House Hunting in Houston TX!

MT and I have been busy house hunting. House hunting is fun but it's a lot of work. The hardest part for us was narrowing down a location. Before we moved to Houston we thought we would live in suburbs but after MT had a taste of Houston traffic we decided that having a shorter commute would be best for our family.

It's hard for me to explain how Houston is set up but I’ll try. The center of the city is called the inner loop because a highway called 610 circles the center of the city like a loop. In the center of the inner loop is downtown and we knew that if we lived within the loop we would be pretty close to MT’s job which is downtown. That sounds easy but the loop is quite large and full of tons of neighborhoods. However, with the help of family, friends, a good realtor, twitter and the Htownbloggers we finally decieded on a neighborhood called the Heights.

The Heights is a cute and eccentric community. It has a small town feeling even though you are in the heart of the city. It's full of craftman style bungalows and large victorian homes. Most of the homes were built in the turn of the century but there’s also new construction. The new construction homes are built to look like the older victorian homes, so they match the neighborhood. Last week we found one home really liked and put a offer on it. Wish us luck!

Driving!

Today I am extremely frustrated because I am sick of being afraid to drive. I keep hearing stories about how people faced different types of fears and then their fear was magically concurred, but that just has not yet happened for me. I’ve been in Texas for two months now and I am still afraid to drive. Last week, I decided to push through my fear and drive by myself every day and I thought once I did this the fear would go away, but guess what…the fear is still here. Every time I leave my home and have to get behind the wheel, the fear returns. I'm constantly afraid that my husband is going to make me drive places or that he won’t be around when I need to get places and I will have to drive myself. This fear is tiring and stressful.

I get so frustrated because I so desperately want to explore this new city without this heave fear in my passenger seat. I look at people driving and they look so relaxed. They pull in and out of lanes, speed down the highways, and park their car without repeatedly pulling in and out of the parking spot. How do they do it? I want that freedom!! But instead I’m constantly afraid I’m going to hit someone while changing lanes, lose control of the car because I'm not accustomed to driving fast, or someone is going to be slam into me because I am driving going too slow.

I once heard that true courage is facing your fear and doing it anyway... well I'm tired of being courageous... I just want to be confident!

Month 12: I am no longer a Newlywed!!!!

A couple of weeks ago MT and I celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary. We had an absolutely amazing anniversary weekend! The weekend started with a bang because we christened our nephew! I am the Godmother and MT is the Godfather. I was so honored when my sister in law asked me to be the Godmother to her son. What a perfect way to mark a year and celebrate as a family.

The next day MT and I said our goodbyes to the family and we went to a hotel for our anniversary night. My wonderful followers on Twitter and my friends from H-town bloggers gave me a bunch of awesome places to celebrate our anniversary and we ultimately decided to go to the Houstonian Hotel/Country Club. I chose the Houstonian Hotel because it was a short drive from our apartment and sits on a large property, so we felt like we where no longer in the city but in the country on vacation. They also had a great summer sale going on and I love to save money. :-)

After we got to the hotel, we sat out by the pool and had lunch. I made reservations to play tennis in the indoor tennis court that the county club makes available to all guests of the hotel. MT has been talking about teaching me to play tennis for a long time and now I finally had my first lesson. He told me that I was pretty good for my first time playing since a child, but we had a great time.

Because I love a good deal, I chose The Capital Grill because they participated in Houston Restaurant week and offered an awesome prefixed 3-course meal for $35. I was really happy with this choice because the staff at The Capital Grill took such good care of us. As soon as I gave my name they wished us a happy anniversary. When the host walked us to our table we were pleasantly surprised to see that they decorated our table with little hearts. The waiter was always ready and willing to take pictures of us enjoying our wonderful night. They also gave us a complementary glass of champagne.

To say the least we truly enjoyed our first year wedding anniversary!

Thank you to all those who helped me plan it!!!

Month 11: One month in Houston, TX

This week makes a month since MT and I moved to Houston. So much has happened yet I feel there is so much to do.

-After 3 weeks we finally found an apartment.
-We received our things from N.Y. and moved into the apartment.
-I’m almost done unpacking.
- I have been practicing driving and discovered it’s much harder than I thought it would be.
-I’ve learned to really appreciate my MIL, since MT has been so busy with the bar exam and work. She has been taking me around when she has the time. I don’t know how I would have survived this month without her.
-I have been blogging a bit more since I moved to our new apartment and guess what? I actually went to my first bloggers meet-up with the H-town Bloggers. The group met at Max's Wine Dive (http://www.maxswinedive.com/houston/index.php) It was great to get out of the house and actually meet people here in Houston. Everyone was very nice and the food was yummy. *See picture below!




Now looking a head into the future!

I decided that if I want to progress at a faster rate here in Houston, I need to set some goals. I find that I lose too much time out of my day trying to decide what to do. The following are some things I want to make happed during the month of August.

-Drive in my area without any passengers.
-Purchase a car.
-Start house hunting.
-Work on my writing.
-Research and start the paperwork on employment and volunteer options.
-Read more fiction and non-fiction. I also want to start reading sophisticated news journals.