Bringing it to a close

I know I know I owe a post on how things are going here with the house and move etc. But I don't have any pictures since they are all on Jason's camera and I can't find my cable to transfer photos! But in a nutshell things are moving along- we have had a few hiccups but overall things are good. Christmas was very nice and we are enjoying the house. I will post more details later.

I thought I would recap 2010 though since it has been quite a year.

It was the year of the never ending winter and record cold temperatures in Norway

We saw the Northern Lights

I had a great trip to New York to see Brandi, Chris and Austin

I got the opportunity to see Copenhagen (and assist with a school trip)

We had an amazing 10 days in Italy with Chris

We said goodbye to a friend who holds a big piece of our hearts

We had a relaxing trip to Egypt

We had one last Norwegian adventure

We packed up our lives in Norway and returned to Houston

I got to spend some time in California catching up with family and see some beautiful sites

We had an amazing weekend at the Texas State Fair with some great friends

We tried to enjoy all the perks of living in a big city

Then we moved to Covington (pictures to come) and are excited for what the next chapter of life will bring! Happy New Year!

First Impressions

We moved out of the apartment in Houston last Tuesday and then spent Thanksgiving weekend with Robert and Judy. It was a nice relaxing weekend - Dopler enjoyed having us all together and getting some turkey. Tuesday we left behind being "Texans" and drove to Louisiana to become "Louisianians". It was very strange to think that this is now home. We are staying at a very nice Residence Inn until we close on the house (12/8) and get furniture (12/13). The hotel is within walking distance of Jason's office (and seems to be home to a lot of roughnecks) but the best part is they offer the traditional free breakfast AND free dinner! Pretty cool.

We haven't been here long but as usual I have a few observations already. So here are they are:

• The State Troopers are everywhere and seem to love to pull people over (and gun in ridiculous spots like the clover leaf off ramps where you can't see them). And no we haven't been pulled over :)
• There is lots of fun Cajun and french words and signs to try to sound out- my favorite so far is the river in town named Tchefuncte
• The grocery store is filled with 100's of choices for frying oil, fish fry coating, Cajun spices and a whole section for roux but they only carry 3 types of refried beans on a bottom shelf (one of those types is the store brand)
• They have roads called "frontage" roads - now I am used to this concept since Texas loves frontage roads. But I have already gotten lost since these so called frontage roads aren't quite the same since they ohh don't run along the frontage of the highway!
• You can buy LSU and Saints items anywhere! Grocery stores, gas stations, Home Depot, restaurants - literally anywhere. You can get Saints plastic forks at the grocery store but no vegetarian refried beans
• New Orleans is kinda scary (we don't live there- we live on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain). The news this morning reported 4 murders overnight in the city. New Orleans metro area is about 1.2 million and seems to have the highest murder rate in the US.

We are looking forward to getting into the house and getting to learn more about the area!