Getting started. Again.

It has been many months since I blogged. I started this blog as a way to keep my far-away family and friends updated after we moved away to Texas. I took a long break from blogging because of my migraines (more on that soon), and I am starting up again because 1) My head is doing great (again, more soon), and 2) We will once again be moving very far away from many of our dear family and friends, this time to Washington.
There are 0 things about moving at which I am any good. Not packing, unpacking, driving long distances, cleaning, getting things organized, or saying goodbyes. I am actually a monumental failure at 4 of those 6 things. Travis is a bit of a rolling stone. He loves change, and new places, and gets restless and ready for the next adventure quite easily. I am more of a homebody, and while I love trying new things, I also love going back to my same home and my same bed afterward. And I stick to people like superglue.
Here is a brief (hopefully) and partial list of things I will miss about our life here in Austin:

• the perfect location of our apartment (2 movie theaters, dozens of restaurants, 4 grocery stores, and a Michaels within walking distance)
• easy access to the best bbq in the country (don't argue unless you've been to the Salt Lick)
• all the creeks and trails, especially the creeks that you can walk down the middle of with your puppy, even in the winter
• the lack of spiders
• the great burrito places, and especially the Freebirds frequent burrito card
  
• my dance students, and the beautiful dance studio with very bouncy floors where I teach
• the going-on-9th grade girls in my d-group at church
• the fellow youth leaders at Covenant who welcomed us into their group on our 2nd day here (seriously) and have made us feel welcome ever since
• Covenant itself, its pastors and staff, and everyone there
  
• chik-fil-A lemonade (maybe I should just make a separate list for food and drink . . .
• Schlitterbahn and 2 Six Flags parks
• our beautiful, huge, and ridiculously affordable apartment
• doing pointe fittings at Capezio
• Borealis, and everyone in it
• the way the birds sound all tropical, and the humidity feels all tropical, and sometimes you walk out of the grocery store and think "am I in Hawaii?"
• cheap gas (the flipside: dairy is more expensive here, which Travis says is because "we EAT our cows in Texas"
• a city that all the best musicians come to, including Regina Spektor (who never plays in the Northwest)
• being able to jump on the highway to get anywhere
• Alamo Drafthouse
• the super cheap and delicious produce specials at Sprouts
• the weather October-February
• the prepared foods section at the Whole Foods flagship
• and most of all our amazing Texas family