Halfway there!

Hello everyone! So I know that I am trying to keep up with my blog and trying to post something every month updating you in the life of the Henry's...so exciting, I know. :) But I am still waiting anxiously for my husbands return. Next week will mark half way point and I cannot believe that it literally has come to this point. It seemed like it couldn't come fast enough and now it is here! I am so happy about it too! 

Robert is doing wonderful! They have been out to see for a while and have caught a few pirates. If you go to military.com and search USS Anzio you will find articles about his cruiser. It's pretty interesting stuff! He is excited to explore life in the next ports and is diligently looking for a teapot that I have specifically requested from him. Hope he finds an original piece so I can put it on display in our home.

This month has definitely brought on a lot of changes in my life, some good and some bad. I'll cover just the blessing in our lives because no one likes a debbie downer! So I was appointed USS Anzio FRG secretary. For those of you that don't know FRG stands for Family Readiness Group and they are responsible for holding down the for when the hubbies are gone. We have some exciting things coming up and I will post pictures of events that we will be having. We also found out that we will be moving to San Diego next year! Robert got picked for orders our there and we are beyond ecstatic. We should be there sometime in Spring next year. If anyone wants to come out and visit please let us know and we would be more than happy to have you at our place.

Parker had a little scare earlier last month. He had a growth on his back that was about the size of a marble and he had to have surgery to remove it. They took a biopsy of the growth and the wanted to rule out cancer because of its abnormal appearance. He came back with a clean bill of health and just got his stitches removed on Monday morning. He's doing just fine now and is as hyper as ever. 

I will try to keep this updated more often. I am supposed to be receiving pictures from Robert here shortly and will post them once I receive them so you can see deployment through his eyes. 

Take care and love you all!!!  

Muah!

2 months down...almost

So here we are almost two months into deployment! That went by soooo fast! I am so happy that the pace seems to be moving by so quickly. Robert has been to Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, Saudi Arabia and is now in Djibouti. He has seen some pretty cool things but he said that the countries surrounding the Black Sea somewhat disappointed him. He thought that there would be more to do and more to see. We have been able to skype 5 times since he's been gone and we probably will tomorrow as well. I appreciate technology so much because it lets me be able to see my husband. 

Robert loved the care packages that he has received thus far. He has received 3 from me, 2 from my mom and 1 from his mom. He loves the beef jerkey and beef sticks that he received. He asked me not to send him anymore snacks for a while because his gym bag is completely filled. He has been sharing though, especially with his fellow sailors that did not receive anything. It breaks my heart that they haven't. One of my best friends here, April, and I made goody bags for our husbands closest friends last deployment and they loved it. We wanted everyone to feel included because we know how lonely it can be without having any indicators of home. So we just finished up our first round of goody bags for this deployment and will send them out this week. We made them for the whole division this time. 

I also sent him homemade cakes in mason jars. One of the wives told me about it and I googled how to do it and sent him 12 mini chocolate cakes. They were pretty inexpensive to make and he loved them. The heat from the mason jars basically vacuum seals the lids to the jars and prevents them from going bad. He said that it was nice for a change from the crap that they eat on the ship. 

I am trying to stay proactive and do things that will help me keep my mind off of my husband being gone. I have taken up reading as well as getting addicted to Grey's Anatomy. I bought seasons 1- 6 and cannot believe that I didn't watch them sooner. As I am finishing a season, I am sending them to Robert too. He has seasons 1 & 2 right now and he is hooked. He loves it. I am in the middle of season 6. I also started the "Couch to 5k" running plan. There is a 5k Race for the Cure coming to Virginia Beach on October 15th. I want to be able to run it. I am in week 2 of training and loving it. One of my friends on facebook posted one day that running is 90% mental. I keep telling myself that every time I want to give up and I end up pushing through. I know this may sound dumb, but I literally tell myself that I can do it and when I cheer myself on, I finish with ease. 

Thank you everyone for all of your prayers for both Robert and myself. We appreciate everything that you do for us. I will keep you updated with more things as time gets close!

Transitions

So I am sure that some of you are aware that Robert left for deployment almost 2 weeks ago. I plan on keeping our blog updated with pictures from the awesome places he will be visiting as well as keeping you updated on any stories that he happens to throw my way. Needless to say, the first couple of days that Robert left were very hard for me. Luckily, I have an amazing boss that let me take all of the time that I needed to get myself situated. Robert and I moved our things into storage and I am currently renting a room from one of my best friends that I have made in Virginia. Tina, her husband, and her 8 month old daughter have welcomed me with open arms. She even let me drag parker in as well. I had the opportunity to live alone but we thought that living with someone would help the time pass faster and we would be able to save a lot more money to put towards buying a house when he gets back. 


Parker is having a difficult time adjusting and one of my biggest concerns is that I do not want him to bite the baby or I would feel HORRIBLE. He seems to be doing good so far but there are still a few kinks to get figured out. Robert emails me on a daily basis and I have already received 2 phone calls from him. He seems to be in good spirits. 


The first couple of days he said that nearly the whole ship was sea sick. There were 30 ft swells and he said people were sea sick left and right. He was planning on starting a work out regimen as soon as they left but due to the rough seas it was put on hold. He was just recently able to and I am happy because it seems to be the one thing to keep him sane. He has been getting around 4 hours of sleep a night because of the watch rotation but hopes that it will soon ease up. There first stop is a pretty cool country. I will be able to post more about it once he actually ports there due to OP SEC (operational security). 


If anyone would like to send him an email, he can be reached at henryr@cg68.navy.mil. He absolutely loves getting emails and would love to hear from everyone and anyone. Care packages also keep the morale of the sailors up and they are fun to make. I'm just about done with my first package and will be sending it to him soon. I will list the ships address below in case anyone would like to send him something. It's good to send even a card if you do not want to send a care package. Sailors need to know and be reassured continuously that they are still thought of back home and are appreciated. Trust me, the emails I get from him after he has received a care package or a card are wonderful. He LOVES them. The post office has special boxes that are specifically for military and they are discounted. You can pick one up for free at any post office and then take it home to fill it. You will only have to pay for it when you drop it off to be sent off. There are no charges for the box. Make sure you print using block letters to ensure that the sender can read it clearly as well as the post office on board to ensure that it gets to him and not someone else. Please make sure that you do not put anything that can melt easily such as chocolate or gum. I had an oopsie dasisy with that on his first deployment. Thank you all for checking out our blog and for supporting Robert in every way possible. Keep looking for more updates. 


Ciara Henry


Ships address:


OS2 Robert Henry
USS Anzio CG68
OI Division
FPO AE 09564-1188

Bermuda!

Our trip was phenomenal! We left on Saturday the 9th and returned last night. It was a much needed getaway especially with Robert leaving for deployment soon. This was considered our honeymoon since we didn't have the chance to take one until now. Here is a little synopsis of what we did...


Saturday:
We flew to Newark and got a shuttle that we thought was taking us to Bayonne New Jersey (which is where our cruise ship was leaving from). The shuttle driver thought we said some port in New York City so he drove us all through the city just to realize that we were at the wrong port. It was amazing though. It was like we got a free little tour of the city. We could not believe how many people were there. I mean there were people everywhere hustling and bustling about. The way that they drive there was insane. Our shuttle driver almost sandwiched a cyclist between him and another taxi. He did take us to the correct cruise terminal finally and we boarded the ship with no problem. We found our room and opened our door to our private balcony and we had a gorgeous view of New York City and the statue of Liberty. We had dinner every night with the same people @ 8:30pm and ended up making great friends with them. We sat with two couples: one was a Brooklyn Fire Fighter and his wife and the other two were postal employees from New Jersey. They had amazing accents and Robert loved to hear them talk.


Sunday:
This was our day at sea and we lounged around. We played some miniature golf ( I killed Robert), played ping pong (Robert killed me TWICE), shot around on the basketball court, sat in the hot tub for about an hour and a half while enjoying some great drinks, and napped for about 2 hours. We were basically just relaxing. They had a love and marriage game show in their theatre and it was beyond hilarious. They had 3 couples on the stage (newlyweds, married 5-40 years, and a couple that was married for 61 years). They interviewed the grooms first and brought the wives out and compared their answers to the grooms and vice versa. It was hilarious!! We couldn't stop laughing. Robert and I hope to be married that long but we hope to keep a little more spice in our marriage that what we saw on stage ;). We went to bed pretty early because we were pulling into Bermuda the next day.


Monday:
Bermuda was beautiful! When we woke up we knew that we would be in port and we opened our balcony door to a beautiful scenic view of the island. The water was sooo clear. Clearer than anything that I have ever seen before. Bermuda is owned by Great Britain and almost everyone there had some type of accent. It was awesome. We made our way down to the bottom of the ship to be let off and we just started walking. We wanted to parasail but when we asked about it they wanted to charge us $98 per person. Needless to say we kept on going. We came upon this scooter shop and decided to inquire about the prices. It was $53 to rent a scooter for a whole day. We ended up renting one and it was the best thing we did. Bermuda is only 21 miles long so it would take us about an hour and a half to got from one side to the other. Robert had to take a little test to make sure that he was capable to drive it. He passed with flying colors and off we went. They drive on the left hand side of the road so it was a little confusing at first but it seemed natural to him. We drove and drove and saw lots of different beaches with pink sand and clear waters. The houses were amazing as well. They were multi colored, which was a little different and there were technically no street signs or lit streets when we were driving around. We drove to Hamilton and got two smoothies, at 9.25 a piece I might add, they were delicious. And I thought Starbucks was expensive. We took a ferry back to King's Wharf and called it a day and went back on the ship to enjoy the remainder of the festivities on board.


Tuesday:
Our second day in Bermuda we took another drive on the scooter as we had to return it by 11am then went to snorkel beach where we had an umbrella, two lounge chairs and unlimited access to snorkel equipment, kayaks, and paddle boats. We laid out in the sun for a while and then decided to go snorkeling. The water was sooo cold. Both my legs and Roberts legs were numb. We eventually got used to it. Robert swam over some coral and saw a bunch of cool sea life. I could not get the hang of it. I started getting panicky trying to breath through the snorkel so I just swam around for a while and then took pictures of robert snorkeling. We then went walking around to some of the shops and stopped for lunch at The Frog and Onion Pub. They came up with the name because I guess the French (Frog's) came and inhabited the land of Bermuda, and Bermudians are known for growing Onions. The Pub was amazing. We had Fish and Chips and shopped around a little in the shops there and then headed back to the ship. We enjoyed the festivities of the ship that night and went to a couple of shows and participated in a game show called The Quest which was for adults only and it was sooo fun. 


Wednesday:
This was our last day at sea and the sea was a rocking. I could not get used to it at all and it did not even bother Robert because he is used to it from being on his ship. I had to take some dramamine after a nap and then I started to finally feel better. We spent another 1 1/2 hours in the hot tub and then got ready for the show that night and then we went to dinner again with our friends. We bonded pretty well with the Brooklyn Firefighter and his wife, Dan and Shayne. We ended up going to the Jazz lounge afterwards to enjoy some last drinks with them before we went our separate ways. We ended up befriending them on facebook and are planning on taking a weekend trip to NY to spend some time with them and explore the city from the locals point of view before Robert leaves for deployment. They were very cool people and we hope to stay in contact with them.


Thursday:
We pulled back into Bayonne NewJersey at around 7 am and finally made it back to Virginia Beach around 6pm. It was a long day!


I am glad that we took this trip and we hope to take a getaway trip every 2 years even if it is something small like an extended weekend trip to a bed and breakfast in a random city that we have never been to. Hopefully at some point we can go back to Bermuda and see everything else that we did not get the chance to.


We love and miss you all and hope that you enjoy our blog site. I will be updating this about every 2 weeks so our friends and family back home can feel like they are up to date with everything that is going on in our lives. We love you and miss you all!


Time to get started on all of the laundry!

It's only the beginning...

This is the last day of class and I am happy to say that this whole blogging experience has definitely been very therapeutic! I am excited for what our site will evolve into!