So What's Next?

It has sure been wonderful having David home this past week and it looks like he'll get to stay home a bit longer! Starting Monday, David will be working at the recruiting office in Kansas City until SWOS (Surface Warfare Officer School) starts in April. Right now he has a report date of April 13th but there's always a chance that could change. He will be in SWOS for three weeks and will then head out to our San Diego station! I'm so excited for warm weather and beaches!! For the first two years of our station in San Diego, David will be assigned to the 844 foot long USS Bonhomme Richard, it's crazy how huge these things are! It holds 104 Officers, 1,004 enlisted, and 1,894 marines...oh, and 47 helicoptors! Hope this finds everyone doing well!

Ensign Gardner!

It's official...David is now an Officer in the Navy! We had a great time in Rhode Island and I'm attaching lots of pictures from our trip! We headed out Wednesday morning and arrived in Newport around 5:00pm. David had to work until around 9:00 so we got some dinner at Ruby Tuesday and waited for him to get "released." Thursday morning was the Change of Command Ceremony. This is where the Candio class passes down the responsibilities to the class below them. Here are a few pictures from that...

After the ceremony, we drove around Newport to see the beaches and mansions until it was time to start getting ready for the Hi Moms Banquet. Here are some pictures from our drive...

At 5:30 we went to the Hi Moms Banquet, met lots of classmates, listened to many speeches, and ate some yummy food! It was a really good time...especially when their Drill Instructor made them "get on their face" to do push-ups while family and friends counted. Chrissy and I finally got a picture with each other at the banquet :)

After Hi Moms, we made it a fairly early night as we were getting up at 4:45AM to join David and his classmates in the "chow hall." There, they gave us a demonstration of how they have eaten for the past 12 weeks. (If I can figure it out...I'm going to post a video to show you what it was like.)

After chow, we went back to the hotel to get ready for graduation. The ceremony was wonderful! Here are a few pictures from graduation day!

The flight home was very long and got very delayed but the good news...David was on the flight with us! Yep, David is home but we're not exactly sure for how long. He reports back to Rhode Island for SWO School on April 13th but he will likely have to take a class or two before then in San Diego. For now, I'm enjoying every second he's home!!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Even from far away, David still made this a GREAT Valentine's Day! He sent me these beautiful flowers and mailed the sweetest card.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!

A Week From Today!

Well, this time next week David will officially be a US Naval Officer! David's parents, sister, my mom, and myself will all be headed to Rhode Island this Wednesday...looks like the weather is even going to cooperate :)

On Thursday, David flew in a helicoptor for the first time ever, he enjoyed every second of it! Here's a picture of him inside the heli...gotta love those BCG's ("birth control glasses" as they call them).

I sure wish I didn't have a ridiculous amount of graduate work to be doing right now...I'd rather be searching for houses and jobs in San Diego!

San Diego or Bust!

Yes, it's true...we're heading to sunny San Diego!! We're very excited for some wonderful weather and beaches! We will know the exact date we head out once David gets his orders. He will likely get there before me since I'm staying in Independence through the end of June to finish teaching and my masters. He's down to only 9 days before graduating! This has been a very, very long time coming and we're all ready for him to graduate and get the heck out of OCS!

Hope everyone is doing wonderfully!

Spontaneous Weekend!

I would not generally describe myself as a spontaneous person...until now! David had heard late last week he would possibly be getting some liberty over the weekend and wanted me to come out to visit. At first we had talked ourselves out of doing it but the next day, decided what they heck! So, the next morning I booked a package deal and me and my faithful GPS headed to Rhode Island! I am so glad I took advantage of this opportunity as it turned out to be a wonderful weekend! David's class only had on-base liberty but that was fine, we enjoyed every second of being together!

I also got to meet Chrissy and her daughter Mary face-to-face :) We met up Saturday morning and drove around waiting for our husband's to be "released." It was great to finally meet her and Mary!

As of tonight, David only has 18 days till graduation and there are only 16 days until his parents, sister, my mom, and myself head out for graduation!

Enjoy some pictures I took over the weekend!

I took this as I was leaving the Navy Lodge I stayed at...the view was awesome!