MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 

December 25, 2011

from the Crew of Our Way Too!

We enjoyed a wonderful relaxing Christmas Eve Day onboard Our Way Too!

For our afternoon festivities,

We were honored with an invite to attend the Candlelight Service at their church,

with our 

wonderful friend's & sailing family, 

~Rob & Janet Sherrill~

(also our marina neighbor & crew of S/V Wandering Star)

We enjoyed a beautiful heartwarming service, at Bay Area First Baptist Church

 that retold the story of Jesus' birthday!

  

Then we relaxed & enjoyed "dinner & a movie" at the 'Sherrill' home!

My first time ever to watch the classic...

"It's A Wonderful Life"

 Thoroughly enjoyed our evening with great friends, great worship, great food, & a great movie!

Thank you Rob & Janet for your friendship and for including us in your 

family Christmas celebration.

It was also nice to meet their son, Jim, whom is visiting from FL for Christmas!

Christmas Day...

 found us sleeping in a bit,

 then enjoying our coffee and quiet

 Christmas Morning

 aboard Our Way Too!

in our warm & cozy saloon.

Dean decided since he has not had the time to practice his culinary skills in the galley,

that he would be the Chef today! 

He spoiled me...

Breakfast first...then he decided we needed Christmas Cookies..

then he cooked the Turkey for our Christmas dinner up at the clubhouse!

Carving Turkey!

We were blessed with the company of our new friends,

~Cory, Tammy, & Abby~

(marina neighbors & crew of S/V Menestheus)

We enjoyed Christmas "dinner & 2 movies"!! :-)

Abby picked out The Santa Clause 1 & 2 movies to watch. Love Tim Allen!

Thank you for sharing Christmas with us! Again...great food, great company, and great movies!

We have truly been blessed this year!! We have so much to be thankful for!

(More to share on that later!)

Merry Christmas & much Love to all!!

We hope that all our Family & Friends

are Blessed with the Awesome Wonder & Love 

of our Lord & Savior

this Christmas and always!

An Official Full-Time & a Part-time LiveAboard

November 23, 2011

Happy 1st Birthday Locklan Tacktor! Lots of Loves Lil' Man!

What a short night & long busy day! We both are exhausted, but elated...

This is a step toward our plan of becoming full-time live-aboard cruisers.

We still have a ways to go...but it is a step!

Last night, right after Dean got home from work we hooked up our 5th wheel & said goodbye to our home of the past 2 1/2 years...Trader Village RV Park. As my Daddy (& original Crewmember) says...

"Off to the next chapter of the Calkins Saga!!"

Dean drove the truck towing the 5th wheel & I followed in the loaded 'zip-zip' car. We stopped at a truck stop to give it a good bath in the hopes it looks appealing for it's next loving owner. Then we began the long slow trek of almost 300 miles to Kemah, Texas. We arrived wee hours of the morning...what usually is a 4 1/2 hour drive from Arlington...turned into a gas guzzling but uneventful 6 1/2 hours! We parked the rig in the Walmart Moble Hotel Parking Lot for the night so that we could arrive at the Park N Sell lot during daylight hours. Dean squeezed into the packed 'zip-zip' car & we went to open up the boat. He takes such good care of me!! After we unloaded cooler bags & necessities onto Our Way Too! I then drove him back & dropped him off to sleep in the 5th wheel for the night. We didn't feel comfortable leaving it there without one of us, so he stayed & sent me back to the boat.

After a very short night of sleep, I woke up to Dean calling me before the alarm went off. He was woke up by all the early morning shoppers and was in need of a bathroom! ;-) Well I hopped out of bed & made coffee to fill the mugs, then off I went to join up with Honey! We had a busy day ahead of us.

We grabbed a really unnourishing breakfast of MickyD's then headed to park the rig with 4-sale signs. A very emotional moment for both of us as it has been a beautiful home for us for the past 10 years, something we picked out & specifically had built...our first "Home" together. It breaks our hearts to have to sell it, but it is for the best. When we are cruising...it won't be good for it to sit in storage. It's best that someone is using and loving it as we have. It is beautiful!

We pulled into our storage & began unloading all our worldly goods into the storage unit. Then we took it to the Park N Sell lot just across the road. We put up the 4-sale signs on it and finally after a couple hours, headed to the boat. Now it is official...I am a full-time liveaboard on Our Way Too! Sadly tho, Dean is still only a part-time liveaboard. This is going to be the hardest part of our decision to move forward toward our "dream". Dean will be commuting to Kemah on the weekends until further notice. I am hoping to find work in this area and it will save us alot of $$ toward our cruising kitty in the long run, especially once we sell the 5th wheel. (If you know anyone interested...send em our way!)
Say lots of prayers for us...this isn't going to be easy. Just thinking about him leaving Sunday evening back to Arlington for his work week...I already miss my Honey & Best Friend!! :-(

We grocery shopped for our Thanksgiving dinner, unloaded vehicles, organized, put things away & settled in to a quiet evening relaxing...

Time for a Shiner!

Happy!!

OK Honey...

 & watching a movie onboard Our Way Too!

ps...just an after-thought...
We call our 5th wheel our "rig" or "it" or "coach" in the RV- ing world.
We call our boats/ships/yachts/power or sailing vessels..."her" or "she".
Interesting!

Rum & Stone's...

November 25, 2011

After our Turkey sedation finally wore off,

 we slept in (gotta get out of this habit!), enjoyed coffee in the cockpit(gotta make this more of a habit!),

  did our morning chores like fill the water tanks...tidy up...etc...

Got ourselves cleaned up & headed to 

Railean's Rum Openhouse

Eagle Point Distillery

San Leon, TX
Kelly was having an Openhouse to share her local Rum & Agave Spirits!

Then we hopped in the 'zip-zip' car & headed to Bryan/College Station to have a very

Short but Sweet visit with our daughter & son-in-love,

 Chrissy & Micheal, 

and our dear friends & Micheal's Grandparents,

Grady & Nancy.

We visited for a bit at their hotel before dinner. We brought Chrissy a Railean Rum Distillery Chef's Apron & a Kelly Railean signed bottle of Blue Agave Spirits for Micheal.

We went to really nice restaurant for dinner...had a great time!!

Late nite getting back to OWT! We were so tired. I slept most of the way home.

 Thankfully my Hubby & Love of my life can stay awake after overeating & drive  us home!!

Our First Thanksgiving on Our Way Too!

November 24, 2011

Happy Anniversary Kim & Larry!!

(I finally have the date right...at least I was 2 days early instead of 2 days late!)

Happy Thanksgiving Family & Friends!!

I am thankful for so much in my life...

God as my Savior,

My faithful Husband & Best Friend

My Family

My Friends

My Health

& 

Our Way Too!

the vessel that will safely accompany us to live our Dream!

I could go on & on & on...

The Blessings in my life are daily & the list is long!

We slept in & woke up this morning to a quiet beautiful sunny day with our coffee in the cockpit of 

Our Way Too!

We decided to start preparations for our ~Thanksgiving Dinner~ so that we could eat early afternoon.

Menu

~Turkey~

 (an actual 'Bird' IF we could stuff it into OWT's oven!)

~Stuffing~

 (Stovetop - Hey...we can't be too fancy here!)

~Mashed Potatoes~

(Idahoan Instant-stockin' up on these babies for cruzin'! EZ & YUM)

~Gravy~

(Out of a jar-tasted just fine)

~Sweet Potatoes~

(Bake in Microwave)

~Corn~

(Whole Kernel-heat & eat)
~Rolls~
(No baking required!)

~Cranberry Sauce~

(Jellied kind...just for Dean!)

~Cherry Pie~

(No...I did not bake it myself...but it was warm when I bought it!)

Because this was a moving week we really did keep it simple & easy. But we were able to stuff (just barely) a 12 pound Turkey Bird into the galley oven!

The Bird is almost done!!

I have decided we will shoot for a 10 pound next time! Dean thought he was gonna have to beat the bird down to fit it in there! 

We enjoyed a blessed, wonderful, relaxing day, cooking together...

Carving the Turkey!

Husband & Wife...

A Toast to our 1st Thanksgiving aboard Our Way Too!

Captain & First Mate...

Best Friends & Cruising Partners Forever & Ever!!

Would you believe we were sooooooo full??!! We even forgot to nuke the sweet potatoes and make the stuffing!! Never even realized it til we were doing up the dishes!

 I picked the Bird clean for leftovers then walked over and joined our new marina friends...

Cory & Tammy~S/V Menestheus~ (recently engaged & liveaboards too!),

  up in the clubhouse for the last quarter of the Cowboys game, dessert, & the latest 'Pirates of the Caribbean-On Stranger Tides' movie.

We truely wish ya'll are blessed beyond measure on this Thanksgiving Day!!

September 3, 2011

Wow...it's Saturday already!! Our 4 day weekend is flying by! The weather is messing with us today. It can't decide whether it wants to rain or not. Tropical Storm Lee has created a disturbance between here and New Orleans. The winds have picked up out of the north and is blowing all the water out of the bay! That usually happens here in the winter time.

I was afraid the winds were going to rip the cover off "Katie-Did" so Dean & I went out and took it off. We retied her snug as a bug in a rug on the dingy lift to the stern of Our Way Too!

With this weather change I have been struggling a bit with my Fibromialgia (FM), so I am not overdoing it today. Dean has been putzing with his little projects and organizing his tools & nav station. For whatever reasons I woke up at 2:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep so I finally crawled out of bed about 3:35 am and sat out in the salon working on blog posts. Things are finally slowing down a little and I can relax and enjoy our new boat!

We watched some tv for a bit and I headed into slumber early. It started to rain and Dean discovered we have a leak again over the galley area. So he sopped up the water before he came to bed. Guess what he will be working on next?!

September 2, 2011

Projects & Messes!

Slept in til 9:30am!
 I guess this drive to Houston/Kemah every weekend is catching up to us.
 It is just so hard to get here then hop into bed right away.
 We cannot wait til we can be onboard full time!! 

We sipped our morning coffee, had cereal & planned the day.
 We went to the office and paid our slip rent,
 went to the Kemah Post Office to mail a box to
 Landon C for his belated Birthday gift,
 went to West Marine for our Galveston Bay chart (we had a West Advantage certificate to use),
 then to the hardware store for a new lock tumbler for the companionway door...
we couldn't get it to unlock last weekend and it didn't want to unlock again last night!

When we got back I dug into cleaning the old silicone out from around the outer edge of the windows on the port side. Dean will help me reseal them early in the morning so the sun isn't so hot.
 When they are resealed then all we have left to do are the seals in all the portholes.
 There shouldn't be any more leaks when it rains! :-)

While I was making a mess on the deck..
Dean was rippin' & tearin' and making a mess in the salon.
 First he mounted his weather station. 

Then he decided to mount our flat screen TV. 

That boy just can't sit still!!

He is gonna run out of projects!

Oh, wait a minute...then he can get started waxing the deck! :-)

Jay, Rob, & Todd
 come over to Our Way Too!
 this evening to continue celebrating
 Jay's 72nd Birthday!! 

Happy Birthday Jay!! We love ya! Cheers!

We had Rum & Cokes, Beers, Margaritas, dinner, then...more cocktails!
 Jay brought his famous home cooked in a cast iron pan Gumbo!
 I had some sausage to add to it, and grabbed some frozen peas out of the freezer which Jay spruced up with onion & seasonings. Yummmmm!

Klyde keeping Todd in line!! ;-)


It actually turned out to be an early evening.
Our guests left and we decided to watch alittle tv then hit the hay. 
Of course more projects again tomorrow!

September 1, 2011

Arrival Night

We arrived in Kemah about 10:30pm.
 Dean opened up Our Way Too! and turned on the air conditioning.
 It was only 96 degrees inside the cabin!
  We unloaded the car, grabbed a beer & did our walk around,
 then we sat on the bow in the breeze while the boat cooled down.
 While we sat out there one of our local policemen drove thru.
 Nice to know that our marina is being checked on.
  We put things away, grabbed another beer ;-)
 and walked out to the island to sit in the swing & watch the water go by.
 So quiet & peaceful here tonite!
We had a tailless Heron strut right by our feet....
I think he was too busy fishing to notice we were there!
 There is a unusual high tide tonite.
 Off to bed about 1am~

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane....

Thursday, July 7, 2011

...don't know when I'll be back again...

that sounds like a song I used to sing! ;-)

Our beautiful "Cowgirl" has left us! :-(

We drug our feet this morning as long as possible leaving the boat for the airport.

Seems like she just arrived and had to turn around and leave us.

We miss you already & We love you bunches Chrissy Girl!! 

We had alittle lunch and here I sit at the computer...playing catch-up on our trip across the gulf.

Dean is started on his little project with the Hot water heater. It needed a new check valve. 

So...now I have HOT water & COLD water!! Lucky me!! 

The cold water...always felt warm so I really wasn't missing it! It's a warm Texas summer you know!

The cool showers have been quite refreshing! ;-)

Dinner, a dip in the pool, cocktails and another relaxing evening enjoying 

Our Way Too!

Chrissy in Kemah!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Chrissy snuck out early and did her run. Such dedication!

But it must wear her out...this is afterward!
A mid morning siesta!

I turned her loose in Our Way Too!'s Galley.

She's hired!! 

 I think she enjoyed it! She put together a light lunch.
She did up some Plantain's for us to try. They were yummy!

She definitely enjoys cooking! And altho I am sure her culinary school has taught her a great deal, 

She is a natural born Chef!

Since we are not able to take the boat out we decided to take Chrissy on the tour of Kemah area.
We headed next door to the Boardwalk.

Dad & Daughter
(Our Way Too! is in this picture as well! To the right of Dean's arm...
it's the tallest mast that is just about touching the telephone lines.) 

We had saved exploring the Boardwalk for when we had company to enjoy it with.
This was our first time here as well.

 At the Aquarium Restaurant
We just stepped in to check it out.

We will have
 to go
up in this sometime.

It would be
quite a view
of all
the
boats
out in
the Bay!

 A nice
Breezy
day in
Kemah!

Lots of folks
enjoying the
Boardwalk
with their
children!

We wandered around along the boardwalk side so Chrissy could see Galveston Bay.

 Who's fault you say?

Daddy, Daddy, please don't leave me here!! Save me!!!

If we could keep her out of the Saloon, then we could probably keep her out of jail!!
The girl sure has a mind of her own!! ;-) Such a independent lil' thing!

We had a great afternoon wandering around seeing the sights. We left the Boardwalk and took her for a drive along the Bay coastline just to see the area a bit.
We went scouting for the "Green Parrot Tree".
The story is that during one of the hurricanes, the owners let their Parrots loose to fend for themselves. Never thinking that they would survive, multiply, and make this area their homestead.
Jay had taken us to the tree during our first trip to Kemah and it was loaded with green parrots!
We drove for quite awhile and finally found the tree,
 but sadly there were no parrots to share with Chrissy.
I will have to investigate that more...maybe they just moved to a bigger tree?

We went on a mission to find a vodka that Chrissy wanted us to try.  ~"360 Vodka"~
 Found it at Spec's in Webster so we headed back to the boat to enjoy "Cocktail Hour".
Chrissy introduced us to  a nice smooth vodka & 7-up! We like!!!

We hung out, had some laughs and enjoyed catching up!

Then we headed out to Gilhooley's for a late supper. 

Newman & Michael are lonesome for her!

 Enjoying Gilhooley's!!
Good Company!

Good Food!
Chrissy ordered a chicken sandwich...just in case she didn't like oysters. 

 Great Faces!! HA HA!!

We always order our favorites: A dozen "Raw" & a dozen "Shrimphooley's"

Chrissy like's the famous "Oyster's"! :-)

We headed back to Our Way Too! to enjoy a beautiful evening onboard.
 Our time with Chrissy is going by way too fast!

We haven't done alot while she's been here, but just "being together" means the world to us!!

 Chrissy & her proud Daddy!

Our Beautiful Bow Bunny!

Chrissy & her proud Momma Katie!

She thinks she is on the Titanic!
Our Way Too! is so Big!!

This actress would give Kate Winslow a run for her money!! ;-)

Enjoying the deck on Our Way Too!
For sure the next visit we will be able to take you Sailing!!