I'm back!

I went home for a whole week!
It was a good week! I had a good time hanging out with my family. Having someone to eat dinner with every night. Not going to sleep in an empty house.

Charlie had a lot of fun too...sometimes I think he likes it there better. But then I realize he is probably just as lonely as I am when we are at our own house! He wasn't happy to be home today, he decided he would take himself on a walk down the street and not come back when I called, but he did keep looking over his shoulder, he definitely knew he was being bad. I had to chase him down and sneak up on him and grab him, by the tail.

I finally got the car registered! That was a fun trip to the MVD (that is the DMV in Arizona, I think the people who made the acronym are slightly lysdexic...I mean dyslexic) No more South Carolina plates for us...the car and the truck officially match now!

Eeeww I came home to some lovely smells in the house today. The trash in the kitchen I forgot to take out was not as bad as the smell that hit me in the garage! It smelled (still smells!) like something died. Then I open the truck which hasn't been driven in 3 weeks and find...a taco.

Yep. A Taco.

Leave a Taco Bell taco in a vehicle with the windows rolled up for 3 weeks and you have a great science experiment. Let's just hope the smell goes away before Ronnie gets home...or I will be driving his smelly truck!

He is coming home very soon...I think. So tomorrow I am going to clean the house, and make it look like it did before he packed to go on this underway!

I know I've said this before, but I have big plans for the design of my blog! I just need to get going on them, and maybe actually post something a little more often? I have a plan to fix that too! It's coming...eventually!
-Kristin

Silence

It's a pretty big deal.

For a word that means absence of sound, it can be pretty loud. It can be relaxing, or it can be terrifying. I am starting to fully understand why they call the submarine force "The Silent Service". Yes, I know the one of the main reasons is OPSEC, and another is because most of the time, they don't even know where they are going or what they are going to do. Also, silence is a big deal when an enemy is near. I'm getting my first taste of the silence as a submariner's wife, and it is good preparation for what's coming next. I have not heard Ronnie's voice in well over a week, and it will be much longer than that until I get the phone call from him saying they are home. I have not opened my inbox and had a new email from him since Sunday, but with the delay in the service, it could have been written days before that.

Silence has a whole new meaning to me now. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'm just reflecting. I'm remembering the days when I freaked out if I didn't get to have a 5 minute phone conversation with him. This is taking some getting used to, and I know I am going to have to go even longer amounts of time without hearing from him. So far, the longest we have gone without speaking was bootcamp. The longest I went without a letter from him was maybe a week and a half, and that was also during bootcamp. But this is SO much different! It's a different silence.

This underway has been pretty eventful, but not at all! I went, by myself for the first time, to the baby appointment.  I came home from that to find the garage door, which I made sure I watched it close before I pulled away, standing wide open. That was interesting! Now that I think about it, what I did was probably stupid. I went in with my pepper spray ready to spray, got the gun we keep down stairs and went through every room AND closet in the house. Nobody was there (probably good, if I was a burglar, a pregnant lady with a 45 pointed at me would make me poop my pants and never want to even steal the covers) and nothing was missing, but it was so creepy! I literally just wanted to sit down and cry, but I didn't because that would have solved nothing. It would have been so different if Ronnie would have been coming home from work in a few hours, that first night was rough.

I have been hanging out with our friends, and swimming laps! I went to the FRG meeting last night too, I was pretty hesitant about getting involved, but I have met some really amazing women and I'm glad I have them to go through this with. There are so many young children and new babies on our boat too, so now I have that source of support also! Last night the power went out, again, more silence. I have never been alone during a power outage before, it happens pretty often in out neighborhood, so I'm sure it wont be the last. The last time it went out Ronnie and I went to bed early and listened to the radio and just talked. I was really missing him last night! Tomorrow I'm heading home for a few days, I am so happy I can do that! I get to register the car while I'm there, yay Arizona MVD. Hopefully, it helps the days pass a little faster.

Right now I'm going to enjoy the silence...and get some sleep.
-Kristin

Another Day.

Yep! Two posts in Two days! I must have a lot of time on my hands...

It's amazing what you can accomplish (or in my case NOT accomplish) while you are alone. I did load the dishwasher and clean the kitchen up tonight! Tomorrow I'm going to think about cleaning up the mess Ronnie made while we were packing his sea bag the other night, and going through and unpacking my last box of art supplies that I made sure he carried in from the garage before he left!
This morning I woke up to an email from Ronnie (and not his alarm clock, which I finally figured out how to shut off!) which was great! It was short, but it was so good to hear from him! I'm pretty sure he told me the day they will be home, AND that he LOVED the surprise I snuck into his sea bag after he was finished packing. I spritzed some of my perfume onto a plain white pillow case and sealed it up in a ziplock baggie. His last underway he had such a hard time sleeping, which is understandable since they are floating around under the ocean and he was in a new environment. I figured it would be nice to smell home when he laid his head down instead of boat smell, and he said it works! I'm so happy it helped! :]

Hello Baby!!!

Last Thursday we found out what kind of baby we are having...
I was VERY happy to see that it is most definitely the human kind, and not the fluffy yellow feathered kind I saw in the last ultrasound!

But even more importantly, we found out that this beautiful baby is a GIRL!!!! And she is definitely looking like her daddy! If you were to hold up a baby picture of him next to this one, they have the same profile!

We are both so excited! As much as Ronnie joked about "putting it back until it was a boy" if baby turned out to be a girl, he is very excited about having a little girl!

Now for the hard part...finding a name! We have a couple in mind that we are trying out right now, but I don't really want to share them, I don't really want everyone to know her name until she is born actually! I've had people ask me early on, and I gave them names that I was considering, but Ronnie and I hadn't talked about it yet, and it was like they got attached to the names I'd mentioned! OR I had people telling me how much they hated the names! SO I've decided I just don't really want to tell people her name until she is here and it's on her birth certificate, then they REALLY can't complain or try to get me to change it to what they think would be better!

It's hard enough to pick a name without other people weighing in. There are so many things to think about, like will the name we choose fit her? Your name is so much of your identity, it just seems weird to me that I have that much authority that I can choose another person's identity. I'm just glad we have the freedom to choose to name her what we want, and I guess that's okay because parents have been naming their children for just about forever.

Speaking of parents...my mom came and stayed last week! It was a lot of fun having her here, we went to the beach, and she helped me unpack the last few boxes and organize the house a little better! We also hung my curtains in the living room! I'm happy to say that our house now looks like people live in it instead of looking like storage! Unfortunately she had to go home, because she needed to go to back to school meetings since school is about to start up again, and she is a teacher.

Now it's just the Charlie and I for a few weeks, yep, another underway. Back to checking my email on my phone every time I go to see the time, cooking for myself, and sleeping alone in the middle of the bed at night! This time I think Charlie misses Ronnie A LOT! He acts very depressed, and just wants to sleep all day, I have to wake him up to go on walks! I've been staying semi-busy though. Today I started swimming again with my friend Nicole, and tomorrow I go in for the next baby appointment/pregnant people group. I'm not looking forward to going without Ronnie, but it's one of those things I knew was going to happen eventually! I hope he will be able to make the next couple of appointments before the deployment, and I'm so happy he was here for the ultrasound last week!

Well I have been up pretty late...it's time to sleep!
-Kristin

I can't sleep, so I will be "productive"!

It's partly because I'm just not tired, well I was when I got in bed, but I've been up to pee like every 6 seconds and I just can't get comfy! I can't believe so much time has gone by between posts! Ugh! I really wanted to stick with it, but life got in the way. (Haha "life" I'm quickly re-adapting to the San Diegan version of life...it's summer, I've been going to the beach as much a possible!)

I am almost 19 weeks pregnant now, and I STILL can't believe that! We find out what kind of baby we are having in one week! (I mean like the boy kind or the girl kind!) I honestly will be happy either way, but there is a little part of me that hopes it's a boy this time. Only because the husband (really wants a boy) has mentioned that the amount of radiation he is exposed to being a Nuke can affect his ability to make boys...but who really knows? I mean I doubt there has been any real research done on it!

Speaking of husband's job...we officially survived our first underway ever! I know it wasn't that long, and the one coming up will be even longer...it's just nice to know that I CAN do this! I can function on my own, with only email, I can get things I need to take care of taken care of (except Verizon, they anger me. "power of attorney isn't good enough, is there a phone number we can reach your husband at?" "no, he is somewhere under water in a STINKIN submarine, which is why I have power of attorney with me, and the reason I'M talking to you in the first place!") The other day they came home early by a couple days! I didn't know they were home, but I did see on Facebook that couple other wives were getting phone calls, so I was hoping for one maybe, even though I figured he wouldn't get to call since he isn't qualified yet. I just happened to have the front door open, and just happened to look out through the screen as he was walking up, it didn't seem real, I literally jumped back and said "Oh my gosh!" My little brother is here for awhile was like "what?! Oh! Ronnie's HOME?!" It was a great surprise! Of course the first thing out of his mouth while he was hugging me was "we're leaving again (sometime in the near future)" but I didn't care! Honestly I was a little disappointed because I didn't have the house all unpacked, put together and clean like I'd planned, but I got over THAT fast ;]

So, I am happy he's home! Even though today sucked because he had duty. I have now officially learned about boat smell! I did experience this in Charleston while he was on the prototype, but it was never this bad. I washed his stuff twice, and it still hasn't come out yet, but two washes did make a difference! I've also been preparing stuff to send with the boat for him for during deployment, we get a little tiny box to fill, for a halfway box. I'm talking 4x4x3 inches! TINY. I'll post a picture when I have it filled (which won't take long) It makes me a little bit jealous of those surface wives I've seen with their posts about these awesome packages they get to send! But I am excited to do it either way!

Well, I am actually yawning now! So I'm going to try and get a little sleep before I wake up hungry...oh wait...I'm already hungry. Well, I guess I'm going to get a snack, then sleep, I have to come up with something really exciting for a 9 year old tomorrow, I'm thinking Balboa Park! I feel bad because he's been here all week and we haven't really done anything but go to the beach today, and watch movies on Netflix!

I WILL post again soon, I pinky promise it won't be a month before you hear from me again! :D

-Kristin

Oh yeah...I have a blog!

Honestly I cannot believe it has been this long since I've been on here! It's probably because we have gotten into this routine where we are in bed by 9 every night. Here are some things I've learned from experience in the last few weeks...in no particular order...

1. 5 AM comes REALLY fast
2. People with perfect driving records can and will get in into an accident, most likely when they are on their way to pick up their spouse who just got done selling the only other vehicle they own.
3. There are some student loan servicing companies who are willing to actually work with you.
4. Soon to be dads like miniature baby things of what they have, just as much as the soon to be moms.

5. No matter where you are, there will always be that one weird person who asks way to many obvious questions and gets on everyone's nerves.
6.Your favorite "reality" TV shows, aren't always what they seem.
7. Sometimes it's good to just go for a drive, you might end up down a random dirt road shooting gophers.

8. Dropping your husband off at work takes on a whole new meaning when work is a giant metal whale that submerges in the ocean for weeks at a time.
9. Your first FRG (Family Readiness Group) meeting can be a little overwhelming, it's similar to rushing a sorority.
10. Baby bellies pop up out of nowhere.

 

11. If you aren't on the cell phone account, you can't do anything involving the account.

My week of sisterly bonding!

Last week we had my two younger sisters and Ronnie's sister come stay with us for the week! It was a lot of fun! Monday we actually had Ronnie's dad with us for the day before he had to go fly out to work. We went and showed everyone the base, and then went to the Cabrillo National Monument at the tip of Point Loma. On the way there is the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery

http://wn.com/Fort_Rosecrans_National_Cemetery

http://doles.org/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=9

Since it was Memorial Day there were flags at every grave, and so many people there remembering the lives of all the people who sacrificed so much for this country. Visiting places like this, and seeing thousands of white headstones, really puts a visual to the number, even though it's only a fraction of the number, of people who have served this country in the military.

Tuesday, we slept pretty late, went to the commissary for food for the week, then to the beach for a little while. It was pretty cold, so we went home and made dinner!

Wednesday we went back to the beach for a few hours and the weather was so nice! It was nice and warm and we all got some sun. I went boogie boarding with my sister Mallory, that was a lot of fun since I haven't gone on the West coast in over a year. The beaches in Charleston were nice and warm, but there weren't very big waves there. I'm hoping the water will warm up a little more before Ronnie has to leave because we have so much fun boogie boarding together!

Thursday we got to meet Ronnie for lunch at Panera Bread, since he had an appointment to see if he qualifies to get lasik eye surgery, it turns out he does and since he is a submariner he is already on a waiting list! After lunch I took the girls back up to the Cabrillo National Monument, since you get 5 days when you pay to go into the park the first time, we went down to see the tide pools. That was really neat, especially since we had Mallory, who wants to be a marine biologist, tell us all about the different animals, including some things I didn't even know were living! We then went up and toured the Old Point Loma lighthouse, it was really cool to see how the people who used to run the lighthouse lived.

Friday we had planned on going to Balboa Park in the morning, but didn't end up getting going in time, we were so exhausted and sunburned from hiking the day before that we decided to stay in and get ready to drive the girls home. I took them to lunch at Jersey Mike's, a really really really delicious sandwich place. (I have actually been craving it...which is really why we went, I try to talk
Ronnie into taking me there all the time!) After that, Ronnie got home from work early and we got the car loaded up and took everyone home.

Saturday Ronnie and I spent the day at the movies, literally, we saw 3 movies we have been wanting to see but haven't because it is SO expensive to see a movie in San Diego! It was a TON of fun! We really enjoyed having that time together.

Last week Ronnie started actually working for his sub, so we know when he leaves now, and it's sooner than we expected! There are other things that may be happening after they return from deployment, but I just want to focus on getting thru the deployment and having the duckling before I even think about getting stressed out about things that may or may not happen.

That's basically what I've been up to lately!
-Kristin