Kimber's Navy Family

Picture taken by Liz Benroth Photography Back to life with my husband on submarines. I've been posting about our STA-21 journey for a couple years now, since I started this blog. And now we are here-- our household goods have arrived, we are settled in a new house in a new state, and we are at our new duty station. It was brought to my attention a little while ago when a civilian friend of mine-- a friend who's husband is not in the military-- that when I say we are "back on submarines," people don't have any idea what that means. (Or for that matter what STA-21 and duty stations and PCS-ing mean.) So for everyone who is curious, welcome to Kimber's Navy Family. What does it mean to be married to a submariner? Submarines are called the silent service . They run secret, classified missions and operate undetected in the waters. As such, they have stringent operations security (OPSEC) measures. The exact dates they leave and come home are cl...

I'm starting this blog post off with a disclaimer: this was my experience as a Navy spouse as my husband went through prototype, another school in the nuclear Navy officer pipeline-- not his point of view, but mine. These are my thoughts and words, not his. My husband is prior enlisted. When he went through prototype this time around, he had already gone through prototype before {as enlisted}; he had already been on a submarine; he had been in the Navy for 10 years. He went through the STA-21 program {more blog posts on that under " Military Resources "} and is going back through the pipeline as an officer. I felt his prior experience would work to his advantage in prototype and at least give him more time with our family than he had while in power school {read the " Power school " blog post}. Students in prototype are on rotating shift work. The shifts are roughly these times, depending on which boat you get on and various other factors: Days {day shift ...

One of my good friends is doing MOPS this year and has been talking to  me about their theme: being brave as a mother. I can think of several times as a mother that I have had to be braver than I thought I could be, the first coming to mind when one of our son's was in the PICU for 4 days with RSV and there was nothing else the doctors could do for him. Since then there have been other things: asthma flare ups, injuries, sickness, late nights, solo parenting ... Then there have been other times where the lines aren't as clear and I'm praying and praying that I'm making the right choice: disciplining a 6-year old {very different than disciplining 2 and 3 year olds}, disciplining 3 children, speaking up for my parenting choices to others when I'd prefer to stay silent... Last night was a new one for me: having the courage to enjoy the holiday. It has been 4 years since my husband has been on a submarine-- 3 years of college and now going through the officer pi...

We are reaching the end of our time here in North Carolina. My husband has been working on his mechanical engineering degree as part of the STA-21 "Officer's" program . I've made many civilian friends here. During this time, most of them have been uncertain about what his active duty status has meant ("Will he be deploying soon?") or what happens once we move ("So he'll deploy when you get to South Carolina?"). I thought I would do a recap of his schedule the past three years for fellow STA-21 wives and a summary for all the civilian friends we have made, help spread some awareness of what it means to be a military family. My husband has been enlisted in the Navy for 9 years this summer. We have been married for the last 6 and a half years. During that time we have not done a deployment. We have done two Change of Homeports, one tour in shipyard where his submarine had a complete overhaul, and countless underways and fast cruises. I even stay...

Navy/Marine Corps Birthday Ball 2012 Whew! My husband just finished the fall semester of his senior year. I can't believe that we are wrapping up semesters of college-- only two more left. It was around this time in 2009 when we found out that he was picked up for the STA-21 program . It was such a stressful whirlwind getting the last minute paperwork together (acceptance letters, etc) for college and preparing ourselves to move again. I can't help but feel anxious thinking about the uncertainty of the coming year. We need to set a date for his commissioning over the summer, which will mean invitations and hotels for out of town guests. I also need to figure out what I need to plan for this commissioning-- reception? Next year our oldest starts kindergarten. This will be our first school-age move. This will also be our first PCS with more than one child (our oldest has PCS'd twice). The bigger question will be when this move actually happens. We've been hearing ...

Driving home today from visiting my parents, I listened to the same six CDs over and over again for six hours: Queen: Greatest Hits disc one and two, Torches by Foster the People, Elton John's Greatest Hits disc one, Rubber Soul by--of course--the Beatles, and Beggar's Banquet by the Stones. I actually, um, borrowed the Queen CD from my momma because I've been obsessed with the song " I Want to Break Free " after watching a special on Freddie Mercury a couple months ago. Anyways, there I was driving on a straight stretch of road for hours, listening to Rubber Soul for the second or third time, thinking about life and singing loudly to my sleeping babies. Rocking out in the mini van North Carolina April 2012 When people find out that my husband is active duty Navy, I frequently hear, "I don't know how you move so often!" I don't know how we do what we do either. These past couple moves in North Carolina--local moves-- my parents helpe...

It has been over two years since we found out that my husband was picked up in the Seaman to Admiral program (STA-21). Once he was conditionally accepted, it was a stressful month getting all the acceptance letters and paperwork together for us to receive orders and actually be accepted. It was hard saying good-bye to our good friends--as well as the beautiful island of Oahu-- before moving to the east coast. We had a month of leave before he went to NSI in Rhode Island, which we spent at my parents' house, the first week adjusting our toddler to the six hour time difference, with a weekend thrown in there of apartment shopping in North Carolina. A few people had suggested one area or another, some we couldn't find an apartment in our price range or in the distance we were looking to live from W's school. While my husband was in Rhode Island for the 10-week NSI "boot camp," I stayed with my parents. Because we hadn't found an apartment yet, I dragged my mom...