January 2022 was uneventful other than the fact it’s the month COVID finally got us! (Well me.. the rest of the crew was fine thankfully!) We did enjoy the Bengals run to the Super Bowl! Even Dustin our Brown’s fan rooted for them. The day my quarantine ended we headed right on schedule to Florida to visit Dustin’s parents in Venice. This year Dustin’s sister Ashley and her husband Brian overlapped with us a few days. It was fun, the kids haven’t been on any trips with them before and enjoyed being at the beach together.
One day when the weather, wasn’t quite beach weather, ie it was 60-70 degrees, we headed over to Orlando for a day at Disney! We took them right before the pandemic started when Lil bro was still free, and this week was the first week that Disney removed masks, of course it was still required indoors the day we were there. We did a hopper pass and went to Magic Kingdom and Epcot and back to Magic Kingdom for the fireworks over the 50th anniversary castle! It was fun to be there for the anniversary, I had been there with my family for the 25th anniversary when I was little. On the way home I was “ad targeted” to a promotion for a Disney Cruise Giveaway on the Disney Wish. You just had to post a photo of who you would would ride the Aqua Duck with.. so of course I posted a photo of the 4 of us in front of the castle that day.. And at the end of February we got a message that we were potential winners! At first I was thinking, what does potential mean.. did we win or not! But they have to verify who you are and fill out forms. So we did win! We didn’t tell the kids right away until we knew more details.
After getting home and a few days of work, I headed to Nashville for an integrative medicine conference with one of my colleagues. It’s funny she is a pharmacist in Montana that works with me and also has kids the same ages! Someday we’ll make it out there to visit her! We enjoyed some Live Nashville music along with our learning.
March came and it was my first year not employed by Cedarville, just serving as an Adjunct. Which was a nice change of pace to be able to lecture a few days alongside my practice, but also enjoy the Hartzler birthday month a little bit more! Sis had some girls over for her birthday and we celebrated them both with family later in the month. And celebrated Dad’s birthday with a date night (tacos of course).
April is the month of conferences I feel like! I went to Ohio Pharmacist Association meeting for a day, spent a weekend in Dallas for a training, and got to go to Florida to speak. While in Dallas, I got to see 2 of my PharmToTable pharmacists, enjoyed spending time with them and eating yummy food, homemade curry and a Venezuelan restaurant! Then it was Easter and celebrating our nephew Jackson’s birthday! Lil bro also started soccer as a trial with one of the local clubs, they do a pre-academy just 1 hour of training per week to intro. Of course he loved it and ended up joining the team in the Fall. Spring keeps Sis dancing and preparing for her recital early June.
Dustin and I were able to travel end of April to a functional/integrative medicine conference while his parents came to take care of the kids over a long weekend. The kids enjoy every minute with grandma and grandpa and hardly miss us. I enjoyed seeing some of my team at the conference and it was in Florida, so that’s always a great option when Spring in Ohio is still chilly.
That brings us to May, best purchase ever.. we got a hot tub! It’s the mother’s day gift to myself for the next 10 years ha! (Dustin did the electrical and digging the trench to put it underground himself.. it was a lot of work!) But seriously I love it so much and spent a lot of evenings out there relaxing. It helps me feel like summer lasts forever too. Sis had her dance recital to kick off the summer. She did tap, ballet, and jazz during that school year. She enjoys it so much. This fall she added tumbling which means she’s constantly doing cartwheels and handstands around the house.
Summer is my favorite season for sure! We enjoy trips to Kings Island, afternoons at the pool, swim team meets, strawberry picking, days at Grandma and Grandpa’s pool, vacation bible school, back yard smores, and cookouts with friends.
And this year we got to spend 3 nights on the Brand New Disney Wish! Sis wrote a bit about the trip
There was a kids club. When your dad or mom dropped you off at the top and you went down a slide 🛝. In the kids club bathrooms, each bathroom stall had a different Disney characters. They did not have Regular sinks they had fancy hand washers when you put your hands in the water swirled around. Each dinner 🍽️ had a theme there was and Arendalle Frozen experience, Marvel , and a 1923 dinner. Each dinner had a special Sundae I enjoyed. The food was so good we could not make it to dessert 🧁. We enjoyed the beach stop at the Disney private island, and enjoyed the Incredibles Inflatable obstacle course. Our room was on the stern (back of the ship) and we had a nice balcony. We also enjoyed the evening shows.
This summer was also bittersweet. I decided to transition out of the practice I had been in for the last 6 years. I was so grateful to my time there to grow as a provider and especially being able to serve patients with functional medicine in a collaborative practice model. But as my business was growing, I really needed more flexibility. Dustin hadn’t traveled at all from Fall 2019 to this point for work, and had 3 trips lined up for fall. With our kids needing school transport, I needed to be able to do what I love, teaching other pharmacist and patients about functional medicine and serving patients while also being Mom. So I transitioned to fully working for myself! I own PharmToTable, LLC and we also have a website called https://functionalmedicinece.com. I also work closely with other business partners at Profero Team to build out other clinical pharmacy services. I currently oversee our clinical practices and we do insulin pump trainings for two of the pump companies. In August I also started practicing one day a week at Elite Medicine with a physician I had worked with previously. While doing a lot of different things may seem sort of crazy, it works for us because it’s flexible. I still get to do what I love and have always done, and I get to take kids to school and pick them up throughout the week. Trying to savor these years when they are little as best I can while also still growing professionally and helping others grow their practices too.
Soon after my last day, Dustin and headed to Hawaii, I put that in a quick separate post here!
We flew home and Lil Bro had learned to ride a bike with Aunt Ashley Gasser! The next day we attended Dustin’s 20 year high school reunion. We headed back to Dayton to enjoy our last month of summer! We enjoyed time with friends, and I got to attend the global leadership summit in Chicago with colleagues. We fit in a few more trips to Kings Island and Dustin and I got to enjoy a Reds Game with the Profero Team. Then somehow it was back to school! And we had a kindergartener and a 3rd grader. How did that happen? Lil Bro is in Spanish immersion 5 days a week, with an English class once a week. And Sis is going to the Spanish immersion for homeschool/3rd grade 2 days a week and a home school hybrid school 3 days a week. She has one day of electives there and is loving art and drama class!
Bro started club soccer (I know we might be crazy) but we decided if he’s going to do it, let’s do something with structure and good foundational skills to start. He’s come such a long way in the 5 months he’s been playing it’s amazing to watch. I’m excited for spring season! Soccer Mom life is fun! I tend to yell a lot even though Dustin tells me they can’t hear me. 🙂
In September I hosted a continuing education conference in Nashville, TN and held a retreat for my team there the 2 days prior which was a blast! It was so good to see them in person and hug them, laugh, enjoy good food together, and set goals! We ended the trip with a night at the Grand Ole Opry, which I just felt like Papa and Grandma were there with me enjoying it or at least smiling from Heaven.
Dustin actually went on his first business trip in September since 2019 he was excited for a work trip and seeing all his WordPress people in person. This fall I also did some photography which is a bit of side gig/extension of the business and in the fall I do some outdoor family sessions and Christmas Mini sessions. Our schedule didn’t match up with our normal photographers, so one of my new neighbors does photography too, so we were able to swap sessions this year which was fun!
In October we did all the fall things. Apple Picking, Harvest fests, Trunk or Treat, and a visit to Lexington to celebrate Aunt Ashley Hornback’s birthday. My dad also had a big birthday this year and we celebrated at his favorite restaurant in Cincinnati, Montgomery Inn. Dustin headed off to Denver for a meet-up with his team at the end of the month.
November we had our last FxMedCE Virtual conference of the year, celebrated Thanksgiving early with the Hartzler side, and then enjoyed a long weekend in Tennessee again on Thanksgiving thanks to my mom and her timeshare deals! We explored the Smokey Mountain National Park, saw bears, a waterfall, and a snake! I haven’t done anything with pictures from my big girl camera but here are some fun shots from my phone. The kids also loved the resort we stayed in, it had an indoor water park and ice skating outside. It was nice to be outside and enjoyed some time away for the holiday.
And now we are here in December, it hasn’t been all rosy, some ups and downs with sickness in the house, and some scary events but all in all we enjoyed celebrating my birthday with the kids and friends at Table 33 and Dustin and I enjoyed Sueno on our first date night since Hawaii. I’m pretty sure I could eat there every day for the rest of my life. It would get a tad expensive though! Kenley wanted to add we ate a Chipotle on my actual birthday and they were out of everything ha! (You can see a theme here, we basically should move to Mexico). We also celebrated our nephew turning 6 the following weekend where the kids got their first chance to try rock climbing!
We are slowing down a bit this week, the kids had 3 days of school this week, and our dancer had a Christmas Show on Wednesday. Most of our presents are wrapped or shipped, and we are counting our blessings. We are thankful for the year of growth and opportunities, and thankful for all the people that build into our kiddos. It’s truly a village that we couldn’t do this without.
As we move forward into the new year, we pray that each of you would know the love of Jesus, and that your year would be full of lasting memories and your family would thrive!
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
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