. My heart was always so thankful for the opportunity though it was a huge sacrifice. We sold everything we owned except what fit in a 10ft Uhaul, we even sold one of our paid for vehicles to have money to live on during the internship. We moved into a basement apartment and this born and raised Floridian had never been in a basement. We left our family and moved to a place where we knew not a single person. It was exciting and scary and crazy and radical and something I'd do all over again if given the opportunity. We loved Kansas City and IHOP and the community and wanted to raise our girls in that environment. At the same time I longed to stay my heart wrestled with being so far from family. See 80% of our family including all of our parents and grandparents live in Lakeland, FL. Almost all our aunts/uncles/cousins/etc live there also. We would visit several times a year but travel is expensive and/or long depending if we flew or drove. But for 6.5 years we stayed. We bought a foreclosure and remodeled it and made it home. We had Jolie. Rick stepped out of full time work with IHOP due to needing more income and back into the marketplace where he grew and flourished. He went from being a cell phone Sales Representative in a retail store to a Store Manager to a District Manager over 9 stores within 4 years.
    Which brings us to our decision last year. We did take the opportunity and moved to St Louis. While I supported Rick and agreed with taking the promotion it wrecked my heart. I had finally settled into staying in KC (vs. moving back to FL) and had my heart set on my dream home. Moving to STL was harder on my heart than I ever could have imagined. I didn't feel purpose in my life because now our life pursuit was focused more on Rick and his career and I had no personal reason to be in STL, we left our friends who had truly become our family, we left a church and community of believers who had brought so much healing and growth to our hearts, and I left behind my dream home. I honestly didn't like STL from the beginning and knew we wouldn't be there longterm but still thought it was a good opportunity and could lead to another move down the road.  We tried to settle in and eventually found a church that we loved, we bought a beautiful house that brought comfort and I had fun decorating, we found a great school for the girls that they loved, but still it wasn't fulfilling enough to stay. Rick went through crazy stress in his new position and some very personal attacks on his integrity and character. There were company wide changes at the beginning of the year that made it difficult for him to have the freedom to be the leader he desired to be. He was constantly glued to his phone or laptop even in the late hours of the night solving problems and putting out fires.  We knew this couldn't last long. We both looked at the big picture of our life and asked ourselves what is it that we want from and for our lives? What do we desire for our girls? We talked about going back to KC but realized he'd either have to demote himself to store manager again or start over with a new company. Within the same few months of us moving to STL 5 out of 6 families from our main group of friends had also moved away. We just decided that it wasn't the right move (as much as I missed it) and opened our hearts to coming back to FL.
    We've always dreamed of being entrepreneurs and owning our own businesses (I've wanted a salon then a cupcake boutique then a tea room, etc) and Rick also had his own business ideas and now had the experience to feel confident stepping out and doing it. We decided on Tropical Sno for multiple reasons, a few being the lower start up costs, lower overhead and staffing, its a "fun" job, and in Fl we could be open year round. Our goal is to open a handful of these in the area and then use that capital to move on to invest in another few business ideas and build a portfolio. Rick is really good at seeing problems and pain points and fixing them. He would love to become a consultant/investor of sorts like Marcus Lemonis on the show The Profit. I'm still not sure what my goal is long term, I am passionate about so many things that I could have a whole strip mall of businesses lol. But for now I am homeschooling our girls and helping Rick with our current start up. I still would like some property but I really long to travel and see our beautiful world.
    We also decided that while we loved our big house in STL it was too much space for us and felt a desire to go small, really small for a season. We had fallen in love with the tiny house movement but since Rick is 6'6" that just didn't make practical sense. We wanted mobility because at that point in this transition we had no idea where we would land. We put our STL house on the market earlier this year and bought a 43ft travel trailer. With so many unknowns we decided that not being tied to a mortgage or lease would be wise and a travel trailer provides that. We could park it in any (nice and safe) RV park or down the road find our dream property and put it there while we either remodel a house or build our own. Although it's brand new I had to make it our home so I painted over the wallpaper and put up curtains and added a Smart Tile backsplash in the kitchen. We switched out the couches for a traditional couch and bought a chair from Ikea to add extra seating in the living room. We took out a queen bed to add floor space in the girls room and installed a cubby storage system. So now here we are back in Lakeland FL selling Hawaiian shaved ice and living in a travel trailer. There were so many times these past several months that we laughed at ourselves because it's completely absurd and ridiculous to sell a home and trade it for a TT, to quit a well paying job in order to sell sno cones, to move back to a place I spent my younger years longing to move away from (I dreamt of New York or California or maybe even another country). Isn't it funny how things work out though? Now we have hope of eventually having enough residual income from our potential business portfolio to take a month or two off at a time to travel. We live in a home on wheels that we can hitch up to the truck and take anywhere we want.
     Though at first I wasn't thrilled with moving back my heart has softened and is even beginning to get excited for what this transition holds for us. In this season I have committed my heart to fully embracing our city and area, to rediscover what beauty central Fl and beyond holds, and to rekindle old friendships and find a few new friends to get to know. We are different people than when we left and how we would fit back in worried me but as we've changed and grown so has our family and our wonderful little/big city in so many ways. It's not going to be like it was before but that's ok and actually a really good thing. Here's to new seasons, new beginnings, and new hope for the future!

Hannibal, MO Boyhood Home of Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens)

We decided to take a drive up to Hannibal, MO to see where the infamous Mark Twain lived as a boy. It was a beautiful and scenic drive. We pulled into this historic town on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi and fell in love with it's charm. As always I researched and planned our visit so our first stop was at the Mark Twain Boyhood Home Museum. It's collection of buildings that are open for tours including Mark's home, Huckleberry Finn's home, Becky's home, and several more sites from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. We had a grand time exploring and peering into the past and what inspired such a great author. All that walking made us hungry so we pulled into the Mark Twain Dinette where we had house made root beer, a Maid Rite sandwich, and hot dogs for the girls. We were reenergized so we decided to make the 244 step trek up to the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse. While the lighthouse was closed we passed a pretty little park where the old Mark Twain Memorial Bridge was located and had a great view of the river. By that time we were all tuckered out and barely made it back to the Jeep as our legs were like jello after all those stairs! On our way out we pulled into Lover's Leap and read about the legend of two young Indian lovers who leapt to their death here in a Romeo and Juliet type ending. It was a site to see and thankfully there was fencing installed so we could safely view the incredible scenery from atop the mountain. Sprawling views of the great river and the tiny town that looked so small from us being up so high took my breath away. It was a marvelous end to our day time getaway!

http://www.hannibalparks.org/parks/mark-twain-memorial-lighthouse/
http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/index.php/visitor-information
http://marktwaindinette.com
http://visithannibal.com/index.php?lang=en

Update...

It's been about two and a half years since my last post, wow! So much has happened since then and I'm about to get busy with some new adventures! This past July we relocated to St Louis, MO for my hubby to take a promotion. It was a hard transition leaving a place we loved dearly and letting go of dreams we had for our life there. It took several months before I was willing to accept our new location but thankfully we found a great school for our girls, an awesome church, and we bought a house which has made it feel a little more like "home". I've been exploring the area, trying new coffee shops, and discovering great antique and thrift stores. You must try the Lavender Mocha at The Mud House, it's delish!

My next adventure takes place at EarthDance Farms and I'm happy to be their newest Freshman Farmie! I'm starting their apprenticeship next week and it'll run through September. I'll be taking classes and going on field trips to other local farms on Tuesday evenings and I'll be working my farm shifts on the weekend. I'm so grateful my hubby supports me and has agreed to sacrifice our Saturdays to take care of the girls so I can learn to be an organic farmer. I'll get a weekly box of produce from the farm and so I'll be sharing some farm to table recipes during the next several months. This is a bit of a dream come true for me since I've been longing to learn how to garden and I've been so overwhelmed with the many methods there are and not really knowing where to begin. I'm hoping I develop a vivid and brilliant green thumb so I can produce fresh food for our family and learn to live off the land. I can already taste my first farm fresh salad filled with homegrown veggies, yum!

Stay updated with our family here and on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/myadventuresinwanderland

Blessings!

Weston Applefest and Weston Bend State Park

I love fall and everything there is to do during this season! There are so many fall festivals and we decided to visit the Weston Applefest. Weston is a beautiful place to visit and we are no strangers to this area. We had a major Google Maps fail and it took us way out to the boonies, yikes! Thankfully neither adult lost their head and we simply turned around and headed back towards downtown. Hubby dropped the girls and I off right next to the entrance and went to park. Picasso, Princess Tiger Lily, and I headed to the kid's area in the park. There were pony rides, face painting, games, pumpkin decorating and so much more. The girls played on the playground and Hubby found his way back to us. We headed towards the vendors and found ourselves in the food court area. Fresh made corn dogs, bbq, kettle corn, tacos, root beer, and more tantalizing treats teased our sniffers and made our mouths water. Hubby thought it was a good idea to get a snack to share and wait until we were going to leave to buy anything else. After we chomped on a brat we made our way through the crowd and into the main craft vendor area. The girls both brought some spending money they had and purposed to spend it here. They each bought a necklace; Picasso's had a soccer ball on it and Princess TL's had a butterfly. I found my favorite candle maker's booth (5 B candles) and almost gave myself a headache smelling all the wonderful scents they offered. I settled on a frosted spruce, ginger pumpkin streusel, green apple, and a cake batter votive. Their candles have such a strong yet clean fragrance that lasts for a very long time. Meanwhile Hubby took the girls down the street and came upon a young girl whittling wooden tops. Both girls were amazed at her crafty skills and used the last of their money to buy one of her tops. We listened to the folk band that was playing and finished browsing the booths. As we walked back to the food court we bought some cinnamon sugared pecans and found the infamous Weston Apple Dumpling cart so of course we had to get a couple. Man oh man were they good!! We left the festival satisfied and ready to make a quick stop at the Weston Bend State Park. There's an overlook with a gorgeous view of a river and thankfully there was a photographer there who snapped a family pic for us with the amazing scenery in the background. We took in all the beautiful surroundings and soaked in the quiet stillness, grateful that we get to partake of such beauty that God created for our pleasure. It satisfies my soul to be in nature and draws me closer to the Lord viewing and appreciating His creation. We left the overlook and stopped at the old Tobacco Barn. Even though the interior is pretty much just storage at this point and the only original parts left are the walls it still smells strongly of tobacco. We found some kind of green grasshopper (I think) and Hubby put it on a stick for the girls to observe. They loved looking at it and we returned it to it's wall when it was time for us to leave. We had a wonderful day together and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to get out and make memories with my beautiful family!!

Abundant Life Baptist Church FREE Kids Carnival, Lee's Summit, MO

Let me just say that I am so very glad I made the effort to take my girls to this. It was the best, THE BEST, completely FREE, kid's carnival I have been to! From the time we parked and entered the "fair grounds" we were catered to. They handed us a packet with their church info and a map laying out all the booths and rides available for our enjoyment. Thankfully we arrived right when it started so it wasn't that crowded and we were able to jump around on some bounce houses and get some grub without waiting in long lines. We started with nachos, cotton candy, and drinks (all free). Then we played some more and Picasso and Princess Tiger Lily each got tatted up and had their faces painted. We walked around and waited for the train which every time would leave the "station" Princess TL would cry, "No, come back" with real tears pouring out. I suppose she didn't realize it just made circles and always came back ha! We ate hot dogs and popcorn and played at least a dozen carnie games and the girls each won prizes to all of them. Picasso kept exclaiming, "This is the best day ever!" We waited in the very long line for the swing ride and picked one more bounce house to go in. We also played a few more games and the last one was the dunk tank. Picasso actually dunked the kid on the second try! This was the icing on the cake! I have to give major kudos to this church for the crazy amazing organization and awesome volunteers. Everyone was pleasant and helpful and their heart to serve the community showed in a major way. I am going to put this in my calendar for next year so we don't miss this treasure! What a wonderful day we had!

Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska

Ok, I have heard about this place for several years and just haven't made the 3 hour trek up there. It's really quite simple, it's literally straight up Hwy 71/29 the entire way there. We decided to drive up Saturday evening and stay overnight so we would have the maximum amount of time before we had to head back home. The drive was smooth, the hotel was clean, and we all slept well ready for our fun day at what tripadvisor.com has labeled to be the best zoo in the U.S. Well, seeing this advertised had my standards set pretty high. We arrived and it was a gorgeous day! The weather was beautiful, it was sunny but breezy, and there was plenty of shade for when it did get a little warm. We paid our admission and I purchased tickets for the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit as well. We made our way through the Mutual of Omaha Exploration Station and saw so many snakes, spiders, amphibians, and other little creatures. The girls kept squealing as they moved from habitat to habitat seeing the creepy crawly critters. We saw the Lied Jungle and were amazed at the beautiful rainforest like atmosphere, it really felt like we were in a different world. There were all sorts of monkeys in the trees and Daddy took the girls over a rope bridge which Picasso didn't care for at all. We went into this huge Desert Dome and saw so many types of cactus and thorny bushes, then we made our way down into the Kingdoms of the Night. It was like we walked into a cave, there were nocturnal animals including bats, owls, and a night time swamp area complete with alligators, eek! Oh wait, I grew up seeing gators lounging in the sun on the bank of the lakes, these didn't scare me ; ) I had read about the amazing Scott Aquarium and was so happy walk through the underwater world. We viewed sharks and jellyfish, sea turtles and starfish, stingrays and the largest crabs I've ever seen with their legs spanning at least 4 ft across. The Butterfly and Insect Pavilion was awesome and we saw so many beautiful butterflies! On our way out we were treated to see a whole section dedicated to real cocoons in each different stage. There were even a few butterflies that had recently emerged fluttering around. We walked through a time portal and were transported to the Jurassic age with the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit. There were over a dozen animatronic dinos and the girls were in awe at how big some of them were. Thankfully we made it out alive and decided it was time for a late lunch. We ate hot dogs and grilled burgers at the Omaha Steaks outdoor cafe and since ice cream cones were $1 for Labor Day weekend we got one on the way out. We were there for 6 hours and still didn't see everything. It is definitely worth the drive and we will absolutely go back at some point and see the few exhibits we didn't get to this time around. I highly recommend making the trip north to visit Omaha!