New Beginnings..Welcome to Texas!



We have had a busy month of June. Here are the highlights.

Seminary Graduation
June 2, 2013

Almost everyone...Missing Bailey, Chad, Miles, and Brent.

High School Graduation -June 5, 2013

Abby with Jesse Grandpa and Kay Grandma

Best Friends (this makes me happy)

Proud parents with the awesome graduate
You did it Abby! Watch out University of Wyoming- Here she comes!

Last time Paige, Brooke, Leslie and Isaac would ever be at our Idaho Falls house.
 

June 9, 2013 Last picture of Abby and Miranda at our Idaho Falls house.
They were off on their first big road trip to Laramie, WY.

Sad day...house empty of all of our furniture, but the memories will never go away!

Eric and Marie...our last picture in the house. We staged it in front of the fireplace where all the important shots were taken. I look like I had been crying...that is because I was! As I walked through the empty house and took pictures of each room I sobbed like a baby. I was also dirty and tired from packing and cleaning. And I was sick...

One last look at the house that we built. We spent 14 wonderful years raising a family here. I love how green everything is.

One last Idaho sunset!

Welcome to Texas! We arrived on June 13, 2013. Our furniture arrived on June 15th. We slept on blow-up mattresses. We had no refrigerator so we had (got) to eat out for every meal. We spent the time playing card games...hard wood floors are not very comfortable.

We spent the week unpacking and decided to spend the weekend doing something fun. We headed to downtown Houston the museum district. We went to the Holocaust museum. It was very interesting, but I left feeling rather blue. We then headed over to the arboretum.  

Here we are walking/playing on one of the trails. It was cool to see the natural plants of Texas.

It was hot (duh..this is Texas) and sunny. I found a great straw hat in the gift shop.

We came across this bird on our walk. She must have been protecting her nest. She was all curled up, but when a squirrel came close she rose up spread her wings. She stayed perfectly still except for her throat twitching.

 

Now it is July and we are pretty much all moved in. All of the boxes are unpacked and even hauled away. We are experiencing things here in Fulshear (40 miles west of downtown Houston) that we have never had to worry about when we were in Idaho. We are now signed up with a bug company that comes to our house every three months and injects chemicals into the walls of our house to keep termites and other bugs from getting in. We had to install a water softener (oh how we miss our Idaho well water). We keep getting notes from the yard Natzi about weeds in our front yard.

We have very nice neighbors. Very different from Idaho where members of the church live in every other house. I don't know where the closest member even lives. We have to drive 25 minutes to get to church. Our ward is large. I don't know how many members, but I was told that there are 174 kids in the primary. Miranda and Abby have been attending our ward with us, but they go to young single adult activities and institute with other YSA from our ward/stake. They went to an Astros game on Saturday.

Miranda is preparing to leave for the MTC in a couple of weeks. She is a bit nervous, but I think mostly just ready to get going on this mission.

Here's to new adventures and beginnings!!