The Beginning....

We got married in 1994. I had 2 small daughters from a previous marriage who lobbied for Matt to be their Daddy. LOL Together we also had 2 boys. Since then, he's been Daddy, Coach, Photographer, Teacher, Scout Leader, Chef (or Sous Chef, if I'm cooking) and everything else, with me right along side him. We spent years raising babies, with me being a stay at home mom for a while, and then a working mom with my own business so I could still be at home when needed. Of course, neither of those paid very well.

We struggled to pay bills, but my being home was important to us so we perservered. Late at night we would dream together of one day having extra money, one day traveling, one day retiring. But the truth was we didn't think that day would every come because we didn't make enough money to put aside for college for 4 kids, let alone our retirement. I often joked that if I'd just gotten a college education, then maybe we'd be better off. Then one summer day just before our baby started First Grade, I came home and announced to Matt that I had just enrolled in college.

Needless to say, Matt was a little surprised! LOL But for just shy of 2 years, he and the kids were supportive and helpful while I went to classes and clincals and graduated in 2006 Summa Cum Laude with an Associates Degree in Radiologic Technology. I worked hard, and in ten years I have added 3 sub-specialty certifications. After I graduated, Matt went back to technical school, and graduated top of his class with his Electrical Journeyman's license. Between the 2 of us, we had finally begun to make enough to put a little aside. But we had begun 20 years too late and we knew it would never be enough.

Over the years we continued to dream of one day retiring and possibly traveling. Our girls grew up and married and began families of their own. Our older son grew up and joined the Navy. And our "baby"? Our "baby" is 18 and about to start college. Over the last few years we've had some new late night talks about what to do with an empty nest. We're nowhere near financially able to even think about retirement. Do we continue to sit in the house, working to pay the bills and work up until lunchtime on the day of our funerals? That just wasn't good enough. So at the end of last year, we decided that we were going to do whatever we had to to make our dreams come true.

And the dream of The Rollie House was born.

#RV #RVLife #travelers #fulltimers #Retirement #Dreams