Thoughts on Moving

We moved to Texas a month ago. It's been quite the month, I must say.

We drove from Colorado to Texas with all the kids and our stuff. We intended to drive straight through (16+ hours) because we're crazy like that, but we ended up with a flat tire on the trailer carrying the car somewhere near Memphis, TX and it took 3 hours for a repairman to come out and change the flat (since we were renting the trailer we weren't allowed to change it ourselves and had to wait for a service company). Always never get a flat tire near Memphis, TX it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

We stayed in a hotel that night and got up and drove the next morning. We had to drive straight to closing so we signed papers looking like we hadn't slept, because we mostly hadn't, and like we'd been driving for two days, which we had. That night we slept in our house sans furniture. Luckily, we had a couple of air mattresses.

And thus began our move to Texas.

We did get furniture and now all have beds to sleep on.

We proved we were actually citizens of the US so we could register kids in school (who knew you needed a driver's license, social security card, closing documents and a first born child to register kids for school here).

And while I'm on the subject of school, all the schools are within a mile or so from our house. In CO, a mile = about a minute of driving. In TX a mile = 10-30 minutes when trying to drop off and pick up kids from school. No kidding. For both elementary and middle school, parents line up in their cars and you wait in line for sometimes 30 minutes just to get your kid. It's insane. Surely there's a better way to let parents pick up kids from school. I drive my elementary kids to school and take them into the school. Then my 7th grader and I walk to his school. I really love that because it gives us time to talk and bond and also allows us to both get some exercise.

I've never seen so much water. Seriously. People were talking about how this area was just in a drought. I had to laugh. Everything is green. People have water. It rains. I know drought. I lived in a drought for most of the last 19 years. Drought = brown, dead plants, no grass, and 2 minute showers (if you're lucky). I've seen more rain in the last month than in the last 19 years combined in CO. So, please, you want to talk drought? Let me tell you what a real drought is.

I love that it's so green here. I love all the trees and the beautiful flowers. I love that it's still summer, I love that we are blessed to have a pool and can cool down when it gets too hot and humid. I love that everything is so close.

I've grocery shopped at Walmart for forever. I know Walmart. I know that in Walmart it's next to impossible to get someone to help you. I know that I have to pack my own cart and load it into my car. I know that in exchange, I get low prices. At least I knew that until . . . I shopped at HEB. And don't pronounce it "Heb" it's "H" "E" "B." it's like grocery shopping heaven. Same prices as Walmart. Helpful employees all over the place. They not only pack the bags and the cart, but load it into the car. I didn't even know what to do with myself. And they have yummy samples so if you're hungry when you're shopping, you can get snacks throughout the store. And the people are so nice. And this grocery store is around the corner from my house.

We've also met some very kind and helpful people. Our ward has been awesome and made us feel so welcome. The teachers at the school have been great. We enrolled our youngest son who has Down syndrome and the school personnel keep telling us how they've all fallen in love with him. I'll have to blog about his school experience separately.

I also love that we are only an hour from the coast. We went to Galveston and had a blast at the beach. Galveston is the cutest place. Totally touristy and fun.

Where we live now is about as opposite as we could've chosen (unless we went to a foreign country). We're in a city, it's hot and humid, it rains all the time, we only have half an acre, we have green grass, we're close to everything, there's a ton of traffic, TX doesn't measure distance in miles but rather in time, the schools are ginormous.

And it's awesome. Yes, we're still adjusting, but it's awesome.