All together again

Jason is home!!!!  Our family was finally reunited on August 10th after a long 7 month deployment.  I’ll let Jason write about his end of the deployment and homecoming, but we can all agree it is the best feeling to be a whole again.  Communication on the ship involved mostly email with a handful of spotty phone calls.  I think the lack of contact made it that much more amazing to see Jason’s plane land and taxi towards us last Tuesday.  We made many signs to welcome him in, including a big one over the garage and little ones to hold when we saw him coming in.  On the big day, Jason and 5 of his fellow pilots flew in a formation over us and around before landing and “parking” all in a row.  When the last plane landed, we were given the go to run towards our guys!  I didn’t think this through with heels, but we made it very quickly to Jason as he was coming out of his plane.  Faye had no hesitation in running and hugging her daddy as fast as she could.  Gavin wasn’t sure what all of the fuss was about, but also seemed happy to hug his Daddy.

Faye's Running Hug

We always wonder how the kids will react to Daddy finally being home, and I think it went as well as we could have asked for.  Both kids have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with their Daddy and we seem to have quickly fallen back into our usual routines.  I can’t explain the pleasure I have in seeing Faye and Daddy enjoying breakfast together in the morning or the way Gavin runs to hug Jason when he gets home from work.  It already feels “normal” to have him back in our routine and our home.

Because our family likes to have more than one life-changing event at a time, we are moving in about 2 weeks, so soon after Jason’s return.  Since my last post, I have both found a home to rent in Pensacola and found renters to lease our home here in North Carolina.  While getting this house ready to sell and “staged” fulfilled all of my HGTV makeover fantasies, I found the process of trying to find buyers or renters both physically and emotionally exhausting.  I didn’t realize how taxing it was to live in a staged house until I started bringing all of our personal touches back into the house.  The kids’ playroom, which had always been in the eat-in area of the kitchen, was temporarily replaced with a proper kitchen table and chairs.  When we put the playroom back this week, I think I lit up almost as much as the kids!

So now we are starting the process of saying our final good bye’s and getting all of the logistics in order to move.  We are all really excited (well at least Jason and I) about our new rental house in Pensacola.  It is in East Hill, which is in walking distance to downtown and many restaurants and stores.  After living 15 miles from anything, we are excited to be able to walk to town.  A big bonus is that we will be less than a mile from at least one synagogue.  We are very excited about getting the kids involved in the Jewish community down there.  Another HUGE bonus is all of the friends we are reuniting with in Pensacola.  The Marine Corps is pretty small, but the aviation community is even smaller, and we are going to get to live near so many really great friends.

I’m sure it will be a while before we update again.  We are hoping to be in Pensacola some time next month, and we will update our addresses with all of you then.  Emails should stay the same, so if you don’t hear from us, you can always email!

A hard truth I have learned on this deployment is that being stranded on a boat for months and months is not a good place to be for a cyclist.  Now that I think of it, it’s not really a good place to be for anyone, but if you like to ride bikes on big open roads, there’s really not much for you.

I’m a big fan of a cycling blog called Fat Cyclist, and if you are a cyclist, you should be too.  For the third year in a row, Fatty has put on a cycling event called the 100 Miles to Nowhere, where you ride your bike on a trainer or around a ridiculously short course for 100 miles. 

Admittedly, when I had first heard about the “100 Miles to Nowhere” I thought it was a horrible idea.  I admired the “bullheaded” nature of the effort, but who in their right mind rides 100 miles on a trainer or around their cul-de-sac?  Fast forward 2 years and here I am, 111 days into a deployment at sea on an amphibious carrier.  That’s 111 days without a single stop in port.  The only option to keep bike fitness from withering away is to ride the spinners in the ship’s gym.  Thankfully, I have a friend and co-worker out here with me who shares my love of cycling and keeps me motivated to get on the trainers.  We are both fans of Fatty, and when the ride was announced this year, we thought what better place to do it, than stuck on a hunk of steel floating in the Gulf of Aden?

With a flight schedule to contend with and the unreliability of mail out here, we figured the chances of receiving our ride kit on time and having the day of the ride as a free day were pretty slim.  However, the moons aligned and our kits arrived with a few days to spare and the ship even scheduled a rare “day off” to celebrate our half-way point on the deployment.  You have to understand that our ship, the USS NASSAU is over 30 years old, and I doubt the spinners in the gym are much younger than that.  We are Marines, so we are used to making due with less than perfect equipment.  Adapt and overcome, right?  It took a little maintenance and TLC to get the spinners up to speed for the ride, including gerry-rigging a cyclocomputer on the bike and sewing some homemade straps for the toe clips.  Shannon even mailed me my saddle and some of my cycling gear from home to make the ride a little more enjoyable.

John (the other rider) came through with the “support” equipment too.  In order to keep our heads in the game and break up the monotony, we plugged his laptop into the TV in the gym so we could watch some old cycling races.  It made the ride a lot more fun and enjoyable.  We had a great deal of support from our friends and co-workers during the ride, including manning the feed zone and taking pictures.  We even had our own domestique who brought us ice-filled water bottles and even rode the last 40 miles with us.

We completed the ride in 4:50, with only a few “comfort breaks”.  Including our breaks, our total time was under 5:10.  All things considered, the ride went by much faster than we had expected and I dare say it was even fun.  Our only regret from the day was having to do it all inside.  We had grand plans to ride the last hour on the flight deck or one of the catwalks on the ship.  Due to some logistical issues, we couldn’t make that happen.  All in all it was a huge success though.

Seeing as there is zero opportunity to ride a bike out here, it was the closest either of us had to a real day of cycling (we even busted out legit cycling kit, despite the opinion of lycra among most Marines).  So we would like to thank Fatty (and his hairbrained ideas) for giving us the opportunity to “escape” for a day.  There was a Navy photographer there to document the event, so we wound up with a ton of cool pictures.  If you care to see more, check out the gallery here.

If you haven’t heard already, Jason received orders to Pensacola, Florida this month.  We knew the orders were coming, but we were expecting to stay put for another year.  Of course the military always has it’s own plans, and we are so thrilled to be going back to one of our favorite locations thus far.  We are also very excited about Jason’s job change.  Going from combat-ready pilot to instructor pilot is a big change, and we are all looking forward to the benefits.  Mostly, we are looking forward to having a relaxed Jason who is around a whole lot more.  This should be a non-deployable tour, which is also a major bonus.

Besides the cool job and location, we are also looking forward to reuniting with so many friends from along the way in our aviation journey.  It seems like every week we are hearing of a new couple that is going back to Pensacola, and we are so excited to live near so many good friends.  Faye is also getting excited to reunite with some of her friends who recently moved from here or will be relocating shortly after us.  This has made the idea of moving much more exciting than scary for Faye who is already talking about the new friends she will meet.

Of course, we never do things the easy way.  This relocation will take place this fall, very shortly (if not before) Jason returns.  This means I will be renting out our current home and finding a new place in Pensacola to rent.  With so many friends who have relocated alone and this being my 5th military relocation, I am not too worried about getting through the process.  I also have lots of parents (mine and Jason’s) to help with the logistics and labor of getting my house ready for renters and caring for my children while we do it.  Finally, I’ll get to add another item to the list of things I can do without my hubby, like getting through a pregnancy and running a household.

Besides this upheaval, we are keeping pretty busy during Jason’s deployment.  I am currently preparing to host a Passover Seder for 20 guests – including 10 children.  I am also entrenched in all that goes into getting one’s home ready for the Passover holiday.  I am also trying to keep up with my quest to run a 1/2 marathon for each of the 7 months Jason plans to be away.  For me, that last one seems the easiest and is thus a low priority.  I almost forgot it was this weekend and just tonight thought about the importance of getting enough carbs and sleep this week.

In February, I ran the Crystal Coast Half in Morehead City. It was a great run over the bridge that connects Morehead City and Atlantic Beach, down to Fort Macon, and back over the bridge. I ran with my friend Valerie Perez and her friend Alberta. I finished with my best time yet of 2 hours and 30 minutes.  A nice way to spend a morning.  This Saturday, I’ll be running the Cherry Point Half marathon on our base here in Havelock.  I know a few girls running it and I am excited to have a race so close to home.  I had planned to travel around to different races during the deployment, but am willing to put that on hold while I get my house in order.  If nothing else, I will run 13.1 miles (race or not) each month.

Jason seems to be doing well on the ship.  He has made some audio recordings for me and the children, which I cherish, and has called two times thus far.  We are also able to email pretty regularly throughout the week.  The mail has been a source of frustration for Jason, as some of it seemed to take forever to get there.  I guess not getting off of the ship makes a guy really anxious about getting mail.  Thankfully, after only about 45 days, he received my first package mailed out in February this week.  He seems thrilled to get any kind of mail.  If you are interested in writing him a letter or sending him something, please email me for his mailing address.

The unit Jason is with has a fun group of wives. We have a few surprises for the guys in the works as well as a monthly calendar that we all contribute to and which the guys hang up in their main meeting room. Each family contributes a day to the calendar and can personalize it for any special events.  So far I have sent him a square for our anniversary and for the anniversary of Sonia’s birthday, which is coming up on April 24th.

As for the children, Gavin has mastered walking and is on his way to running.  This is especially evident when he is running from me, his new favorite activity.  The funniest yet was yesterday when he didn’t want to take a bath.  While I was preparing the water, he ran naked out of the bathroom and down the hall.  I didn’t want to laugh, but it was pretty hard watching that tiny tushy running from me.  I don’t want to encourage this kind of behavior, but it is pretty darn cute right now.  I bought Gavin his first pair of shoes this month and he looks like such a big boy.  He has learned to give a high five, wave, and play catch. He loves to play, chase, throw, and kick balls of any size.  And he has no fear at the playground going down all of the slides and swinging high on the swings.  Best of all, he is very good at giving hugs.

Faye is my little companion.  She has so much to say and so many questions to ask about the world. My favorite is when she talks to me the way I talk to her. She will say “don’t worry sweety.” She also loves to care for her brother. I am still working on teaching her about being gentle. Some of her hugs are more like head locks.  Thankfully, Gavin is getting stronger and better able to take Faye’s “affection.”  Thankfully, the Faye seems to be used to the  deployment already.  We were really worried about how she would take it as she got older.  We talk about Jason often and what we will do with him when he comes  home.  I know Faye misses her daddy so much, and I am pretty sure she is going to glue herself to his side when he gets home, but for now, she is doing really well.

I know I don’t write on here as often as Jason would, but I am just a tad busy.  Hopefully things will calm down after Passover, or after I get this house ready to rent, or after I find a new home….but hopefully soon.

USS Nassau with the 24th MEU

It appears Jason’s ship and the entire 24th MEU left Haiti on February 7th and are headed back toward the Mediterranean where they were originally scheduled to go.  There is an article here that talks about the impact Jason’s MEU has had on the relief effort in Haiti, and their current travel plans.

Some of the contributions made by the 24th MEU include treating more than 100 victims of the devastating earth quake, constructing a 250-bed interim aftercare medical facility in Port-au-Prince, conducting 82 lifesaving medical evacuations, and delivering hundreds of boxes including food and water.

I will keep updating the blog when I find media updates on Jason’s unit.

While Jason can’t access Facebook, he has set up notifications to let him know when someone writes on his wall or sends him a message.  You can also find updates about the 24th MEU by becoming “a fan” of them on Facebook.  You have to love the technology!

Jason and I are still able to email regularly, which is a wonderful treat, but I do miss his voice.  This is definitely different than his last vacation deployment to Japan.  Back then, we could eat meals together with the help of Skype and he could watch and talk with Faye while she played in front of the computer screen.  This is definitely not a hardship compared to the lives of many other marines and those who came before email.  Time seems to be passing quickly enough and we are still making lots of plans to keep the calendar exciting.  All in all, the Rubin family are all happy and well.

Jason took the above picture while riding in an Osprey.  I am sure he will have a ton of great photos to share when this is all said and done.

Interesting story with a happy ending.  Read about the baby found on Jason’s ship here.