Catching up, part 1

So.........it's been a while since my last blog post. Raise your hand if anyone is surprised.

Anyone? Anyone?

I'll admit it; my hand was down, too. Here's what's been going on. My brother came home for a two week leave from Afghanistan two weeks ago. He had been overseas for 6 months and will return afterward for at least another 6 months. He flew in the day before Halloween into San Antonio. It had been a several day wait for him because no one knew when he was in the air. He called to let us know he would be flying to Kuwait first and would give us a call to give us more details. Unfortunately, his cell phone that he bought overseas doesn't work anywhere except Afghanistan. So, when I got a phone call at 2 am from an unknown number, I didn't answer, I went back to sleep. I felt horrible! He had called to say he was in Kuwait and that he would be leaving soon. Long story short, he called me again from Ireland to let me know he would be arriving in Dallas the next day and from there, he hoped to catch an earlier flight into San Antonio.

Because he was able to catch a last-minute standby flight to San Antonio (rather than have his original 7 hour layover), my parents weren't able to get here fast enough to meet him at the airport. My aunt, Grandma and I decided to meet him instead. My cousin had made him a welcome home sign even though she couldn't come! Poor Houston....he was so embarrassed when he saw us waiting there with a sign! He hates flying in his military gear because of the attention it attracts and we made it worse by singling him out! He was happy to see us and ready to get out of airports. There are pictures, but they're on my aunt's camera. I'll post them if I get a copy.

I took him back to my house, let him change and then we went to eat at Chuy's. I know he was deprived of Mexican food and beer, so I made it my mission to alleviate that! He had his first Shiner Bock and just stared at it for a while and then took about a 5 second chug. We probably should've ordered two to start.

We got our food and he chowed down. He couldn't remember when he had eaten last because he'd been in an airplane so long. Afterward, we headed to Sam's so that I could stock up on some essentials in our house.....namely toilet paper. As I headed towards the bread, I felt the basket take a sharp right. My brother left me in the dust quickly as he discovered we were passing the beer section! Ha ha! He picked up a case of the Shiner Family Reunion before we could move on.

Later that afternoon and a few beers later, my parents arrived and another hugfest commenced. We made dinner, talked and drank more beer. By Halloween morning, we were in dire need of more beer. I didn't want to disappoint my beer-starved brother, so we headed to the grocery store to get some food supplies for dinner and beer.

We spent Halloween night cooking shrimp on the grill and also made some type of shrimp diablo indoors. Too bad I didn't bother to take pictures. Blame it on the Kosmos! I handed out candy to a ton of trick-or-treaters and tried to keep Cassius from escaping outside. I was not successful at least two of the times.

We had an excellent weekend spent catching up. My parents and brother left that Sunday to go back to the hometown and Jason & I planned to catch up with everyone again the following weekend.