We lived in Houston for over 6 years when we moved away.
We had our first home together there. We got engaged overlooking Galveston Bay. We survived a hurricane while I was 8 months pregnant there. We had our first child there.
So although it was time for our family to move on to somewhere new, I will always love Houston.
Lately I’ve had many moments that I’ve really missed parts of our life in Houston and wonder where I’d be or what I’d be doing if we still lived there.
What started this whole wave of nostalgia is the fact that the Rodeo will be starting soon. I remember growing up in ole’ San Juan, seeing signs for the annual rodeo and thinking that was “ugh, so lame”!
That girl had no idea what a real RODEO was. The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo is more than a rodeo. It was concerts, carnivals, animals, shopping, food (you can get deep-fried ANYTHING!) and ya know, the rodeo.
We lived two blocks from Reliant Stadium so I would see the set-up progress day by day and then after it was all over, watch it come down, piece by piece.
Literally, I’d come home from work and there would be more pieces taken out of the ferris wheel. It looked like a pizza with a couple slices out of it.
We weren’t HUGE fans that went every day or saw a bunch of the concerts. In fact, I’d only seen one the first year we were in Houston (Reba – awesome!) and I don’t think Keith ever did. We missed the BBQ cook-off every year too but as the years went on, we got more involved. We took Brooke through the livestock exhibits and showed her all the baby animals. We got the aforementioned deep-fried treats.
Today is Go Texan Day. We used to dress Brooke up every year.
At work, we held a chili cook-off and when the Trail Riders made their way past our building, we all went out, took pictures and waved.
The rodeo is really just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve started missing so much more…my old friends and coworkers, Brooke’s daycare, Tex-Mex food, the ocean 40 minutes away, Brooke’s pediatrician & physical therapist, queso from Texadelphia, 4 professional sports teams 10 minutes from home…
So while I really do love it here in Knoxville and believe know it was the right move for our family, sometimes it makes me sad that all these people and things we loved so much aren’t a regular part of our lives anymore.
Tell me about a time you’ve moved on (literally or figuratively) and how you dealt with missing what you left behind?
