Who Knew?

Moving is always a humbling experience: New house to take care of, New roads to get used to, New neighbors to meet, New culture to learn, the list goes on and on. Well, here are some things that I’ve learned over the course of my first couple of weeks in Houston:

1) Celery shouldn’t go down the garbage disposal. The fibers just ball up around each other and clog the darn thing, and before you know it you’ll have water and leftover food bubbling up from one side of the sink to the other. Who knew? Well, $166.27 later, I do. Hopefully you won’t make the same mistake and this can save you a few bucks down the road! (Note: Other no-no’s in the garbage disposal: egg shells, shrimp shells, banana peels, any other fibrous vegetables or fruits, rice in large quantities, I’m sure there are others…)

2) People in Houston are just accustomed to the idea that, after a rainstorm, you can expect to see a roach or two in your house. We do live on a bayou, and most of the neighbors seem to confirm the fact that there is no way around getting a couple of these critters in the house once in a while. In the words of our exterminator, Jonathon, “Ma’am, if it’s on its way out (dying or dead), it’s okay”. Really? Who says? I would rather not have any roaches in the house, ever, under any circumstances! I suppose that this is a fact of life I will have to get used to. In the words of B-Mama, “Oh Lord, help me!”

3) When a neighbor invites you over for a dinner/pool party and you ask, “What can I bring?” and she says “Oh, nothing, I think we’re all set” and then proceeds to tell you all of the food that she has for the party, you should STILL bring over enough food to feed a small army. We showed up practically empty-handed yesterday evening, only to see all of the other guests hauling in bags full of homemade muffins, chips, and drinks. Oops!

4) VBS stands for “vacation Bible school”.

5) When you move to Houston you no longer live in America, you live in Texas (in the words of our son, C). We’ve tried to convince him otherwise, but somewhere along the way he got it into his head that we’ve left “America” and have entered an entirely different country! So now he’s wondering why we have an American flag instead of a Texas flag in front of our house 🙂

6) The people in Houston are some of the friendliest, most welcoming people that I have ever met. We are truly blessed to be here, and for all of the small inconveniences and new things to get used to, there are ten times as many reasons to be grateful.