Big Dreams Itty Bitty Budget

I should have been a flight attendant. Truly. I suffer from a permanent case of major wanderlust. Nothing makes me happier than throwing my clothes in a suitcase or bag and walking out the door knowing I’m going somewhere. On vacation, some people dream about their bed at home. I dream about the next bed in some far off location. Life has a habit of happening and it’s taken me a while to figure out that life is short and we should all follow our passions. No longer am I the wild and free twenty-something that could have and should have started a travel blog or wrote a book. Now I have responsibility in the form of children, a mortgage and a real estate career. I also have a loving husband who tends to think I’m crazy and attempts to curb my wanderlust. Ok, I’ll admit we’ve fallen into the American “"two weeks vacation trap”. He gets two weeks off for vacation every year and we are lucky if we take those. We try to take trips around times the kids are out of school ...

A movie theme wouldn't be complete without The Empire Strikes Back. We bought a camper. It’s brand spanking new and all ours. We wanted to make it unique. Like no other camper but without making huge changes that might lower its value. One of my clients recently gifted my boys with an entire man cave of Star Wars pictures and posters. Good stuff. We thought about decorating the camper in a Star Wars theme but my oldest vetoed the idea. So that morphed into a movie theme. Our family loves movies and we all agreed that adding a movie vibe to the camper would be fun. I happen to own a Cricut vinyl cutter so making images or quotes is simple to do. As time goes by I keep thinking of things to add but the theme is working. My favorite touch is our movie star bathroom door with the star on it.   There are little move touches all through the camper. A Psycho shower curtain, movie quotes on one of the bathroom walls and Han Solo.    A sup...

The day we brought her home and parked it at the curb. It all started with the Hubbys’ beautiful monster of a Harley. Absolutely a work of art but unless our family of four wanted to climb on and cruise as one big moving pyramid like they do in third world countries we needed an alternative. One that would allow us all to enjoy the outdoors and not bust the budget. I had to be strategic. Cunning. It had to be his idea. In reality, it took one camping trip sleeping on rocks for him to agree that a camper would be nice. A few weekends later I convinced him to go look at campers. “Let’s go look and see what style we like… We don’t have to buy anything.”  How that worked I have no idea. We chose to visit Camping World purely for their size and location. Pulling into the parking lot and walking into their busy showroom it’s clear they are busy. The entire dealership was buzzing with activity. It took a hot second for a sales associate to say hello. We were asked...

Disneyworld- No other place like it. The first trip I actually remember is flying by myself from my home in New Mexico to California where my Grandparents lived. I was 5 and flying by myself would cement a lifelong love of traveling.  It's funny the things a kid remembers. My grandparents' house was surrounded by a cactus garden and I remember thinking that it was a horrible place to have a kid. What if I fell? I just knew I would be impaled on a giant cactus. It was also the source of one of my all-time favorite meals. I must have arrived at a weird time because I was starving and hadn't eaten on the plane. My grandparents put bags of cold cuts, cheese and crackers out on the table and I went to town on it. My parents didn't buy sliced deli meats like this. I had sliced ham and turkey plus all sorts of stinky cheeses that I could mix and match. Salami and roast beef plus bread and crackers. It sounds so simple but to this day it remains one of my all-ti...