Our new home

which I will not post pictures of until probably next week.  We have purchased a fifth wheel and will be living in it for the next few years.  It will allow us to pay off some bills and save some money and more importantly to me, be able to afford to take a trip back home. 


The monster is  huge with a toy hauler area in the back that houses two queen size bunks for the girls and a half bath.  Happy dance for me....two toilets for seven people!!

The living area is larger than our old camper.  I don't have much more counter space, but I do have a double sized fridge, which is fantastic!!  TL has a bunk over the living area so he gets his own space away from his sisters.  He's very excited about that!!

We then move up three stairs into the bathroom and master bedroom.  I'm so excited about not having to climb on the bed to make it I can't even tell you!!

We're still organizing.  We literally threw everything out of the old camper and onto the floor and every surface of this one.  I'm slowly weeding through and getting it organized.  My next step is the kitchen drawers and the homeschooling stuff.  I hope to have that done this week so that our starting school next week isn't hampered at all.

Right now, we're blessed to stay with some friends in OR.  We have having a blast.  Connie is a fellow quilter and we were up late last night helping the girls make their first pillowcases.  She also has a beautiful embroidery machine that she made little hand towels for the big girls.  They have their names and horses on them.  Very cute.

I still have to post pictures from our friends' house in southern WA.  They have a gorgeous view of Mt Hood from their property.  We had a fantastic time visiting them and they took us to Fort Vancouver, which was really fun and interesting!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

You must homeschool your kids.....

So we're here in southern WA visiting some friends and our stay has been extended.  We are looking to trade up on our camper and that's the main reason, but we had a few extra days in our schedule and spent them here.

Earlier this week we walked across the street to look at some campers across the way.  The salesman was very nice and answered my questions (hubby had already been there).  I was with the two older girls and when we left he asked if I homeschooled.  An odd question seeing as we don't have anything identifying us as homeschoolers, but I replied yes.  He said, "I thoughts so.  Your girls are so polite."  I thanked him, thought it was odd and moved on. 

Today a woman approached me that had met my oldest two girls and stated that they were very polite and asked if I homeschooled.  When I verified this she said, "I thought so because they were so polite."

Although I'm excited that my children are being respectful and polite to others, these statements have me worried.  After all, there are plenty of public school kids that are polite that are not getting recognition.  Its too bad that the bad public school kids are giving a bad rap.  It saddens me that other children are not being given recognition.

I have to look at the upside though.  Perhaps the question of "what about socialization?" will be replaced by "look at how well mannered those children are".

Have a wonderful week everyone! 

Mt. St Helens

Big Foot Country!!!  Watch out he'll get you!

I think this is a little taller than the bigfoots running in the woods

Information about the blast zone

Mount St. Helens under cloud cover.  TL is running from an potential blast!

Helicopter tour of the mountain.  No, we did not take this.

Nice view, but still alot of cloud cover.

Coldwater Lake near the mountain base

Monkey enjoying the lake.

Climbing!

Johnstowne Ridge.  Johnstowne was on duty the day of the blast and managed a quick radio signal out to warn everyone before he was wiped out by the blast.  They have never recovered his body.

You can see the devastation of the trees.  There were stumps all through the blast zone and even further away.  They have replanted over 18.4 million trees and plants into this area to reforest it.

The cloud cover finally clearing off the  mountian.  You'll notice that the mountain doesn't have any vegetation.  This is because all the topsoil was blown off and only rock remains.

We're trying to enjoy our time here.   The campsite that we are at is absolutely awful.  No amenities for the kids, they aren't allowed to ride bikes or play on the little hill and there isn't enough room to even put a picnic table next to the camper.  I'm not very pleased.  It seems that they are watching us to let us know if we're going against one of their many rules.  Thank goodness we leave tomorrow to go and visit some friends.

Have a wonderful week for those of you that are doing school!

Goal setting and lesson planning

Today was our trip to Mt. St Helens.  Frankly, I'm too tired to post pictures today.  I'll get them up tomorrow.  I took over 100, so I need to weed through them and find the good ones.  We spent a good couple of hours exploring the area.  When we first started, the cloud cover was pretty thick and we didn't have a great view of the volcano, but it cleared up by the end of the day.  I have some really nice shots that I will share.

Tonight I'm going through the calendar and setting up our year.  We won't arrive at our new duty station until Labor day weekend, so we won't start school until then.  We're stopping to visit friends in WA and OR and going to some really cool places along the way.  I can't wait.

After I set up the year, I'm going to work on goal setting.  I have most of the lesson plans set up, just need to upload them to homeschool tracker.  I hope to be all set and ready to go when we arrive. 

Have a wonderful week everyone!

I'm backkkkkkkk!

Wow, not having internet is nice sometimes, but three weeks of that and no tv was a little much.  I felt totally lost and out of touch with the world!!  We had some wonderful Canadian neighbors while camping these last few weeks.  Four couples who were so very sweet and kind.  We had a fantastic time getting to know them all.

We left our beloved home today and drove only three miles.  We're hanging out in Olympia before heading to Mt St Helens for a couple of days tomorrow.  I'm excited.   Can't wait.  It should be alot of fun.  We're going to visit some wonderful places the next few weeks.  I'll keep you posted as I can and post pictures. 

I'm off for now to read everyone's blogs.  I've missed my blogging friends!

No internet

Sorry that I haven't posted.  We do not have internet at the campsite that we're staying at.  We're camping at the beach here in town.  I know, I know.  Who cares about the internet when you're camping at the beach right?

I hope to post pictures next week when we start our travels to CA.  I'll post pictures of our camper so you can see where we'll be living for the next few months.

The kids are adjusting well to the camper.  The two littlest had the biggest adjustments but are doing well with it so I can't complain.

I need to finish working on some lesson plans this week.  We are parked right next to a park so the kids can play while I do lessons.  I almost finished before the packers came but didn't quite make it.

Take care everyone!!  God Bless!