Finally a slow minute

Week 1 of 6 of CPO 365 phase II is officially done. If it's any indication of how the other 5 weeks are going to go, these boys might just drop of exhaustion well before pinning day. I haven't really been able to get on here because it's been so hectic around here lately. 

In the last two days alone there have been 7 CPO Selectee's in and out of my house working on various things.  Three were here until 10:30 last night and all 7 were here at 9 o'clock this morning. Their work is very secretive and they have a lot of projects to complete in a very small window, but I can say they seem to have become like a little family, even in the first week. They work very well together and after talking to my husband's sponsor and his wife, that is something that doesn't happen very often.  One thing you have to understand is that our base is small.  Think...Mayberry but with fewer people. Only 9 Sailors were selected for Chief here this year, so with such a small group going through, they need to have a good relationship. 

Yesterday was a meet-and-greet picnic at the Chief's Mess.  It was a bit....overwhelming to say the least.  I was kind of thinking it would be a small affair, the Selectee's/Sponsors and their families.  Instead it seemed that every Chief on the base came out to celebrate and be little social butterflies.  At the end of the picnic the new wives (all 4 of us, watch out now!) all sat down for a CPO Spouses Symposium which was very informative. The older wives were extremely helpful and offered their words of encouragement and advice.  The Command Master Chief's (or CMC for short) wife was just awesome to all of us, they went above and beyond to make us feel welcomed within the Mess. Even CMC himself was very warm and welcoming. I'll admit that when I first met my husband, I was terrified of the Chief's.  Terrified.  Chief's and Officer's. They just seemed like big balls of meanness. Even going to the picnic yesterday, I was on pins and needles thinking the Chief's might act better than the Selectee's, or that their wives would do that to us new gals, but thankfully I was wrong to worry. At the end of the symposium, CMC said that we are now a part of the family, and I walked away from it FEELING like I had gained a new family.  How cliche right?  Doesn't make it any less true. 

I knew being a Chief was a big deal, but talking to these guys yesterday really opened my eyes at just how big of a deal it is.  These guys eat, sleep, train, and work together.  In kind of reminds me of shows/movies about fire fighters.  How they have their firehouse and they all sit around shooting the bull, just a close-knit group of guys.  Exchange 'firehouse' for 'Chief's Mess' and you've hit the nail right on the head. It's a special feeling and it makes me even more proud of Kendall and the other guys.  

It's a stressful time and I'm doing my best to be supportive because I think it's what they need right now. I'm doing my best to make sure they're eating, maybe it's the Southern in me, or maybe it's because I know they are so busy they LITERALLY forget that they haven't eaten since 0600. Even if that's all I can do, I'll do it if it'll help these guys get through their Season. I feel like a den mother to a bunch of rambunctious little boys, but I enjoy it. I blame my mother. She's a social butterfly herself and I guess it rubbed off on me. My house stays a bit dirtier than usual these days.  There are uniforms, sharpies, folders and laptops scattered all over my dining room table, my kitchen has some extra dishes in the sink and there are 7 cars parked in my yard.  It's stressful, yes, but I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Drumroll Please...

Okay, so in my last post I mentioned a thing that I felt I needed to write about but couldn't because of my being superstitious. I can discuss it now. Actually, what I mean to say is that I'll be shouting out as loud as humanly possible that....

MY HUSBAND MADE CHIEF!!!!!

Does it pay to be superstitious? Maybe. Maybe not.  Either way, the list dropped, I saw his name and almost fainted.  

As a military wife, you watch your husband work his tail off to further his career and oftentimes his hard work and dedication go unnoticed. So when they advance, or get an award or medal, it's kind of a big deal. My husband has put his all in to making Chief. It's something he's wanted since our last shore duty. That's when he really got in to the mindset that he was staying Navy and wanted a great career out of it.  He has worked so hard that he was able to take the E7 exam a year early and he made it on his first try which is something else to be thrilled about all on it's own.  It happens, but it's rare to make it your first time up. 

I don't know what all this means for our family now. Our orders could change, the ship we currently have orders to may not need another Chief, so we'll see about that.  I know he'll have a 6 week indoc-type period that will keep him away from the house for most of the day and we're prepared for that.  Seeing the look on his face when it finally sunk in to him makes all of it worth it. 

We had a number of our friends become CPO Selectees as well and we couldn't be more excited for them! Advancing to the storied rank is a massive deal to our Sailors. They become Senior Enlisted personnel, it's like the big leagues.  

Last night while making dinner my husband starts telling me what to do with the food, not in a bossy way but he's very authoritative at times.  So I stop and look at him and say, "Whoa now Chief Select..."  and I'd be lying if I said that didn't sound awesome rolling off my tongue. I can't wait for Pinning day to make it official!  

When we met he was an E4 and at that time in our marriage, I didn't understand just what it meant to advance. We've come a long way together, him doing all the work of course, but I supported him through it all, and still do. I was stuck in the middle of some, half laugh, half cry limbo for about an hour yesterday. I had prepared myself in case his name wasn't listed, I had prepared myself in case it WAS listed.  I had wanted to wake him up (how he was able to nap knowing the results were about to come out is beyond me) with a shot of tequila and be all like, "Take a shot with me, Chief."  Instead however, I literally screamed and just ran in to the room shouting that he'd made it. Don't judge me.  Not a terrible way to be woken up from a nap though! 

There is one man in particular that Kendall really looks up to, this man and his mentoring is a big reason Kendall worked so hard to advance.  I won't name names, and he'll probably never see this but you know who you are, Shipmate.   ;)  Next time we see him, we'll be buying him a beer for sure! I think that every military man or woman has at least one person that they'll be grateful for for years to come, and he's ours. 

So there you have it, folks! The blog I have been hoping and praying I could post since January when the exam took place. I couldn't be more thrilled and proud of my husband. Seeing him get to where he's worked so hard to be is an amazing feeling. Time to get started sewing some patches on uniforms!  When he made E6, I had told him I would NOT be sewing anymore patches on to a uniform until he made Chief.  I'll stand by my word. :) 

Ramblings. Just - Ramblings.

I'm in the mood to blog, but I'm also having one of those, "Bleh - nothing to write about" days. I'm hoping that by just typing whatever comes to mind will help get the creative juices flowing.  

I want new workout gear. 

The dogs are being annoying today. 

The rest of my household is sitting on the couch playing Xbox. 

Nothing interesting so far. Well, as far as workout gear goes, I signed up for The Color Run in my state, so I'm excited about that. Hence not really needing, but wanting new workout gear. New shoes I'm thinking. Those are my new high heels. Perhaps some compression shorts.  A friend from Japan who just got here is going to run it with me! Yoko besties UNITE! I'm trying to talk her in to wearing a tutu but so far the odds are not in my favor for that one. 

Another little update, Baby Girl lost her first tooth a few nights ago.  She allowed her Dad to pull it out, which is something I could NEVER do.  No sir. No way, no how.  But once it was said and done, she said it was the best day EVER! The Tooth Fairy came, left her all the cash she happened to have on hand, which was four measly dollars but to a 5 year old, it's like a million.

We just rented a home in Va Beach. We'll be moving soon'ish to get my girl enrolled in school.  It'll hopefully be an improvement to our house now.  It's a 4 bed, 2.5 bath house, with a fireplace, fenced in back yard, with an attached garage in a really cute little subdivision. The only thing we aren't looking forward to is it being attached to a....*Gulp*....Homeowners Association.  And cue Wilhelm Scream and creepy music.  I suppose we should be used to that kind of thing, living in military housing for so long, but I'd be lying if I said we wanted to get off base housing to avoid all the rules.  Having to get an approval from a HOA to have a bird bath in my FENCED back yard is a bit much, but hey, it's only for a little while so I'll play along.  Plus the kids and the dogs are going to love the back yard. Who am I kidding?  I'M going to love the back yard.  Kids being too loud?  GO OUTSIDE!  Dogs being incredibly annoying?  GO OUTSIDE! It's going to be...A-MAH-ZING! I've already gotten a few boxes packed up. Productivity points for me! 

I'm out of topics again. Shoot.  I have one thing I want to talk about, but I feel that if I do, I'll somehow jinx the outcome we're hoping for, so I'm REALLY trying hard to not type it all out.  And no - we aren't expecting, or hoping to expect.  Don't you put that evil on me, Ricky Bobby. I'm done with all that noise.  Literally.  Kids are noisy.  They're all cute and cuddly but when they're in the mood, they could bring the walls down.  I feel like this thing of which I won't speak is the reason I felt the need to blog today, but me being superstitious is just preventing me from writing about it. 

So - unless I just start rambling the odd, off-the-top-of-my-head things again, I'll just close this one out. Maybe if I go lift weights I'll get my mind off this...thing. Real women lift heavy you know.  

We've Dropped Anchor!

America.

Sweet, sweet America.

PEACE OUT, JAPAN!!  It was real, but we're HOME!

We arrived on April Fool's Day and are now settled in Virginia for the time being!  My husband is in school, the kids are growing like weeds, we have two dogs (what were we thinking?!), two new vehicles and I have only used the Japanese language when I accidentally bump in to someone at Wal-Mart.

Ahhh...Wal-Mart.  Never thought I'd miss that place until there wasn't one.

Japan was great, don't get me wrong.  It was an amazing place to live, the culture is so steeped in history, the country was beyond beautiful...but we're 'Murican's.  We're back in the land of restaurants that have a menu we can read.  No more pointing at pictures for us!  No sir!  Back where road signs make sense.  Back where I can have a full on conversation with someone in public.  It's wonderful.

Will we go back overseas? Probably not.  If we do, it will be for a shore duty and it certainly won't be back in Japan. Why go overseas if you're just going somewhere you've already been you know?  Perhaps Spain?  We have to get through the next few years of sea duty, then we can decide on all that jazz.  Maybe leave it up to the kids, who knows?  All we know is that we love being home.  Landing in Chicago was pure bliss.  Cars drove on the right side of the road.  There wasn't a teriyaki burger in the McDonalds. Hello Kitty! wasn't plastered on everything in sight.  Then we got to Texas and Alabama. Ugh - big jacked up trucks. Actual BBQ joints.  Ah-may-zing.

Meet Monroe, our Texas Heeler and Roland, our yellow lab!

We have a backyard where our kids can play, in fact Kaylee is now riding a bike with NO training wheels! Props to her.  We have a smoker again, an actual house instead of a horrible apartment.  It's good to be home. Kendall is up for advancement, we're just waiting to hear the word on the exams.  He says it's unlikely he'll advance this cycle, but we'll see.  I, unlike my usually arrogant husband, am hopefully optimistic.  If it doesn't happen this cycle, we'll work on the next exam.  (Side note: Exams for advancement? I've always hated that notion.) Things will be pretty busy over the next few months, with his school and us having to PCS again when he graduates, but hey!  At least we're back in the USofA!

Murphy's Law Strikes Again!

Every military wife knows all about Murphy and his damn law;

* Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.

It's not just reserved for Deployments, as is the common thought on Murphy's Law. Apparently it can strike during or before a PCS (Permanent Change of Station for all you non-military folks out there) as well. 

First PCS:  I was pregnant, sick as a dog and following a massive U-Haul that was swaying just enough to make me...even sicker.  It wasn't pretty. 

Second PCS: While finishing up after the movers left, I somehow managed to throw both of our cell phones in our trash can.  Then I managed to throw nasty leftovers on top of them.  It was horrendous. FUN FUN FUN digging those out when we finally found them.  What was even more fun was the fact that my phone smelled like Italian dressing for the next 2 weeks.  

Second PCS, take 2:  I was struck with a sudden illness, and we still have no idea as to what it was.  However, I was laid up on my Mother's couch, unable to move, so exhausted (almost like Mono, but we don't think it was mono. We aren't doctors though,) for the rest of the time we had left in Alabama. Literally started feeling better 8 hours before we left.  So uncool.   

Third and current PCS:  Kaylee......has a buckle fracture on her tibia.  

A round of applause for the winner of the Murphy's Best award - my 5 year old daughter!  She takes the award after her performance in Plays Too Rough With Friends where she placed her feet on the slats under a mattress while her friends jumped on the bed, causing her knee to slam down on her tibia! Congratulations, Kaylee!  

Not.  

She'll be in cast for 6-8 weeks.  We PCS in 6.  Can you imagine having to take a 12 hour plane ride with a CAST ON YOUR LEG?!  DAMN YOU, MURPHY!!!  

At least she's still adorable! 

We'll know more after her appointment with the Orthopedic doc to get her actual cast, but for now she's hobbling along in a splint and baby crutches.  She's taking it like a champ though and I'm thankful for that.  She even thinks it's cool. Her dad and I certainly don't think it's cool, but as long as she's happy, we're happy.  She's even taken to delegating out little tasks as far as her crutches go.  

"Mom, you have to follow me and keep an eye on me so I don't fall down."

"Bubba, you bring the crutches to me when I need to go potty, okay?" 

"MOM! What did the doctor say?  I need to practice!"  

But, it wouldn't be a PCS without a little bump in the road now would it?  Am I right?!