Let me read your mind dear family and friends...

... could it possibly be saying things like: 'You ARE alive!' ... 'Long time no see!' ... 'Boy those kids are BIG now!' ... 'Is that really the same Bryce and Caroline that are frozen in time in your header that you desperately need to update?' ...

Where do I even begin? How about I try to sum up the last oh, I dunno, 12 or so months of my bloggy hiatus? Grab a big cup of java, Pull up a chair, Pop your feet up, Stay awhile ...

Jason was deployed for six months in 2009. He made rank while he was deployed, which meant the Air Force needed to move us to another base. He got the orders for this move while deployed. I found a realtor to use and signed on the dotted line. He came home and we put the 'For Sale' sign in the yard within a week. The big shock came when the house sold in 2 weeks~ We were truly blessed in the current market. The buyers wanted to close earlier than we were pcs'ing so the movers came, packed our things to move to a storage location, and we moved into a temporary furnished rental house.

A few months later we 'paid it forward' and donated Jason's Volvo to the St Louis Salvation Army to help another family. Our great Midwest friends threw an awesome surprise going away party for us and then we packed the UHaul, whistled the Beverly Hillbilly's song and headed to our new assignment... Charleston, South Carolina! The state that is home to my Dad's alma mater~ the Gamecocks. Bryce is thrilled! And a mere 30 minutes from the beach? I am thrilled! This city is amazing and we can not wait to see all it has to offer us. The base sure is one ugly duckling of an AF base, but the kids and I don't hang out there so no big deal-i-o in the grand scheme.

We got the keys to our home, the moving company came the following day to deliver our things, we were left with enough boxes I think we could have made a ladder to the moon, Bryce started in at a new school 1/2 way through the year, Caroline got used to a big girl bed and 'helped' unpack, and Jason started his new job as a Flight Chief.

Then my world quite literally crashed around me.

Jason got terribly sick. Sick like I have never seen before. He was in the hospital in late December, released, then back in January where he pretty much spent the whole month. They gave him a 5% chance of living. 5%. That is still so hard to say or type. I have never been more scared. My world was rocked like never before and I hope never again. And in a new place where the kids and I did not know a soul. Not a single soul met yet. Doubly worse.

Then my world was lifted and I felt love in a sad time like I have never felt before.

Friends near and far rallied and prayed. I mean prayed hard. Jason was on prayer chains all around the world. Emails through his career field were making their way around the globe, eliciting more prayers for his healing. It was truly something amazing.

I cried a LOT behind closed doors. I was trying keep it all 'normal' for the kids. By day I was Supermom and by night when they were tucked up safe and sound and dreaming, I was a hot mess. We had just turned their world upside down with the deployment and sudden move and they knew something was really wrong with their Daddy because we were going to visit him daily in the hospital... but I could not let them know how really wrong it was with him.

Then we saw His power. He heard all of those prayers and answered them! Jas was released from the hospital at the end of January! In February, at a 2nd opinion appointment at MUSC, he was told he was 100% healthy and the doctors were amazed. Stunned. Speechless. Answerless. They do not know what made Jason's liver shut down, causing so many other problems to trickle. They said there is no way to ever know. It is insanely scary...the not knowing part, but we now know Jason has some special angels working for him! We keep the faith and move Onward and Upward.

So, after all of this crazy in our lives, we celebrated the good and healthy crazy we've got goin' on and went to Disney for a week at the end of May/early June. What better place to do a great big 'ole happy dance than at the happiest place on earth?!? We did and it felt so damn good!

I have TONS of pictures that have been uploaded in no particular folders over the past year, so I will try to make sense of it and get cracking!

I sure have missed you all! I have been peeking at blogs here and there but haven't been leaving many comments. Have you ever been so behind you are just literally overwhelmed? That is me right now. I am sitting with my blog list this week and will be making my rounds and I. Can't. Wait!

I'm excited to catch up blogland! xo