On May 31st, Tim and I attended our 2nd Ball. The first one we went to was right after his 1st Deployment and we weren't even married yet. I was completely nervous and uncomfortable at the 1st and we went more for the sake of making an apperance. We stayed for 10, maybe 15 minutes.
Since then, Tim has either been able to get out of them, or the Unit that he was with never had one. Generally speaking, if you don't buy a ticket to go to the ball you (hubby that is) is put on duty to work at the ball. A lot of husbands will go by themselves, but not stay all night, just to get out of the duty. Sometimes it can be hard/expensive to find a dress/childcare and buy the tickets. Tim going by himself was an option for us at one point. The week they were selling tickets they had made an announcement during one of the formations that since the FRG had some extra funds they were going to sell the tickets at a discounted price. This is where Tim decided to share, OUT LOUD, "I don't care about the tickets! I've got three kids! I can't afford childcare." Or something to that affect. The next day they came back and said that the FRG would cover the cost of childcare for the whole company.
At that point we kind of felt obligated to go. :)
I started searching for dresses. Everything local was too expensive. The cheapest I came across was $230 Euro! That's over $300 US Dollars!! I had some friends help me out and we went shopping online. Long story short, I ordered two dresses and one of them fit better than the second needing only minor alterations in the straps.
The ball itself didn't go quite as planned. First...I haven't been able to wear my contacts since we've been here. I almost immediately start getting a headache once I put them in. I had recently seen the doctor and he said that my eyes aren't producing enough oil or something. I had been treating the problem for a week and was hoping that "today was going to be the day"! Thursday morning I woke up with my right eye all red/swollen from allergies. Bubble burst for me. (I snuck my glasses off for the picture though!)
Secondly...Tim was supposed to get off early on Thursday, and then have Friday off. That Monday, he got slotted for a class that was scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We had originally hoped to get a few pics outside before the ball as well. Tim didn't get home till about 5 PM and we were supposed to drop the boys off at the CDC between 5:30-5:45. No time for pics. Once we did get there everything was running late so we had to stand around for a while (but I didn't bring my camera with me). Thankfully Tim's Chaplain and his wife were there so I had someone to chat with for a bit. With Tim having to work on Friday, and Ryan having school we left even earlier than we had planned. I think we left around 8:30 PM and they had JUST started serving dinner. We came home got the boys in bed and had frozen pizza. :)
Ryan was able to snap the one picture above for us once we got home. :)
I would be lying if I didn't say I was a bit disappointed with the way it turned out. Maybe next time one comes around we will get to stay for dinner! I think we will do our best to find an at-home babysitter as well. As nice as it was to have the FRG cover the cost, we both agreed that it would have been more settling to know that they were at home and in bed. All in all, our 2nd Ball was much better than our 1st!
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