Source: Flickr / myloveisinfinite                                           

It's a Glamorous Life

Working on a boat in the dead heat of summer really sucks.  Doing it in a boat yard sucks even worse.  But, that's what we were doing.  Sort of.  We were trying.

Hubs and I had no idea how much we actually had taken on. It was no fixer-upper.  It was a complete disaster.  We had to completely gut her.  COMPLETELY!

By the time we had finished pulling, ripping, and struggling to get everything out, the only thing left was the fiberglass hull.  That was it.  We had to start over from scratch.  Plus we were scratching... fiberglass is itchy.

We thought we had gotten everything off.  We were wrong.  We had company. Company in the way of black widow spiders.  Apparently, Airabess had the ideal conditions for a whole colony of the damn things. 



Such glamour this yacht life.....

It begins

By late October it was finally cooling off.  Time to get the party started.




Um, yeah.  So in this case party does not = fun.
Party = boat work


Yay!  I was so excited. 

Nice to meet you.

August was upon us, and Coco was starting pre-k.  As a side note, we are now a full on home schooling family.  At the time we were just planning on it.  We decided it would be good for her to attend VPK.  So we did.  But not without reservations.

Any one who knows me, understands that I am a lot crazy when it comes to my kid.  I am overprotective, but I also have super high standards.  I am a little freakish about what she is exposed to and by whom.  There are lots of reasons why.  But it doesn't really matter.  It is what it is. 

So, finding a school with like-minded philosophies was really important to us. 

We had the great luck, good fortune... whatever,  but the perfect place opened up a few miles from our house.

It was the first time I ever took Coco anywhere and just left her.  It was so weird.  She loved it.  She thrived there.  She learned, she grew, and she was becoming such a person.

Pre-school really has nothing to do with Airabess.  But it does.  Because our very (at the beginning of school) shy girl was opening up to herself and others.

It was how we came to know our first boat people.  Coco introduced us.  Which means she was sharing her excitement about our future in the way a 5-year-old knows how.  Talking incessantly about it to everyone. 

FYI- if you don't want anyone to know something... definitely don't tell a 5-year-old.

At pick-up one day,  my now very good friend, told me Coco had told her about our boat.  I wish I could have seen my face.  It wasn't a secret.  But I didn't really know many of the moms at the school, so I hadn't really exchanged any personal details. 

That was about to change.  Because the person that Coco shared with... had been a cruiser and her husband was building a new boat for their family.  Seriously?! 

Now I actually had someone to talk to.  A friend with kids, who knew the ins and outs, someone with real perspective.   Jackpot. 

And that was just the beginning of our kiddo leading the way...

Thanks Coco.

The wait game... Again.

We were still hiding indoors with the air conditioner; the hottest summer on record wasn't going anywhere.  So nothing was getting done at the boat yard.  Our dream was just sitting there, daring us to do something.  Unfortunately,  we were paralyzed by the heat.  Maybe paralyzed isn't the best word.  We could move.  But, it was very slowly and without much enthusiasm.

Hubs and I decided that we weren't going to beat ourselves up about it.  We were super busy at work and it was just too damn hot.  To do anything.  We were definitely ahead.  We hadn't actually planned on buying a boat for a couple of years.... So we decided to just do what we could and reevaluate when the mercury went back down to below boiling.