August 28, 2009 was a big day for Chris. He graduated from Chaplain Basic Officer Leadership Course, which finished up his chaplain training, at the Chaplain School at Fort Jackson, SC. The kids and I were so proud of him. Here are some photos and videos from our day. (I was having trouble with my camera, and I didn’t get videos of the last two platoons, including Chris’, singing their division songs, nor a photo of Chris walking across the stage.)

Christopher before the ceremony.

This is me with Mrs. Diann Hart, a chaplain’s wife that I got to know a little bit during my time at the Spouses’ Seminar. She, along with her two daughters, babysat all four of our children during the banquet.

This is me with Mrs. Teresa Boone, the wife of the Commandant. I enjoyed getting to know her at the seminar.

The whole family.

This is us with Chris’ mom, Velvet.

Me and Christopher

Daddy and his boys.

Daddy and his girls.

Daddy and all of his young’uns.

I love you, Christopher, and I’m very proud of you. I’m so glad you’re home!

It’s been a little while since I’ve blogged. I’ve been busy…and sick. I have had a lot of fun over the last few days, though. 

Amy and her kids came for a short visit over the weekend. They got here early (early) in the morning on Thursday, and stayed through about noon yesterday. We didn’t do a whole lot because of how I am 32 weeks pregnant, and that translates to tired, sore, and swollen feet. We watched several movies, spent a lot of time on the couch with my feet up, and broke up a lot of kid fights. Turns out, nearly two years later, our kids still only like each other about half the time  a third of the time  thirty minutes a day. Okay, maybe a little more than that, but not much. We’ve decided that, in the future, we’re going to have to divide the Maxwell kids from the Harmon kids for a portion of each day. They just get too much of each other, and then we all go crazy. Anyway, we did do one fun thing while they were here. On Friday, we skipped Friday school at church, and took the kids on a field trip the Children’s Museum in Oak Ridge. That was a lot of fun. My camera battery was dead, so I didn’t get any pictures. Amy did, though, and I’ll have her send them to me so I can post a link to them later.

It was great to see my friend again, and it’s awesome to think that I’ll see her again in right around forty days…when she comes to be with me when my baby is born! Exciting days these are!

On Sunday morning, Chris had the opportunity to preach at our church. He did really well, and I was extremely proud of him. It’s cool for me to see how he’s evolving as a preacher since he’s been in Seminary. He preached on “Have You Been With Jesus”, and it really ministered to me. It’s exciting to get a little taste of what Chris will be doing as a Chaplain. We also had Awana Sunday night, which is always fun. Chris led a discussion in our Journey class with the teenagers, and it was good to hear them discussing how they could do more for God. We really enjoy working with the young people at our church.

Yesterday, we got to go out and enjoy some of the great weather we’ve had for the last few days. It has been unseasonably warm. We played outside yesterday in short sleeves! Chris had to go to the range yesterday, so, even though he didn’t get the whole day off, he was off by three, so we took the kids and went to the park. His mom met us there, and then ordered pizza for all of us while we played. It was awesome.  A great day with our family. Here’s a link to my Facebook photos from yesterday. I’m still having trouble uploading photos directly to my blog. I’ll get Chris or Amy to help me update my wordpress sometime soon, so that I can do that again. For now, I’ll just have to link you to Facebook.

Kyra just finished taking her last couple of first grade tests, and she is now…drum roll please…a second grader! I’m awfully proud of her. She’s made a lot of progress academically since the beginning of the school year. When we started the school year, she really struggled with reading. She spent half of her school days crying over how her words were too hard and she didn’t like reading. She has made tremendous gains in reading, and does quite well now. It’s been an interesting adjustment for me. I have to make sure she’s not standing behind me while having a private instant message conversation, or it’s not so private anymore.

So, that’s a bit of an update on us, for those who are interested. 

who stays at home!!! Ahh…the freedom!

I seriously couldn’t be much more content with how things are going to be for a while. I finished my semester. I got A’s in both my classes. Yes, that means that I got an A in the Statistics course that has kept me half insane all semester. I have 12 classes completed towards my Associate of Science degree (plus the two developmental algebra classes I had to take when I first started), and a 3.75 GPA. So, I’m halfway finished with my A.S. I think that’s a pretty good stopping place for now. I’ll take a nice long break to have my little girl and get things established with Elijah’s kindergarten, and then, hopefully, I will return to my education refreshed from a year or so off. For now, I’m quite content with where things stand. The way I see it, this is not a race. I have four babies to take care of and be with and enjoy, and I’m not worried about how long it takes me to finish school. I want to do what I can when I can while they’re growing up, and maybe I’ll be finished with school when they’re starting to leave home. That’s really the goal.

As much as I enjoy school, I’ve had a lot on my plate recently, and have really looked forward to a break. As soon as I finished up my semester, Chris kept the kids and let me go visit Amy for a few days. It was so good to get a break from absolutely everything, and, as always, so good to be with my best friend.

I really needed to have some time away. Monday was my due date for the baby I lost. It was kind of a hard day for me, and it helped to be with Amy on that day. She knows what it’s like, because she’s been there. That seems really important in these kinds of things. Knowing someone understands what you’re going through helps.

My sweet friend bought me these flowers. She was so kind to me on such a sad day.

I got home from Springfield late Thursday, refreshed and excited to be a true stay at home mom for a while. I have big plans for getting things done around the house and preparing for Abigail’s arrival. It’s going to be good.

Twenty-one weeks! We are on the downhill side now. I’m so glad. Abigail is growing and healthy, and is about 10 1/2 inches long now. She moves around and kicks me a lot…mostly in the bladder, as of late. I’m getting quite large, but I’m still resisting succumbing to maternity clothes for the most part. A rubber band extends my regular jeans a little bit so I don’t have to button them, and they work just fine. About half of my shirts are still big enough to cover up my belly. I know it’s a futile struggle, but I am not going to wear maternity clothes until I have to. Plus, I sold or gave away a ton of my maternity clothes after Owen, because I didn’t think I’d be having any more babies. The longer I can go without wearing them, the less of them I have to buy.

School is almost over for me. I have, I think, three more statistics classes and two more Lit classes. My Lit class is on Thursday, so I get out of one class on account of Thanksgiving. I had a big statistics exam last night, which I passed, thank God! Statistics is hard. I don’t like it, and I’m happy as can be to get a B. I have no grand ideas of getting an A in this class. I hope for a B, but I wouldn’t even cry over a C. I’ve never got a C in a class before. I think I’ve only gotten two B’s. Statistics has quickly lowered my academic standards, though.

After this semester is over, I will have a very long break from school for a while. I will take this Spring semester off, because Abby will be born before it’s over. I’ve had a couple of girls in my class tell me that they tried to take classes the semester their babies were born, and it was a big mistake. I just have no desire to deal with homework instead of being able to relax and enjoy my new baby. I won’t take summer classes, because that would just be crazy. Chris is planning on going to Fort Jackson this summer for the second half of CHBOLC, and there’s no way I will be doing a new baby, three other kids, no husband, AND homework. That’s just insane. I’m going to take the Fall semester off, as well, because I will be starting kindergarten with Elijah. It’s a lot more labor intensive than the first grade work Kyra is doing this year. While she works mostly on her own, I’ll have to be teaching Elijah how to read, etc. Lots of work for me. So, I will be foregoing the fall semester as well. As far as the 2010 spring semester, I don’t know. I’ll see when it gets here.

Chris is on the downhill side of his seminary experience. He’s almost through with what the Army requires. He should fulfill those requirements at the end of the upcoming Spring semester. He should also have a much lighter class load next semester, since he took five classes this semester. After that, he will be going ahead with becoming a Chaplain, and just take one class at a time while he finishes his M-Div. The remaining classes will mostly be Greek and Hebrew classes.

All that said, I’m really looking forward to less homework around the Harmon household. One benefit of not going to school this spring is I will have a few months to sort through stuff and get things in better shape around here before Abby Jo makes her arrival. Lots of things have gone neglected while I’ve been preoccupied with school. I have boxes and boxes of clothes the kids have outgrown that need to be dealt with, closets that beg to be sorted through, etc. I’d like to take care of that before I’m so huge just getting off the couch is too much work.

Anyway, this post is incredibly boring, and so I will end it. Maybe my blog will be more fun again in a few weeks. There’s always hope, right?

 I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago. Was going to blog about being a college student slash mommy. It took me so long to get to it, I forgot what I was going to write. So, instead, here’s some pictures.

This is where I spend  half my time…at the kitchen table, the laptop in front of me, and my books (which you can’t see in the photo..trust me, they’re there) open on the table.

See, this is what I was looking at. Textbook, study notes, and my index card of handwritten notes I was allowed to take with me to my Western Civ Exam. 

This is the baby who interrupts my understanding of Social Darwinism. 

I would rather socialize with a huggy baby boy than study socialism any day. 

This is the shaggy-headed little boy who needed help putting his mittens on. I don’t know why. He wanted to hug me before he left. As you can see, Owen took issue with that.  

This is the thoughtful little girl who sits across the table doing her own projects.

So, tell me, Friend…is it any surprise to you that I got a B instead of an A on that exam?

Priorities…I guess that’s my point.

My summer is over. Finished. Done.

Amy’s gone, Kyra’s been in school for a week, Chris’ classes start tomorrow, and I have to be at school at eight in the morning for some mandatory freshman experience thing. It’s really kind of irritating, since I have already attended two semesters there. Oh, well. My classes start on Monday. I have a psychology class on Monday nights and Comp II on Thursday nights. Plus, three web classes. I’m really looking forward to school, but, for once, I’m kind of sad to see the summer end. When I was a kid, I was always ready for school to start. Call me a nerd, but I loved school. I still do, when we’re not talking about math. I do have another math class this semester. Hopefully, it won’t be as stressful as the last one.

I’m looking forward to what this semester is going to bring. I’m looking forward to meeting new people. I am looking forward to the classes themselves. I am taking three classes that I’m really excited about, and one more that will probably be interesting. And then there’s the math class…but I’m not going to dwell on that. All in all, though, I’m excited about what the next few months hold for me, and terribly expectant. I expect the Lord to do big things in my life. How could I not? He’s been doing crazy cool stuff for me lately.

Excited and expectant…what a way to start the semester!

I. Am. Finished.

My summer semester is in the books. No more algebra. Ever!

I feel as if I’ve had a heavy burden lifted off my shoulders. This semester was hard. Really hard. There were a few times that I didn’t think I was going to be able to get it all done. With Chris gone half the summer, it was almost too much to handle. I remember telling Amy one night, very upset, that I wished I could just quit. If it had of been possible to do without losing all the tuition I paid, I would have dropped the algebra class in a heartbeat. I couldn’t, though, so I carried on.

And, now…well, now I’m through. I passed with a decent grade, and I’m glad to have it behind me. Such a relief. Such a feeling of accomplishment.

Makes me wonder what other things in my life…things that push me to the point of despair…are just a little ways from being over. If I just carry on, there is freedom to be had. Sometimes, I think we should just take a deep breath and do what we have to do. It doesn’t make it less hard. It doesn’t make it less frustrating. The freedom that is waiting, though, is worth the headaches and heartaches.

Oh, freedom!

Hey, guys. I thought I would give you all a little “What’s up with Rachel?” update. My blogging has dropped drastically lately, I know. I blame it all on Amy. I used to spend my spare time blogging and stuff. Now, I spend it talking to her. So, it’s totally all her fault. Well, hers and school’s.

I am in the home stretch of the summer semester. I have to finish up both my classes this week. Which entails studying for and taking my last chapter test and studying for and taking my Final in algebra, and, in my computer class, I just have a lot of busy work to take care of. So, that gives me major homework guilt if I do anything other than study. I will be so happy when I get it done. Like, total crazy running through the sunshiny fields singing “The Hills are Alive” unabashed joy in life happy. (Yes, I do have a deep love for The Sound of Music. So?) Oh, the freedom I will enjoy for the one month between the summer and fall semesters!

In other news, the kids are all doing well. Kyra has a few weeks before school starts back, I think, and Elijah is just…well, he’s just Elijah. Owen is running around being his smiley, happy self most of the time. He is cutting a new tooth. Very cool for him, since he has this love of eating. Should make things a little easier. I took some cute pictures of them yesterday that I promise to post very soon. I’ll link you to it from my main blog when I do. My blog needs some help these days, but, hopefully, I’ll get to fixing that sometime soon.

Chris is doing well, too. He’s happy to be home, and a little less happy to be back a work. He really enjoyed doing the Army thing again, so it’s kind of a drag to have to go back to his regular job. He has a little break from school, until the Fall semester starts. He is taking more classes next semester than he did last semester, so that should be, oh, so much fun. He is also maybe going to take a module in a couple of weeks. So, we are both busy now, and fixing to get much busier in a few weeks.

So, I apologize for the boringness of my blog lately, but I have some good posts planned. Just as soon as I get the most pressing of homework matters taken care of, I am going to dazzle you with my blogging abilities. (Okay, in all honesty, I don’t know how ‘dazzled’ you will be, but I promise they will be better than this measly little ‘I’m alive’ update post.)

In the lineup, I’m planning on writing about:

Body Language: The Beauty of Reaching Out
The Proverbs 31 Paradox
Finding My Purpose

and

assorted other posts that I’ve thought of but not enough to give you a working title.

So, stay tuned. We can only go up from here, right?

For those of you wondering what I’ve been up to this week, here’s a little rundown. (Real life family and friends, hold your sarcastic comments. Some people are wondering because the have emailed me asking. So there!)

My little brother, Seth, has been with me this week, helping me out with the kids and stuff. We have went to the park both days. Seth helps me keep track of the kids while I walk or play tennis or whatever. So, he’s been a big help.

My summer classes started on Monday, as well. I am having a really hard time getting into them. One is a Computer Concepts class, and the other is the second developmental Algebra class. Both are boring so far, and I can’t concentrate on them. My mind runs in a thousand different directions. I almost wish I had of let my summer just be free, but I couldn’t really do that. I need to take summer classes to keep on pace. I don’t want to take six years to get my degree. So, I need to get my butt in gear and just get going.

I also got my new MP3 player delivered by my friendly UPS man yesterday. It’s really cool, but I haven’t got it all figured out yet. It was my Mother’s Day/Birthday present. I ordered it myself, and told Chris it was my present. I was really missing him last night as I was trying to get it going. He always does the electronic stuff. He sets things up for me, gets them working, and then just gives me the short version for dummies on how to operate them. So, I missed him yesterday.

He’s doing good at Fort Jackson. He’s tired. They’ve been going all the time while he’s been there. They get up insanely early. I’m working on getting him to set up a blog to blog through his Fort Jackson adventure. He’s not had time, so far, and he just got his computer going last night. So, hopefully soon. In the meantime, you can get a good idea of what he’s doing at Chaplain Kay and Chaplain Olsen’s blogs…links in my sidebar. We miss him, but we’re doing okay. The kids are doing good so far. They’ve talked to him each day on the phone. We really appreciate your prayers. I really feel them. I have not had nearly the sadness or loneliness I had the first time he left us, and I can only say it’s because of everyone’s prayers.

I’ve had a lot to say lately, but I kept putting off posting to my blog till it was so late at night my eyes were closing involuntarily. I’ve been having these great, hours long conversations with a friend over IM, and I’m sure the residual effects will be blog posts over the next few days and weeks. Our conversations have spawned lots of thought trails to be explored.

So, anyway, we’re holding down the fort, and doing pretty good. Thanks so much for all the emails, comments on my blog, and, especially, your prayers. I love you all! Be good people!

Kyra did well at her school program last night. I took a lot of pictures, but they weren’t great quality. For some reason, my camera has not been focusing well. I don’t know what the deal is with it. You can check out some of the pictures on my photo blog. I was very disappointed that our video camera crashed after only about ten seconds of the program. Chris couldn’t get it fixed, so we have no video of the occasion. Their little skit was so cute. They did a timeline of events from American history. The older students recited dates and events, and some of the other students would act out a little thing about the event. For instance, the older students gave a date and said “The Boston Tea Party”. Then, two of the little girls came out in old fashioned bonnets and a tea set and were having a tea party, when an older girl came and told them that wasn’t what happened. She said that the Boston Tea Party was when the Indians threw all of the British tea into the ocean. Then, two little boys wearing Indian headdresses came out and threw baskets of Lipton tea packets into the audience. It was really cute and funny. When they said the date and “Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad” the kids came out doing motions and making sounds like a train, all in a line. Kyra was the last one, and, as she got to the center of the church, she said, “Toot! Toot!”. It was so cute, and funny. Kyra was very proud of herself for doing her part loud.
Kyra was really cute in her cap and gown as she received a diploma and three trophies and a medal. She had fun at the reception, too, and was very excited that some people had got her a card or a gift. She got a Precious Moments figurine from her “boyfriend”, Westley, and his family. She was very, very excited about that. (Just to be completely honest, Westley is 11 years old, and never actually agreed to be Kyra’s boyfriend. She takes after her Mama, though, and didn’t take his initial refusal to marry her to heart. She is sure he will eventually change his mind. He is very sweet to her, though, and doesn’t seem to resent her crush on him. In the photos, Westley is the boy on the far right in the red, white, and navy striped shirt.)
All in all, it was a fun night, and we were really proud of our little graduate.