Hello Again!

Hello Again, and Hello from Houston! That's right, I'm sure you have been anxiously awaiting news of our arrival in Texas and I am sorry to have kept you waiting for so long. I have a laundry list of excuses that I can give upon request. The most valid is that we have yet to get our wireless internet in place and I hate using my iPhone for doing anything other than checking my emails. And that means checking, not responding to, so again I am sorry if I haven't responded to your emails. 

I left off here as we were beginning our 'road trip' to Texas. This amounted to 24 hour drive with 2 babies, of which we prolonged so the pain stretched over 4 excruciating days. It can be summed up like this:

It was, however, made more enjoyable by catching up with friends on each end of the trip and we were grateful for the hospitality!

Once we arrived in Houston, we settled into an extended-stay hotel while we looked for a place to live. While this chore was stressful, it was done with relative ease as we signed a lease and moved into our new house by the end of the week. To boot, its a great little house less than a mile from my work, which I consider good karma after having a 50-minute commute each way in Singapore. Once we moved into our house, we realized how little 'stuffs' (as Adrienne likes to say) we actually have. Just in case you were considering it, selling all your stuff and moving half way around the world is not advisable, particularly if you have two small kiddos. The first night we stayed at the house, we only had a port-a-crib for Nate and nothing else. 

As luck would have it, we moved in next door to the NICEST people in all of Houston. Maybe in the whole state of Texas, actually. Which is saying a lot since, as far as I can tell, Texans are pretty much the nicest and friendliest people in the world. They lent us an air-mattress, sheets, pillows, baby blankets, a portable DVD player, etc... This first batch of stuff was later followed with books and toys for Adrienne and Nate, all of which helped keep the small sliver of sanity from disappearing in a puff of crazy on California St. To add to it, they even took Adrienne to play with their adorable kids so we could have a chance to shop for....well, basically everything in the house. It might sound kind of fun to buy things to fill a house. I admit that I thought it would be. You know, a chance to remodel and pick out things that you really like. That would probably be the case if you had an endless supply of cash and kid-free time to do so. By the end, we were walking into stores, pointing at the nearest (fill-in-whatever-piece-of-furniture), and saying "I'll take it if you can deliver it and assemble it today" simply to avoid meltdowns at the store. That being said, things are finally coming together and I would venture to say that we have almost, almost achieved somewhat of a homey feel in here. 

In the midst of all this craziness, we have had some time to drive around Houston and get to know our area a bit. So far, we really like it. There are beautiful oak-tunneled streets, southern-style covered patios, fabulous grocery stores, and kid-friendly parks. Oh, and it has been exceptionally rainy here and abnormally cool, fooling us into thinking that Houston summers aren't really that bad. My biggest complaint is that Houston seems to be REALLY slow for wiring houses with internet. You will know when we get wired because I can update you with all the stories I am mentally writing in my head. Or because, more likely, I will just tell you. I hope that you are enjoying your summer and your wireless internet. And please forgive any auto-corrected sentences that don't make any sense. 

I leave you with a gratuitous picture of my cuties from their first American 4th of July. Cheers!