The Cyber Sisterhood

Did anyone recieve their Division pictures yet? Ours just arrived via Fedex. They're nice, but good Lord, he looks so serious in them..he looks like a mixture between sad and mad. But it's up and in the frame! :)

The more I look at that photograph which just arrived...it is so precious! He looks so serious, but it is just precious. I could cry. That picture seems to reinforce the reality that he is in the Navy. I need a tissue.

oops! Sorry, Beverly (teacher)...I misspelled "receive"! I was typing fast and forgot..i before e except after c!

Tricia~ I understand :). I have one on my desk, that I can't seem to stop looking at. I told Ed,"Son, I have never seen you so pale." lol. He just laughed and said,"I know..right!"

I found out from someone who used to do photography at boot camp that the guys are pretty tired, then are told to look serious for the portrait. The result is a sad/mad look. Chris is disgustingly photogenic (I am still jealous) so the boot camp portrait isn't too bad. Just not the expression I would have chosen.

When Chris comes home on leave we're taking him to the photographer who did my younger son's senior portraits, to get a set of much nicer (smiling!) portraits in each of his basic uniform variations (whites, blues, PBs and digis).

Arwen~ Good idea!

After Battlestations 21 the guys returned to the compartment, showered and went to bed early(a treat, LOL). The next morning they all woke up for Captain's Cup (which he said Div 100 won for their group of 4) and had a bad case of pink eye and was covered from head to toe in "itchy purple octopus rings." It freaked out his division, who wouldn't let Chris near them, and when the RDCs arrived they sent him directly to medical. He was given two prescriptions (eye goop and antihistamines?) and 3 day's SIQ, so he missed the Captain's Cup. By the time we saw him Friday he only had a tiny bit of remnant of pink eye and the spots were gone. They never did figure out what caused it, but they suspect it was something in the water, either the flooding drill or the firefighting, that did it. That stuff is recycled and full of chemicals.

Oh, I almost forgot. Our Navy 4 Moms Pink flag arrived with my luggage on Sunday morning, and while I didn't get to share it with you then, here it is at the Navy Lodge. I left it there, they said they may use it to welcome new Navy moms in the future.

Okay, just start your post. Click on the little camera on the little task bar above the comment box, and navigate to the photo you want. When you find it, hit the "add" button. It sometimes takes a few minutes to download large files, so be patient.

That is odd. Are your photos jpgs?

You do know you won't actually see the photo until after you "add comment," right? There is no preview page for the photo itself. It is just a bunch of gobbledygook.

Can anyone who has the pic from before the ceremony with the group of us down by the end please email it to me. It would be the only pic from the weekend that I would have.

Hey there Sisters!! I've spent the last hour + adding pictures to my photo album. Only N4M friends can view it so if we haven't friended yet, just send a request and we'll hook up. :-) I'll try to post some here. I love all the pics I've seen. I am putting your kiddos in my scrapbook. Slimsam I need your "real" name LOL....you can PM it to me if you are more comfy - I sent you a friend request.

Sandra - the cake was lovely. Arwen - I'm glad you got a pic of the flag - thats going in the scrapbook too.

BTW guys - notice Arwen is in a SLEEVELESS shirt? When I met her I was a frozen mess and she is standing there in a pretty sleeveless shell! I should have known her right away just from the beach clothes being worn in the middle of the blizzard! :-) LOL

Phillip, me and my youngest, Lauren

Hubby, Shawn, Phillip me and Lauren (oldest daughter Rachael is taking the picture)

Here is Rachael and Lauren waiting for PIR to begin.

Phillip and Shawn "boating" in Gurnee Mills mall at Bass Pro Shop

Well, I've slowed down the page by downloading pics, I might do one or two more later.....I have to get to my paper work.

Beach clothes? I'll have you know the shell was a sweater (knit and soft) and the other sleeveless shirt was a turtleneck!

*chuckle*

I TOLD you I'm part polar bear. But did anyone believe me? Humph!

I know the first one is only the back of them... but it is my favorite of all!

This is a good shot of Division 099

Yet notice how Beverly said nothing about me wearing a sleeveless dress. I was walking around all day and part of the night in either a dress or t-shirt that were both short sleeve.

Okay, I'm going to do my "homework". I'm glad I popped back on - I love the pictures!!! I'll show my students the pics of Emmett and Phillip (Thanks Pam!).

I want to stay and visit but duty calls!! Be good!! :-)

Sandra- I just love your story! It's wonderful that you got to see Nichelle two days in a row!! 'Pretty cool that "someone" called to reserve another room for you too.
You must have been so happy! Wow, she's already back to the grindstone? That's some quick recovery. Good for her!

Arwen- I like the new name, very clever. ;^)

Wow, by the time she's ready to get back to a division, they'll be able to stick her straight into Battlestations.

scgf-I love your picture! You're right. The words are perfect!

So many handsome sailors!!
Congratulations to everyone!!!
It was great to meet some of you at meetngreet. I wish I could have gotten there on time and met more of you.
Arwen- It was great to meet you and Navy Lodge. I'm definitely going to pass your sage advice onto my son so he doesn't spend hours looking for 10 ft. of gigline. :)

Great picture, Mel!
I'm so glad you were able to make it!!
We'll have to get together for a movie soon.

Deneen, what a handsome young sailor you have! You must be so proud. We all are!

Joymar, thank you for telling me about your conversation with my son. You moms were so nice to talk to him so much and include him the way you did. Instead of feeling as though he didn't have a mom there, I think y'all made him feel as though he had a lot of moms there. I'll never forget this.

Donna, we all feel your pain. SO many, if not all of us, felt ourselves in a state of shock after saying goodbye to our sons and daughters and then not knowing how they were doing, how they felt, etc. We only knew how WE felt and thanks to N4M we were able to console each other somewhat and know a great deal more about what was happening at the GL and how they were doing. I'm so happy that your time to see your child has come. Now it becomes very exciting and quite a bit less stressful since you will be able to communicate with your child again!

I can say that I now have a lot of confidence in the military; that they do take good care of them, and I also see that my son is very happy and I do believe that if given another chance to choose a path for himself, that this is the path he would still choose.

God bless all of you moms and your kids. I just think the world of ALL of you. Your kids are very, very special people who clearly have very, very, special moms and families.

I must say that I am sad that I didn't get to meet any of my N4M friends :( By the time that we made it into Great Lakes on Thursday, Aiden had been in the car for 6 hours and was spent. He crashed by 9 that night :( THEN, after PIR, Patrick didn't want to go anywhere. He lived on the computer and watched tv.
I want to say thank you to all of you for your support and encouragment. I could have never made it thru those 10 weeks without you! This site has been a blessing and I hope that all future families find it when their loved ones are off to bootcamp.
Best of luck to all your sailors! Who knows our paths might cross again some day!
It actually almost feels weird not to be on here every hour of the day... I will miss that! (well kinda)

Okay, let's stop with this "goodbye" thing. So we're not so focused on this group anymore, but that doesn't mean we can't keep chatting here. We were among the most active of PIR groups, even more active than groups graduating, even when our sailors were back in their P-days. There is no reason that has to change. We are SURVIVORS of 9 weeks of insanity in one of the stranger boot camp experiences, thanks to the holiday stand-down and our sailors being held for two weeks.

Michelle, sorry, it wasn't me with that link. I don't know where to get the shirts. Maybe you can go through our old posts to find it?

Hey Ladies~
I definitely plan on sticking around. Everyone here has become very special to me. I could not have made it through with out ya'll. I spoke to a woman in the airport..who lives in my area, and had started to join N4M. She later deleted her account. I wanted to say," You missed out on meeting some awesome women." So, a BIG THANK YOU to each and every one of you.

I think PIR19FEB should always be our home base. Afterall this is where it all started. :)

rivierafamilyof6
I just back on Sunday from seeing my son Div 101 shp7 graduate on the 19th Feb. and is was an amazing experience and we are so proud of him and could see the change in him as a confident young man. He also carried one of the div. flags and I was not expecting that so that was an honor. He flew out on Tues. 23rd Feb. to Boston and then to Connecticut where he will be doing the 6 week training. I think it's called Meps. and hopefully have a break in between to come home. He found out he is going to be a new daddy and my question is how does he go about getting baby covered medically before he actually gets married. He does want to get married. Can someone help with this or give me some suggestions on what he should do. Mama is due in March.

Hey Ladies~ I have a question...what do our sailors have to do about taxes for 2009. Ed went straight from home...to BC. The only W2 he would have, would be from BC.

Okie-dokie - I'm gonna come out there into cyberland with some superglue if you guys don't stop the bye-bye stuff........we are sticking TOGETHER!!!!!! Through thick and thin!!!!

I'm still wading through all the paperwork that piled up while I was gone. So many deadlines looming this time of year. I need a snow day (LOL - fat chance - it was sweater weather this morning, it is rainy and 44 degrees right now).

BooBoo - I missed the fact that you were wearing a sleeveless shirt....I was so fixated on making sure you had done your homework...did you turn it in missy? Hmmmmmm?????

Good question Rosa...I'm thinking they make their home state their permanent residence and file all their taxes through their home state. At least thats what we did when my ex was in the army.

That is a happy happy birthday!! :-) I'm so glad you got the pics today Jasmine! :-)

I haven't heard from Phillip - he was supposed to go to SC in the early morning hours today.

Hevy Beverly~ Heard from Ed. They landed okay, and were waiting their ride. Ed said the weather was MUCH nicer. lol.

need sp check .lol

Thanks Colleen...it truly does help:).

happy bday jasmine

who in Div 102 has a sailor going to Groton?

!!Happy Birthday Jasmine!! Glad you received the pictures:).

Rosa - I replied to your PM before I read your post that you had heard that the guys had landed in SC. I reckon the weather is MUCH MUCH better!!! LOL I know it is here in GA! I wore a sweater to work this morning. This time last week we were already on our way to GL!

At least my kid is now only one state over and is in the same time zone.

I showed GL pics to my students - they loved them! They were riveted - and were very into the snow pics

Lucky Girl!!! Ed is clear across the country:(((. Well, it gives me an excuse to go visit SC.

(((Edsmom)))) come on over!!! The east side is the best (but don't tell Mel or Debbie or Arwen ............)