Okay... trying this again...

So basically there is a LOT to catch up on. Promises promises. I always come on here and 'claim' I am going to post more often. This time... NO PROMISES!

Okay... so the last sets of posts were in 2010 excluding one random camping one in March of this year. I will try to update with the major events of since.

We lived in the Houston area for about 1.5 years. The plant closed and Jeremy was relocated. We lived in Sterlington, LA (just north of Monroe/West Monroe) for another 1.5 years. The plant closed there and we moved to Lufkin, TX. We lived there for 1.5 years. We just this summer made yet ANOTHER move... this time 'back home' for Jeremy... the Dallas, TX area.

In Lukfin I took a job as a PE Instructor for KPrep-12th grades... wow would some of those days made for good blogging. I was also the athletic director. This was at a Classical Christian school. I love this teaching methodology!

O... and just because I noticed I blogged about Abs' ears... Isabelle also got her ears pierce... then they grew up... then she had them pierced again. :)

So... here we are to today...
We are homeschooling this year. I look forward to posting more on this in the future!!!
I am working diligently as an Area Representative for an international exchange organization finding host families for students who are coming to experience America. We are ALSO welcoming our first exchange student in our home this Wednesday! Her name is Astrid and she is from Denmark. We are SO excited!!!

I also just recently took a position as coach to a 10U boys basketball team. I am so excited about this opportunity. I am looking forward to this year... and an AWESOME season!

We are currently homeless, but because of the generosity of family we have a place to stay until our house closes on the 20th!

What else? O ... we were able to move up here because Jerm is working for the division now and can work from wherever!!!

Jerm and I went on a lovely cruise in April. I should post pics. AND... I never did post pics of our camping trip in March so I will do that too!

My brother and sis-in-law had a baby girl in the fall of 2009. AND they are in Africa as we speak picking up my new nephew who just turned 10 months old! My sister and bro-in-law just adopted their daughter in July. Our family is full up with little ones and I LOVE IT!

Camping...

We LOVE to camp! We have only been able to go a couple of times a year in the past, but would really like to increase the opportunities to really 'unplug'! We are hardcore tent campers EEK! No really it is NOT that scary honestly... we are pretty posh... with air mattresses and all!
We have been using the same tent for at least the last 10 years... finally today we purchased a new one! We are so excited.
After camping at Thanksgiving we had planned on camping over spring break, but as we attempted to reserve space it became apparent that it was going to be a very busy camping week! We decided we would stay home. However, last week as everyone at school was discussing their plans a couple of ladies were talking about their camping trip they were taking together. As I shared my 'tips' with them I got increasingly sad I was not going to get to enjoy the beautiful week coming up - CAMPING! FINALLY I found 4 nights at Garner State Park...
(Here are some pics from our trip in November)

(lunch at this table was LOVELY)

(the weather was not super warm, but warm enough to enjoy the clear, cool & crisp water)

(kayaking was lovely... with views to die for & the water was super clear as you can see in this second pic)

(the trees are ENORMOUS!!!)

(beautiful!)

We are meeting up with some dear friends of ours... we will definitely enjoy our time!

Okay... let's first look at our old tent... (yes a TENT overview or review or whatever... sounds exciting eh?!)

(camping trip spring 2011... yes i realize this is blurry lol)

In our old tent we could fit 2 queen sized mattresses into each of the outer rooms... however you could obviously not stand in those areas so they were just little indentations for the beds! We could stand up completely in the VERY center of the main room.

Do not get me wrong - this tent served us VERY well for the past 10+ years! In 2007 we even camped in this exact tent at Fort Wilderness Disney World Resort... Jerm, myself, Abs and Iz AND our dear friends we will be spending this week with - Rich, Crys, J & S... ALL 8 of us in this tent and it was definitely doable - given the children were quite young at the time!

Today we got a NEW tent!

We did lots and lots and lots of researching. I am a big analyzer... I like to research and research and research before I buy! Almost every tent has poor reviews lol. I am not sure what people expect a tent to do, but EVERYONE complains. It is TENT people! If there is torrential rain you will get wet. I promise there is NOT a tent out there that is RAIN PROOF! Rain + Camping = ADVENTURE lol :) Today we visited Target, Gander Mountain, Academy Sports & Bass Pro.

There is a new line of tents labeled 'instant tents'... we watched a LOT of youtube videos and it honestly can be put up in just about 1-3 minutes... they tout one and it is doable... HOWEVER these tents were not available at any of the stores we visited... 

Honestly Jerm does NOT mind the extra 10 minutes the other types of tents will take to set up. I will post more details about our new tent in another post after I can take pics of the important details we appreciate AND any negatives we find on our first camping trip! For now... here are 2 web images of our new tent.