2012 Smit New Years Eve Letter

Dear Family and Friends:

Started knitting!

Happy New Year! This time last year we were finally getting over our jetlag from our flight from Africa. It’s crazy to think about all that has happened this year.  We knew that 2012 was going to be a year of adventure and prayer and it did not fail to amaze us both with twists and turns.

Aunt Sara and I at the beach!

            We had decided that Jeremy was going to enlist in the Air Force, and thought BASIC would be in January.  The decision was hard, as he would be gone about seven months.  

We decided that I would make a terrible moper; I needed to be active and do new things while he trained.  I had made about three different plans for the time he was gone, including going to teach English in Europe, and working at a Camp overseas, but at each turn things kept falling through. This turned into a blessing in disguise, because he ended up not leaving until March instead of January like we had originally thought.  While he was in BASIC I traveled the states seeing family and friends that I do not usually have the blessing of being around, and was able to do many awesome things.  From one last girls night in Cedar Falls with my girlfriends, learning the power of Red Lipstick, going to the Denver Art Museum, being amazed by Universal Studios, beach days, I was quite busy, and had time to learn a new art form; poi. Many thanks goes out to those who took me in: Kelsey, Laura, Aunt Holly, Aunt Sara and Court, Kelsey in Denver, and Robyn and Jay, you helped me grow and learn, and I am forever grateful.

70's dance at camp

            While I was out having adventures, Jeremy, or should I say “Airman Smit” was elected as Dorm Chief for his flight, this meant that he was in charge of getting his flight where they needed to be, and helped to lead the men in becoming Airmen for the Air Force. Pretty darn cool if you ask me.  He graduated in May from Lackland Air Force Base.  Ron, Adri, Tim, and Linda all came to the graduation with me, and we all had a great time catching up and seeing the sites of San Antonio.  It was a beautiful weekend, with lots of fantastic food. 

We then found out that he was going to tech school at Keesler AFB in Mississippi till August to train with computers.   I had always wanted to work at the YMCA camp again, but couldn’t because we had gone to China and Africa, when I found out Jeremy was going to be gone all summer, I found the perfect opportunity to go back once again to the place that got me hooked on nonprofit work and ended up becoming the Arts and Crafts Head to my surprise, and fell in love with camp all over again.

            This summer was also when I found out about mermaiding, I bought my monofin in July and practiced every extra second I had.  We also found out in July that we were going to be placed in England, we were ecstatic about this because we have friends in England.  Two weeks before we were to leave we found out that we were being rerouted to Hawaii. As you can imagine, we didn’t put up much of a fight to that.  We arrived in September and after living in a hotel for a month, found a house on base. 

  It is amazing here, I have made tons of friends through the Spouses’ Club here, and Jeremy is doing wonderful at work. The community and life here in Hawaii is one of a kind and we never expected our first base to be this awesome.  In October I was offered a job as a Lead Day Camp Counselor for the Salvation Army, and also started semi-professionally mermaiding after getting my tail as Mermaid Harmony.  Our family is still a family of two, and so we've been able to explore, become scuba certified, and have hiking adventures here on Hawaii. We tried expanding our family twice to adopt a dog into our family, but it didn't work out either time because of allergies, who knows, maybe in 2013! We bought our first Christmas tree, and spent Christmas at the beach for the first time!

We would like to thank all of you who have kept us in your prayers and thoughts this year, we never expected the adventures we have had, but could not be more grateful. We love you all, even if we can not see you all of the time! Can’t wait to see what 2013 has in store!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 The Smit Family in Hawaii :-)

Mermaid photo shoot!

Hey everyone,
It's been pretty crazy here in the Smit house, Christmas, parties with friends, and mermaiding have taken up quite a chunk of our time. :-D We had a lovely and fabulous Christmas and were able to skype or chat with those we loved, I almost teared up a few times on the phone when talking people but I pulled it together. This week I have day camp, and Jer leaves for Arizona to see his brother graduate from Air Force Pilot training, they'll have a lot of fun chatting it up and comparing AF stories I'm sure. While he's gone, I'll mermaid around, work, and I'm hosting a girl's night on Friday, I'm pretty excited.

We tried adopting again, but it didn't work, again (dog, not child). Sadness. but such is life.

It's still 78 degrees here, we actually went for a run on Christmas in tank tops in shorts, I thought it was craziness, but hey, when in Rome, do as the Romans do! Here are some pics from my photo shoot yesterday, more to come in a few days! Also if you haven't checked out my site yet you should!  http://mermaidharmon2.wix.com/mermaidharmony

Well, that's all for now, just bought us Muppet Treasure Island, we figured if we are eventually going to have kids, we need a better library of movies, not going to raise our kids on some of the stuff on TV, they need the good stuff. Starting with this movie. :-)

 Love,
Am

Christmas Seasn

Hey ya'll!
Things are going just lovely down here in the beautiful state of Hawaii.  I've heard many people say that it's hard to get into the Christmas spirit here, I'm actually feeling the opposite. I've been driving kettles for the Salvation Army, and every day I see people smiling, and saying "Merry Christmas".  The bell ringers are full of joy, and for 30 minutes at the end of each shift I ring the bell at Wal-Mart, and I have a blast just smiling, ringing, and wishing people to have a lovely Christmas and day. So, even though it's 75 degrees out, and the only hints of Christmas is our cute tree adorned with ornaments, the radio gushing "Let it Snow" and the blow up santa in my neighbors green yard, it still feels like the holidays to me.  Even though it's different, it doesn't mean it's wrong for me right now.

Had a mermaid photoshoot the other day which was a ton of fun, only have some of the above water photos right now, hopefully soon I'll have the underwater ones. I've been busy getting parties set up for the new year, and getting online sites set up! My first birthday party went really well, you can check out some photos from it at my Mermaid Harmony Website we had a blast, and I have 6 parties that I know of in the next 4 months! My friend Billy works at the aquarium and is also going to teach me how to make a tail, so that'll be a fun winter project to do.  I've got ideas! It'll be fun and something I can put on my resume, which looks rediculous I know, between Arts and Crafts, mermaiding, poi, line dancing, singing, sign dancing, kettle bell driving, and programming. It's just kind of funny to read, entertaining, slightly funny.

Not much planned for Christmas, we might go camping or explore a new part of the island the week before, we have a couple of Christmas parties to go to this week. Life is good.

Love,
Aj