2/10 Ball!

This was, by far, the MOST fun we have ever had at a ball. Ironically, the ceremony part was a mess, and the seating chart was insane. The guy in charge didn't keep track of who paid and who didn't so when we got there, the table that we had been assigned to was re-assigned and we had to finagle a table away from the floor and behind a pole. That was better than the 100 or so Marines and dates that didn't even HAVE a place to sit. What a mess! But after all of that...and after they ran out of food and made some more...and I apologized about four hundred times to our guests....the second part? Was AMAZING. So fun!!!

You will note a progression in the photos. Here we are, all nice and sedate, waiting for someone to do something and get this thing started. =) So cute.

Me with our guests, Sherri and Tim. They have a second home in our neighborhood but actually live in the town where the ball was held. They are terrific people - and always the life of the party. Paul calls Tim "Carolina Dad" because he and Paul's actual father have a lot in common. A quick story on Tim, during the National Anthem, he elbowed a girl standing next to him until she put her hand over her heart. I almost passed out from silent-laughing.

Me, with the lovely and wonderful Mrs. Smith. Our husbands work very closely and I'm SO GLAD that we will be doing this deployment together. She's been around the MC for 15 years, so she knows a thing or two about how it goes.

Da boys. From the left, Lt. Meador (just moved from being Paul's XO), Mr. Tim, Paul, Josh and his brother. Josh is the Mr. Smith, and he's Paul's 1st Sgt. which explains the difference in uniforms. Enlisted guys have red piping (and numerous other things that I'm not observant enough to notice) on their jackets.

THIS is the point where things really started cranking up. Clearly. Look at them!

The guest speaker was particularly bad...he didn't really say ANYTHING, but thankfully it was a short speech. He also happened to have these INSANE eyebrows, which none of us would have noticed had Tim not brought the poor man over to speak to us. This is after he left...it's so wrong and yet so funny. I feel that I can post this picture with limited karmic exposure because it is a well-known fact that my own eyebrows would scare small children and trap birds without regular grooming. So...it works out. =)

Before the cool music started...making faces. =)

You know that song, "I'm So Sexy"......the guys all seem to love it. Paul's guys made a dance circle and Paul got RIGHT in the middle of it for this dance. He's pantomiming the "I work out" part right here. And I'm making my standard dancing face. Hey - it's better than duckface. You will also notice the tiniest little bump and the fact that the Boobs of Doom are trying desperately to make their escape from my dress. =)

THEN! Oh my word...from about this point on, the stories just get funnier and funnier. It was actually really entertaining being the only sober person there. We are (thankfully) at the point where everyone is fun tipsy, so they were hilarious and awesome. I had such a fun time with them. Okay, so Paul took these from an Army guy that was at the ball. Said Army guy had been dancing since the first beat rolled out, so these borrowed suspenders were completely soaking wet. Ew! Um...and I took all the pins out of my hair, slept on it, and this morning it still looked JUST like that. =)