The Project You

A quick update....

Colleen has been "on hold" since graduating from Basic Training and waiting for her school to start, which means a lot of waiting, watch standing, cleaning, etc. But yesterday she had indoctrination (indoc) for her school and started class today, and she is glad to finally be off hold and learning about her job.

There is no internet access in the barracks, and while there is internet access on base, they don't give her quite enough free time to post on this blog yet. So I'll add little updates when I can, but we are moving out to Illinois this week to be with Colleen (YAY!) so I won't have much to say until next week or so. Dante and I will unfortunately be heading out over Memorial Day weekend, sigh, not our choice.

If you don't have our new address, use the contact form on this site and ask us for it, and we'll send it to you.

Our cell numbers will remain the same.

Colleen and I have pretty much been doing the same thing for the past couple weeks...scrambling to get everything done in time.

So, that's all for now, but we'll get back to you all next week here on the blog.

Have a good one!

Posted by Eric

Ok, been a bit since the last update, sorry, Dante and I were gone for 10 days, we drove out to see Colleen at graduation and spend liberty weekend with her. It was AWESOME to see her again. But very hard to leave a couple days later. Dante has been handling it all very well and I am very proud of him, and he's proud of his Mom.

Here's Colleen shortly before the graduation ceremony...she had been up for a very long time for the last phase of her training, then drilled, then stood watch, then got a tiny scrap of sleep, then had to stand all through the graduation ceremony, she was really tired. But she was recognized during the event for being an Honor Recruit, received a Captain's Coin, and a letter of commendation which is awesome, just like her!
Dante and I sat in the V.I.P. seating since Colleen was an Honor Recruit, which Dante thought was very cool, lol. Unfortunately, I think "V.I.P." stood for "Very Impaired Peepers" because we hardly saw Colleen at all during the ceremony, even when she got to go up and be recognized for being an Honor Recruit, we weren't allowed to stand up so we could see her and take a photo. I am hoping to order a copy of the ceremony soon. I have to say, it was very cool seeing Colleen graduate, but really weird seeing it from the other side of things, lol. After graduation we got to meet some of the officers who spoke during the ceremony, her divisions sponsor who was awesome, and some of the officers and enlisted personnel who run RTC. All of them were very nice and Dante loved meeting everyone. Most everyone said how impressed they are with Colleen and everyone expects her to go very far in the Navy, I hope they meant career wise and not distance The Rear Admiral tried to recruit Dante for sub duty, lol. One of the Master Chief's we met was from Poulsbo, WA, he was very funny and we enjoyed talking to him. I only briefly got to meet one of Colleen's RDC's, who was very nice, and I hope we get to meet the rest of them once we move out there.

Colleen has her cell phone now, so you can call her at her number again, BUT, keep in mind that she can't always answer it. So leave a message and she will call you back first chance she gets.

Colleen's new address (in which they make us spell our name incorrectly just so she gets mail) at "A" School is:

SN Vonfoerster
320A Dewey Ave.
Ship 833, Room 310
Great Lakes, IL 60088

Colleen will be adding updates herself to this blog as soon as she gets her laptop (which I just sent out to her today), but it might be a couple weeks until it gets there and she can grab some time and some wifi.

So, Dante and I will be joining Colleen in Great Lakes (Waukegan) IL very soon, this month actually. Right now Colleen is getting all the paperwork sorted to get us squared away with the movers. She had to go find an apartment off base because all the on base housing is taken, but that was not a surprise at least. Once the movers leave, Dante and I will hit the road, again, and head out there to Waukegan.

Colleen at the moment is in a "Ship" (a.k.a. barracks) with a couple roomies and is waiting to start her school. She is glad to have moved across the street from RTC, and she is trying to jump through all the hoops to get into "Phase II" so she can go off base more often and have more personal freedom, plus be able to go to the apartment when we get there of course.

Colleen's school is 8 months long, she is an ET (I know, hilarious!) and no, we have no idea where we will be going after that

On the way back from Illinois, Dante and I stopped at the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, and of course...the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. lol. I caught a cold out in Great Lakes, which got worse when we went to Mt. Rushmore because it was cold up there and I was wearing shorts that day. So by the time we got to Montana I was having trouble talking and breathing and I had to really push myself to get us home. Feeling better now though

It was a great trip, but I am really tired, so I will leave it here for now. More to come!

Posted by Eric

Divisions Graduating by Training Group

TG 23 (10) Divisions (166-173 & 823 & 923) Graduate Friday, 24 Apr 09

http://www1.netc.navy.mil/nstc/rtcgl/upcoming_grads.asp

Good to see that officially posted

(Colleen is Division 173)

Posted by Eric

Got a call from Colleen today! Earlier than expected!

She says that her infections got worse because her dosage of medication was too low, and wasn't the best stuff to use for it, so they switched her to something stronger and now she is feeling better. She got sent back to medical because she got a high fever and passed out! But she is ok now, just hoping to be 100% again soon.

Colleen says she got orders today and it turns out she will be an ET, which she was hoping for FC, but she'll reserve judgment until she actually sees what the job is like for herself. We're not certain, but it sounds like she might be staying in Great Lakes for 8 months! We're still trying to get details. If it's that long we may just move to where she is, we really miss her.

She has one last major obstacle in training and she is very nervous about it, but I'm sure she'll do fine, I can understand her nerves though, I was too when I went through it.

Dante and I head out tomorrow, so if you need to reach me, call me! I'll be offline for a few days.

That's all for now!

Posted by Eric