Bonfire

We had some folks over to the house tonight. So we decided to build a fire in our little metal fire pit so everyone could be outside. We've had some bad experiences in the past when we party indoors with people spilling drinks all over the carpet and vomiting all over the couch (when do we get grown up friends??)... so, I have a strict rule of keeping guests outdoors if at all possible.

Tonight is a beautiful night. It's in the low seventies in Clarksville. It's cooler than it has been in weeks (unless you count the nights it storms). It's a great night to have friends over.

 

I'm also just a huge fan of having a bonfire. I think I get that from my mother. Through out my entire childhood, she was always a fire builder. I associate warm good nights with bonfires because of her. I will always appreciate that. Thanks, Mommer-- you rock!

I wish I had s'mores to make this night even better. Instead I will settle for my beer and call it good. Happy Summer!

Ball Photo

 

I got my Ball picture in my work email today. I chose to have it digitally sent to me so I could have whatever prints I wanted made up rather than conform to a "package".

 

It's not the best picture. But my dress looks beautiful, and James looks handsome and its all we have.

 

Don't worry, Mom, I already had a 5x7 made for you.

My Ball

Yesterday was my Battalion Military Ball. It was themed Masquerade. Even though I was part of the Ball committee, there were just some things we could not get vetoed and the theme was one of them. Oh well, lets not dwell on that. I was in charge of making all 25 of the center pieces. Aren't they just neat?

 

They probably aren't neat, but I made them, so I'm calling them neat.

 

The Ball was held in Nashville at the Renaissance Hotel. It was a really upscale venue. James and I got a room in the hotel, too, so we could go out downtown after the event. James cleaned up really nice. I was really proud to have such a handsome date. Also, he wore his jump boots with his uniform since he's in 101st and looked way cooler than all the CSH dudes in their low quarters.

 

What a handsome Soldier!

 

I'm sure I cleaned up well but I didn't take a picture of myself. We took a professional picture (like a prom picture) that showcased my dress, but I don't have those pictures yet. I will post them as soon as I do. One thing I can say, I was complimented many times on my dress. And the curls in my hair turned out super fancy.

 

You can kinda see how fancy my hair is.

 

The Ball was fine. It wasn't something to jump up and down about and get really excited over. But it was neat, and nice to see people out in their finest. Not too bad for my first Ball. But I would have liked to have seen more tradition and less unorthodox mumbo-jumbo. For instance, next time, I pray there will not be a "surprise" Harlem Shake. Although the theme was Masquerade, I did not wear a mask. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. But, I'll go to another Ball for sure. I like to support the unit any way I can, even when it's not exactly my scene.

Curlers

Tomorrow is my Battalion's Military Ball. This will be the first Military Ball I have ever attended, even though I have 8 years time in service. Last year I attempted to go to my Ball, but James decided to have last minute extensive oral surgery the day before. (I was so happy.) Needless to say, I had to give those tickets away. This year, there will be no unexpected surgeries and I will get to go... or there will be a homicide on my hands.

Although I want to support my organization, mostly I want an excuse up get all prettied up. And I want to show off how handsome James will look in his dress uniform to all the people I work with. With those 2 desires, comes quite the expense. The tickets, the hotel room, the dress, the shoes, the makeup... all an expense. So I decided to cut 1 expense and do my own hair.

 

Sweet rollers!

I figure curly = fancy. That math sounds about right. Well, after I leave these curlers in my hair over night I will have crazy curly (fancy) hair.

I used to put my hair in rollers like this all the time for school when I was in 7th and 8th grade. Middle school was a weird time for me. I noticed a few big differences between putting my hair in rollers then and now:

1) My hair is incredibly longer.

2) My arms do not fatigue as quickly. Thank you Army.

3) Now I can drink beer while I do this lengthy task.

Here's to hoping everything turns out well when I unroll all 49 of these suckers tomorrow morning!

Justin & Karie's Wedding

James and I went to Louisville this weekend for a mutual friend's wedding. I did the typical Army backwards planning to ensure we arrived to the church 45 minutes early. However, I totally forgot that Louisville is in the Eastern time zone, thus making us 15 minutes late for the ceremony. Luckily, the wedding started late (I think quite a few people made the same mistake I did).

 

The ceremony was held in a beautiful tiny church in the middle of a very old cemetery. It had really neat stained glass windows. It was a unique and very sweet ceremony; exactly what I expected from Justin and Karie. I'm really glad we made it in time.

 

 

The reception was in a very swanky country club. I did not expect that from Justin and Karie. Let me give you a little background on the couple: Justin is a Soldier by day and a tattoo artist by night, so almost every guest there was heavily tattooed. Justin is also straight edge. You wouldn't think it, but straight edge folks are more rowdy than people who drink. Karie is not straight edge, however, so they also had their drinking friends there. Just a healthy mix of rowdy and drunk at the ritzy country club.

 

James and I proved to be the drinking friends. James made a sweet Coors Light beer castle.

 

 

 

After the wedding reception, they had an after party at a hole in the wall bar. Literally, there was a hole in the wall next to the booth I was sitting at which kept producing one of the largest cockroaches I have ever seen in my life. It's like it could smell my fear so it kept making an appearance. It would come out of the wall just enough so I could see it waving it's antennas at me menacingly-- taunting me. Then I'd get Justin or James to try to stab it and it would recede back into the wall. I sat at the cockroach booth frozen with fear just long enough for another booth to open, then I hauled ass.

 

Not that I wanted to incorporate a cockroach story with my friend's beautiful wedding. But I have a deep fear of roaches, and every incident I have with one is worth reporting.

 

 

New Tattoo

I'm getting married in 2 months to a very wonderful dude. I wanted to make something right that has always bothered him since we first started dating: my bad tattoo.

Which bad tattoo, you ask? The worst tattoo. The tattoo of my ex husband's name on my right hip. James has expressed his dislike for it once or twice but he was never pushy about me getting it fixed. But it's clearly time for this tattoo to be gone, especially since we are about to get married.

 

Name with the new outline placed over it.

 

I had it covered this evening with a black bird. If you didn't know the name had been there, you wouldn't know this tattoo is a cover up. I absolutely love it. I won't lie though, this tattoo hurt. The older I get, the less I like to be tattooed.

Covered and completely 100% more awesome!

 

Now I feel like I have a clean slate to begin my new marriage. All remnants of the previous marriage are washed away-- or at least, covered up. Yay, wedding in 2 months!

Dress Code

I attended WLC graduation today and the wives were out in their finest.

There was a girl in see through white pants that I was unable to photograph. You could see her white underwear clear as day. This is the second time I've seen this at a WLC graduation; it happened last summer too. I also saw several women in stilettos, walking through the grass driving their heels into the mud.

 

I don't know where the wives dress code is published, but it must be sent out as a mass email through FRG (family readiness group). How else would they all know wearing wildly inappropriate evening attire at 1000 is the standard?

Stinky

This morning we did an 8 mile road march for PT. Road marches are notoriously not my friend. But today I managed to finish in 1 hour and 51 minutes-- which is 9 minutes faster than the Air Assault standard. So that pleased me.

I brought a bag of Skittles with me and ate a few at each mile marker. I think that little bit of sugar kept me going as fast as I was. If I can keep improving my time like this maybe someday I'll actually get that EFMB I've been seeking. Or go to Air Assault school. 12 miles is still a lot to work up to.

 

I didn't plan ahead, however, and I didn't bring a clean dry pair of boots to wear the rest of the day. I had to put sweaty smelly boots on over my clean socks. I'm sitting in my car right now, and I can smell my boots. If I were a cartoon character, there would be green stink squiggly lines coming off my boots.

I hope other people don't smell them on accident today. That would be embarrassing.

James Is Home

James has been home from Afghanistan for a week now (insert happy dance). We both don't get to take leave until July to celebrate his homecoming, but hey, as long as I'm not going to eat in restaurants alone anymore, I'm a happy camper!

 

His plane landing at Campbell Air Field.

After the plane landed, we were given the opportunity to see the Soldiers deplane individually. Being a previously deployed Soldier myself, I know you can't really identify people out of the crowd, so I went back inside the hanger and got the best seat in the house to watch the Rakkasans march into the hanger.
 

Rakkasans enter the hanger.

My "best seat in the house" proved to be futile because I didn't see James in the formation, and he didn't see me on this sidelines waiting for him. :(

Reunited. Not the best pic, but it's what we have. :)

 

 I can't explain what it feels like to see your Soldier across the hanger, before he sees you. All I can say is, I man handled some bitches roughly to get out of my way. I may have elbowed, and I may have pushed, but I definitely didn't  say, "Excuse me." I wouldn't have meant it if I had said it anyway. No matter how polite I usually am!



Sadie

This reminds me of my mom and dad's black lab: