Day 80-88

enjoying his new cigars

pictures of the modernization of Bahrain

Lets see what has happened since the last blog? We hit halfway point....wheeeeee!!! It is like a goal and every day it gets closer and closer and I was just really excited about halfway day. It is all down hill from here and we have even started talking about planning a homecoming party.

The ship has passed though the Straight of Hormuz again which is at the tip of Oman. During this time period they had the internet completely shut down for a day or two so no family go any emails which was sad.

After that though they pulled into port in Bahrain which is where my sailor took pictures of the architecture strictly for me I am sure. My sailor has been there a few times and said it sucked pretty bad but this time he said it was much more modernized and was moving with forward progress much like Dubai. He got to go to the mall and buy some cigars and a head dress and then got to hang out in what we call the "Sand Box" which is basically a bar on base that all the sailors hang out in and then stumble back to the ship.

Day 76-80

The beep, beep, beep conversation....

My sailor and I are having an email conversation and he types that the library is closing (and yes on a floating city of 5000 the library closes even though everyone's family is 9 time zones away so dont get me started) he says he will call in a few minutes. I am waiting with my cell phone in hand and the phone rings with the usual UNKNOWN caller. I answer and say hello and nothing....I say it a few times and still nothing. Usually I hear the jets taking off in the background or a loud static but this time nothing. So about 10 minutes later another call and I say hello and nothing then I hear a beep. I say can you hear me? Then another beep. I say Matt is that you and I hear two beeps. I say press one for no and two for yes and I hear two beeps.  Needless to say we had a conversation for 10 minutes using beeps so now when we say I love you it is beep, beep, beep.

day 16-76

Yea I know it is a big gap and my sailor had to point it out to me. We have 88 days left until I see my sailor again. A lot has gone on during the past month or so. 

First of all I got to go to Dubai to see my sailor as he pulled into port. It was amazing. We spent almost a week together going to the mall of Dubai, the gold suik, the dessert on 4x4 tours, and of course Wild Wadi. We stayed at the Habtour Beach Resort and Spa and it was a very nice hotel but very pricey as was everything there. It was a 14 hr plane ride packed full of foreigners and of course it is 8hrs ahead in time so my clock was way off.

Second I have been very busy since summer is creeping up and I have joined a kickball and softball league. Also the spring rains make my lawn grow like crazy so if I am not at the beach on the weekends I am behind a lawn mower.

And all this lawn mowing has my allergies going nuts. I have always had bad allergies so the usual routine of Claritin 24 hr is back in full force.

Third I am trying to get a head start on planning the Homecoming for the Mighty IKE and my husband's family is also having a family reunion this summer upon his return so I am helping with that. And yet on top of that I have a 10 yr high school reunion next year to plan and a 5 yr college reunion at the same time so I am trying to make sure all my contact info is up to date and organized. 

Mother's day is this weekend and I have already sent a package to both mom's with gifts and also Dubai trinkets.

Day 16-31

So I posted this on Friday but somehow it got timed out so I will try again.

Ok so I have posted this twice and the damn 5 minute intervals of internet time keep kicking my ass.

I will make it under 5 minutes then.

We rented the house finally.

Family has 6 kids and 3 dogs, OMG.

Whatever gives us extra money so I can visit my sailor in Dubai right.

I finally got all of my sailor's uniforms, name tapes, hats, patches all together and in a box and ready to ship...that was a job I tell you.

Unfornately my sailors last living grandparent passed on March 15th 2009 and he really wanted to come home but the ceremony wasnt for a month and we decided that we would spend that plane ticket to go visit the family in Arizona during Thanksgiving.

They are offically 8 hours ahead and my sailor said all he does is sweat, he said it was 92 in front of the fan and 100 degrees everywhere else. Welcome to the Persian Gulf.

Day 8-16

Well a sense of accomplishment has occurred, we made it through two weeks. It is getting easier I think or I am just getting busier so I dont think about it as much or I am just getting in a routine at home where I dont notice that I am missing him so much.

So what has happened since last time.

They are now 6hrs ahead of my time, 5 since daylight savings time.

They went through the Rock of Gibraltar which I thought would be more impressive. You can see Europe and Africa at the same time, see impressive.  I guess the weather was bad so the pictures are of the event but not too impressive to me. My mom thought they were cool though.

I sent my sailor the first of many care packages. Mostly snacks, magazines, matches, etc. It cost $12 to send and i had to say that there was no food or drink in the box even though it was stuffed with food items. I am getting the patches put on his new uniforms and that will be the very next care package followed by the one I have ready for Easter already.

Well they pulled in their first port, Marseille, France.  They were initially going to pull in for 3 days and family was going to go out and meet their sailors but because of some French cruise ship in port they change plans back and forth many times. They said that they would not pull in port and may not even anchor. Needless to say they did pull in for what is being called the worst port visit in history. 

My sailor got to get off the ship at 4pm and was told they had to be back on at 10pm. So off he and his friends went to have a nice dinner. They get back to the pier thinking they will ride the same boat over to the ship.  Nope didnt happen so they told them after a few hours of waiting that they could get a hotel or go sleep on the floor of some local gym.  They chose the hotel and was told to be back at the pier at 5am. So a good nights sleep in a real bed and back to the pier. At the pier they tell them that the waves are too bad and the ship is in a bad spot so they need to take a bus to a place where 3 helicopters will be waiting. There was one helicopter and hundreds of people and the helicopter only carried  5 at a time. So my sailor and friends headed back to the pier to try their luck again. After they reached the ship they were trying to cross from the boat to the ship and the rope holding them steady snapped and almost killed my sailor. So they tossed their bags across and chucked the deuces.  Safely they are back on the ship after what was a real adventure. They were sadly the only group in his division that go to get off and actually see anything in France.

Saturday I helped a friend find an apartment in Virginia Beach and that night had dinner with more friends and was tempted to do some spring shopping but resisted.

While all this is going on hours away from home I am tediously cleaning out our garage. Yes since we moved in August 08 our garage has been unmanageable. So Sunday I started at noon and finished sweeping up at 4pm. I showed my sailor a pic of the finished product and he said that would have taken him forever. I said I know, I guess I am just better at organization.

After the garage our dogs got much needed baths.

Oh a bad note this blog is that my sailors grandmother is very ill and all the family has been called to Arizona to be with her.  My sailor was out to sea for both of his grandfather's deaths and he is really depressed about not being with his family during this time.

Day 4-7

So these days were not so bad because I was on a business trip for 3 days and my normal routine of work, home, sleep, work, home, sleep was changed to work, hotel, sleep, work, hotel, sleep but I wasn't at home to see the constant reminders of my sailor.

He has sailed 3 time zones ahead of me over these 3 days so our emails are a little harder to coordinate since when he is going to bed I am getting online and ready to talk and when he is online and ready to talk I am sleeping.

Next weekend the ship will be pulling into its first port so we are both excited that he is getting to go to a country he has never been to and gets to speak a language he has known since high school but has not used.

We have emailed each other every day and enjoy chatting via email.

I went to the exchange to get his new uniforms for the second time and they are out of his size top and I don't know if the pants will fit correctly. They have inspections on their uniforms and if they fit correctly.

I emailed the Ombudsman about trying to find a program that would help spouses and families get travel money to go visit with their sailors as they pull into ports.  They didn't offer any help but space A flights which are not any cheaper but are not guaranteed so basically no help what so ever.

I don't really have any plans this weekend but to try and get my sailors uniforms and get the patches embroidered on them.  I am also going to fill him a care package and send it out Monday morning hopefully.

Day 1-3

Week Negative 2-

Well lets start with preparation for day one.  The week before, no two weeks before day one I was a ship wreck my self.  I had moments of complete sadness and despair smacked in the middle of moments of shear joy and happiness to be spending time with my husband. I was so saddened about him leaving for 6 months and me being alone for that long that I would get very down, distracted at work.  Trying to balance my emotions was a really big problem, because I was trying to hide the fact that I was so depressed so as to spend the last moments with my husband as the perfect happy wife that he needs to remember, that i want him to remember.

Day Negative 1-

So the night before day one, I take him to the ship at 10pm for his 1am watch.  This is the last time for 6 months that I will smell him, see him, touch him, hug him, kiss him, feel him, speak to him.  This is the last hug I myself will receive for a while as well since I have no family here.  This night was a real tear fest and it broke my heart. I cried just looking at the guard at the gate thinking about how many sad faces he will see that night, I cried looking at the guy who checked our id's thinking he will go home tonight after his watch and sleep next to his wife. I cried driving away, I cried when I got home.  I cried....

Day 1-

My friend from work whom my husband and I introduced to one of his fellow sailors met up and we went to the deployment ceremony together.  Expecting a large crowd we arrived early to an empty parking lot.  Where were all the families of the men and women who were leaving for six months?  We watched as the sailors manned the rails and lined up on the flight deck as the massive ship pulled out.  

My husband called me as the hunk of iron left.  He had just got off duty and was waving at me through a crack in the hanger bay door.  I chatted with him as if i would see him for dinner and I waved to him through the small crack far away just the slight hint of skin tone and movement.

And away it went, my world on a floating city full of people I dont know, going to the Persian Gulf to do What?

Day 2-

Day two was a day of slight depression so I stayed in bed and watched movies and kept my mind in a constant comatose so I didnt have to think about him being gone. No crying though today, I have toughened up and made my mind think how tough I am and how proud I am of my husband and how he is serving our country. 

Day 3-

I had a bad day at work.  Everyday someone new will ask me when my husband is going out to sea and I will say he left Saturday and it is like a cigarette burn; it hurts but your an adult so you can take it.  My husband and I continue emailing everyday.  I have a folder set aside where I save all of our emails and thankfully Yahoo does not have a limit on how big your mailbox can get.