Annual Awards Ceremony

Okie dokes! Been a bit of blog slacker this past week, but it wasn't necessarily for a lack of trying. I did start a few entries, but couldn't find my blogging mojo and just had too many other things on my mind. So I'll do my best to make a valient effort to make up for last week's absence.

There's a few things to catch you up with, and in an attempt not to bore you to death, I'll try and do one at a time.

So for today, let me tell you about the base's Annual Awards Ceremony that took place Friday. My husband was up for Volunteer of the Year and I was selected to be one of the emcees for the night.

I had been practicing the script for most of the week, but the night of the event, I was super nervous. I remember saying to the other emcee, "Holy crap. This is happening!" And he laughed and likened it to child birth. And in a way, it did feel eerily similar to that forward momentum towards an unavoidable event that is coming quicker than you're prepared for and won't stop no matter how much you dig in your heels. Eep!

Here is Tommy shaking the wing commander's hand after he was given his nominee's medallion.

My heart was pounding as we started the evening, and it continued to pound throughout the whole first half of the event. After we finished the introductions of the nominees, dinner was served, but I was still a bit too wound up to really settle down and enjoy it. Following dinner, we introduced the guest speaker, General (Ret) Gregory "Speedy" Martin. At this point, I was started to fade and was really worried about losing the momentum and energy I had, but Speedy was really entertaining, and his 15 minutes went quickly.

After that we announced the winners. I was super excited to announce my catergories, and sure enough, my husband won Volunteer of the Year at the wing level!

(For non-mil types, you are generally a part of a flight or office, which is a part of a squadron. Your squardon is a part of a group, which is a part of the wing. At our base, we also have tenant units who aren't headquartered here, but have squadrons represented here. So Tommy had already won for his squadron and group. So he was competing at the wing level.)

When I opened the envelope for his category and saw his name, I felt my face explode into a huge smile and I said, "From the Mission Support Group, the handsomest man in the room and my husband..." and announced his name. YAY! It was fun!

The rest of the winner announcments went quickly. It was a fun night. After it was all said and done, a lot of the senior leadership shook our hands and told us what a good job we did. Gotta be honest, as a Words of Affirmation girl, I was totally eating it up. The wing chief came up to shake my hand and coined me with his chief's coin! How cool is that?!

By the time it was all said and done, I was pretty knackered, but it was a fun night! I don't have the pics of Tommy accepting the award or when we walked through a sabre cordon during the introductions, but when I get them I'll post 'em.

Tomorrow, I'll fill you in on our weekend in Belgium!