Fifty days in!

Today marks day 50 of training! We are almost halfway through our time here.

This past week was pretty good.  On Wednesday there was a CG social which I attended with E.  We got all dressed up and spent time socializing there.  During introductions at the beginning of the event they had all the wives (all four of us) raise our hands so that the other wives could see us.  They waited until we got some food and then pounced on us.  They pulled us away to a corner of the room and chatted with us until we were the last people at the event.  They were all so kind and so helpful. Mostly they were older women, and all of them had much experience.  They were very laid back and told us not to be afraid to find them and ask for help in the future.  There was one other wife who was much closer to our age as well.

The next day the four of us wives from E's class went to a spouse orientation.  We had a hard time understanding where we were supposed to go.  Violet, the woman that was trying to give us directions the night before at the social kept giving us blank stares every time we tried to ask "is it by the library?" or "is it in the MSCOE building?" (which it was).  We did make it there and it seemed like there were barely any wives there.  The event really was for the Captains Career Course families, but it seemed like all of those officers came without their wives...So we waited around with the wife we met the night before that was closer to our own age.  She told us that we should let her know if we ever want to make a trip to go shopping, or use her oven, or just need someone to hang out with.  She also invited us all for brunch on Tuesday (tomorrow).

After the very short, not incredibly helpful, orientation three of us drove around for a while and chatted before going back to our hotel rooms.  Hopefully we get out and do more stuff together now!

Friday I made a shirt out of an old thrift store dress.  Honestly, I was trying to make a dress, but I accidentally cut it too short...But it does make a pretty cute top.  Then I went to How To Train Your Dragon 2 with some other guys from E's class.  After this we went to Chicken Bone.  That was an interesting experience.  We didn't know it was "Christmas in July".  Let's just say there were some interesting characters there.  Luckily we were there with some really nice people.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early for a trip to the Lake of the Ozarks where we rented a deck boat for the day.  We had so much fun on the water and were so glad we didn't back out like most people did (they went floating down the river again).  We got a wake board and a tube and the boys had a lot of fun doing both of those things.  Little brag moment here, E was the only one who could really use the wake board.  Out of all six other people, E was the only one who could stay up for more than 3 seconds.  He got up on EVERY try! And then, of course stayed up for a while.  It was fun to be on the boat listening to all of the other guys be so impressed.  Later on E was tubbing and was impressing them all over again when he would not let go even when the tube flipped upside down! He got the tube to flip back over and pulled himself on all at full speed!

We also found what people called a party cove.  It was just a bunch of boats that linked up and everyone floated around and socialized.  We didn't do it for long, but it was fun to see so many people.  After that we just spent some time driving around the lake.

I think the best part of the day was the good company.  The other guys we went with were very nice.  It would have been really easy for them to not pay much attention to me, given how good of friends they already were.  But I felt like a part of the group the whole time.  I really really did have a great time.

By the time we got back it was already 9:00pm so E and I opted out of going to BWW for dinner.  We went home and immediately went to sleep.  We woke up refreshed for church on Sunday morning.  We went out to lunch after that with Captain W at Ruby Tuesdays and it was delicious!! Then E had to do some community service painting cannons, so I did some reading.

To finish off our weekend we went on a long walk on a gravel trail.  It was such a nice weekend with new friends (for me) and some good quality time together.

Today E had a PT test in the morning that he passed with flying colors! He was only 3 pts shy of a perfect score and did much better than on his first PT test (which he passed, just not as high of a score as this test).  Then he had a mock riot where he got tussled up and had food thrown at him.  He said that was really fun (to be the rioters and the ones standing against the riot).  He also said that some people took it a bit too seriously, which is silly.  But I'm so glad he had such a great time today!

In case I don't get a chance to write again before Thursday, I will be sailing this next week.  I'll be leaving on Thursday evening.  I hope to bring my computer, but I don't know if I'll have internet access. It might be a while before I get to update the world on the oh so interesting events of our lives, so keep us in your thoughts and prayers!