Veterans Day ... an excuse to post pictures:

In honor of Veterans Day, I share with you pictures of my favorite Sailor in uniform. Because I just can't resist!

The weekend after his Pass-in-Review (a.k.a. boot camp graduation)

Picking him up after A.T. (annual training) in 2010

About to leave for A.T. in 2011

After his PIR

Being recognized as the honor grad for his division during PIR

With his parents after PIR. His Dad is also a Veteran.

post-husband time

once again, it is the day after a weekend with The Sailor, and I'm feeling the post-husband blues. because of the holiday, he got to come home for four full days - Thursday night to Monday night. it was sooo nice to spend so much time with him, but I miss him being around 24/7! unfortunately (well, fortunately really) he'll be done with his classes at Great Lakes this week, and then it's off to his next station. which is much much much father away - so no Husband Weekends. but, the sooner he goes to the next station, the sooner he can be done with training, and be home again. of course, it might also mean the sooner he goes on deployment. ahh, the joys of the navy life.

Video from The Sailor's Navy Boot Camp Graduation / Pass-in-Review

Navy Pass in Review, July 17, 2009

Divisions marching in ... all 13 divisions made up of 971 sailors




Honor Grads being honored (including my sailor!)




Robert Gates, US Secretary of Defense, was the speaker




My Sailor receiving his Honor Grad certificate

liberty

I visited Rob last weekend. Eventually he will get weekend liberty and can come home from Friday to Sunday, but for now, he gets daytime liberty, so last weekend and this weekend I'm up there.

Anyway, last Sunday, after checking out of my hotel, and doing some shopping/browsing, we had some time to kill before dinner, so we went to the Waukegan Harbor. I don't know what this is, but I had to take a picture of Rob in front of it:

More photos from The Sailor's liberty time

Today Rob and I were able to spend some time with our families at Rob's sisters house. It was nice to do something not at a hotel or restaurant.

With my family


With his family


Just us

Navy Boot Camp Graduation / Pass-in-Review at Great Lakes Naval Base

The Sailor's Pass In Review was yesterday!

Here come the divisions


I brought a camera with a better lens


Special Guest Speaker: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Kind of a Big Deal.


My Sailor introduced as the honor grad of his division


So happy to finally see him!!


Skee ball


In his "peanut butters." And he's rocking the BCGs because his normal glasses need to be replaced. Yes, he is really tall. 6'4. I'm 5'7.

11 hours!

Tomorrow is the big day!!! Oh man, I am SO excited. Rob called me earlier to let me know he passed Battle Stations, and to chat, and we had a nice 20 minute conversation and I did not want to hang up when the time came. But I will see him soon.

So after work, I finished packing, and when I was ready to load up my car a huge thunderstorm rolled through. I was already running later than I wanted, so I just ran out to my car anyway. I had to trek around a HUGE puddle in our parking lot (the sewer drain was overflowing). And of course I got soaked. And like 5 minutes later the rain let up. Oh well. Now I'm in my hotel 4 miles from base ..... so close.

8 MORE DAYS

I thought time was moving slowly before ... now that we're in single digits, it's moving s-l-o-w-e-r. But ....

1. I got an official letter today from the Navy congratulating me on my Sailor's accomplishment at being selected as the Honor Recruit for his division. "This selection is based on his individual performance of duty in all phases of basic training including leadership, initiative, military bearing, response to orders, sportsmanship, qualities of a good shipmate and high overall scholastic standing." WAY TO GO ROB!

2. My mom photocopied a letter she received from Rob, and this part cracked me up: "My next week of training is fire fighting. I've already started studying for it, and it's actually very interesting. So much so, that it's got me thinking about becoming a fireman (which, of course, I've never considered before because firemen don't carry guns). I suppose I'm more like my father than I realize."

Another letter

I got another letter from Rob yesterday. He is doing good, but he's sick (again!) and it sounds like he's exhausted. But, he said "unless I lose a limb or something, I'm not going to stop." So let's hope it doesn't come to that.

So I'm trying to plan a fun-but-relaxing weekend for him when he's on liberty next weekend. Hopefully if you're reading this, you are one of the 20+ friends or family of Rob that I emailed a tentative Friday-Saturday schedule to.

another phone call :)

Rob called me again tonight! I asked him what he did right this time :) He was kind of quiet on the phone, but it had something to do with standing at attention ... or something. It was quiet on the phone. Either way, I'm pretty lucky to have received four phone calls from him so far - only one has been "routine" the other three were earned because he is doing well. So way to go, Rob.

He said he's enjoying boot camp a little more each day. He's glad he joined the navy. He said the hardest thing is the "bad apples" in his division - the recruits who have bad attitudes, and make it harder for the rest. So, if that's his biggest problem, that's pretty good. At least he's not complaining that he made a huge mistake, or that he can't take it physically. He sounds in pretty good spirits on the phone.

Also, he mentioned that there is a chance he will do A-school at Great Lakes instead of Florida. This would be fantastic! Of course, he won't know for sure until the last week of boot camp. So I won't get my hopes up just yet.


In non-Rob news, I had a nice Fathers Day with my Dad. My parents came over to watch the Cubs game, and I made lots of yummy food for them - fried green tomatoes, slow-cooked BBQ country style ribs, grilled chicken & veggie kabobs. Way to go me. AND the Cubs won. Woot!

Half way done with BC

Tuesday was a great day ... I got a phone call from Rob and I got a letter from him. Actually, it seems like he writes a few letters during the week, and then sends them all out on Sunday. Or Monday. Anyway, it was a great day. And today I got the information about his graduation. Although I recently discovered www.navyformoms.com, which is also a good site for wives (and other loved ones), so I feel like I already know a lot of "insider" information about PIR (pass in review, or graduation), although I wonder if knowing more is stressing me out more, now that I'm trying to figure out the logistics, considering every recruit gets four guests, but only one vehicle pass to get on base, and I'm the only one staying near base the night before. Hmm.

Anyway, in my non-navy-wife life, I had a band concert last night. It was interesting, since we got locked out of rehearsal the week before, so it had been almost two weeks since we all played together. Plus it was raining all week, so we weren't sure if we'd get rained out. But, the concert went really well. We have two concerts the week after next, and they are both patriotic, one with cannons for the 1812 Overture, which should be fun.

And in completely useless-to-anyone-but-me news, Mad Men season one is available again on Comcast On Demand. So there goes my weekend. Not that I really had any plans. The past few weekends have been so busy for me, I would like to keep this one free of plans for now. Plus I really need to clean the apartment. Don't tell Rob how messy I can be when he's not around. Because I'm always the one complaining about his clutter. But he's the one who sweeps and stuff.

Phone call!!

Rob called me again tonight!! I was hoping I would get another Saturday night phone call, and sure enough, I did, and this time I answered!!! I was actually on my way home from dinner with my parents when he called (they were driving), so my Dad pulled over into a parking lot, and they got out of the car so we could have privacy, which was sweet of them. We talked for about 15 minutes. Oh man. It was so nice to talk to him. He sounds like he's doing well. Boot camp is challenging, obviously, but it sounds like it is a good experience for him, and he is still glad he's doing it.

AHH I miss him so much! I hate waking up on the weekends, that's the worst time. During the week, I'm busy with work and stuff, that I miss him, but I don't feel his absence as much. But I really feel it on the weekends, especially when I wake up in the morning, because it's like "well, how am I going to distract myself for the next 16 hours?" And then I think that it will be at least October before we will be living together again.

BUT when we were talking I made sure to tell him as much as I miss him, I am so so so proud of him.

first real letter!!!!

I got my first real letter from the Seaman Recruit today. He's doing well. Surviving. I guess he had the flu (as did a lot of other recruits) so I'm sure that sucks - being sick away from home. He said getting letters makes boot camp more bearable - so send him letters!! If you need his address, let me know.

Also, he asked me to fill him in on current events, because they keep them isolated. So I had to think, what's been going on in the past three weeks? I filled him in on the Air France flight, George Tiller's murder, and Stephen Colbert doing his show in Iraq with the USO (hilarious - the Iraq episodes are airing until Thursday - way to go Colbert!) Did I miss anything else of importance in the news? I'm sure I did.

10 days

So I've made it through 10 days apart .... only about 150 days to go before the earliest Rob will be living at home again.

Argh, this pretty much sucks. I have to remember how proud I am of him, and not how much I miss him. Eventually we'll be able to talk on the phone again and I'll be able to visit him.

Box from The Sailor

Today I came home from work to The Box - his personal stuff that he can't keep with him during boot camp. Of course I had to take pictures:





Laundry ... yay! And big giant shoes.

I guess he couldn't keep his writing tablet with him, because that was in the box. But it seems like while he was waiting around right before leaving for base, he had some time to kill and wrote out a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I liked some of the things he wants to do:







Aww, he loves me :)

Memorial Day

This morning I went to a Memorial Day parade in my town. It wasn't a traditional parade - it was just members of the VFW, with marching bands from the local junior high and high school marching to the local cemeteries in town (three along a stretch of a main road). I caught up with them at the second cemetery (about three-quarters of a mile from our apartment), and then followed down to the last (and largest) cemetery. During that ceremony, I cried a little bit, thinking about the sacrifices the hubs is making, and how proud I am of him.

Right after the ceremony ended, I really started to miss him. For some reason, looking at my cell phone hit me with the fact that he's not here. I don't know why. It's weird what things trigger those feelings. I started walking home, really missing him. I wish I had my buddy (that's what we call each other), and without him, I have to do everything alone. That's hard to think about right now. All the simple things we would do together - go to dinner, go to a movie, hang out with friends, or just sit at home together - I'm doing alone, missing him.


Memorial Day also always made me think of my Grandpa (Navy - WWII) and my Uncle (Army - Vietnam). I miss them both a lot. My Grandma was with Grandpa when he was off at WWII. I wish she were still alive so I could talk to her about it, and how she dealt with it. I couldn't imagine. I mean, we're apart right now, but I know the hubs is safe. I don't know how I would cope if he were to get deployed.

First weekend

This morning I woke up and realized this is what my life will be like until October. I can take it day by day ... but it's going to last like this until at least October (maybe longer). Ugh. I need to forget about that and continue to focus on day by day. I will get to see him again in 9 weeks, and then when he's in a-school, we can talk on the phone, and I can visit him.

One hard thing about staying behind is all the reminders of him. There's the big stuff - photographs, all his books, the empty other half of the bed - but then there are the little daily things that make it seem like he should be here - his set of keys, his mp3 player, his soap and shampoo in the shower, CDs still in the stereo in his car.

In other news, my friends and I had a party last night to raise money for our Relay For Life team (to raise money for the American Cancer Society). We raised over $200! Not bad considering we started planning this party last Tuesday.

And that's that

I got my final phone call last night - "Hi, I'm here, see you in 9 weeks." I was getting pretty worried I wouldn't get it. By 11pm, he still hadn't called, and I have to work, so I went to bed. Finally, at 1:30am, my cell phone rings, and it's him. I'm glad I got the last call (it seals the deal that this is really happening, everything is in order, and finally there are no more reasons for them to send him home), but why so late??? I guess I need to remember that for the next 9 weeks (and then 14-26 weeks after that, and then 1-2 weekends/month), the Navy is #1, and the wife (and her sleep schedule) are #2.

waiting

I'm waiting for my last phone call from the hubs for a few weeks. The last time I talked to him, he was waiting to be taken over to the base. He's supposed to get one last phone call to say "Hi, I'm here, I love you, see you in 9 weeks." So I'm waiting for this call. Then they mail home his personal stuff that he can't keep with him (cell phone, the clothes he wore over there).

First full day

Today is the first full day the hubs is gone. Coming home to an empty apartment after work kind of sucked. It used to be that I knew he would be home within an hour. Now that is not the case. It seems so much quieter here. I know it will get easier, but I almost don't want it to - that means I'm used to him being gone and I don't want to be "used" to that. Because eventually he will be back. So I need to continue to focus on that - this is temporary, and it's also a good thing. He's pursuing his goals. I'm proud of him. I just miss him a lot.