Life as a Yowler

Overall everything has gone very smoothly on this trip until today. Our RV battery quit working which powers things while we drive down the road. The water pump also has given out and we barely have water pressure driving down the road. The really major problem though is our slide out. The entire side of the RV slides out when it’s parked at campgrounds. Its more than just a convenience. We need it to open to access certain cupboards and drawers. It’s usually very easy to slide. You just push a button and out it goes. Every once in awhile if it’s not shut correctly it gets out of time. Thanks to a shoe getting wedged under the slide as I was retracting it this morning, we wasted about 3 hours of our life trying to reset it.

The one side of the slide came in faster than the other so Brandon and I took turns pushing with all our strength as the other person pushed the extend and retract button over and over. When the one person was shaking and about to pass out, the other person took over. We did this about two hours. Then we got the brilliant idea to try a board on the outside of the slide.

Even this was unsuccessful, so we caved and found an RV dealership near us. The good news is they were able to get us in first thing tomorrow. The bad news is they don’t come to campgrounds to service RV’s. You have to take it to them. Since we can’t stay in the RV for 2 days while they work on it, and since we don’t know anyone in Louisiana we called the campground we booked. They were amazing and so helpful and willing to work with us. We explained the situation. We needed a full size fridge since we had to transfer all the fridge and freezer food we brought or it would go bad.  They happened to have a mobile home available with a full size fridge, so they switched our reservation for us. Meet our new home for the next two nights.

The kids are so pumped. They all ran in and shouted “it’s beautiful!!!” Joah’s exact words were, “oh I am so thankful our slide out broke so we can stay in this awesome house.”

Brielle’s reaction to this shower curtain: “oh my gosh mom you’ve got to see this bathroom. The shower curtain is absolutely beautiful!”

The Yowler’s have taken over.

Transferring all of our stuff was tough. Even with only staying two nights we need clothes, sheets, blankets, pillows, towels, pool stuff(suits, towels, life jackets), food(fridge, freezer, snacks), plates, cups, dishes, bathroom things, diapers….you get the idea. It took us about an hour just to transfer everything. Isla screamed the whole time. She’s gotten a little spoiled this trip and wants to be held constantly. We explained to the other three kids that Louisiana is full of gators so DO NOT leave this house while mom and dad keep walking stuff back and forth.  That sure worked. Today was the first day I really wished we had another adult with us to help with childcare. I was almost melting down by the end, but I held it together. We ended up ordering Pizza for dinner. It was just one of those nights. We just ate out last night and I was feeling guilty, but you know what…it’s life. We survived. We dealt. I’m just going to be real for a minute. I have eaten more terrible today than I have this entire trip. I don’t know if it was stress eating or what but 2 slices of pizza tonight were minimal compared to everything else I ate. 😬 I’ll need to get back on it tomorrow. Brandon actually gathered everyone tonight and had us hold hands and pray before eating. He told us we all needed to change our attitudes and perspective. He pointed out how blessed we are. We have the opportunity to travel along with him as he works. We have done so many fun things. One bad day is nothing compared to so many good days. We are very fortunate this mobile home was available and our kids even love it more than the RV. 🤣 Seriously everyone here in the south is so nice. We had people stopping to offer to help today while I was outside pushing the RV slide. We also had people offer to help unload the RV. We are very blessed and I appreciate Brandon’s leadership he took in reminding me to change my perspective. Our trials are so minimal compared to others.

I took the kids to the playground tonight after the whole unloading ordeal was over. They needed to get some energy out. The playground is very nice and even had a playhouse.

And an airplane. The kids were “flying to Mexico.”

As we were trying to settle the kids down and put them to bed tonight we noticed a lot of chewing going on. Then we noticed an increase instead of decrease in the energy level. Then we discovered the secret.

Joah snuck this box of fruit snacks under his bed during the RV transferring process and was passing it out to the siblings and himself right before bed. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ That’s my cue. I need to get these trouble makers to bed. Goodnight all!