Marsia's Diary

Thanks for emailing Rob for us, Cate! Thanks LaMa! I was talking to J about the camper van, and I think we can all use it when we need our own space. K can use it to play guitar if J needs quiet to make calls, I can hang out and read in it, and we realized we now have a guest house!

Well, my 2 day streak of good food and exercise got temporarily interrupted. Friends unexpectedly came to town and we went out for ribs, and I ate some cobbler, and bam weight went way up. And I was exercising with K who got too busy, so I must just exercise alone the next day if we can't do it together. I am determined to help Cate stay on track by me staying on track, so this is just a small hiccup, and today is a salad day!!
 
I don't think I would be telling too many people that the RV can be a guest house! It sounds like it will have more than enough uses. It would be nice to have it as your haven.
I emailed Rob a couple of weeks ago (4th Jan) so am not feeling very hopeful that he'll reply. I don't want to pester him. He gave me all his contact details, so I might just send him a postcard soon.
Life gets in the way, M, but enjoying dinner out with friends is nice. it will be water weight & will be gone quickly :)
 
Thanks Cate and LaMa. I think you're right about keeping it our little haven. Cate, if you do send Rob a postcard, please tell him hi for me!

We visited a beach we hadn't been to since my mom was more mobile, so a few years ago, and it was so so gorgeous with the hills covered in new sour grass and clover with the bright yellow flowers and the groves of windswept eucalyptus arching over the hills. There was a tree swing in this twisty tree hanging over a ravine, and K had a really nice time swinging while I ran around and took lots of beautiful pictures. Then we went down to the beach where there were so many sand pipers and happy dogs running and happy people, I'd forgotten how gorgeous that place is, and perfect for sketching. We all sketched there with my mom way back when. We also found a phone and luckily the owner was in the parking lot and called it while we were there, too. So good exercise day, and good food day, too. I made oat flour waffles for brunch, and I put blueberries on mine, and it only came to 300 calories. I love the taste of things made with oat flour, and it's so easy to grind up oats in the blender and have super cheap gf flour. Stayed just under calories today and got really good exercise!
 
I will send Rob a postcard M & I will say hi from you. I’ll either send him a Tassie devil or a wombat postcard.
The beach visit sounds wonderful.
That’s a great tip about making oat flour. I’ll do that. I really feel like trying to make my own gf bread.
 
Today went zipping by and all I did was learn about investment properties and discuss where we want to move with J. I think we may have it narrowed down. Then did some dishes, picked up K and brought her to her band practices, went to a cafe and looked at realtors online who were recommended by our amazing realtor here, and poof, the day is done. I still have to do yoga. I am having a hot lemon water so I don't snack as I am out of calories for the day. Anyway, we are looking at about 3 areas on the coast around Charleston, South Carolina, and all are beautiful and have some houses in our price range.

Things are moving kinda faster than I expected with finding a new home and with having a travel trailer. I wish I were moving faster as far as unpacking, but I am just trying to keep up with all the changes in our lives, and will keep plugging along emptying boxes. I think I am almost caught up on relaxation from the whole move thing.
 
I honestly expected you guys to do a lot of traveling before picking a new area but how exciting that you're looking at new properties already!
Careful with the lemon water if you're having it spread out over the day as it's quite acidic and can damage your enamel.
 
Thanks Cate and LaMa. I expected us to go slower, too, but J really wants to get started on investment properties, so thinks this area will be a good place to begin. We do still need to go visit and to make sure we really would love to live here vs other places, but in talking about what we want, this area does tick many boxes.

Went for a walk on the beach today with K and did yoga. Feeling a little overwhelmed with all the stuff J is setting in motion, but I do think we need to figure out things economically. I think I'll get the apt. nice and that will help me feel grounded.
 
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Do make sure to tell J it feels overwhelming, please. But making your temporary living space nice might help with anxiety regardless.
 
Thanks LaMa, I think so, too! I did talk with him. What happens is that I get excited about a place, and then he does, too, and he really wants to start doing less patents and more investing, so he calls all these people and sets things in motion. I was just thinking of casually pursuing this, but I can tell how much he wants to switch out of patents and on to new things, so it's making the process accelerate. I drove him on errands today so we could talk and he could take notes on what we both want, and that helped a lot. I am feeling less rushed and more excited again.

On another note, S, the lady who's house we are staying at, texts J if she can smell my cooking, and I then air out the house. This time it was onion smell that snuck into her place. Last time it was shrimp and garlic. I need to put weather stripping in the doors between our apt. and her part of the house. I have never had people complain about food smells before - usually people think I am a good cook. Another funny thing is that she is interested in starting a garden, but she doesn't eat fruit or vegetables it turns out (and she's vegetarian, so I wonder how that works?). I wonder what will happen to the garden once we leave? Hopefully she'll get so she likes eating fresh food.🤫 She also doesn't know much about taking care of a yard, and the entire back yard is covered in black plastic, and she just stripped her back hillside of any vegetation except the trees. It's kind of a disaster of a yard from my point of view, but I definitely won't say anything unless asked.

Anyway, I am really feeling better from the exercise yesterday and had a good day doing a write up on what we want in our future new house. The questionnaire we filled out was so extensive, and I also put before and after pics of our remodeled house so he can see what type of house to look for in a fixer upper if needed. That was fun sorting through the old pics of the house and the transformation is huge. Also in the same pictures, I found a video of K playing violin at age 4 dancing to the music while playing. Wow was she ultra adorable!
 
I can see a vegetarian not wanting to smell shrimp but who doesn't love the scent of frying oinions?! It's starting to sound like finding a new place earlier than you'd originally thought might become important.
 
Thanks LaMa! I have been here a couple of months, and it feels like much longer. It's really hard cramming 3 people with all these interests into 46.5 square meters (500 sf). Unpacking is hard because there aren't enough little drawers for all the stuff, and I don't know how to make little boxes of stuff where you'd ever find it again. So it's a bit of a puzzle. We are getting antsy to move sooner and are discussing how K could do an early admissions program or community college early. Her school doesn't teach programming anyway, so it's up to me to do that, and her homework keeps her up until late, so I don't get to teach her what she wants to major in, so we need to figure out something different anyway.

I agree about a vegetarian not wanting to smell shrimp. I got some weather stripping and put it under one of the doors, and I had to double it up, so need to go get more for the other door and other cracks. It is just a reminder of how I am in someone else's house and I need to tread lightly, and after living in my very private beautiful house, this is quite an adjustment.

Last night K's friends did a solo excusion to the mall and we joined all the parents and kids for dinner. The menu was tiny, and I couldn't find anything that wasn't loaded with carbs. I had eggplant parmesan which came with a side of spaghetti. Then we all split beignets for dessert, and I wish I hadn't had any though they tasted good. So today is definitely a salad day.
 
Oh, M. I wonder what S does actually eat? The mind boggles. It sounds like your next adventure will be sooner rather than later. I'm just back from 2 days away & are right back on track today.
 
Hi! I think our next adventure will be sooner. J and I are so ready to move, and we're hoping we can convince K. J may fly out soon to do a preliminary investigation of the areas we think we like. We found some gorgeous properties and homes, it's just that they get snatched up so quickly in this area. But we just want at least one of us to go make sure we trust the realtor and we really like the area.

I was a little blue the last few days. Now that we're looking at houses on the internet again, I am more enthused. I had been trying to unpack and was just procrastinating like crazy. Now I am doing better with unpacking because I feel like everything helpful I do brings us closer to our new place. I don't know what made that shift happen, but glad it did.

We took the rv out to a park on the ocean and opened the doors and windows and all studied in the rv. It was like being on vacation right on the ocean. That was very relaxing. We've been doing yoga nearly every night, and I took a big walk by the ocean yesterday. Today I stood up while holding the cat and hit my head on a metal lamp, which startled the cat who climbed my face. I now have a huge gash down my cheek and neck, and some claw marks in my scalp. Thank goodness for wearing masks in public!

I've been having fun making things that go with a huge tub of Japanese seaweed salad I got. I made these nice marinated thinly sliced beef strips with mushrooms and Japanese sweet rice wine and lots of yummy spices. It's really good mixed with the seaweed salad. I also have been reading nice guidebooks on South Carolina, and wow, there are so many truly fascinating areas with lots of ecological protection and cool cultural stuff.
 
Ouch on the cat incident! (I assume you cleaned the wounds properly? Don't let anything become infected please.) But how wonderful that you have your drive back. The rv study trip sounds lovely, too, and I want to try your beef strip and seaweed salad!
 
It would be very hard unpacking when you know you don't want to stay there. Has K only got this year left where she is? Could she stay with someone else until she finishes? Do you think you & J could wait until then & stay where you are & then you all move? It's hard, I'm sure but at least now you have some options & are in a good place financially.
I hope your face heals quickly, M. Ouch!
 
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