Steppin' Out

With my recent posts about boat projects .. and more to come, I figured I'd share a little of what we've been up to other than boat work. During the past couple of months we celebrated a few things. In the photo above, we were at the city's Mayoral Ball. Our daughter's father-in-law is now the Mayor! It was fun to dress up for a change. I mean, I rarely step out of flip-flops, so wearing a long dress and heels made me feel like a princess! Obviously, I didn't have a long dress hanging around the boat so I went to the local Dillard's Outlet and bought my dress for .. $18 bucks! Ken wore his suit that he bought for our daughter's wedding, which he keeps in our daughter's closet. My new dress now has a place there too.

We got ready at our daughter's house, and she curled my hair for me. I enjoyed getting ready with her .. she did look like a princess!

So who is that guy with me in that first photo? That's my Dad .. can't you see the resemblance?! He and my step-mom were also at the ball. Here's a photo of us with our daughter, son-in-law, dad and step-mom.

The new mayor was a lil busy, but here he is on stage with our daughter & his son watching the balloons drop.

Later that month (July), we celebrated our daughter's graduation .. and her Master's Degree in Education. Both of my parents and step-parents were there, as well as our daughter's in-laws. Teaching full-time while pregnant and going to school is quite an accomplishment!

If you follow our blog regularly, you know that we took a road trip with our daughter & son-in-law to Indianapolis for her graduation ceremony. Those are some pretty cool dudes!

When back on the boat, we got busy with boat projects but still took time to enjoy the gorgeous sunsets at our marina.

We even had a rainbow!

We also continued to have fun with our dock neighbors ...

We spent some time with my brother & his kids to celebrate the birthday of my brother's grandson. It was also Ken's 52nd birthday! We celebrated with good boiled Louisiana seafood. I was in heaven!

I've also recovered from my little skin cancer surgery .. I've now got my war wound on my shoulder!

With September breaking heat records and being even hotter than August, we escaped to the Mississippi Gulf Coast one night to get away from the heat. It was exactly what we needed, and now that we're in October we hope we've gotten through the worst of the heat. Here's a view from our hotel room the morning we woke .. so peaceful!

We've been working on finding a good balance between making a little money, working on Nirvana, and having fun time too. It hasn't been easy, as we always feel we should be spending more time on one or the other. I guess that's why it's taken us almost 9 years to get to this point! It's about time to stop taking side jobs for extra income. I have one real estate deal I'm working, and Ken is wrapping his jobs up. Soon we'll only have our rentals to deal with (that's enough!) .. and cruising. Of course, the boat work will never stop, but hopefully we're knocking out enough stuff now to give us some decent cruising for a while.

We hope to start cruising before the cold weather comes to Louisiana in a couple of months, so we've been extra busy with projects lately. I've posted a few projects recently, and soon I'll be posting more about what we've recently done (12 volt wiring, a new battery bank, new stainless bimini frame, tuning our mast,  new running rigging, new LED lights & a new v-berth mattress), in addition to what we plan on doing. On the agenda .. we plan on adding solar panels, replacing our standing rigging, adding lazy jacks, sails & a new sail pack, adding a new anchor with chain & rode, looking into a windlass, and adding an auto-pilot. Of course, we also have a ton of small projects to tackle & items to buy to get us outta here. Stay tuned!

Hasta luego .. until then. Mid-Life Cruising!