started the novel

Hey, yesterday I got the binder out and started asking myself questions about the plot and the characters of the story so that I can build an outline. So far, so good. I have written, as in HANDwritten a full page so far and am trying to decide where to start it. These characters have been with me for such a long time that I could literally start at their births, but that seems overlong and needless, I could start at the moment of crisis, which I most likely will, or I could start nearer to the end and flashback. These are just idle thoughts I have flitting through this interesting head of mine....interesting to me, at least.
I have named the characters...Inez, of the title, being the understanding latina widow, Anna, the owner of the Physician-assisted suicide clinic (honestly, have to find a better clinic type name), and Richard, the reason the 2 women strike up their odd friendship.
Physically, Anna is a certain blonde actress of my age that I admire, Inez is me and Richard is the same as B from my past.
Hopefully writing this out on a public post lights my fire and continues to make me write.

hoping to figure out how to homeschool while on trip

I know, I know that the trip is months off and all that jazz but I realized that bringing the right books and the right stuff on the trip for homeschooling....well it seems overwhelming, SUDDENLY!!! Ack. I am thinking, we'll just do something simple, then I think, OH, I can contact that company that offered to have the kids do some video blurbs on the internet and they will send us books, then I think, no, we will just bring the curriculum I am most comfortable with....
OK, I need to calm down and just look at what my kids are needing for this next year and just get that. ugh. Maybe I could hide under a pillow?

little by little...

John just came home from the beach with full wetsuits for the kids that will fit them while we are in Southern waters. Little by little, things that we get and books that we read and videos that we watch, makes the fact that we are leaving seem more real. John is showing them how to get the wetsuits on and I am imagining what it will be like when they are trying to surf in Peru or in Chile.
We watched a video on Peru and the city in the Clouds and I got frustrated with the kids reaction to it. I asked them for their thoughts and Teresa (especially) just said, "I dunno!" and shrugged and got all flustered. It made me excited to see Cuzco and Machu Picchu. Wow, we are going there! Leo said that since it was so far away from the surf that we would not go there and I had to correct him. We would have to go, considering that we are in that part of the world only this one time(as far as I know it will only be this one time).
I get the impression that when I talk about leaving in Nov. that people are thinking, "Yeah, right!" and thinking that we would not really go. My friends know that we will go. Now, for more research....sigh.

feeling groovy

Well, I am finally getting the trailer so that we can actually LIVE in it! Aaaahhhh. I got a binder out and will start my novel with an outline today. We have about 50 books out from the library, some are for the reading programs for summer that we are doing, some are for school (Story of the World, doncha know?) and some are for researching Central and South America, travel books. My problems with a lot of those travel books are that they are for "hotel" people, whereas we are campground people.
Reading the caution areas of those books, brought it home to me. We are going to the home of the malarial mosquito! Ack! We will need mosquito nets for both the grownups and the kiddoes. We will have to get innoculations against some of those crazy illnesses that preside down there. (Big breath, now don't panic, Toni). Everyone thinks I am so brave. Well, not feeling particulary brave or groovy all of the sudden.
That's it for today. Now I have freaked myself out and need to re-establish my equilibrium. Yoga, anyone?

Apr. 20- Sunday...we are enjoying our time in San Diego, but we are beginning to get the wanderlust again. We are beginning to slowly make comments that mean that we want to get out on the road again. Really, I know it would be SO much easier if we just found someplace more permanent to live, and then tried to build a life there. The kids love having friends that they get to play with and classes or teams that they can join. But even they are making comments about Conejo or about the time that we were in Kalbarri...I find it interesting that even the kids are used to leaving.
Leo is playing on a little league team (go Padres!) and Teresa is taking a ballet class. Both of them are loving being on the swim team. I think it is so odd that they thrive on this life here in SD but also look forward to our adventure coming up (this one in South America).
John and I are now going to look into having the truck put on a container ship and sent to Peru and then we will fly in to meet it. The only problem with that would be that of course we will have to move the trailer and all that with someone else's truck, or if Joan has gone to Florida, then we could live in her house for a while, with using just my honda Civic as our way of getting around. I am looking into what will be needed for putting that new vehicle in storage and other things are already crowding my mind about the trip.
I am also excited in that the problem that I have been having in putting my novel together solved itself a few weeks ago, and now I am hoping that with this fresh perspective that I will be able to get it down, once and for all.
Off to the beach we go! (John is in Mojave and working like a dog. I miss him very much! sigh)

well, haven't we been industrious...not! I still have not started the novel...I need to just get off my bum and do it! Kids are doing well in school, I have not been playing my sax, but they are doing so many things now. Teresa is really into ballet and I am trying to get her interested in other dance forms, like flamenco! Leo will be playing little league here in San Carlos area of San Diego, he will be in the caps division due to his lack of inexperience. The swim team is plunging ahead and there will be a meet coming up in Feb. that I hope to post pix of.
I just want to start the novel. I have started my hatha yoga program and so far am down from 140 lbs. to 133 now. I've been doing that for a few weeks. Hopefully this will get me on to getting the novel started. Here's hoping that it occurs sooner than later.
Optimism is the word for the week!

I am such a luddite!

This is my first entry in my blog, or should I say our blog and it is still 2007! I had made a resolution to do this in 2007, so I guess I fulfilled that resolution...yeah!
I have so much that I want to get done in 2008. I want to start and finish one of the children's books that I told people that I wanted to do in 2005. I want to start my sci-fi novel, tentatively titled "They want Me?" and get it finished or darn close. We are going to start our Central American/South American trip in Oct. of 2008, so I have do research for that, also. I want to get the kids moved up a grade, but that means major review for Leo in math and getting Teresa more comfortable with multiplication tables. I want to get good habits instilled for cleaning the house. I want to put exercise back into my life, even if it is just a few moments each day.
Cheers!