Hi Sweety,

Just got home and got the kids ready for bed. Rehearsal went on for a LONG while tonight. We were there late, but ended up probably wasn’t too bad actually. Also, there is like this sort of “side show” in the beginning than “Thumbalina” and than an intermission than another “side Show”. Continue reading →

Hi Sweety,

Sounds like things have been pretty busy there. GQ’s sure dont’ sound very fun and exciting. 😦 I take it GQ doesn’t have anything to do with the Magazine? 😛 You guys don’t go and talk about how to be stylish etc? *Giggles* Sorry they are holding one on Father’s Day love. I wish you were going to be here. I’m kind of frustrated because you STILL haven’t told me what you’d like me to get for your Dad for Father’s Day. 😦 And I’m guessing that you probably won’t get this and write to me before I go out tomorrow morning to get him something? SO, I’m going to just get him a Card and maybe some type of Shirt or Navy something or other. I think he likes “Navy” stuff? He’s proud you are in the Military and what you do. So, how about I’m the Father of a US Sailor T-shirt or something? 😛 I looked at some computer speakers today that were SOOO cool. I almost got them for you, but figured I shouldn’t spend the money, and you already got a Father’s Day present? 😛

Well, I’ve been busy. This weekend Mom & Dad took the kids camping so it all pretty much started yesterday when I finished packing up the kids in the AM and got them all packed in the car with their bags and BIKES even. (I couldn’t figure out how you did it, fitting all 3 of them in the van at once, but I eventually got it in. Phew! 😛 ) So, there we were in the garage ready for “take off” and “Click…Click…Click” as I go to start the engine. Aghhhh!!!! The battery was dead. I forgot that the kids had left the van door open on of these nights the past few days and must have drained the battery. Grrrr… So, there I was STUCK. I called Cyndie (becoming me new old friend btw :P) and she said she couldn’t come right than so I called Allstate since I put roadside assistance on the insurance in November. Well, Allstate said we didn’t have it on there!! I was pissed. So, I had him add it than, but it didn’t help me this time. I went ahead and called Cyndie back and she said she’d call her friend Lorraine and see if she had cables since Cyndie didn’t have any and I didn’t replace ours yet. Nope Lorraine didn’t either, so I called Charlie down the street and he didn’t and I called Peter and he wasn’t home and I tried calling Mom and Dad on their Cell phone and they had it TURNED OFF (Grrr…) So, about an hour or so later I talk to Cyndie again and she said she is having a friend of her’s Mike come over and jump the van. Yeah!!!! So, I end up getting over to the camp site about 3 or so hours late. 😛 It was all ok though since I don’t think Mom & Dad really plan on me being on time anywhere anymore anyway. 😀

Than I sat and chatted with Mom and Dad for a couple hours and remember I was supposed to head over to Cyndie’s after I got back into town so I headed out and went over to her house and ate dinner and hung out there until about 1am ish. Than I went Grocery shopping at Safeway for some things and than headed home at about 2am ish. 😛 I put everything away and got PJ’s on and went into to brush my teeth at about 3am ish and had to put some stuff away under our bathroom sink and found out that the towels and stuff were WET under there. I ended up investigating it and some things were SOAKED. Aghhh… I hung out under the sink going through the baskets and drying stuff off afraid that the Liquid plumber I had poured down the drain was going to get all over everything under the sink, but it wasn’t Drano that I could tell, but it was WET. I STILL can’t tell you what caused the leak and sooo much water there. None of the pipes down there seemed wet at all so I couldn’t figure it out. 😦 I’ll have to go check and see if it’s wet again or not.

So, let’s see after that it was probably close to 4ish and I got on the computer to check email and stuff and wrote you a quick note and headed off to bed. I couldn’t sleep and I think I probably fell asleep around 6am ish. *YAWN* 😛 Cyndie called me at about 11:30am and woke me up, so I got up and she came over and we hung out all day today and went … Please don’t be angry… Please?… we went shopping at the Best Buy, The Mall and than we went to the Movies…*Ducks* and I ate Lunch out and Dinner out although she bought lunch at Wendys and I bought Dinner at Taco Time. 😛 I bought the Movie tickets and she bout the popcorn. 😛 *Covers her eyes* …Are you ok? I feel bad. I charged on the Avenue card and bought some cute clothes that Cyndie helped me pick out. *Ducks again* … Are you calm??? *Tries smiling with her eyebrows raised hoping you’ll smile too* 😛

Well, that was the past couple days. Here it is almost 1am and I’m rather tired. 😛 I’m just kind of contemplating how things can go around full circle and here I am friends with Cyndie again. You and I went to California for awhile and she went off to Hawaii than we both end up back here in Bremerton and actually run into each other and end up living near by each other. WOW??? Do you think this is “meant to be”? Or maybe after the whole shopping trip thingy that it’s not????

I miss you, we talk about you and Kevin alot 😛 We keep planning stuff where we hang out over there or they hang out over her. Do you remember Kevin much? I don’t really. He was gone so much before I don’t think we got to know him really when we all lived on Bonefish. I hope you and he get along ok. 🙂

So, I guess I’d have to say the past, almost 2 weeks, I think my emotions/mood have been on a fairly even keel which is strange to say the least. I am hoping that it will stay. I know I’ve been reacting to “bad” things better like the Lice thing and the Battery thing more positively than I think I would have. I suppose it could be hormone changes since i’m on the rag, but hopefully we will see that it’s more “permanent”??

Well, Shadow is hounding me, I think she needs to go out although I just had her out about 30min ago. Grrr.. Kids are gone, but this big furry kid of ours is whiney and needy. She’s cute though. I better go. I MISS YOU!! I want you home. I am sooooo excited about you coming home and being home for a couple months. *Jumps up and down giggling*

Love you BUNCHES,
Sharolyn

P.S. Please warn me if you are going to send me a “Heated” email about me being a bad girl and shopping. I don’t want to burn myself opening it. *Bites her nails worrying* I’m sorry. 😦

Dear Journal,

Well, it’s Patrick and I’s 14th wedding anniversary and we are apart again.  3 years in a row now.  We sort of celebrated before he left this last time so that was nice, last year he had already been gone for several months before it so we couldn’t really celebrate it.  We got a baby sitter and went out to Dinner at the Olive Garden.  Seems to be our “Anniversary” dinner place.  hehe The last time I remember us celebrating our Anniversary we went there too.  Next year should be great, 15years and he should be home unless they make him ride the ship around to it’s new port.  *Crosses Fingers* I just hope and pray he won’t have to do that and that he will get shore duty early near here since he’s only got a couple years left before retirement.  Well, my therapist told me today to just take one day at a time. So, I’m not going to think about next year yet.  Just today. 

I got a cute email from him just after midnight with a sweet poem he wrote in it.

Sharolyn my love
My sweet lovely wife
I Love you so much
You’re the light of my life.
 
Knowing we’re a family
The best we can be
Makes me just smile
And think of thee
 
I Love your green eyes
Like shamrocks in spring
I Love your brown hair
It’s soft and curly
 
Your smile is like sunshine
Your laugh is like a spring
Your skin is like butter
So soft and so sweet
 
I love you my sweety
My honey, my love
I look forward to 14 more years
of our fantastic Love.
 
Love Patrick

He’s on watch at the moment and we are able to email back and forth.  So, it’s kind of working like “being together” for our anniversary.   Well, I need to start getting to bed earlier as usually so I better wrap this up.

Happy Anniversary to Me!

Hi Aunt Elaine,

How are you doing? I think about you often especially when I refer to Lydia as L.E. and recall that the E is for Elaine. Or I’ll hear Timothy actually being bossy and call her Lydia Elaine and that makes me think of you too (The Elaine part, not the bossy part :D). I feel bad that I haven’t kept in contact with you for so long. I know I shouldn’t be so depressed so much of the time, but hopefully I’ll snap out of it when things get somewhat “normal” someday, hopefully soon. Still hard to believe that I live in a home that is mine (well you know what I mean I think, Patrick and I’s, but still Mine).

I think my Mom gets jealous when I talk about you or think of your house growing up as Home. I don’t know if I was at your place much of the time growing up or what caused me to feel that way exactly, but it was a place that was Loving, comfortable and safe most all the time. When I heard you sold the house I felt pretty sad, it’s hard to imagine you anywhere else. How are you liking your new place? I wish I could see it. Do you have much of a yard where you are? I always imagine you having rose bushes. 😀

Well, the kids and I are doing pretty well, Patrick is gone again until the end of the Month. I talked with him earlier today since they happened to be in port in San Diego and he sounded like he was doing well. He said that they gave him a Palm Pilot thingy and he said he downloaded the scriptures to it so he can read it and he was excited about that. It’s funny how he’s such a good example for me. I just wish he were around more. I have a counselor I’m seeing now that I am hoping will help me with some coping skills for dealing with the time we are apart, I pretty much shut down these days. It’s odd how I’ve gotten through 14yrs of this Navy life, and am having such a problem seeing getting through just 2 more years of it.

How are all your kids doing? Randy & Angie? Larry and Carrie? Kelly? Janice & Roy? Katherine? Richard? Scott? Clark & Sylvia? And how about all the Grandkids? Andy & Evan? Travis (I have talked with him a couple times, we still haven’t worked out a time to get together.), Tyler, Tawny (Am I forgetting a T name?)? Autumn & Stacy? I don’t think I really know Janice & Roy’s children, but I’d like to still hear about them, and Richard’s also. How are Kathrine’s kids doing? Dana and Rhea are married? How about Donavan and … I can picture his face, but can’t remember his name. Is Scott around to take care of his kids now? That was really sad about him having to go off to Iraq, and about Julie not being able to take care of them. How are they all doing? How are Clark and Sylvia’s children doing? I don’t remember their names, but I think there were 5 children last I heard? Wow, Aunt Elaine you have such a wonderful family. 🙂 When I read in my Patriarchal blessing where it says “You will look down the corridors of time seeing the good you’ve brought upon the Earth.” I actually think of you and how yours must say that. I’m sure all their lives are not perfect, but they must think of you as such good example as I do.

I love you Aunt Elaine I’m sorry we never got to go to that Movie together like we had always talked about doing. I hope one of these days I’ll get the chance to get down your way again and we’ll be able to get together.

*Big Hugs*,
Sharolyn

Dear Editor/Producer,

I’m not a scholar and I don’t expect this letter to be published, but I would like to have my say and hope that in someway it will help the situation I and many other Military families face.

How can a news Editor not know what damage the constant bombardment of the negative aspects of the Iraqi War could be on a Military family which in turn goes right back to the Military members themselves? I am afraid to turn on the Television while my children are in view of it due to the fact there is nothing positive ever said about Operation Iraqi Freedom on most news broad casts. I rarely have heard about the positives that are going on in Iraq, and I know there are some, but the only time I do find anything positive said about what the Military men and woman are doing out there is when I turn on TV late at night, Public Television, or find those news casts of Hearings and Investigation Committee meetings where there is FINALLY some show of good that has been done in Iraq. I know that all the work the US Military, Coalition forces, and especially the Iraq people themselves are doing is having a positive effect in Iraq. I am certain that much of the increased violence in the past couple months and I expect the next several months is due in part that there is good coming out of this and the “terrorists” (not sure what else to call them.) are scared of loosing their place in Iraq or what control they had through the previous regime. They don’t like what is being done, they don’t like our presence and I’m sure they don’t like that the Iraqi people are working towards something different.

My point is this, I was under the impression that the “News” was just that to report the “news” which in most cases due to laws of the Universe includes both positives and negatives. Why is it that an Editor feels it necessary to only show the Negatives? Is it because of the Presidential Election is this year and as Editor are forced to figure that the Negative is more middle of the road so have to appease both of the main parties? Why punish the Military and their families? Why isn’t it possible to actually send out some journalists to find the positive side of Iraq to report back maybe just once a week at least? Is there NOTHING positive that the Military men and woman are doing out there which could be shown here at home to give their families further pride and hope?

The one way I feel that many American’s can help is by being proud of our Military, but how can we do this in some cases when all that is shown to us is the negatives? The media holds so much power. How can we be proud of them when they aren’t doing any good there right? They are just in this constant negativity that is portrayed by the media which I suspect is to make the current President and his administration look bad, if not that than I do not understand why. In this day and age why can’t there be some show of pride in our troops and bring a nightly segment dedicated just to them? Why not hear the mood of the troops from the troops themselves? I suppose if that were done there’d have to be some type of spin on that though to compete with the junk that is already on TV? I don’t think there would, and I think it would bring America close to the troops and in turn the troops close to home.

I admit that there are serious negatives mainly the prisoner abuse scandal. Also their is the fact that their not finding “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq is a serious offence on our part if in fact the information was doctored in anyway, but heck it is way too late to do anything to change the fact that our Military and other forces are there trying to set things straight. Has everyone forgotten the fact that we had to go in their and help rescue Kuwait from Iraq before?? I have known since 1990 that the US eventually would have to deal with Sadam Husien (sorry not sure of the spelling since we (military spouses/families) have heard our Military members refer to him as “So Damn Insane” for so long I couldn’t be sure how to spell it.)

So, I plead with you as the Editor/Producer to please support our Military forces by supporting their families here at home. These families who are trying desperately to cling to the fact that there is a reason and a meaning to our lives being pulled apart and in some cases ended. Is there no goodness at all that has come of what has been done already? Will there ever be any shining moments of Heroism shown on the nightly news? It is sad that Military Families support each other better one to another in knowing that at least there is one less “So Damn Insane” madman able to torment his people or those countries around him but the Media doesn’t even remind the American people of that fact. It is sad that American Editors/Producers are unable to bring any “positives” that have come from this war into the livingrooms of those Military families to give them further pride and hope for their Military member.

Please find some positives. Also realize American’s aren’t the only ones that watch our news casts. Maybe the people of Iraq and the surrounding countries only see/hear our media continually bad mouth our Government, play up our failings, show those times that pit one American against another that all they can figure is that we are terrible people here in America. When I try and think of our media broadcasts from a non-American point of view I am embarrassed, especially the way we show our support for our troops and their families through the Media…not much at all.

Sincerely,
Sharolyn Buck
US Navy Wife for 14yrs of Service.