Focht Family Blog

Thursday we decided we would drive to Jacksonville to pick up Nathan’s older sister from the airport. She was flying in for a birthday surprise for Nathan’s younger sister. We decided to do this so we could stop at Speedco in Brunswick to get the oil change because Cummins has been very busy and we weren’t sure we were going to be able to get an appointment there before we leave.

When they started to change the oil they told us that a collar was loose on the oil pan and we were leaking and they would not be able to change the oil because if they took the collar out, they wouldn’t be able to put it back in. We are not sure if it was them that loosened the collar since Nathan was under the coach on Thanksgiving and there were no oil leaks. However when we drove it to Cummins on Friday morning they noticed that all of the bolts on the oil pan had been torqued to much and had been driven into the pan while they were replacing the engine, so Wednesday we have to be at Cummins in Savannah all day while they put in a new oil pan. The fun never ends….

Funny how some times we go to a movie expecting to just watch a silly show and we can come out of it with such a powerful statement to how we should be living our lives! Today Nathan and I took the kids to a movie after church. It was Mr. Magorium’s Magical Emporium. The title of this post is a quote from the movie!

We had a fun time and the kids all seemed to enjoy it. I think they just enjoy being able to have a lunch of popcorn and coke every once and awhile. Nathan and I are busy planning our travels for after Christmas. We are putting together a list of places that are on our must-sees. So far we have decided that we will be going to the San Diego Zoo and Knott’s Berry Farm while in California. We also have Jelly Belly and Lego Land on our want to see list.

We have to be in San Diego January 10th and I just made reservations for Disney for March 10th so who knows what all will lie in between. We have also just made reservations to attend The Rally in Perry March 14th followed by a Jeep trip to Tellico. Looking forward to being back on the road. Only 1 month left to go….

We had Thanksgiving at Nathan’s parents house. His sister Christina and I made most of the meal to give his mom a break. Christina did most of the cooking. I made the mashed potatoes, the sweet potatoes and a small fruit salad without nuts for my mom. I was supposed to help his sister clean up afterward but Nathan had to take over for me because Timmy had a fever of 103 and wanted his mommy.

When we were visiting with my brother, his girls were under the weather so I think Timmy just caught their virus. His fever finally broke last night and he seems to be feeling better today. The funny part is that Samantha and Josh seem to be able to fight off the viruses easier. They have both been a little cranky and sleeping longer but the fever has been staying away from both of them.

It has been interesting watching how the immune system works with the kids. So far since we have been travleing they have not been sick except for the occassional sniffle here and there. This is the first fever we have had in 3 months! It is a nice change. I think Timmy is definitely the one who is more prone to catching things than his sister or brother are.

We arrived in Statesboro on Thursday afternoon. We dropped mom’s trailer off at the RV park and headed to Nathan’s parents house. We called to tell them we had just arrived in Atlanta (sitting in their living room) to find out where they were. They were on their way home from Walmart so we headed out to the driveway to welcome them home. Nathan’s mom was trying to figure out who had an RV like Nathan’s coming down their street until she saw the kids in the driveway. I think she enjoyed the surprise! Samantha stayed the first two nights here with grandma so Samantha is happy. Nathan and Samantha are with his parents at the GSU Homecoming game right now.

I am parked outside of a laundromat because we had a LOT of laundry that needed to be done. Mom is doing the laundry and I just finished scrubbing the RV from back to front. Next we will go get some lunch and then I am going to sign the kids up for swim lessons at Splash in the Boro so they will be ready for warmer weather at the campgrounds that have pools. It is very difficult for me to take the 3 kids swimming because Samantha is the only one who can swim and she isn’t a very strong swimmer. I checked the website this morning and they have a class that runs from 10/29-11/15 so it will be perfect for them. The only bad part is that the class for Josh is for the kids and parents so I will have to get in the pool with him. I have lost a lot of weight since starting the RV lifestyle but I am not to the point that I like being in a bathing suit. :)

Thursday my mother-in-law called to let us know there were large storms with tornadoes around Indianapolis. We told her not to worry because we were well north of that in a little town called Nappanee. Well…. wouldn’t you know that Thursday night the storms were knocking at our door. We were watching the local news and when we saw a large storm cell with circulation coming towards us we left the RV and went in search of the local storm shelter. We got to the church but it was locked. We drove to the fire station and they said that they were just heading to the church to open it. We were the first ones in the basement.

They had a toy room for the kids so they were playing in there and were happy until we heard the words… tornado on the ground! We didn’t have any more information than that and then they lost power so the lights all went out. We sat for awhile until they said the storm cell had past us. We decided to go back to the RV at least temporarily because I was starting to have an asthma attack from all of the animals that were brought into the shelter. Once back at the RV we found out that there was one more storm cell heading for us but it only had hail in it so we stayed put.

The next morning we got up early in case they were going to come and get the RV for service. There were a few RV’s there that woke up and had no idea what had happened the night before. There was no damage at Newmar but down the street a couple of miles there was quite a bit of damage. They had a boil water order and a state of emergency for the town the next day. The weather service determined that the tornado that hit was a F3 and it left a path of about 15 miles of damage.