Texas

Hey!

To everyone concerned and/or thinking about what happened in Texas with the house and the trip and everything, your concerns have been unheard, because I literally have not heard any. Ha Ha.

The trip was fine. We got to Austin on schedule, no delayed or cancelled flights, landed at 2:50 on the nose. We got our rental car, and plugged in the GPS and noticed that Texas roads are set up slightly different than Idaho or Utah or California roads. The highways are - to say the least - going to take some getting used to. There are frontage roads that go the length of the highway, and you get on and off almost at will. The GPS is useful IF you either know a cross-street or can figure out what someone might have called the road when coding it in Texan. We finally figured out how to get to the house and checked it out.

Partly so I don't have to tell it over and over and partly so that if you don't find out, it's your fault, because I told everyone at the same time, you just didn't read it - we really like the house. It is smaller "in person" than it felt on the web, but the possibilities still feel endless. The gazebo would need to be removed. I suspect will put a fire pit in its place. The grass grows without a sprinkler system, and without watering it, as the average rainfall is 2 inches per month - but that doesn't mean that it rains all the time. The realtor said that they usually go from "winter" to summer there, and we had a couple of perfect spring days while we were there. It was just cool enough that we didn't need the pool to keep cool, but it was warm enough that we didn't think we were moving back to Utah. I say winter in quotes, because they get snow once every 3-4 years, and it never sticks. Anyway, it isn't Seattle rainy, and it isn't Salt Lake snowy, and it isn't Boise dry, but it also isn't Manila humid, either.

Back to the house.

The house itself is small-ish, but we like it. It is a little more humble, and was built in the 70s. It should be fairly easy to keep clean, and relatively easy to update on the cosmetic issues I had problems with. It has as gated round driveway, so when we get dogs they won't be running out on the road. It sits at the crest of one of the many rolling hills on the road, and it isn't quite as far away from the road as it felt in the pictures either - which is good and bad. Good in that we don't have as far to go to get the mail or take the trashes out, but bad in that it is closer to the road than we thought. The pine trees out front are beautiful, however. If we were having a huge family reunion out there, there is plenty of room for tents, motor homes, and pretty much any other way you wanted to "camp" in the yard. It has 2 water heaters, so Rachel won't be running us out of hot water nearly as quickly there.

Anyway, we enjoyed our trip immensely. The ward is friendly, but not huge. Rachel would be one of two kids at the high school who are LDS, but I don't see that as a huge issue with Rachel. I think it might be a bigger issue with d'Artagnan, but I think it is surmountable, and there are other kids who are his age in Elgin - I think. We got out to San Antonio and saw the Alamo. I am not sure I knew that Davy Crockett died at the Alamo until yesterday! It is an interesting place to go.

Will talk to all soon, I hope.

Jill