Well Hello There Again Stranger....

I was sitting here and I realized that I haven't written in my poor neglected blog since July! There has been so much that has happened! August brought school back to the Harmer House! Katie Beth started her second year of Pre-K at a new school! The elementary school on base has a Pre-K program and she got in! That was a HUGE blessing, because she would have gotten sick of having to hang out with me all year! I also decided that I would go back to school this year! I've just finished my first semester and it's been surprisingly great! Chris also got to go to Guyana in South America for a humanitarian aid trip! He had a wonderful time and got to help a ton of people! YAY for healthy teeth! :o) The best part was everyday when they would take the bus to the clinic for work, he would pass a church meetinghouse and would see missionaries tracting! He said I sent them. LOL!

September was interesting....Chris put in his application for the Medical Service Corps commissioning program. Four years of school and a whole bunch of preparation for the application (there was an application for the application) all came down to this! So we got to sit and wait....

October was no fun here at our house. Well the beginning of the month was, Chris's cousins Brian and Erin came for a short visit from Kentucky! Chris and Katie Beth took them all around St. Louis and had a great time! Now I said Chris and Katie Beth, because I was in bed with a fever! The girls and I all got the flu! The clinic here wasn't testing for H1N1, so we never found out for sure what it was, but we had all of the fun symptoms. It pretty much overtook our house for the rest of the month! I was sick for 3 whole weeks! Luckily the girls were each only sick for a week, and somehow it completely bypassed Chris! (No Fair!)

November brought my favorite holiday! I LOVE Thanksgiving, but I REALLY LOVE Thanksgiving when we can make it to Chris's Aunt Karen's house! We always have so much fun spending the night before and the whole day of cooking and then just sitting around talking and eating! The girls have a great time just spending time with the family too!

Now that brings us to December and the CRAZINESS that comes with it! Well it is a little crazier for us this year because we found out that Chris got his commission!!!! It's been what he has worked the past 6 years of his career to get to! We are so proud of him, I don't even think I can put it into words!!! The crazy part of it is that he has to be at school by January 9th! That means outprocessing and getting everything taken care of that comes with moving before he leaves! It's been stressful, but I wouldn't have it any other way! The bummer is that we have to leave Illinois. We will be going to Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona in February after he is done with Commissioned Officers Training. It's a whirlwind, but such a blessing!

Hopefully I can post more and keep everyone that reads this updated, but I do a better job of doing that on my obsession with Facebook! LOL! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! I'll be sending out cards WAY late, but I figured then I can give everyone our new address at the same time!

I thought vacation was supposed to mean time to Relax?

I figured I would update before things got crazy...again. HA! July going into August is going to be pretty busy for us! Katie's last day of school was June 30th. We're really going to miss the group we had this year! They are all pretty much scattering since their school closed, but we're going to try and keep in touch. They had a HUGE end of the year picnic. One of the moms from her class decided that we needed to have some fun, so we got them a bouncy castle, a blow up water slide, pools, and 2 slip and slides. Top that off with tons of food, water balloons and guns, sand art and an ice cream bar and you have one heck of a mess! The kids had a blast though so all of the work was worth it in the end.

Chris takes the dreaded GMAT next Friday. I want to have a party just for that to be over! I know he's looking forward to not studying for the next few months! The next day, the 11th, we leave on our 2 week vacation to Arizona!!! We are so excited, because this is the first year we won't have to worry about homework and studying on vacation! YAY! I think my parents might be a little happy to see the girls too! They are so excited for the plane ride! Abby keeps walking around saying "airplane" everytime she sees one on TV! I'm just glad to have Chris there with me this time!

Then, when we get back we have 4 days and Chris leaves on his "deployment." Now I say deployment with the quotations around it, because it's only for 2 weeks, and wait for it.....to South America! They are making him outprocess and stuff like a deployment, but it's only for 2 weeks! Go figure! He's going to be doing Humanitarian Aid, doing dental work for the people in Guyana. He's so excited, because he has been wanting to do something like this for a while! They are not going to be slumming it though, I saw their hotel and the city they are going to be staying in! Gorgeous!!! They have a 9 hour layover on the way home in Trinidad, so he gets to lie out on a beach and go hiking! They are already planning a fishing trip! Lucky huh?

Well things here are going well as you can see, school will start for Katie, Chris, and myself hopefully at the end of August and playdates for Abby! Church and work are keeping both of us busy, and this next two months will be a welcome treat for all of us! I'm hoping to update while we are gone, but if not I'll post pictures and details when we get back! Happy Summer everyone!

Boojiboo Flirty Apron GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Boojiboo Flirty Apron GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Summertime and the living's easy.....

HA! Yeah right!!! Things around here as always have been crazy! (Sense a theme?) we have had SO MUCH going on the past few months, now when things are slowing down I don't really know what to do with myself!

I guess we can start with Mother's Day! I got something I have wanted for a while....you know one of those things you would never buy yourself....I finally got my Coach purse! YAY!!!! I love it like it was one of my kids....sad. After that was Katie's first recital!!! She was such a ham on stage and loved every second of it! Then came Katie Beth's birthday! My baby is 4 now! I can't believe it! She got a bike and into pre-K at the school on base! (Okay, so the Pre-K thing was more for me....) My parents came to town for Chris' promotion ceremony. He FINALLY put on Staff! WOO HOO for that! I was excited to see them, but I think Chris was way more excited! He hadn't seen my parents since last July, because of the deployment and all of that! Then was my birthday! I hit the big 25! Chris likes to remind me that I'm halfway to 50....he's mean. We went out on the town the next night with his friends and my parents! Dancing and food! Two of my favorite things!

So now it brings us to these past few weeks! Field trips and not much else. LOL! Katie Beth's school ends June 30th and then we have to find something to keep these kids busy so I don't go crazy! Abby is growing like a weed....the kid is wearing stuff Katie wore last summer!!! It's weird to me. She has more hair than Katie! I don't know what to do with a kid that has hair! I'm still hoping to get started in school if I can find a program I want! Chris graduates June 21st with his bachelors and then September is the month he puts in his package for the commission YAY!!! I'll try and get a few pictures up of the girls later today! Here's one of Ballerina Katie Beth!

The Nut House

Things here are CRAZY, but we are good!

Katie is just learning so much at her school!!! She can write all of her letters, her first and last name, everyone in the family's name and tons more! The kid read me a book yesterday!!! I couldn't believe it! I'm so bummed the base isn't continuing with the preschool program next year, cause she loves her teachers! Hopefully we'll get her in with the school district or somewhere else. She needs it and I do too! I'm used to my running errands with one kid time! It's nice!

Abby is changing so much. She's looking more like a big girl than a baby now....sort of depressing! Running, jumping, talking up a storm! When she wants to get picked up she says "Up Please?" Very polite at least! She's having some health issues lately, but she's dealing with it all with flying colors!

Chris is just insane. The only way to describe it! He's in ALS right now (Airman Leadership School) and taking some of the last classes needed for his Bachelor's degree! (YAY June 21st) He's going to be starting some new stuff when he goes back to the clinic that he is very excited to get into, and he's starting to get his commissioning package together! So hopefully we'll know by December if we're moving!

I'm just same old same old! Busy with my calling at church and starting to work with the Phoenix Spouse program here at the base! It's pretty exciting work and I hope we can start helping military families who are being discriminated and pushed around! In doing all of this work with the base, I'm starting to change my mind on my major AGAIN! So who knows what I'll decide to be when I grow up! I'm just having fun being the girls' mama right now!

So that's what's been up with the family! Hopefully it won't be this long before I can update you all again! And yes Shelly I will put some new pictures up soon! LOL!

We need a bubble!!!

So my family seems to catch everything this past month. Seriously there hasn't been a day since Chris got home that everyone has been healthy!!! I had the dreaded Iraqi cold ( that's what we call it) for going on 3 weeks now! I got sick like 3 days after he came home and that was it! Now Katie is sick with an ear infection and goodness knows what else and Abby is on her way too. Even poor Chris who I thought was the sole survivor has sadly been struck down today. The Harmer home just needs to be quarantined!

On the other hand I have decided to rededicate myself to all things churchy. I haven't been fulfilling my callings like I should, so now that Chris is home I have no excuse! I got to meet and plan out a bunch of activities today so I'm pumped for the next few months! I took some pictures of us since Chris has been home! I promise! I just need to upload some! Anyway I better go take care of my sick babies!

Some before the Deployment pictures!

Here are a few pictures of Katie's first day of school and her first dance class back in September! Hopefully I'll have some more updated ones soon!