Joys of living in Houston

We are starting to get to the really nice part of living in Houston. In is 75 degrees out at 9:30 at night and perfect for walks. We can open the windows in the evening and still comfortably walk around in our shorts and t-shirts. In the beginning of September we were able to buy plants 70% off and spruce up our yard. They don't die here! No Frost! Our pool is still 75 degrees and there are no falling leaves to rake. This is what I call a great fall.

Besides really enjoying the weather we took advantage of museum day last weekend and went to the Natural Museum of History. We were able to see the TerraCotta Warrior exhibit. It was amazing.....The warriors were much taller than I thought, almost 6 feet tall. The detail was amazing and the quantity unreal. The amazing part is that they have excavating for almost 34 years and are not done yet. It was so cool that part of the exhibit got to come to America.

Went to Galveston Island last weekend

Hi all,

So this past Sunday we went to Galveston, it was really nice. It is only a little over an hour away and it really felt like we were away on vacation. We went and walked on the beach which reminded us a lot of the beaches on Jekyll. People say that the beaches there aren't crystal clear but we have never been use to any ocean being crystal clear so it seemed fine to us.

For lunch we went to "the spot" it was a very good (and busy) place that is very well known. Kelly and I split a fish sandwich and burger, they were very good. We got to sit on a second floor deck that was shaded and look out on the beach that was across the street.

Then we decided to drive around the island, it is still recovering from huricane IKE but it is doing pretty well overall I think.

We went to the Moody Gardens which has 3 pyramids that have different exhibits in them. We went to the aquarium and that was very interesting. I will post pictures of that and link them here shortly. We both had a very good time doing that. A lot of walking though but the air conditioning was welcomed. Pictures here

Finally we walked about Old Galveston which has about 3 blocks of shops that are open. This area is still being worked on to get things open again. Many traffic lights still have no power, buildings boarded up, etc. But this part had horse drawn carriages, chocolate shops, and other interesting places. We stopped and got an ice cream before driving back home.

All in all this place will most likely end up being out get away for a day place to go. We can just relax on a beach. We can also bring Chance who loves the waves :)

This weekend we are considering Shliderbaun waterpark but it might rain so that may be out we will see.

Hope everyone is well.

-Mark

4th of July in Houston

I love the outlets...have I ever mentioned that? Now, they are only 15 minutes from our house. I really needed to update my work wardrobe a bit so we hit the mall this morning and we scored big time. The outlet near here has a Jones of New York outlet, I got $650 worth of clothes for $80 including a brand new suit that I can wear as a suit or as seperates. Mark went the more casual route and bought a couple of breatable shirts to hang out in. All in all a pretty good trip.

For the evening, we headed to the race track to bet on some horses and to watch fireworks. The first race we bet with the odds, and got nothing. The second one went better and we picked the winner. Overall we did pretty good, I guess that happens when you only make $2 bets.

When the fireworks started, we were really impressed. There was music, we were really close and they were huge! Then something must have broke, because they stopped and the announcer pleaded with people to wait for "part 2". When part 2 started it was okay, and it did not end with a grand finale. We think the grand finale was in the middle!?! They were pretty good, but not as good as we have seen in New York!

Holiday Weekend :)

So we both got today off! We completely unpacked our garage today and put what seemed like hundreds of collapsed boxes in the garage. We have a deadline of this coming Friday (the 10th) to get our our boxes unpacked because a company is coming to take all of it then. If we don't have it all done by then they can come back but it will cost us (currently Kellys office is paying for this).

Tomorrow however we are not planning on doing a lot of unpacking. We may stop over at an outlet mall in the morning before it gets too hot. Then in the late afternoon/evening we are planning on going to the horse race track (about 10 miles away). They have races and fireworks tomorrow and Kelly has never been to the races so it should be fun. Lets hope we at least break even on the betting ;)

Sunday we are back unpacking but we are doing good. Kitchen, dining room, garage, and a lot of boxes in other rooms are all done.

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July and long weekend.

Only in Texas

Do you find a bridal shop next to the gun shop......

Tips for Moving Cross Country

1. When the movers show up with only half of the people they said they were bringing, complain immediately. Don't figure they know what they are doing.

2. When the consultant tells you the movers will disrupt your life as little as possible until the 3rd of 3 days, don't believe them. Do believe they pack your kitchen first, take your living room furniture immediately, and pack your washer and dryer the first day. The bed does get left!

3. When the truck driver forgets to show up on the third day...take it as a bad sign.

4. When 7 pm on the last day passes and they aren't done, be sad.
When 8 pm on the last day passes, get restless.
When 9 pm on the last day passes, get angry...
When 9:10 rolls around and they are winching your mattress onto the back of the truck, get wary
When 9:20 rolls around and it takes 4 guys to shove the doors of the 18 wheeler shut, start thinking about what new stuff you want to buy
When 9:30 rolls around and the fussy driver realizes he is going to have to drive cross country with a 4 foot tall stuffed dog in the passenger seat, laugh your butt off

5. When traveling with cats, realize that every flight will be delayed and an extra 4+ hours with cats in carriers gets old pretty quickly.

6. Know that when you get a whiff like a dirty diaper, but you don't have a kid, your cat has been in a carrier too long.

7. Two people can fit in an airplane bathroom and you can clean your cat and his carrier in there as well.

8. Don't assume that the room you get put in at 2 am in the morning has hot water.

We are in the new house

Hi all,

So Kel will update you soon on the "interesting" trip we had down here and everything up to now.

Currently however we have moved into our house and our furniture is here. We are currently working on unpacking boxes in the evenings.

Yesterday was a record breaking day weather wise. I guess it hit about 110 degrees (that is without the heat index which made it feel like about 120 I guess). Still no rain. The news said they have gotten .35 inches since May 1st. So our grass is not so happy. I have been watering it in the morning a bit.

Just wanted to give a quick update.

Hope you are doing well.

Home is being packed up

So the moving people showed up on Wed to pack up the house. Today is technically the day that they will finish getting everything into the truck. They estimates 18k pounds of stuff when they did an initial walk through, they are now saying it is about 21k pounds. We have a lot of stuff ;)

We will be in Houston on Sunday evening (plane comes in around 9pm). And Kelly starts her job first thing Monday Morning with orientation. I will work remotely from the hotel.

The house should close next week (it better as our furniture is showing up on the 20th or 22nd). Once we are in it things will hopefully start to settle down a bit :)

Hope everyone is well.

It has started!

So....it has started. They came to get the Jetta on Friday. It is loaded and already on it's way to Houston. The moving truck comes on the 10th. Only a million things to do between now and then! Got them all on a list and am trying to just keep checking them off.

Here is the schedule for now:
Monday 8th - Sign Lease for Loope St
Tuesday the 9th - Going to see Up! the movie- Cats go to the vet

Wednesday the 10th - Movers come and pack
Thursday the 11th - Movers continue packing (18,000 lbs of stuff they tell me)
Friday the 12th - Movers load stuff onto the truck
Sunday the 14th - Fly to Houston.


Not busy at all.....

Welcome to Our Houston Blog

Hi all,

So we decided to create a blog for anything/everything related to Houston.

For those of you who don't know, we are going to live down in the south for a bit (bring on the heat so I am told) ;)

We are currently under contract for a house in the northern part of Houston and Kelly is going to start working on June 15th. Currently we are scheduled to close on June 12th so that would be ideal.

Our moving company is coming over tomorrow to assess just how much they have to pack. That should be interesting to see how long that will take. Also our car is getting picked up on June 5th, it takes 10 days to get down there I guess. Lets hope we have closed by the 15th or our car will be at our "new" house before us ;)

Keep checking back as I will try to keep this updated.