1. Friends - my friends, family friends, kids friends -- such wonderful people here. It's hard to believe we have only been here one year when I think of how we love our friends. Heaven will be a little sweeter for all the wonderful people we have come to love. Our Red family, our neighborhood friends, my Y friends, great people in the ward.
2. Our neighborhood - we love the flat quiet streets that the kids ride their bikes on and so many great neighbors, plus friends, a pool and a park all within biking distance.
3. Good food. Torchy's, LaMadeline, Sylvias Enchalada kitchen, Texas BBQ, amazing potluck dinners with friends
4. YMCA - loved dropping the kids off while I went to workout. Fun pool. Unfortunately the power of the YMCA was not enough to combat the calories of the good food. It's a good thing we were only here one year!
5. Road trips - Destin, Mississippi, New Orleans, Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands. It was so fun to drive out here last summer, stopping in New Mexico at a couple of really neat places. Also, we've loved living on the edge of the South so that we could take a couple of road trips to see the beautiful beach in Florida and some fun sights in the South.
6. weather in April
7. Bob and Kari and Dan visiting in December after my surgery and in August when Dan came home from his mission. We also enjoyed seeing Joyce, Linda and the Jorgensen gang in Janurary.
8. Mandy - an institution in and of herself to the kids
9. Thunder, lightening and rain storms. So amazing! So beautiful!
10. Water bill. I pay $40 for water. I have a green lawn and beautiful trees. No sprinklers. The water comes from the sky in abundance. So amazing after coming from the desert of the west!
11. Museums NASA - one of the most inspiring places on the planet! Children's Museum - a really great museum, kept all the kids happy for hours on end... especially Calvin.
13. Willow Waterhole - we've spent many a Sunday afternoon going for a leisurely walk to the waterhole. Sometimes it turns into a mess but it is always a great time.
14. Houston livestock show and petting zoo - amazing displays and great animals
15. Hermann Park - beautiful park near the med center with the zoo, miller outdoor theater. Lots of time spent there when the weather was nice.
Some other favorites: tough mudder, drive through doughnuts, "road humps"
Bottom 10 -- things we won't miss
1. Q1 call schedule + no call room or office. As near to abject slavery as we've seen in all of the medical training
2. Mosquitoes - Absolutely crazy here. Walking from the car to the house, you'll get a few bites. Poor Calvin is a mosquito magnet. His legs are covered! Also, it detracts from the Christmas spirit to have to wear bug spray while Christmas Caroling.
3. Heat - just imagine what it would feel like to be in a sauna on the surface of the sun
4. Cockroaches - disgusting little creatures. They love to come in my house and die on the kitchen floor. I'm pretty sure Jo learned to count last summer when she'd get up in the morning and see them on the floor in the kitchen.
5. Traffic - I can't leave my house between 7-9am and 3-7pm unless I want to sit in bumper to bumper traffic to get anywhere
6. Quality of Roads .. how many times have I pulled over to check for a flat when it was just the road was super bad. Huge potholes everywhere. I'll need to get my alignment fixed when I get back home.
7. Quality of drives. Most inconsiderate and idiotic drivers I've ever seen. There is no such thing as a right of way. Pretty much whoever gets there first or has the bigger truck gets to take the lane.
8. Lack of aesthetic beauty and interesting terrain
9. customer service - pharmacy, school, post office, school bus - so much worse than anywhere else.
10. Cabaret, strip club or XXX store on every corner in town. Within a week of being here Calvin asked, "mom, what's a cabaret?"
11. School lets out in May. Longest summers ever. Combine this with the crazy heat and it is pretty bad.
I'm still laughing about #4 on the bad list! LOL!
ReplyDelete