Something old and somethings new...

Husband went back to work FT on 4/25.  He was persuaded to return to his former employer with the promise that he can work from home more.  To start he is working two days from home and two days at the office.  When the summer comes he plans on working three days from home and one day at the office....and then when we leave on our trip he will work 100% from the road (for 8 weeks).  We are not exactly sure how this new arrangement will work out while traveling, but we are going to make it work.

Our current schedule is that I go into work on two days and Husband goes on two opposite days.  When we work from home we also home school the kids.  Brother started going to a home school enrichment program through the local school district one day a week.  On that day he gets to do extra-curricular subjects and has an opportunity to make some friends.  I would say the biggest difference is that we are eating dinner out more often, but we have been able to absorb the extra responsibility rather well.  Husband is also taking one class which will wrap up in three weeks.

It is not that we need the money, in fact we are both diverting the maximum amount (pre-tax) into retirement accounts, but we are both fully vested in the AZ State Retirement System and can early retire at age 50 as long as we both keep working.  The main reason Husband took the job is so that he can continue to contribute to the ASRS and we have the option of early retirement with a source of income for our future travels.  We are also thinking that both of our jobs have the potential to be 100% location independent in future years.  So there is potential for us to be able to travel even when we are working.

In Mesa Ridge Living news - did I mention that our fridge died while we were on our Spring Break trip?  We are SO fortunate we have the outdoor kitchen and fridge because that is what we have been using for the past few weeks.  We are working with a repair person who can do warranty work for Norcold - It seems we are getting a new fridge in a week or so...it has been a pain to go outside every time we need something from the fridge.

ALSO...we got our window shades installed!  We LOVE them.  We had to go through a different company this time because the original folks we hired for the Hideout have retired.  We are really happy with these... We have 12 windows on this rig!

It was really cool how they did it - they had everything they needed including a sewing machine in the back of their truck!

I am really happy with these custom shades and would recommend this company: 

RV Sunscreens (in Arizona)

(903) 880-2832

Not only do the shades keep 90% of the UV rays off the windows, they also provide daytime privacy and are certainly keeping it cooler inside our rig.  We have started running the air conditioners during the day so this improvement was much needed!