ETC(SW) Robert Eastman...yummy.

Okay, maybe just yummy for me.

It's been a long road. I'm sad I missed the ceremony (the ship is currently underway), but I am so glad that it is over and my Bobby is now officially a Chief...those of you that are not military would be surprised how excited I am to see him in that silly khaki uniform, those of you that know me well will not be surprised at how excited I am to get him out of it ;-p

I should really do this more often...

So, I apparently suck at keeping up with a blog...I think it might be the microblogging on FB and Twitter (incidentally, I have put some recipes up in the past few weeks on FB because it's easier to put them up there than it is here)...

Bobby and I have lived through the induction season and he is officially a Chief now. I haven't seen him in his uniform yet (for those that don't know the uniforms change in the Navy when you make Chief, and it's kind of a big deal), they did the pinning ceremony underway and will not be home for a few days...I can't wait to see him.

I have a lot of things rolling around in my head that I want to blog about...some of them are just things I need to rant about, some of them are controversial...so I'm torn, can't decide if I want to put my thoughts out there or not. I think maybe I just need to let myself go and put it all out there...we'll see.

Been working on sleep training with Punk. All is going amazingly well at this point (it took a few weeks), he still fights naptime a bit, but he now goes to bed at night without so much as a whimper. I can tell that Punk is getting closer to weaning. He still enjoys nursing and LOVES his morning nurse, but during the rest of the day he is typically just too busy to be bothered. He does still nurse it's just struggle sometimes. He is growing SO fast, it makes me sad everyday to see my precious little baby slip away, but I have joy that comes with seeing my precocious little toddler emerging.

Bobby and I are preparing to go to the Temple this fall to be sealed together as a family. We had a date set and had everything scheduled, but it looks like the Navy may have stepped in the way of that plan, so we are trying to move it up to make it still happen this fall as opposed to having to put it off until next year. More details to come as we firm up plans.

Congratulations, I'm sorry.

It's pretty much the way my life feels right now. Congratulations = Bobby made Chief, I'm sorry = the whole process of Chief induction. I sort of just hate the whole thing.

Plus, my mother-in-law is coming on Friday...there is just no way that this house is going to ready by then, but that is not stopping Friday from coming, nor is it stopping my mother-in-law from coming....grrr...

I just really need a break from EVERTHING today. I wish that I could get away with running off to get a massage, but I can't even schedule one because there is NO telling when Bobby will get home to watch Punk.

Luckily Punk is sleeping and I can get some laundry folded and a load of dishes in, if I get off the computer right now...so off I go.

It's a good day...okay, understatement a little...

So, Punk is ONE today. Can you even believe it? I can't, the time just flys by. Tomorrow he is getting a job and moving out...I just know it.

Also, we found out today that Bobby made Chief!!! For those of you that are non-military (which is most I think) that is a BIG deal. I am so proud of Bobby and so excited to move forward with this leg of our journey. It doesn't mean a move or anything, just more respect and a little more money, it doesn't even mean that his daily job will change as he has been filling a Chief billet for almost two years, but we are excited that Bobby will finally have the recognition!

Okay, so that is my great day today...it will be even better if the freaking cable guy shows up soon...

The ship is HOME!

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_071009WAB-stennis-homecoming-LJ.2845d319.html?rss

The USS John C Stennis has arrived home in Bremerton, WA. That means that Bobby is home, however, I am not. I am still in Phoenix and Bobby will be joining me here in a few days. We will then enjoy a few (all to short) days here before we put our vehicle hating baby and all of my STUFF into my dad's truck and drive back to WA. I will miss all of my wonderful friends here in Phoenix so much when I leave that I have honestly been sort of in denial about leaving for a few weeks. Luckily we have the internet to help keep us close and I am going to do everything in my power to visit often (I am even hoping to bring Bobby with me sometimes). I don't really want to face leaving today, so I think I'm going back to my regularly scheduled denial...

Something strange from HI

So this pic is the front of the outside of the church that we attended while we were in HI. It is just outside of Waikiki. We don't have paintings of Christ on our churches normally, so Bobby and I thought this was very strange and went back a couple of days later to get a pic of it (this was actually taken by Bobby from the moving car, but it's a pretty good pic considering). I don't travel outside of the contiguous 48 much (although I have been to AK and never saw anything I would consider strange, but I have heard that sometimes outside of the states there are stranger things at churches, have you seen anything strange like this?

Hawaii - From Home

So, HI was great. We discovered that we are NOT beach people and really only spent about 20 minutes total on the beach the whole time we were there...have you seen us, we are WHITE, it took longer to put on the sunscreen than we spent on the beach! Punk is allergic to Hawaii, so he was a little snot-ball (quite literally) pretty much the whole time that we were there. He was totally worse both during our visit to the Temple and during church on Sunday, so some plant they had at both places was probably the biggest culprit. We had a great time at the Dole Plantation, we went to the USS Arizona Memorial which was a sobering experience for me, we walked the streets and shops of Waikiki together every night, but the very best part was watching my Punk and his Daddy interact together and I am so glad that we are swiftly nearing the end of this deployment.

I do have pictures (Bobby just emailed them to me yesterday) and I will be blogging some of them with more specific stories soon.