Our stay in MN was wonderful.  I again want to say that we are SOO blessed to have friends and family that attempt to understand our journey and support us along the way.  We are sorry if we weren’t able to spend more time with you or missed you during our stay.  We do truly appreciate you keeping in touch with us as it still does feel abit strange living our life on water. 

 

I want to thank you for all your encouragement to keep the blog coming.  Again I usually don’t even spell check or read these before publishing.  Here are some thoughts.

 

–          Spending life on land this time around was more emotionally challenging than we would of thought.  Toward the end we felt sort of lost and without purpose.  We realized that this is the first time since quitting our jobs and leaving MN that we had this much TIME without much direction.  We (especially Rose) weren’t used to this.  I was surprised that I would feel this way. Its amazing how programmed we were in our past land life.  Sure we had a lot to do to complete our LIST of buying things, seeing friends and family, reviewing finances, searching medical and boat insurance, fixing boat parts, going to routine medical/eye/teeth appointments, going on daily walks, loading the Ipod with Spanish/French, watching movies, etc.  BUT this didn’t seem to matter.  So I (Rose) started to look within to review what this all meant.  This will be a process so I will keep you posted.  I bet Tom will as well since he gets to spend 24 x 7 with me. J We have to LAUGH!

 

–          It’s sad all over again to say goodbye to ALL of you, as tears roll down my face!

 

–          A big THANKS to:  Vicki Staudte for allowing us to share her home.  Tom’s daughter Teresa for providing a car and cell phone to make it easier for us to keep in touch with all.

 

–          Experiencing that we are getting older, as we learned that both of our mothers have a form of cancer that will someday take them physically away from us.  So the current hugs and chats take on a different meaning! 

 

–          The smells of dirt, sounds of tree leaves, sites of fall colors, cold days warmed by the sun, many hugs, tears shed, eating wonderful fruit and veggies you can’t get down island, Thai food, riding bike on our endless paths (not running into a volcanic hills), swimming in normal lakes (not Lake Superior) that have weeds and blood suckers, taking showers, getting used to using so much water, driving in traffic, handling poison ivy vs. mosquitoes, dealing with medical claims and costs, fixing things in the rental townhome, watching a group of eagles clean themselves as they head south, entire days of rain, listening to loons calling, changing of daylight hours, etc. etc. etc.  So many northern dirt dwelling things we took for granted.

 

–          Realizing again that I really do love Tom and appreciate that we are sharing this journey together.

 

–          Now that we are going to travel slower up island – some of you can visit our little house on water and share some time with us.  You will see first hand the good with the bad!  HeeHee

 

–          It’s amazing how you can gain weight with the conveniences of food and portions in this country.

 

–          We look forward to seeing Sojourn, our cruising friends and getting back on the water.

 

Live your dreams!

Our Love Always