Div 217 Uss Arizona

[Nancy M (Kelly's Mom Div 217)]

Anyone out there who has a child in Div 217?

[Christieanna DIV 217]

Hi nancy my bf is in the same ship and division too! how old is your son? how are you coping? My bf is 22 and we have a son together so it has been hard on the both of us. Luckily both of our families are here and they have been helping me a lot. I hpe you have a great Mother's Day and I"m sure he is constantly thinking of you and missing you. take care and please keep in touch! i'm sure we will be sitting close to each other on the bleachers during PIR june 12!

christie

[Christieanna DIV 217]

Hello Nancy!

I just realized something and it just clicked now!! In my boyfriend's letters he sends me some journal notes about bootcamp and the other soldiers there. Its neat because its all in third person and its interesting to see BC from a sailor's perspective. I just remembered when I looked at your last name that my BF knows your son! In one letter he mentioned a young man that had a country accent that had the last name Moon. He mentioned that the guys will get on each other about small things like in school again. nothing harmful just boys being boys. Well i don't know if you have every heard of the japanese girls cartoon that came out in the states in the 90s but it was called "sailor moon" so their joke for kelly is the cartoon and how ironic it is that he is sailor Moon too :)

I don't know if this is your son hut he said he liked moon and he was a good kid.

Alfonso says the same thing as your son...a lot of the them are younger and have issues with self control and discipline. He mentions they are constantly getting in trouble and getting privileges taken away from them. Its very frustrating for me at least because of the hard work some sailors put in get taken away for other's mistakes. I understand that they are trying to teach them teamwork but it still is frustrating. He says out of the 10 divisions they are ranked 9...:(

It is hard with him gone and i'm starting to realize all those times I took for granted dirty diaper duty (not successful on potty yet..he's barely 2), feedings, playtime and anything else that can be amazing yet tiring. We have both our families here so that helps SO much...if not I think my sanity would have gone to mars by now.

At first I could tell the stress was getting to fonso. In phone calls talking to me just made him miss me more :( but I think taking it day by day helps of looking a the whole picture. I talked to him today (yay!) and it seemed like it was easier because he knew what to expect and was somewhat prepared for it than before. My letters seems to help with the stress so much so keep writing kelly. He also mentioned something about sending newspaper clippings or a folded article from his favorite sports magazine so he knew what was going on. I thought that wasn't allowed but he says if they take it away they take it and just to try anyway.

Fonso will be an intelligence specialist and will train at Dam Neck,VA. I'm excited for that because that is only 3-4 hours from us in southern MD. The possibility of him seeing us often on liberty or us driving down there will be pretty frequent. Im happy because I know some sailors are states from home...some GFs are going to move to the state their BF is at just to be near.

Fonso graduated from the university of MD with a bachelors in business. We were so ready for him to get a normal civilian job. our parents have been so wonderful and supported us for the start. we were both able to go back to school full time so that fonso graduated and I just finished my third year. It was terrible...finding a job was so hard.. he had a decent GPA 3.1 and is a very smart and good at interviews guy! My dad a retired senior chief and his mother both worked as civilians at the nearby navy base so we were so sure it wasn't going to be hard for him to get a job. It never happened.... Fonso is so picky and isn't the odd job guy..i pushed for it for the sake of our family ( i wanted to move out soon, get married, save, lol he claimed I wanted SO MUCH) he tried officer packets and finished a few but got intimidated by competition. so he finally decided to join as a reservist and try the OCS program in a year or so.

i'm so excited to have found another family member in the division. as you are i'm sure, i'm praying the division grows up for the sake of stress and other things! fonso says things are going to pick up outside and they will be doing gun work, how to anchor, and other outside activites so hopefully they will be busy to be too too stressed.

i'm waiting on that graduation packet to see if they are grad and go....hopefully not...please keep in touch. its really helping me cope :) i hope you get a call or letter soon!

christie

[Nancy M (Kelly's Mom Div 217)]

Christie,
I checked out your page and viewed your video of your family. You are so lucky to have such a handsome little boy. Enjoy every day with him...they will be gone so quickly.

Kelly has very dark hair and eyes but not much facial hair. He looks a lot like me in male form! I remember the "Sailor Moon" cartoon...that is too funny. It was really nice hearing about your bf talking about him. I miss him so much. Yesterday was hard for me. I was teary all day thinking about him. You never ever stop worrying about your children. Since he is 22, I would say he is just a tiny bit more mature than some of the younger guys in his group. I worry about his temper though and pray he doesn't lose it. His Dad used to get on him pretty hard and Kelly was NEVER disrespectful to him or me ever. He would just walk away and go to his room. I used to laugh and ask Kelly how he did that (his Sister was very vocal to us :) )...and he always would just smile and say he knew Dad could "take" him. His Dad, my husband, is a very dedicated body builder and is very strong. He holds the National Power lifting title for his weight class...180 lbs...in his age group. I wish I had his dedication for working out regularly.

Kelly is a very good and funny writer. He writes that he really likes his Chief. But the RDC's scream like banshee's at them regularly. I am going to drop him a line and mention Fonso. I hope that is okay with you. Kelly mentioned that sometimes they have a few minutes to socialize. He also mentioned that they call him Redneck. That was so very funny to me because Kelly is anything but that! He is extremely smart and graduated from his HS with a GPA of 3.9....and won a full scholarship to UT. Sadly, never being away from home he got into partying and lost it. We bankrolled it the second year and he just was still partying so we stopped it. Kelly loves music and is a gifted guitar player. I would guess that he misses his guitars, amps, ipods and Cd's more than anything.

I have been sending Kelly clippings of cartoons, and newpaper articles. I didn't know if they were allowed or not. He did thank me in one of his letters so I know he was able to keep them for a bit.

A little about us: Mark is 59 and works for Shell Oil in their Industrial division and I am 49 and I work for a Timber Mgmt Company. We both have to travel in our jobs. I manage Hunt Lease properties and do Timber Analysis for Large Investment firms. One area in Middle TN that I manage is 70,000 acres. Another in VA is 20,000 acres. Mark and I both are so very lucky that we both love our jobs. We are in such hope that Kelly will find what he loves to do in life. We also have a daughter named Tara (28), son-in-law Joe (28) and grandson, Maddox (3). They live in Clarksville TN about 225 miles from where we live.

If you have time, write again. Your messages have helped me so much.
Nancy

PS...Don't fret too much about your son not doing so well in potty training. Boys take longer. Maddox was closer to 3 when he finally got it down.

[Christieanna DIV 217]

Hello Nancy!

Good to hear from you! How is everything? Aw thank you for the remark about my family. I'm so blessed to have them! I know, I can't bear to think of the day I have to put Giovanni on a bus or kindergarten let alone college or the navy!!!! He is my miracle baby (born 6 weeks early 2 lbs 14 oz) so i'm so very protective of him.

Aw, it must have been so hard not having him there yesterday for Mother's day! I'm sure he was thinking about you all day! You seem like such a wonderful person/mother, he is so lucky to have you. We will see them soon enough don't worry.

Did you receive your grad packet yet? well its not so much of a packet but a a few papers about graduation. Unfortunately they are grad and go :( i'm so sad about this...i wanted to spend quality time exploring chicago and catching up friday, sat and sun! not in the airport waiting for his plane to A school :( the good news is that we live 3 hours from his A school so we can seem him again soon but I can't say i'm still not bummed.

Have you started planning for graduation yet? I can't help it i'm SO EXCITED!!! are you flying or driving? and where do you think you'll stay?? what do you think of grad and go?? who will be attending?

Of course you can talk to kelly about me and fonso. I'm excited to hear about their reactions when they know we miss them so much we are contacting each other!! fonso was so startled to hear that I knew things, names, and dates of BC over there because of this site. He would be like..."wait....how do you know that???" its funny!

talk to you soon!! your letters have been comforting me too, thanks so much! hopefully we will see each other at PIR :)

Christie

[Nancy M (Kelly's Mom Div 217)]

Christie,
Mark and I are going to graduation, but that is all from our family. We don't have very many relatives and my Mother is not up to travel. We plan on driving up on Wednesday and staying near Wilmington (about 80 miles from Great Lakes). I was raised in that area and am looking forward to visiting it a for a day. We will drive to Waukegan on Thursday afternoon and are staying at the Residence Inn. It is 3 miles from the Naval Base. Rooms were pretty reasonable...around $90 per night. We don't know how long we are staying...it is all depending on Kelly's flight schedule.

We were not familiar with the term "Grad and Go", until I got on this sight. In fact this sight has helped me so much with the Navy verbiage! We thought everyone got a week off after BC...and had planned to bring him home with us. I have been wondering all day how he is handling go straight to his A school.

Everyone I talk to says that after the 4th week, the RDC's start building these young men up. I hope that is the case....I hated to hear his voice so stressed.

Who all will be coming to see Alfonso? Will you be bringing the baby? I hope to get to meet you too. I can't imagine what it is like for you to be in college, with a toddler, and a BF in BC. What stress you must have! You seem to be a very optimistic person and handling it well.

Talk to you soon!!
Nancy

[Christieanna DIV 217]

Hey Nancy,

Thats nice that you and your husband will get to attend! Its hard though when they are grad and go to know we will come all that way to spend so little time with them :( Fonos's mother, father, brother , Giovanni and I will all come to see graduation. We were thinking about flying yet his father has a wedding for his other son to attend the 5th of june. So he decided that flying would be better and less tiring. Its just hard to plan because they say that nothing is ever guranteed. Fonso says that another sailor was held back a week to graduate the same day our sailors due to some reasons. Imagine buying tickets at 181 dollars each and fonso being held back or something else coming up?! non refundable tickets are so much too right? so we will see...regardless Giovanni and I will fly up we all talked and said this day was worth the money not to miss.

I was definitely not familiar with a lot of terms either and my father served for 25 years. I knew some things but I did not exisit when my dad went through it and things sure have changed...when my dad did it they had RTC all over the U.S. (san diego, orlando etc.). So I too am learning so much on this site.

Oh it would be so nice it they all got a week off after BC. Unfortunately I don't think so; I have heard of some sailors not starting school for a week because there was no space but they still had to work and on those days. Some get liberty from a school if they were grad and go but these are all things I just heard and I guess is not guranteed until they go there.

It is very stressful but i'm just happy that he is supporting us. I just keep thinking about the future and it keeps me going . My family has been such a big help too. It does get tough...I talk to my friends in college that are worried about breaking up with their BF in college or other small things like fighting with room mates and realize I have grown a lot, its sort of strange lol.

we are still planning the trip but once I find out I will let you know, its really up to his parents since they will be helping with a lot of the financial aspects of it more than I. They use to have family in Chicago so are very familar with it...it will be my first time there so i'm excited!

Did you get your grad package yet? when do you usually get letters?

Christie

[Nancy M (Kelly's Mom Div 217)]

Christie,
We did receive the pamphlet and a brochure of local hotels. I had checked on this sight and saw that several mentioned the Residence Inn in Waukegan. I called as soon as I could and made resevations for three nights. I will cancel the other nights as soon as I get there now that I know Kelly is Grad & Go.

I usually receive letters on Wednesday, so I am very excited about today! I am also now trying to write everyday (which is very hard). I told Tara that I could write her every hour and talk about stuff, but Kelly is harder because I know he isn't really interested in a lot of my hobbies or interests. I just try to write like he was here with me and I hope it helps. Last night we were walking our dog, and a friend stopped and was talking about being in Marine bc. He said that mail call was the highlight of the day and mens lips would just droop when they didn't get anything. He said that his Dad wrote him everyday for 15 weeks. He laughed of course and said the Navy was a lot easier than the Marines.

I know that it is silly for most people to understand...but Kelly would probably be so happy to see our dog, Annie. She is 7 years old and he picked her out when he was 15. She really misses him and goes to the door of his room and just sits and looks at me so funny...I talk about him and she always perks up when she hears his name. I try to write about some of the funny stuff she does when I write him. I know that puts a smile on his face.

Are you close to your future in-laws? I would NOT like to travel with my in-laws!!!!!! My husband is very close to my Mother (my Dad died when I was 30), but I am not close to his family. They just never let anyone be close to them. I was previously married for 4 years and Tara is from my first marriage. Mark had never been married and at 35 he was marrying a divorced women with a 2 year old child!!! His mother could just not get past that. Kelly is their only Grandson and she doesn't even know him and she lives only 3 miles from us. My mother lived with us for 8 years after Dad died and both our children dearly love her...more like a second mom, than a Grandma.

Gotta run and get ready for work....talk to you later.

PS...I wish they had spellcheck!

Nancy

[Christieanna DIV 217]

Hi nancy!!

How was your trip to see Maddox?? I hope wonderful! My parents and fonsos parents go crazy when they don't get to see giovanni so I hope it was fun!

I got letters from fonso on thursday I was so excited!!!! Isn't it wonderful how it always will make your week??! Only about 25 more days! I get so jealous when I see others on here that have PIRs this week but I know soon it will be us and the excitement just thrills me!!

awww....poor annie!!! I want a dog SOOO much! lol fonso is not a animal lover....his parents dont' like pets in the house so he never got to experience it. We had a cocker spaniel and a sharpei/pitpull mix when I was younger but my father was an outside dog type person. I really wanted to experience having a dog indoors. Unfortunately now we still live with our parents so I don't see us getting one until we settle but I can't wait!!! It will be so great for gio, he's the only baby and I won't have one for at least 4 more years lol so i think it would be nice for him to have some company.

In terms of my in laws NOW its wonderful lol. In the beginning it was a little hard. His mother is the wants to know everything type mom and their are no secrets in the family,plus it was her first son, and spanish cultures really treat their sons like babies forever lol ( fonso till this day did not have to do laundry or fold his clothes!!!) They always had open arms and offered me to come stay so i will always be thankful for that. I was hesitant at first. My parents live 10 min away and I wanted to stay with them but fonso's parents had fixed the basement for us. It was really hard not living with my mom at first ( we still stayed at my parents every other week) but she was really excited for giovanni and I felt like she wanted to help to much sometimes. Now we are so much more comfortable with them and I don't even hesitate to call his family my own.
although i cannot wait till we can have a place of our own.


OMG i'm so excited just even thinking about PIR!!! i'm sad we are grad and go but at this point I don't even care lol!!! I watched some PIR on you tube and it was amazing...so I only imagine the tears that will be flowing when its our PIR! i'll have to be sure to bring tissues!!! i'm going crazy thinking about what I will wear!!!!

Oh by the way are us PIR june 12 famlies going to meet up before? It would be sooo nice!

talk to you soon!
Christie xoxoxoxo

[Nancy M (Kelly's Mom Div 217)]

Christieanna,
I had a great trip with Maddox. I had bought him a big wooden playground playset for Christmas and I helped my son-in-law put it together on Friday and then we worked in their yard the rest of the time. Joe works like 70 hrs per week so Tara only has to work 2 days and can be with Maddox (she also takes him to work with her). We are all very close and Joe is just like another son to me. He works for his family and they are good to him, but they work him to death! They have shoe stores and shoe trucks in the Southeast so he travels quite a bit.

You have to get Gio a dog when you can. Maddox has Dot, a solid white boxer with a brown dot on her head, that he adores. He is so rough with her and she just lets him do whatever he wants. I will try to upload a few pictures of them soon.

I haven't heard from Kelly this week and it is killing me. Has Fonso said anything else about them getting punished?

It is wonderful about your family and his being so good to you both. I really like to hear that.

I will try to write more later, I have a bunch of work to do for my job, and then I will be back on the computer. Talk to you later,
Nancy M

[Christieanna DIV 217]

Hi nancy!

aw we looked into getting a playset too! His godmother's husband just spent the last two weeks putting theirs together. The last time I heard from fonso through phone was mother's day. I got a letter last thursday....did you? no he hasn't mentioned them being punished...I hope not. Maybe they have tests/inspections coming up and they are just busy with that. i'm sure he is fine and dying to write/ call you. lets just pray together that they are okay...i'll do that for you too.

Good luck with work! I'm going to register for a summer course that I figured I had to take online. The class I wanted to take was during the PIR and their is NO WAY i'm missing that....granted PIR is on friday and through the weekend but i didn't want to have any assignments due! i'm going to enjoy that weekend no matter what!!

talk to you soon!

[Nancy M (Kelly's Mom Div 217)]

Christieanna,
Did you get a phone call this weekend? I didn't...and I know Pam didn't. I wonder if that is normal. I can't wait to get my letter this week. Kelly begged me to send more, and I have been writing everyday. I really start getting worried and upset when I haven't heard from him. I know he is a man and I shouldn't worry, but it is hard. I always thought that once my kids grew up the worry would stop, but it doesn't. A funny thing happened last summer. Mark and I were out on a friends boat and didn't get back to our car until midnight. Kelly had left a voicemail on my phone wanting to know where we were at and why we hadn't called to let him know we were coming in late....he was worried about us! We both laughed so hard at that...because it was like the voicemails we had sent him so many times. Are you and Gio enjoying your summer? Have you gotten him a little pool to play in yet?
Nancy M

PS...Don't worry about keeping him entertained...surely with all of us funny adults there, we can all keep a 2 year old laughing!

[Christieanna DIV 217]

Nancy,

No we I did not get a phone call this weekend. I was sure hoping! I thought that because of the memorial day weekend we would maybe get a call but I was trying to not get my hopes up just in case. Oh don't worry my dad worries about me ALL the time lol. He is one of those type A micro managers ( Fonso's mom the same lol) and he likes to know whats happening all the time. He was a retired chief in the Navy so his job was all about supervising younger sailors like ours. He never stops worrying lol now that I am finally a mom I see why he always worried and I have joined the club. I don't think i'll ever stop worrying about Giovanni!

Gio and I are enjoying summer just nice. It is so weird to not have school or work. But i'm glad I get to spend the time with Gio I have missed from always being at school. The summers here in MD are okay, it gets really humid here! and there is not a lot to due because our city is still pretty small. Have I gotten him a pool lol I would if both his grandmas did beat me to it!! As a grandma yourself you can only imagine how spoiled my son is; both his grandmas live 10 minutes from each other! He has a pool that is a dragon and the tail and the head of the dragon are slides that go into the pool. I'll try to get pictures up of him in it. He loves it. He is almost two and I can't believe it. I don't plan on having another one for a while so i'm sad the years are passing so quickly :(

I remember you mentioned you had an older daughter Tara. What does she do and does she want more children soon?

christie