The Official Start of Army Life & Firsts

    The OCS Graduation and Ball were firsts for Eric and myself.  I somewhat knew what to expect for the Ball since my parents and brother have been to MANY over the years! 
    The best part of any Ball is of course getting "all prettied up" and wearing a fancy dress!! After a long, four hour drive to Columbus, GA, Eric and I changed and got all pretty for the evening events. First there was a cocktail hour, where I got to meet most of Eric's good friends from the course.  They ALL were fascinated by my Southern accent and kept asking me questions so I would keep talking.  After the cocktail hour there was a receiving line, where the commander and his wife, their guests, and guest of honor and his wife all greet you formally to the event.  After walking through the line we were escorted to our table where we had a series of toasts and an amazing meal, then the guest speaker spoke. After all the formally planned events, the dance floor was open and the rest of the night was laid back! Cannot wait for our next one! 

    Two days later was OCS Graduation and Eric's Commissioning Ceremony.  It went smoothly just like any other graduation ceremony but the crying babies were OOC (out of control)!!  Given there will be children at every military event you attend; but I felt like every crying child in the room was sitting all around me and no parent decided to carry them out of the room.  Needless to say I did not hear or know what the guest speaker was talking about during the graduation ceremony or what was exactly going on. =)  

     Eric then was able to come home for two weeks and work at the local recruiting office before he had to report to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.  While home in Hartselle, we packed up and moved all of our belongings!!! And yes we did have our first casualty of the moving process... I had a gorgeous elephant shaped bottle of Italian wine (for decor use only), fall in slow motion to the ground and shatter in front of my eyes.  Yes, I did shed a tear! If ever we find another bottle like it, I will never let it out of my personal reach again!  After arriving in Fort Sill, Eric found us a townhouse to call home for a few months, unpacked all of our lovely moving boxes, and now says he will never be doing that again on his own. "It's to overwhelming!" HA! Eric and I will be doing a ROAD TRIP back to Fort Sill after the wedding and I then get to join him in all our crazy military adventures yet to come!!