Military Girlfriends (Or wives, or families)

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PeachieClean

So, I've now been with my boyfriend for a bit over a year. He just left on his third patrol since we met, second since we got together. He's a submariner in the Navy so our communication is limited to email and "2 letter-sized envelopes" every time someone takes mail out to them. His last few patrols were pretty short, but this one is a little longer (3 months) and I'm a bit nervous. So, question time!

How do you cope with your SO being gone?

What sorts of things make good "welcome home" gifts? Are there certain things they seem to always miss (Home cooked food? Fast food? New clothes?), or have you never really made a big deal about their return?

For people familiar with the half-way night box, what do you send along? I feel kinda bad that I sent mostly candy this time around.

Any other tips or tricks or suggestions?

Thanks for your time,
PeachieClean

05/12/2012

TameTemptress

I always coped with my husband being gone by staying as busy as I could with my own life. Diving into hobbies and just trying to enjoy life. I missed him and I wrote letters (emails when I could, but the nature of his jobs didn't always allow for it) and when he was deployed I never let the cell phone out of my sight in case he called, but...life goes on, it has to. Time passed much more quickly for me when I was kept busy and had fun.

I had a lot of fun with care packages when he was gone for deployments. Candy is good! My hubs wasn't on a sub though so I could send a lot more, he asked for books, magazines, new socks/boxers, snacks, and toiletries...but I often sent themed boxes just for fun and to give the guys a laugh.

I never really made a lot of fuss when he came home, I let him decide how much he wanted to do because I was never sure if it would be overwhelming. If he was only gone a few weeks, it was more like, "Oh, hey, you're home!" haha...but really, at least for my husband, it didn't matter how long he was gone, a good meal and me in his bed was all he ever wanted (and to see his children once we had them, of course!).

05/12/2012

PeachieClean

Quote:

Originally posted by TameTemptress

Well, yesterday went by REALLY fast for me. I decided to dig out my sewing machine and work on some things. It was pretty nice too, I almost didn't notice that he was gone, 'cept for the fact that I never would have gotten that much sewing done if he was around. (I would have spent most of my weekend cooking, since we really only get the weekends together and I try to make extra stuff for him to take back to base with him.)

I never really thought about making a theme for his boxes before! That's... Actually kind of brilliant! He asked me to make him a zippered bag instead of a box for his next one. I guess his box this time around almost got wet and since it was just cardboard... That would have been bad. @-@ So maybe I can come up with a nice theme based on the bag that I make him for next time.

My friends always made big deals of going on trips and coming back from trips, so I guess I got kind of used to the whole going away party and welcome home party idea. I'd never really thought of it as being overwhelming, but I guess it could be... Then again, my boyfriend is still really into the whole "being social" thing and might enjoy having a big deal made over him. (I'm considerably less social and usually enjoy spending most of my time with a select few people, or alone.) I guess he'd probably be happy with some fried chicken though. Fried chicken and lingerie xD

05/13/2012

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