It's been awhile...

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been busy with work - on for 3 nights, off for a day and a half then on again for 3 nights - and we had our first visit from our in-laws this past weekend!

They flew into Austin on Friday for Veteran's Day. We took them to lunch at The Salt Lick in Round Rock (very yummy BBQ place, featured on Man Vs. Food!) and took them around Fort Hood.

On Saturday, we drove to San Antonio and went to the zoo there. Afterwards we headed to The Alamo and had dinner on The Riverwalk at Landry's (best seafood ever!) and spent the night at The Marriott, about 8 miles from downtown. I love The Riverwalk and I want to go back there for the holidays because I heard that is when that place really "comes alive" (it's always busy, though!) The place was already decorated with lights but I guess they don't come on until closer to Christmas.

Sunday was a lazy football day. I'm not a big fan of football, to be honest. I would rather just know if someone wins or loses instead of sitting there watching the game. I always fall asleep lol. That doesn't mean I don't have favorite teams, though :) The Browns lost which is no surprise to me (I hate the Browns anyway) but I'm happy the Texans won :)

On Monday we had lunch at Pappadeux, another seafood restaurant. For my Ohio followers, there is one in Cincinnati ;) You supposedly get 30% off if you are military, but this one in Austin said you only get the discount if you are uniform. WTF! Unless you're coming home, who has time to drive all the way out to Austin during their lunch break lol. Anyway, Pappadeux was decent, but still doesn't beat Landry's in San Antonio. Hubs' parents are a fan, though, so we took them there. Afterwards we drove them to the airport and they were off to Ohio :( This weekend went by way too fast.

Overall it was a nice visit. Eddie & I suggested to take them to Houston/Galveston or Corpus Christi on their next visit. We even thought about renting a condo for a week at one of those places, or at South Padre Island. Something different instead of going to Myrtle Beach or Seabrook (SC). It will be like another family vacation :) I also want to do that for our wedding anniversary.

Hubs was talking to me the other day on how he may never deploy as a PL. He kind of got screwed on his assignment, I guess. The Army was thinking about sending him to Iraq back in July, but instead they chose the other PL because that guy isn't married and obviously my husband is. I was happy because that meant my husband would be home but at the same time I felt bad because I know how badly my husband wants to deploy. You don't go through 4 years of college/ROTC and then 5 months of BOLC to sit on staff duty for the rest of your military career. That would be like me spending $80,000 on my BSN/RN and never getting a job as a nurse or something.

His unit is non-deployable at the moment because they just came back in August. Another unit was going to go sometime this year but they didn't need a PL...and then those deployment plans fell through so they are no longer deploying. Yet another unit is to deploy early next year. Hubs' CO is trying to get him a spot on that deployment but as of now, no luck.

In March, hubs' unit is going to be doing a CCMRF ("see-smurf") mission. I forgot what it what stands for, but basically my husband and his unit have a 72-hour response time to natural disasters, terrorist attacks, zombie apocalypses, etc. that happen here in the U.S. It doesn't "count" as a deployment and during the whole CCMRF period, the unit is non-deployable. Hubs' PL time ends sometime this upcoming year so basically, unless he gets a spot in another unit, he will not deploy as a PL. If he deploys afterwards (say if he is a CPT or something) he said he'll be stuck on staff duty. I don't know how true that is...I've seen pictures of CPT's and even majors out doing patrols and stuff.

Things can change, though. And I know you never know with the military. So I guess we'll see. Regardless if my husband deploys as a PL or not (or ever, since we're supposedly slowly pulling out our troops from the sandbox), I'm still so proud of him and thankful for his service. And no one better ever dare say that my husband "never made a difference."

Blogger is letting me post pictures again, yay! Here is what I wanted to post last time:

I got my pretty blue VW GTI :D

Hubs and I went to Seaworld, San Antonio!

Shamu show :D

We fed & pet dolphins...I want to swim with them! Unfortunately the only snorkeling trip where you can possibly swim with them is all the way in South Padre Island...that's like 7 hours away!

My friend Mandi came to Texas with a church group. Last Monday they had a free day to tour Austin, but of course she had to stay with her group. We went to the Texas history museum (which was really boring, btw, don't go! haha...she wasn't too interested and neither was the rest of her group!). The group wanted to pictures in front of the really big star outside, so of course I was their awesome photographer. I totally looked like some Asian tourist haha. Afterwards we all went to Hopdoddy on South Congress - really good burger joint! I decided to be different and get their ahi tuna burger. Deeeeelish!

oh hey, blogger.

It has been awhile since I have posted!

I forgot to mention that I finally got my car! And I love it :) And Blogger is being a tard and won't let me post any pictures.

Hubs & I went to San Antonio last weekend. We went to the Alamo and to the Riverwalk! We went to this seafood restaurant called Landry's and had a pretty expensive "snack" - shrimp en brochette (shrimp with a sliver of jalapeno inside, hushpuppy on the outside, bacon-wrapped and fried and then finished off on the grill placed on top of a bed of fried onion straws and topped with a cheese-like sauce and crab meat) and a cup of lobster bisque...all for $26, not including tip! Everything tasted EPIC, though! I've been wanting more :)

We originally planned on staying at Lackland AFB through military lodging (why pay $100+ for a hotel room when you can get a VOQ room for like $40?) but then we decided to head home that day and go to Freedom Fest at Fort Hood.

But we never really went to Freedom Fest.
We went kayaking at BLORA, a lake that puts Lake Erie to shame!! It was fun, but a lot of work haha. We went to Razoo's Cajun Cafe and had some fried gator tail (which was very tasty, btw!). Hub's had fish fry for his entree and I had shrimp creole. Everything was amazing!
We went back home and slept.
We went to Fort Hood for the fireworks display, which was really nice. Instead of fighting the crowd, we went to one of the school parking lots on post. Several others had the same idea.

Once again, I am LOVING work :) Still have a lot to learn and there are a lot of times where I feel pretty stupid, but I'm getting it. Slowly but surely :)

Tonight hubs & I are going out to dinner with his platoon sergeant and his wife and tomorrow we're going back to San Antonio to go to Seaworld haha. You have no idea how excited I am.

a drive-thru daiquiri express? only in Texas.

Yesterday was O'Malley's birthday, so we sat poolside for several hours then headed on over to The Tilted Kilt. It's like a Hooter's restaurant but with less emphasis on wings.

We walked in, I looked at Siobahn (his sister) and we laughed. The girls all dress like THIS.

The food was good, though :)

Afterwards, O'Malley took us to this legit drive through daiquiri express:

Only in Texas! At first I thought it was a bad idea, because it totally promotes drinking and driving. O'Malley assured us that the daiquiris at this place are the bomb.com.

We ordered 4 tankers - 44oz fish bowls - of daiquiri. I got the strawberry banana (which was AMAZING), Siobahn got strawberry, O'Malley got the Superman (it was more tart, tasted weird but it did have a little piano colada taste to it which I liked) and Eddie got the Texas Tornado (kind of like a fruit punch with a tart cherry after taste, it tasted like Kool Aid lol). We told them no tequila, just rum & vodka - I think a tanker comes with 3 or 4 shots in it initially, and O'Malley wanted to add another 3 shots in each. Check out this monstrosity:

DELICIOUS, but omg it was so much. My tiny little 5'2", 107lb-self could not handle all of this. And I didn't lol. I drank about 1/5 of it, then accidentally spilled it in my drunken stupor and was left with about another 1/5 lol.

But hey, 1/5 is GOOD for me, considering the amount of alcohol that was in it. I can't handle my alcohol at all and I rarely drink to begin with. If I do, it's usually 1 drink and I like to sit and nurse it the whole night lol.

The tankers cost like $20. You get to keep it (obviously) and if you bring it back for a refill it's only $12. O'Malley bought them all for us and spent $95 on four.

:)

Eddie and O'Malley finished theirs...they drank their tanks :)

Tonight we're going to Austinnnnnn and I'm excited, because it's a WEEKEND which means it'll be more lively :)

FINALLY, an interview!

We finally received the rest of our stuff today from the Army. Everything made it okay, except for the dishes :/ We ended up with 7 broken dinner plates, 1 broken bowl and 1 broken cup. They told us to keep whatever is intact and they will replace the broken ones at some point. Other than that, everything seems to be A-okay :)

I also FINALLY got a call from a local hospital for an interview on their TCU (telemetry care unit), which is part of the ICU. Full-time nights. This is seriously like my dream, because 1) it's the ICU, and this will help set my foot in the door if I plan on doing the full-fledge ICU later on 2) I definitely prefer nights over days and 3) it's cardiac! which I love.

Now the important thing is, DON'T EFF IT UP! I'm so scared they will ask me something and I won't be prepared to answer. This is my very first nursing interview and I have no idea what to expect! Ahhh!

Please pray! pray, pray, pray!

I apologize for the lack of blogging again! I'm just still trying to get settled down here and we have some friends visiting - our best man Bryant and one of E's groomsmen Ryan. Last night we decided to go to The Salt Lick BBQ in Round Rock which is close to Austin. The place was featured on Man Vs. Food and I remember Adam raved about the beef brisket on the show.

Yummy yummy plate of MEAT. Beef brisket, pork ribs, baked beans, potato salad & cole slaw. I did not eat the latter 3 items haha. But the BBQ meat was DELICIOUS.

NOM NOM.

E got the beef ribs plate. They were freaking huge. But oh-so-tasty. The BBQ sauce was very good, kind of tangy. And unlimited bread. And a side of raw pickles & onions, which I also didn't eat haha.

This place definitely got our approval.

We headed to Austin afterwards. And saw Shamu on the way.

:)

I demanded we get froyo afterwards, so we went to Red Mango, which is Austin's #1 froyo place. I got dark chocolate-hazelnut swirl with slivered almonds, sliced strawberries and mochi. It was heaven in a cup, but then again, froyo always is! I'm seriously obsessed.

We walked around, went to the outside of the UT stadium, then hit up some of the bars on 6th Street....on a Monday night haha. It wasn't very lively, but we had a good time. They have a lot of outdoor bars there which I really like, especially with the gorgeous Texas weather. We will definitely have to go there again on a weekend when it is more lively...but unfortunately Bryant & Ryan will not be there with us.

Bryant is on his way back to LA for a month before he goes to MIBOLC and Ryan just decided to come with him for the trip lol. Unfortunately, Ryan isn't going to MPBOLC for another 9 months and GOLDBARing isn't an option for him.

E & I need to start meeting some people out here...

furniture!

For those that follow me on Twitter (come follow me @wh0aitsmel! the 0 is a zero) know that we got our furniture delivered to us today! We went furniture shopping yesterday at the AAFES on-post and finally decided on a set. We got a sofa, love seat, man chair, coffee table and accent table for like $1800-ish which I think is a pretty good deal, plus we didn't have to pay tax! We also decided to open up that Military Star credit card just for this purchase to save 10% - so we saved about another $200.

The color is pretty true, too :) The love seat and 2 end seats on the sofa recline, along with the man chair :) The accent table matches the coffee table, but we didn't put that one together yet.

For awhile our place looked like this o_O

But we cleaned everything out :) That chair belongs to our dining room set. All of our chairs are assembled - we just need to assemble the table and our accent table. The dining set came with 6 chairs as opposed to the usual 4, which I really liked.

And our TV stand:

I love how everything is starting to come together :) Household goods should be here by Wednesday to deliver all of my stuff haha...including the rest of our kitchen stuff.

We went to Sombrero's for dinner and then I made E take me to YoYo's for some more froyo haha. I made my wedding cake concoction - almond-flavored froyo with fresh raspberries and I also added mochi, which is a type of rice cake...I have noticed a lot of froyo places carry that now. It was sooooooo good. E also loved it, but after a few bites it was hard for me to share it with him lol.

Texas.

The wedding was an absolute blast, and I can't wait to see the professional pictures. I'll post some of those soon once I get them :) I also can't believe it was over in literally a blink of an eye. All of this planning and then it's like, "what? that's it? I want more!" haha.

We left Tuesday morning at around 0730 central time. For awhile we were not sure if we were going to stay the night somewhere or drive straight through, but we ended up just driving. We switched drivers at every rest stop. KY, TN & AK are all very boring...especially AK, which I believe is trying to strive to be like other states, with city names like Arkandelphia and Texarkana. Really, Arkansas? lol. We got to the apartment at around 0650 this morning, central time. We crashed, got up a couple of hours later, then went to Chopstick to get some yummy pho <3

The pho wasn't as good as the pho I am used to back in Ohio, but it was still very yummy. I went next door to the froyo place and got some taro froyo with slivered almonds and chopped walnuts. There is another froyo place in Harker Heights on the Central Texas Expressway called YoYo that I want to try.

And speaking of Harker Heights, EVERYTHING is there! Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, 2 Walmarts, a USAA bank, Old Navy, Ulta, tons of places to eat, etc etc etc. Nothing like Missouri. I know I am going to love it here :) Especially with the gorgeous weather! We were in the upper 80's today.

E & I also spent over $500 today at Bed Bath & Beyond on necessities. We still need to buy more stuff. It's hard starting out. I think tomorrow our goal is to go to the AAFES on-post and check out their furniture because we do not have a couch. We also do not have a washer/dryer and that is something we desperately need as well. I can't decide if I want to buy them brand new or buy them relatively brand new for a heck of a lot cheaper on Craig's List.