Richard update May 1st

Well tonight’s been a pretty good day. A little bit ago I had to break 2 guys up before they got in a fight but other then that its been good lol Some gear went out and only 2 came in, backlog is getting lower so gives me more time to work on my projects that I have. Just hope I get them finished in time. How is everything goin back home babygrl? I got a card in the mail today from Deb n Bob wishing me a happy birthday, was a nice surprise J Its like a completely dif world out here compared to being home. Seems all we live for out here is just to work n that’s it. In the mornings after I shower I stand on one of those little mini hand towels to try and let my feet air dry for a few minutes before putting my boots on. Even just that is funny, because at home I can take a shower n just stay barefoot for awhile n such. But only time my boots aren’t on is when I sleep and showering lol But anywho, I need to get off ehre and get thigns finished up for shift change.  

On the new first class in charge of the shop....

I don’t know what he thinks of me, its what we all think of him already. He mumbles when he talks really bad, doesn’t speak up at all, doesn’t looka t you when talking to you, he’s already meddled with gear we were working on and screwed it up royally, today we’re fixing what he screwed up. At least he realized today he was the one who broke it more and we had to order parts to fix it so hopefully he wont interfere with work now, but he’s always hovering right over you’re shoulder asking what you are doing and why constantly. I’ll be emailing and he’ll ask what are you doing. Well, lets see here, my email is open and I’m typing so I’d venture to guess I’m emailing. Like retarded things like that. He walks around just looking at stuff he can get into. He already was caught sleeping in the back office. He’s just not what a first Class or LPO should be, at all. I told Smith before he leaves he needs to email me everything file he has of whatever he has because I’m going to end up babysitting my LPO and running the shop probably. He’s already told me himself that when people come walking around to come check on him and get him. And today he asked me to remind him of an apt later today. It’s hard enough for me to remember thigns I have to do for myself let alone other people. So it’s going to be real ‘fun’. He hasn’t been to bad today so far, other then constantly asking why this and why that. I know he just got here and he’s learning like I was and am, but the way hes going about it I’m afraid is what he is going to be like the whole time he’s here. This is also the guy I’ve been told who has been known to take a tool out of a toolbox to stir his coffee, then lick the tool clean and stick it back in the toolbox…..

Me, the ugly truth

People keep asking how I'm doing. 

I'm horrible honestly. 

The deployment I could probably do, being sick I could do, losing another baby I might be able to do, but all three are just too much for me.  Coupled with Lillian being absolutely horrible in every way.

I'm counting the days until he gets home, all the while trying desperately not to count.  I'm trying to stay as busy as possible and not think about anything.  I have a membership to the zoo and the botanical garden and am going to get one to Busch Gardens.  But that's all just for Lil.  She loves it and when she's loving something she's not generally as horrible acting and I have a prayer of her sleeping at night. 

Having people here is wonderful.  But then they always leave.  So thankful for company, but it just makes me wish someone could move in and stay until he gets home.  Everyone is commenting on how bad Lil has gotten- mom and dad, the nursery workers, my friends, her friends, the YMCA staff....So, obviously its not just me imagining things and its not just that she does this only for me.  Not sure either of those are good things, but at least it doesn't make me crazy.

But we're not even at his halfway point yet and right now I have NOTHING planned for the month of July. Not a single thing. Three friends are moving at the end of June. I'm losing babysitters, friends for Lillian, activity partners, and people who understand what I'm going through.  It leaves me with two more friends who are "possibly moving" within the next three months, a girl I'm not super fond of and Lindsey, who is pregnant, due the same day I was.  Lindsey asked me the other day what I thought of the boy and girl names she was thinking of.  ?!?!?!  I don't care, and I certainly don't want to hear about it.  AT ALL.  And I certainly don't appreciate being asked about it.  And believe me, there are pregnant people and new babies EVERYWHERE.

I'm looking for a new Sunday School class at church as ours has dissolved and so far, I have had no luck.  Visiting Sunday School classes on your own is NO fun.  

Richard update April 28

 I got tasked with another job today. The Warrant told chief he wants a project done in 2 weeks, and Chief tasked it to me to be in charge of it. Why I’m not sure yet, but he did. So I have to get a spreadsheet together of all the CASS benches out here in 4 different work centers including my own, gather all the information on those, what type they are, part numbers, serial numbers n so on, then also every setup we have to run gear on and what platform it runs either F18. E2-C2. SH-60 or HH-60, then the information on those setups, part numbers serial numbers type equipment code n such, then also I have to find out every single piece of gear the work centers can run. For all 4 work centers. Funs tuff, and have to have all of this done in 2 weeks. So that’ll keep me busy. It has so far today. Got together what I’m needing from the work centers and I’m tasking them with some of it and giving them a deadline 5 days from now so that gives me time to put it all together and hopefully beat the deadline givin to me. It’s also been a pretty busy day workwise out here also. Already feels like we never had a port visit because everything just jumped right back into hyper drive.

Richard's rack

Stacey's doctor visit 4/22

Have had a cough for two weeks now.  Started as allergies, so I figured it was just from drainage, but since the allergies are long gone and the cough and throat are still here, something else was up. 

Also, for a couple days now I've felt a twinge in my right wrist when I've been grasping or twisting.  I figured I just slept on it wrong, but it persisted.  Well last night, in the night, it woke me up several times, in severe pain.  This morning, it was still really intense.  I couldn't grasp my fingers together to hold a pen or anything.  So, I went in. 

They did a strep test, a chest x-ray, bloodwork (Yeah, I'm gonna need a transfusion soon at this rate) and a wrist x-ray.  They said the cough is bronchitis and gave me a cough medicine and steroids.  For the wrist, he said there are no broken bones, which we didn't expect, since I didn't do any one thing to it.  So he said that for now he is going to call it tendinitis.  That is "inflammation of the tendons", there is no cause, and really no fix.  But steroids and anti-inflamatories can help along with meds for pain management.  He gave me all three. He also gave me a brace to wear.  He said the brace wouldn't help or hurt the tendinitis if it is that, but in case its not, he would like to keep the wrist immobile until we figure out what it is for sure.  If it is not better in 10 days, I have a referral to an orthopedic surgeon.  He said it could be something as simple as muscle spasms or a pinched nerve or something as serious as a tumor or MS.  So far, it feels much better tonight, but I"m not sure if that is the meds helping it or the pain meds masking it.

Richard's account of a typical day

Well, my day start waking up at 5, showering, then heading in to the shop to go eat with friends around 5:30 who work nights, and back in the shop about 5:50. 6 I get my passdown from the night shift production sup on whats going on with specifics in the shop and then also get a passdown on whats going on with every piece of gear in the workcenter. Currently our backlog is just under 60, and I know whats going on with every single piece we have. After I get my passdown I check tools  to make sure nothing is lost or broken or needs to be replaced and sign all of those off. By this time I have 20-30 minutes tog et my coffee and do whatever else I want before everyone days and nights has to go up the ladderwell for quarters where we stand in formation and hear whats going on for the day if anything special is up or if someone screwed up we all get to hear about it. That only lasts for 15 minutes, 20 at max. We all come back to

the shop and days will get things set for what they will be working on and nights gives them a passdown if they didn’t already get it before shift starts and quarters. At 7:30 the whole ship cleans for an hour. After that nights stays around for like 20 minutes extra before leaving to do whatever before bed and days starts workin on whatever gear we have that they took a passdown or I told them they need to work on. Now is where the fun begins. There is a report printed out daily of the status of all of our gear, which includes any parts that are on order. I go through and scrub all of our items for status updates from supply on when n where our parts are coming from, find out why they might take so long and to expidite it or why they get cancelled or if there is any on board somewhere in another shop or even in supply because supply doesn’t update nalcomis properly which is the sytem we use to document n track everything. You can look up a part and it might say theres 0 on board but it will have a location and if you physically go there and have supply check sometimes they do

have one on board. So I get to do supplies job for them also. The average length of my BMT for the shop is 10 pages but sometimes hits 11 pages. If things don’t change much and its not a busy day for me I can get everything done with that in 30-40 minutes. Sometimes its takin me a few hours to do if I have other things I get interrupted with. Yesterday I wasn’t even able to get to it. So far every day I’ve had to deal with getting paperwork filled out for BCMs which is for items that w3e cant fix for one reason or another. Parts being burned up, not being able to get parts, parts not coming in for a year or more, parts being cancelled etc. I do a lot of research for alternates for things we can use if we’re unable to get exactly what we need. I work a lot with Chin who works in supply, and I work a lot with Chief Johnston, and Master Chief Dickinson who both work in PC. Last few days I’ve had to deal with tracking parts that supply

had that they didn’t even know about and I had to go through Supplies Chief and Master chief to be able to pull them out and they got in trouble for not doing their job correctly because I was doing the research they shouldve been to find these parts they should have given us a few weeks ago. There’s quite a few people who know me now because I get stuff done. Our Chief here which is always never around notices a big difference too from the other supervisor that was here before they moved him to another shop. He’s had some questions for me that Ive been able to answer for him right away and also told him thigns I’ve found that he hasn’t, so he doesn’t mess with me to much. Only thing he messes with me about is how the people in my shop are slobs which they are and are getting better, but I don’t know if they’ll get to where he wants them lol I clean up after them quite a bit too. We are severely undermanned in this shop. My

other 2 cruises 1 shift had more then both shifts have out here. So we’re like 30% manned compared to my other cruises. Makes things hard because people have their chow breaks and smoke breaks and gym time n things like that. You can cut it short on them, but you have to manage everything out to be fair. When we’re out here it is to do work so there’s not a lot of play time. Pretty much you work and sleep. I have my CDI stamp out here again so that’s good and lets me sign things off instead of waiting for the LPO to do it now. I’ve finished my quals up to 308 and won’t have to take anymore tests for it. Everything else is just getting the training and signatures then routing it. 301, 301, 303… to 308 you have a test for all of them which I’ve finished now. I have to get up to 313,

and then do my 3m quals 3m301, 302, and 303. Every Tuesday we have drill that goes from an hour and a half to 2 hours and everyone puts into play what they know about damage control if we were ever attacked. It’s a lot of fun I think. It’s like playing pretend back in elementary. A bit more sophisticated ho and a lot of people monitoring and making sure you are doing it right, because if it did happen a lot of lives are at steak and also the ship. I’ve been participating but at different locations tog et some training and sign offs. Last week I was finally assigned to a spot and just followed to learn and yesterday I was actually doing it for real. I had a lot of fun and only had one slight mess up which wasn’t a huge deal at all. I was told I did really well for my first time actually doing it. The qual level for that position is 312, so I’m doing a job I don’t even have my quals for yet lol Whats nice too is that you never really go down either. So from my spot I can go up but they wont really ask me to go to a spot at a lower qual rating. So I jumped ahead of a lot of people. Partly because most people hate

the spot I have. Im an investigator and go out to find whats wrong and report it in on what is going on so they can make the decision who to send in. The whole time I walk around looking for damage or casualties of any sort and try to respond first then go report it if its to much. I have a full setup I wear and it gets really hot, yesterday I actually used the oxygen tank I carry around with me. Every Wed we have training instead of cleaning but that lasts for 2 hours instead of one. Its mostly useless stuff and pointless but its required by the ship to do. Um, other things that I do through the day is just a constant monitor of Nalcomis to see whats goin on, if anything changes or comes in and also keep track of what my people are doing. I work in the largest work center, both in size and the amount of gear we run. We have over 60 setups that we can run gear on and each setup can either run 1 piece of gear or up to 6. Usually I eat after everyone else for lunch and get 20 minutes and for dinner if I do get time to eat I also have about 20 minutes for that too. Shift ends at 7, but I’m generally still getting things finished up by 7:30 or so. Nights runs the gear and generally get more RFIs, but we do more of the tedious stuff. At least I do anyway. My

guys focus on running the gear. The different places I deal with on the ship ranges from the very front, like 4 feet from the front, all the way back aft so I do a lot of walking and go up n down a lot of ladderwells. I try to get to bed about 9:30 so after work I sometime have an hour or hour n a half if things are going smoothly. But there’s meetings I have to attend sometimes for random stuff. I get along with most people out here but there are a few who I butt heads with. I’ve even done what I hated that people did to me. Saying I’m the more Senior ranking and if you don’t like it you can basically screw yourself lol I always try to avoid that and get things resolved calmly but sometimes people just wont listen or don’t care n you just have to remind them whether they like it or not they are in the military and they signed up for it and this is how things work. Quite a bit of the stuff I do is at a First Class level so the people I have to deal with and

the ranks I deal with above me sometimes they just shrug me off, but that’s slowly changing now that they see me more often and the people who have been supporting me. I need to study for this next test to try and make it. Youd be surprised the difference it makes with some people just having the extra chevron. Well, I’d write as little more about out here but in just writing this I’ve fallen a little behind on other stuff I have on my desk right now. Someone from supply called and is asking for us to do some research for him because hes not sure on how to get the answers. So glad I know how to do my job and his…. Love you much and will call again real soon. :) sorry about the typos, fingers are frozen and fingertips are numb hahah

Neat article about the Ike

http://vote48304.com/uss-eisenhower.php

Saw Kathleen today. She did more bloodwork (26 vials total now in 11 days) and an ultrasound.  She said that since my levels were so low on Friday night, and since I passed the baby itself and my pain and blood levels were so high, she is not assuming I will need surgery.  But I have to keep having my bloodwork tested weekly until it goes down to zero.  If I have significantly increased pain or bleeding, or a fever of higher than 101 in the meantime, I'm supposed to go to ER.  Otherwise, I have to keep up all pregnancy restrictions until my level goes back down to zero, but I am fine to travel this weekend.  They did the autopsy and the baby was a girl, aged at 7 weeks 2 days.  They found nothing specifically wrong with her, but at that early age, they rarely do.  She also tested my blood for two specific causes of miscarriage on my part.  Said they rarely, if ever, come back positive, but it is the only two things they can actually test for so they are.  Those results will take 1-2 weeks.  When we get those results, she will give me a referral to a fertility/prenatal specialist who will then discuss options with me for when/if we try again and what to do when/if we get pregnant again.  She asked if I wanted happy pills and I told her I didn't know, I had never had happy pills but I was pretty sure that with a problematic two year old, a missing husband and a dead baby, the pills weren't going to make me happy. She told me to call her if I wanted them.

Richard does work on the aircraft that went down.  Work is crazy right now because of it.  A chief just moved from his office into their shop to oversee everything. 

He is also very upset about the baby.

Pray he is able to get some down time and just relax and de-stress for a bit.

I had bloodwork drawn today and have an appointment on Wednesday for bloodwork, an ultrasound and an appt with Kathleen, this will determine if I need surgery or not. Not the ultrasound I was hoping for though.

I have plans to go to Hershey, PA with Teresa on Thursday. I will still do that as long as Kathleen okay's it and I do not have to have surgery. 

I am continuing to have severe pain and am pretty mentally messed up.  Just taking it minute by minute, glad for every email and short phone call from Richard.

Okay, he was finally able to call.  For three minutes.

I spent all last night at ER and I'm losing the baby.  I sent a Red Cross message to Richard, he apparently hasn't gotten it yet. 

Baby Update

No ultrasound today. The tech left at lunch, sick.  They did urine and blood work as well as a regular exam.  The bloodwork (6 vials!) will be sent out and back early next week.  The exam showed her "what could be expected at this point".  She said she wasn't going to act like anything was wrong until we knew for sure that was the case, which we do not now.  She scheduled me for an ultrasound next Wed with a follow up appt with Dr. Kemp the following Thurs.  Gave me a huge bag full of samples and info.

Update on Richard

There was an airplane crash.  Four crew members were on board, three were recovered, one is missing.  All communication to and from the boat has been stopped, excluding Red Cross messages.  To the best of my knowledge, there is no way that R could have anything to do with this, he never flies in missions, he doesn't work on this type of plane, he isn't involved in any rescue operations, etc. 

Pregnancy Update Monday 3-22

This is mostly for my records, of names and details, but there's enough info in here that the Moms would want to know that I posted it here too.



Been on the phone all morning with tricare related people.  Referral went through to Portsmouth Naval Hospital and no one I have talked to so far will reverse that. 

I spoke with the Health Benefits Advisor at the Chesapeake Tricare Clinic, Melinda King, but she said she didn't have the power to change a referral.  She instructed me to call the OB Nurse Supervisor at Portsmouth Naval Hospital.  I also asked her who I should direct a complaint about the clinic to and she referred me to HN1 Jenne. 

I called the Naval Hospital and finally got through to the Nurse Supervisor, Commander ___ (sp?).  She stated that she could not reverse a referral.  That the Portsmouth accepted me and I would be forced to go there, unless I switched to Standard.  I asked about an exception due to my medical history and my doctors recommendation and she said, "many years ago we did grant exceptions, but with the economy the way it is now...well, we lose money each time we refer someone out to a civilian practicioner."  I said, "Well I'm disapointed to hear that your money is more important to you than my health." She said, "no, no. That's not what I said."  She stated again that my health history didn't matter, my referring doctor's recommendation didn't matter, that there was no way she would change the referral, if I want to see a civilian ob, I must go Standard.

 I called HM1 Jenne to file a complaint about the Clinic telling me I was not pregnant.  I went through the whole thing with her, also mentioning the referral issue.  She said she would look into my complaint but  doesn't have the power to do anything about the referral herself, but she mentioned that she would speak with one person who might be able to reverse it.  The person she mentioned was HBA Melinda King.  She told me she would let me know by tomorrow at the latest, as I have to go Standard tomorrow if a referral doesn't work out, in order to get my bloodwork done at Dr. Kemp's on Wednesday.

Pregnancy Update Thursday 3-18

Dr. Kemp's office called back today and said my bloodwork came back and was positive and the HCG numbers were in the "normal to low" range but that really the ranges were so huge that specific number didn't matter much.  She said my # was 221.  I asked where that put me date wise, and she said, well it really doesn't do it, specifically, they can vary so much.

When I got home, I looked it up on the internet.  I am 5w3d today and for 5weeks it says that you can have a range from 18-7,084.  So, yup, I'm in that range.  I just have to go back next Wed and have it drawn again and make sure it has gone up. 

The tricare doc has put in my referral, recommending I see Dr. Kemp, but it hasn't gone through yet.  He had to send it to portsmouth so if they accept me there, instead of rejecting me (sending me to civilian) then I have to call this other lady and talk to her about it.  But the good news is that that lady is the one who finally let Lil out of Tricare and to see Dr. Stolz.

The trip to the dunes was awesome, had a bumpy windy ride out there and we had stops now n then to let the transmissions and engine cool off a bit. They were manual vehicles that they kept runnin in first and second gear. When we got out to the dunes the drivers let air out of the tires to do better in the sand. I t was a blast. We stopped also to watch the sunset over the dunes, hence the name of it ‘sunset safari’. After that we headed into this fort, village thing they have set up there that has a bar, a buffet place when they cook the food for you to get it, and also some shops where you can buy belly dancer outfits and also the robes n headpieces that the guys wear.

After awhile the belly dancer came out n it was very very cool. After her performance she grabbed some girls from the audience to have do some moves n then also some guys, was pretty funny n fun. After all of that then we rode back to the main road and back to the ship. The ride back was even more rough then the ride there which is funny n stupid because a ton of people just get drunk there because they can buy the alcohol n that’s about what 85% of the people out here do is get drunk. 2 of the 6 in my group got wasted n was annoying but thankfully the tour was at the end. The one person that threw up on the way back though was a guy who just couldn’t handle the food that was given to us. That part was ironic; I would’ve thought it was going to be one of the 2 drunkies. That was the first day; second day was pretty much just spent at the mall n was fun being out n about. Had to be back early because of duty on the third day. 

Duty wasn’t anything exciting; I had a watch from 3 till midnight. My watch was to ride with the bus driver who shuttled guys to dif places. There were only 2 places each day that the busses went and that changed up every day on where they were going, just to prevent the bad guys from tracking us, which is funny to me. But I went with them to make sure people behaved on the busses. There were 30 of us so we all rotated on who went on which bus. I ended up going on other people’s buses n never my own because of how screwy things got with the schedule n plan they had set up. The watch we are supposed to wear civilian clothes to blend in, but yet they give us, and beach patrol which are guys walking around certain areas to watch out for people misbehaving or being dumb or getting drunk, but w4e all had bright yellow shirts on, and all the same. So here we are wearing civies to blend in, with this bright yellow shirt saying target me. Yeah, brilliant. 

So the 4^th day I wanted to do laundry and just relax but I needed to get one thing out in town so I did my laundry in the morning and then tried finding people to go out in town with for just like 2 hours to grab a quick thing from the mall for Lillian. Well, found a group and it was 1 person I didn’t like at all from my last c-school in Oceana before going to Norfolk, and then 1 guy I didn’t know at all who was a bit odd and the third guy I just recognize from seeing him around the ship but can’t even remember his name at all. And I don’t really care either. Desperate times calls for desperate measures. Well, the 2 hour trip turned out to be like a 6 hour trip and there went my last night to relax. So now I’ll be heading to sleep here shortly ready to work a normal shift again. At least I had a break from the work. I’ll email some more on what’s going on out on the ship with my job n collateral duties n such when I have more time and am rested up. Love you all n hope everything is going well back home.

Richard's in port- Report of his tour

The tour was in a type of jeep vehicle but not rugged at all. There was a roll cage installed tho. We took a drive about 45 mins out there then deflated the tires a lil and went crazy in the sand dunes. Sand everywhere, like unreal amount of dunes in that area. Took a coupel stops to let the engine and transmission cool off because the whole time they are flying in first and second gear. They are all manuals, 6 passangers to a vehicle. 2 in back, 3 in the middle and 2 up front including driver. Took turns on who was sitting where, my fav spot is in the middle in the middle seat because you are dead center to watch everything coming. Its funny how they say sunset safari tour, we were hopin n sliding all over the place in the dunes. Certainly not for the motion sick person, which we happened to have one in there and was interesting half way through. Like it was a blast! Ellis is going to buy the tour the next time we pull back in here. Its worth far more the the $45 we had to pay for it. Then we stopped to actually watch the sun set on the dunes then headed to a lil fortress hut poalce where people could smoke hukas which are like giant peace pipes everyone can smoke out of at once, and there was a bar and buffet there. Half way through the meal belly dancers came out on the platform in the middle of us all. We ate at lil tables with pillows to sit on, was very cool, and the show was unreal. A lot of people were just in a daze lol After that then everyone started gathering back to the vehicles and had a trip back to the mqin road and back to the pier. The trip back was more rough then on the way there which I think is a mistake because people just got tanked there. Was annoying dealing with 2 of our 6 being drunk but not to bad odds, n then a sober one threw up because of the food lol But it was a rough ride in the dark only seeing parts of the hills from the headlights. I of course lovced it all lol

How to send Richard a phone card

First, check with me to see if there is a specific one he needs.

Go to this website https://shop.aafes.com/scs/product.aspx.

You have two options of cards to get him:
1. The ship-to-shore $20 card (1st option in 2nd row)
2. The ATT 550 min Global Prepaid Card $22 ( middle card in 4th row)

Be careful when choosing which to order because the cards also come in multi-packs and prices go into the thousands. Make sure you're choosing the option for only one card, placed like I described above.

Pick whichever one you want and click "Purchase Now".

Enter shipping information as below:
First Name: AT2 Richard
Middle Initial: B
Last Name: Brill
Address 1: AIMD IM3
Address 2: USS Dwight D. Eisenhower CVN 69
City/APO/FPO: FPO
State/AP/AE/AA: AE
Zip/APO/FPO: 095322830
Country: United States
Email: staceybrill@gmail.com
Phone: 810.423.0456

Click "view cart" or "continue shopping".

Double check your order and hit "Check Out".

Enter your billing information. Hit "Continue".

Enter your credit card information. Hit "continue".

Review your order and hit "purchase now".

Richard's Mailing Address

AT2 Richard Brill
AIMD IM3
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower
CVN 69
FPO AE 095322830


When ordering from places to direct ship to him:
First Name: AT2 Richard
Last Name: Brill
Address 1: AIMD IM3
Address 2: USS Dwight D. Eisenhower CVN 69
City: FPO
State: AE
Zip: 095322830

I THINK I have protected the blog.  I had to input email addresses that were "allowed" to read the blog.  Not sure what it will ask you when you come to read it.  Please leave comments and let me know what's happening when you visit the blog.

(This is for the people who go to the blog to read it only, not those of you who get updates in your email.)

Last chance folks, I'm password protecting the blog on Friday. Let me know if you want the password.

Tuesday update from R

I stayed up trying to shake hands with Neil Armstrong n a few other famous aerospace guys that were flown out here. I wasn’t able to shake hands unfortunately because of all the people but got a few crappy blurry pics. Some friends of mine were closer n said they got some better shots so I’ll be getting those from them

Richard update Monday

Just finished with drill. About 2 hours long. Was fun but am wore out now. There’s a lot more you have to do out here as ships company then All those games I got for out here I’m gonna be lucky to even finish one of them lol Learning a lto about the ship and damage control now, not just what programs are out here and whats available to us. Now its time to crack the books and study.

Drill, just the whole practice if something happened to the ship, constantly being ready for anything to come. I’m part of a damage control locker now to help out if something happened. There’s a lot of positions and a lot to learn about everything. Firefighting, desmoking teams, dewatering team, investigator teams, onseen leaders, pipe patching, hull technicians, and the list just goes on n on. I’ll be cycling through each position as I get my quals. I had fun with it yesterday but they can go on for a long time. They give us situations that we go through and get graded on how well and efficient we do. So that’s what all damage control is, controlling whatever might happen to the ship to keep it afloat and fighting

Richard update Sunday night

There’s like 4 or 5 that have CASS in it, but run different parts of the aircraft. This one runs a lot of odds n ends stuff. We run the most I think here. Theres 12 shops total from what I’m hearing so far. Might be more but shop 12 is the highest Ive heard so far. Things are set up differently on this ship then the other 2

I’m sleeping a little better, might try to get a bit more now at night. I’ve been waking up early to go to breakfast with some of the night check people which is their dinner, but I think I’m going to stop doing that to get a lil extra sleep now. I go to bed at 9:30ish and sleep until 4:30 now so my sleeping schedule is getting fixed now. I might just sleep until 5:30 now tho. I don’t start work until 7, but will need to be getting tools done by 6:30 when I take over.

Thursday's Update

Brandon and Lindsey kept Lillian for Monday night, all day tuesday, overnight and brought her back wed morning. Then at 10 on wed I took her to the other lindsey's, along with Kylie, and she kept them until 7pm bible study. I had both of them today but am feeling better. I had another dr. appt yesterday, because I was still in so much pain and doc said my cultures showed i had a "rare" form of strep. Imagine that. I told him i was sick of my lymph nodes being the size of golf balls and he said "honey, i'm not sure what golf ball you saw last but thats the size of a tennis ball." It really was. But today, they're back down, quite a bit. As Lindsey said when she came tonight, "I can see your ear lobes again." Brandon came over after work too and they ordered take out and we all ate here together. ANd I can eat again! HUGE improvement. Feel like a new woman. Dont' have a voice yet, and still a sore throat and tired, but much better.

The downside is, Lillian is really acting out after these few days away so that's extra taxing on me.

Also today on the bad side: My laptop crashed and died. Badly. Total Freak Out. Poop. I was able to start it in safe mode and get some information off, I think. But that was all, couldn't even get the System Mechanic to run. So a girlfriend who's husband is in IT picked it up on her way home from work. Please pray he can work a miracle. We do have the desktop here, but aside from not being set up the way I"m used to, it faces the corner, and has to, because of our desk, and that makes it super hard to keep an eye on the girls, or watch tv late at night. Super annoying.

On the good side, we got a Dyson. We needed a new vaccuum, ours smells like puke/poop/mold no matter what we do. We've been looking at the Dysons for awhile and decided to use the "house" portion of our tax refund on one. I LOVE IT.

Richard: Is not getting much sleep. His schedule is still off. He was going to see medical today about getting some pills for a couple days to see if he can get back on track. He also hurt his back somehow and that's been bothering him a bit.

I have decided that there is too much personal information on here and, for the duration of R's deployment, I will be password protecting the blog, so I can control who reads it (for example-no mailmen who write me letters telling me they're "thinking of me as Richard is gone"). If you want the password, just leave a comment on this post, or send me an email.

Sorry, I know its a pain, but there's too much info about the deployment on here and too much about us being here while he's gone.

So sick.

Yesterday, Sunday, about 3pm I started having a sore throat. It soon swelled up and I lost my voice. About 8 I started having severe joint pain, barely able to move. I had a fever of 102. I went to the dr. this afternoon and turns out I have strep, a double ear infection and mono. Yup, another case of when I do it, I do it good. THIS is when I really wish we lived near family. Lindsey and Brandon did come to the rescue today though and picked up Lillian when they picked up Kylie. Lindsey is taking leave tomorrow and is going to keep both girls until Wednesday morning. I'm already bored out of my mind. Its WAY too quiet here. And there's so much I want to do, especially with a whole kid free day, but I'm not feeling up to doing anything but lay on the couch. This brings back memories of being on bed rest, while R was working nights, and wishing we had a couch instead of a loveseat.

Richard's email - Saturday night our time

No, I can't get into anything but my email out here, and facebook works
from time to time but I don't see myself trying to fight the connection
to check it. Internet only work during the night shift for some reason
out here. The flights weren't so bad and the layovers were pretty long.
I was able to call and

talk with you the first layover. After I got off skype with you and as
soon a I plugged in my laptop they announced we were leaving so I was a
bit annoyed. The second place we landed in Greece wasn't to bad at all.
I was able to talk with you again for a little bit and also charge up my
psp and laptop. I'm glad I did because after that when we stopped in
Italy there was only their type of outlet so I couldn't plug in my psp
or laptop to anything. They had only one phone and couldn't get the
calling card to work at all on it n the operator said he could only
process credit cards and the airport had no wifi in it. I wanted to talk
with you n couldn't do anything but sit there. I didn't want to use my
laptop or psp for anything there b4ecause I had a 4 hour flight from
there and wanted to play my psp on it so I just sat there for a little
over an hour. Thankfully it wasn't a long wait there. Once we landed in
Bahrain it was a circus with everyone finding out where they were going
and who to meet up with. When the Ike group got

together they told us all to quickly get our things because a cod was
already set to take us out. They broke us up into 2 groups to fly out
and I was on the first so I didn't have time to do anything really. Got
that all set n they told us how to put our cranials on and a special
life vest which we had to wear both the entire time. Craniels are a type
of hat/helmet that aircrew guys have to wear on the flight deck n it has
goggles on it. The flight was like a rollercoaster. You got on the plane
through the back of it that lowered down and there was 2 rows of seats
with 2 on each side, all facing backwards. There was no windows or
anything so you just felt the flight the whole time doing it backwards.
The takeoff was a bit weird because it pushed you forward rather the
backwards. We all had a 4 point harness on during the flight. It was
very crowded on that thing and I got

very restless. The flights all the way out here I was in the first class
section. Even tho it was a computer flight they still had the kind of
seats for first class where I was so I'm glad I stuck with the seat he
gave me and also gave that to me. I don't think I would've done so well
otherwise. The seats were like lazyboys up there. There was a part that
would come out you could put your legs up on it and also a foot rest
part, then you could also recline, and the head rest could fold in on
the sides. Was very spacious and roomy so it worked out great. But the
cod flight was very cramped. It was a 3 hour flight so I didn't do so
well being so cramped and tired I couldn't sleep on it. As we finally
got to the carrier he waved his hand in the air while sitting down to
let us know we were landing. That was freakin cool, and crazy. Cause
every so often you would jut feel yourself drop and turn

here n there. Then finally it just dropped and hit the flight deck and
when it hit the arresting cable you flew back in your seat because of
how fast it stops you. You would have definitely gotten sick lol. The
very first flight you would've been sick too, a lot of crosswind and
turbulence, the plane was shaking all over the place from side to side
and was also dropping here n here. I thought for sure it was the plane
and how it would be the whole time, thankfully it was just the first
flight cause even that got me a lil dizzy it was so bad. I've still been
checing into the ship trying to get things straightened out and also
figuring out what I'll be doing out here. I'm still not sure what they
are going to have me be doin but I am defiantly staying in this shop
they have me in now. The people seem to be alright, quite a few of them
I talked with regularly now and the work gets done thankfully. The
backlog isn't very high at all for them being this far into cruise.
Everyone had a beer day because of not pulling into port for so

long. They were jokingly mad cause I just flew out here and could have 2
beers with them even tho I could have been drinking right before I came
out here. I didn't get any tho. The lines for chow hasn't been bad at
all yet. Normally they wind a long ways and up into the hangar bay, but
everytime I go for food I can get right in line. I found a pretty good
rack and its on the top so I have an open roof rather then a little box
to sleep in. The pipes above it used to leak before they fixed it so no
one had it, but its in a great spot. They patched it up and fixed it
like the week before I came out here so was perfect. I haven't had any
problems with it yet either so its workin out ok. I head to bed right
after shift so I can get the sleep I need and then whatever time I have
before shift is my free time, which is like 2 hours. You can listen to
music while on shift but that's about it s its been a little boring
because there has only been like 2 things to work

on out here with everyone in the shop, so a lot of just talking and
standing around. I should be able to read some of my book tho, but I've
still been running around and haven't had time to read any of it.
Everytime I go get a signature I get like 3 more papers that have to be
filled out and finding out theres classes I have to go to that take a
couple weeks and then have to get all my training done so I'm wondering
if I'll be busy the whole time until I get home. Found out also you go
tad while out here if ships company, happens to everyone, even the
chiefs. So this will b my first time in my career going tad lol A lot of
people get sent tad to something while they are an e3 at their first
command and even at other places to. I've lucked

out so far. Guess I've been to valuable to send away hahah But out here
everyone has their turn. Luckily they cant send you tad for the first 90
days so I'll get sent tad on our way back probably. Whenever that will
be. I'll keep you updated on things but for right now Im going for some
food. Just got in the shop after showering and Im starving

Finally heard from Richard:

It’s been taking me some time to get used to the time difference. I’ve been having to take a quick nap each day so far just to keep me going. I’ll be heading to bed right after my shift is over today to try and get as much sleep as I can. I’m still running around trying to get all my signatures for checking in. I’m in shop 9 right now but was in shop 8. They still don’t know where to put me yet or what I will be doing so I’m just kind of going with whatever until I’m fully checked in and then by then something should be figured out. Its 4 in the morning for you there and 1pm for me here.

I’m going to take a look at the ship store tomorrow when I get my play credit card to see if there is a knit bag. I thought the one I brought would be fine but to put all my clothes in at my rack I need a bigger one. I haven’t been able to get anything yet because this ship doesn’t deal with real money like the others I’ve been on. You get a card that has a chip on it and whatever money you give to dispersing they put that amount on your card and everything on the ship uses that. It’s kind of annoying for just checking in and not being able to get anything. I hope yer able to sleep well at night. I’m going to get going to try and get a few more signatures on my check in sheet done.

Lillian

Lillian did two hilarious things today. First of all, this afternoon, she put on her princess tiara and came over and said "Bow to the Queen". Yes, really. I said "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?!" She said "Bow, Mama, Bow. Bow to the Queen." I have NO CLUE where she got this.

Secondly, tonight, as I was singing with her at bedtime, she stuck her hand down the neck of her shirt and touched her underarm. Then she started tickling herself and cracking up. Like, can't breathe, red face, tears on her face, falling back onto the pillow, laughing. Then she took it out and did the same thing on the other side. I'm hoping I can get her to do it tomorrow so I can get it on camera.

I was almost crying I was laughing so hard.

Here are a couple pages I found just by Googling that might be interesting to some of you.

The daily newsletter that is put out on the ship.

The monthly newsletter that is put out for the families of sailors.

He is on the boat.

As soon as the flight landed in Bahrain, they told him to grab his bags, there was a cog (don't ask, I have no idea) waiting. He emailed me briefly, from a friend's email to say that he had had a shower but no sleep and was going to sleep and then check in tomorrow. After he gets checked in, he will have his mailing address as well as his email address.

As for us, someone asked me today how we were doing and I figured since I was answering her, I would just copy it here for yall too.

Well honestly, this sucks. Lillian has absolutely lost her mind. And because of that I am too. She has quit eating and sleeping and has forgotten everything she learned about using the potty. She goes between throwing hysterical tantrums and being a clinging, weepy mess.

Other than that, I am doing..alright. I am trying to keep busy and it has worked well so far, but obviously I won't be able to do that every day of the next five months. I actually thought to myself last night "I'm doing pretty good. This might not be as hard as I thought." But then I remembered that it had only been 24 hours. One freaking day. Then I lost it for a little while. It just seemed like it had been a month but it was less than 24 hours since I had seen him in person and I had had one phone call with him, skyped once and several emails...much more than I will do in any one of the remaining weeks, let alone days.

I'm told it will get easier. And I'm sure it will. Well at least I desperately hope it will, because right now its not so fun. A friend who's having a rough time lately told me last night that I joined her on the "Slow Motion Train via the Suck Bus" and that she was sad I was there, but glad she had a traveling companion.

He did get me a Kindle though, before he left. And I LOVE it. I've already read two whole books and several partials. If you don't have one, and aren't opposed to the idea of not "holding a book in your hand" I HIGHLY recommend it. I love it!

He talked to me via email this afternoon and he was in Naples, Italy and expected one more stop before landing in Bahrain. He said the flight had been decent so far.

First Stop

He's in Terceira, Azores, Portugal.

The flight was 4.5 hours and he said not too bad although there was a ton of turbulence that got him disoriented. He got a great seat and it even has some kind of footrest/lazyboy type thing. Said its kinda like first class. There were TONS of kids on the plane, but he said only one is up front by him and they slept this whole first flight.

They were supposed to be in the airport for two hours, but got delayed by weather. He was able to call me very briefly and let me know he was there, and then he actually got on skype. So I woke Lillian up and she talked to him. And by talked I mean mumbled one, maybe two, words, she was SUPER tired at 650 after not going to bed til midnight. I laid her back down in bed and he and I were able to type chat to each other on skype for a few minutes.

THAT SUCKED.

This morning he had to go in "just to pick up his file". Three and a half hours later he could come home.

We spent all day saying "What should we do?" We felt like we should do something important/special, but nothing came to mind.

We left to drop Lillian at Teresa's and I forgot my ID so we had to turn around.

Lillian peed in her carseat on the 5 minute drive.

We got to the base and the gate to get to the airport was closed.

Richard said that did not mean he could stay.

I had to throw away my unopened Diet Coke to get into the base airport.

His flight got delayed.

They only had Pepsi inside the airport.

He cried when we said goodbye.

I got lost getting off base. Three times.

I'm almost out of gas but couldn't find a gas station.

I was proud of myself for having stopped crying on the way home and thought I was doing pretty good when I saw a car with both a man and a woman in it and I thought, "I want to throw a rock at that car." Maybe not doing so good yet.

The first thing Lil says when she sees me is "Daddy?"

She had to sit in a wet carseat.

She cried as soon as we came in the house and she said "hello" and he's not here.

She refused to sleep in her own bed and wanted to sleep in mine (which is perfectly fine with me for right now, I'll break that later if I have to).

I can't sleep.

THIS SUCKS. But we'll live. One day at a time. Tomorrow LM is watching the girls for a bit, I'm going to try to go to the Y and get some nervous energy out then come home and clean the house. Bible Study is here tomorrow night.

Hopefully by that time I'll have heard from him at least once from one of his layovers. We did get some more info about his flight, but I'm not sure I'm supposed to post that online. Maybe after he gets there.

Pray for Miss Lil. She got some pretty serious second degree burns on both feet tonight while at a sitters house. They have a huge floor furnace vent and Lillian walked on it barefoot. For right now, we are monitoring it and hoping it doesn't require a doctors visit.

Richard is for sure leaving Tuesday the 23rd, he is flying military, straight to Bahrain. He will stay in the barracks there for a few days, waiting for a flight directly to the ship. He is to be at the airport at 845pm and leaves at 11pm. We are unsure if I can/will wait with him during this time, and what we are going to do with Lil.

Richard has not left yet, we still don't know when he will be leaving. It looks like next Tuesday, the 23rd. In the meantime he is working TAD (Temporary Assigned Duty) as a Brig Escort (transporting prisoners) from 845pm-445am.

Deployment

Richard will be leaving this Tuesday, February 16th.

Update

As of right now Richard is scheduled to report to the Ike's office on base on Friday, February 12 and he will deploy shortly after that. We are busy having fun and getting all the pesky details taken care of before he leaves. I will do a bunch of picture posts after he leaves, but for now, no more blog time while he's home.

Lillian's 2nd Birthday Party

We had a "photo booth" ghetto style, by duct taping a striped sheet from goodwill to the patio fence.















I made the cake, from this photo I liked online. The colored dots are just M&Ms; mini, regular and peanut.

The kids were adorable! They enjoyed the cotton candy, cupcakes, chocolate covered oreos and giant lollipops while dressing up with dress up clothes and clown noses.

The adults got in on the clown nose fun too.

I got this banner for super cheap at Michael's and the kids loved it. I wish we had a yard to stake it in though, as it kept coming unattached from the walls.















The menu included hotdogs (in wrappers from Hobby Lobby) and cheese burgers, cupcakes, peanuts, suckers, circus peanuts, "ticket" mints (Hobby Lobby), chocolate covered oreos, a homemade cake and cupcakes, hot pretzels and nachos. All of the printed stuff (water bottle wraps, napkin wraps, sucker stickers, cupcake picks, banners, etc) was part of a printable DIY kit I purchased from Dimple Prints on etsy.

The decorations were the culmination of months of keeping my eyes out for cheap things and ideas here and there. The felt garland is my MOST FAVORITE DECORATION EVER. I made it after seeing this one and it did take some time, but was super easy. The clown was a dollar store find. The banner and door sign were printed from the Dimple Prints Package. The popcorn bags, red/white garland (outside), magnet photo frames and suckers were from Oriental Trading. The tickets were from the local Party Store as well as circus music that was playing in the background. The cotton candy was from Amazon. The felt Happy Birthday banner was from Hobby Lobby, borrowed from a friend. The peanuts tin was purchased at the Target Dollar Spot and personalized with vinyl by a friend. The favors were recycled frosting containers wrapped with scrapbook paper and stickers with the children's names. Inside the favors were: clown noses (Oriental Trading), lion and elephant finger puppets (Target Dollar Spot), animal crackers, circus tattoos (Oriental Trading) and Skittles.

Richard's Hernia

Richard had the follow up appointment with the surgeon on Thursday and he recommended we not do surgery at this point. He said the risk of doing surgery after the previous surgeries outweighs any benefit at this point but if it gets worse, or the pain is unmanageable, then he will perform surgery at a later date.

He is going to report to the Ike office on base on Feb 12 and will deploy that day or up to two weeks later, whenever they can get him a flight out.

Whee!

Update

As many of you are probably aware, we lost a pregnancy at 11 weeks last week. It was a molar pregnancy and I had to have it surgically removed. The pain was actually less than I thought it would be but it is certainly lasting a little longer than I anticipated. I'm in no way "down" but everything is still a little slower and more difficult for me. We also received a call from the doctor today that they removed twins. She said she highly suspected it last week but didn't want to say anything until she had a second in office and third external opinion given. Both confirmed her initial thoughts.

She said in cases where one twin is diagnosed as molar while the other twin is still alive, surgery can be done to remove the molar fetus but it is a c-section surgery where they remove both fetus' and the placenta from the sac and place the living fetus and placenta back into a man-made sac like object and back inside the mother. The rate of survival is between 5-10%.

At this point we are both thankful that I am feeling better, although slowly, and thankful that God made any tough decisions rather than us. Thank you for your prayers as I continue to heal and we prepare for Richard's deployment February 12.

New Kitchen

Frosting Christmas Cookies

Homemade Peppermint Ornaments

Sneaky Lillian

2009 Christmas Decorations

Tacky Christmas Party

Homemade Crayons for Friends

Lillian got BLING for Christmas

Christmas Bag from Whitney

"Christmas" morning at the Brill household

Red Nail Polish

Holiday Leave

Richard's holiday leave was granted. We have a full schedule planned while in Michigan, which includes tons of travel. We will be leaving VA after R works on Tuesday the 22nd and drive back to VA on Monday January 4th. While there, we will be traveling with R's family to upper Michigan to a hotel for three days and to a suburb of Chicago with my family to a hotel for three days. We're excited. And kind of tired.

(Orders are supposedly closer and closer to being fully approved.)

"Patient has recovered functional deficitts and is able to do all functions of his assigned rate and rank. He is fit for full unrestricted duty."

Now, Richard has to take this letter to the ship and see what they say.

Christmas Stuff

Although we don't know yet if Richard will get orders to the deployable Ike, we're thinking he will. And if he does, we're thinking he will still be here next Christmas. But being sea duty, there is the possibility that he will be gone for the next three Christmases. So, we're kind of doing it up big this year. Which is kind of hard to do for a toddler who probably won't remember any of this. But at least we're taking pictures of most things.

We got Christmas photos taken of Lillian, both in her fancy red dress and in a Christmas sweater with lights.

Lillian helped me wrap Christmas presents and LOVED it. Wanted to be wrapped up herself.

She helped us in putting the ornaments on the tree. Richard was sitting at the box of ornaments and I was standing at the tree and she would grab each ornament from Richard and hand it to me.

Her ornament this year was a puppy, as she is obsessed with puppies right now. Our family ornament is one from Disney World.

She helped me make fudge and chocolate covered pretzels.

My good friend from high school, Kerstin, hand made us a huge felt Christmas Tree advent calendar. Each day Lillian gets to pick a small toy, piece of candy or a sticker.

Richard has picked out and purchased his special gift for Lillian, now he's just waiting for it to arrive and him to wrap it.

We're going outdoor ice skating on Friday night at MacArthur Mall. Lillian gets to have her own pair of double runner skates.

Next weekend we are going with friends to Busch Gardens' new Christmas Town. And then on Sunday, we're having our Sunday School party, the theme is "tacky Christmas". We all have outfits and I can't wait.

We've been teaching Lillian to say Merry Christmas. Right now it sounds like "Merry its". We're also teaching her to say "ho ho ho" in response to "what does Santa say?" She picked up on this, perfectly, right away, until she realized we wanted her to do it, now she's just refusing.

We're studying colors right now, so I printed off little photos of baby Jesus in the manger, and colored it in, two of each color. She is playing a matching color game with them. I also printed off four colors of a stable and there is a Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and star that color coordinates with each stable and she places them in the correct color.

We watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade and saw Santa come to town. We also bought the Radio City Rockettes DVD and Lillian is just mystified by it.

We have a bag that I made that holds all of our Christmas music, DVDs and books, and it hangs on our front door. Each day we read a book or two and sometimes watch a DVD.

We're always working on various Christmas coloring pages and crafts.

We all got new pajamas that we will open on Christmas eve.

We are hoping to head to Michigan early Christmas week. While there we will be spending a couple nights in a hotel in northern Michigan with Richard's family and a couple nights in a hotel near Chicago with my family.

Pray about....

This morning is Richard's neurologist appointment. It seems that whether he gets the orders to the Ike or not, all boils down to this appointment and whether the neurologist will write a letter of recommendation for deployment. We'll see. Pray about that please.

Also, Richard has been having to work extremely long hours lately, and its stressing him out and making me completely exhausted. Pray that it ends soon, at least a few days before we try to drive to Michigan.

Which brings me to another thing, we STILL don't know about holiday leave. Yup, its less than three weeks away. No, they care nothing about us. But it would really help in planning things if we could get approval from them to take leave. Pray about that please.

There are several practical and legal things we need to get done before Richard leaves for deployment (if he does). With the holidays, Lillian's birthday and his transfer leave being between now and then, its coming up super fast. Pray that we find out for sure soon and are able to get moving on all the details. We are very near to the 2 month window from the day he will leave.

Seems to me after reviewing this post that the Navy being dumb is doing a pretty good job of keeping the prayer lines to God strong. Gooooooo Navy!

Playroom-Part 1

A friend recently asked for photos of our playroom. That, of course, required that we clean it. We have a strip of cork tiles across the far wall, to display learning materials and completed artwork on. You can't really see it, but we have pink and orange flowers hanging from the cieling. The curtain is fabric from Ikea. The gate is a LIFESAVER. We got it from Babies R Us and attached it so the playroom (dining room) is blocked off from the living room and kitchen. Most of the time the gate is open, but we close it if I need to take a shower (or its clean and I'm keeping it that way).
Our table, also from Ikea. Perfect size but the wood portion is raised higher than the white portion, making it a complete pain in the rear to clean. We hope to get a new, flat top one at Ikea while we are in Michigan. The doll cradle is a family heirloom which houses all of her stuffed animals.
The green tubs are toys that are out of rotation. Right now the tubs contain Music, Kitchen and Little People. The VS bag on top is dress up clothes that Lillian is getting for Christmas and were just temporarily setting there. The dollhouse bookcase was made by my dad just for Lillian from a picture in the Pottery Barn catalog.
In the corner is the Learning Tower, which can be used as a lemonade stand, puppet theatre, fort or a tower to stand at the kitchen couter safely. She loves it and so do we, but its a pain in the rear to move from playroom to kitchen.

Playroom-Part 2

This window looks out onto our patio and has window clings on it, relevant to whatever we're studying at the moment. Currently it is colors. The orange tray is for art or eating in the living room. The pink bean bag is actually a Christmas present and isn't in there yet. The toy chest is another family heirloom. My great grandpa made it and my dad recently refinished it for Lillian. It houses toys that are out of rotation or still too old for her. This worked great, until recently when she learned how to open it. Now we're perfecting the look of death when she does open it, so she's slowly learning to leave it alone.
In the corner, behind the ball toy, is a basket full of dress up clothes. On top of the cabinet is a basket with learning tools for whatever we're currently studying, along with one of my curriculum books. I'm just realizing I should have taken a photo with the cabinet doors open. In the cabinet are art supplies, learning tools that aren't always out like flashcards, window clings, manipulatives, puzzles and games, along with a shelf of books that aren't board books so they can't be out in the open, but are young enough that she likes them to be read to her.

Christmas Photo Collage

I tried and tried to make this the header, but it wouldn't do it, so this will have to do. If you click on the photo, it will open up a larger photo in a new window.

Christmas Pictures

Lillian's Formal Christmas Pictures are posted here.

Wishlists

For those of you who get this in email and don't always go to the site to view the blog, here are our wishlists. They are constantly updated on the top of the blog, as we know stuff is purchased. For my list, I suggest you check with Richard before you buy, as he will be shopping off the same list. His email, that he checks often, is richardbrill@gmail.com.

Lillian's Wishlist

Richard's Wishlist

Stacey's Wishlist

"The November Nor'easter" Update

The news shows have dubbed this storm "The November Nor'easter". As if there has never been another one in November. I'm not positive, but doubtful that is true.

We have been fortunate, and except for a few minutes here and there, have kept power throughout the whole ordeal.

Teresa, a friend of ours, has not been so lucky and she and her 2 year old daughter and dog moved in with us Thursday evening and are anticipating staying until Saturday night at 10pm when their power is supposedly going to be restored. Brandon and Lindsey lost their power today, for 23 hours, but it has already been restored.

Lillian's room had water standing above the ceiling and maintenance came over and made holes in the drywall and drained over 10 gallons of water out of it. The rain is still coming down so the holes are still dripping, and the water spots on the ceiling are getting larger still with every hour.

The carpet in the hallway in front of the guestroom is wet. And the guestroom window has so much water damage, the molding and drywall are separating, falling down and leaking rusty water all over my curtains (now down) and the carpet.

Maintenance says they will be over next week to "fix it" although we have yet to hear what that will entail. Hopefully more than a paint job this time. Until that project is complete, Lillian is (not) sleeping on her portable cot in our room. She normally sleeps 13 hours at night, last night she was at about 7, broken with fits of screaming.

We were able to get out today to go to the mall. We braved the rain and wind, and had a good time, although one section of the mall was closed and out of power, and the children's play area was closed due to a water leak.

Teresa and I also got out to the grocery store and picked up pizza for dinner, and ran by her house. We were hopeful the power would be on earlier than predicted, but it was not. We did, however, rescue most of her frozen stuff, including her Thanksgiving turkey, all by the light of our two blackberry phones. I knew those expensive phones were good for something, if nothing else, they have a bigger screen to guide you with when the power goes out.

The good news is that Teresa's renter's insurance will cover the cost of the groceries that spoiled. She was on the phone with them tonight and they are going to deposit almost $200 into her account.

Everyone else is down for the night and R and I are following shortly. Tomorrow Savannah has gymnastics and R and I are going to try to do a couple errands, hoping the businesses we need to visit have power and no water damage.

R's duty, the Veteran's day holiday, and this nor'easter combined gave us a 6 day weekend. Too bad we couldn't have known that ahead of time and gotten out of town. Although, we would have come back to a fallen ceiling in Lillian's room and a lake on the floor, not to mention ruined pink furniture and that would have been the end of my sanity (not that there's much left at this point anyways).

Nor'easter

We're having a "nor'easter". Apparently its a huge deal to people around here. It just seems like three days of rain and winds. But geesh, they're closing schools, roads, tunnels, and whole cities for goodness sakes. Setting up shelters in high schools and pre-empting all the tv shows. They closed the malls. So now, we can't watch TV, can't go outside and can't go to the mall. Lil is thrilled.

Not to mention, there's water dripping down from the cieling in her room.

In good news, in the excessive closing of everything in sight, Richard got a day off and was able to spend the day at home with us. It was especially nice because I spent last night with a friend at ER and feel like poo today.

Game night tonight I think.

Nov 2 Update

Still no news on holiday orders.

As far as regular orders: Right now R is still assigned to the Ike, the detailer has to be the one to cancel the orders and he has not. What the Ike sent over was a "recommendation" that the orders be canceled and for now, the detailer has chosen to ignore that recommendation. The Ike CAN make him do it, but as of now, they have not. SO, for now, it seems we are still on track for a Feb 12 deployment.

The car dealership wrote the color of the van as "white" rather than "silver" on the title, this makes a HUGE mess for us. So we're (and by we're, I mean I'm) trying to figure it all out.

We scheduled Lillian's 3 month follow up appt for her tubes on Friday.

We have set up an appt to get a DVR from our cable company, and at that time we will cease TiVo use. I hate new technology.

Apparently, R does not have duty Thanksgiving weekend now, although I have yet to believe it. If that is true, we will be heading to Durham to visit with the Howards/Fuscos for that long weekend.

We're going to make a trip to Ikea on Veteran's Day, next Wednesday, and top the day off with a girls birthday dinner for three of our friends.

ANOTHER washer guy came today. He seemed competent and seems to have fixed both problems. We'll see. East Coast Appliance has not been successful in anything so far, other than convincing us that buying the extended warrant is a MUST.

If you are getting R a Christmas gift, please just give him cash. He just purchased a laptop to use for deployment, and he wishes to use Christmas money to help go towards that.

I just found out that in Virginia when a teenager gets their driver's license for the first time, they have to go to the Courthouse and meet with a Judge. The Judge then gives the license to the parents, saying it is their opportunity to give the responsibility of a license to the child as they deserve it. That is AWESOME. Wherever we are, our kids are getting their licenses here.

Lillian climbed into the house bookshelf dad made today. Just to chill out on the shelf.

Christmas Lists are up on the blog and continually updated. Lillian's is here and Stacey's is here.

Whitney has her biggest show this year on Sunday, and I am helping her with it and R is helping with set up/tear down. Teresa is watching Lillian for us.

I think that's it for now.