Monthly Archives

June 2017

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Before the Lemonade there is the Lemon

Posted on June 29, 2017

All of this travel and life planning is full of excitement, fear, anxiety, trepidation and wonder. However, all of this wouldn’t be happening but, for the fact that Kelvin is losing his job of 13 years. Today is the day that becomes an absolute reality.

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This morning he went in to grade the last group of students in the restaurant, yesterday having the last restaurant opening of the curriculum.

Kelvin has been working at Le Cordon Bleu (and previously known as Western Culinary Institute) as a chef instructor, primarily running the student restaurant called Technique, for over a decade.

We have had a lot of happy memories there, celebrating births, graduations, mourning loved ones, birthdays and just a good night with good food. Friends and family joining for amazing meals and bright-eyed students nervously applying their skills.

He taught the practical class where students would put all their newly honed skills to work in creating a live restaurant. Imagine opening a restaurant with new staff every six weeks. He has done it with pride and tenacity.

Five years ago we did the numbers of students he had taught after the restaurant closed to the public and then it was over 2200 students. Five years on it would make sense that number has multiplied. IMG_2030

We are sorry this chapter has come to a close. As most people do, we have chosen to make a new path out of the end of this one. We are grateful that Le Cordon Bleu has given us a lot of notice (18 months) and some help to send Kelvin on his way. We will miss the people, students, experiences and community.

I give a shout out to my very modest husband who has worked tirelessly and devotedly to make an impact student’s minds in the culinary world. He has an amazing mind for menu planning, restaurant management and price point evaluation and culinary insights and application.

I still get nervous from time to time to cook for him. Not because he is a harsh critic but, because he knows his stuff. He gets calls from family and friends for a bit of quick advice and is always modest and ready to help.

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Newborn Canyon and the Chefs

So, please tip your chef’s hat to Kelvin today. To ‘Chef Gurr’ as he has been called by thousands of students. After that celebratory drink after work come on home, hang up your apron and let’s get going on our new path.

We will be traveling the world and soaking up all the culinary delights along the way. Watch out world. Stay tuned to his space. Something amazing will pop up from his mind when set down again next year. Need a consultant anyone?

 

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To Do – Part Two – Feels like A Bit of Scrambling. Just Breathe.

Posted on June 24, 2017

Okay, remember when I said we were working on our list of To-Dos? That was nearly a month ago and now we are down to two months (OH BOY!). I have learned that we need to break these steps into time frames i.e. housing needs and doctors appointments now and travel plans in South East Asia later.

HEY, side bar… What do you think of our new logo! Thanks so much to Zoe at Zoe Pdx She hooked me up with a great new logo and she has a lot to offer. I met her through a connection from TEDx Portland. Check her stuff out!

Here are the next steps on my list.

13. Set up First Aid/Medical Kit: We are going tomorrow to get our shots for travel and are negotiating what that means for the kids (extra shots!?!?) but, we also need to plan for upset stomachs, general medical care and the management of allergies that many in our family navigate everyday. I understand you can get most medications on the road but, when and where might be daunting if we have a sick kiddo in the middle of the night or in a rural area. BTW, my husband won’t like that medical stuff is listed under number 13 but, we’ll keep tabs on it.

14. Special Toys for the Boys. I don’t mean big gadgets (that is a later conversations). More about how to help the boys with the transition and feel connected to home. Oakley is often the one who wants to ‘just stay home and play with my toys’. He has this lovely and magical imagination where he creates worlds out of his legos, figurines and other small toys (you remember Toy Story). So, we need to bring a small selection of toys to bring with that help them both feel connected and happy.

Both boys have Kindles and that is amazing and wonderful but, we will use the environment around us as well to explore.

15. Frequent Flier Miles. Signing up every family member for miles is a bit tedious but, can have some great benefits. We are flying with rock bottom deals as it is but, every little helps especially many months in when we may need that boost of miles to get us where we need to go.

16. What to do with Mail? We are still wrestling with this one. I have my business mail and then our personal mail. I have found a couple of places that take care of your mail and scan items that may be important. One is Traveling Mailbox. They charge by pieces of mail and what services you need such as deposits of checks, re forwarding on etc.

17. Special IDs for boys and safety kits. No one likes to think of things going haywire but, sometimes they do and we have to plan with our boys about what our plan is if we were ever separated and IDs for them to keep them safe and officially, noted to us without having them carry their passports all the time. Boots and All has a great article that goes through the basics.

18. Sort our Finances. This is a big one as many countries don’t treat credit cards with the same frequency as we do in the States. Also, there are all those pesky fees, currency trading fees and all that. A lot of that is on the road information. That is another task all in itself and I’ll come back to that on a later post.

We are looking at sorting our money now on this side. We are paying off any balances we have, ending subscriptions and memberships we won’t be using (Netflix will stay!) but, it is amazing how much that all adds up. We are also taking the Money Cleanse through the Paradise Pack we are a part of.

19. Move out of office. For nearly four years, I have had a private practice in a lovely house with other helping professionals and I am sad to leave that space. That move in itself is going to be a doozy as I have all my files, supplies and many, many, many books. I  need to sort how to manage that while I’m gone in the event that someone needs access to those files. My colleague Hillary Mondry is going to be my custodian while I am remote. She is a gem and a great counselor if you are in the market.

20. I also have to finish my CEUs (no time like the present!) to keep my certifications in check while on the road.

21. I am setting up my practice so, I can work from the road with folks who are in ‘maintenance’ mode. I want to have a true ‘holiday’ and I will but, I also want to work some from the road to keep me fresh and of course, for a source of income. That means using video platforms that are safe and confidential and scheduling resources that help with helping us ‘show up’ on time. Gen Book is used by a lot of folks.

22. Set up a good bye BBQ. We are already joking (but, seriously considering) having a grab bag at our good-bye BBQ. Folks get to take a bag full of stuff to use, sell or donate. Ha! We actually have wine glasses from our wedding that will we be giving away as good bye gifts. This is going to be a night fraught with mixed emotions. We are coming back but, really will miss so many. We are going to have one in Oregon and one in Idaho where a lot of family live and we will spend our last week.

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Photo by Eryk Fudala on Unsplash

23. Last night! We are going to spend our last night with a good friend (of 38 years!) who will also be loving and caring for our cat while we are away. Staying with a friend on that last night will be so important even though we will get up at an ungodly hour to take off.

24. World school Supplies. We have a lot to sort here. We have feedback from the boys’ teacher and we are starting to firm up our details of how it will look from the road which  supplies electronic and paper. I’ll write more on this in another post.

Well, that is this update and check in! Whew…so much we are working on. Thanks for joining us and staying tuned. Feed back is welcome!

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Midnight Flight Purchases to Bali

Posted on June 11, 2017

Well, it is not slowing down. This week we had a whirlwind of events. The school camping trip over last week, the last day of school, OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) two day school camp in Fossil, Oregon as well as the end of swim team, swim classes and little league baseball. All in the last seven days. That doesn’t even take into account the regular work/life responsibilities that Kelvin and I are doing; work, house up keep, occupational therapy for the boys, our jobs. You know the drills.

So, the countdown continues towards our departure date and I am, quite honestly, getting a bit freaked out anxious. The pace of folks interacting with us to start saying good-bye has increased and that feels like this all has  gotten really, really REAL!

l had a crazy interaction with Kelvin in the middle of the night when I was looking at travel information and stumbled on cheap flights from Australia to Bali. stil-251826There was a sale on JetStar and I was clicking around thanks to Scott’s Cheap Flights (woo hoo). I found an amazing rate but, in a 36 hour window that was a different departure date than we originally planned.

I wasn’t sure when the rates would expire so, I nudged Kelvin to ask him what he thought.

Picture this, he is sound asleep next to me and I am stage whispering, “What do you think of these dates? And look at these rates!”

“Uh-huh”, he said.

“Do you think we should do it?!” I asked in another loud stage whisper.

“Okay,..(big pause).. whatever you think….” he mumbled.

“Whew”, I exhaled. And I grinned!

So, I bought tickets after double checking the rate in Australian dollars to US Dollars, the timing for our Australian visas, places to stay for the extra days, etc. My first card declined.  This was a fraud alert that card was concerned that someone was buying airline tickets in the middle of the night in Australian Dollars for departures and destinations that were nowhere near where the card was being used. So, I used another and no problem, purchase made.

I was literally standing in our office pacing around, recounting all the calculations in my head and then pushed ‘Click to Purchase’ and jumped back to see what would happen. What happened was, we now have four tickets to Bali that cost about $160 each. Not too shabby!

sebastian-tiplea-271948The next morning as I danced around Kelvin as he drank his first cup of coffee I smiled brightly. We have an agreement that I don’t ask questions that I want answers for until he has consumed his first cup of coffee. I was impatiently peeking in his cup and he said, “What is up”.

I burst out, “Are you excited!?”.

He cocked his head and squinted his eyes, “For what?”, he asked.

“Our tickets to Bali!”, I exclaimed.

His eyes narrowed as he said, “Does this have something to do with the conversation you were trying to have with me while I was asleep?”

“Yes!” I beamed, “We’re going to Bali!!”

He slowly smiled, “Well, Okay…when do we arrive?”

That is not the way I should plan most of our steps but, it worked out this time. With all the steps to get ready that sieze my stomach in cramps, these moments make me feel like it is all worth it.

The check list will continue…and I’ll get you up-to-date on our progress. Thanks for reading!