Camping

I bet you didn't know that I started out my married life in a camper. We lived in a camper (yes, the kind you take vacations in) longer than I care to remember. It was small, it was cramped, it was FREEZING in the winter and HOT in the summer. I remember being pregnant with Destiny in that camper. I was miserable and it was miserably hot and I hated it. The only way to keep cool was to remove your clothing. Sorry, I know that's more than you EVER wanted to know, but it's true. I was quite anti-social back then, out of necessity. If I had company, then I had to wear clothes. No visitors=no clothes. I felt like I was living in one of those nudist places. Seemed like my hubby was never home. To this day I swear he was off avoiding having to come home to a sweaty, half-naked, pregnant wife! Anywho, I think I've forgotten the point of this story.
Oh yeah, there it is. Camping all day everyday is NOT FUN AT ALL. Can it even be considered camping if you actually LIVE in a camper?! It's not like we hauled it around to different locations or anything, you know, to see the sights, travel the world? Nope. I couldn't get that lucky. Our first home was parked in my mother-in-law's driveway. No joke. I could look out my little camper window and see into their kitchen. Must have been hot in their house too. I'm sad to say I could most likely pick my father-in-law's backside out of a police line up with little or no effort at all. We bought them some window blinds for their kitchen not long after my nightmares started. But there I go again, losing my point.
Oh yeah, so as fun as I make this whole "living/camping thing" it really wasn't all that bad. In hindsight. Of course, back then, it was terrible and I hated it. Our camper had no phone (can you BELIEVE IT? no phone in a camper! What is the world coming to?), no cable tv, no internet, and no washer or dryer. But let's focus for a minute, on what it DID have. We had a stove, fridge, table, full bed, small sofa, and a rather nice and comfy chair. We had a tiny closet in one room and an even tinier closet in the bathroom. Oh, and we had a bathroom! It had a toilet, a sink, and a teeny, tiny, tub. It was a cute little tub, but not really one designed for those long, relaxing baths that a girl just NEEDS sometimes. As a matter or fact, it wasn't even big enough to sit in so....
I guess I should call it a really deep shower stall. Anyway, our mansion on wheels was comfy enough (I guess) until baby makes 3. Let me just tell you, bringing a baby home to live in a camper is really an eye opening experience. We took out the kitchen table, put the sofa and chair in the kitchen and put the crib in the living room. That way, Destiny would be closer to us when we were asleep in our bedroom. It was a nice thought anyway. Where did Destiny actually end up sleeping? In a drawer in our bedroom! It was kind of funny (almost) when we'd get up to go to the bathroom at night. We had to push the drawer to the bureau closed to get out the door. There she was, closed up, snug as a bug in a rug, in her little dresser. When she was 3 months old, we ending our camping trip and moved into an apartment. We had 2 good spacious bedrooms and a rather large kitchen. We also had 2 bathrooms. It was like living in a mansion after camping out for so long. Destiny's little bedroom was right across from ours, so we put her little crib in her own room with the greatest intentions. So, where did Destiny end up sleeping? In a laundry basket, of course. Right beside our bed. It was nice, and I'm sure it beat sleeping in a drawer. It was a basket with a view. Such a big step up! Having all that extra space in our apartment was nice, but would you believe we actually missed our camper?! It had become home to us and we really missed that "homey" feeling. We lived in our apartment for about a year before relocating again. After the apartment, we lived with the in-laws for awhile, while they finished building their new home. My husband's childhood home was perfect for us (minus the in-laws who still lived there too) and we were very happy to be there. His childhood home became OUR family home on Christmas Eve 2002. The in-laws moved out and we moved the rest of our furniture in. We have lived here, in his childhood home, since then. It's really the only home that our girls have ever known. It's got that "coming home feeling" to it. Always has, I guess. But there are just some days, like today, when the girls are at school and Laney is napping and hubby is at work. There are some days, when I'm all alone in this quiet little house, that I really just long for those simple days when we lived in our little camper in the yard.