Bamboozled

It's Friday!

I always love Fridays. I get to catch up on things because it's my day off of work. I get to share clips from my favorite television show. And today, I get to celebrate another mini-victory!

ONE MONTH DOWN!
(six months to go)

Can you tell I like to look on the bright side? Anyway, here is my Friends clip for today:

Fair winds and following seas!

Stephanie

JUNE: Peace

Well, we've reached another landmark--May is over! I'm happy to report that time has been passing quickly on my end, and thus far I'm receiving similar reports from "over there". Praise the Lord!

June is finally here, which means the beginning of a new focus for Justin's time away. If you missed the explanation of these "themes" you can find out more about them here. This month we will be concentrating on "peace" although that study won't officially begin until Sunday. Needless to say, I'm excited! 

I also thought I'd share a photo Justin sent me from his "Steel Beach Picnic" this past weekend. To preemptively answer the questions I know will follow the previous sentence--

Steel beach picnics are a tradition in the United States Navy. They are often department-sponsored barbecues held on the deck of the ship, hence the name "steel beach". Often held on the flight deck or in a large hangar bay for carriers, much like a day at the beach with volleyball and other sporting events

Thanks wikipedia, that's such a better explanation than I would have given!

My hunny's a grillin' machine!

So how did Justin get stuck grilling? Because he is the JORG ensign (pronounced: "George"), which means he has the privilege of executing all tasks tedious and trivial. This is one of the better ones, for sure! Again, a more detailed explanation:

The J.O.R.G. Ensign (Junior Officer Requiring Guidance) is the most junior officer in a naval command. The JORG is typically the collector and manager of the Wardroom Fund, a bank account funding miscellaneous incidentals to social functions as well as parting gifts or plaques for separating officers.

One of the other (implied) jobs of the JORG is to prank the XO (executive officer), the second-highest command position on the ship. It's worth mentioning that Justin is NOT the most junior officer aboard, and hasn't been for almost a year, but his XO just so happened to like him so much as the JORG that she promised him he could remain so for the duration of his time on this ship. Lucky him.

Fair winds and following seas!

Stephanie

Wednesdays

Wednesday is GREETING CARD DAY!

This excites me because I love greeting cards. I'm that weird person that saves all those birthday, Christmas, or whatever cards. I also believe that picking out a great card takes time and consideration. Be prepared to spend at least an hour with me at Target when I have 4 friends (congratulations Bethany, Ben, Britney, and Danielle!) graduating simultaneously. I just think there is something really special about finding a perfect card that seems uniquely made for the person you are shopping for.

It shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that I love to send cards with Justin when he leaves for any stretch of time. But I am realistic and knew I couldn't send a card for everyday he was deployed because that would just be crazy! So I settled for one per week...and that's how I ended up with this whole "thing for each day" plan I've been blogging about.  Despite my best intentions, I was still working up to the last minute to finish the first 15 cards because I put as much thought into the inscriptions as I do the cards themselves. Thankfully this was the one thing that did NOT have to go on the iPad itself so I will be shipping him a second installment of cards in a few months.

I would also like to take a moment to brag on my hubby. He is so good to me. He knows how sentimental I am, so he hangs on to all these dorky cards I buy him and brings them home for me. I promise I'm not a hoarder! Those are just precious love letters and I want to hold on to them :)

He really is great, though. Otherwise, I wouldn't do THIS:

Finally, a mini-victory: it has been one week since Justin deployed.

If all the weeks pass as quickly as this one, this deployment will be over in no time!

Fair winds and following seas!

Stephanie