Well, the time came for Julie and her children to return home yesterday. ;( Don't cry we all knew it would have to happen. I am happy to report that we packed our few precious days with as much laughter, conversation, and fellowship as they could possibly hold. We stayed up till the wee hours of the morning each night. We had the best slumber party ever!!

While I was sad to see Julie and the kids pull away from the curb and drive down the road, I am so filled with joy that we are in each others lives again and I am ecstatic for her that she will be moving in March to their duty station in Japan!! I have such fond memories of Japan and I know Julie will too. I also have an open invitation to go visit her there. (yippee!!!!!) I am also looking forward to exchanging "care packages" with her.

Now that you are all caught up on whats been going on I can fill you in on the missing details like who in the world is Julie. ;)

Julie is a friend that I met while stationed in Florida. Florida was my first duty station as a Navy wife. I met Julie at another wife's house as she was baby sitting both our children. One afternoon we both showed up to pick up our children and we struck up a conversation. We were very compatible. (it kinda sounds like I am comparing us to computer software or machine parts *LOL*) We discovered that our husbands were both on the same ship. Too cool!! So that is how we met not one of my usual funny stories but... stay tuned you know I would not let you down. ;)



Ok fast forward several months... the ship deploys for 6 months. Sad I know but, that is Navy life. We have many coping skills as military spouses. Wives that are friends/compatible get together to share meals, go out for lunch or dinner, go shopping together, have game nights, get together and let the kids play, and we like to get together in groups and have potlucks. If your husband has ever been on a business trip or gone off for a few days and left you alone with THE CHILDREN (dun dun duuuuun) you will understand the following information. It is sooooooooooo lovely to have dinner with someone who will eat something other than mac & cheese and chicken nuggets *LOL* so we make dishes that are our favorites but ones that the kids will not eat. The quality of dinner conversation also improves. (my son was very young at this time and the girls were not born yet) So you can see how important it is to try to find a small group of wonderful ladies. Julie was part of my group.

The night before the ship pulls into port is like a combination of anticipation of Christmas morning and the way a child feels the night before their first trip to Disney World. We were on pins and needles we had scrubbed our houses from ceiling to floor and rearranged furniture and made welcome signs planned special meals and anything else that would let our sailors know how special they are to us and how much we missed them. Some how one of the ladies found out that our ship was supposed to be first in line to pull into port in the morning. We came up with the brilliant idea to go out unto the base beach/jetties and send morse code messages to the ship with Julies mega watt flash light. ( do you see the potential for funny here well, buckle up and enjoy the ride)
So, we get the kids all bundled up and bring some toys for them to play with in the sand. Now it is important to mention here that Julie used to be in the Navy and part of what she did was translate morse code ( I am gonna use MC for morse code for now on). We begin by asking the ship in MC if they are ship ***** at this point we are not sure if they will even be able to see our flashes of light. We are hoping that they will be able to see us in the "big eyes" this is a large set of binoculars with a lens magnification of a bijillion and 2. We wait giggling at what we are doing and as a result of our excitement and the stories and conversations we are having. "Shhhh Shhhhh Shhhh I think I see something Julie says" ..... Yes it was in fact a reply back from the ship!! How cool is that right?? We begin sending messages back and forth to the ship us sending then them responding. We start out with sweet "we miss you messages" and "I love yous" we decide that we are gonna kick it up a notch... "I can't wait to get you alone" and other slightly riske' messages were sent. The ship kept right up with us and sent us some pretty sailorish stuff. (I am sure that you have heard the saying He/She swears like a sailor) After a little while of this we decide to pack up and go back home and TRY to sleep so we can meet the ship in the morning.

The next morning we rush out to get a good place on the pier to watch the ship come in. If you have never seen a Navy ship pull into port with all of the sailors in their uniforms standing up on the deck. It is awesometastic and worth the view. All the wives and children are waving in the hopes that their sailor will see them or the large sign that they are holding up.
We spot each other and speak in whispers about what we did the night before and how much fun it was when a group of sailors (from another ship) walk by and are talking about how they want to find those awesome ladies who they spoke to in MC last night!!!! OH MY GOODNESS can you feel the heat of embarrassment that rose up our faces?? We lean in a little to make sure that this is really happening when one of them says something only a person who was translating our MC could know. We were mortified!! We laugh about it now!! It truly is funny. It is also one of my fondest memories of being a Navy wife. Stay tuned for other stories in the future.

I have neglected to post any Friday Freebies for a couple of weeks so here they are:

1. http://www.americanheritage.org/index.html --The American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc., is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the understanding and teaching of America's factual and philosophical heritage to promote freedom, unity, progress, and responsibility among students and citizens. Provides free K-12 curriculum for all educators in social studies, U. S. history, U. S. government, philosophy, political science, or economics.

2. http://www.whitman.edu/biology/vpd/ -- This a virtual pig dissection for those of you who's children do not want to dissect a live animal this is a great alternative. It is also great for those who want to have a practice run before doing the real thing.

3.http://www.bookyards.com/ --The goal is to be "The Library To The World", a web portal in which books, education materials, information, and content will be freely to anyone who has an internet connection. The Bookyards has a total of 16,078 books,41,782 external web links,4,197 news & blog links, 384 videos, 32,963 E-book links and access to hundreds of online libraries all for your reading pleasure.

Have a great weekend!!