Ohhhhhhhhhh 2!

Big day for NavyGuy! Today marked his official promotion - instead of being a lowly O1 (the first level of Ensign), he's now a more mature and infinitely more important O2! Well... sort of. See, the Navy automatically promotes ensigns every two years, for the first four years of their commitment. So exactly two years ago today, NavyGuy was commissioned in the Navy, and today, as he puts it, the Navy rewarded his accomplishment of "still breathing after two years of Navy life." Truth be told, he's accomplished tons of training, flights, hardships, one permanent change of duty station (aka a move), and survival training; the Navy plays it cool though and as long as he's still breathing two years later, he gets a promotion!

So, his promotion ceremony was scheduled for late this morning. Before that he had class on base. Now what should have been a simple morning instead became increasingly more and more complicated. The biggest problem was that our truck was still being worked on at the auto shop. The other car we have is stick shift (which I cannot drive - lecture me later people), so I had to go with NavyGuy to base at 7:30am when he went in for class, and wait around at the base "library" until it was time for the promotion - at 11:30. Of course the plot thickened, because the library wasn't open right away, and at one point I was wondering around a random Navy building in dress clothes hoping I wouldn't raise suspicions or illicit some kind of body cavity search, but eventually we all got over to the correct building and were ready for the big moment.

All of NavyGuy's friends from class were there, as well as many of his instructors (which he did NOT expect). We were gathered in a small room, and a higher ranking Navy dude introduced himself, and made a little small talk with me (did I have NavyGuy well trained already, how would I spend the promotion money - you know, military small talk). NavyGuy repeated the commissioning oath and as the fiancee, I was given the honor of putting NavyGuy's new rank insignia on his uniform. Not as easy as it sounds! You have to remove the old pins, and put the new ones in exactly, EXACTLY, the same holes so as not to mar the khaki uniform. Whew. I was sweating bullets, but I think I came across as the epitome of grace in the photo :)

After he was officially promoted, we headed to the Officer's Club with the other flight students for lunch (on NavyGuy of course, since he's promoted and now officially making slightly more money). He's also responsible for throwing what's called a "wetting down" party. I can't explain the name (nor do I want to for now), but all I know is that the point of the party is essentially for NavyGuy to pony up however much more money he's now making towards kegs for the rest of the flight students. Oh goody gumdrops... there goes my IKEA shopping trip! But, it's a big deal for NavyGuy, so we celebrate.

In other news, the truck is fixed, so I have wheels again - hurrah! Our bedroom has new blinds (no more monsters looking in at night), and hopefully a new part for the oven is on its way. Tonight was also "Chicken Curry in a Hurry" night (see older posts for the recipe), one of NavyGuy's favorites, so all in all - a good day!