At Our So-Called Life, I wrote about our journey to minimalism and our sailing trip on the Lakes. On Our Journey to Ithaca. I wrote about our move to Texas and the first two boats we lived on down here.
This blog has been about Loco Lobo, a floating house that we no longer own. Loco’s story will now be told by the couple who is fixing her up and making her beautiful.
Meanwhile, we aren’t going anywhere. Texas is home. Maybe someday when we retire, we will disappear over the horizon. But when you have found perfection, there is no reason to disappear.
With that being said, I am ending this blog and beginning a new one, Finding Home. I hope that you will join us there!
Note: I have a “We’re Still Alive” update ready to go, but recent events have made this post seem more appropriate right now. There will be a happier post, with pictures, soon.
December 14, 2012 was a normal school day for me. It was what would become my last year teaching in Farwell, Michigan, and at that time, I was teaching at the high school. My day ended with an academic support class, where students could work on their homework. I had two assistants in the class with me, and one of them mentioned that there had been a school shooting that day.
Out of curiosity, I Googled it. The name of the school and the town did not register, but I closed my browser immediately when I saw the word, “elementary.”
“Oh no, it was an elementary,” I said, and we did not say anything more about it.
The next morning, our principal tearfully called us into a meeting to discuss how we should help our students to feel safe at school, the day after the Sandy Hook shooting.
I should remember every school shooting. But I don’t, because there have been too many. The next one that comes to mind is Santa Fe, May 18. 2019. I was on medical leave at that time, recovering from my own injuries from school violence. I found out about it when my friend posted about it on Facebook, saying her daughter was safe after the shooting. Santa Fe is in my backyard–it’s another small town between Houston and Galveston, maybe a 15 minute drive from where we live.
Santa Fe hit very hard, and it was on all of our minds as we had our annual meetings to discuss the school’s safety plan. Safety planning was no longer an annoying inconvenience–it was as real as preparing our sailboat for a storm.
May 24, 2022, was a very emotional day for me already. It was the Tuesday during the last week of school, and it was also my daughter’s last week of middle school. I always cry on the last day, and I had already been crying everyday that week.
This school year has brought a lot of challenges for my students, co-workers, and me. At one point, I thought that Delta variant of Covid was last school year, because it seemed so long ago. But it was this year. I had a team member hospitalized with it, a student’s father in ICU for three months on a ventilator due to it (he fully recovered!), and I have had students and friends lose loved ones to Delta. We had so many cases at school that we almost had to close and go virtual, but we got through it.
After taking two years off of teaching due to my injuries at my previous job, I have been in the front lines of the pandemic, assuring my students (as always) that all is well, that we are safe, and that school is a safe place to be. And with my bottle of disinfectant and N-95 mask, I was doing all I could to make good on my words.
And still, I had students who couldn’t read. I had older students who couldn’t read, who had fallen further behind due to Covid. Even with this crazy school year, I was able to help them catch up. Orton-Gillingham is magic, even when it can’t be done as consistently as I would like.
Some of these students even passed the state test this year.
So it was an emotional week, but I was ready for summer and a well-earned rest, before embarking on 2022-23, which would be even closer to normalcy.
I first heard out it during dismissal on May 24.
Some eighth graders were talking about a shooting near San Antonio. They said someone shot his grandma, then went to the school and shot his mom. I shook my head, thinking this was unfortunate.
I went home, then went to yoga. I read a vague reference to the shooting on Facebook, so I decided I should Google it, in case anything was brought up the next day. It will be okay, I told myself. Nothing can compare to learning about Sandy Hook. I remember where I was then, it was so significant.
I was at the table in my main salon last night when I read about Robb elementary in Uvalde. I didn’t click on the article, but I saw the number “18”.
It was close to home. Not as close as Santa Fe, but Rob and I went to San Antonio for our anniversary.
And that is how the last day of school began.
There was no morning meeting to debrief. We knew the drill. I made it out to the front gate for my morning duty on time. I love having morning duty at the middle school gate, because I am the only staff member there, talking to and spending time with the older students.
I am also the first line of defense. And I know that part of the reason I have this assignment is because my “no” means “no.”
Two siblings that I work with, came through the gate. We chatted, and I told them how proud I am of them. As I spoke, a car drove by and backfired. The kids both looked at me fearfully, seeking reassurance. “It was just a car,” I explained quickly, and they relaxed.
It was an emotional day, with more joy than ever in the parties, as well as more hugs and tears, even from the preschoolers.
What I have found that I can’t deal with, is social media and armchair political discussions. I find it very difficult to describe my emotions and my experience, and I found it comforting to be around my co-workers, who are experiencing the same thing.
We have different political learnings, but we agree that the current pattern has been to do nothing. One side says one thing, the other says another, there is no compromise, and we get thoughts and prayers.
We GIVE a lot of thoughts and prayers. You do that when you are on the front line. In a storm, a sailor will plead with every deity who might listen. Been there, done that.
But our leadership needs to get their heads on straight. And I don’t care to read partisanship on social media. I give myself a 50/50 chance of surviving an actual incident. And if I survived, I would lose people I loved dearly. I don’t care if someone who prevents that has a “D” or an “R” after their name.
I know what it is like to stand between a violent student and the rest of my class. I have a permanent shoulder injury and scars on my chest that can attest to that. I tell my students we are safe. And I will make good on that.
The way I make peace with this is by understanding that we live in a violent society, with a lot of anger right now. And that I am doing what I can. I am helping my students to learn to read, and to believe in themselves. I am helping to foster understanding. If there is a God, he/she has placed me here, in this time and place, to help these children. I am doing what I can, and I am helping to make school a safe haven.
I am here, and I am doing what I was placed on this earth to do.
What I am not here to do, is discuss politics and get upset by social media. The best political discussion happens when we write to our leaders. And when we are open to other ideas and win-win situations and solutions.
I am writing this to share my thoughts and get this off my chest. I will delete comments that are strictly partisan or hateful. I am staying away from social media for a few weeks, but I will post twice a week with updates on our adventures.
Since we started back at the beginning of August, we have been dealing with an increasing surge of Covid cases, due to the Delta variant. At first, I was worried that there would be another shutdown, when all the mask drama started, politically. Then, it just became unreal to watch as more and more students and staff members tested positive or had to quarantine.
Allergy symptoms have increased for everyone since this year’s hurricane near-miss (which was not nearly as scary for us as it was last year, since we knew all along that it would miss us and we would be on the clean side). But allergy symptoms are the same as Delta symptoms, so sitting in half-empty classrooms filled with runny noses can be disconcerting.
Add to it the fact that there was a situation that, while it was perfectly safe, triggered a lot of trauma-related emotions for me. And the situation was compounded by the fact that Covid has left schools chronically under-staffed–and circumstances in our state have made that worse this year.
On top of all that, there are constant cautionary tales of vaccines being useless against Delta. So when I started feeling insatiably tired, I felt the need to hide it. It was exhaustion, right? I could not remember the last time I got a good night’s sleep, and lack of sleep does affect me a lot.
Then the stuffy nose and sinus drip cough started. Nasal irrigation and steroid spray kept it at bay for the most part–these are typical allergy symptoms for me, and they do get worse when I am under stress. In fact, I usually carry a bottle of water or coffee with me, so that I can keep from coughing. But when a cough slipped out last week, I got lots of suspicious looks.
I was rocking my TEA-issued blue N95! They have a weird, perfumey smell to them, which brought back memories of last March.
But coughing wasn’t a symptom I had when I had Covid, and neither was a sore throat, which I started experiencing on Friday. However, the muscle aches and headache, which had been getting worse over the past week, were a definite cause for concern. At least I wasn’t having neurological symptoms….until I realized that my eye had been twitching for a few days now.
Luckily, we had a long weekend, so I could lock myself indoors at home and figure all this out. I googled the Delta variant, hoping to learn that my symptoms were completely different from what I was experiencing.
I do get crazy physical symptoms related to stress. Right before I left my previous job, when the situation was very traumatic, I would get muscle aches, GI symptoms, and a low grade fever, which were all psychosomatic. And my resistance lowers when I am under extreme stress. I had to student teach twice in order to get my degree, and had a crazy holiday season between the two unpaid internships. Due to the stress, I ended up getting shingles in my throat at age 23. I also had psychosomatic symptoms, including a stuffy nose and muscle aches, from the beginning of the pandemic up until I actually caught Covid and recovered. So stress was a definite possibility.
However, I decided that I was likely in denial, so I let my yoga teacher know that I would not be in class for the next 10 days. Then I overate and wondered what to do. Finally, on Saturday, I broke down and got a home testing kit. I made sure to stick the q-tip as far up my nose as it would possibly go. And, ten minutes later…
That’s right–no pink line on my strip (on the top)! I will retest tonight, and then I will be good to go back to yoga and work once the long weekend is over.
So surprise, surprise, after having Covid and then being vaccinated, I don’t have Covid. It’s crazy how the current media coverage makes it seem like the most probable result is not going to happen.
Now that the excitement is over, it is time to deal with the actual issue at hand–the fact that stress has caused me to have all of these physical symptoms. It is time to streamline my routine, to understand the limits of what I can get done in a day, to set boundaries accordingly, and to focus on the things that actually are within my control.
The reality is that I am not going to get Covid again. So instead of worrying about that, it is time to focus on all of the good that I can do during this crazy time.
It’s been awhile, but I have decided to come back to this blog, to keep everyone updated on our life. I tried keeping in touch on Facebook, but I have such a love/hate relationship with that platform and with social media in general. Right now, I need a break from the barrage of news and doomsday predictions. I plan to try updating here once a week, with pictures of stories of our family’s adventures.
So what have we been up to?
Well, last December, I met my weight goal. In January, I became a Lifetime member of WW.
Over spring break, we traveled to Elijah’s retreat, where I took my “After” picture.
And then Covid hit, and we didn’t go back to school after spring break. However, in April, we moved from our boat, to an apartment over the store where Rob works.
We went back to school in the fall, and through a strange chain of events, I ended up teaching special education again. It has been working out well for me.
So here we are, in our very “Martha” decorated apartment, ready for the holidays! I look forward to sharing our adventures every weekend!
January is a time to refocus and work, uninterrupted on making positive changes. The holiday rush is over, and we are met with a long stretch of time, that is nothing but consistency.
2019 was an amazing year. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. While I had been working hard for at least 3 years (more like 7!), 2019 was the year when the turn-around occurred.
So what now? I showed an amazing ability to channel my energy and create something wonderful, when I completely changed my life last year. My word for 2020 is “create,” and I am going to use that same energy to reach the goals I have set for myself under that theme.
Which brings me to my January challenge. I love doing a total detox in January, so I can really focus on my goals. Here is what I will committing to this month:
1. Diet: I already avoid refined sugar and alcohol. I have given up caffeine in the past, but really did not notice a difference. I will limit myself to two cups of coffee a day, then drink water or herbal tea. I will eat a vegan diet and avoid gluten.
2. Media: I will avoid social media and only listen to music without lyrics.
3. Routine: I will commit to following Fly Lady’s program daily, which includes a morning routine where I write in my journal, meditate, and read spiritual books.
4. Meditation: I have tried to complete The Presence Process on many occasions, and this time I will make it. This involves meditating twice a day for 15 minutes, as well as reading passages on emotional integration.
5. Exercise: I will do my yoga stretches daily. I will run on days when it is not cold, and I will get at least 70 Fitpoints on my Weight Watchers app weekly.
I will write about various aspects of my challenge every week, and at the end of the month, I will decide which practices I want to keep, and which I would like to take a break from.
What are your plans for the new year? Are you completing a challenge?
well… I just want to say thank you for the great story’s that you put there it means a lot to me thank you guys thank you
Note: This post was written by Iliana. I spent all morning wondering if my blog was hacked, when Ili started trying to stifle a laugh. Her response: “Well, you shouldn’t have left you laptop open!”
When I was a teenager, I was too skinny. But around the time I got married, I settled in at a healthy, happy weight, near the middle but slightly on the lower end of my healthy range. This is what I weighed in the picture above, taken early in our marriage, before that lovely green car behind us died tragically in 2003. I’ll call this happy, healthy weight “X.”
From time to time, I bounced above X, but I always found my way back. One summer, I made it up to X+15, which horrified me. My doctor recommended the South Beach Diet, so I gave it a try and was back to X within a month. So that is how I continued. I didn’t worry about my diet until I got to X+10, then I would do South Beach and get back down.
Then this happened:
This, my friends, is X+45.
Fortunately, I was one of those disgustingly annoying mothers who had a very easy time breastfeeding. Couple that with the fact that I was a tightwad, and that Iliana had serious stomach issues and wasn’t keen of eating solid food, and you get 22 months of calorie-burning breastfeeding goodness! It didn’t take me long to get down to X+10, and for the next few years, I hovered between X+5 and X+10.
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I was embarrassed that I had to buy a size 8 for my brother-in-law’s wedding… Iliana (she was 3 in this picture!) wore her dress on special occasions for the next 4 years.
I kept losing, slowly, even after Rob’s mom died unexpectedly in 2011. I was looking pretty good by the time we set sail the summer of 2011, and I was between X and X+10 during the summer of 2012.
Meanwhile, my work situation was becoming less and less wonderful. It was getting more cut-throat, while the pay and benefits were decreasing. The hours were increasing, taking me away from Iliana. I began to see work as the price I had to pay, for 3 months of cruising.
And in 2013, I began to question that price.
That year, I was moved from the middle school to the high school. At first I was on my guard and gained weight from emotional eating. I wrote my first blog post about the topic, at this time. I started a small support group, which was helpful for a couple of weeks.
Then it hit the fan at work, and I was thrown into insecurity. I began to eat a pizza everyday for lunch. First, one from Subway, but eventually that evolved into a Hot ‘N Ready. As I made plans to make changes in my life, it only got worse. I felt unsafe, and food grounded me.
Here I am with my sister-in-law on my first visit to Texas. I was between X+15 and X+20.
I thought moving to Texas would bring relief, but I found myself caught up in the same drama at work. I gained a lot of weight that first year, getting up to X+43.
We had a “greatest loser challenge” at work, and I took fourth place, getting down to X+30, which is where I remained for the next 3 years. I was not excited about this weight, but I started working out and practicing yoga, which taught me a great deal about accepting where I am in any given moment, physically and emotionally. (More about yoga in a future post!).
I began to notice that I was emotionally eating, and that I was unable to detect my hunger cues, so I started working with a dietician. This was incredibly valuable, as she helped me to see my patterns and to brainstorm alternatives. My dietician introduced me to the book, “Intuitive Eating,” which gave me many tools that I had been previously lacking and helped me to stop demonizing certain foods. Through working with her, I was able to weigh myself regularily, without attaching so much emotion to the number on the scale. It is just a data point.
Then came the 2017-18 school year. This period of time brought more significant challenges than I had ever faced before in my life before then. I began to use food as a coping mechanism more than ever. It started out with a candy bar here and there, especially after work.
I stopped weighing myself during this time, but my weight was definitely creeping up.
By Christmas, I was grabbing fast food after work, because the feeling of a full belly was so comforting.
In the end, I was ordering a pizza for lunch–a whole pizza, delivered. I would munch on it all day, to soothe myself at work. Then I would still grab fast food on the way home, before eating dinner.
Then, on March 1, I went on leave from my job, permanently. I wasn’t losing weight yet, but the pattern was broken.
The above picture is a selfie that Iliana and I took the first day I got to walk her to the bus stop!
My second week on leave, we took this picture of me at my “happy place,” Elijah’s retreat in Jacksonville, Texas. When I got home, I finally stepped on the scale. X+50. I was 5 pounds heavier than my pregnancy weight!
After leaving my job, I did find that I was emotionally eating a lot less. I started going to yoga daily, which helped me to better process my experiences over the past year. And I decided that I was ready to start actively working on weight loss. I began with my old standby–low carb–and lost 7 pounds in 2 weeks.
After this initial success, I went out for smoothies with one of my closest friends, who had gotten me through my challenging year with near-weekly smoothie dates on Saturday mornings. I mentioned that I was eating low-carb, and she said, “I always had a lot of success with Weight Watchers. I am a lifetime member now, which means I don’t have to pay to go to meetings.”
The seed was planted, so of course I had to check it out.
I browsed Weight Watchers’ website, and I really liked the simplicity and flexibility of the eating plan, and I knew that the emotional support at the meetings would be beneficial for me. So I took advantage of an offer where I paid for 3 months upfront, and got 50% off.
My first meeting was an extremely positive experience. I found that the positive atmosphere stood in contrast to the typically punitive attitude toward “dieting” that is pervasive in our culture. It felt good, and it fit very well with what I had been learning in yoga and with my dietician.
Yes, we had to weigh in first, but it wasn’t the daunting experience I thought it would be. People talked about weight and numbers very matter-of-factly. It was one indicator of progress, and for me, it was a starting point. I set my goal for X, and enjoyed hearing all the practical ideas people shared in the meeting. I felt immediately accepted, and I loved our leader. She was one of those people who instantly lights up a room.
In Weight Watchers, you earn charms for meeting milestones, and it did not take me long to earn my 5 pound charm. And right after I earned it, I spent the weekend downtown at a moped rally. I had asked for ideas about this upcoming rally, in the meeting. Some people recommended choosing healthier choices at restaurants, carrying my own snacks, or even just not tracking and getting back on track after the weekend! As much as I prepared, when it came down to it, I chose the latter. And had a great time!
At this point, I was X+38!
After the rally, I got right back on program. I found that I felt better when I was more active. Not exercising, per se, but just incorporating more activity into my day. Weight Watchers has “fitpoints” that you track, so I wore a pedometer and started walking whenever I could. A day’s worth of laundry could earn me nearly 9000 steps! As my fitpoints goal increased, I noticed that I was hungry a lot more. I started allowing my weekly points to go into the negative, by 20-40, and I kept losing 1-2 pounds a week. If I was not as active, I gained weight.
And before I knew it, I earned my 10 pound charm! By this point, I was getting comments about my weight loss, and I had to retire some of my clothing. My yoga pants were falling down in class! But the flowered dress still fit…
Things slowed a bit after that, but with consistency (and a few ups and downs), I found myself at X+31 the first week of June.
What you don’t know is that Iliana was showing the earliest signs of heat stroke in that picture, and her temperature spiked to 102.5 that night…it was terrifying…
With consistency, as well as taking a break during the occasional week, I made slow and steady progress. I found that working through emotional eating required diligence. I had to make more changes to my life, and make sure that I was spending time with people who were supportive.
And so here I am, currently at X+27!
So….In the spirit of the many guest posts I wrote when I was a “serious” blogger, I am going to end this story with a take-away!
Here are some lessons I have learned in my weight loss journey:
Start with the groundwork.
I worked with my dietician for over a year before I lost a pound. At my first appointment, I had expected her to give me a meal plan that I could follow, so that I could lose weight quickly. Instead, she helped me to see that I already knew a lot about nutrition. And you likely do, too. The information is readily available, and following any diet/food plan will result in weight loss. Low-carb and low-fat are equally as effective. So the important question is, why aren’t we eating the way that we know to eat? I was unhappy, and food was my addiction that helped me cope with being unhappy. Finding peace and happiness required a MAJOR life change that had nothing to do with food. I don’t think weight loss would have happened if I had not quit my job. Weight gain is a part of a larger picture, and a lot has to be unraveled before the pattern can be permanently changed.
2. Consider professional help to get you started.
I worked with a dietician and a therapist. Emotional eating is an addiction. It is a very socially accepted addiction, but it is an addiction nonetheless. I was overeating because I was unhappy. If I hadn’t worked with professionals to learn tools and to gain the clarity to make changes in my life, I may have replaced my overeating with a different addiction. It would have been the same scenario as the AA members smoking outside, before their meeting. Ending the cycle is hard, and having access to professional support can be very valuable. I paid out of my pocket to see my dietician, and I will likely do it again after I reach my goal, to help me maintain.
3. Actually read the book “Intuitive Eating.”
It’s not what most people think it is. It is not about eating whatever you want and forgetting the consequences. It is about honoring your hunger and respecting your fullness. And about allowing all foods into your life. In the end, the focus turns to nutrition and making informed choices. This book and the workbook have helped me tremendously in Weight Watchers. While a lot of people in my meeting are strict about what they eat and avoid, I have indulged in poutine and lost weight! Rob and I go out to a bar and split a burger and fries, and I order a beer. A lot of people on Weight Watchers avoid pancakes, but I eat them (in smaller portions) most mornings.
4. Approach it with a truly body positive attitude.
Like intuitive eating, the phrase “body positive” has been distorted in popular culture. Notice how many “before” pictures I have, and how I am smiling in all of them. I enjoyed seeing and posting the selfie and Iliana and me, on my first day on leave from my job, because I could see how happy I was. I was beautiful in that picture, because that was such a powerfully life-changing day. And in the picture when I was my heaviest, I was sitting in my happiest place, having made it through an unbelievably awful school year. I did not hate myself for being obese, and I do not hate myself for being overweight. However, I love myself too much to remain a slave to an addiction. I love myself enough to find peace and happiness. Overeating was a poor substitute. I love myself enough to be healthy. I feel more energetic when I eat balanced meals and am active. My moods improve when I take care of myself. Yes, I feel prettier when I weigh X. But that does not mean I am ugly when I do not. Being body positive means getting to know your body. I weigh myself daily, so I can see my patterns. I fluctuate by 1-2 pounds, then I dump down when it is close to a week. One time I dumped the day after a weigh-in!
5. Find movement that you love!
I have never forced myself to go to yoga. It makes me happy, it makes me feel good, and it is a community where I belong, am valued, and am connected. I modify, based on what I can do each day, so it never “kicks my butt.” My practice has become such a joyful part of my life, that I happily get up and go to class at 6am twice a week! Sometimes I do extra side planks during sun salutations, and sometimes I spend most of the class in child’s pose. But showing up is never a problem. Find your version of that, and you will never struggle to be active again.
6. Find supportive friends.
Enlist your tribe! I found supportive friends in my yoga class, and one of them actually joined Weight Watchers with me. I have connected with a number of people from my meetings as well. The reality is that not everyone will be supportive when you are making changes. Weight loss is about so much more than weight loss, and it will lead to changes in your relationships. Make sure that you are around people who are positive and supportive.
7. And LAST…find a flexible food plan (or two).
The food plan really does come last! Because if you don’t do the groundwork, you will not stick to it. But when you do it, remember that any diet will cause you to lose weight, if you can follow it. So pick something that is easy to follow, for you! The best advice I read, was to have two food plans. Start with a food-list plan (such as low carb or low fat), then have a counting plan (such as calorie counting) as a backup. That way, if you eat bread or a doughnut, you are not off the hook. You can count calories and stay on track. Weight Watchers is primarily a counting plan, but it also has a food list component. I use it as my framework, then vary how I eat within it. Sometimes I do vegan, sometimes I do low-carb, on and sometimes I just eat small portions of my American favorites!
What has helped you on your weight loss journey? Please share in the comments!
I will go into my reasons why at a later date, but I had expected the absence of social media to create a lovely void, one that could be filled with positivity and purpose. Instead, I was met with just a void.
I was tired, lacking direction, still peeking over at my laptop, as I tried to get motivated to clean our “house” (pictured above). I cleaned out my email inbox, and excitedly checked, everytime a new message appeared. Somehow, it lacked the excitement of Messenger and its “woop-ding!” notification sound.
Before I had left Facebook, I had notified the friends and family I wished to stay in touch with, and many of them said they would miss seeing my photos. I had planned on doing an email mailing list, when my husband suggested that I write a blog once again.
I had written a semi-successful minimalist blog, Our Journey to Ithaca, for four years. It had been a great experience for me, and I had found a lot of joy in writing and connecting with the minimalist blogging community. But as the friends I had connected with began to end their blogs, it seemed that the time was right for me to wrap mine up as well.
And now the time seems right for me to jump back in.
So Who Are We?
We are the Rosselit family, the crew of the m/v Loco Lobo, the Chris Craft Commander 47 that we call home. We have lived aboard for nearly 4 years, and we have lived in the comfort of our floating mobile home for almost 1 year. Our cat, Popcorn, joins us on the boat and likes to board other vessels in the marina, especially if cat food, catnip, or other treats are provided.
Here is a little about the 3 of us…
My name is Bethany, although my husband calls me “Frog” and sometimes “Pirate.” I love vintage recipes, thrift store shopping, yoga, and Weight Watchers….and wine! I taught special education for 15 years, but took leave from my job back in March. I plan on substitute teaching in the fall. The shedding of my identity as a teacher has been an unusual but kind of exciting experience!
This is Miss Iliana, the self-appointed captain of Loco Lobo. Iliana is 11 and has done it all! She has been a flyer on a special needs competitive cheer team, a princess in the Miss Amazing beauty pageant, and a bronze medalist in Special Olympics track and field. Iliana owns a boat of her own: an Opti sailboat. She attends sailing camp every summer.
I asked Iliana what she would like me to include in this post, and she wanted me to mention that she is raising money to pay for a trip to Washington, D.C. with her fifth grade class next year. Ili will have the opportunity to fly there with her class and chaperones (not me!), stay in a hotel room with other kids, and visit a lot of historical sites, which she is very excited about. If you would like to help Ili fund her trip, she is selling Puffin Pastries in the Houston/Galveston area. Please contact me, using the form, if you are interested in buying some. She also has a Go Fund Me site.
I should also mention that Iliana has autism, but that is not the most interesting or most important thing about her.
This handsome devil is none other than my husband, Rob. Yes, that mustache is real, and yes, he spends more time primping in the morning than I do! And yes, that is a penny farthing! Rob is the harbor master of the marina where we live, and he can be seen riding his bike to the food trucks, running an amazing 5k time, and walking the docks. He is so dedicated to his marina that he didn’t let a little water deter him from his duties, during Hurricane Harvey!
So Welcome Aboard!
This is an old-fashioned lifestyle blog, plain and simple. I will be sharing our stories, recipes, thoughts, or whatever else comes to mind. I am not out to monetize. I am hoping to build a small community, a positive corner of the Internet, where we can all share stories and support one another. This is my writing, in my voice, without regard for SEO or increasing page views.
I will not be posting on a schedule. I will share whenever something comes to mind. I plan to enable email subscriptions as my next task, so feel free to subscribe if you would like to see our updates in your inbox!
I look forward to sharing our adventures with all of you!
Happily Loco 