Houston

So, it's been a while since my last update. Danny and I arrived here exactly 2 weeks ago. And by here, I mean Houston, Texas.

Danny got a job at Baylor College of Medicine, which we decided would be the best option. He also had a job offer in Salt Lake. It was a tough call: a job close to family but less in his field vs. a job far from everybody we know but exactly in his field. We chose the second option. Danny bargained with both of them, and got them both to basically try to outbid each other for him. So he got a much higher salary, which is great.

We found the house that we want...but it's 45-65 minutes away from his work. So that really, really stinks. One of my New Year's resolutions was to eliminate the following words from my vocabulary: retarded, sucks, awesome, freak, and things of that nature. But if I hadn't made that resolution, I would be using a different word than "stinks" to describe the situation.

But that really is the only bad thing about it. I mean, there are lots of tiny repairs that need to be done, as well as some major changes to the inside (like it has laminate floors which are so ugly!!!), but for the most part it just needs some updating and then it will be worth much, much more. The location is perfect, the ward is great, it has a pool, it's right by the Elementary School (which I'm learning is one of the really good ones...it has pre-K there???), and it's the right size: 4 bed, 2 1/2 bath. That sounds snobby. We could definitely be comfortable in a smaller home. But this is a good option, too. Also, it's literally less than 2 miles from the church. So that's great.

We love the house, and we're working on getting the loan approved. Right now we are living in a hotel. We just moved hotels from way up north in the Willowbrook area to down near the Med Center, which is where Danny works. There is a shuttle from here to the front door of his work, so that is awesome.

Jane is doing very well. I'm glad we moved hotels because this one is slightly bigger. In the other hotel, if she was out of her crib, she had to be on the bed because there was no floor space. But here there is some floor space. I'm glad because yesterday I caught her from rolling off the bed. I know that I was supposed to not put her on the bed ever since she could roll, but that's sometimes easier said than done. But that seriously scared the heck out of me, so I am glad she can just roll around on the floor now instead.

I'm looking for good places to buy cheap nice furniture. I don't really know if that's possible. The biggest purchase we will make in the next few months (after the house, obviously), is a pool cover.

Anyway, that's what's going on here. Houston is beautiful. Perfect weather; 70ish degrees, breezy, usually a little overcast.

Gotta jet - bye!