The Ball

Here are the pictures from the ball last night. One thing I learned upon uploading the pictures is not many people can work my camera properly, as proven by the blurry shots. Jake (my brother-in-law who is staying with us for a few weeks) did ok on the "pre-ball" shots, though I didn't realize at the time that the front door was open.

Us before leaving


Another shot of us, the pics don't do my dress justice, it was gorgeous!

The "Official Party" sat between those 2 screen, which displayed the unit crest. There was also a slideshow of the unit in Iraq, and a slideshow of the fallen soldiers from our unit. There was a beautiful tribute table for one, with an overturned wine glass, a pinch of salt, a slice of lemon, a slice of bread, a rose, and a candle. Each one represented something, like the salt is the tears shed by the soldier's family, the lemon is the bitterness of battle, the overturned glass is the soldier's inability to drink with us, etc. I'd list them all, but I can't remember the exact meanings, and don't want to screw it up. In front of the table was a stand with a rifle, boots, a helmet, and dogtags, honoring those lost.


This was our original table, we ended up moving (and be seated with a bunch of officers, can you say "out of place?") The weirdest thing, they set out the desserts before anything else, so by the time all of the cocktail hour, official stuff, and dinner was finished, the dessert was quite room tempurature. It was still yummy though.


This is one of the guys N works with, who was quite toasted by the time he captured us and demanded pictures for his mom. He was quite entertaining, and TALL!


It was a nice evening, we didn't really know anyone there, so we felt a bit out of place, but we got to dress up, and I met the people N will be working under. The man who he will be gunner for (he's high up on the chain, but damned if I remember how high) raved about N and his work ethic and assured me they will be promoting him ASAP. See, Nate gave up a rank to come back in, and every time we look at his uniform in the lower rank, it makes us see red. It's a money thing, sure, but mainly it's a respect thing, he worked hard to get to his positions, and had to sort of start over. Certainly not a problem, but it was nice to see his command acknowledge his hard work last night.