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!