1st Year Anniversary!

As of January 3rd, we will have been fulltiming for one year! The time has flown by, and it has been 12 months of wonderful!

For any of you who were thinking, but never gutsy enough to tell us, 'you are crazy for even doing this': We say, "Tell it to the other almost 3 million fulltimers out there. Guess we're all crazy."

Do we miss having a 'sticks and brick' house? No way!
Do we miss having a 40-60 hours/week job? Yeah, right.
Are we going nuts living in almost 400 square feet? Nope. It actually is more than we need.
Are we getting on each other's nerves in such tight quarters? No. Our marriage is the best its ever been.

If there is one valuable thing I have learned from this experience, I would have to say it confirms what I've felt all along. We don't need all the material things in our life to be happy. Money, new cars and big fancy houses just don't do it.

It's unfortunate that some, even in my family, feel they need to have material things in their life or they don't feel important. They believe if they have cars, houses, fancy furniture and mvp status with airlines, that everyone will treat them with class and know that they are someone. Problem is, they are only 'someone' in their own minds.

The fact is, nobody really cares WHAT you have or where you've been, and they certainly don't care WHO you are.

What is important begins with your heart, God, your family.

With a New Year approaching, if I had only one wish; I would wish for my brother in law to be able to have a meal with my husband.

I already have everything else I need. A God who saved me, a husband who loves and adores me, wonderful children and grandchildren, healthy parents.

Oh, It IS a JEEP thing!

Little closer to the wall, please.
It's all about Jeep power, man!















(click on photos to enlarge)

The little blue jeep has finally gotten its BIG tires and wheels! We finally drove all the tread off the old tires, and ordered some BFG mud terrain 32" tires. And...do they look good or what?!

Now, we can take her out and do some real 4 wheelin'. Looks like a 1" body lift and some TJ flares are next on the list, but we're getting there!

Carlsbad Caverns

Beginning the 750 foot descent in to the caves


"Lion's Tail"


Temple of the Sun

Wow! What an amazing place!
(click on picture to enlarge)

Awesome day at Carlsbad Caverns. These Caverns were discovered in 1920.
We took the almost 2 mile walk 750 feet DOWN through the cave. A rather steep descent at times, but what a fascinating place. Stalagamites, stalagtites, and some other stalaga(something) that I don't recall, hanging by the thousands, from the enormous 'ceiling'.

These caverns are home to literally thousands of bats from March to October. In October, they leave the caverns and head further south during winter months, then return to the caverns in March. We are told it is quite a sight to watch, so we are looking forward to the 'return of the bats' in March.

It was a great day!

Geocaching near Brantley Lake

We did a little geocaching today, despite the fact that it was windy and cold. We were able to find all 3 caches, one of which was near this lake shown in the picture. As you can tell from the picture, there truly is absolutely nothing around. We did stumble across a campground, in the middle of the open air...no trees, no bushes, nothing to buffer the blowing wind; but there it was, a campground with 2 or 3 campers.

On the bright side, two nights ago we played Bingo and lost our $3.00. Last night Henry played poker (and lost), while Wendy (the manager) and I shot a game of pool. We figure we'll keep doing the Bingo, Poker and Pool two nights a week, and who knows, we may even start winning!
We also walked the .7 mile to the post office a couple days ago, so got in a little exercise. The post office is the smallest one I've ever been in...but you never have to wait in line, and the postmaster remembers your name. Like everything else here, the post office is in the middle of nowhere, too.

Nowhere in New Mexico

Ahh, bicycles? We could go bicycling!


Not a whole lot around here.

The entrance to the Ranch.
(click on images to enlarge)












It's now December and we have had our first week of work, all 2 1/2 days.
We work together checking in RVer's, checking out RVer's and cleaning the club house. It's all a piece of cake, and everybody around here are super friendly. There's always something going on at the club house. Henry played poker the other night with some of the guys, and I'm going to check out Bingo tomorrow.

At least the snow melted, but temperatures are still cold at night. There is very little to do outside of the park, as we are 16-25 miles from any town either direction, and those towns are small. We will definitely have to get creative in our spare time, like maybe an intense exercise program? (Henry's got a couple extra pounds on him he could do without.)