RV Park with Orange Trees!

We find ourselves back in Orange in Southern California these days. Like the perfect storm, three events changed the course of our trip.

I fractured my ankle when my exuberant dog greeted me and pushed me down the stairs of the RV while we were in the mid-west; son Dave has had two procedures at the local Children's Hospital for his Ulcerative Colitis and before we try another surgery, we are changing his medications with a wait-and-see approach; and our business has weakened since we build religious facilities which rely on the financial markets and parishioners ability to be able to give.

Three weeks ago Mel drove back to Minnesota to rescue the RV while Dave and I recuperated from our medical woes on the couches of my parents and Sarah (now known as Edith or Eddie) was at Not Back to School Camp in Oregon.

So here I am, parked in Orangeland, an RV park in Orange County with a real fruit-producing orange tree at each site, 5 minutes from Disneyland, 10 minutes from my old home and considering my future and my checkbook.

Lots of wonderful things have happened while we've been here! I used the opportunity to completely empty my long term storage, host a giant garage sale, sold things on E-bay and Craig's List, donated to our special charities and now, except for 15 boxes of extremely cherished possessions, I am completely free!

One of the hardest things about being away in Ashland, Oregon last year during the High Holidays was missing our friends at our synagogue Congregation B'nai Israel. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to spend Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with people we care about. The preholiday meals at my dear friend Demi's house were the best ever! We enjoyed a friend's sukkah the other night and got to shake the lulov and smell the sweet etrog. I don't think I'll be dancing with the Torah next week due to my walking cast, but it will be fun to be with our community.

Dave is studying for mid-terms for his two college classes and applying for jobs at the local McDonald's and the movie theater across the street to celebrate turning 16 last Monday. He went to a homeschooler dance a few weeks ago and met Olivia, a lovely teen, also 16 and also 6', and the two of them spent two days at Disneyland before she returned to her home in Las Vegas. He took the PSAT on the spur of the moment Wednesday and is overjoyed to be back near his favorite sushi restaurant which is all-you-can-eat on Tuesday nights. He and his grandfather have been enjoying their time together and have traveled to visit Dave's great-grandfather in Rialto and learned the basics of how to fly remote control airplanes.

Eddie is enjoying reconnecting with friends, but is finding that she has matured so much this last year, that it makes sense to add some new friends to the mix too. To that end, she announced that since we aren't traveling, she wants to be "really, really" busy with school work and social activities.

Eddie is now enrolled at the local homeschool highschool "Pacific Coast High School" where she'll attend a couple days a week for drama and work online for english, algebra and a self-directed pe class exploring different types of exercise and fitness choices. She's signed up for a Health course at Coastline Community College. It's not a class for the faint-of-heart, the textbook is filled with revolting, graphic images to alcohol and tobacco damaged organs and sexually transmitted diseases. Yikes! I'm glad I'm not growing up in this era.

I'm going to begin designing websites starting later this month. I know I'm going to love the work, I could spend hours on computers, programming and fussing with graphics and text. I'm going to associate with a firm specializing in web sites for small businesses -- the owner is someone I respect immensely. I'm also considering taking on some business consulting, but since I'm not sure how long I'm here, I'm not sure that makes sense. Right now I'm focused on supporting Mel in our family business.

While Mel's niche of developing new campuses for religious facilities and schools, is suffering through the financial crisis, he is repositioning our firm to go back to our previous specialties. As we develop the marketing materials to highlight our "not religious organization" experience, there is a familiar feel, like being with an old friend.

We are actively pursuing work with the Ports which was where he began with his work with EPA at the Port of Seattle and which brought him to Southern California to begin with. Returning to his scientific roots managing technical teams for government agencies and developers through environmental compliance and regulatory process sounds like a good place to be right now. I'm sure this type of work will not be as emotion producing as when he was honored a few weeks ago for his project Cottonwood Christian Center at the grand opening for their new 4,700 seat, 300,000 s.f. worship center, which received nation-wide news coverage as the City of Cypress tried to condemn their land to build a Costco instead. It was a wonderful night and it made me so incredibly proud of the work Mel has done for his church clients!

Right now we imagine that we will be back on the "Grand Adventure" in March. We have completed from Wisconsin west and have the east coast to finish hopefully beginning this Spring. The only exceptions are that we are saving Washington and Alaska for our final 3 month trip and bad weather scared us away from Louisiana. The wild weather in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas this spring was more than enough excitement for us!

We had planned to winter in Texas at 128-acre preserve at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe near Houston, but I guess it's a good we didn't get there as planned since I fractured my ankle, because they experienced terrible damage from Hurricane Ike and still don't have power and sewer. So maybe Mayim did us a favor by bumping me down the stairs!

I am planning to speak at the FMCA conference in Georgia about life on the road with teens, letting go of possessions and roadschooling. But if we have to take a year off till everything gets "right" again, being back with friends and family is just fine with me too.