What We Did Wednesday- Air Force Ball

Do you want to know one of my favorite parts about being a military wife?

It's that each year I have excuse to don a beautiful gown for the Air Force Ball!

Last year I was very much pregnant for the ball and I had gone and danced in hopes that Bitsy would make her appearance.

We were right across the street from the hospital so it would have been rather convenient!

But alas she hung out a few more days.

Fortunately, also, I had been a bridesmaid that year in which the bride ensured I had a wonderful maternity dress that I was able to use again for the ball...

Awww!  Bud still had glasses back then!

This year I was excited, not being pregnant meant I could pull out one of my more fitted gowns!

Bud had asked that I wear this particular black dress so the day of I remembered that I should probably pull it out of the closet and steam out all the wrinkles.

I felt like Cinderella, sans the fairy godmothers!
While I was steaming my dress, Bud called to tell me that someone was coming to look at the house Tuesday morning (could we have found a renter?).
Once I finished steaming my dress, I went into full Cinderella mode and on hands and knees I started to wash baseboards and clean windows and window sills.
Realizing I couldn't do all the cleaning I needed to the day of the ball, I made my list and continued on with getting dolled up.

Do you know that I scoured Pinterest and YouTube for weeks trying to figure out what to do with my hair?

Seriously, I did a dozen trial runs of different updos only to realize that I am not nearly as talented as the people making those videos!

I finally gave up and decided to keep it simple and just curl my hair.

I also tried half a dozen different eye make-up tutorials, only to realize I am not a beautician!

I fell back on my version of a smokey eye, which is not nearly as smokey.

But when I was done getting ready I was happy and that's all that mattered!

The next step was getting Bitsy to the sitters.

*cue tug on heartstrings*

The last time Bitsy was at a sitters was in May, when we visited Texas.

To me it didn't really count since she was staying with my old boss, who is the sweetest most wonderful woman I have ever had the pleasure of working under.

This time though I took comfort in knowing Bitsy was in good hands with a friend of mine, who has 2 little ones of her own.

Her son just turned 4 and her other son is only about a month older than Bitsy so he is 1 and they are both A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E little boys.

When we arrived at her house we were greeted by her, her husband (whom I went to middle school with...it's a small world when your military!), her oldest son (dressed as a pirate, his party had been pirate themed the night before), and her sister-in-law (whom Bud sang in show choir with and I did summer theater with...she was down from RI to welcome her brother home from deployment and celebrate her nephews birthday).

It was quite the welcoming committee.

Bitsy was quickly swooped away so that my friend BW could take a few quick photos of Bud & I.

Before I knew it I was saying goodbye and we were on our way.

He always keeps me laughing, I couldn't have asked for a better man!

At around 7:45 I got a text from BW informing me that Bitsy had been asleep for about an hour.

*sigh of relief*

I now knew I could relax a little more.

There was a lot of meeting new people, a yummy dinner, music, the guest speaker, and of course more music which lead to my hubby out on the dance floor shaking his groove thing to the cuban shuffle.

Bud also had the honor of singing the national anthem for the event and he knocked it out of the park.

Most of the time after the anthem is sang the room remains very serious at these kinds of events, but not that night....after that last note he got a huge round of applause and someone at one of the front tables let out a big ole "Hoooah"!

We wrapped up our evening by talking with friends and being photo-bombed by said friends.
When we got to The W's house to pick up Bitsy BW told me all about the night.
Bitsy was there fine for the first 5 minutes and then all of a sudden she looked around, realized we weren't there, and started crying!
BW tried everything, showing her some of their toys, showing her her own reflection in the mirror, offering one of Bitsy's toys from her bag (which incidentally, Bitsy recognized it, reached for and grabbed it, then pulled it in close and continued to cry), finally after about 5 minutes she had her blankie and her bottle and she was sitting, sucking on the empty nipple, she calmed.
After that BW said she crawled over to play.
5 minutes doesn't sound too bad to me and I'm so glad she got the chance to be around other people.
Bitsy then went to bed no problem at 6:25!
When we got there it was after 11 and BW brought us up to where Bitsy was 'sleeping'.  She must have heard our voices because she was sitting up in the pack-n-play rubbing her eyes.
When she saw us we got the biggest smile and despite me holding her she actually reached for BW momentarily.
That's the best sign I could have asked for.
We got Bitsy in the car, drove home, and successfully got her back to bed without any fuss.
What a late night it was for us.
I think it took us most of Sunday to recover from lack of sleep.
But it was worth it.
I can't wait until next years ball, unfortunately, I'll have to find a different sitter as the W's are moving in January!!!
*cue tears*
Oh the life of a military wife ;)

I hope you all have a Blessed Wednesday!

**I wrote this post Monday morning so at this point I do not know if the lady coming to see our house tomorrow will end up wanting to rent it, however, if she does that means we could be moving into our new place in BASE HOUSING by the end of the month!  Prayers are appreciated that God's plan will make itself clear**