What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

We now reside in the great state of Texas. And it's hot. Fortunately, low humidity makes it all very tolerable. The early morning and evening here are fantastic! Our backyard has become an extension of our house and we love hanging out there. I'll send some pictures as soon as I find the connector to download from the camera.

It's been so long since I wrote about our adventures that I'm not sure where to begin. I found a house online the weekend before our move and our realtor agreed that it was a great deal and assured us that we would like the house. It was a bit bigger than I wanted but was in a great location, so we sent the offer. It helped that a previous buyer had an inspection completed before becoming ill and backing out, so we were able to view that before making our offer. The day before our move we negotiated a contract that allowed us to lease the property with a September closing date. The next day Jason and Aidan flew down to take possession of the house. Mom and I followed in the cars the next day. The house is great and has plenty of space, so visitors are definitely welcome! Aidan loves his new swimming pool.

In a stroke of luck, we've been asked to close on the Kentucky house a little earlier than expected, so we'll be able to close here earlier as well. This will save us $50 per day on the lease agreement. Given what we've had to spend on light bulbs alone, we could use the savings! What is with that? You move into a new place and you have to drop a million dollars on light bulbs, cleaning supplies, and other crap to make your place more livable. And in our case furniture.

Furniture. I'm frustrated a bit on this one. I have an eclectic style and I like my pieces, regardless of the fact that they are from yard sales or have been collected off of curbs. That's where graduate students get furniture. That furniture represents your battle scars. And besides the bed frames and the little bit of living room furniture we bought after Aidan was born, none of it will go into this house. As the guys bring it off the truck, a lot of it will be taken directly to the garage and then onto Craig's list. I hosted a designer yesterday who will help us pick out new furniture. I guess I'll express myself through art purchases.

As for Lubbock culture, I've yet to meet someone I can identify with. Jason did tell me that the backyard neighbor was listening to NPR this morning and told Jason about the local NPR stations. That's hopeful. And tomorrow we will visit the Unitarians. In general, everyone has been rather conservative leaning, I've seen more references to guns since I got here than I have basically ever. And next week Aidan's school is going on a field trip to learn Tae Kwon Do. Does anyone else feel like preschoolers and Tae Kwon Do just shouldn't mix?

One last cultural difference is the preschool. It's an elite private school (but still cheaper than what we paid in Kentucky) and has fantastic teachers. He started their summer program on Wednesday and seems to love it. When Jason picked him up the first day he was told that tomorrow they were going swimming. Naturally, I wanted to know more. I never signed a field trip form, was never given any information on who was driving or how they would get there, and I was never briefed on how to handle sunblock.

In Kentucky you have to sign paperwork each and every day that you want your child to get sunblock. Then you have to bring your own because sharing sunblock could cause skin infections. In questioning the teachers, they explained that one of the teachers has her CDL and she drives a short school bus to the public pool (which is closed when they are there). The school provides sunblock for everyone, no forms necessary for anything. Being neurotic and well trained by Kentucky schools, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'd prefer this to the spanking in the public schools. Welcome to Texas!