January 2018 – Our Little Van, we love our vans and know you will too.

Nice sunny day finally, I should be outside.

Sick wid it

Sunday night we had a nice stay at Fel’s. It’s quiet there. Monday was that normal carpool business for Tara, Almie to work, and me, Teren, Hudgens parked at school. I went to the park and ride to pick up the CRV cause Tara had a PT appointment in the middle of the day. We finish with that and I get her to her driving lesson. Head back to work to do some work. I get a text saying where are you? Tara says Teren is napping and he says his stomach hurts. Oh man.

Almie and I get to van and we decide it would be best to get a hotel. We had already factored these things in our van dwelling, but didn’t think it would happen so quick. What sucks about a tight space is we don’t really have luggage. We dropped of our two carry ons at Wo’s cause we only need them when traveling. So fill backpacks and those grocery bags with clothes and what not to head to said hotel. Teren has slept pretty much since Monday after school till today, which he is still probably sleeping with a slight fever, while I’m sitting here at soccer practice.

I got a ton of work to do too. Luckily I can do stuff remote. But I need to get in the office tomorrow to do some hands on stuff. Also got a chance to bring my bike in for service this morning to our on site mechanic http://www.mendbicycles.com/ Probably good I didn’t race that bike this weekend cause the tire had a gash in it.

Hoping the little dude comes out of it tomorrow. Either way we are back in the van shortly after 12pm checkout. My mommy offered to take him, how sweet, but don’t want to risk infecting them.

So nice today, Tuesday, except I got to spend it in the hotel with Teren asking to turn off the lights which meant closing the windows

Catholic schools week, Monday, they want to thank the parents. My waist doesn’t thank you but my stomach does Krispy Kreme

I got to race bikes this weekend. Yeah that’s Almie’s bike. Shout out to https://www.woodinvillebicycle.com/ for the pic

Sunday, the hottie finally got a hair cut. Of course pics were taken in the van.

San Francisco Bound…

We are a little over a week and a half before we head out on our first road trip in VANessa (I guess this is what we are calling our home unofficially.) Destination: San Francisco, more specifically, San Fran State University! Tara is interested in the school and attending a soccer ID camp the weekend of 2/10.

We found a nice little RV park overlooking the bay and super close to campus. And…now that I am officially an Elk:

I’m hoping we have time to check out one of the longest running Elks lodge in San Fran, number 3!

I’ve been keeping tabs on the weather and passes. After driving through rain, wind, snow and some ice in this thing I’d rather take the longer route along PCH versus the 5 which goes through the mountains and that equals snow; no thanks.

In the meantime, I’ll be mapping out our stops, things for the kids to do and keeping fingers a crossed for sunshine (or just dry weather.)

What a week!

This was our first week boon-docking the streets of Seattle but ended up spending our nights in Shoreline with the Angulo Family! That made carpooling way easy! Our girls, Tara and Izzy, go to the same high school (Holy Names) and thankfully are both on the somewhat same schedule.

Wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it all this week since I came down with a cough and cold which drained every bit of energy I had not to mention put me behind in IM training! I’m recovering and hope to be back in business come Monday.

Terence is getting really good at emptying our black and gray tanks…I’ll let him continue with his winning streak! Living out of a van with limited supply of water, waste management, and power really has made us more mindful of our consumption, not just in the van but outside of the van. Minimizing our carbon footprint is a good thing, right?!?!

Most everyone has asked how things are going and it’s going great! We are still getting settled in our new normal of things, give us a couple more weeks!

A few highlights from the week:

I called in sick on Wednesday and decided to set up shop at Magnusson Park! It was a good way to get some solid rest and naps in with a view of Lake Washington.

Had to get a workout in but it was too soon, sprint intervals wrecked havoc on my lungs with the cough I had (still have it 😞.)

Made a vegetarian chik’n arroz caldo via my InstantPot. Filipino style congee. Sautéed the ginger, onion, chik’n and uncooked sticky rice then added water and a few pinches of saffron strings; set it on high pressure for 20 minutes, dinner is served! Top it off with green onions, cilantro, a little squeeze of lemon and splash of patis! Best dinner for a rainy night!

Finally got around to hanging some of our favorite prints.

Bacon cooked up nice and crispy in the convection oven 🥓🥓🥓

Fizzy socks, PJs and coffee in a spill proof mug. Just because…

And this…the other half of the fam is still asleep…so we snuggle in bed with our Minecrafts and blogs while we wait for everyone to wake up.

Grilled cheese was a hit & driveway.

So yesterday after Tara’s practice we make it back to Teren’s school inside Hudgens. I ordered instacart but we didn’t want to wait for it. I cooked up some grilled cheese using the shredded kind of cheese you use for quesadillas. Tara had bought a tomato soup from Target that we never tried yet, ’twas creamy. Cooked the sandwiches on some awesome copper pan that my mommy gave to Almie for Christmas. For sure that was non stick. All this was done in the school parking lot!!! Need a USB fan. The fantastic fan has an auto close for rain and it was pouring. So I set off the alarm inside a few times. We were used to doing the same thing at the townhouse. All the kids grabbed something to fan the alarm.

We had our 1st driveway camping experience. Shout out to Erwin and Khristine for having us. And letting us deliver our groceries: https://www.instacart.com/store/browse

Today Almie is out sick but working remote. She’s taking a meeting at the waterfront!!!

***driveway and photo courtesy of Erwin****

RV park, that was a Good chapter.

So as type this I’m sitting at my kid’s school parking lot. I pull up and they start waving to me. Of course I wave back. Then I proceed to go back to working remotely.

What a fun 10 days of being connected to water, electricity, and able to dump sewer by just going outside and putting the hose to the ground. But that wasn’t my original plan. It was a good place to learn about the van.

I learned to not leave the top of the toilet closed when flushing. Actually it’s mandatory. I clogged that shit while flushing. I quickly flushed it down. The TP probably held the hole open. Water pooled and I scrambled for towels. That was a shitty <—haha lesson to learn. Cleaned it up, disinfected and still got my kid to school on time!

Last night little dude had b-ball practice. Almie was at an Elks thing. So the 3 of us stayed at the gym. We played hoops and stuff. Good to see my older one teaching my little one the same skills/drills I taught her. The best part of the night is when Almie and I went to do laundry the kids had washed and dried the dishes. Say what!!! They didn’t wash the instant pot cause they were afraid of the tank being full. Fast learners.

Now for the next chapter. Coming to a driveway near you.

Of course some random pics.