The other woman.....

Her name is Alex, and shes a bossy little (big) thing. He's with her more then he's with me. She's one of those needy types that can't seem to keep things together and keeps him late because she's "broken" . lol. She even makes him go on long "vacations" with him and I don't hear from him for weeks! hahaha.

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As you can tell J is gone out to sea again. This time we went and watched him leave (Lan didn't have school so the times didn't clash!) and Mandy went with us and took some amazing pictures! I know there is a lot of them but they were too neat not to share.

The tug. Getting ready to start pulling it out.

I LOVE this picture of Landon. He's so cute!

J was on top of the boat again. It was so neat getting to see him up there!

Close up. He's the one standing on the far right...glaring at us for dancing around. lol.

Coming down the river. I love being able to go and watch them. It's neat when you see it from far away and they slowly get closer.
I love this spot that we stop at, we always get really great pictures.

Close up. From hundreds of feet away J could see us and was smiling. I think he liked us being there as much as we liked watching him. It was the first time we were able to watch the boat leave with him top-side.

It's so pretty. It was such a nice day out, a little cold but nice and sunny.

Landon & I watching the boat leave.

I love how you can see the boat behind us as they drift off to sea.

I love this one. Mandy gets the most amazing shots of us.

Gone. This is where we start to lose sight of them.

Pleasantly Surprised*EDIT*

Last week I went to my first FSG(boat wives group for you non-military folk) meeting in almost two years. I was surprised how normal it felt. Aside from it being run WAY differently now, it was alright. I got conned into helping out and doing much more then I thought I would get roped into my first meeting back....lol. But it was good. We are kicking thing into gear coming up with ideas for the boys' deployment. I love knowing that we make things a little easier by showing that we care.

Married but Dating?

Being a Navy Wife can sometimes be a tricky thing. You move often and have to make friends all over again. Meeting new wives is like dating. Most of the time you get set up or you run into them somewhere, you plan to call or e-mail, you set up a time and place to meet, you get ready not wanting to give this new person the wrong first impression....then you meet. If the meeting goes well you make a second date. It continues.

Sometimes you are friends with people just because you are in the same situation. But everyone is different. I've met some people that I wish I hadn't, been friends with some that I had almost nothing in common with and I've met some of the best friends I could ever imagine. You get an occasional stalker and people you feel awkward running into at the store. But I feel that for every 3 duds I meet I find one of the most amazing people, friends that even if it weren't for them completely understanding me and my nutjob life, I would be friend's with in the real world.

So. Take a chance, put yourself out there. Say "Hi" to the lonely girl at the commissary, she might just be your new best friend(or she will stalk you till you get a ristraining order......kidding! Kinda).

Hate is such a strong word.

If there is one thing I'm not, it's a whiner. Except when I'm sick but that doesn't count. You will never hear me say I hate the Navy or hate my husbands job. It's just not me.

But I see this a lot.

I'm not saying it's wrong by any means I just think about it a lot differently then most.

The Navy. How could I hate something that has given me everything? Justin and I married young. Really young. Our family started before we were ready, and while Justin had a good job, it wasn't one that could provide us with everything we needed. We were paying almost $400 a month for health insurance and we still paid thousands out of pocket when we had Landon. We were living with my parents and had hopes of moving out, but not knowing when that would happen. The navy changed that. We want for nothing.

The Boat. This I don't really understand. What did the boat do? Haha it moves when told and breaks when told not to. Every boat does this. The people on it are human they can't always be nice and Navy's needs come before family ones. While I don't like playing second fiddle, I have to understand that a military job is not a normal one. We knew this going in. I KNEW this going in. I don't like when he comes home after 9pm every night for a week. But me bitching about it will solve nothing. I just smile and ask if he needs anything. If I think him being at work late is hard, I need to stop and think about how it is for him. I can't imagine working that many hours and not getting a break(aside from being a stay-at-home mom).

Deployment. While I hate my husband being gone, hate being alone, hate being a single mother and hate not knowing what he is doing and when he is coming home. I know that what he does is amazing. He is out there fighting. Someone has to do it and I'm proud that my husband is one of them. The sleepless nights and sporadic tears are nothing compared to the pride I feel. I fell lucky to be married to a sailor even if he's never home.

Tricare. For no-military folk, this is our insurance. While most think it's free, it's not. We pay, just not much. You can choose 2 options. I won't go far into them but the one we have is....we use military facilities, no co-pays, free prescriptions and really no added costs at all. Maybe it's because I have had other insurance that gave us the run around and made us pay way too much. But for us tricare is great. I always get in right away and have never had a snippy person to deal with. I think some (not all) take for granted that we are lucky to have this option. But I will add that some people have had some crappy experiences with them (Jenn, you have every right to hate them all you want!). But I feel lucky to know we are taken care of and we won't be blind-sided by a bill a few months later.


Maybe I'm just a glass half-full kinda gal. But I think sometimes people need to stop and think before they go off and HATE something that is giving them so much. I feel so blessed to know that we are taken care of everyday, even more so with the current job market the way it is.