God Bless Texas

Living in Texas hasn't been exactly as I thought it would be. I pictured things a bit more country, a little more rustic. Instead, I got the big city of Houston and all its suburbs. There are no cowboys riding horses in wide open fields, no tumbling tumbleweeds, but I have seen quite a few bulls. When I take a different route to church, there they are roaming behind the latest planned community of rich and beautiful houses. People here tell me the "cowboy side" is West Texas. I'm over here in East Texas, the "city side" with Dallas and Austin. This is probably blasphemy to someone born and raised here, but they should have divided up this state -- it's just too big and diverse.

I haven't heard many southern accents either, because most everyone who lives here is from somewhere else. But the funniest phrase I have heard so far is "What the Hee-Haw?" I plan on integrating that into my vocabulary immediately.

Some things I do like about living here: my yuppie master-planned community. It's called Sienna Plantation and it's about the size of my hometown in Ohio. It's got these beautiful flowers and trees as you drive in and some cool sculptures of horses and deer. They have a couple of pools that are a necessity in the Houston heat. One has a big bucket that pours down every few minutes to terrorize small children. The other one has a big frog with a slide going down his mouth that Greggie loves. (Sounds gross now that I wrote it, but it's cute, trust me.)

I also really love our church - Crossbridge Community. I thought I'd never become a part of a church that didn't have Wesleyan on the sign out front, but I'm so glad God has brought us to this group of believers and broadened my brain about denomination, community. I've had my little world rocked upside down and my faith increased tremendously.

On a shallow note, I also love a restaurant called the Saltgrass Steakhouse, and the wide variety of ice cream shops to choose from. This midwestern girl can handle Texas for a little while, I guess.