Team Palmer School

Day #1 of Team Palmer School didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Too many things I wanted to accomplish and so little time. So we tweaked and refined and day #2 went much better. Pretty awesome, actually. This year is going to seriously rock. I'm pretty pumped. Here's our school flag. I love it because it was so perfectly colored yellow by Landon on the top and so beautifully and "artistically" decorated in every color possible by Taylor and Audra on the bottom. And I love the faces they drew on their people. And I love that our symbol is the sun. And even more than all of that, I love that Audra has no pants on and looks like a professional wrestler.

People ask why I decided to homeschool this year and they say things like I'm crazy. Any year prior to this one I would've been saying the same thing. If you want details, I'll share, but for now, it's enough just to say that it's the right thing for our family right now. I always said I would never do this, but here we are doing it. And it feels great. This is going to be a good year!

Navy Dental Ball 2011

Erin, the lone dentist at the hospital, was invited last minute to the 3rd dental battalion's dental ball. Just a dinner/party with ceremonial traditions, guest speaker, cake, toasts, and dancing. Normally these are formal, but I guess they do things differently here. It was 70's theme. These are our good friends Chris and Melissa. It's hard not to have a good time with them around! But we sure missed Kiser's moves.

June

Okuma #3 with Stinchfields

Hiji Falls with Stinchfields.

We love the Geckos here. We have 2 or 3 in our

house. Grandpa P. named the one in the kitchen

"Marvin." We like them because they eat

the other bugs--specifically cockroaches.

The northern part of the island.

The girls' best buds left us and moved to the rainy state.

We miss you!!!

I can't get enough of these two friends. I hope their

friendship lasts forever.

The girls will dress up anyone that's willing.

The last karaoke night. Best song of the night:

Sweater by Weezer

Another sad goodbye. Stinchfields last day. Many tears.

Good-bye

I hate good-byes. In the military you're supposed to get used to it, but I'm not. Today is like the day after your birthday or the day after Christmas or the day after a huge storm. But worse. To have Erin's parents here for 30 days has been fabulous! But today, their last day, my heart aches. Even so much that this typhoon that is supposed to hit in a few hours isn't even exciting--now that's pretty sad. They hope they can catch their plane. I secretly hope they get stuck here a little longer.