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Comment by BunkerQB on October 31, 2009 at 11:40pm

Hi Carol, we missed you last Sunday. Scroll back 5-6 days and you'll see the photos. Hope to see you the next time you are in Sunnyvale visiting your mother. In the meantime, have fun with all those kiddies.
B

Comment by Vickyrun on October 31, 2009 at 8:32pm

To those going to PIR: Congratulations, u will be so proud. I would recommend not driving to the base at all. My Hotel had a bus shuttle, another Mom on this site did that so I did too, The bus zooms pass the cars and drops you off at the gate. We just walked in, it was easy. ~ Vicky

Comment by Christine-OS2 proud mom on October 31, 2009 at 5:45pm

TrekkieDad, What a nice birthday surprise I'm sure! Happy Birthday to you!

Noe, isn't Christian just the best name for a young man? We came up with his name while driving through Wyoming on our honeymoon, who would have thought that within a year of our marriage we'd be having him, now he's in the Navy. Time sure flies!

For those going to PIR soon, be sure to have your Navy form letter just in case, ID, and plenty of tissue for yourself and to share! Use the Illinois Street gate enterance, not the base main gate. If you want to do a dry run you may and the security guards deal with parents on a weekly basis and are very nice and informative. The METRA train station is on block past Illinois St, it's on Ohio St. and the cost of parking is 2.00 day, so if you want to avoid the car security clearance for PIR you can park at the METRA station, walk the block back to the gate to go through security. Also, if you or family members are under another grads name be sure to have the other sailors last name so they can find your name as part of their party to be at PIR. The grads use available slots from other grads to get more family members in. i.e. John Smith has 6 family members attending, but under Smith there are 4, so Joe Cool only has 2 family members attending and is giving Smith the other 2 spots. I hope this helps.

Comment by BunkerQB on October 31, 2009 at 12:54am

Lori,
We are here anytime - in case you have a few weepy moments. i understand how you feel. It's really hard to let that younger child go out into the world at 18. I'd bet Joe has a lot of your strength and will come through this with flying colors. He is 3/8 of the way there! Will be thinking of you.
Noe, tell Trevor congrats.
XXOO

Comment by Cindy on October 30, 2009 at 9:06pm

Congrats Noe! Have a wonderful PIR weekend, (and be prepared for lots of road construction around town). We were just there a couple of weeks ago, what an AWESOME experience.

Christine - my son mentioned to his dad that the capping ceremony did bring a tear to his eye.

Lori - Hang in there and keep writing your son with lots of letters of encouragement. He's in a tough part of boot camp and it should get better in the next couple of weeks.

My son's been delayed in Great Lakes with some sort of medical clearance error. He was supposed to fly to Groton today and should start sub school Monday. Can't wait to get him his cell phone and laptop to finally have some regular communication.

Comment by Christine-OS2 proud mom on October 30, 2009 at 7:54pm

Noe, did your sailor comment on people in division crying during capping ceremony. Mine did and I can see why, they go through so much and they've worked very hard to go from recruit to sailor~! Congratulations to you and your sailor! Have fun at PIR!

Comment by Vickie - Rooney's mom on October 30, 2009 at 5:02pm

Congratulations to your sailor Noe and to you for surviving boot camp!

Comment by paddysmima on October 30, 2009 at 2:29pm

I think it is normal as well. Mike just started A school on the 22 of October. Finnished basic on the 9th. He has always been close to his family so the immediate loss of the connection , he says, was the worst thing he had ever done. He is still a bit home sick he says. He won't be seeing any of us until December when he has leave. However, letters from home help a great deal. I sent one daily even if only a few lines. I also encouraged his Aunt to write and his Grandmother. Those words are just us reassuring him we are still here.
A school seems a bit easier. Lots of studying but now we can send him little things.A few cookies to eat and pictures. Mike loves those pictures. Hard for us as Moms too knop that they are feeling that way. All of thier lives we were there to try and make things right. Hang in there Lori, You will be able to hug him soon.

Comment by BunkerQB on October 27, 2009 at 3:07pm

Good morning everyone,
Must be a delayed reaction. I am tired today but I love having parties. It has been awhile since we had a large group over. When the kids were young, we had 15 to 20 kids (for soccer, golf, swimming, water polo) and parents over on a regular basis. Heck, I was the team mom for the golf team for 8 years in a roll. Every year, we had a party at the beginning of the season and another at the end of the season. The golf coach went into shock when our younger son graduated from high school - he asked me to adopt a few more.
Here's how out of practice I am:
1. I forgot to thank Hamid and Sharon for helping. Hamid did all the grilling of the steaks. He was fantastic.
2. I forgot to remind everyone I had sour dough rolls and Hawaiian rolls! You don't want to know how many my husband found in the "bread" station.
3. I forgot to serve the carrot cake that Karen brought.
4. I got enough food to feed 40. You all could have stayed until Monday night football.
5. I didn't placed my order for an outdoor USA flag and a Navy flag in time. I really wanted that.

Navy For Moms started in March of 2008. So we have not had time to establish any traditions yet. So, in some ways we are setting the example for the future. We are acquainted with Commander Nafarrete on a personal basis. When he had heard that I would be hosting a meet and greet and my home, he volunteered to be there to answer questions. Jody (who probably has more experience with being a Navy mom than all of us) gave me many tips on protocol for having a guest speaker of his rank. When he regretfully had to back out, we simply skipped the question and answer session, allowing people who were there to just mingle and talk. Navy For Moms did not respond to my request for balloons. The Meet and Greet kit program is experimental. For John and me, our preference is for informal meet and greets - like what we did on Sunday. We are not oppose to more structured meet and greets, with official speaker and program, and would support and attend, if someone wanted to organize something like that.

Our sailors (like us) are all different. Some will love coming to a gathering. Others will only want to be with close family and friends. We just have to stay flexible and roll with it.
Several Christmases ago, when our son was home, we had a small dinner party (only 12 people), he served the wine and did all the BBQing. I don't know what he will want this time since he has been out on deployment for 7 long months. This Christmas, I would expect that he would want to be waited on hand and foot. Yip, Helicopter Mommy Bea standing ready.

Parts of Silicon Valley (Palo Alto to be specific) is just like Berkeley, very anti-military. Early this year I was harshly criticized for disclosing that my son was in the Navy by a long-time business colleague. Story for another day.

Lastly, you have all become very special to me. I remember feeling very alone back a few years ago wondering if there were others who needed to talk about missing our sons and daughters. I am so very glad that you all exist and that I am lucky enough to have gotten to know some of you and sincerely hope to personally meet many more.

Love to all. I going to get my self some left-over Honeyed Baked ham and carrot cake for lunch. Bea.

Comment by NevadaSierra on October 27, 2009 at 9:35am

Sorry that I was not able to chime in earlier - - just stuff and being 'home alone'.
Bea and John THANK YOU! You are both WONDERFUL. What a great job. WOW! I'm so glad that we could be with you. Every comment here is so true. For those that missed it - there will be more. They set the bar at a wonderful place for the rest of us.
It was a wonderful day, and car pooling was an amazing treat. Unfortunately, I only turned on my computer for a few seconds yesterday. I did realize that there is a great opportunity for each of us to reach out beyond our 'syber space' to other's in the Navy family. We can all go to our local recruiter's and encourage M&G's. They have one once a month in Chico for coffee. That is the idea. I am confident that my sailor is not the only recruit coming out of our area. Bea set a wonderful example finding folks for us to be connected.
I was a bit sorry that I allowed myself to not get to chat with everyone there, and know them better. It was wonderful to be with all of you, and YES well worth the 12 hour day :>}. My angel blessings, Susan

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