Christmas Letter 2019
Dear Friends and Family
How do I wrap up our life for the past year? Well we drive a minivan now. I think that says enough. Also, we love it. Sliding doors, low floor height and cupholders for the win!
This year has been a blur and to sound completely basic “the days are long but the years are short”. We are still in Pensacola. Heidi is pregnant with #3, a boy due in Feb. I am still juggling the Navy and Real Estate. Because we love torture, we are also under contract to buy and renovate a new house while Heid is 8-9 mos. pregnant. We have no idea where we will be in the future, but we are enjoying the ride.
Our big trips this year revolved around family and funerals. We did a family trip to Amelia Island with the Hans family in July and we had a memorial service for my aunt. A week later we flew to Indiana for a funeral for Heidi’s grandmother, and in September it was back to Oklahoma for a funeral for my uncle. Not the reason we wanted to see people, but it was great to be able to get together. After all of this Lily and I were eating one day and she put her hands on my face, looked me straight in the eye and as sweetly as possible told me “Daddy I want you to die”. Confused, but relatively sure this wasn’t a direct threat to my life, I asked why. “So, you can be with with Jesus and Grandma Mil in Heaven”. So maybe her timing is off, but her theology is sound.
Because everyone should be bad at something, I’ll proudly admit this year we had another boat blow up its engine. That is now the 3rd major issue with a watercraft in about as many years. I think Ill take a break for a bit.
I am still a Navy Reservist but continuing to serve on Active-Duty orders. Though I still instruct my primary responsibility is working on a team replacing our training helicopter and figuring out how to modernize a program that hasn’t changed in 40 years. Once selected I should be one of the first going to the factory to learn to fly it. I am going on 7 years as a flight instructor here and most of my peers are now former students. That makes me feel old, but I really do still love it. My career track is not one that I could plan, should not have, but am blessed it has worked this way.
Heidi is Chief Operating Officer of Team Hans. She has taken on more than her fair share of keeping us fed, clothed and loved. She is the master cook, shopper, and wraps almost all our gifts. I asked her what to write here. “I am pregnant and have been kind of miserable for 20 weeks this year”. Nailed it.
Lily cannot stop moving, can’t stop talking, and can’t stop telling everyone what to do. She is 3 going on 30 with her dictates, and often forgets that Dex is her brother not her slave. Though she was not excited about another brother initially, she is very proud to tell us all the things she is going to do to help when the baby comes. She is wholly sweet, loves to use her imagination, and has the best serious face.
Dexter loves throwing balls, not catching them. He talks like his sister, unfortunately we have no idea what he is saying. He loves Lily and gets tickled anytime she plays with him. He can entertain himself with almost anything, is smarter than he lets on, and is very opinionated on vegetables. He has the best laugh and it is amazing how he can hear airplanes, trains, or ambulances well before anyone else knows one is coming.
Heidi and I continue to serve at the second campus of our Church where I teach a young married Sunday school class and am a deacon, Heidi is on the medical team and works in preschool. We love having people over, it gives me a reason to fire up the Big Green Egg and we actually clean up the house.
This coming year we are planning to build up our Real Estate Investment Company with hopes that I can move to that full time in the near future. I am also working on extending my repertoire of Dad jokes, faces, and command voices. We are not ready for playing zone defense with parenting, but God will provide.
We love visitors, Christmas cards, and to talk about the good ‘ol days. So, stay in touch!
God Bless
Jeremy, Heidi, Lily & Dexter
