Karen's Weekend

A couple of months ago one of my good friends, Karen, got engaged!  Karen and her fiance, Trevor, will be getting married in November 2010 and she asked all of us (Me, Nicky and Diana) to be in her wedding.  She lives on the west coast and doesn't make it over this way too often.  So, we (Nicky, Diana and myself) wanted to take advantage of her visit.  We decided to meet up in Raleigh for a dinner celebrating Karen and Trevor's engagement.  None of us had met Trevor yet, so this was the perfect opportunity to grill meet him.  Here are a few pictures from our dinner:

Karen and Trevor

Nicky, Diana, Karen and I

The boys (Danny, Steven, Trevor and Rob)

About halfway through dinner, one of our old friends from high school met up with us:

Jason and his women

After dinner we went back to Diana's house and played Rock Band.  Here's a picture of the "Navy Band" (Did I mention Karen and Trevor are BOTH in the Navy?!):

It was a short visit, but we had such a good time!  I love these ladies!  I can't wait to see them all again!

Merry Christmas!

We promise to be grown ups next year and send out Christmas cards!  I was going to do it this year, I even had a great idea for the cards, but things got busy and time just wouldn't stand still.  I promise, next year we will actually make and send out Christmas cards.  Merry Christmas!

P.S.: We'll be home next week!

Congratulations Rob!

Congratulations to my wonderful husband!

For the second year in a row he won the 'Junior Officer Award for Excellence in Shiphandling'.  Here is the Naval message announcing Rob's award:

GENTEXT/REMARKS/
1. IAW REFS A AND B, THE WINNER OF THE 2009 COMMANDER CARRIER STRIKE
GROUP TWELVE (CCSG12) JUNIOR OFFICER AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN
SHIPHANDLING IS LTJG ROBERT CLARKSON, 1110, ELECTRICAL OFFICER, USS SAN
JACINTO (CG 56).
2. CANDIDATES WEATHERED A COMPREHENSIVE RULES OF THE ROAD EXAM AND LIVE
TRAINER PERIOD WITH CCSG12 STAFF. THE FOLLOWING EVOLUTIONS WERE
CONDUCTED:
A. U/W FROM PIER
B. MOOR TO PIER
C. UNREP APPROACH, ALONGSIDE, AND BREAKAWAY
D. MAN OVERBOARD RECOVERY
3. LTJG CLARKSON SCORED 4.4 OUT OF A POSSIBLE 5.0 FOR THE EVENTS LISTED
IN REF B. DISPLAYING EXPERT SHIPHANDLING SKILL OF A SIMULATED CRUISER,
LTJG CLARKSON PROVED TO BE PARTICULARLY ADEPT AT PIERSIDE WORK; HE
EXPERTLY EXECUTED UNREP AND MAN OVERBOARD EVOLUTIONS, DISPLAYING SOLID
CONCEPTION OF MENTAL ARITHMETIC FOR THE OOD. LTJG CLARKSON ALSO PROVED
HIMSELF TO BE A METHODICAL AND PRUDENT MARINER WITH SOLID COMMAND
PRESENCE AND CALM DECISION MAKING PRACTICES, THUS EARNING HIM THE HONOR
OF THE 2009 CCSG12 SHIPHANDLER OF THE YEAR AWARD.// BT
#0026

I am very proud of him!