It's Been Awhile!

Wow, it's been a couple of weeks since I've updated the blog!  It has been busy, and I haven't felt like writing.  Tommy left on the boat last week and things were sort of day-to-day when he would leave so we were on our emotional rollercoaster of "hurry up and wait."  We took the kids to see the ship when Tommy loaded his gear on.  I think this has really helped Wyatt deal better with this deployment.  He is doing great so far!  Although it's only been a week :)

The ship is amazing and awesomely enormous, and I really wish I could post pictures but I am afraid I would get in trouble.  (Even though there are a million pictures on Facebook posted by the MEU...lol)  Anyway, we got to go in and see Tommy's room - it is a little larger than most people's bathrooms and has 2 bunks, 3 beds high each.  You do the math!!!  And these are the officer's quarters... I don't want to see the enlisted side... I think I would really go CRAZY!

We also got to see the mess hall, the library, and the gym.  The best part was climbing up and down all the ladders with the kids.  All I could think of the entire time was the Titanic... :)  But this really helps Wyatt have some perspective of where Daddy is at instead of just being "gone" so I think it helped!

We tried to celebrate our 8th anniversary before he left (because he was gone already, on the actual day).  I arranged for us to take a private sunset flight over the island in a 4-seat turbo prop plane, but alas the Tropical Storm had different plans for us.  The good news is that they forgot to notify us, so we showed up anyway (even though we knew it would probably be cancelled), so they refunded our money and gave us a FREE flight for when he gets back!  How cool is that!

Tommy gave me the best anniversary gift ever.  A few months back I read this article that a friend had posted.  Please take a minute to go read the article if you haven't already!  Just click here, on Big Metal Chicken.  This post is hilarious, and I laughed until I cried.  If you know me, you know my sense of humor and that I would totally buy a $100 6' tall metal chicken and pass it around to my friends.  I read it outloud to Tommy, and he just sort of looked at me like, "I don't get it but I love you" and told me not to buy a $100 metal chicken.


So fast-forward almost 2 months and I open a heavy box from him.  I pull out a heavy, bronze chicken and immediately bust out laughing.  I knew exactly what it was and why he got it for me, and I laughed so hard.  He is the absolute BEST!  And so thoughtful.  He couldn't get the 6' tall metal one shipped here, so instead he looked up the modern 8-year anniversary gift, saw that it was Bronze, and ordered a bronze chicken.  From China.  Because that's the only one he could find, and he is that amazing :)

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