Boot Camp Moms (and loved ones)

beloved - mail voting is our only option in WA. I used to be a poll clerk every election and I miss that. It was so great seeing people from the community and neighbors coming in to vote. We are missing that. I am glad I brought my kids in when I did it so they could see real democracy.

Chipmunk - I hope we are closer to that beam me up than we could imagine. It would make visiting our SR's or vice versa without quarantine so much easier. I am sure those beams could filter out covid.

party - Thanks. 6 weeks of silence was almost too much to bear. My sweet dyslexic boy actually HAS been writing letters. Even longish ones. And so cute .... he puts hearts at the end of them every time. I agree .... we do need in person options and WA has not had a real fight for any statewide positions since we went to mail-in ... scary.

OMG, so many calls which brings so much relief and PRIDE!!! What a great day!!

Good Morning Ladies and welcome to all of our new moms,

Please look at the links that belovedbyHim posted they are good to read so you know what to expect during boot camp. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask as someone will answer. 

I love that there was so many calls yesterday. That was awesome. 

Receiving letters and getting calls is the bomb.

Keep those phones on you at all times and those ringers on loud as you just never know when a call will come in.

Another day closer to PIR. 

Kim- good to see you on here. Yay for letters.  :)

Good Morning everyone!! Just a quick hello before I start my busy day! 

 VintageGal - we shall check that movie out!

Katharine and others, I tell my family, I sometimes feel like I learn more about what is going on in our country by reading posts on N4M than the news. I had no idea there were states where you could not even go in and actually vote in person!!  Makes me realize that I need to be willing to be an election official once my kids are all out of the house! That explains why everyone was talking about their ballots being mailed to them.

We lived in WA for a few years and loved the area we were at, but I am glad we are not still there, for that reason alone.

BelovedbyHim - I understand your busy days!! Hopeful that the building issues will all get resolved, especially when dealing with older family members. 

Welcome again to all of our new members!! 

Good mornign everyone.  So good to hear about all the wonderful calls!

Our state has both mail in and in person voting.  I used to be able to walk around the corner and down a block to vote, but they moved the polling place to one much further away.  Been voting by mail for several years now, and they're quite good about it.  Everyone get a ballot without requesting it if they are registered, and there are safeguards in place so the mailed ballot isn't counted if the person chooses to vote in person.  

Morning ladies (and gentleman)! I think I am caught up. 

Chipmunk - talking to my son yesterday the PO hated them cause of how bad they marched - but at the beginning that should be expected, lol.

Kristel = yes I had a good day, thanks! So glad to hear your SR has changed his outlook - it will make all the difference these last few weeks.

Ds - sorry he got fired. My husband did that job and pretty much there are watch times no one likes but everyone has to do it so the whiner needs to get with the program. Gotta suck it up! That is awesome he is E3…

NWM - too cute your 3rd grader telling his g-ma that, lol!

Vintage - “has been” autocorrect was autocorrected  into my brain back to husband so I did not even notice, lol. That is funny/not funny! So glad you got to talk to him and he likes his new division!

Toby - all of my kids said they could write every day - at night the head is the best place due to better lighting, lol. Glad he sounded good and you could record. That first phone call sure does ease some of the anxiety..

Party - good morning right back at ya! How did I miss that you have 2 sailors? Is one “adopted”?

Csmom - yay for phone calls! All A schools seem to be shorter now. Mine went from 5 weeks to 3 weeks. For RS. Not sure what is going on with #4 as they keep changing where he will go first and added another school in the mix. I am sure another person on here will tell you but do not post when BST is.

Katharine - I would have thought you had a whole orchard! Hmm wondering if you could side hustle sell apple cider? Lol! Glad your SR calle and that he is doing well. Don’t you just love seeing I love you or little hearts from them in letters? He probably has his National Defense Service Medal and then his ribbon for how well he did on Live Fire. Marksman/Sharpshooter/Expert - as far as I know those are the only awards/medals given at RTC.

A little frustrated at my #3 A school - apparently mail that is not a package never makes it to the person and I used UPS and a padded envelope to send him his mail in ballot and just like every envelope I have mailed that way - it does NOT get to them. I thought going UPS and padded would be better than a plain envelope. My friend also sent #2 and #3 a card with gift cards in it and they never made it to them.  This cannot be legal!
Well, I have my kitchen floor to scrub - no other way to get all the dirt out of the little "pock marks" in the tile. Then all I need to do is clean my oven and pull the stuff out of the cabinets and clean the shelves. I did the outside yesterday.
So, I will try and avoid social media like I did yesterday. Amazing how much more I get done with no distractions!
Have a great day everyone!!

Good Morning All, Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone got off to a good start. So Glad we had yesterday off had many things to do. So this weekend I picked out my countertops, cupboards Back splash, sink, Hardware. and yesterday bought me a new stove, Island hood vent, Faucet..........cant wait for my kitchen to get started, hoping for Christmas for it to get done! I will be having Christmas and open house to show off my remodeled kitchen WHOOO HOOO! so excited! something me and Hubby had been wanting to do for a while now, but Now in my hands to do.

Glad to see so many calls received that's Great!

Hoping you all have a great Day!

Prayer for scripture below:

Heavenly Father, We Thank You for all the Marvelous gifts that you Bestow upon us. For Great is the Lord and Most worthy of our Praise. In Jesus Name I pray, AMEN!

Make sure to keep phones on High and close this week as I'm a Sailor calls will be coming through!

Happy 245th Navy Birthday, Great Lakes! It’s been a challenging year, but we’ve kept the training pipeline open.

USS Cole 20th anniversary Remembrance Ceremony from pier 12 at Norfolk Naval Station. #Remember67

We will #neverforget our shipmates who were lost during the terrorist attack on #usscole. #Remember67

Phoenix- while I certainly remember hearing about the USS Cole 20 years ago, it certainly has new meaning now. Very powerful video that made me cry while watching it. Thank you for sharing. 

Phoenix- while I certainly remember hearing about the USS Cole 20 years ago, it certainly has new meaning now. Very powerful video that made me cry while watching it. Thank you for sharing. 

Katherine - it has been a journey for you and I, with the long wait for a letter from our SRs. No news was good news!  Congratulations on his accomplishments proud mama! 

Vintage - I hate autocorrect! Seems like it works against us more than for us often. 

Everyone else - have a wonderful day. 

Good Morning DsMom2020 I totally agree, brought tears to my eyes as well!

MaterNauta  - ooooh pretty!

Good Morning,

There was a link that someone posted for the Navy's birthday concert I think it was. Can someone find it and repost it so I can see it? Please and Thank you.   :)

LadyBluefire- No you  didn't miss anything. :) Yes he is my adopted Sailor. :) He is my Sailor's best friend and this will be our first year not sharing Thanksgiving together. 

It feels different that's for sure but I know it will be ok. 

Belovedbyhim - your FIL is from Vegas then he’s my neighbor ;) we have hot summers but this town definitely grows on you. I love in the town right on the outskirts. I just love Colorado so I wouldn’t mind living there!

Katharine- All that from two trees?! Wow! Homemade apple YUMMM that sounds delicious! 

pheonixmom - I think I can speak for all of us that we would love to see your kitchen remodel reveal when it’s done! 

Pheonixmom- thanks for everything this morning <3 

MaterNauta - Beautiful blue candles! 

Dsmom- tell me about it! I told Katharine that her Seiter sounded great - CIDER! LOL

Good Afternoon VintageGal looking at what it is now and the after picture he drew up quite the difference already just a few adjustments. I cant wait to reveal it. My Daughter is more excited than I maybe because I'm paying for It. LOL! I will have to share when time comes.

Phoenixmom- I can't wait.  :)

Csmom, so wonderful you got to hear from your son and he is doing so awesome. I know you are excited but please be careful and remember not to post dates and times for military procedures. I think they are just training us for when they actually do go out deployment but we need to be aware of OPEC. Happy for you.

Anti M-- That is how it is in CO too.  I don't have a problem with that, but I'm concerned that places that are requiring the ballot be mailed in will have issues, that and ballots being sent to folks who have died. We have the option to vote in person, bring in our ballot or mail in our ballot.  There are also Drop boxes.  However even having that system in place they found 600 ballots in a dropbox from the previous election in Nov 2019 that went uncounted.  They didn't say if it would have changed the outcome of any races but it's alarming!!  I don't want to prevent anyone from casting a legal vote!! I want to make sure that our election is run well and without the appearance of fraud so that everyone can trust the outcome.

I hope my Ballot gets in just sent it this morning. made sure to sign and all.

Beloved, I don't know about other states, but here dead voters do not get ballots.  Our county bounces the death records off the registration lists, plus they use the post  office change of address data before mailing.  We also have to have signatures on file to be registered, and they check every single ballot.  

That's crazy about the drop box.  I saw the story about the fake ones in California.  Our state is alright for mailing them in.  The chances of fraud are very slim.  

Question about the "small electronic device" allowed to recruits for quarantine: it can't connect to wifi, internet, or have a camera, but some are saying a Ninetendo Switch is okay and others say it isn't. Does anyone have a sailor who has been in quarantine who knows?

Jennifer I am sorry I do not know that answer for you, I'm still uncertain about this whole quarantine thing they are doing.

Everyone:  I just wasn't thinking and I took care of it this morning as soon as I realized what I did.  No more posting dates.  Even if he was just guessing.  So sorry!  But I do have a question--why is that wrong, but you can post what they are doing the other weeks?  Just curious!  At least I've seen others posting about when they do the fire fighting, live fire, etc.  Maybe that's wrong, too?  I really don't know.  Lol

And by the way--another letter today!  A phone call yesterday, a letter today!  I feel like it's Christmas!

I have a question about voting.  This summer when we all got the application in the mail to request an absentee ballot, my SR and I tried to figure out how to get it for him since we didn't know what his address would be.  He asked his recruiter, and the recruiter said not to worry about it--The Navy would make sure he could vote.  Now at the time of the election, he will have just gone to A school, and we just got his address at boot camp a couple weeks ago.  I'm afraid we messed up and he won't be able to vote.  But in his letter today, he made it sound like he would be able to vote.  Maybe the Navy does take care of that?  

Jennifer:  I really don't know, but I saw on FB that they aren't allowed anymore.  That if they brought them, they had to box them up with everything else.  But you can't always go by FB.  I believe ROM changed somewhat when they switched from Great Wolf Lodge to Fort McCoy.  Does anyone else have any more information than that?  

How exciting for the Letters YAY!

Well folks my time has come to go home, Until tomorrow. Have a Great evening all!

C'sMom2020 - I am going to reply to your question as best as I can. - Battle Stations-21 (BST) is one of the pages to the right (you have to click view all) that Lemonelephant put together. 

BST is considered by the Navy to be the same as "ship movement." And this group page is a publicly viewed page. Even when you are not logged in, all messages can be read by anyone on the WEB. It really is best to not mention any dates of things, because it prepares us better to learn how not to reveal things once our sailor is out in the fleet. But Battle Stations especially are not to be mentioned. 

How someone posts something, with actual M/D dates is also more noticeable. I realize it seems like a contradiction, especially when you read the above post and you are allowed to share a date in a PM. Or you can look at the posted Divisions in a TG on the RTC site and make an educated guess as to when your SR's BST is going to be, but it is still a guess, you don't know for certain. Other training is not considered the same as "ship movement" but I would still not share exact dates - and if it is in the past, then that is different as well. 

Hi everyone!!!  Missing my daily 20 visits to the page!!  I am seeing lots of calls and letters!!!  So happy for you all!  
I am here..  still surviving and the headaches are still hanging on. Been skipping my glasses for most of the day and the roar is less but still there. Friday can’t get here quick enough to get into to see ophthalmologist. I can’t help but wonder when I got old enough to have a list of specialists to choose from for each issue!?!

on the sailor front...  mine has now been over 2 weeks. Still waiting for his actual classes to start for A School. Finally spoke with his sponsor on the ship. Who asked him if he wanted all 30 days for his leave!!!  He said he told them he was thinking 10-14 days. And he assured him he will be quarantined when he arrives on base for 14 days again.  He missed the Navy Birthday celebration lunch on base since he had watch. So no steak and lobster for him 

oh in another positive...  I don’t know if I explained by situation. In a nutshell, I take care of my dad-stage 4 lung cancer and my mom-severe and crippling rheumatoid arthritis  some days she can’t walk. Well, my dad has been fighting stage 4 for 4 years now. Last January he spent 5 days in ICU with pneumonia. He fought his way out. They stopped chemo to allow his lungs to heal from the pneumonia. Every 3 months he has scans to determine changes. Every time, no change is found. He had a scan last week, and once again, no change no growth. He has been off chemo for 9 months now. With no negative affect. The oncologist said no chemo again. Will recheck in 3 months!  He was given 6 months. And that was 4 years ago. Still fighting and stubborn   I know where my sailor got that stubborn streak!  
ok my head pounding again. Back to my corner!  Miss chatting with you all and so excited as you are one day closer to PIR!

I also highly recommend that everyone go to this site without logging in. The easiest way is to just click on it from your email feed and you can view all the messages in the BC Moms group without logging in. Then go to your picture and click on it without being logged in. If your profile page pops up with all information available, then I highly recommend that you go to your settings and change it either to private - members only or private - friends only. 

Even in my son's Ombudsman FB group - dates for my sailor's ship to go in and out to sea are not posted. We are expected to get that information directly from our sailor who gets it directly from their command. 

Shanny - So good to hear from you!! Sorry to hear your sailor missed out on the steak and Lobster!!!  Mine probably missed out as well, due to his duty schedule. Our home rule "Life's not fair", rings true in the Navy as well!

Does anyone else have an answer for Jennifer and her question about whether or not a Ninetendo Switch is allowed during Quarantine - ROM? 

C'sMom2020 - I don't have any idea on the voting for the sailors. B'sNukeMom posted a link "Please remind your Sailor's to vote - they can go to FVAP.gov for information."

That is the best that I can do. 

C'sMom2020- Whoo Hoo that's awesome another letter. Whoo Hoo.

As for voting mine already voted they mailed it to him so he went ahead and voted. I was like ok. That was different that he already got his.

Jennifer_ Nice to see you on here. Mine just started his ROM today and he was able to bring his switch. We had not heard any different. They are allowed a hand held electronic. That's the last we heard from the other moms. I didn't see your post or I would have answered earlier. 

VintageGal- that is awesome more letters coming. Whoo hoo.

Shanny- It is good to see you on here. I hope you start to feel better and have good news on Friday.

Mine also missed his steak and lobster he had it last year but not this time as he is just starting his ROM. 

Yes, they are still having to be quarantined at some bases if they leave and come back again. So hopefully more visits will be allowed. That's exciting thou that they are talking about him getting some leave time. That will be good.

 Your dad sounds awesome and what a fighter. Glad to hear he's been kicking it in the butt. 

Have a good evening ladies.   

Voting...  I spoke with our village clerk about military voting when I was trying to figure out what to do for my son...  she said there is a way for them to vote online and it sends it to the clerk where they print out the completed ballot. Not sure how it works or if that is available in every state. I took my son’s address for A School to the clerk and she sent it directly to him. It’s been just over a week and he hasn’t received it yet...

Partyofseven - I don't know if the rules would be different as for ROM at BC versus at a Base, with regards to electronics. It will interesting to find out. 

Chipmunk- I know. That's why I posted that. Cause when my other Sailor was in ROM he could have one and his phone as well. 

I am also interested to see what happens to. Is this a new thing for them. Or just depends on each individual base. 

Yes, it will be interesting to find out.