Joe's Promotion Party-and ORDERS!

Things have calmed down a lot here!
Joe's party was a great success. We were surrounded with many people who love and respect Joe. Many Chiefs from the boat attended as well as all my family and all of our friends. It was fantastic.

We finally got orders and today is actually his last day attached to the USS Alexandria. Joe made three deployments on Alex. He was also pinned Chief LaCouture there. And has made many life long friends from his time on the sub. I think it's bittersweet for him-but he seems excited to move on to the next part of his life and career......

We were really excited to be interviewing for a job with Group for his shore duty. Group is above Squadron and Squadron is above the boats(To give you an idea). To get picked to interview was a honor. But then the decision. The group job had him traveling 2-3 days-three weeks out of every month. It would be a big career enhancer. But the travel- not what we expected. Me? I said go for it. I agreed to Navy wife life- and that means being supportive of all of it. We talked about it at length and finally decided we could make it work some how. Maybe I'd go with him sometimes...whatever, we'd figure it out. I sent him off that morning hopeful he would find out he got the job-another moment for me to be super proud.

Phone rings in the afternoon:

Joe: Hi.
Sam: Hello. Well?
Joe: I took Sub School. I'm going to teach instead. I decided after thinking about it that I want to be home. It's more important to me. The career is going fine. I'll figure it out.
Sam: Are you sure? I really don't mind.
Joe: I'm sure.
Sam: Okay ( slightly confused )
Joe: Ok, I'll see you in a few hours. I love you.

I'm a lucky gal. And so are the kiddos we plan to make during shore duty. The Navy may tell us- Navy first. Lucky for me- my husband ( when he can ) - likes it to be family first.

So off to sub school we go. We have two weeks of transfer leave. Joe reports the 16th. I'm traveling(speaking) in New York all next week-so that's where we will be.

xoxo
Samantha

Vday!

We went out for Valentines Day breakfast- stuffed strawberry french toast-YUM!

We had decided that we weren't going to exchange gifts for Valentines Day this year.
But.... I guess secretly- neither one of us liked that idea.

I got a beautiful coach bag.
Joe got his big gigabit router that he's been dreaming of.

Happy Vday!

The wife I love....

Well its been a bit since I have blogged and now that I am home I should have more time, I just wanted to post a quick one to let everyone know that my wife is... well here is the back story you can decide.
So to set the stage its 0428 this morning and we are both in bed asleep:
Samantha says 'Hey Joe' in that cute little pathetic kid voice she has, which is enough to wake me up and I say " yeah?" She replies with " Can you go get me a drink?' Now I am really awake. She just woke me up to get her a drink? So when I ask her "What!?" She calmly informs me that it is cold out from under the covers and she doesn't want to go all the way down stairs. On the face of it seems reasonable, except she then gets up and goes to the bathroom and again asks ME to go down stairs and get her a drink. Now there is one thing that I have learned, some times its better to just give in then fight about the little stuff, so I got to be cold and go get her a drink and then be colder again because she wanted her Kindle that was downstairs so she could read and fall back asleep. Its a very good thing shes cute.

Back to normal......

Finally-It feels completely normal.

I'm sitting on the couch playing video games on the laptop with my monkey cup at my feet. My husband is sitting next to me on his PSP. Eric is on one of our leather chairs..PSP in hand. Josh is sprawled out on the other couch with his brand new PSP-that the boys hunted down together earlier this evening. The fire is going. The four of us just had a wonderful dinner together-home made turkey soup. Life doesn't get better. I'm enjoying the "boy banter". I'm loving hearing Joe's belly laughs while they battle the dragons in Monster Hunter 2.

My normal life. My fantastic normal life.

I guess it's not completely normal to play host to two of our good friends(Both groomsmen in our wedding)-but they are our family and we're happy to host. Joe is really enjoying having them here-which makes me enjoy it as well. I think sometimes "guy" time gets lost in married life. Joe doesn't seem to need it as much since I'm so much of a gamer myself but it's fun to see him interact with the guys and enjoy his "guy" time right in our home. I mean this is like the single life and married life rolled into one-. Sex and video games(with the guys!)- He thinks he died and went to heaven(I bet!)

As I look over at my screaming(to the PSP) husband and feel the warmth of our home which is only warmer with guests... I simply think...Yes. this is it. This is what I missed for six months. The simple feeling of warmth.

Ah, Life is good.

Hubs has promised a very long blog in the next day or so- so check back.
xoxo
Samantha

He's home......

He's home. Home Coming was nothing like I expected/planned- but I did make the paper! That's me in the red jacket!

http://www.theday.com/re_gal.aspx?re=cbbc40af-379f-43d0-bc86-aa47c4dcd981

Well.. He's home! Safe and Sound! Cheers to that.
Welcome Home USS ALEXANDRIA!

Home Coming was WAY TOO hectic. The food was great- but the clean up took forever. Trying to include and please everyone turned out to be a huge mess. I was completely stressed out before, during and after HC -when I should have enjoyed putting on my Home Coming outfit, standing at the pier and being home with my husband. Joe was stressed about getting home to everyone-so he basically pushed flowers in my chest and ran back on the boat. We've both agreed- Never again.

It took us a few days to actually start enjoying our time home together. In fact- as we crawled in bed last night we laughed with each other about how how yesterday was the first day we had a good time together. He has duty today. I'll bring dinner over later and then pick him back up in the morning. We have tomorrow off together-and are excited about that. No plans yet-but those shape up to be our best days together!

No orders for us yet- and Joe is wanting to go overseas for an IA for 14 months instead of to shore. This would put him back to sea for two years(afte the completion of the IA) and then to a shore duty. It's a fantastic career move for him and I'm in complete support of it. No final decisions have been made and our whole life is up in the air until we do make one(should know for sure in the next few weeks). It would be an unaccompanied tour but I would go out and visit a few times while he was away. We'll see. I look at it as a mini adventure. This is the only time(no kids) in our life that it would make sense. He's still screening for PMT(shore duty in Groton). We'll see what his final decision is.

That's it for now.
I'm going to get a lot done today so that we can relax tomorrow.

Thank you(you know who you all are) for the support and love during Deployment.

Love,
Samantha(and Joe)
P.S CPO party invites should have been in your mail boxes-please let me know if you're coming!

Changing the saying.....and T-yous!

They have that saying... " Good friends will help you move..." There is nothing wrong with that saying- I totally agree. I have to make a new one though;

"REALLY good friends will drive twelve hours STRAIGHT in snowy weather with only a one hour break in the middle to watch you give a presentation"

We left at 11:00AM and pulled up exhausted at 1:30AM(the following day). What a way to pass a day!

There are good things about deployment.

You learn a lot about yourself(what you can accomplish!) and about your family and friends. Yesterday I learned that I have two amazing people that I can truly depend on. Thank-you Stephanie and Eric. I couldn't have done that trip without you. I'd be in a ditch. I think it goes without saying that Joe thanks you as well.

My parents who have been lovingly supportive throughout my life and have continued(I'm so lucky) this love and support during my adult hood. It has been a constant during this deployment.

I got an email from Joe's mom that said... Don't forget to breathe. I smiled and thought- now she's starting to know who I am.

Home Coming is getting closer! Woot-Woot

Current feelings about HC:

1. If I have one more list of things I have to do..... (that I'll never do in time)- I'm really going to barf.

2. This Home Coming stuff is the best diet plan in the world. The thought of food makes me want to hurl.

3. I ran a load of towels. Will he care about the clean towels? He better notice the clean towels... Ah, it doesn't matter if he notices the clean towels. I think I might ralph

4. I really hope my dad can figure out how to hang the banners outside. The one inside looks great. If he can't hang the two outside-I'm going to puke.

5. I better stay calm or my face is going to break out and then when Joe sees me... he will blow chunks.

6. There are a lot of words for throwing up!

7. I can't wait to feel his arms around me.

8. I'm excited to wear my new red jacket and thin black scarf(that was a personal mission of mine and Steph's to find!!!)

9. I have a lot of cleaning left to do.

10. I couldn't have done this without a fantastic support system. I can't end this blog today without thanking them:

-My family: For asking all the right questions and having sympathy in all the right places. For taking time to send Joe all the cards and packages you all did. Meant the world to us both. I love you more then I could explain- Thank you!
-Stephanie: My partner in crime. Thanks for passing the time with me.
-J: For understanding every SINGLE feeling I had or at least for pretending to. For calling Ken whenever I clearly needed to be saved from jumping and getting the answers I needed. For...the best two minutes of my life- " Are you sitting down?", " Yes, Is everything okay?", "Yes- Are you ready to be a chiefs wife?". I'm glad it was you who told me. I wouldn't want that memory any other way. I heart you always.
-Ken, Illene, Erica S: For making the Chief transition easier for me- I needed it!
-Making It Count: Two trainings, Two weekends with no deployment in mind. You are all amazing. Always. Thanks for listening and loving.
-Pete and Sue: For a freezer full of food, good conversation and tears during deployment. It was piece of mind for Joe. And I'm glad.
-Civilian friends: For doing your best to understand. For sending cards to Joe because I asked. For loving us from far away places even when this life is confusing. We have appreciated it every step of the way.

... And to Joe. Thank-you. For helping me appreciate the little things. For being SO good with email(142 of them!). For finding time to call. For all the times you say.."our career". For the best email I've ever received(We made chief!). For making me proud over and over and over again. I will love you until the end of time. We finished this deployment with a lot of laughs, tears, and respect for each other. We finished this deployment knowing how strong our marriage is. We finished this deployment eager to start the next chapter in our lives. We finished this deployment excited. Oh and I can't forget the $75.00 sweater we have to show for it! We can do anything. As we like to say-we're super heroes. I always thought that was just a funny joke we had- now... I know it's true.

xoxo
Samantha

less-LAME

I miss you and cant wait to come home. Please dont kill your self getting ready for me to come back, I know you want everything to be perfect but if you are there and I get to go home with you then that's more perfect then I need, dont worry about the signs and lights and food and everything I just want to get home with you and be together. I love you and miss you and will be home soon.

Love
Joe