SNO: Howdy y'all!

My favorite event of the year, Spouses Night Out, has come and gone. I think this was the best one yet! I am so sad that this was the last one I will be participating in, but maybe I will start up something similar at our next base.

Our group for the evening. Everyone did such a great job with their outfits!

Aren't these cows so cute? The planning committee did a great job creating this photo spot.

I had fun putting together my outfit for this year's SNO. I love, love, love this top that I purchased from Modcloth!

I have never in my life wanted to own cowboy boots, but I had to get some for this theme. These came from DSW. I've worn them several times already and have gotten a lot of compliments on them.

One of my friends who had been stationed at Goodfellow said that Ryan Gosling had been there, so I thought I would make a Hey Girl to share with folks at SNO.

Each group had to give a presentation about our base. I shared a lot of fun facts about San Angelo and Goodfellow and even pulled out a little Southern accent while doing it. 

Our Goodfellow side of the table. The sign is modeled after the entry sign at Goodfellow AFB. The table also features pictures of the Wing Commander, Vice Wing Commander and Chief of Goodfellow. I also printed out patches from various squadrons at the base and scattered them on the tablecloth. 

This is the back of the Goodfellow table. It features the Sheep of San Angelo. I love how it turned out!

I am very proud of my Texas table. The centerpiece is an old window frame that I purchased at a local antique store. I accidentally broke the glass and thought it was ruined! But I thought of a plan to redeem it. I strung fishing line across and was able to hang the Texas state outline on it. I received a lot of compliments last night and it made me feel great!

The back of our Texas table. For the table as a whole, I made sure to include some Texas favorite--HEB grocery bag, Whataburger cup and bag, Shiner beer, and more.

This year's event featured a Grog bowl...either a yummy or yucky one. I was lucky enough not to break any of the rules, so I did not get called up to the Grog.

I did partake in a few jell-o shots at our tailgating before SNO.

I was bummed that we did not win any of the awards again, but I did walk away with the door prize that I wanted. It included a free hair cut and style and a great Thirty-One travel toiletry bag.

Spouses Night Out 2016: Home is Where the Air Force Sends You

My favorite base spouse event is here--Spouses Night Out! This has been MY event the past few years and this is my last one; we will be PCSing (moving to all you non-military folks) later this year. My first year the theme was TV shows and we had Mad Men. Last year the theme was board games and we chose The Game of Life.

For 2016, the event theme is Home is Where the Air Force Sends You. Each group was tasked with picking a base to use as the inspiration for their table decorations. As usual, our spouses voted on the bases they wanted on our "Dream Sheet" and Goodfellow AFB was at the top. I thought our chances were pretty high for getting our top choice because Goodfellow is not a very well-liked base. And lo and behold, we got our first choice!

Because Goodfellow AFB is in Texas, I knew I had to go with a Texas theme for at least one of our tables. I have never thought so long and hard about the Lone Star state. I got to work planning out our tables with some sketches.

At the end of SNO 2015, they announced the 2016 theme and a bunch of people immediately thought Texas would be a perfect option for us. Even though we didn't pick our theme until early 2016, I had spent pretty much the whole year with Texas in the back of my mind and I knew I wanted a big Texas state outline on my table. This table was inspired by the little graphic at the top--Things Texans Love. My sister is an adopted Texan (she moved there and doesn't plan on ever leaving). She shared that graphic once and I knew it would be the perfect inspiration for my table.

 

 

This table looks pretty boring from my sketch and I ended up having to re-do the layout anyway. The past two years we have had enough people for 3 tables, but this year we were down to two.

I love sheep. I have several sheep stuffed animals and figurines. San Angelo has fiberglass sheep around town that businesses sponsor and decorate. I knew I had to use sheep in my design. Because we were down to two tables, I could not dedicate a whole table to the sheep. I compromised and combined the Goodfellow and Sheep tables. 

I had a lot of fun designing the place cards for our tables. I made three different designs. Originally I was going to have one design per table, but then decided to just alternate.

These are based on the Whataburger table numbers. This idea was given to me by one of our spouses and I love how they turned out!

These place cards feature a vintage Goodfellow image and patches from some of the squadrons at Goodfellow.

And these show some of the Sheep of San Angelo. I love these the best, but I am biased towards sheep.

I also wanted something to hand out to people at the event...bribes are OK, right? I created a recipe card for kolaches--a Texas favorite. I found the recipe on Pinterest.

Stay tuned for pictures of the final design!

5k fail

Last weekend I was lucky enough to spend it with my husband in Texas! He is still there for training (which feels never-ending). The weekend went too quickly.

While in town, we ran in a race honoring September 11. Charles ran the 10k and I ran the 5k. The challenge was to see who would finish first. My bet was that he would. He's ridiculously fast.

Race morning came. We checked in, got our bibs (my first ever) and picked up our shirts. I somehow ended up with a medium, so that is a little too big for me. But I'm not much of a t-shirt girl; I probably wouldn't have worn it anyway.

After a couple of intro speakers, the race started. Both the 5k and 10k started at the same time. I ran and then walked and ran and then walked... my usual. It was going well until I missed my second lap and came around to the finish line. I obviously was not paying very good attention to the signs or volunteers. I looked at the clock and knew I made a mistake. I had only been going for 20 minutes. As I crossed the finish line, I made sure to let the ladies know there was no way in heck that I did the whole thing.

It was hugely disappointing. I wasn't thrilled to be running. I never am. But I did want to see what my final time would be. Since I finished the 1st half in about 20 minutes, I figure I would have finished the whole thing in about 43 minutes. That was my goal, at least.

Charles ended up winning 1st place overall in the 10k. Like I told you...he's ridiculously fast.

Vacation planning

Wow...my life has been pretty uneventful lately. Last week I had a stomach bug or something and had no motivation to do anything! I do not get sick very often, so when I do it is quite annoying. It is even worse when you don't have anyone around that can run to the store and pick up things like chicken soup.

I do have an upcoming vacation that I am pretty excited about. Next month I'll be flying down to Texas to see my love! I hate the long distance marriage thing we have going on at the moment, but it will be nice to spend a few days with him.

I'll be flying into the small town he lives in. Then over the weekend, we are going to visit Fredericksburg, TX. This seems like a small town and I've only driven through it once. My mom and sister visited before and seemed to like it. For being (in my mind) a small town, they have a ridiculous amount of B&B's.

We just booked our lodging and will be staying at Walnut Canyon Cabins. They have all 5 circles on Tripadvisor. I think everyone who has ever reviewed them on Tripadvisor gave them a perfect 5 circles. It better be good! I picked this place partly because it seemed in the middle of nowhere. Charles likes to camp and I don't, so I thought this would be a good compromise. There is still air conditioning and a real bed! But we have nature right outside the cabin. It should be romantic.

I'm not 100% sure what we'll do while in Fredericksburg. They have a cute Main Street with shops and restaurants. There is a brewery we will probably check out. While I don't drink beer, Charles enjoys trying different kinds. And we will probably visit a state park and maybe a museum or two. I'm glad excited to spend time with him, but a mini vacation is always good!