Living in Houston

Hello Again Everyone, (All two of my followers; aka Dad & Holly lol)

I realized I haven't written on my blog since I got here and that is just not acceptable! I guess I've just been so busy soakin' up the texas sun, I forgot! :)
We arrived safetly friday April 8th to my new apartment in The Woodlands, Tx. Although everything got to Texas in one piece, it was still a battle getting here. Weather was perfect for us on thursday but as soon as we started driving through Little Rock, Arkansas, we had another story. I was sleeping in the passenger seat of the geo prism as dad was driving when I woke up in the middle of the night to what felt like waves crashing against the ship I was on and we were smack dab in the middle of a storm at sea. Turns out that was just a dream I was having but when I opened my eyes, all I truly did see was rain smashing our windshield and horrifying sight of a semi stopped directly in the middle of the expressway in front of us. Apparently he couldn't even see where he was headed and must have thought he had pulled over. How Dangerous!!! Anyways, Thank God dad was driving because I don't know how I would have gotten us anywhere. Chris was following loyally behind us and after a ways of trying to drive through the weather, we decided to pull over and take a couple hours to sleep and hopefully the storm would die down. When we woke up the next morning and got gas, the clerk had explained to us that their was quite a few deaths the night before due to some bad hurricanes & tornados. Once again, God was watching over us to make sure we were okay because we definately drove through some of the worst of it I think.
We continued onto Texas and as soon as we reached the border, we stopped for a traditional cracker barrell breakfast. Mmmm Grits, Country fried steak, eggs and their amazing hashbrowns were to die for. I'm getting hungry right now just thinking about it.
After our amazing breakfast, we continued for another 6 hours to Houston. About an hour before we arrived, the only things I saw surrounding us were fruit stands, rusty old beater pick up trucks and maybe a dollar store here and there. I was in the van with Chris at the time and I was like,"hmm did I make the right decision?? leaving my home in Milwaukee, to come to this beat up dirt road town???! Where's civilization?? Where's the mall? Any pretty landscaping, come on Texas?? Give me something pretty to look at!!" Chris laughed and I prayed.
After about 20 minutes, I started to see buildings, more cars and billboards and I was like, Thank you God, my prayers were answered!
We finally arrived to the Woodlands after about 24 hours in the car. It was a beautiful gated community with a gorgeous pool & amazing landscaping. I was in love!
My apartment is on the third floor and the balcony overlooks the pond behind us. Their is a family of turtles that lives below us too which is really fun to watch.
Chris, Jon and Dad were able to help me unload all my furniture within the hour and have everything set up by the end of the night. I am so grateful they were able to put a few days aside and help me get situated down here, it meant a lot to me so thanks guys! I hope you guys can come visit me again soon.

My roomate Nikki and I have settled in very nicely here. We are on reserve most days which basically means on call so we spend a lot of our time laying out by the pool or discovering new things to see in our area. I've had two trips thus far since I've been here, one in Bakersfield,CA and another in Toronto, Canada. I've grown quite acustom to the 80 degree weather that when I went to Canada, I nearly froze walking to and from the airport!
As far as flying and all that, I am loving it! I've had a few creepy passengers though. One passenger told me the other day that he loved my toe ring, the one on my left foot, middle toe and I was like "What!" How did he know i was even wearing one, my shoe was on! I told my pilot that I was kind of creeped out and he reminded me that I had to take my shoes off in security. So it turns out he must have had a foot fettish and was watching when I took my shoes off for 2 minutes going through security. Yikes! Gotta look out for the creepy passengers. lol but Anyways...
I am off Sunday, May 1st through tuesday May 3rd and am actually planning to come back to Milwaukee those days. As long as I don't get called in to work Saturday, my plan is to catch a 6pm flight and I'll get into MKE around 9:30. I have quite a bit of work to do over at my old apartment so I will be cleaning things out there but I would love to spend a good majority of the time with my family when I'm home. I'll keep you guys posted and will continue to update my blog as new things happen.
I've also experience my first holiday being completely alone and away from family. Easter sunday was not easy but I called a friend from class and her and I spent a few hours together so that we didn't have to be depressed we were away from family. My roomate Nikki and I found this pretty cool looking church by our house so we are hoping to go visit it on a sunday we are both off.
I think that's it in a nutshell for what's new and going on in my life. Oh yeah and one more thing, Nikki and I are applying for a golfcart position at the nearby country club. It would be a perfect job for some quick cash on the side and I'm sure I'd get friends&family golfing discounts :) So please pray for us that we get the job. And If you are reading this, I miss you a lot and hope I get to see you soon. Sending my love to Ya'll back home!
~Karissa