On the Move

The Harris Family has been on the move. Drew safely made his way to Afghanistan after a longer-than-Drew-would-have-liked layover in Germany due to plane issues then a few short days in 'K-something-stan' as Drew's boss calls it. He then spent a little bit at a bigger base before heading to his remote location. This deployment will be a little different in that Drew has to be pretty tight lipped about his missions and his location. He is working closely with Special Forces so opsec (or operational security) is high. We'll likely not see any pictures because they have to be approved by a board of people before even his boss can send us a picture. But there is good news! He has internet! Not in his room but he is able to go to the room with internet almost everyday! We have been talking on the phone and exchanging emails but yesterday we were able to video chat from his computer to my cell phone which was fantastic. I was able to walk him around our house to show him everything and he spent a ton of time watching Cole play with the dogs. I am so thankful for technology. Quite frankly I'm still amazed that Drew in Afghanistan can call my cell phone and we can see him like he is in the next room. AWESOME.
Another thing I am thankful for is our all-star family. Seriously, I sound like a broken record with my thank you, thank you, thank you, thank yous. I feel like my quantity of thank yous is making me lose quality of thank yous but how do I not say thank you all the time for all the great work everyone is doing?? Drew and I feel truly blessed and so THANKFUL (there's that word again) to be surrounded by great family. Don't know what we would do without them. Drew's parents spent four, full straight days at our house cleaning the basement and garage, cleaning up the front yard (which is a huge under statement because there were leaves everywhere), then if that wasn't enough, they peeled the wallpaper in Cole's nursery then painted it. Rock stars!! Our extended family was AMAZING on Saturday too with cleaning windows (Jen the Windex Queen!), unloading the truck, and fixing the electrical issues. I think we could start a home repair business with our many trades! We added to the move craziness with throwing a wave of the flu into the mix too. Somehow I avoided the plague by only getting sick once on Friday then starting to rally but my poor mom was down and out for move-in day Saturday. My Dad made it through move-in day then got stick at the end of the day and has been sick since. Bill then had it Monday night. I then moved into a relentless cold... So far Cole is a happy camper so I'm hoping we missed the sickness but we'll see. Here I thought Cole starting daycare would make him sick but instead all of the adults are getting sick!
Cole is loving school as we call it. His teachers always say how happy and content he is which is great to hear. He even showed everyone how picture day was supposed to go by sitting and smiling pretty. Too cute.
Backtracking here for the pics:
On Saturday, 2/11 Cole and I flew home while my parents drove our truck home. Cole is an old pro at flying now. It helps too when the flight is empty and we have our own row!

Later that day Jeannie and Bill watched Cole while I started shopping for the house. Cole loved the ball Gigi got him and even started pushing it back to give the ball back to Pop.

Then Monday it was the first day of school and SNOW. All day I watched the clock anxious to go pick him up but of course when I get there he looks up at me, smiles, then returns to playing. Sigh of relief. :) My mom did great scouting out the place for us while we were in GA.

Cole's new little friend Cooper.

Having fun at Brophy Ranch in the make-shift bath tub.


Buds. Happy to be reunited. (The dogs had been at my parents house since Christmas while we were busy packing in GA.)

Tuesday, 2/14 we closed on our house! Such a big and exciting day! We immediately started by having the hardwood floors refinished. They look great. Huge improvement. Then Saturday was move-in day. Yet again, our family is amazing. We had the truck unloaded in a couple of hours. So grateful! Kylee made a great babysitter! :)

Now Drew, Cole and I are settling in to our new spots and looking forward to the day when we are all in the same spot.