Days 12-15

Day 12: We had to drop Ryan off at the ship the night before they departed. We enjoyed a nice dinner out as a family and then said our good-byes at the pier. Nathan was very happy to be giving Daddy one last hug.


Day 13: Bye-bye Big E!!! (No kidding, my phone rang 60 seconds after this picture was taken to inform me that I needed to pick up Ian from school because he was running a 101.5 fever. I made it approximately 90 seconds into deployment before the first crisis.)


Day 14: Ian sick on the couch. This is the only time he holds still for an extended period of time. This virus swept through his class and knocked out one half of the class this week.


Day 15: Chemistry. I had my first lecture of the semester this day. I withdrew from school one week later. Turns out I do occasionally acknowledge and give in to my limits. Who knew?

Portugal

One of the only perks of deployment is that you get to visit some pretty awesome ports around the world. I am so very jealous that Ryan spent the past couple of days in Lisbon, Portugal.

I found this picture on some random person's Facebook page -- they linked it on the Enterprise Facebook page. The Enterprise looks lovely in the background.


Ryan sent this photo showing us the view from his hotel room. This must have been taken before the night of excessive drinking as it appears to be in focus. I will say that he seemed to be the most sober of the bunch when we were on Skype later in the evening.


Starbucks!!! If you click on the image to enlarge it you can see the Starbucks at the local train station. Hopefully he took a picture of the menu too.


The National Pantheon.

Days 8-11

Day 8: Snow. Again. What is up with the crazy winter weather this year? It has screwed up everything--work, school, errands, etc. The boys are oblivious to the pain in the rear that comes with the snow and think it is just awesome. Oh, and check out my sweet ride. Jealous, aren't you?


Day 9: I finally took down Christmas. Some may think this was late, others may think it was early. Considering how little Christmas stuff we put up this year (just the tree and the mantel decorations) I thought it was late. Early on Melissa time, but late on my mother's time. Ha!

(Day 9 is also when I started to notice how BORING our day-to-day lives really are...only 356 more days of our exciting lives left to document!)


Day 10: Ian loves to read and I love that he loves to read. I cannot wait for Nathan to begin reading on his own so the three of us can enjoy some daily quiet time with our books.


Day 11: Ryan is being a dork in this photo, but that's the norm. Check out the new uniform too. This was the first time Ryan fired live ammunition (and he qualified for a ribbon!) and it was the first time he wore this style uniform. I kept this hanging in our entryway for the first 10 days of deployment to help discourage potential burlars. :) I only took it down because I received funny looks from my friends.

Deployment 2011

Oh, my goodness. It's still January and I have already fallen behind. I promise that I have been taking photos every single day and I will upload our daily pictures as soon as I have the chance to make them smaller, etc. In the meantime, enjoy some photos taken by the media people on the Enterprise and a few photos sent by Ryan!

Here is a photo taken from the USS Enterprise Facebook page of the ship out to sea on 17 Jan 2011. I just LOVE that huge American flag flying proudly. When we were stationed in Bremerton and I would be waiting on the pier for the Vinson to return, the flag was the first thing we could see before the ship rounded the corner to head to base. The screams that would erupt from the thousands waiting on the pier were just awesome.


This beautiful shot of the battle group was also found on the Enterprise Facebook page. Here the battle group heads across the Atlantic on 17 Jan 2011.


Prior to Ryan deploying I made a note to take a picture of him in uniform standing next to his name painted on one of the squadron's planes. Needless to say, I completely forgot about this until it was too late. Nice guy that he is sent a picture of the plane to me today. Next time I hope he is IN the picture!




Ryan also sent this picture of the F-18's on the flight deck. How they don't end up bumping into each other while moving about still amazes me.

Days 2-7

I made it an entire week without falling behind on Project 365. Success!!! Let's see how the next 51 weeks go. Again, Project 365 helps document our day-to-day life.

Day 2: This picture will be posted soon. I let Ian take today's picture using the boys' new digital camera. Unfortunately, we haven't found the appropriate USB cord to download these photos just yet.

Day 3: Ryan has been working on a number of small projects around the house to make things just a bit easier for me when he leaves. Here he is "happily" painting the trim on Ian's bedroom window and painting the new (and bright) green paint just around the window so we could hang new blinds & curtains.


Day 4: Bratwurst with lots of onions. Nothing says pre-deployment like eating all of one's favorite meals.


Day 5: Uniform prep is one of my favorite activities because it rarely involves my help. Of course, as I type this I am washing 6 flight suits.


Day 6: Nathan is working on one of his preschool homework assigments. He had to color a mouse and all of the mouse's winter clothing. I had the distinct pleasure of spending 20+ minutes cutting and gluing all of the pieces together.


Day 7: Ryan's first attempt at using our sewing machine was to add a layer of black fabric to his rack curtains. He's attempting to block out light to make it just a touch easier to sleep on the ship.

Project 365

One of my resolutions for 2011 is to take one photo a day and scrapbook these photos. Since I know I will not complete this project the traditional way, I've decided to attempt digital scrapbooking for the first time! Becky Higgins' Digital Project 365 seems like a great fit for me. In fact, I've already uploaded today's photo and added the journaling! It is incredibly user friendly and I highly recommend it.

Also, in combination with this resolution, I will be posting my Project 365 photos every week to the blog. I did not post often enough last year so I will make an effort to better help our family and friends keep up with our day-to-day life.

Here is today's photo:


The boys each have their own calendar to help them keep track of all their daily activities and achievements. These $1 calendars from Michaels are perfect since each month the boys can color the picture and the daily blocks are large enough for our notes. This will hopefully help Ryan feel connected as well since we will be able to share all our mundane activities with him when he returns from deployment.