Houston: A vignette of sorts

The first full day James and I were in Houston together as newlyweds we had to drop off our rental car at a Hertz location about 3-4 miles away from our apartment. I couldn't drive the rental car back because I was only 24 and for strange reasons and laws I can't understand you must be 25 to drive a rental car or pay like $50/day extra...anyway...and the car James had in Houston was a stick shift which I didn't know how to drive. So we decided to both ride over in the rental car, drop it off, and run home. It was pouring rain and we got absolutely drenched as we ran up Main Street past Target and Kroger and eventually back to Almeda where our apartment was....all of which would become familiar to me in the coming months.When we got back to our complex we warmed up with the free hot chocolate in the leasing office and sat down to watch some HGTV.

We spent our first week in Houston unpacking boxes, researching, purchasing, and setting up a flat screen (first piece of furniture we bought together...oh yeah) and building and IKEA TV stand. The next week James flew to Michigan for a work project that would last all summer long, only returning on weekends and I started my internship which involved driving myself there in James' nice manual Mazda that I barely knew how to drive. That made both of us nervous. And thus started our newly-wedded days of bliss in Houston.

But they really were blissful days, because we crammed in so much stinking fun in our year there. Allow me to reminisce a moment on our first year of marriage and most likely our only year in Houston. Also allow me to paint to a picture of it all so I don't have to stick one in for every memory I mention. And most of these pictures are in previous blog posts anyway, if you so care.

We crammed in several sporting events, including a Dynamo soccer game, a Rockets basketball game, an Astros baseball game, and an unforgettable University of Houston versus BYU football game.

We agreed to at least one adventure per month and we so dutifully held to that, spending the 4th of July in Corpus Christi, Thanksgiving in San Antonio, a weekend with Brian Regan, family, and friends in Dallas, and an anniversary celebration in Austin.

And that only includes Texas.

I realized I traveled every. single. month. of our first year of marriage. James obviously traveled much more and to some cooler places, but I'm not the consultant here, so I was surprised at how often I found myself packing a suitcase. 

May: Orlando, FL for the honeymoon and the Colorado Springs, CO for the reception
June: SLC, UT for Laura and Mason's wedding
July: Corpus Christi, TX as I mentioned for 4th of July
August: Colorado Springs, CO for....fun of course!
September: UT also for fun...continuation of my trip to CO
October: Scottsdale, AZ for a sweet work retreat with James
November: Cincinnati, OH to see Jon, Tricia, and Henry!
December: SLC, UT and ID for a LONG Christmas vaca
January: SLC, UT...continuation of Christmas break and then Dallas, TX for Brian Regan, Billy, Christie, Cole, Jimmy, Charina, and Tyler!
February: UT and ID for both our grandma's funerals (sad :( )
March: NYC, NY because I just HAD to go and James was on a project there
April: SLC, UT for conference and house hunting and James' bday and because we apparently can't stay away from Utah
May: Austin, TX for anniversary and oh yeah...we MOVED to Utah to stay!

I familiarized myself with several schools as I took proctored exams at University of Houston, University St. Thomas, and a physics class at Houston Community College. I went to physical therapy at Texas Children's Hospital, did my internship at Halliburton's Wellzone Fitness Center, and taught piano lessons at Blackburn Music School. I also benefited from free Zumba and photography classes put on by awesome members in the ward.

We also kept busy in the ward having the sisters over every month (sorry to all the elders who passed through our ward who obviously aren't reading this...but I am a bit biased to sisters) for meals and going out to teach with them, James taught Sunday school, I roughed it up with the sweet cubby scouts (although not really, since we carved bars of soap instead of camping), I "coached" our ward RS vball team (even though basically everyone else was better than me), fell in love with the ward's book club, and tutored a teenage girl from Liberia and an adorable little 6-yr old. We had a ward chili cook-off in which I won 1st place for the apple crisp I made (my mission comp's recipe) and dressed up like giant grapes for the trunk or treat. Such an awesome ward!

We made time for the Houston Zoo, several nights (symphony, movies, plays) at the Miller Outdoor Theater (where in July even the summer evenings are suffocating because of the humidity), the Museum of Natural Science, the Space Center, the Houston Rodeo, and the beach at Surfside (sorry Galveston, everyone said your waters were the ickiest). We also squeezed in an Imagine Dragons concert in the Woodlands and a Joshua Radin/Matt Nathanson concert downtown at House of Blues. We found some tennis courts we loved, had picnics at several parks, went to many a full-price movie (because we get too excited to wait) and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful Houston temple....although not always the traffic we had to fight to get there.

And let's not forget the food. I don't EVER forget the food. We LOVED the tacos and guacamole at Torchy's Tacos (take notes in case you ever go), the tres leches red velvet cake swimming in what looks like Pepto Bismol at Guadalajaras, Sushi Wabi, Gatlin's BBQ, need I go on? Oh yes, so there is a restaurant in Houston (and maybe all of Texas) called Luby's and James and I both independently decided that the name is just gross. Haha. So we didn't want to eat there. But the more time went by and the more Luby's we saw EVERYWHERE we agreed that we just had to try it once before we moved...just to say we went. So the night before we moved to Utah we went over to the Luby's right next to our apartment, stood in line, looked at what the food was and both agreed we'd rather have a greasy burger at Fuddrucker's next store. So we never tried Luby's, and we have no qualms about it.

It would be amiss of me not to paint an accurate portrayal of Houston for you though. Actually, it would just be positive of me, but how can I leave out the HUMIDITY, SIRENS, and TRAFFIC which will forever come to the forefront of my mind when I remember my year there? So to be honest, the humidity was worst in July, and most of the time I was in an air conditioned car, apartment, or building. It's wasn't as bad as people made it out to be...except probably in July. The sirens...well, that's our fault for living by the med center. I swear I heard ten each day, which seriously annoyed me and then I realized sirens mean something bad is happening to someone else so that is sad. But still annoying, I'm sorry. And the traffic....I told James that Houston gave me daily road rage...because it did. He saw why from time to time but he was not only traveling most of the time but he is everlastingly more calm and patient than I am. And then my dear friend Charina posted the following to my facebook wall which totally validated my road rage.

https://autos.yahoo.com/news/5-cities-with-the-worst-road-rage--and-5-of-the-most-generous-214302918.html


See? So it's not just me.

We had lovely visits from Sarah and Jared Christian (mission comp and her husband), my parents and Steph, Charina, Jimmy and Tyler a couple of times, and possibly others...I apologize if I have forgotten you. All of them were privileged enough to sleep on an air mattress in the living room. Woot woot. We had good times.

For those of you who didn't live in Houston with us or weren't fortunate enough to ever come visit I will post some super low quality pictures I snapped of our apartment right before we packed everything up. Please admire the kitchen in particular. I'm currently having withdrawals and James' is wishing he hadn't spoiled me with so much counter and cupboard space from the get-go.

Behold the beauty

Behold my minimal decorating

Loved the arch

Rethinking these colors, but it was a nice first try. And an inexpensive one too.

The bathroom that basically shook like an earthquake from day one...from the air conditioning below us

Even less decorating. Also, I finished my college degree in that chair. 

When we left Houston it was that time of year where the humidity was rolling in and puttin' it on THICK so we felt so sneaky and clever about how well-timed the move was. And then we stopped in Colorado Springs on our way to Utah to see my family and we were met with a blizzard...and we wanted to go back to Houston. But after too hot and too cold, we arrived to a sunny and comfortable Draper that is just right.

So, we are now living in Draper as of one week ago. We're still waiting for our stuff to arrive so we're "roughing it" with an air mattress, card table (thank you in-laws), and frozen burritos. But hey, we're close to family, close to James' new job, close to every store and restaurant we will ever need, and every time we look out our window or go outside we are met with those breathtakingly beautiful mountains that we missed so much while in Houston, so we are HAPPY.

Thanks, Houston, for treating us to a memorable first year of marriage! Now onto new adventures.....