Awards Dinner and Ceremony

Last weekend was the Welcome Home Dinner and Awards Ceremony for the unit my husband is in.  As FRG Co-leader months of planning, phone calls, meetings, and fund-raising went into making this event worthy of our heroes.  I think everything turned out really well and most people seemed to really enjoy themselves. 
Below are a few pictures from the night:
My sweet husband and me (wearing the 4th dress I purchased, lol)

Another view of us...I forgot to get a picture of my shoes, but you can kinda see a little glimpse of them in this picture. 

Just us having a great time at the dinner.  We laughed a lot that night.  Had some great entertainment at our table...that and my husband was keeping up with the Alabama and Auburn football games for us - both of our teams won that night, yea!

A view of the decorations.  We were very pleased with how all this turned out.  It is hard to plan an event from 5 hours away to be held at a building none of us had ever seen nor were the pictures of the room.  We lucked out with renting the linens and the table runners were donated to us.  Wendy and myself had all the vases and candle holders we used so that did not cost us anything (yay!) And the business we rented the china from upgraded our china at no additional cost.  (we were renting plain white china, but they gave us white with gold rims...which made everything pop)  Everything turned out exactly how we planned and I could not have been more pleased.  We served Steak and shrimp for the meal and it was so good!  I did not hear any complaints around me. 

After the dinner and dessert was served, it was time for the awards to be presented.  Almost every soldier that deployed with the unit received some type of recognition.  (I REALLY missed my brother being there...) Each soldier was called up with their family and a little something was shared about their time in Afghanistan.  After that, the soldier was given their award by the Colonel.  Below is a picture of Jason and me while the Commander shared a little about what Jason did during the deployment. 

I am so proud of my husband and will brag on him because I know that he would never brag on himself ;)  He was awarded the Bronze Star medal and the NATO medal.  Proud does not even begin to come close to the right word to use to describe, but for a lack of better words, I am VERY PROUD of my husband and the outstanding soldier he is...not only is he an outstanding soldier, but an outstanding father and husband as well.  (we had a videographer and photographer at the dinner, so I can not wait to get back our videos and pictures from that)

One thing that really surprised me was the FRG officers were presented with a special gift from the unit.  I was completely not expecting anything and did not know until the day of the event that we were getting something.  It was very thoughtful and much appreciated.  We were given a flag that was flown in Afghanistan on Sept. 11th.  It was placed with a certificate in a beautiful frame.    Very special.  Very thoughtful.  I have enjoyed my time as FRG Co-leader.  It was very involved but allowed me to get to know people that I otherwise would not have met or been able to know on another level.  I am thankful for that.  I am a little sad that my husband is moving to another unit...with promotion that is what usually happens.  He has been with this unit for nearly 10 years.  So...looks like he will be "drilling" with another unit very soon.  I hope they have a good FRG for me to get plugged in to and meet other wives. :)

So, that was all for the awards dinner...still working on getting the blog caught up.  The past week has just been focused on family time and all of us getting adjusted.  So far adjustment has been pretty good.  We have not had the problems we did last time with the kids.  For that I am so thankful. I have said it before...homecomings are wonderful, but there is a whole side to it that most people do not know about.
I have 2 more homecoming posts to share.  A sweet one about the cake angel we met and then surprising the kids with Jason's arrival ;)  yay!