The wheels of progress

When we decided to go to Houston, the plan was to stay with Stephanie's sister Jen until I found work and we could move into our own apartment. We hoped to have a job and a place by the end of June but were prepared to stay as long as three months if we had to (though if we'd been there that long Jackson would have completely destroyed Jen's apartment).

But we were seriously blessed, and just over a week later we had both of those things.

Just a few days after we got to Houston I was offered the public awareness coordinator position at Enbridge, an oil & gas transport company. Enbridge owns and operates oil pipelines (one of theirs is the world's longest) and I'll be part of an effort to inform and educate residents and businesses about pipeline safety. This job is a huge blessing and opportunity. I'll be able to use my writing and communication skills while also learning a ton of new stuff. It's really just the kind of thing I was looking for.

Enbridge's U.S. headquarters in Houston—

I start work here next Wednesday

With a job nailed down, we started looking for an apartment. We signed the lease for one last Friday and were moved in by Saturday.

Here are some of the highlights:

1. It's literally just around the corner from Jen

2. It's close to the light rail, which I'll be able to take downtown to work every day

3. We already know the neighborhood, so no more getting lost

4. It's pretty cheap (we got it for a lower price because it had 1 bedroom and a den, but we put doors on the den and made it Jackson's bedroom. Boom.)

5. A bigger bedroom with two walk-in closets.... 'Nuff said.

Sure it's old, and sure we've seen a troubling amount of largish spiders already (can't we just have roaches like everyone else?), but overall we're really pleased with what we've got. We'll probably go somewhere else in a year, when we have more money and more time to look, but we think we've got a great place to start out.

So we feel very, very, very blessed. Everything has fallen into place and we continue to feel like we're supposed to be here. We miss everybody back home (AZ and UT) but we're really excited to be starting our new life here.