The Sunday before last, November 23, I was able to attend Jeremy’s frocking ceremony at his command.  He got promoted today from Petty Officer Second Class to Petty Officer First Class.  That means he went up one pay grade, from E-5 to E-6.

In the Navy every March and September sailors take advancement exams.  Out of those who pass, the Navy picks those who it will advance.  The number varies for each rate (job).  Jeremy’s rate needs a lot of First Classes, so the advancement was nearly 100%.  My rate doesn’t need so many–the Navy thinks it has nearly enough First Classes for my rate–so the advancement was only around 5%.

I didn’t take the advancement exam because I don’t have enough time in rate.  I won’t be eligible until next September.  Seaman (E-3) can take the Third Class exam after six months.  Third Classes (E-4) wait a year before taking the Second Class Exam.  Second Classes (E-5) have to have three years time in rate before being eligible for the First Class exam.  Jeremy made Second a year ahead of me, so he took the exam this September.

And he made it!  And he did quite well, too!  He scored in the 99th percentile.  That means he did better than 99% of the others who took the same exam.

And so I got to go see him get frocked.  “Frocked” is a Navy term for wearing the insignia of a rank without getting paid for it.  The Navy is different from the other services when it comes to advancement.  In the other services a person gets selected for advancement but has to wait until he or she actually gets paid for the new rank before wearing that uniform.  In the Navy a person gets selected for advancement and gets to wear the new uniform immediately (gets frocked) and has all responsibilities and privileges that goes with the new rank but is still paid at the former rank level until later, when he or she is “actually” advanced and gets paid for the new rank.

Usually at a frocking ceremony, the frockee shows up wearing the new uniform and is read and presented with the frocking letter.  At Jeremy’s the reading and presentation was done while he and the others still wore their second class uniforms, and then after, the first classes presented all the frockees with their new uniforms–the same one, but with a first class crow sewn on.

So now he’s an official first class.  And it will be even more official when he gets paid for it.  Since he scored in the 99th percentile, I’m hoping he’ll get paid in the first increment, which will be in January.  It could be any month between January until June.  Who made which increment hasn’t been announced yet.  (It won’t be “announced” as such–it will show up on the advancement website on his profile sheet–the result page of his exam.)

Congratulations, Jeremy!

After that we went to my command’s party, at my LPO’s house (Leading Petty Officer).  We ate turkey again and played taboo and those who wanted to played Uno and Sorry and some played Poker.

After ten hours combined partying we went home, tired but happy.

So I’m thankful first of all, that I had somewhere to go on Thanksgiving.  So many do not.  I’m thinking of my shipmates who are on ships this Thanksgiving.  Some of them are really taking it hard that they’re missing Thanksgiving.  It made me feel a little guilty for enjoying myself this day.  I wish I could do something for them, but I don’t know what.

And then I’m thankful for Jeremy.  It’s so wonderful to have him here to spend the holiday with me.  It could so easily be that he or I would be out on a ship and be separated as we have been so much.  I’m so glad I get to be with him.  I’m very thankful for him–for his love, for his caring, for his companionship, for him.

And I’m thankful that I have a family back home that is supportive and that loves me.  Thanks guys!  I love you too!

And last, but not least, I thank you, God, that you have given me so many blessings.

Thank you.

It was to commemmorate that I was selected as the third quarter’s Junior Sailor of the Quarter.  I received the LOC and a nice plaque.  My OIC (Officer in Charge) told me it was to go on my “I Love Me Wall” and asked if Jeremy had anything like it.  She said if he did, mine was to go higher!  I also have my picture on the awards wall in the foyer of my building.

It’s really nice I got something.  I work really hard and put in long hours and try to do extra stuff for the command and the sailors there; not just do the minimum like a lot of people do.  And I’ve never gotten anything like this before.  At DLI I was just trying to make it–to pass, which I didn’t end up doing.  I couldn’t shine there.  I spent all my effort trying to accomplish the minimum.  And at the John F. Kennedy I couldn’t shine either.  There wasn’t anything to shine at.  We cleaned all day and rarely went out, and when we did I was in training and trying to learn my job.  In a way I was at the bottom there too–among many others at the bottom.  So it wasn’t until I came here that I felt I could contribute something to the command.  Here I’ve been treated as an important and, increasingly, valuable member of the team.  And I feel good about being able to contribute.

I just wanted to share the good news.

Jeremy and I have taken her around to see various places.  We took her to see several historical sites: a couple of old, traditional Arabic houses where the rooms are built around a central courtyard and to some ruins: notably the oldest mosque in Bahrain and a 4,000 year old village, and an old fort that the Portugese built and also to the Burial Mounds, which just look like mounds of dirt but are actually graves thousands of years old.  We also took her to the zoo where I got attacked by a bird–I’ll try to post pictures later.  We took her to church and she and I also went to base to watch Jeremy play football (American football, not “real” football).  We haven’t gotten to see everything, but we’ve done a lot.  Other sailors are always telling me there’s nothing to do in Bahrain and they wouldn’t bring their families out because there’s nothing to do.  I don’t know what they call “something to do” because I find plenty to do.  We haven’t even taken Mom to see the museum or the other two forts or the Barbar Temple or the Grand Mosque or the Tree of Life yet.  So if anyone wants to come visit us, there’s plenty of stuff to see–unless you don’t like historical things–then maybe not so much.

One way Mom’s been a real blessing here is that she’s been helping me get organized.  I couldn’t get the whole week off, but they did let me work half days, so I would come home at noon and Mom and I would work around the house getting clothes organized and books shelved and boxes unpacked from our move back in the middle of August.  I bought some plastic organizer drawers at the NEX (Navy Exchange), and we used those to organize the clothes.  I have closets and some shelves but very little in the way of drawers, and things like socks go better in drawers, so putting things in the plastic drawers has helped a great deal.  My clothes storage area looks so much neater now.

So I’m glad Mom came.  For those of you in Illinois–thanks for letting her go for a couple of weeks.  I’ve heard that a couple of you (I won’t name names) think she’s been gone an awful long time, but for me it seems that she’s been here just a short time.  I wish she could be here a bit longer.  But I’m glad she could come for the time that she has.  Now if I could just get the rest of my family to come visit me….  (Jeff and Betsy, we should talk about this…)

(Again, hover over the picture to view the caption.  Click to make bigger.)

It was actually cold getting off the plane in Alaska.  We were wearing sweatshirts, but after living in hot Bahrain we didn’t have much in the way of jackets (and no coats at all), and we didn’t bring any anyway.  But it wasn’t too bad, and we didn’t have long to wait until the airport shuttle came and got us.  As I was getting into the shuttle I stepped on the grass and the ground felt spongy under my feet.  That is so different from what I’m used to.  I don’t know if the ground in Alaska really is spongy, especially at this time of year, or that I’m not used to walking on actual dirt anymore, as the ground here in Bahrain is dirt, yes, but quite hard.

It was also interesting how much light there was.  It was after midnight when we landed, and the sky was not entirely dark, although it was black in most places.  It turns out that there are only a few hours of darkness in Alaska at this time of year.  For example at 10:00 p.m. the sun is only just starting to set.  And in June, from what I was told they pretty much have 24 hour daylight.  Of course in winter it’s dark a lot: I was told the sun doesn’t get up until after 10:00 a.m. and it’s down by 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

So we slept a few hours and then got up to get ready for the wedding.  Jeremy’s sister, Jessica, was getting married.  We got to the church in plenty of time to meet the family, talk to them, watch everyone else finish getting ready, take the family photos (very important), and eat lunch (also very important).  Jessica married into a very large family.  Her new husband has 10 brothers and sisters.  The youngest is 4.  And everyone was there for the wedding, including the already married brother and all the college kids.  I really enjoyed my time with that family.  They were really sweet and a joy to be around.  They were very friendly and very accepting; I felt real comfortable around them.

The wedding itself went well.  I think Jennifer, another sister of Jeremy’s, took about 1000 pictures, mostly of Jessica, while she was waiting to walk down the aisle.  Jessica was very beautiful, and her groom, Abraham, couldn’t stop grinning.  It was a very sweet and nice wedding.

After the wedding and after we sent Jessica and Abraham away the rest of us “family” cleaned up and then we changed clothes and went to the mountains and went on a hike.  It was really fun.  We got to see a waterfall and some snow.  Snow in May!

Sunday we went to church there and went to the pastor’s house afterwards, who is Abraham’s dad.  It was real nice to spend more time with Jeremy’s family and Abraham’s family as well as the three members of the bridal party that weren’t technically family but were embraced as if they were.  It was real nice fellowship.

Monday we had to leave to go to Canada.  It turned out there were parks and things to do and see in Alaska.  And we got along so well with the people there, that I wished we’d made plans to stay.  I didn’t really want to leave.  But we had fun in Canada too, and someday we’ll go back to Alaska.  After all, we’ll surely visit Jeremy’s sister.  I just hope it’s in spring or summer.

(There are more pictures in the sidebar.)

He bought me a new game for the Wii.  It’s called Sims Castaways.  I haven’t tried it out yet as I’ve been too tired and migrainy (I made that word up) but I plan to.

Sunday was “Husband Appreciation Day” according to the sign on the door of the base library.  I meant to write a post about it, but didn’t do so as I was busy appreciating and enjoying Jeremy.  So here’s my late post:

Some things I appreciate about Jeremy (in no particular order):

1. He’s really good at computers.  This includes troubleshooting as well as being knowledgeable about software and the Internet.  When he gets back for good, I’m going to have him help me write some technology related posts.
2. He’s good at research.  If I want to know something and am having trouble finding it, he can usually do so.
3. He’s smart.
4. He’s very gentle.  I really appreciate that.
5. He’s very forgiving.
6. He’s patient and longsuffering.  Sometimes I need that.  <grin>
7. He’s not a complainer.  For example, he’s never complained about my cooking. (There’s been a few “burnt offerings.”  Hey, you try cooking on a Celsius stove when you’re used to Fahrenheit.)  He’s not critical.
8. I love his sense of humor.  He says the most random, funny things sometimes.  He’s crazy, but in a good way.
9. A correlary to the above: I love it that we can be silly together.
10. He accepts me.  I feel that I can be myself around him.
11. He loves me.  And he values me.
12. He’s an eternal optimist.  One of his favorite expressions is, “It could be worse.”  Since I tend to be pessimistic, he keeps me from getting too negative.
13. He sees the best in other people and has been teaching me to do that.
14. He’s my friend.  We have some good conversations.  I love it that I can share my soul with him.
15. We have a lot of the same interests.  This is good as this means we can have fun together.
16. He’s a hard worker.
17. He’s very persistent.
18. He’s a good leader and can make decisions.  Since I have trouble making decisions sometimes, this works out great.
19. He has a vision for the future.  He’s not wandering aimlessly around “like a lost soul.”
20. He loves God.

I could go on, but twenty is a good number.

I love you, Jeremy!

Some things I know about Caden. He’s very active. He likes to climb (like his Uncle Timothy when he was his age) and explore, and he’s very athletic. He also has a good mind. I got to see him last May. It was so fun interacting with him. Preschoolers can be great fun.

So Happy Birthday, Caden! I hope you have a lot of fun today!

I love you,

Aunt Rachel

Jeremy emailed me some pictures.  He said to mention he’s been stationed on the USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81).  It is the only ship in the US Navy to have a British officer permanently stationed aboard.  He adds that he can give us a few hundred other facts about the ship if we would like.  I bet!

Edited to add: If you click on the pictures, they will open up bigger.

Reading the Certificate

Getting Pinned

“Congratulations.” Note the shiny new pin above the “U.S. Navy” on the upper left of his uniform. (his left)

Jeremy’s new certificate.

In case you don’t know, the uniforms he and the officer are wearing are coveralls.  They are a one-piece uniform that is very comfortable and durable and is the standard underway uniform.  You can tell officers and chiefs because of the rank on their collars and the khaki belt they wear. (Yes, Jeff, he’s an O-5, but we call him Commander.)

The pinning took place in the ship’s wardroom, which is the place where the officers eat.  It is usually decorated very nicely, and as you can see this one is no exception.  Normally enlisted sailors aren’t allowed in there.  So it was special for Jeremy to get to have his ceremony in there.

Congratulations, Jeremy!

I am pleased to announce that Jeremy is now Surface Warfare qualified. 

Yay, Jeremy!  (Insert huge round of applause here.)

You may remember from my earlier post about it that he had a whole series of things he had to do to get this qualification:

• He had to complete some books
• And then take a test.  The test was hard, but he passed it.
• Then he had to do some walk-throughs, where he visited each department and demonstrated to the chief in charge of it that he knew about their department.
• Then he had a First Class board, more commonly called a Murder Board.  A group of First Classes (E-6) quizzed him about all the knowledge he was supposed to have about surface warfare and particularly as it applies to the specific ship he was on.  The reason it is called a Murder Board is because it is their job to determine who is ready to go to the real board, or the Chief’s Board.  It wouldn’t do to waste the chiefs’ time by sending them candidates who weren’t ready.  He passed this board “very well.”
• So finally he went to the Chief’s Board.  These can be grueling.  I don’t know how long his was, but I’ve known some boards that were three hours long.  Three hours of being asked any and every question concerning the mountain of information you had to learn about how to fight a ship.  That’s every system on the ship, every department from Operations to Weapons to Engineering to Supply, everything about a ship.  And you only have 15 seconds to answer.  If you take longer, that means you don’t know it.  So this can be very hard.  But Jeremy passed this, and he was told he did very well at this too.

Edited to add: Jeremy’s First Class Board was an hour long and his Chief Board was 45 minutes.  But he did his boards alone, so that means he had to answer question after question for the entire time.

So now he’s official!  He made it!  He can put (SW) in front of his name now.  Yes, the parenthesis are included.  It’s called a designation, as in Rate, Designation, Name.  (Jeff, rate is the same as rank–it’s just the Navy doesn’t call it rank except for officers.)

From the time a sailor enrolls in the surface warfare program he is given twelve months to complete it.  Most people take the whole twelve or close to it.  Jeremy didn’t have twelve months.  He did his in five.  And he did it “very well.”  That’s amazing!  It’s very hard to earn a pin in such a short amount of time.  There’s a huge amount of information to learn and then there are the hands-on stuff where you have to demonstrate proficiency in various things.  And then, of course, you have to coordinate with other people’s schedules in order to get signatures.  So it can be very time-consuming and why the Navy gives people a year to do it.  It is very amazing that Jeremy was able to complete it in so little time.  He worked very hard at it.

Correction:  Jeremy did his in three, not five.  That is even more amazing.

Today he will get pinned.  He gets an actual pin.  And he will get a certificate.  This is a great accomplishment, especially since people in his rate (job) don’t often get the opportunity to earn warfare pins.

I’m very proud of you, Jeremy!

Hoorah!   

Saturday I went to the BSPCA or the Bahrain Animal Shelter.  No, I was not looking for a pet, although I wanted to take a bunch of them home with me.  I went with a friend to volunteer there.  The first thing we did was go into the Cat House and help out there.  There was a staff member sweeping and mopping the cages.  We went behind him and put in the food and water and the litter boxes and beds.  And of course we petted the cats too.  There was a Persian there that looked very funny as it had recently received a haircut.  I never knew they got haircuts.  I hope it looks good when it finally grows out.  There was one cat brought in while I was there.  I never found out why.  Some of the cats had been there since August.  One was such a sweetheart she let me carry her around.  I don’t know why she was there so long.  If I could, I’d adopt her.  But I live in a “no pets” apartment.  There were a few kittens there too.  I expect they’ll go quickly.

After the cats we helped walk the dogs.  The dogs are not kept in kennels but in large pens.  There are around 8-10 dogs in each pen.  It’s easier to walk all the dogs in a pen at the same time instead of individually.  If you know dogs you’ll know why.  If you don’t know dogs, it’s because dogs are like people–they get jealous if they think someone else is getting something they’re not.  Fortunately for them on Saturday there’s usually a lot of volunteers.  So everyone takes one dog and thus the whole pen gets walked at once.  On the other days of the week the staff have to do it when they get time so maybe only one pen gets walked a day.  Even on Saturday, when every dog gets walked, there is still a lot of walking.  That is because there is a lot of pens and a lot of dogs.  It would be easy to spend two hours just walking dogs.

All the dogs seemed small to me, but maybe that’s because I’m used to seeing the big German Shepherd military working dogs on base.  These at the shelter looked to be from 30-40 pounds–so in the medium range of dog size.  They were also mutts and most skinny.  The only one I that didn’t look skinny was the one that looked like a rottweiler, and those dogs don’t look skinny.  My friend said a lot of the dogs had some saluki in them, and saluki is a skinny breed of dog.  There were also a lot of puppies there.  Most were half grown.  But they were all cute and definitely wanted attention.  If I were to be able to get a pet it would be hard to pick out just one.  They all need a good home.

Even though it was hard to leave the animals there, I enjoyed volunteering there and would like to go back.  It was fun being around all those animals that just wanted some care and attention.  But then I like animals, particularly dogs.

Later the same Saturday, I went to taekwondo.  I’d missed two weeks from being out of town and having a migraine.  I’ve had a lot of problems with migraines lately.  I don’t usually get this many.  I had one Saturday night too, but I took my medicine and went anyway.  I didn’t end up staying the whole time.  Maybe it was just as well.  My medicine tends to make me dizzy, and he was having us do these exercises that involved turning around (and around), which is enough to make you dizzy anyway.  Once I spun around too fast and ended up on my face on the mat.  I didn’t even realize I was falling until I was lying face down!  I wasn’t hurt.  That’s why we practice on mats.  The teacher applauded.  That’s what he does every time someone falls.  He says it’s so they don’t feel bad.  It does make it easier to laugh it off.  And it was funny.  I wish I could have seen myself.  I probably looked funny flying around and landing on my face.  So now I can officially say I’ve had my first fall in taekwondo.

The klutziness doesn’t end there.  Yesterday when I was riding my bike home from work I wiped out.  That means I came as close to falling down as makes no difference.  I tried to jump a curb and failed.  I guess I need to find some ten-year-old boy and have him teach me how to do it.  They all know, right?  So I scraped some skin off my knee.  It bled a little bit and hurt some too.  But as both my mom and Jeremy’s mom like to say in situations like this–I’ll live.  The ironic thing was that my senior chief talked to us about bicycle safety at work just that morning.  He’d said that even though it’s not required, we should wear long pants and long sleeves when riding.  I thought that was ridiculous, especially with Bahrain’s climate, but guess what?  I wasn’t wearing pants.  But will this encourage me to wear pants in the future?  Probably not.  So have I learned my lesson?  That would be a negative.  I have learned not to jump curbs.  Does that count for anything?

Well that’s all I can think of for the exciting things that have been happening in my life lately.  In blogging news I took down the “dead” widget from the sidebar.  It’s supposed to tell you the temperature in Bahrain.  It’s really cool, but it stopped working, and I don’t know why.  So I will wait until my computer guru husband comes back and hopefully he can get it working again.  Until then, I put a search bar up in its place.  I figured I have enough posts now that if someone were looking for one it would be annoying to page through all the archives; they should be able to search for what they want.  I haven’t tried it, so I don’t know how well it works.  It’s also rather ugly.  Sorry.  Nothing I can do about that.

That’s all, folks.  I’m off to bake a cake–Triple Chocolate Hot Fudge Cake.  All you have to do is add water.  Sounds easy and delicious.  I love chocolate.  I’d share if there were some way to send it electronically.