Life at Ft. Hood ~

While in Ft. Hood, Texas, we were fortunate enough to be able to talk and text on a daily basis.  This helped fill the void of him not being here physically.  It made it easier knowing what he was doing there, and I think that it helped him knowing all of the details from home.  
I was able to go visit THREE times! I went from having one flight under my belt to traveling all alone :) My first trip out there was over President's Day weekend.  We spent the four days in San Antonio, Texas. We were able to go to a Rodeo, The Lady Antebellum concert, The River Walk, and The Alamo.  It was beautiful weather, but the trip went by way too quickly.  It was nice being able to see where he was, and being able to connect some names with some faces.  
My second trip was over Easter weekend.  This time out, I had the intimidating task of renting a car and driving an hour and a half, alone, from Austin to Ft. Hood.  It went much better than expected, and I didn't have to make any detours.  I was extremely proud of myself.  I hate driving here at home, let alone in another state that has a strange freeway system.  Anyways, This visit to Texas we wanted to visit another area.  However, Andrew wanted to surprise me with where we were going.  We ended up in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, and I absolutely LOVED it there.  We stopped in Waco, and visited the Dr Pepper museum.  We spent an entire day at Six Flags, caught up on some Movies, ate some yummy food, toured the Dallas Cowboys stadium, and went to the Stock Yards in Ft. Worth.  This goodbye got pretty emotional.  We thought that we were not going to see each other again until January, and that drive back to Austin was long and sad after I dropped him off at the barracks.  
Luckily, and to our surprise, I was able to fly out one last time at the end of April.  He had to stay on base, and ended up working, but we were willing to take any time together that we could get.  I had found out a week prior to this visit, that I was pregnant! Most of the trip was spent throwing up and crying, but since that was the only time he'd be around for the entire pregnancy, he embraced it and did what he could to take care of me.  

The first week of May, he hopped on a bus, and his journey to Afghanistan began.  It took a lot of flights, and a lot of time to get there.  They made it there safely, and are all settled in. The time difference is 10.5 hours ahead, so we usually skype or talk each morning (for me). Things never change there, and he isn't allowed to disclose a lot of what is going on over there.  It took us a while to figure out how to communicate and what to talk about each day.  We are now 1/2 way through this deployment, and on the countdown to the homecoming!