A Great Adventure

Did I say six of us? The dogs had a meeting and they're in too!

I LOVE to talk about our future plans to pretty much anyone who will listen...friends, family, coworkers, total strangers, you name it! In fact, most of you have probably been sucked into my excited jabber at some point! In all of my many "talking about myself (and our plans)" experiences of recent, most often the conversation goes something like this:

Steph: "So...we're buying a farm"

Totally random person...perhaps the Verizon guy who called to ask me to buy something from him: "What?! That's so cool!! So you grew up on a farm?"

Steph: "No"

Person: "So you have experience with farming?"

Steph: "Not exactly"

Person: "So you must be a really good gardener."

Steph: "No, I've actually never gardened in my life."

Person (generally said with much understanding): "Oooh...so your friends must have experience!"

Steph: "Mmmm not really."

At this point the person either starts getting really excited and super supportive and says something along the lines of "Wow, you guys are so brave! I wish I could do that!" or "Can I come?!". But every once in a while they feel the need to describe to me exactly how difficult it's going to be....in fact, LOTS of people feel the need to explain that to me. Then sometimes they even follow up with all the reasons it's not going to work. I appreciate the concern and here's my response:

Between the six (I'm definitely including the kiddos on this one) of us we are resourceful, creative, good with finances (and not so good with finances), pretty dang handy and good with duct tape. We have a plethora of experiences, quite a few unique ideas, and lots of good intention. We are, for the most part hard workers, although I have to admit I loooove to sleep late.  Most importantly, every one of us has the heart of an adventurer and it is because of that that we will succeed...or not. Either way it will be a great adventure and we will be in it together!!

Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
- George Washington

Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

- T.S. Eliot

Whatever your actions, it’s the intention you hold in your heart that truly matters.
-Dalai Lama

Here's the Beginning of Our Story...

Marissa and I met in nursing school at FSU in 2003ish. My first memory of Marissa is when we were partnered up to practice bed baths. I was thinking something along the lines of “man she’s got awesome abs” and as far as I’m concerned we’ve been friends ever since. Bryce and Marissa recently got married after many years of partnership (that’s a fabulous story I’ll let them share if they want to) and have the two coolest kids I have ever met by far, Catalina (9) and Nolan Blue (6). John is my amazing “little big” brother. Throughout the years, the four of us have played many different roles to each other including colleagues, travel buddies, flatmates, workout partners, team mates, most importantly friends, and everything in between...essentially creating our own unique family, which we now lovingly call our Tribe.

So, while Bryce was deployed in Afghanistan and John was volunteering in Cambodia, Marissa and I were participating in a “Happiness Training” with the kids when we came upon a project where we were supposed to draw a picture of an “important life goal”. As we stood back and looked at the fridge covered with our drawings of dreams we realized that our goals were completely compatible and so we got to plotting.