Dreams, Thieves, and Palm Trees

Okay where to begin...

A few weeks ago we were dreaming of owning acreage, being "off the grid," owning chickens and a couple donkeys, growing veggies, and building a camping retreat for all our friends to use...basically establishing our own little Loya compound.

So after looking around on the web, we contacted a realtor, and then drove to Denton to check out a few properties. This one we fell in love with.

We had it all decided where the house, shop, and guest cabin would be. I was picturing my dogs and children running around in the tall grass while I sipped my morning coffee on the deck overlooking our peaceful pond.

It never ceases to amaze me how we can "plan" out our whole lives in a matter of hours. You see we do this all the time, especially on long road trips. The dreams and plans differ greatly, but they do have the common theme of LAND. Land to divide and sell for profit, land for a church camp, land for sustainable living, land to build houses for all our family and friends, land to run a dog kennel, land to open an RV park... you get the idea.

After thinking it over, we decided it wasn't the best investment to purchase land we had no intention of using for about 8 years. What we want now, may not be what we want in 8 years. Yet, it was still a useful trip, we came away a little wiser for the experience. (Plus, we were able to spend time with some of our family members in the area which is always a treat!)

I love our brain storming. I love that we sit and make these elaborate plans. Each time we do we are taking little pieces of each plan and dream and shaping it into our true heart's desire. What is that? Well we don't know yet. It's organic...ever changing and growing. God has a plan for us and our crazy dreams. Just you wait, one day it will all come together and it will be amazing, but we are where we need to be right here, right now.

And where exactly is "here" you might ask?

Well, we are still in the Austin area, though we have moved out of our previous site at Palma Vista. That place has always been a bit shady, but until recently we have had co-workers staying there also, which made it feel not so bad. A few months ago Jonathan's truck was broken into and a good deal of tools were stolen. Then last week, while going to his truck to leave for work, Jonathan scared off some people who were breaking into another car, right in front of our trailer. After we reported it we discovered that there was a number of thefts that night.

Enough is enough.

Our house is on wheels. We don't have to put up with that. So we moved.

I love our new spot. It's clean and safe, and CLEAN! We are enjoying getting to know this new town also. New stores, new restaurants, new entertainment. Good times.

As nice as this new park is, we will be leaving it in a month or so.

The job here in Austin is finally coming to an end and we will be moving on.

The word right now is that we will be heading out west to the land of tree huggers, surfers, movie stars, and palm trees. First to Northern California for a few months and then down closer to border come the first of the year.

This will be our first trip to California and we are really looking forward to it.

I would love to tell you that we are going to take two weeks to make the 28hr drive.

Stopping by here:

Here:

or maybe here:

I would love to tell you that we are going to explore all the beautiful creation between Texas and Califorina, but it's only true in my mind. Here in the real world, we are only going to have a just a couple of days to haul up there as quickly as we can to get there before the next job starts.

But all that traveling is a few weeks away. There is still plenty of time to soak up some more of the Texas heat and explore our new little town.

Enjoy the rest of your summer.