USS Bonhomme Richard

So if you have been reading this blog you may know my husband was gone for a while. Deployed. I've learned some non-military folks seem to think deployed means they are at war or in Afghanistan. It basically means he's not at home for a while. His squadron was assigned to the MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) aka "the boat" for the last year. They deploy twice-- once for fall patrol and once for spring patrol. We were really lucky Duke's CO let him stay back as a the remain behind officer for fall so he could be here for Lucy's birth. But Spring came and he was off. He was gone for 2 months, February-April. Then he was back for 2 weeks before he left for another 2 weeks to a training exercise in the Philippines. The good news is he should be back for a while!

The first weekend he was back from the boat we drove up to where the boat was ported and toured around. This big ol' boat is the USS Bonhomme Richard (which you pronounce in French and is way more fun to say that way). If you ask me boat life seems pretty awful. I'm just glad I'm not the Marine. But thanks for doing your time Duke :)

I went home for a month of it and so many people said "oh, i don't know how you do that!" or "I could never do that". Well I'm here to tell you it sucks, but you just DO it. And so could you if you had to :). It really helps to have awesome friends and wives in the same squadron when your husbands are gone. You just have to look at the silver lining. There is way less laundry to do, less errands to run, no one waiting on dinner. I can eat cereal for dinner and call it good. I can watch whatever I want on TV without compromising etc etc! I'm always surprised that I don't hear any of the wives complain about it. And I try not to because I know if could always be worse! Not looking forward to when we are back in the states and the deployments are more like 6-8 months. Aye yi yi! 

Seriously..how depressed would you be living on something like this for 2 months?^ blech.

I love Lucy's face in this pic. She's just along for the ride :)

Duke's room he shared with 4 other guys. His was the bottom. Looks cozy! ;)

The flight deck. One Osprey left behind bc it broke down.

That Okinawa water tho.

This picture isn't mine^. Its from the 3rd MEF Facebook page I believe. But Duke is in one of those Ospreys waiting to take off!

Then we played on the beach. I LOVE my Lucy girl. 

 There she is..the USS Bonhomme Richard in all her glory!