Meet Rocky.....David's new partner

This Rocky he is I believe about three years old and he is Belgian Malinois (hope that is the correct spelling, you cause I can’t spell and all), they look very much like a German Shepard. I believe David told me the way you tell them apart is a “mal” has a larger head and ears and are little more muscular. Now don’t quote because my memory is about as bad as my spelling and it’s only like 3:30 AM and I’ve been up since about 6:30 AM yesterday. This dog has been deployed before once I know for sure and I’m not sure where to but he’s only been back about two weeks now. Rocky is a narcotics and patrol dog. FYI….patrol dog, means he can ride in the car with his handler and knows what to do should things go “South” as they say. AKA knows how to basically kick ass and take names later!!!! I’m not sure if anyone knew the meaning of patrol and just in case you think as I do, now not to insult anybody just a little FYI, just in case.
I have a bit of a dilemma here, But you’ll a little back story sort of ok, so hang on it might get a little confessing but it’ll all come together, K). When I lose something, break it, miss place it or whatever I might do with an item (that belongs to me no one else) hubby gets all of his feathers ruffled up and gets into his lecture me on being more responsible and all that crap. Now that you have a little of the back story let me back up a bit more and say I often do have a very bad habit of doing ALL of the above. Yeah I admitted isn’t that the first step of something or the other??? Hubby had been bitching that his new glasses felt lose and he just knows “that girl” at the eye doctors messed them up and he needed to take them in to be fixed. I mean that would only be right considering he had just gotten them less than a month before and had spent about $400!!!! Needless to say he was slightly busy at the office and never got around to it. So while we were visiting with the kids at Christmas, the dam arm feel right off his glasses while they were still on his face!!!!! Oh holy hell I had to turn my head because I wanted to laugh so badly (but knew better for sure!!!) So he was about to start whining like a little girl, I said wait, you should have taken them in when you said you were. Well hell we all know he didn’t like hearing that now did he???? Nope, well too bad dude!! So he very quietly handed me the glasses in the case and all (remember the above confession????) and said here YOU please put these away so I can take them back when we get home. Well that was mistake number two for him in my book; anyway I really truly thought I put them in my luggage. So we get home and unpack, he says just set my glasses by my keys I’ll run by on my way to the office, um I don’t have your glasses!!!! &^%$@R%@$%Y$I*IUY even worse words than I use came out of his mouth, I very quietly waited till he finished and said well you shouldn’t have given them to me to hold. He knew I was right and walked away mubble-mubbly. Hasn’t really said anything about the glasses since one reason is they have to be at the kids somewhere because we know they didn’t leave their house and we are going up there in a few weeks so we can look and I hope find them. Reason number two for not saying much see confession above. Flash forward to tonight we spoke on his way home he was worn out glad tomorrow is Friday and all of that good crap (and really he has been crazy ass busy at work and you know you can’t get good help anymore it snows a tiny bit and the dam people can’t come to work for three days!!!!!!!! Seriously they closed on Monday, Tuesday three hours late, that day, NONE, not one of his employees “could get their cars out, yeah right so really he’s been beat up the last few months with lots of conversions and crap there so yeah he is worn out), he says I’m pulling in the garage bye. Then I hear him downstairs cussing like crazy, (I look to see both dogs are with me, so what the hell is he bitching about??? Normally it’s the dogs jumping on his suit and “I don’t need dog fur on my suit!!) So I go see what his deal is and he said all quite like a dam kid in trouble………I put my iPad on the roof of my car because my hands were full and I can’t find it now. Wow, that really sucks is truly what went through my mind, if we are being honest and all here!!!! So he tells me as he is getting on the interstate he thought he heard something, but he thought it might be a file or something moving around his back seat because he had people his car at lunch and crap got moved around. So he then says…………….you know when I heard that noise I thought dam I hope I put my iPad in my trunk!!!!!!!!! I knew I should have pulled over!!!! Well he didn’t, so we got retrace his steps, no iPad to be seen anywhere!!! Of course it’s really dark so we couldn’t really see either. So who knows where it is, he tried to GPS it but it’s not picking up, that could mean it’s crushed in tiny, little bitty pieces on the side of the road or just out of range. He has it password protected so unless somebody is a good guesser they won’t get in, after a certain number of tries with the wrong p/w it wipes everything out of it, so that’s good. Tomorrow, well a little later today he plans to leave a little early and retrace his steps and see if it turns up in the day light. If not, it’s not all so bad because we’ll only be out our $250.00 homeowners deductable. Considering by the time you the case, the screen shield, tax and the iPad that’s a little over a grand. So he’s out a quarter of what he had into it. Anyway so what’s my dilemma you might ask???? Well I so want to get all high and mighty and lecture him on being more responsible about keeping up with stuff and all as he does to me, right????? I mean wouldn’t you want to, too????? ha ha really I don’t care, cause I don’t really listen when he lectures me so it doesn’t bother me for the most part, but really I wanna do it to see how it feels,ha ha ha me so funny!!!! But then again he get really pissed at me and you I keep telling my sister I have to “good” because if he divorces me I might have to get a J-O-B!!!!!!!!!!! Oh no hell no I’m keeping my trap shut!!!! Really he wouldn’t divorce me cause he lobes me too much, ha ha may I really do live in my own word don’t I???? anyway of course I’m just saying I’d lecture him but you know he’s beating his own dam dumb ass self up so why waste my time and energy you know????? How the heck he deals with me and doesn’t just “kick me to curb” why oh why?!!!! OK so my rant is over.
I have been taking an antibiotic for seven days today for my sinus crud and pneumonia, so one would think I’d be pretty dam well covered for any other bugs trying to show their ass around town. But of course that isn’t so for me, so I began running a low grade fever today only around 100.7 nothing like the fevers from hell in the past thanks to my lucky little stars and all!! Not to mention my left flank area has been increasing more painful over the last I’d say three or four days but I didn’t really think too much very much about because at times I do hurt more than others. Not to mention I’d like it to be just nothing when I begin hurting more, you know sort of pretend it isn’t so!! Anyway with the fever today I began to think the right thing to do was to call my urologist and fill him in. I also fail to mention that I’ve had way more blood in my urine the last few days than I normally do, sorry a little TMI there. So of course I need to be seen, who didn’t think he might say that? I knew good and well that I’d need to be seen. Well of course!! Which as the evening has progressed I have become increasingly more nauseated to the point of not even being able to swallow pills or the drink to wash them down without feeling like I might puke. Which at that point might not have been such a bad thing since I’d not eaten anything all day and still haven’t. You know like less chunks to clean up. Hum, sounds more and more like I just might have a kidney infection!! Well I’ll be dammed there is a first time for everything huh?? Well more like the first this month, ha, but truly I may have jinxed my own dam self by thinking last week, wow I haven’t been in the hospital since like August/September and I haven’t had an infection since very early December. Like I was thinking I might even have been “cured”, well I can wish, think, beg, plead and all that crap, it’s my world after all! So I’m not so sure what his plans will be considering all of the blood and fever, which isn’t all that bad (fever not being so bad) but considering I’d been taking some pain meds today which have a bit of Tylenol in them. Might have been the reason my fever stayed fairly controlled, but I have that telltale sign of a fever, the headache from HELL. I never get headaches unless I have a fever, but then again maybe all normal people do, who knows!! I have a brand spanking new life port (main IV access that is tunneled directly into a large artery in my heart), so I might be able to do home IV antibiotics. That takes care of the issue of ridding my one and only sucky half ass not working left kidney but it doesn’t take care of the increasing pain nor the not being able to drink let alone eat crap. I mean I could sure stand to miss a meal or ten but this isn’t really the best way to do so, you know??? Also considering the fact that they already get a little freaked out when I have an infection in that only sucky half ass working organ when I’ve not been taking a huge bad ass high power antibiotic, so with that in mind I just might buy myself a ticket to club med this weekend!!! I’ve wanted to get away but not to that freaking place!!!!!!!!!! Nothing personal and all I really like “my” nurses and my doctor, so that’s not an issue. Well yeah it is an issue when I don’t have “my” nurses cause you know I already cuss too much and then you add not feeling well, being on lots of pain meds and me not liking you, well let’s just say it’s not a pretty sight and could scar young children for life!!!!! So that’s my plan for tomorrow anyone else have any fun plans???? I hope your plans/weekend will be much more entertaining than mine seems to be shaping up to. Should I not post in a day or three or four you know where I am. Getting room service and all that good stuff, only thing missing will be nice pretty pink drinks with cool names and tiny umbrellas!!!! Later my peeps, be good, but not too very good so that you have no fun and I’ll be checking with everyone when I can!!!! Nite-nite!!
Marie

"The needs of the Navy", it was bound to happen again!

As most of you already know our son, David is in the Navy. His job is a MWD Handler (Military Working Dog); he has always been interested in law enforcement. His senior year of college he found out that Master at Arms (Navy law enforcement) was one of the very few jobs in which you can’t go to OCS (officers’ candidate school). Once he was made aware of that, it didn’t matter that he was in his first semester of his senior year of college. He was quitting school and joining the Navy, like now!!! What you do???? You have to let go and allow them to be an adult at some point in time. You give your blessings and support them even if it’s not what “you” would like them to do. So that’s exactly what we did, supported him in making his dreams happen!! He goes through all of the stuff one does to enlist in the military, gives us a date of March 6, 2006. My first question is that “written in stone”? He tells me no it could change at the “needs of the Navy”!! Never did I realize at that point in time, just how important those words would become over the next few years. He did leave on March 6, 2006 as he originally stated. Off he goes to basic and all seems to be well, we don’t hear from him often, a letter here and there. We were sent a letter a few weeks into basic stating graduation information and all of the information we’d need to make plans to attend!! I was so excited; I began counting the days until we were headed to “Great Lakes Naval Station”. Basic graduation was great!!!!! I balled my eyes out like a big baby the entire ceremony!!!!! Once I got my hands on my sailor the first thing I notice is how he had matured over that short eight week period of time. We and lots of other families were bursting with pride as we visited the city of Chicago with our brand new sailors!!! What a sight to see, something I’ll never ever forget!!
Shortly after we headed back to SC, David was headed to San Antonio, TX Lackland Air Force Base, where he would receive his Master’s At Arms training. A few weeks into training he tells us they had a MWD instructor come and talk with them about the changes going on within the program. The major change that would affect David and his training mates was you were no longer required to work a set amount of time nor be a certain rank in order to apply to the MWD program!!!!! Those changes became effective, “at the needs of the Navy”! This is great news for this training class; of course it did cause some animosity toward from those who weren’t that fortunate. David put in a request to continue his training in the MWD program, after a short wait that seemed really long, he was accepted. Great news for him and it just made us that much happier he was going to be working in a profession he loved!!! Lucky young man to say the least!! Mater’s At Arms training ends and there are few weeks before MWD training begins, what to do???? Remember those words, “at the needs of the Navy”, (are you seeing a pattern here of those words, keep paying attention they do keep popping up!!) it would be such a waste of time to sit around and just wait for the program to begin, so “at the needs of Navy”, David was granted leave!!! Great for us, he comes home and visits friends and family and hangs out and best of all we were able to take one more family vacation to our favorite beach!! All is grand!! Leave is over he is back at Lackland for MWD training. I’m not sure how many weeks this was but I know it was very intense, he learned lots and still had no orders for a future duty station. Time keeps slipping by and still no orders, he begins to get to the bottom of it, no clue as to what happened that he no order or why he still had no orders, it’s so late in the game so to say, it doesn’t look like David is going to get anything on his “wish list” of duty stations, great!! Here is where those words, “at the needs of the Navy”, pop up again!! It appears his duty station is going to be chosen you guessed it, “at the needs of the Navy”!!! Lucky for David those needs just happened to Pearl Harbor, HI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow fabo, maybe this was all worth it now!!! Late October of 2006 he arrives at Pearl Harbor, begins working and loves his job. During this time he and a very nice young lady he had dated in the past and he begin “talking” as they call it. David lets us know some time around April or so he has requested leave for late May through late June of 2007. Great can’t wait to see you, shall we plan to go to the beach or what shall we do while you are home??? He sort of hesitates a bit and says well no beach I live on the beach remember?? OK, fine there where???? He then tells me that he and Kayla are planning to visit Gatlinburg, TN while he’s home. I oh OK sounds great, dad and I have never been, he clears his throat and says nothing, um David are you there, you OK????? He proceeds to tell me that if it’s OK he and Kayla were going alone, Oh sure sorry, didn’t mean to try to but in on your time sweetie, go have fun!!!!! I hear a sigh of relief in his voice for a few seconds. He asked me did I know why they were going to TN, um no not really, maybe a quick getaway or something such????? I hear that bit of uncertainty in his voice again; I ask if all is OK, he assures me yes all “should” be fine. So the mom in me says, “spell it son, what’s up, you are never ever at a loss for words, give it to me straight!!!! He then very calmly says, “Well mom if you’ll go to such and such jewelry store at the mall and ask for item # whatever, you’ll be able to see the engagement ring I just bought for Kayla, mom I plan to ask her to marry me while I’m home. “Wow, OK, great son, we are happy for you, are you sure this is what you want, you guys haven’t been together in a while and you know how the conversation went. So anyway he comes home visits for a few days, goes to her parents house for day (they live about 2.5 hours from us) so he ask her father for permission to marry Kayla, that still makes me tear up after all this time!!!! So proud of our son, always trying to do the right thing!!!! Long story short, daddy says yes, but better take good care of my little girl, David agrees. We throw a small engagement party before he has to report back to Pearl Harbor. A February 2009 wedding is sort of the date they are planning on no true date as of yet just that time frame give or take a month or so.
Shortly after getting back to Pearl Harbor, deployment becomes the huge topic of all conversations!!!!! OH no, we knew it could happen but!!! July comes, that is July of 2008, just weeks after being back from leave, and “the needs of the Navy” shows its ugly head!!! We find out not only is David deploying, he is deploying mid to late September of 2008. At that point he was to leave Pearl Harbor go to Camp Pendleton in CA for uniform and gear, he would be deploying with the Marines so he needed new uniforms and all Marine “stuff”. He was to spend a few weeks there, then on to Uma, AZ for “in country training”, with all being in “country” as in Iraq by late November early December. No clue how long deployment may be possibly six or nine months who knows how long. After lots of tears, lots of fear and major planning we are able to pull off a PERFECT beach wedding for them on 08/08/08!!!!!!!!!!! So after being married for two whole long weeks, David leaves Kayla on an island in which one can go no further than 40 approximately miles in each direction before hitting water!!!! Kayla settled in nicely, met a few wonderful girls who were there for her, they had all had spouses deploy before so they knew the ins and outs and the good, the bad and ugly!!!! Those girls were a life saver to Kayla, we are so thankful for those ladies to this day. They took our sweet very young 22 year daughter in law and helped her make an old ugly 1940’s style base housing into a home for David to come home to.
Deployment was tough for all of us to say the least. Kayla was 5,000 plus miles away from home, further than she had ever in her entire life been and for longer than ever away from home, all alone!!!!!!!! Of course that is until those wonderful ladies came to help her. We are so proud of Kayla for sticking it out for deployment all alone; she found a job doing hair shortly after passing her SC boards. I think those 9ish 10ish months were the longest time of my entire life, but he made it home safe and sound, ready to start a family of his own!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m sure it was a tough adjustment period once he was home for both of them; again the friends stepped up and helped out with that process as well. About a month or two after he has been home, I get a phone call from David telling me Kayla is pregnant and they are so happy they can’t stand it!!!!!!!!!!!! About six months into her pregnancy we found out they have now have orders to go to Norfolk, VA!!!!!!!! Oh my oh my, is it really true, please tell me yes!!!!!! It was all very true so that makes them a five hour drive from us here in SC and only about two hours from my sisters in NJ!!!!! Life is great, Caroline is born in June, by November 5th we pick their dogs up at cargo in Charlotte, NC and two days later we pick up Caroline, David and Kayla up in Norfolk and bring them to SC for a 45 day leave. We spent lots of time doing a whole lot of nothing and hanging out with the baby and just having a grand old time!!!! Around December 5 they head to Norfolk and their new apartment which will be home for the next four years at least!!! We were lucky enough to spend Christmas with them, we got snowed in, and so all we did was VISIT!!! We enjoyed the “kids” and the baby more than I have words to describe!!!!!!!!
Life is good, we find out that David will be re-enlisting on February 3rd for the I think four maybe even six more years. It’s another excuse for us to go and visit and hang out with everyone!!!! So looking forward to spending about a week in Norfolk the first week of February. This is all fine and dandy and I’m excited to see my sweet lil Caroline and just give her the biggest hug and kiss Me-Me can find for her!!!! Then those words pop back up, dam it all to hell and back again!!!!!!!!!!!!! “At the needs of the Navy”, David will be deploying to Afghanistan sometime between 60 and 90 days!!!!! We don’t have an exact date yet, not sure if or when we will, it seems like we never did have an exact departure date from his first deployment. I have so many things going through my mind right now, I feel as if I’ve just rambled along this post without really saying anything at all!!!!! But then again I feel like that about all of my posts!!!! He is fine with going, he says he is ready for this, its job and he signed up for it and he’ll do it. I hate it, I really do but on the other hand I am so dam proud of that young man, I can’t even find words to express my feelings!!!!! I’m sure there are people out there who are thinking or even brave enough to say it, “well no body made him join, he knew the country was at war when he signed on the dotted line and every other thing you could think of and more. Yes, he did say yes, yes he did sign on the dotted line, yes he has gotten “called to duty” and he is going, no questions asked on his part, that makes me proud of our son. So I’ve said all of this to say if you hate the war, hate the military, think he was crazy to join or any other negative thing that comes to mind, please don’t write it here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, FYI…………………………most of the guys over there fighting and the ones who have been or are going or whatever all pretty much think the war sucks big time, and would like it to be over, there are even some who feel they shouldn’t be there fighting, BUT they go and they do their job because that’s what they signed up to do, at the needs of the Navy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m sorry this is so long, I went over it for hours trying to see what can be left out or how I can shorten this or that but you know sometimes I just got to go with your heart and go with my heart I did!!!!! I have a huge favor from you my internet friends, would mind keeping my son and all of the others in your thoughts and prayers, please??? That would just mean the world to me to know that people that I have never laid eyes on nor you on me are hoping and praying for David to come back home to Caroline, Kayla and the rest of his family who all love him and are so proud of him!!!!!! Thanks for taking the time to read this, I’m sorry I know it’s long, a lot longer than I ever meant for it to be!!! Thanks again friends!! I haven’t been around to anyone’s blogs today but hope to catch up tomorrow.
Good night friends
Marie