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."
I found this website called Retail Me Not...tons of online coupon codes for websites! Hubs really wanted a Cleveland Browns Tervis tumbler (the BEST coffee tumblers, btw!) and I made the mistake of not grabbing it the first time at my local Bed Bath & Beyond. I decided to order one for him online (and I was better off because he liked this design better). I also decided to order another one for myself - "Nurse" with a stethoscope. I couldn't pass that up! Anyway, I decided to do a Google search for online coupon codes and this website was the first to pop up.
