so the submarine is back. i think.
rob worked so much this weekend that it's almost like homecoming never happened. the only way i know he's back for sure, is that our bedroom has that special submarine smell, from all his seabags being unpacked.
saturday he was gone from 7am til 4pm, sunday was about the same. then yesterday we ran a few errands and intended on going to the beach in the afternoon. cade fell asleep, then rob fell asleep, then i fell asleep and we finally arrived at the beach around 6pm. we squeezed a little bit of memorial day fun in there, after all.
really, after an hour at the beach, i'm ready to go home anyway. by this time reese gets all kinds of sand in her swimsuit (from doing 'sand angels', the tropical version of a snow angel) and elisha has gotten bold enough to chase the waves as they roll back...just to get knocked off her feet with the next incoming wave. cade is actually pretty good at the beach, he brings a shovel and he'd be content to dig til his little tykes shovel breaks. anyway, within an hour you know someone is going to get hungry or thirsty or have to pee, so we plan short excursions. i can't wait for the day when i can go to the beach to relax or snooze in the sunshine or just people watch, uninterrupted.
today is tuesday and i would have sworn that rob said he'd get a few days off this week. i'm not holding my breath. :/
5.27.2008
5.23.2008
the wait is over
he's HOME! yay! :) the tennessee was gone for 67 days but they're back now, and that's the most important part, in my mind. they had a great patrol and it sounds like all inspections went well. rob even got the news that he was selected for commander (to put on the rank in july '09) and best of all, the captain seems pleased with the world right now.
however, being back home means the sailors are put back into the same domestic squabbles they left 2 months ago. rob fully expects his workload to increase as young sailors learn their lessons the hard way. we've all been 20-something, but i wish there was some way to save these people from themselves. DRAMA seems to be the word of the day!
homecoming activities went well. there's no pictures though :/
i raced to the beach to try to get a picture of the submarine floating upriver toward kingsbay, but *surprise* the sub was early! i had heard they'd be by at 11am, we left home at 10:20 to drive the 10 miles to the beach. i thought we'd be plenty early (all my experiences with the sub coming home, it's been late every single time), but we got stuck behind some bicyclists who would not share the road! finally we got to the beach where i could see the tug boats floating by from the car...meaning the sub was just passing by. i didn't even have time to get the camera out. i was so disappointed, this could possibly rob's last patrol if he doesn't make commanding officer, and of course, cameras are not allowed near the pier for homecoming.
i watched the boat on by and realized that WOOHOO, my man was inside there and would be waiting on the pier in a few hours so what the hell was i doing here??? i got back in the van (hadn't even had time to unbuckle the kids out of the car, and elisha slept through the whole thing) and headed home to go change into something pretty. i wish we could have gotten some pictures, i think we all looked pretty good. but there was no time to waste...by now i was in a rush to get there!
we made the 30 minute drive to the base, debated an extra 10 minutes about if this was the right gate or if that was the right gate and finally picked a gate and breathed a sigh of relief that we had chosen correctly. (the closer you get to the submarines, the tighter the security and the bigger the guns in the hands of the marines standing next to the gate.)
we stood for about 10 minutes, chatting with the other wives and seeing the sailors drift off the sub one by one. we couldn't really even see the sub which was a disappointment. all we could see was the sail, it seems the piers at this subase are set quite high. at the subase in connecticut, the piers are low enough that you can really see the sub and get an idea of it. i'm not even sure reese or cade could tell where the submarine really was yesterday. there were some HUGE overhead cranes though, elisha was very taken with their movements. (so was i, i'm turning into my father...we both enjoy studying how things are done and then discussing the ins and outs of the process.)
the officers wear tan cotton uniforms and from far away they all look alike...i guess that's why they wear the uniforms in the first place?? :) all men were wearing their hard hats, due to the cranes, so about the only way you can tell them apart (aside from obvious differences like height and belly shape) is their stride. i saw one tall guy and thought it might be rob...the long stride was about right...then as he got closer, i saw his big old eyebrows and realized it was my husband. i whispered to reese, "hey, who is that guy, reese?" she recognized him right away and sounded the alarm... "DADDYYYYYYYY!"
she would have raced toward them but a street divided the pier from our grassy location, and i had told the kids that they needed to stay on the grass for safety so she patiently waited for daddy to walk on over. she was ALL over him, hugging and jumping and giggling and trying to tell him all about the last 2 months in the first few minutes. cade was excited as well, only there was less hugging because of his shoulder and rob didn't want to hurt him. elisha, however, would not even come near him, and instead just gave him a frown. toddlers do not forgive long absences easily.
he looked good. food on the submarine is pretty good and rob usually is not one to deprive himself if it tastes good, so i had expected him to get chubby here and there but he really looks great. tasty even ;) he did look a little pale, but if he had come back with a suntan i would wonder just what they were doing out there. one thing i have noticed is that his hair on top is getting thinner, i think he's getting his dad's hair pattern. but really, it doesn't even phase me. he still looks yummy. :)
the families were all corralled in one area, and i'm an avid people-watcher so i did enjoy the emotions as husbands were greeted. the wives all try to look nice, some try to look sexy, but i think we all agonize over what to wear. i know i did, even so far as to post picture on a private mommy board to get feedback (thank you, juniverse!!). whatever the choice is, a wife should really make sure it's appropriate and it fits. one woman was wearing a pink satin-y shirt and tan short-shorts. she definitely should have picked a bigger size as well as a longer rise on the shorts...when she threw her arms up around her husbands neck, all the wives got a good shot of her butt crack because her shirt rode up and her shorts weren't big enough. is it sad that *that* is what stands out in my mind about homecoming? :/
we stood around chatting/hugging/smooching for about 20 minutes and then some of the crew had to go back and finish up for the afternoon...that included rob :/ we left and came back home. actually i had left quite a bit of cleaning to fill the hours between when we left base and when we had to go back and pick him up. we made a welcome home cake, hung up some welcome back signs on the front of the house, cleaned up the kitchen a little bit, and suddenly the phone was ringing and it was time to go pick him up.
our evening was fun, i wish we would have put the kids to bed at around 7pm so rob and i could have had more time to talk. when the kids went to bed at 8 he was already sound asleep on the sofa. hopefully he can stay awake a little later tonight so we can have some grown up conversation. or, maybe a little less conversation and a little more action ;)
however, being back home means the sailors are put back into the same domestic squabbles they left 2 months ago. rob fully expects his workload to increase as young sailors learn their lessons the hard way. we've all been 20-something, but i wish there was some way to save these people from themselves. DRAMA seems to be the word of the day!
homecoming activities went well. there's no pictures though :/
i raced to the beach to try to get a picture of the submarine floating upriver toward kingsbay, but *surprise* the sub was early! i had heard they'd be by at 11am, we left home at 10:20 to drive the 10 miles to the beach. i thought we'd be plenty early (all my experiences with the sub coming home, it's been late every single time), but we got stuck behind some bicyclists who would not share the road! finally we got to the beach where i could see the tug boats floating by from the car...meaning the sub was just passing by. i didn't even have time to get the camera out. i was so disappointed, this could possibly rob's last patrol if he doesn't make commanding officer, and of course, cameras are not allowed near the pier for homecoming.
i watched the boat on by and realized that WOOHOO, my man was inside there and would be waiting on the pier in a few hours so what the hell was i doing here??? i got back in the van (hadn't even had time to unbuckle the kids out of the car, and elisha slept through the whole thing) and headed home to go change into something pretty. i wish we could have gotten some pictures, i think we all looked pretty good. but there was no time to waste...by now i was in a rush to get there!
we made the 30 minute drive to the base, debated an extra 10 minutes about if this was the right gate or if that was the right gate and finally picked a gate and breathed a sigh of relief that we had chosen correctly. (the closer you get to the submarines, the tighter the security and the bigger the guns in the hands of the marines standing next to the gate.)
we stood for about 10 minutes, chatting with the other wives and seeing the sailors drift off the sub one by one. we couldn't really even see the sub which was a disappointment. all we could see was the sail, it seems the piers at this subase are set quite high. at the subase in connecticut, the piers are low enough that you can really see the sub and get an idea of it. i'm not even sure reese or cade could tell where the submarine really was yesterday. there were some HUGE overhead cranes though, elisha was very taken with their movements. (so was i, i'm turning into my father...we both enjoy studying how things are done and then discussing the ins and outs of the process.)
the officers wear tan cotton uniforms and from far away they all look alike...i guess that's why they wear the uniforms in the first place?? :) all men were wearing their hard hats, due to the cranes, so about the only way you can tell them apart (aside from obvious differences like height and belly shape) is their stride. i saw one tall guy and thought it might be rob...the long stride was about right...then as he got closer, i saw his big old eyebrows and realized it was my husband. i whispered to reese, "hey, who is that guy, reese?" she recognized him right away and sounded the alarm... "DADDYYYYYYYY!"
she would have raced toward them but a street divided the pier from our grassy location, and i had told the kids that they needed to stay on the grass for safety so she patiently waited for daddy to walk on over. she was ALL over him, hugging and jumping and giggling and trying to tell him all about the last 2 months in the first few minutes. cade was excited as well, only there was less hugging because of his shoulder and rob didn't want to hurt him. elisha, however, would not even come near him, and instead just gave him a frown. toddlers do not forgive long absences easily.
he looked good. food on the submarine is pretty good and rob usually is not one to deprive himself if it tastes good, so i had expected him to get chubby here and there but he really looks great. tasty even ;) he did look a little pale, but if he had come back with a suntan i would wonder just what they were doing out there. one thing i have noticed is that his hair on top is getting thinner, i think he's getting his dad's hair pattern. but really, it doesn't even phase me. he still looks yummy. :)
the families were all corralled in one area, and i'm an avid people-watcher so i did enjoy the emotions as husbands were greeted. the wives all try to look nice, some try to look sexy, but i think we all agonize over what to wear. i know i did, even so far as to post picture on a private mommy board to get feedback (thank you, juniverse!!). whatever the choice is, a wife should really make sure it's appropriate and it fits. one woman was wearing a pink satin-y shirt and tan short-shorts. she definitely should have picked a bigger size as well as a longer rise on the shorts...when she threw her arms up around her husbands neck, all the wives got a good shot of her butt crack because her shirt rode up and her shorts weren't big enough. is it sad that *that* is what stands out in my mind about homecoming? :/
we stood around chatting/hugging/smooching for about 20 minutes and then some of the crew had to go back and finish up for the afternoon...that included rob :/ we left and came back home. actually i had left quite a bit of cleaning to fill the hours between when we left base and when we had to go back and pick him up. we made a welcome home cake, hung up some welcome back signs on the front of the house, cleaned up the kitchen a little bit, and suddenly the phone was ringing and it was time to go pick him up.
our evening was fun, i wish we would have put the kids to bed at around 7pm so rob and i could have had more time to talk. when the kids went to bed at 8 he was already sound asleep on the sofa. hopefully he can stay awake a little later tonight so we can have some grown up conversation. or, maybe a little less conversation and a little more action ;)
5.15.2008
waiting...waiting...waiting
it's strange, i spend a lot of my time WAITING for things. waiting for naptime, waiting for reese to get off the bus, waiting for bedtime. waiting for rob to get back. waiting for school to be out for the summer. waiting for us to move to DC.
i'm tired of waiting, let's just get on with it already!!! especially the part where rob comes back! :) i haven't heard any bad reports from the tennessee so i guess that's good news. we have a family group meeting tonight,
so hopefully we'll learn a bit more. i can't share it here of course.
it will be good to have him home. i think.
i've finally gotten used to sleeping alone in my bed though. and i've gotten used to having the whole bathroom to myself. and to having a tidy vanity in the bathroom (the man loves clutter around his sink! arg!). and i really don't miss doing all the extra laundry...although my kids have been so messy the last week that i have a lot of laundry ANYWAY. which reminds me, i need to add oxyclean to my shopping list.
i think the best part of having him home will be that daddy is back. the kids love rough-housing with him and that's something that i just don't do well. i'm one of those people who bruise easily ;) and i'm so excited to get some time to myself. not so much time alone but just so i'm not the only one in charge. i really miss going out for a bike ride with just one of the kids, or just taking the dog for a walk. i've been kind of a lump, really, when it comes to exercise during this separation. my one option for serious cardio is to do a program on the treadmill out in the garage, after the kids go to sleep for the night. i've been able to do that once in the last 2 months. ONCE.
what usually happens is that after they're finally tucked in, i'm too exhausted to do the treadmill. or 2 of the kiddos go right to sleep but then one of them is stubborn and stays up for another hour. i'm one of those people who hates to get interrupted when i'm focused on something (aren't we all like that to some extent?) so i need to know that they're all asleep and won't come creeping out to the garage to bug me.
and since i'm really good at coming up with excuse NOT to exercise, let me add that i have 2 blisters on my pinky toe this week. for some reason the sandals that i've worn for the last year decided to rub my toe the wrong way. and of course my kids step on my feet half as much as they step on their own, so my poor toe is feeling pretty abused. i didn't want to aggravate him further.
i don't know what excuse i'll use when my toe heals up. what excuses have you used to avoid exercise?
i'm tired of waiting, let's just get on with it already!!! especially the part where rob comes back! :) i haven't heard any bad reports from the tennessee so i guess that's good news. we have a family group meeting tonight,
so hopefully we'll learn a bit more. i can't share it here of course.it will be good to have him home. i think.
i've finally gotten used to sleeping alone in my bed though. and i've gotten used to having the whole bathroom to myself. and to having a tidy vanity in the bathroom (the man loves clutter around his sink! arg!). and i really don't miss doing all the extra laundry...although my kids have been so messy the last week that i have a lot of laundry ANYWAY. which reminds me, i need to add oxyclean to my shopping list.
i think the best part of having him home will be that daddy is back. the kids love rough-housing with him and that's something that i just don't do well. i'm one of those people who bruise easily ;) and i'm so excited to get some time to myself. not so much time alone but just so i'm not the only one in charge. i really miss going out for a bike ride with just one of the kids, or just taking the dog for a walk. i've been kind of a lump, really, when it comes to exercise during this separation. my one option for serious cardio is to do a program on the treadmill out in the garage, after the kids go to sleep for the night. i've been able to do that once in the last 2 months. ONCE.
what usually happens is that after they're finally tucked in, i'm too exhausted to do the treadmill. or 2 of the kiddos go right to sleep but then one of them is stubborn and stays up for another hour. i'm one of those people who hates to get interrupted when i'm focused on something (aren't we all like that to some extent?) so i need to know that they're all asleep and won't come creeping out to the garage to bug me.
and since i'm really good at coming up with excuse NOT to exercise, let me add that i have 2 blisters on my pinky toe this week. for some reason the sandals that i've worn for the last year decided to rub my toe the wrong way. and of course my kids step on my feet half as much as they step on their own, so my poor toe is feeling pretty abused. i didn't want to aggravate him further.
i don't know what excuse i'll use when my toe heals up. what excuses have you used to avoid exercise?
5.10.2008
bumps and bruises and fractures, oh my...
why is it that i sit down to put in a post and the kids immediately start BOTHERING ME??? apparently it's lunch time and they're starving.
i'm letting them eat one cookie, just so i can do this. elisha is asleep and i have a fullish battery on the laptop so here we go...
the trip to tampa was good. as good as it could be for a mom trapped in the car with 3 kids for over 3 hours...one way. everything worked out well for the most part. we didn't get lost, our hotel room was ready & waiting for us, our friends were just lovely, and no one died. so i'd say it was a very good trip.
something scary happened, however, and i'm so relieved that i was surrounded by friends who are also mommies. elisha was sitting at the kitchen table in steph's house and i was feeding her sliced grapes as dinner was being prepared. elisha sat down into the chair from a kneeling position and her butt and body slid right through the chair (the chair's design had 2 horizontal slats at the top of the back but it was open space from the lowest slat to the seat of the chair) and flat onto steph's ceramic tile floor. elisha opened her mouth to scream and took such a deep breath that she passed out as i picked her up. her eyes rolled back in her head and i immediately thought concussion.
she came to a minute later and then she really began screaming. she had had the wind knocked out of her; my other friend, misti, said she landed back first and not head first as i had thought. but that didn't keep elisha from screaming herself to sleep, then waking up to vomit all over herself during our evening meal, which is concussion-like behavior i think. elisha continued to improve and return to her old self over the next hour, and since misti is practically certified in head trauma in children, we skipped an ER visit. all seems to be back to normal for miss elisha...she's actually started adding quite a few words into her vocabulary that weren't there before tampa. now she says "stuck", "down", and she barks like a dog when she sees one.
-----------------------------------------------------------
and since rob is still deployed, of course, one of the other children must get injured as well.
cade fell out of bed overnight thursday night. when he woke up whining & crying & refusing to eat, i knew a doctor's appointment would be in the works. with it being friday, i did not want to go all weekend without knowing what was ailing him. thankfully we got him into the doctor's early and the nurse practictioner sent us to a jacksonville hospital for xrays, she suspected a fractured or broken clavicle (collarbone). turns out it was fractured and the next stop was to go get a brace or splint from a medical supply store and bring it back to the local doc's office to get him fitted.
here's where i started getting annoyed. the medical supply store was about 5 miles beyond the doctor's office, through heavy fast traffic. the first brace they sold us was a shoulder immobilizer and we had to go all the way to the doc's office to find that out that it was not the right one. so, back to the medical supply store where one of the salesladies was the most worthless lump i had ever seen. she didn't know anything about anything. the other saleslady was a lot more knowledgeable and managed to find an extra small adult clavicle brace that would fit cade. and it was even $4 cheaper than the immobilizer. :)
so back to the doctor's to check the fit, and after more stickers and suckers for cade & elisha, we were done and home we went. reese had been picked up at the bus stop by a neighbor, so we stopped & got her and then went home to collapse. i was about in tears at several points during the day, just frustrated with having to make so many different stops to get what we needed. cade was just wonderful all day. he didn't complain about the pain or having to go see all these new strange places, he just collected the stickers as he went. the final tally at the end of the day: 6 big ones!
monday afternoon we have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for more specialized information. hopefully they'll have a child-sized brace, b/c the one that cade has keeps slipping off. he's supposed to sleep in it but he whines that it's uncomfortable so last night i let him go without.
turns out he'll always have a bump in his collarbone from this adventure. apparently it never mends perfectly no matter how much milk you drink. and the collarbone is one of the easiest bones to break. the nurse practitioner said that his injury was one that is common in newborn babies, when they are squeezed through the birth canal.
so now reese is due for some kind of injury, i'm just suprised that it hasn't happened yet.
or it could be me who's next. i'm already sporting a big yellow bruise on my forehead (from bumping my head on the cart at walmart while loading the lower rack) and a huge lumpy bruise on my shin from walking right into the playscape at the local playground.
it's probably good that active duty military gets such complete health care coverage. we will probably need it a lot.
i'm letting them eat one cookie, just so i can do this. elisha is asleep and i have a fullish battery on the laptop so here we go...
the trip to tampa was good. as good as it could be for a mom trapped in the car with 3 kids for over 3 hours...one way. everything worked out well for the most part. we didn't get lost, our hotel room was ready & waiting for us, our friends were just lovely, and no one died. so i'd say it was a very good trip.
something scary happened, however, and i'm so relieved that i was surrounded by friends who are also mommies. elisha was sitting at the kitchen table in steph's house and i was feeding her sliced grapes as dinner was being prepared. elisha sat down into the chair from a kneeling position and her butt and body slid right through the chair (the chair's design had 2 horizontal slats at the top of the back but it was open space from the lowest slat to the seat of the chair) and flat onto steph's ceramic tile floor. elisha opened her mouth to scream and took such a deep breath that she passed out as i picked her up. her eyes rolled back in her head and i immediately thought concussion.
she came to a minute later and then she really began screaming. she had had the wind knocked out of her; my other friend, misti, said she landed back first and not head first as i had thought. but that didn't keep elisha from screaming herself to sleep, then waking up to vomit all over herself during our evening meal, which is concussion-like behavior i think. elisha continued to improve and return to her old self over the next hour, and since misti is practically certified in head trauma in children, we skipped an ER visit. all seems to be back to normal for miss elisha...she's actually started adding quite a few words into her vocabulary that weren't there before tampa. now she says "stuck", "down", and she barks like a dog when she sees one.
-----------------------------------------------------------
and since rob is still deployed, of course, one of the other children must get injured as well.
cade fell out of bed overnight thursday night. when he woke up whining & crying & refusing to eat, i knew a doctor's appointment would be in the works. with it being friday, i did not want to go all weekend without knowing what was ailing him. thankfully we got him into the doctor's early and the nurse practictioner sent us to a jacksonville hospital for xrays, she suspected a fractured or broken clavicle (collarbone). turns out it was fractured and the next stop was to go get a brace or splint from a medical supply store and bring it back to the local doc's office to get him fitted.
here's where i started getting annoyed. the medical supply store was about 5 miles beyond the doctor's office, through heavy fast traffic. the first brace they sold us was a shoulder immobilizer and we had to go all the way to the doc's office to find that out that it was not the right one. so, back to the medical supply store where one of the salesladies was the most worthless lump i had ever seen. she didn't know anything about anything. the other saleslady was a lot more knowledgeable and managed to find an extra small adult clavicle brace that would fit cade. and it was even $4 cheaper than the immobilizer. :)
so back to the doctor's to check the fit, and after more stickers and suckers for cade & elisha, we were done and home we went. reese had been picked up at the bus stop by a neighbor, so we stopped & got her and then went home to collapse. i was about in tears at several points during the day, just frustrated with having to make so many different stops to get what we needed. cade was just wonderful all day. he didn't complain about the pain or having to go see all these new strange places, he just collected the stickers as he went. the final tally at the end of the day: 6 big ones!
monday afternoon we have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for more specialized information. hopefully they'll have a child-sized brace, b/c the one that cade has keeps slipping off. he's supposed to sleep in it but he whines that it's uncomfortable so last night i let him go without.
turns out he'll always have a bump in his collarbone from this adventure. apparently it never mends perfectly no matter how much milk you drink. and the collarbone is one of the easiest bones to break. the nurse practitioner said that his injury was one that is common in newborn babies, when they are squeezed through the birth canal.
so now reese is due for some kind of injury, i'm just suprised that it hasn't happened yet.
or it could be me who's next. i'm already sporting a big yellow bruise on my forehead (from bumping my head on the cart at walmart while loading the lower rack) and a huge lumpy bruise on my shin from walking right into the playscape at the local playground.
it's probably good that active duty military gets such complete health care coverage. we will probably need it a lot.
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