Shalom, Dena/Mark and Family

I love the fact that the internet has brought so many neat people into my world. From the time I started selling on ebay years and years ago until today when we are homeless, it has allowed me precious interaction with some like minded people and some very different than I'd ever been exposed to people. It's been an overwhelmingly positive influence in my life.

If it were not for the internet, I'd have never heard of people who travel full time, educate in unconventional ways, my group of fellow warrior women, facebook, twitter or the Pioneer Woman. And who could imagine a life without TPW, after spending hours with her and her family via her blog? (If you don't know who the Pioneer Woman is, google immediately and make it a part of your daily routine.)

One of the most rewarding aspects of this lifestyle we are currently enjoying is that it has at times enabled me to meet up face to face with my internet buddies. Some of them have been people I've known for a decade and some are more recent friends. Each experience has been a gift to me and to my family.

Today we met Dena , her husband Mark and seven of their eight children. They graciously invited us to their house and to dinner. Dena has intrigued me from the time I met her. She is one of the brightest and most interesting women I've met online. I'm happy to report she is the same in person. What I wouldn't have known until I met her in person is that she is lovely. Very few women I've met really fit that description, but she does.

Her family won us over and we all agreed they are going on the books as one of our "faves". It is really hard for a family to win all of us over. We tend to have very different tastes at times when it comes to people. But they managed to do it and so well that my kids are begging to live here now.

I was so enamored with this family and their FABULOUS house that I forgot to take pictures. For those that know me well, I am rarely in a mental state that I "forget" to take pictures. Taking pictures is sort of like breathing for me. I just really don't forget to do it. (Well, there was the fudge shop....) I knew later that it was a good sign that they were so engaging and so inviting that I was drawn in to a degree that I wanted to experience what was happening so fully that I couldn't be bothered to document it for future memories sake. And they were memorable enough, that although I'm sad to not have pictures, I know we will remember them.

It was a wonderful, soul nourishing day for all of us!

Living the life in Oregon!