jmazzsmom

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-Colleen

Hi and Welcome.
We are happy to have you on the Navy for Moms site. You are invited to join either the Illinois or Missouri family page as listed below. It is a great way to find families in your area and even help plan meet and greets. We also have some packing parties for our troops overseas getting together.
Looking forward to hearing from you in one of our groups!
http://www.navyformoms.com/group/illinoisn4m
http://www.navyformoms.com/group/missourinavymoms
Be sure and let me know if you have any questions!
Carol

Howdy neighbor...we are in New Lenox and have a son currently at GL. He or she will do fine and so will you, just be ready for the rollercoaster ride! lol

Good luck to you...stay strong & no tears in front of him. We'll be seing you on this site. Mine graduates 11-5-10 and the time will go faster then you think!

There's a packing party in Normal, and I think a baking party, too. If you are interested in either, it's under the events page I believe. It's just a bit too far away for me at 2 1/2 hrs each way. (I'm down by St Louis--not sure where you are.)
Let me know if you need anything.

Wow--our sailor plays trumpet, euphonium, drums & guitar. He did one year's study with Missouri Baptist in Youth ministries while attending Ranken Tech in precision machining at the same time. Two colleges in one year was hard, so he dropped the ministries, but not the passion.
Keep on making those memories. We're flying down to King's Bay, GA to see our son before his next deployment. He expects to dry dock next year in Norfolk.
How our lives keep coming back to the same interests---it's amazing!
Take care.

jmazzsmom, thanks for friending me. This website has really helped me with the roller coaster of emotions. The Bobster will report on Dec 14th also,,,,all the way from SC! He is pumped and ready....and so I am, but the closer the date gets the more I want to hang on. I guess its a Mama thing! :-)

Yes Bootcamp with be quite an experience for mine too! but I think a very good one. Good luck with the poison Ivy, I've never had a reaction to it, but I know that it's quite painful :-(

Donna when your son's time gets closer, tell him to get a haircut. I don't know if he has short hair or not, but most of the kids get a haircut before they go so they do not get labled. Not to short though because those Navy Barbers want something there to shave off! lol How are you holding up?

Our son slacked off at home too...We were calling him a "short timer" because he knew he was leaving and was trying to get away with all that he could. lol

Joe, our son, just graduated (PIR) on November 5, 2010 and now arrived in Pensacola Florida yesterday. Basic training went fast and I guarantee that your's will go fast too. I was busy writing Joe every single day and while that was keeping me busy, it was also helping him get through boot camp. They look forward to every single piece of mail that they get. So start stocking up on the stamps.

Also, in basic training they let our son keep his wallet, but he regretted not wearing a watch bcause they would have let him keep that too if he wanted. With them not having a cell phone, it was hard for them to keep track of the time. Put names, addresses and phone numbers on a small sheet of paper on who he should be writing to and that way he has the info at hand in his wallet. We also told our son to call only me because I had a cell phone that I was able to keep with me 24/7. You never know when you might get their calls. I'm sure that you probably know all this by know, but my cell phone was our life-line and I didn't want him to miss talking to us either. I would be heartbroken to have missed his calls...

Wow six days to go! Be strong and try not to let him see how emotional you are getting. I know it's hard, but I hid it from Joe until he was gone. I didn't want him feeling bad or thinking that he made the wrong decision. Hang in there...it does get easier. I still worry, but it is a different kind of worry now. The first three weeks of bootcamp is rough for them and for us...once you start getting letters, you will feel better. And, just a warning...Joe's first few letters were really up-beat and then came the bad ones. When I say bad, they were letters from him questioning himself on did he make the right descision and how he hated it there. Those shook me up pretty badly. I then had to write back with a football coach type of speech that you have to suck it up, you can do it, it's the choice you made, etc...I hated writing him like that, but later on I did hear from other Moms and other newly graduated sailors that was normal. I guess at some point they all become really home sick, tired of someone hollering in their faces 24-7 and then the novelty of them being there has totally worn off. I probably received three bad letters and when they arrived they were only addressed to me and not to my husband and I. In retrospect I think that he was trying to play on my sympathy more and didn't want his dad to think that he was a wimp or a quiter. Soon the good letters started arriving again and before I knew it, he was done with basic! Just one more thing...be prepared to write him every day. That is really important. Those kids live for those letters and he even asked me to write one of his shipmates who never got any mail! lol Joe graduated on November 5 and is currently in A-schol in Penscola. He will be able to come home for Christmas for two weeks and then he will be stationed in Washington. I never thought that I would make it through bootcamp and I did! The Navy should give us a ceremony too! Joe does like it now! Thank God! Keep in touch.