Colleen

9^th of August 2014

Colleen

            Hi to everyone who decides that this is worth reading! I have no idea how many days we have been in this RV, so I won’t even bother trying to figure it out. If you want to, then it’s not up to me. If anyone reading this does NOT know that on the 26^th we are boarding a plane, taking it to Ireland, saying goodbye to our house, family and my older brother.  Who, I would like to cough out, we will probably miss the most out of anyone seeing this (seeing that we have lived with him my sister--Abby’s--and I's entire life).  Thank you for reading this. You are now a successful follower of our blog.

            The one question EVERYONE asks me is “so how do you feel about moving to Ireland?” “How do you feel about this, colleen?” “how do you feel?” WE     ARE       COMING        BAAAAAACK!!!!!  I mean really. Its only 7 months!  I’m between hohum and excited about going to Ireland.  I’m most excited about all the things we are going to see in Europe. How do I feel about selling the house?  It’s just a house. I plan on saving up for the rest of my life to buy it back anyhow. 

            In more recent events, all family and friends probably already know that our faithful beagle, Riley, passed away this week. I know that she will be remembered forever in our hearts.

Riley's the one sniffing Maddie.

            Mom begins to cry every time we talk about her, but I have to at least tell one story I will never forget:

            When I was about 6, Abby, Devan, the dogs and me were staying at my grandma’s house. We had just come back from getting dairy queen for lunch and were sitting on the porch, eating it when Riley decided that she was hungry. I was sitting in my small, low, blue chair, eating my chicken strips when she walked up to me. Me, expecting her to want to be pet, let her. She calmly walked right up to me, then snatched my chicken right up like she does that every day. I stared at her, eyes wide, mouth open, full of the last bite I would ever get from that chicken strip, watching her swagger away.

            So, now I guess you want to hear about what we’ve been doing. We have developed a daily system.

We wake up around 8:30, put the table together, put the blankets away, eat/make breakfast, clean up Reggie, the RV, then take showers or do laundry. Whoever does the poop scoop and trash does that, then, I usually hop on Mamo’s (Lynne Purdy, my grandma on mom’s side of the family.) old bike, and do a couple laps on the route I’ve made on the roads around our campsite. After this we lounge around and read or do whatever. Then, we eat lunch, haggle through the traffic, do whatever errand we have to do, haggle back, change into swim suits, stay at the pool for 30 minutes to an hour and a half, come back, get back into regular clothes, and do whatever until dad gets home. Once he does, we cook dinner, clean up outside and set up the chairs. Then we eat,  clean up after dinner, whoever does the dishes does them, and the rest of us clean up everything. After this we eat dessert, then, I go out on the bike again. Then, we put the chairs away and everything else, so that the sprinklers don’t get them, set up the beds, read for half an hour, then dad calls lights out and we fall asleep.

So, once again, thank you everyone who reads this, even the people who don’t know us. I hope to see some more family and friends before we go.

This is Colleen, the youngest, signing off.