We've got him!

 Holy Windchill!  We spent 4 hours in single digit windchills waiting and waiting, but we got him back!


Below, organized Navy wives - the 5 of us followed each other and parked far away for an easy exit, and were able to keep warm in our cars for an hour or so while we waited for our first glimpse of the ship.

There she is!

Getting closer, this is still about 30 minutes from tying up, but it was time to head out of the warm cars and out into the cold!

Slowly, slowly approaching pierside

Finnegan looking cold but very happy!

The boys and I - good thing I didn't spend any time on my hair today, wind was gusting to about 25 -30 knots!

If you look closely, there's Santa under the jet canopy

BFF's boys - all our kids were real troopers out there in the cold today, but BFF is from Iowa, we must have passed on some good cold tolerance genes!  The only thing they complained about was being thirsty, but that's because I was rationing it out so we wouldn't have to leave our good spot to find a porta potty!

Then the P.A. system announced "Liberty Call, Liberty Call, All Hands".... and the flood started!

Classic Navy stuff below.... look closely at his "baggage"... this is "the bull" mascot of the VFA-37 Ragin' Bulls squadron - yep it goes on deployment with them!

 BFF & her hubby

playing with the B & W - I always love black and white for photos of sailors in uniform

Me & Hubby - and we barely got this photo, it all happens so fast. 

Shortly we will be on our way to Minnesota to celebrate Christmas and Homecoming, we have 1200 miles to catch up with each other - as of right now I am not agreeing with his new taste in music!  This too, shall pass... :)

All packed and ready to go!

I will admit that I am a horrible blogger while on vacation, I always envy those of you who can do updates, but I just can't seem to get my act together that much!  This will probably be it until after the New Year when we return.  I usually am able to read them on my iphone but it rarely maintains signal on the road enough for me to comment, but it sure helps pass the 24 hour drive home!

Thank you all for supporting the troops by making sure one particular Navy Wife got through deployment feeling supported and with sanity intact, you DO make a difference!

Wishing all of you Happy Holidays and New Year!

Am I ready?

As much as I can be! Kids were put to bed at 6:30 - I figure it will take them awhile to actually fall asleep tonight! I admit it feels pretty weird to be picking up a husband that you have only talked to via telephone 3 times in 7 months! Kind of like a Match.com hookup with no money back guarantee... "here's a husband for you, you have a 30 minute drive home to figure out this marriage thing again"! It's okay, it happens every time, I guess if nothing else it keeps things exciting!

This was Daddy & Finn saying goodbye 7 months ago...

AND seeing this now is the first time that I noticed that hubby and Finnegan's hair are identical in color! Does that make me a bad mom? :)

So here's how the drill goes tomorrow:

0500 Wake Up!
0615 Get everyone bundled up and in the car and head over to BFF's house
0700 At BFF's house to caravan with 3 other wives and 4 young boys
0815 High Tide, meaning they will be on approach in the Chesapeake Bay and we will be able to see them, OH glad I wrote that I have to pack my binoculars!
unknown time: The ship ties up, this takes HOURS. They have 5 brows to lower, but there are 5500 sailors onboard, so go figure how long this dance will take
1100-1200 Somewhere during that timeframe we will be seeing him!

All in all, we will be standing in the cold on the pier for close to 5 hours. Forecast is for it to be about 25-28º that time of day with gusty winds down at the waterfront. Winter homecomings are hard on kids, but what can you do? They will be bundled up and have lots of snacks and a thermos of hot chocolate if I have time, I also have to keep in mind that there will only be about 20 porta-potties for a crowd of over 10,000 people, so they can't have TOO much hot chocolate! Yep, lotsa fun with whiny kids, they are usually over it after one hour, since they can SEE the ship right in front of them, yet it will be a couple hours before they disembark. Fa, la, la, la, la.....

Tonight - I KNIT! Scarf totally NOT done yet, I spent the day packing for our trip and before I knew it, the day was gone.

I'm not too busy however, to be very upset about not being able to find my Christmas Tree in a Can - my favorite candle! - I wandered around and wasted a good hour looking for it.

Another thought: maybe I should change the way I've been dealing with each new day:

JUST KIDDING! :)

wait for it, wait for it...

 I can guarantee we'll be the only ones in the crowd of over 10,000 people with one of these!

No standard welcome home sign for me, they get lost in the crowd and they guys can't make out what's written on them anyways - the name of the game is for him to actually be able to spot us!  Whaddaya think?  Minnesota, here we come, just as soon as we grab him!