From One Life to Another

When imagining what my life would be like after leaving my 8-5 corporate job, one of the aspects I didn't think about was injury prevention for a heightened amount of daily activity. I guess one of the reasons I didn't think about it is because even when I was employed full time, I still exercised regularly, and completed my first marathon in December.

Since getting away from sitting down for 8 hours straight as of January 1st, we haven't done anything horribly taxing, we've just been constantly moving. The first few weeks we were packing up our stuff in preparation to move, then we were moving those items around, then cleaning our rental. As soon as we were done with that we gained access to our rental property where the tenants had just moved out, and got right to working on that. On top of this I tried to maintain my running, and I guess something had to give.

Where We've Been the Last Two Weeks

We have been working hard on renovating our rental property the last two weeks. We lucked out and had access to the inside before the month was up as our tenants began moving their belongings to their new place. There are no major items to fix, but a whole laundry list of little ones. We'd put off repainting the whole house during the last five years but this time we couldn't get away with it any longer. So, it turns out I'm not so bad at rolling after all! Now we are down to a few annoying items (plugged up plumbing outlet UGH!, putting the garage door back in working order, replacing a door and burning branches and leaves in the backyard). We are now hoping we'll be out of here in one more week. It's funny how a whole month has passed by and we are still here and I can't say its been too bad.

Mountain Biking at Hobbs State Park

I figured I would elaborate a bit about the trails at Hobbs State Park, mentioned in the previous post.

Trail Condition:

The Hidden Diversity Multi-Use Trail that Alex and I rode on is comprised of four loops with a central trail head.  When combined, you've got a total of 24 miles on this collection of trails.  The entire trail is solely single-track and in extremely good shape. The trail is only three years old, so it is practically devoid of gnarly roots in the path and rocky sections are limited. We've recently had some fairly wet weather, so I was surprised to see how dry most portions of the trail were. The trails are predominately flat, with some inclines and declines through the hollows, but most elevation changes are limited to within 200'-300'. Overall, trail conditions were dry, flattish and clean.

Hiking and Biking at Hobbs State Park

This weekend we joined our friends for some hiking and biking at Hobbs State Park in Northwest Arkansas. This park was recently built and offers some very nice biking, hiking, horseback riding and picnicking options. The best part is its close to town (only about a 30 minute drive from Fayetteville) and its free! Chloe and Sammy enjoyed the country road drive out to the park in their new crate. I think they really like their new penthouse 360 degree views (and smells!).

Chloe and Sammy enjoying their new mode of transportation on the way to the park. 

Fail #2

This is a slightly different type of Fail.

Skyler and I were picking up our new RV refrigerator in a part of town we'd never been to before, and we spotted an Asian food store. I'm a big sucker for foreign food stores, so we decided to stop in. All in all, it was a pretty ordinary Asian store. We did pick up some pickled mango with spicy chili powder (not bad, it kind of tastes like Gherkin pickles). What was not ordinary was the collection of Cafe Du Monde coffee on their shelves. It was pretty random to be walking down the isle, trying to decipher all the Asian character food items, and see this:

A Relaxing Saturday Afternoon in NWA

Yesterday we had one of those perfect Saturday afternoons that we hope to copy when we are on the road. We started the morning by eating breakfast in bed and watching episodes of House Hunters International. During breakfast I received a call about one of our last pieces of furniture that's for sale on Craigslist, and a good offer. We decided that since we'd be taking the armoire to Bentonville, we would make a day of it up there. (Bonus points for getting the gas payed for with the hefty delivery tip!). After dropping off the armoire we made our way to Crystal Bridges, the new, world-class museum built by Alice Walton, of the Wal-Mart family, here in Northwest Arkansas.

A Day in the New Life

Not that there is much to tell, we are still in town, living with my parents, but I would be lying if I said life is hard. We have gotten in the habit of waking up around 8:30 (I swear I have an alarm clock in my head). Then it's breakfast while watching episodes off of HGTV, favorites being House Hunters Intl, Selling LA, Selling New York and Flip This House (are you catching the theme here?). Since our pups are protecting our old house and Lucy (the travel trailer), we have to get over there in the mornings to let them out soon after breakfast.

A Blue Kind of Day

The last two weeks were a whirlwind of activity as we worked through the items on our list, moved out of our house, moved and organized Lucy (our travel trailer), and moved into a bedroom in my parents house. Saturday was no exception to the rule as we had the day packed with back to back events. The first was the annual local Russian Christmas play. My sister was a snowflake and my dad played the bad swamp monster. Both did stellar jobs, and afterwards we enjoyed a potluck of some yummy Russian food.

The cast of the Russian Christmas play

Mom's kitchen

We've been living with my folks the last week, and I think I have gained at least 10 pounds. I think one of mom's worst fears is that her children will go hungry, so she makes sure to always have at least three meal options in the fridge, and something fresh cooking on the stove. One of the things Skyler learned early on  when he started dating me is that you can't come to my parent's house and not be hungry. That is not an option. Preferably you come starved, as you will be served at least three courses, and then invited to tea with dessert. We have no complaints though, the food, as always, has been most excellent. Here is what we had for breakfast this morning:

Our own Intl House of Pancakes!

Lucy is packed!

Over the last few weeks we have slowly been separating items in our house into three piles: give away/donate/sell on Craigslist, pack up for storage, and take with us in the travel trailer. We chose different rooms in the house to store the different piles of items, and the office became our storage for what was going into Lucy (our travel trailer, in case you didn't know she has a name!). When we were done going through everything, we took a look at the items we'd amassed to pack into the trailer and mentally gave ourselves high-fives for how little we were able to get away with. Then, two days ago, while we were moving out of our house, we started moving the "take" items into the trailer and laying them in their approximate location. I really should have taken a picture, because by the end of the day the trailer was completely piled up and looked like a tornado had hit it.

10 Year Anniversary

Today is our 10 year dating anniversary! Ten years ago today Sky took me to Razorback Pizza during our lunch break at Fayetteville High School, and we have been pretty much inseparable since then. A lot of people ask us how we can stand to spend so much time together, and I think the answer lies in the fact that we are best friends. I think it also has to do with our personality types, we're just the type of people that like to have the same friend around most of the time. Sky and I debate a lot (that's right, we don't argue..we debate), but aside from the 1% of the time when we have the throw down, down and dirty fights, we are just having fun bickering back and forth. We probably look like some goofy folks from the outside, but it works for us.

One Large Item Off of Our To-Do List!

We sold the Honda! Woo hoo! We decided to celebrate by going to our favorite restaurant in Fayetteville, Thai Diner. We go there often enough, so when we walk in the waitress knows us by name and knows what we are going to order before we even have a chance to order. You'll soon find out that we (I) really love Thai food...we'll be blogging about all the yummy places we'll hopefully go! Speaking of which, here is what we had tonight:

Thai Diner-the shizzle!

Warmer Weather Wishes

Our original plan included starting out slow, moseying our way down to Texas and then heading to the West while visiting places of interest in the South. But with the below-freezing temperatures we've seen lately here, and the mid-70s weather we've seen in Los Angeles, we're wondering if we should just make a mad dash for the West Coast?

Life Curveballs

Happy New Year!! We wish everyone health, happiness and contentment in the New Year! We hope this year will be a new chapter in our lives, we hope to accomplish many goals and find what it is we are looking for. We hope for safe travels and many new friends.

As for the travels, the bad news is as that our "Get the heck out of dodge" date has been pushed back once again with a new life curve ball. We have rental property and one of our tenant's contract is up and they chose not to renew. Bummer. This will set us back at least several weeks as we have to clean the place up, possibly fix up anything that needs fixing and then market it...in the middle of winter.