Josh was scheduled to attend "Safety School" in Pensacola, Florida two weeks after returning home from deployment. There was no way I was going to let him leave us so soon after returning....especially since he was to be gone for about six weeks. So we did some research and found a nice little house on the Perdido Bay to rent and loaded up the car, dog and all, and drove to Pensacola. On the way there, we stopped in Phoenix, Arizona, Fort Stockton and Houston, Texas.
Our stop in Houston was especially fun. We stopped there because my stepdad, Frank, has been living there while being treated for AML (acute myeloid leukemia). It was so nice to see him in person and be able to see how well he was actually doing. It definitely put our minds at ease. We had great timing too! Nana (my mom) was also there and so we got a good family visit in. We spent about 24 hours there and even had time to cram in a visit to the Houston Zoo. (side note: the Houston Zoo is definitely worth visiting. One of the nicest zoos I've ever been to).
After saying goodbye in Houston, we drove to Mobile, Alabama and spent one more night before reaching our destination. I swear, if I could have physically hugged the state of Alabama as we crossed the line, I would have. It's really ridiculous how much I miss that place. Anyway, we made it to Pensacola the next day and we helped Josh settle into his new surroundings...we picked up rental cars, checked into school and got him checked in at the hotel (we weren't scheduled to check into the rental house for another week). We also met up with Isaac, Josh's youngest brother, who was going to be in school with Josh for the next few weeks.
Then, the kids, the dog and I loaded up and continued on to Birmingham. While we were sad to leave Daddy, we were excited to be in Birmingham at Nana's house for a week. Plus it gave Daddy some time to get his arms around what he was doing in school and it gave him some time to hang out with his brother. So all-in-all it worked out just fine.
Birmingham was such fun. We spent a lot of time with my mom, which I needed desperately. And we also got to spend a lot of time with my best friend, Taylor and her little boys. We had a play date almost every day while my mom was working. It really made me miss home....I would do just about anything if it meant I could live in the same city with the people I love the most.
While we were in town, I figured it would be a good opportunity for a haircut. There is only one human being on this planet I would trust to cut almost eight inches off of my hair...and that person is Todd Cargo. So my mom watched the kids while I got my hair chopped off. At first I think I was in shock with the drastic change, but now I'm loving not having to deal with so much hair all the time.
I was dreading leaving my favorite place on Earth, but the day did come that we had to go and drive back down to Pensacola. We got up that morning and had a great breakfast with my mom. But on the way home from breakfast my car overheated. I called the dealership, but of course they were closed--it was Sunday. So the kids and I were "stranded" at my mom's house until at least the next day. Josh called USAA for me and they sent out a tow truck the next morning. Meanwhile, the kids and I waited and waited and waited. Eventually they got the car fixed and I think we left Birmingham at 5pm on Monday evening. It took a while, but we did make it to the rental house and finally got our "vacation" started.
