Focht Family Blog

When we first started this journey we had to rush home on an early trip because my grandfather, Talmadge Forester, was in the ICU. As you know he recovered well enough that he was put into a nursing home where they had him walking around. This month he started a rapid decline. Last week he was put back onto hospice care while in the nursing home. My brother, Tim, drove down this weekend so he could visit with him for a last time. I think he will be glad that he came. My mom and my brother went to visit with him yesterday and went back again tonight. They left him at about 10:00PM and my mom knocked on my window a little after 12:00AM to let me know that she had received a phone call from hospice and that her dad had died.

For those of you who are religious who read this blog, please say a prayer for my mom. There will not be any services held for her father. My grandfather was suffering for the last few weeks and I know that we are all glad that his suffering is over. He is having a party in heaven tonight with all of his brothers and sisters and his wife. Rest in Peace grandpa!

Or at least trying to! :) After the FOTR Rally we drove back to Statesboro where we will be spending the next 3 months. We aren’t doing too much so far. We are just doing a lot of schoolwork. My mom and I have hired ourselves a personal trainer, Fit by Julie. She comes to the RV park twice a week. We figured this would be a good solution to getting in shape. If she can bring the items in her car then I can carry the same items in the RV. So hopefully we can get into the habit of working out with Julie for the next few months and then keep it up while we aren’t in Statesboro. We will see. We had our first workout on Thursday and I am extremely sore!! My mom isn’t too bad so I am guessing she just didn’t push it as hard.

I am going to start Samantha on guitar lessons in a couple of weeks and tomorrow she is going to a cheerleading camp at GSU called Cheerleader for a Day. She gets to learn from them and then the kids perform at the halftime of the basketball game tomorrow. I will try to get some good pictures of her at the halftime. Timmy is thinking that he wants to take gymnastics lessons so I may sign him up for some lessons next month. We will have to see if we can come up with something to entertain Joshua…

Anyway… if you don’t see any updates for awhile it is just because we aren’t doing anything worth mentioning! :)

We went to the East Coast FOTR Rally this year so we could meet other families traveling like we do. I only wish that my back had been feeling better so that I could have socialized more. The kids had a lot of fun getting to meet the other kids and playing with them. One of their favorite spots of the weekend was a big tree that was great for climbing. Here are a couple of pictures of my little monkeys in the tree….

They had a lot of activities planned for the kids. The first day we were there they had a science activity where they were making slime. Here is Samantha making slime with one of her new friends…

Here are Timmy and Josh checking out a soda bottle for some reason, I think it involved Mentos…

Later, all of the kids took off with Nerf guns. Here are Timmy and Josh playing with borrowed guns…

Nathan spent most of his time outside socializing. I think he enjoyed talking to all of the other families. Here is Nathan talking to a man who owns a campground in NY. They spend the winter traveling while the campground is closed…

Nathan decided to get himself a new toy for the rally. He bought an inflatable movie screen and sound system so that we can have some Focht Family movie nights this summer…

Of course he found out it is good for more than just movies so he is planning on some Wii Tournaments for the next company camping trip. Here is Nathan and one of the other dads sitting in their chairs playing games on the Wii…

On January 14th Joshua turned 5! The night before we decided to go to the buffet at Fort Wilderness because I didn’t feel like cooking since my back was still out. The waitress started his celebration out…

I cheated this year and let Publix make him his birthday cake. Here is the cake that Joshua picked out…

Here is Joshua blowing out his candle…

Joshua chose to have lunch at the Sci-Fi restaurant at Hollywood Studios for his birthday so we went to Hollywood Studios for his birthday and then came back and had dinner and cake at the RV. We left the day after Joshua’s birthday and drove to Cape Canaveral for a Families On The Road rally so the kids could meet other kids that live like they do.

Nathan and I did it! We woke up at 2:30 AM to be on a bus by 3:00!! The temperature was low 30’s and felt colder. On top of the cold weather it rained the whole time. It was more of a sleet at that temperature and I think at 5:00 I even saw some snow! Nathan moved his corral placement up so he started 20 minutes before I did. Nathan finished in just over 2 hours. Here is a picture that the photographers took of him…

I didn’t fare quite as well. It took me just over 4 hours! I came in limping and crying but I made it! Here is one of the pictures that they got of me…

Here is a picture of the medal that we got for finishing…

Unfortunately my back went out 3 days later. I am not sure why but I am guessing it has to do with muscle fatigue from the half marathon. Other than that the only thing we suffered were some sore muscles and some blisters. Nathan is thinking of signing up for the marathon next year. If he does, I told my mom that I would do the half marathon again if she does it with me. The hardest part of the half marathon for me was the isolation of it. Nathan is still running and he runs 10-12 miles 3 times a week so I think he will probably have no problems running the marathon next year.