Our day at Disney World in the "magic kingdom" was awesome.  We had a great day and enjoyed many fun rides together as a family.  

Our favorite was Space Mountain and the Dwarf train roller coaster.  I was really fun to take my kids to Disney for the first time.  And Franki was about the same age I was when I came to Disney for the first time when we moved to Florida.   I lived in Tampa, FL as a kid with my family from 3rd grade to 9th grade.   We went to Disney a lot when we lived here as lots of family and friends came to visit us through the years.

Much of the park was the same while a lot of it was new and improved - but still so magical!  

It was a fun day and the park was open until midnight- we started making our way out of the park about 11:45 pm.  I was raining as we left so we got wet walking to our car.  

We were wiped out and ready for bed so it was nice to get to Jill and Roy's to get some sleep.  We are sleeping in tomorrow!

Fercho Family Fun Day - was awesome at Disney World.  We will go to a few other parks next weekend before we leave Orlando.

Fun day!
​Tiffany

While we were suppose to drive to Orlando yesterday, we actually didn't until today.   Dawson had some work appointments and calls that came through, so it made sense to stay put.   We were up early so Dawson went to the  Sun N Fun office and they were able to accommodate us with staying one more day - so we stayed.  It was a dreary day - the sun never really came out but it didn't ever rain yesterday either.  We just did school, read books, played cooking games (the girls were mixing up all kinds of things) and hung out.  I didn't have much planned with the thoughts that it was going to be a travel day.  

So this am, we woke fairly early to rain and lots of it on the RV rooftop.  I was glad that I had put away and stored many of our outdoor items like the outdoor carpets and kids sports stuff.  I was glad that is was all stored away as it's no fun when it is all wet and messy.  So up and moving - getting ready to hit the road - everyone was in motion.  Kids eating, cleaning dishes, dissembling beds, packing bags and school stuff to spend about 5 days off the RV.   We have been invited by Jill and Roy Hill to stay at their house while we are in Orlando.   We are going to enjoy more time off the RV.  

I was impressed with our speed of getting the coach ready for the road.  We are getting really good at it and setting new record times - even in the rain.  I went to the mail room to mail some items out for Dawson and then circled around to hook the van up to the RV in the hook up area that was literally a small pond.  I had a little chuckle to myself as Dawson had his jeans rolled up to about his knees with his waterproof sliders on wading in the water to put the tow bars out for the van.  In I rolled and as I did the rain started down heavy once again.  We got all hooked up and I had to stand in puddle/pond too to check all the lights.  By the time I loaded up to in the RV - it was pouring.   We drove most the way to Orlando in rain.  Some heavy, some light but it was a good storm working its way across Florida and we were in it.  

We got to Orlando safely and we found the KOA where we will be storing the RV for several days and then staying at the KOA for one more weekend.  The camp guide lead Dawson to the storage site which was actually a mud puddle.  It was a bit challenging to get all the stuff on and off the RV and the kids and the dog.....treading through the mud.  But as we were loading the van for the weekend....the sun began to shine and the sky was clearing and I think it is going to turn out to be a beautiful cool afternoon.  We are in Florida - it is low to mid 60's - so I am not complaining as it is 30 at home today!    We will take the rain and mud and our week in Orlando any day.

The kids loaded up in the car while I emptied the refrigerator and freezer.  It has been running 3 months straight - and the freezer had a build up of ice on the back wall and bottom and it is not big so I need all the room I can get.  I defrosted both of them - wiped them down with Lysol wipes and are leaving the doors wide open this week.  The refrigerator and freezer will be taking a short break before we start it back up at the end of the week.

I had created a bag of trash cleaning out the refrig,   I lowered all the blinds, closed the ceiling vents and added chemicals to the toilet and we headed out.  I called Roy to let him know we were on our way.  We were about 30 minutes from their house.  We stopped to pick up Subway, my families all time favorite sandwiches, and headed to the Hill's house for our week with them.  

We got to their house, ate our sandwiches, Roy gave us a tour of the house and the kids found their swim suits to take advantage of the heated pool.  They swam for about 2 hours.  It was so fun.  I took Summer for a walk around the block, Dawson took his clothes to the dry cleaners for work this coming week and we chilled out.  Kids got out of the pool, got on the wifi and then did some school work.    Roy and Jill pulled photos of us off the internet and printed them and framed them in the spare room.  It was a fun touch and Quinten was the one that noticed the photos over the bed, framed first.  What a fun touch to our stay with them.  Great idea.....I love it.  I might have to do that back at home for some of our guest.  Nice touch!  So heartwarming!  Thanks Roy and Jill - what a great personal touch!

It is nice and relaxing at Roy and Jill's and everyone is chilling out.  We will be seeing friends and doing Disney stuff while we are here.  We miss our family and friends at home, but we are loving the warmer winter!
Here's to it being Friday!
Cheers, 
​Tiffany

Friday, January 8, 2016:  Happy Birthday to my cousin Becky!
Spent last night at Cheri’s…..no one moved until 7:30 am – Mena and I got up and laid together on the couch.  I finally took Summer out for her morning duties.  It was wet but no longer raining.  It was still overcast but I think later today the sun is suppose to shine.  The temp is warmer again which is nice.  We ate breakfast all at the front table then I started getting the school work out.  We started with our journals and bible study.  Cheri was getting ready for work and she joined in on some of our spiritual lesson.  It was fun for the kids to hear some things like that from someone other than me.  Cheri did well sharing some of her thoughts with them about our bible verse for the day.  We got a slow start but once Cheri left around 10 – we really jumped into a serious school session.  We got a lot done and I was proud of them.  We had lunch and took Summer on a long walk to the Alligator pond.  We saw the gator in the pond but from a far distance….we did see a turtle and that was the highlight of our walk.  Summer wanted that turtle.  It was hard to hold her back.

Franki did showcase some of her negative attitude today but she did pull herself out of it and recognize that she got difficult.   She did talk about it later in the day and said she would keep working on it.   I am trying my best to stay patient and not react…..but it truly takes all I have to stay focused on not freaking out on her.  Proud of the process we are both working on but it is still very challenging at times.  I keep visualizing our peaceful/joyful relationship as mother and daughter. 

We went back to Cheri’s and got out some of her old magazines and worked on creating visualization boards.  We had fun cutting things out of the magazines… pictures/ words and ideas that sparked interest of things we want and see in our futures. It was a very fun exercise to do with the kids.  We put many the things we cut out in envelopes with our names on them and will work on gluing them on to paper.   It was a fun art project and we had some fun conversations as the magazines sparked some fun conversations.  It was a fun way to end our first week back at home/road school.

We also enjoyed talking to Wyatt Patrick, our sweet cousin who had surgery yesterday to pin a broken arm.  It was really nice to hear his voice and his positive attitude on dealing with his injury.  He was super glad he was done with surgery.   We love you Wyatt and are so grateful your surgery went well, now let that arm heal.

Dawson enjoyed his work day in Cheri’s home office.  So nice, great view, pool fountain noise with the window open. He was thankful for the space and the office chair and had a productive work day.   I think we all just really enjoyed the space and the room - spreading out around the house and enjoyed the warm nice day. 

When Matthew and Michael got home from school…..Q was so excited to see them.  We all hung out a while and decided we should have a taco night dinner…so Dawson, Q, Michael and Mena – we all went to Publix to get the supplies needed to cook dinner.  Michael was so cute, he and Q went all around the store with their own basket and got a few extra things that Michael wanted.  It was fun to see them be so independent and grown up. 

We then stopped to get Cheri a gift….yep, I bought her a pair of cheaters/ readers -glasses.  I know she won’t go and get her own but yet when she uses mine it makes a huge difference for her.   Now that she is also working so much on the computer and reading a lot of books….she will be so glad that she has them and it will help with her not getting as many headaches. 

It will be fun to give her the gift when she gets home.  We made up dinner in time for it to be done with Cheri getting home from work.    When she walked in the “starving” kids were so excited and they were very ready to eat!  Everyone except Matthew,  who was fast asleep with his cat on the top bunk in his brothers room.  Being a teenager – wow, I remember sleeping like that at times. 

We tried to wake him up but didn’t have any luck.  We enjoyed dinner together and lots of laughs.   It was yummy.    Fun evening of just hanging out with the Cheri and the boys.
 
I logged on to my pc to find the website for the traffic ticket my mom sent me via a photo of a ticket from Illinois that she found in our mailbox.  Total bs – the camera roll….no turning on Red light…we were from out of town.  It is on camera.  I just logged on and donated $100.00 to Illinois.  I don’t know how it might impact insurance as there is no way to prove who was actually driving but we did indeed turn right on a red light somewhere around Chicago clear back in October. Irritating but I will let it go….the money flows to us and through us and all in all we are safe and sound and secure …..so I must stay positive and keep it in perspective.  

It is crazy to think we have been on the road almost 3 months.  We are enjoying Florida.  This is a great place to be for winter.  It has been cooler and more cloudy this week than the week of the holidays.  It’s ok because we need to hibernate a little bit this winter…..so at least on the rainy , cooler, cloudier days – it feels ok to just hang out together ….inside, enjoying each other’s company and hanging out as a family.  We are finally enjoying each other a lot more at this point in our journey.  It is more in alignment with the way I visualized it would be when I had this “great idea” of living on the RV. 

We miss the Karleen’s as they left yesterday.  Still hasn’t hit us that they have moved on and are heading back north over the next 2 weeks.  They plan to be home by the 19th.  Safe travels Karleen’s …..we will stay in touch.
Happy Friday everyone.  Enjoy your weekend and let’s go Chief’s …… we will be cheering you on tomorrow!  All is well with the Fercho’s in Florida…..Sun N Fun – Sarasota still.  Stay warm everyone back at home.
​
Cheers,
Tiffany

​Thursday, January 7, 2016  
Karleen's left this morning to head to the panhandle!  We will miss you Tara, Dan, Charlie & Kaia - safe travels, we WILL see you ALL again soon!

Rainy, overcast, cool Florida “winter” day.
Up – today – cloudy overcast cool.  Florida winter – 60’s.   Better than at home though.
We got up and ate and ready for school.  We got into our journals and had some fun conversation this am.  We got through a lot of material today.  Mena was a little dizzy but still did ok.  Franki and I did the first of 3 parts of her investigation in Math.   Before we move onto the next section/ unit. 
Q cranked out a good day of getting through several books and lesson material.   I contacted Cheri to see if she would be ok with us going to her house this afternoon.  She indeed was good with it.  We stopped and had Jimmy John’s for lunch as we took out to Cheri’s for the afternoon.
 
We then headed out to Cheri’s to chill out with her cats, use the internet and do a few loads of laundry.  She is at work all day and told us to enjoy her house.  We finished Kahn Academy while we had good internet.  We spread out all over the house and we enjoyed the time together.    Dawson came over with us to Cheri’s house too and he enjoyed working all afternoon back in Cheri’s home office.

Today we did lots of praying for Wyatt – our KC cousin who broke his arm at school on Tuesday and had to have surgery today to put 2 pins in it to help it heal properly.  He was nervous but very brave.  We said lots of prayers through out the day and talked about it.

Franki and I started the day walking and jogging with Summer.  At Cheri’s we took another walk/jog- Franki is into exercising now that the new year has begun.  She even jumped rope with her dad at Cheri’s – I am so proud of her wanting to take care of herself better. 

She and I have had a really good 2 days.  I want it to continue.  She showered today and I straightened her hair for her.  It was fun hanging out that way with her.  She loves time with Dawson and I alone.

We ended our school day online at Cheri’s around 2:30 pm.   It was a productive day with the kids school.  I did several loads of laundry during the day.  Franki and I took down Cheri’s Christmas tree and decorations for her.  We cleaned up her around her house and thought through dinner.

I showered, got ready and headed out to Four Pillars around 6:30 pm for an event of “movie watching” the Four Pillars way.  It was really fun…..Cheri sponsored a “Thoughts Become Things” movie night utilizing a Mike Dooley DVD.  It was inspiring to watch it in a group setting and “daydream” about what is next in my life….in the adventures of the Fercho’s. 
It really is crazy to be living the life I dreamed up for the past 5 years.  Since 2010, each year I had something about the RV and this trip on my list of goals/ dreams that I wanted to visualize into existance.  Crazy that I/we (together Dawson and I) made this happen and become a reality for our family.

It was great night with Four Pillars……and Cheri, Tatianna, Leann, and Daniel.  And on January 1st when I reflected at the beach about the coming year ahead….I struggled to image other things in my life besides what we are doing.  However, last night while watching the movie at Four Pillars…..I could not stop writing.  It went on and on and just flowed out of me onto paper.  I had to get another piece of paper the thoughts were coming to me so fast.  It was super cool. 

It was also, super amazing to hang out with one of my best lifetime friends since we were 15 years old and being sitting in her dream- “Four Pillars” temporary home.  It was so cool to see her vision coming to life.  I am so incredibly proud of her and so very inspired by her life passion and what she is doing and will do with Four Pillars.  The people surrounding her are also super special.  I really enjoyed my evening up at Four Pillars.  Check out Cheri’s website and you don’t have to be in Sarasota to experience what they have to offer:  http://fourpillarsflorida.com/ 

Super cool evening!  Keep up the great work Cheri and don’t worry about a thing….because you are doing great things with your vision and great things are going to come to you because of it.  It has been a joy to experience this with you the past 2 weeks.

My family stayed at Cheri’s enjoying the space and serenity of her home while I was at the movie.  When I got back they were super comfortable, it was late and we decided that we would like to stay for the night. 
Since Cheri and I had not had any dinner other than popcorn we headed back out to pick up a few items at the RV and then stop by the grocery store.  It was fun for Cheri to see “Sun N Fun” RV park – it is a lifestyle  and a community all in its own.  Fun place.  It was even more fun for her to see the RV and were all the Fercho’s have been living almost 3 months.  She really liked it and was impressed with the slide outs and how that all worked. 
We returned home…..made Cerviche and enjoyed some more awesome conversations.  It was late when we finally headed to bed. 
​
Leaving you with this for tonight….
“Your thoughts become things, so choose the good ones!”  - Mike Dooley
Tiffany