Yokosuka Gazette, 12/17/13
This rare edition of the Gazette is coming out mid-week, but that's OK, right? I happen to have a few minutes right now, so I'm going to sit down and write.
Hmm.
Well, I'm sure you've all seen the pictures from Change of Command and know that everything went pretty much as planned. Old CO was kind of a hot ball of mess...if he had been wearing mascara, it definitely would have been streaking. I'm not sure if he was geniuinely sad or just really, really glad to have it all over and done with. Maybe a little bit of both. Hans got up and gave his speech like a real pro. I mean it, he was inspirational. I cried both times they played the Navy Hymn, but that makes me cry every single time I hear it. Every time. I'm getting sniffly just thinking about it. Sheesh.
I cried when Hans and Joe read their orders and the official change took place. It's kind of that "You may kiss the bride" moment. Only they didn't kiss. I think they shook hands.
And then we all went and I didn't have any cake and maybe two carrot sticks at the reception and then we were all home again and that was the end of that.
Done!
The kids didn't do any of the crazy crap I thought they might. William didn't run up and punch the commodore or state his boredom in an extremely loud voice. No one fell over the side or picked their nose. Well, at least I don't think anyone picked their nose. I'm sure if they did, there's photographic proof of it somewhere.
So, it's been just over a week that involved a couple of very late nights for Hans, but overall, it is going well. He has been here most mornings until after the kids head to school. That might be a "Well, duh" to most people, but as a SWO's wife, I'm used to my husband going to work early. Very early. And coming home late. Very late. Hans had a couple of late nights due to some engineering inspection (and his very first, day-long underway!), but otherwise has been home by 5:30. It's all part of being a good captain and showing his crew that he trusts them to take care of the ship when he's not there. Bad captains come in super early and stay super late...and then no one else feels like they can go home at a decent hour because no SWO can leave the ship before the captain. The horrors!
So far, so good.
What about the rest of life? Back to routine and regularity this week. Turned in my finals on Monday after a week of squeezing in work with change of command, inlaws, sick kids and other functions. I already sold off my German textbooks--whoo! I cannot believe how much that class hurt my brain--I am humbled. World War I was truly a good class. The prof was good and put lots of subject matter out there for us to explore. He didn't force us to buy stuffy, hyper-expensive textbooks. We read Keegan's "The First World War"--it was very readable, and also "All Quiet on the Western Front". I learned a lot and wish that we would have stopped at some of those WWI battlefields in France. Ah well. Next up, American History to 1865 and American History 1865-present. Concurrently.
Josiah is good--he advanced to third round Geography Bee yesterday. I was so tempted to curl up in bed with a good book, especially after the world's most stupid meeting ever, but I forced myself to go and watch and I'm so glad that I did. He did great...one of two 4th graders that answered all the questions correctly. Now he goes on to compete with the winnowed out 4th graders--there are 5 or 6, and the 5 or 6 5th graders that won. From there, it's a written test, then possible competition at the DoDDS Pacific level. Whoever wins that is the DoDDS Pacific representative at the National Geo Bee in Washington, DC hosted by Alex Trbek.
Annika was sick all last week. She was running a temp of 103 at one point and hallucinating, which was interesting. I went and curled up in bed with her because she kept crying out about whatever she was half-dreaming about. Poor girl. She kept trying to tell me what she was seeing, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it. She's all recovered now. I went to school today for her heritage project potluck. I made spaetzle with cheese...what a great potluck that was. Lots of Filipino food, a little Mexican, some Guamanian for dessert, some Italian. It was GOOD. And my spaetzle was actually pretty awesome.
William is overjoyed to be back at Sara's and I am overjoyed that he is back at Sara's. She was gone all last week at Hiroshima. I have gotten very, very spoiled having a place to drop William every day. He loves her and the kids at her house, so it's a win-win situation.
And that is about all that is going on. Oh, we had a swanky party at the very tip-top of the hill on Saturday night that was fun. The admiral has a pretty sweet house up on the hill and a nice view of the bay. There were fires in the fireplaces, the 7th Fleet band had a tasteful brass section playing Christmas carols, the wine and beer and crudités flowed. I should have shot a couple of pictures, sorry.
OK, so that's the news for now. One of these days, I'll do something more fun than just recount the news...!
Hmm.
Well, I'm sure you've all seen the pictures from Change of Command and know that everything went pretty much as planned. Old CO was kind of a hot ball of mess...if he had been wearing mascara, it definitely would have been streaking. I'm not sure if he was geniuinely sad or just really, really glad to have it all over and done with. Maybe a little bit of both. Hans got up and gave his speech like a real pro. I mean it, he was inspirational. I cried both times they played the Navy Hymn, but that makes me cry every single time I hear it. Every time. I'm getting sniffly just thinking about it. Sheesh.
I cried when Hans and Joe read their orders and the official change took place. It's kind of that "You may kiss the bride" moment. Only they didn't kiss. I think they shook hands.
And then we all went and I didn't have any cake and maybe two carrot sticks at the reception and then we were all home again and that was the end of that.
Done!
The kids didn't do any of the crazy crap I thought they might. William didn't run up and punch the commodore or state his boredom in an extremely loud voice. No one fell over the side or picked their nose. Well, at least I don't think anyone picked their nose. I'm sure if they did, there's photographic proof of it somewhere.
So, it's been just over a week that involved a couple of very late nights for Hans, but overall, it is going well. He has been here most mornings until after the kids head to school. That might be a "Well, duh" to most people, but as a SWO's wife, I'm used to my husband going to work early. Very early. And coming home late. Very late. Hans had a couple of late nights due to some engineering inspection (and his very first, day-long underway!), but otherwise has been home by 5:30. It's all part of being a good captain and showing his crew that he trusts them to take care of the ship when he's not there. Bad captains come in super early and stay super late...and then no one else feels like they can go home at a decent hour because no SWO can leave the ship before the captain. The horrors!
So far, so good.
What about the rest of life? Back to routine and regularity this week. Turned in my finals on Monday after a week of squeezing in work with change of command, inlaws, sick kids and other functions. I already sold off my German textbooks--whoo! I cannot believe how much that class hurt my brain--I am humbled. World War I was truly a good class. The prof was good and put lots of subject matter out there for us to explore. He didn't force us to buy stuffy, hyper-expensive textbooks. We read Keegan's "The First World War"--it was very readable, and also "All Quiet on the Western Front". I learned a lot and wish that we would have stopped at some of those WWI battlefields in France. Ah well. Next up, American History to 1865 and American History 1865-present. Concurrently.
Josiah is good--he advanced to third round Geography Bee yesterday. I was so tempted to curl up in bed with a good book, especially after the world's most stupid meeting ever, but I forced myself to go and watch and I'm so glad that I did. He did great...one of two 4th graders that answered all the questions correctly. Now he goes on to compete with the winnowed out 4th graders--there are 5 or 6, and the 5 or 6 5th graders that won. From there, it's a written test, then possible competition at the DoDDS Pacific level. Whoever wins that is the DoDDS Pacific representative at the National Geo Bee in Washington, DC hosted by Alex Trbek.
Annika was sick all last week. She was running a temp of 103 at one point and hallucinating, which was interesting. I went and curled up in bed with her because she kept crying out about whatever she was half-dreaming about. Poor girl. She kept trying to tell me what she was seeing, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it. She's all recovered now. I went to school today for her heritage project potluck. I made spaetzle with cheese...what a great potluck that was. Lots of Filipino food, a little Mexican, some Guamanian for dessert, some Italian. It was GOOD. And my spaetzle was actually pretty awesome.
William is overjoyed to be back at Sara's and I am overjoyed that he is back at Sara's. She was gone all last week at Hiroshima. I have gotten very, very spoiled having a place to drop William every day. He loves her and the kids at her house, so it's a win-win situation.
And that is about all that is going on. Oh, we had a swanky party at the very tip-top of the hill on Saturday night that was fun. The admiral has a pretty sweet house up on the hill and a nice view of the bay. There were fires in the fireplaces, the 7th Fleet band had a tasteful brass section playing Christmas carols, the wine and beer and crudités flowed. I should have shot a couple of pictures, sorry.
OK, so that's the news for now. One of these days, I'll do something more fun than just recount the news...!
