Crud!

For those of you who don't know or have never played the game of crud (you really are missing out), let me explain what exactly crud is. It's sort of a game, sort of a beating, complete with bruising and carpet burns. It's almost undiscribeable, yet strangely addicting. I just played last friday night in my very first wives tournament and I'm hooked for life. I'm not totally sure of the origins of the game but it's something like this...long, long ago a bunch of drunk fighter pilots invented a game where you get to beat up other fighter pilots and the more you drink, the better you are. Crud is played on a table that looks very similar to a pool table to the untrained eye, only the game involves just one white ball and one red ball, and no sticks. Two teams take turns shooting with the white ball from the ends of the table only, attempting to get the red ball in one of four corner pockets. The team not shooting is defending (read: doing everything possible to stop the shooter from getting the red ball in a pocket). Shoving and pushing during defending are perfectly acceptable and encouraged by intoxicated standers-by. This game is truly a sight to see and super fun! Steve is wondering how a fighter pilot game played in only the world's finest fighter bars has become a game played by their wives, but I think it's because we all need to get out of the house and we are ten times more competitive than our fighter pilot husbands! Anyways, we didn't win the trophy (actually we lost it after two consecutive wins in previous tourneys) but we'll be back and stronger than ever to take back the "Ball Busting Babes" trophy! Here's some pictures from the night.

Kelly "Makit" and Steve "Tyson"

Kim "Pounce" and me

Shooter Ladies Team Two

An action shot

Our Big News

So, first a little background information. We got news this past December that we would be PCSing early from our current assignment due to overmanning issues on our base. We would be leaving a whole year early and we would be getting our new assignment sometime this coming summer and be gone by fall. Right around that same time, Steve heard of a great opportunity to apply to become the Executive Officer for our base's Wing Commander. He put his name in for consideration, knowing the opportunity would be a blessing for us, both career-wise and it would allow us to stay around these parts a little longer. Well, he was called into the Wing Commander's office today and was told he got the job! This means we will be here until March 2009 and then off to who knows where, maybe school in Alabama, maybe Luke, maybe overseas, we'll have to wait and see. He'll continue to fly (although not as much as he does now) and his work hours may increase a little (I'm finding an increase in hours difficult to imagine!). He'll go wherever the Wing Commander goes, which takes him out of all of our squadrons' many scheduled TDYs and deployments this year (woo-who). He was actually supposed to be leaving very soon for somewhere sandy (and not the good kind of sandy where margaritas flow freely). But now he'll be staying here to start learning his new job working closely with the base commander. I'm excited that I'll have a whole year until I have to start packing the house again and we will still be attached socially to our current squadron (I couldn't imagine life here without my Shooter ladies!). So I know you thought we were pregnant again, get your minds out of the gutter!!!

Hope everyone is doing great and come visit us anytime! Check back often for blog updates! Love Kelly (Steve and Brian too).