Give THANKGIVING!

As a military fam, we consider ourselves so lucky to be around so much family!  How often does one get stationed near a family member, let alone 4 groups of family members---from both sides!  Say, "Wha...??"

My parents are in B'ham, my sister and her fam are at Auburn, my mom's whole side of the family is in FL, and now Matt's sister and her family are in NC!  Again, say, "Wha...??"  I mean, this never. happens.  And I seriously doubt it will ever happen again.  (Sorry family.)

Since we hadn't been to visit Matt's sister, Marcie, in their new home, we decided (and they happily agreed) to go to NC for Thanksgiving.  It was so much fun!  Our boys and their boy had a great time together.  Seriously, cousin time has to be the best thing in the world.
+ really good food
+ really enjoyable company
+ really neat and quick road trips

I had brought some foods for the feast, but Marcie and Tyson are pros at cooking Thanksgiving.  (Has to be one of the top 3 turkeys I've ever had.)  I guess they have been doing Thanksgiving by themselves for over 5+ years straight.

After the Day of Thanks, we were able to have shopping trips around their town, able to go and visit Duke University only an hour-ish away, and even us adults were able to go on a fun double date.  Saweet stuff.
OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And not to mention visiting Pre-Revoltionary sites.  Yay!  Really lots of fun. A battle happened between some unhappy settlers and the British Royal NC Governor.  Could be considered the first battle of the Revolution... but... not really.   So the boys and us adults frolicked around the field, checking out positions, reading old statues, and taking a nature walk through the woods.

North Carolina.  You rock.  And now that you have the residence of Marcie, Tyson, and Jaxson, you rock even more!

The First "Real" Military Ball

It's been time again!  The time to FREAK out about attending a military ball!

I'm not sure why I get myself so worked up about these things but I worry so much about each little detail--knowing that I will never look "red carpet" worthy, nor will any other spouse at the event  (I mean, those "red carpet" ladies and gents have TEAMS to put them together, haha.)
A FB status update which I posted:
*growing up

Probably the hardest part of this ball was not knowing what I was going to wear.  I had a gown that I liked but it was empire-waist and it sorta made me look pregnant.   (Not a fan of looking pregnant when I am not.  Understandable, right?)  
The day before the ball I found this ivory-white gown on a clearance rack in Target, and everything else slowly came together (though I had to do a WalMart run 2 hours before we left for the ball, since I needed a different kind of shoe).

Mean while Matt had been perfecting his uniform to the T.  The uniform actually has so much that needs be thought and precisely placed.  Matt's pretty on top of it all, so it only took him an hour or two to get it all right.

The hour before we left for the ball was crunch time.  My hair did NOT want to work with me.  Holy smokes, I was almost in tears.  I had washed my hair earlier in the day, so it had none of the lovely "second day hair" aspects which make doing fancy things so much easier.
I took some photos while trying to do different styles:

In the end I was like, "FORGET IT!  I'm just wearing it down."   

I quickly decided on the jacket I was going to wear:  between a black shawl and a vintage silver dinner jacket--vintage silver dinner jacket surprisingly won!  (I borrowed both of these from two friends.  Hooray for friends in an hour of need!)

The babysitter came, and the boys were so excited.  I think they know they can get away with a lot when a babysitter comes, haha.  

And Matt and I were out the door!  

Since Matt was the "introducer" at the receiving-line  (aka, the guy who gets the couples names, then tells colonel the names) and I was not supposed to stand with Matt, I pretty much hung out at some tables with some buddies of Matt's.  I think the receiving-line was supposed to be 30 minutes long but it ran a little bit longer than that, and not everyone was able to go through the line!  (Upwards of 600 people at the ball.)  

We were able to take our seat, and the ball official began.  

There's a lot of tradition with the ball, including toasts, raising of the colors, etc.  The one that really got me was the moment of silent for those that did not return from combat, the killed in action (KIA) and prisoners of war (POW).  There weren't any POWs from the deployment, but from Matt's battalion there were 5 KIAs… I mean, here we were, all dressed up and partying, and not even two months ago all these men and women came home--but 5 didn't.   Yup, I had tears.  Ah, raw emotions!  

Once food was served, a general spoke.  He was really entertaining, actually.  After these Matt and I were able to go around to see some more of his buddies, along with waiting for the raffle drawings to be announced.  Many things were given out, and I actually won!  A Garmin runner watch, pretty cool since I'll actually use it.  (Though I wish it had been a heart rate monitor!) 

When we got home Eli was still awake.  Babysitter said he'd been complaining of an ear ache for the last hour.  Eli was in tears at this point--one part pain, one part exhaustion.  I had some ear drops for him, and he went to sleep pretty easily after that.  

So that was our night for our first "real" military ball!  Not bad, not bad at all.  

We Fail, but are Redeemed

I hear screaming from the other room, then more and more screaming.  Like, extreme pain type of screaming.  

"He bit me!  He bit me!"  I hear Eli yell. 

"He scratched me!  He scratched me!"  I hear Titus shout. 

I go into investigate, and everyone seems to be in tears.  I find Eli's wound, the place where Titus had bit him, and it's a deep purple bruise on the top of his leg.  Teeth marks are visible, skin in torn.  I find Titus holding his head, and see two distinct scratch marks down the side of his head. 

I know exactly what happened:  Titus bit Eli on the leg, and to get Titus off of him, Eli scratched Titus' face.  While I'm like, "Titus!  You. Do. NOT.  BITE!", Isaac is getting Eli comfortable on the couch and finding to put on his leg.  

Things settle down, and I ask Titus to apologize.   At first he is very hesitant, but then goes over and gives lots of hugs.  Eli also apologizes for scratching.   

Titus and Eli are redeemed from their mistakes. 

Titus finds a tube of Chapstick.  He becomes obsessed with it, and without asking removes it from the place I was keeping it for him.  Luckily he only made a mess of his face, but it still would have been nice if he put it on under my supervision.

He fails by disobeying, but is redeemed by being extremely cute.  I mean, those eye lashes--be still my heart.

Dinner was an amazing failure.  I pan seared some flounder, which was pretty yummy, but all fell apart in the pan; and then I decided I should try a lemon and spinach spaghetti, which was disgusting.  I tried to eat it, but it was pretty apparent by everyone's faces that this meal was asking too much from them.  (It's downfall was too much lemon.  I mean, we called it "Lemonade pasta," for goodness sake.) 

Luckily/happily we had left overs from two previous meals from the week.  Hooray for homemade pizza and homemade burritos!  They saved the day!  And redeemed my backside!  

Noodle Heads

I had the two little boys to myself the other night, and we enjoyed a good pasta and hot-dog dinner. 

They decided to put their pasta noodles in their hair. They are silly.