Monday, September 29, 2008
A Sailing I Did Go...Again!
I just returned from my company Networking Convention, attended by about 100 other franchise owners of SeaMaster Cruises. It's great to be involved with others who are willing to help and share instead of hoarding all of their great secrets. It was a great adventure. We sailed onboard Royal Caribbean's beautiful Jewel of the Seas. What a great ship. We departed from Boston and visited the beautiful cities of Portland, Maine; Bar Harbor, Maine; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Saint John, New Brunswick. Although I spent a lot of my time in seminars and workshops, I did get out to see these towns and the many beautiful colors of fall. The leaves were changing more and more as I headed north. The weather was perfect for us and I enjoyed every minute of it. I am looking forward to going back. In fact, I am looking for anyone else who may be interested in going with me next fall. Let me know. Here are some pictures of my adventures at sea:
Update on Michael
Here is the latest on Mike:
While boarding my tender boat back to the beautiful Jewel of the Seas cruise ship I was sailing on, my phone rang. Guess who? Mike had earned a 15 minute phone call. Well, as you can guess, it made my day. I was in Bar Harbor, Maine at the time and the phone service was extremely poor, but I was being watched over apparently, because the phone worked perfectly during the whole phone call. It was nice to get to talk to him after 4 weeks. So, here's what he's up to:
He sayd his dress blues, dress whites and coveralls are being tailored and he'll be getting them pretty soon. He's looking forward to graduation, which will be on October 24th. He will be what is known as a "Grad-n-Go", which means that his graduation will end around 10am and he will leave to the airport about 1pm that day. We will be able to spend a couple of hours with him and then meet him at the airport before he is on his way to A School, in Pensacola Florida. It will be short, but we are looking forward to it.
He passed his first basic training test with a 5.0 (perfect score) and his commander told him if he gets another perfect score, they will put in for an academic award for him. He said that his dress blues will have 3 diagonal green stripes which mean Airman and one ribbon they call the McDonalds ribbon, because it's a red bar with a yellow break in the middle. I guess I'll just have to see it. He is also hoping he earns the marksmanship award if his shooting is good enough.
One event he told us about was when his commander did a surprise locker check. He says, "A lot of my shipmates lockers were messed up so we had to strip down to PT gear, don our sweat tops and pants and endure 2 straight hours of IT." My clean freak son hated that he then had to go to bed sweaty with no shower.
He also says that as soon as he gets to A school, he can start working on advancing to Petty Officer 3rd class and doesn't have to wait the 6 month required time. I'll have to ask him why not, but that's pretty cool for him.
Finally, he says that after A school, which is I think 6 weeks, he will find out what his next duty station is. Based on where he is heading, he will have either 2 or 3 weeks off to come home and visit. We are very excited on this.
More to come when I get another letter
While boarding my tender boat back to the beautiful Jewel of the Seas cruise ship I was sailing on, my phone rang. Guess who? Mike had earned a 15 minute phone call. Well, as you can guess, it made my day. I was in Bar Harbor, Maine at the time and the phone service was extremely poor, but I was being watched over apparently, because the phone worked perfectly during the whole phone call. It was nice to get to talk to him after 4 weeks. So, here's what he's up to:
He sayd his dress blues, dress whites and coveralls are being tailored and he'll be getting them pretty soon. He's looking forward to graduation, which will be on October 24th. He will be what is known as a "Grad-n-Go", which means that his graduation will end around 10am and he will leave to the airport about 1pm that day. We will be able to spend a couple of hours with him and then meet him at the airport before he is on his way to A School, in Pensacola Florida. It will be short, but we are looking forward to it.
He passed his first basic training test with a 5.0 (perfect score) and his commander told him if he gets another perfect score, they will put in for an academic award for him. He said that his dress blues will have 3 diagonal green stripes which mean Airman and one ribbon they call the McDonalds ribbon, because it's a red bar with a yellow break in the middle. I guess I'll just have to see it. He is also hoping he earns the marksmanship award if his shooting is good enough.
One event he told us about was when his commander did a surprise locker check. He says, "A lot of my shipmates lockers were messed up so we had to strip down to PT gear, don our sweat tops and pants and endure 2 straight hours of IT." My clean freak son hated that he then had to go to bed sweaty with no shower.
He also says that as soon as he gets to A school, he can start working on advancing to Petty Officer 3rd class and doesn't have to wait the 6 month required time. I'll have to ask him why not, but that's pretty cool for him.
Finally, he says that after A school, which is I think 6 weeks, he will find out what his next duty station is. Based on where he is heading, he will have either 2 or 3 weeks off to come home and visit. We are very excited on this.
More to come when I get another letter
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Michael at Boot Camp
Unfortunately, we have no pictures of Mike at Boot Camp, but some of his stories are vivid enough that we can just imagine them.
We received his first letter home (3 in one actually) and couldn't wait to rip them open and see what he said. Here's a summary of his first 2 weeks at Great Lakes Naval Training Center:
He arrived there on August 25th, and didn't get to go to bed until the 26th at 4:00pm. He had a lot of processing to do, like shots, paperwork, learning the basic stuff and as he says it, getting yelled at. He's been trying not to stand out to the commander, just doing what he's told.
Week 1: He got 4 shots, 2 in one arm, 1 in the other and 1 in the butt. He went to medical 3 times in one week because he had tendonitis. They said he has borderline arches, making his feet want to turn at different angles than the shoes, so they put him on Light-limited duty for 3 days.
He has already made some friends. One is Jordan, who he says is easy to talk to and helps him deal with some of the boys who are over him. Another is a Jewish boy he met.
He has two Commanders and actually likes them. One is Chief Petty Officer Rice. He says he's hilarious, always making jokes and playing around, but knows when to be tough. The other is Petty Officer Flemming. He says he is funny too, but his is more in insults and name calling. I guess as it's not directed at you, it's funny, right? Flemming is the harder of the two and won't hesitate to make them stand on the blackline as punishment.
Week 2: He got off light-duty and passed the swim qualification test. His Jewish friend needed an escort on Friday to go to Temple, so Mike offered to go. He thought it would be cool to check it out. He wore a yamulka, and participated in all of the rituals. They handed out little Sacrament cups filled with what he thought was grape juice. When they drank it, he drank his and found that it was actually wine. He said he almost gagged, and it was nasty.
He goes to church on Sundays at 7:00am and was planning on attending. Maybe he'll invite his Jewish friend to go with him.
He also got what they call "Recruit Crud", which is basically a cold made up of the germs from all the recruits from across the country. But, he's recovering from that.
He seemed to happy and getting into the swing of things there.
If you are interested in writing to him, here's his address:
SR Cortese, Michael F
Ship 14, Division 398
3410 Sailor Drive
Great Lakes, IL 60088-3150
More to come! You'll know when I know!
We received his first letter home (3 in one actually) and couldn't wait to rip them open and see what he said. Here's a summary of his first 2 weeks at Great Lakes Naval Training Center:
He arrived there on August 25th, and didn't get to go to bed until the 26th at 4:00pm. He had a lot of processing to do, like shots, paperwork, learning the basic stuff and as he says it, getting yelled at. He's been trying not to stand out to the commander, just doing what he's told.
Week 1: He got 4 shots, 2 in one arm, 1 in the other and 1 in the butt. He went to medical 3 times in one week because he had tendonitis. They said he has borderline arches, making his feet want to turn at different angles than the shoes, so they put him on Light-limited duty for 3 days.
He has already made some friends. One is Jordan, who he says is easy to talk to and helps him deal with some of the boys who are over him. Another is a Jewish boy he met.
He has two Commanders and actually likes them. One is Chief Petty Officer Rice. He says he's hilarious, always making jokes and playing around, but knows when to be tough. The other is Petty Officer Flemming. He says he is funny too, but his is more in insults and name calling. I guess as it's not directed at you, it's funny, right? Flemming is the harder of the two and won't hesitate to make them stand on the blackline as punishment.
Week 2: He got off light-duty and passed the swim qualification test. His Jewish friend needed an escort on Friday to go to Temple, so Mike offered to go. He thought it would be cool to check it out. He wore a yamulka, and participated in all of the rituals. They handed out little Sacrament cups filled with what he thought was grape juice. When they drank it, he drank his and found that it was actually wine. He said he almost gagged, and it was nasty.
He goes to church on Sundays at 7:00am and was planning on attending. Maybe he'll invite his Jewish friend to go with him.
He also got what they call "Recruit Crud", which is basically a cold made up of the germs from all the recruits from across the country. But, he's recovering from that.
He seemed to happy and getting into the swing of things there.
If you are interested in writing to him, here's his address:
SR Cortese, Michael F
Ship 14, Division 398
3410 Sailor Drive
Great Lakes, IL 60088-3150
More to come! You'll know when I know!
Monday, September 8, 2008
My little Broadway girl
What 4 year old do you know that loves Broadway shows? Kellee has become obsessed with what she calls, "Christine". It's really Phantom of the Opera. She watches it at least twice a day, sometimes speaking the parts right along with the actors. She even acts out some of it. She won't do it when we're watching, but I try to catch her in the act. It's so cute, I can't help but laugh.
If I have the music playing on my computer, she'll run over and say, "Mama, that's Christine." Whether or not she gets into acting on her own someday, I believe she'll always be a lover of the theatre. It's in the blood, you know - she's a Jackson kid.
For some reason, my video won't load, so I'll try again later.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Dancing with the Stars
Well, they were dancing to the music of the stars anyway. We had just finished watching College Road Trip (very cute, by the way. I highly recommend it). The credits started to roll and the music set off my kids. They couldn't hold still any longer. So, I just had to record it. Here you go: Enjoy!
Playing in the rain
I ran to the grocery store and on my way back, the rain started. It was a downpour. When I got home, I told the kids that when I was a kid, we used to love playing outside in the rain, jumping in the puddles, etc. So, Rachel, Marshel and Kellee headed outside. Rachel took off before I got any pictures of her. She had been splashing me, and was afraid of my laying her out in the puddle. (Rightly so, that's just what I was planning). Marshel and Kellee found a mud puddle also and just had a blast for about a half hour. Finally, they came in for a nice warm bath.
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