Kimber's Navy Family

Your spouse's submarine is heading in to shipyard. You have no idea what to feel. You are excited because his boat won't be deploying, but every time you talk to people about shipyard, they sound negative. What is it about shipyard?! This is our second time in shipyard. In a general sense, here's what you should know: 1. The shipyard schedule starts out pretty good. This is usually the point where people say things to you like, "Just you wait." (Really encouraging, right?) The hours can be somewhat reasonable and the stress level of your spouse is on the normal range. Not to sound like the Negative Nancy's, but the shipyard schedule really does ramp up as the boat gets ready to leave shipyard. Now is the time to savor those work week hours and possibly two weekend days off in a row. Yes, the schedule can be exceedingly disappointing even then (like dealing with a 4 day duty rotation) or a heavy trainer schedule, but-- in general-- this is the time whe...

We have 4 children-- a 1st grader, twin preschoolers, and a toddler. I'm 28+ weeks pregnant and my husband is active duty Navy on submarines. When putting our children to bed, there are three different ways that it happens. The first is when I'm not pregnant and somewhat helpful in the evenings; this would be the two adults approach. The second happens either when I'm pregnant, exhausted, or my husband has been working really long hours and trying to squeeze in all the time he can with the kids. This is when Daddy puts the kids to bed. The third pretty much only happens when my husband works super late, has duty, or is underway. (For all you non-Navy folk, duty is when my husband stays the night on the submarine and underway-- or deployed-- is when the submarine is out to sea.) Bedtime has always been a "Daddy thing" at our house, so if he's home, he is in charge at bedtime and I just assist. With his Navy schedule, a lot of times he is coming home right wh...

  When I was pregnant with twins, stuck at home and trying to find things I was allowed to do, I ended up working on our "Navy Notebook," an idea I had after a completely hectic move where paperwork was everywhere and information scarce when I needed it. Moving from Hawaii, we had a moment-- hours-- of panic when we realized my husband's medical records were missing. Since he is in the STA-21 program and was on his way to NSI in Rhode Island, we were exceptionally concerned that if we didn't find the records, he would be thrown out of the program. While he was on the phone with the moving company negotiating prices to unpack then repack boxes already nailed into crates, I tore through our six overweight duffel bags until I eventually did find the medical records. The idea of the Navy Notebook, or Move Notebook, is that all our information is organized in one place. I won't be arriving at the housing office missing Power of Attorneys or socia...