Quick Life Updates!

Hello from the lovely land of Wisconsin everyone!

I thought I would shoot out some quick life updates, since our big announcement.

Ready?

May 9

Courtney graduates with her M.Ed.

 

 

 

and proceeds to run through "The Arch" 

(which I had successfully avoided until they called my name and I returned that library book...) 

  

  

  

May 10

Mother's Day AND Mom's Birthday

 

Headed to Atlanta to visit the Aquarium and have some delicious Cheesecake Factory

  

  

 

  

 

May 12

Got in the car with Mom, Dad, Bings, luggage, all sorts of wedding stuff, and three bags of grass seed that they don't sell in the north, or at least in Chippewa...and headed to Wisconsin.

  

 May 16

Packed up family, yet again, headed north to Duluth, Minnesota to see my little sister graduate from the University of Minnesota - Duluth. Yay Ash! (even though it snowed. seriously.)

That is Ash on the right, with her college roommate of all four years, Sara, on the left. They were randomly matched as roommates freshman year, and Ash will be a bridesmaid in Sara's wedding this August.

    

and we proceeded to go out "Duluth-style" to a bar called "Grandma's" where we had a fab time

 

 

For the last couple of days my lovely sister and I have been running wedding errands and playing with Bings.

 

And now, you are up to date!

Dear Everyone,

As you may have heard by now, we got the earth shaking news last week that Austin will be deploying sometime between the June 28 and July 1. Until either October or November.

But wait, I hear you saying, isn't that going to wreck havoc on your July 17 wedding date?

Why yes, yes it is.

So therefore, we have decided to move the wedding to June 12, 2009.

After many, many discussions with friends and family we have decided that this is the best move for us due to  issues such as deposits, and the fear that if we move it back, this whole thing may happen again in 6 months.

June 12 is guaranteed, and that's about as good as we can get, so that's what we are going for. We hope that all of our friends and family that are able will still be able to make it, but completely understand that this is throwing a wrench in everyone's plans, not just ours.

Thank you so much for all of your love, support and understanding through this whole ordeal.

We love you all :)

That guy's birthday

Since Austin recently found out about where we are heading, AND turned the big 2-5, AND we are leaving Athens shortly, our weekends (and weekdays for that matter) have become absolutely packed with fun adventures.

Last Friday we went out on the town with the Navy folks to celebrate Orders Reading. On Saturday we headed to somewhere Austin has always wanted to go on his birthday...Medieval Times.

Yes, it is true - a 25 year old man wanted to go see pretend knights joust for his big celebration. I had gone a couple times via school orchestra trips, as had most of the other people who went with us, but we all went in good spirits anyway.

For those who have not been, you go sit in a specific section and cheer for knights fighting valiantly (read: choreographed in advance) for your amusement.You eat food with your hands, and hopefully drink some overpriced adult beverages to induce further cheering for your knight.

Of course there is a story that involves one of the so called "knights" being a dirty, rotten cheater (rest assured, he is NOT from your kingdom) who kidnapped the prince who was carrying a treaty of peace so that the countries would remain at war and he could be the ultimate champion. Right.

Austin had a fabulous time cheering for...the RED KNIGHT!  

(who was not the dirty, rotten cheater - whew.)

Here we are getting ready to watch some medieval jousting

and drinking overpriced, albeit HUGE, adult beverages.

(This is now his favorite chocolate milk glass.)

All in all we had a great time, though our knight was taken down prematurely.

Darn you Yellow Knight. Darn you to heck.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

It is hard to believe, but today is this blog's birthday! One year of posts! Crazy!!!

Oh yeah...it is also this guy's birthday...

Happy 25th Austin!!!

 {Love you and congrats on being an "old" man ;) }

We are headed...

...back to Norfolk!!

Austin has been assigned to DDG-51, the USS Arleigh Burke!

 

No details yet, but as soon as we know - you will too! 

Poll Results and List Details...

Well, the poll results I think reflect the personal vendettas - rephrase: agendas?desires? ha!

70% of people, or 14, of our friends and family voted that we go to Norfolk, with Italy coming in second and then San Diego. {I voted for Italy...sadly, there wasn't even a billet available there...next time!}

Go figure, but Austin and I concurred with the majority! We/He ranked all Norfolk slots on the billet list! {ship platforms; Cruisers, DDGs, LHD, and Carriers...it may mean something to you military folk}

As a first tour, we figure that it would be nice to have a support network in place for us {read: me, when Austin deploys for 6 months and we have no children to divert my attention from the fact that he is gone...}

In the "comment" section we composed the following statement:

"I am planning to be married on July 17, 2009. These platforms are my preference, but it is of great importance to me -- and my fiancee -- that the ship I am assigned to will not deploy until after this date. Any effort to match accordingly will be greatly appreciated. Thank You."

I say anyone with a heart will do with they can, Austin says I am 'soft' from working with student affairs/'feelings'-type people.

Truly, I wanted to add a section saying that if familial support is integral to the success of the Navy, they had better not make his future wife's first feelings about the Navy be that of bitterness and resentment for killing her plans for this wedding...Austin thought that wasn't 'professional'...whatevs.

We shall see...we shall see...

Happy Birthday Bings!

Yes, I know...everyone is waiting for news on the list. Rest assured - when we have news, you will too! {he turns in the list tomorrow morning and we will find out on Friday}.

So to focus on more fun {and less anxiety-ridden} topics...

Yesterday was Bingley's 2nd Birthday!

Just a little under two years ago we brought home this little thing...

...who grew into this

 

We decided to make his birthday a little fun this year since he spent his first birthday at a boarder's while we were in Charleston for the wedding of the Deans {Happy Anniversary Guys!!!} 

Anyway, it was a gorgeous day, so we went for a nice long walk - and then we went a little over into the line of 'those people'. 

... 

We baked our dog a cake. 

It's true.

... 

Apparently it is not that uncommon, as when I googled "Birthday Cake for Dogs" this one came right up. I had all of the ingredients so we figured, hey - why not?

We stuck in some dog biscuits like candles and set him down for some pictures. We did not - I repeat, did not - sing Happy Birthday. It was hilarious to watch, so I will give you the story in photos.

 

 Hey Guys, is that for me?

 

Really? Can I have it? Please?

Please??

 

 um, please?

 

This...is.... 

 

 the...best...day...ever.

 

After he finished he passed right out in what we are pretty sure was a food coma. Cheers!

Oh, Navy...

Well, Austin got the billet list yesterday. Good news for those of you who voted for Norfolk, there are 16 billets in Norfolk, Virginia!

Bad News - the ship types are listed but not ship names.

That may not sound so bad to some of you land lubbers, but here is the explanation:

For example, there are 4 spots listed with aircraft carriers. There are currently 4 carriers based out of Norfolk, so this makes sense.

Unfortunately, the list does not differentiate between the Norfolk carrier spots, because there is no name attached to them.

This means that we cannot figure out the schedule for the ships and may end up ranking a slot high that would put Austin out to sea on the date of our wedding. Le sigh.

Also, there are certain types of ships that only have one slot – like there is one slot for an LHA and one slot for an LHD (both types of ships…google them if interested), but there are 5 or 6 of these ships based out of Norfolk and we don’t know which one is the one on the list of options.

Now, we knew that this (having a wedding with no ship assigned) would be an issue from the get go, but Austin was led to believe that there would be a little more information on this list.

I think we were both pretty stressed discussing this last night, but we have our ‘network working’ on getting as much information as possible (thanks guys!) and Austin is asking if he can get the names of the ships today in class…so cross your fingers that we can get some more information before the schedule is due on Monday!

Where in the World...

...are Courtney and Austin going to be stationed?

No - don't get too excited, we still don't know either (which puts a serious cramp on my job search), BUT we have more information on our time line!

Apparently next Wednesday, Austin will go through his OLQs, aptly nicknamed 'murder boards'. He will stand in front of a board of instructors who will quiz him on different scenarios and then rip apart his answers. They will also review his answers of questions like, "Why do you deserve to be an officer in the Supply Corps?" and they will review his extracurricular activities since being in Supply school (volunteer activities, leadership positions, etc). His final score will be factored in, like a test, to his overall grade, thereby affecting his ranking in the class.

These rankings are super competitive. The lowest grade Austin has ever gotten on a test was a 93...not bad, right? Wrong. He fell approximately 20 spots in the class, after this test even though he averaged between a 96 and 97 before that. Rankings here at the end are coming down to tenths of a point.

The reason that these rankings are so important is that when the billet list comes out, the Wednesday night of the OLQs or the Thursday morning after, the ensigns are asked to rank their top six choices, and are then matched based on their rank in the class. (For those sorority women out there - it is kind of like Preference round)

In any case, we will be getting the list next Wednesday or Thursday and then Austin will turn in his top six choices on Monday the 13th of April and then we should know where we are headed by the end of the week! Eek!

It is really exciting that this moment is finally upon us after months of not knowing, but I think we are both a little nervous and anxious for everything to work out the way we hope. There are a lot of variables that depend on this location and ship schedule, so the implications are huge. (You know, besides determining what our life will look like for the next two years or so)

Anywho, we just found this all out yesterday, so I thought I would keep inquiring minds informed! We will keep you updated through the process!

In the meantime, I am going to take to wearing my red trench coat and invest in a hat...kinda like this one:

Saltwater Trip *Updated*

Austin and his fellow ensigns are in Norfolk this week calling this ship home:

 

This is the USS Ashland and is currently anchored at Little Creek Amphibious Base. Austin's entire class at Supply School headed up to take residence on this luxury liner while they tour other types of ships and typical supply operations to prepare them for embarking on their careers.

 

I heard from him last night and it seems that he is having a great time seeing all of the ships and his rack (bed) is not too bad...he even has waterfront property! (There is a leak dripping into a bucket less than 6 inches from his head)

 

In all seriousness he does seem to be learning quite a lot. They will be heading back here on Friday and since his 85 person class could not ascertain military transport on a plane back to Athens, they will be on a Greyhound. 

 

Welcome to the Navy! :)

 

*Update*

Greyhound it is! They are on their way and are anticipating a 10 hour trip.