Back home.......and ever so slightly missing Houston!!!!!!!!

I started writing a post about what I would miss about Houston in the days before we flew home, but never finished it and then thrown into the chaos of living out of suitcases for 6 weeks and then moving into our house where everything was in the wrong boxes and labeled in the wrong rooms.....its been somewhat manic since the beginning of July and although I've obviously sat down in spare moments of the day there has always been something more urgent to do than give an update on how we're doing!

Here is my list of things I thought I would miss about Houston.....and things I definitely wouldn't miss!

Things I miss

My friends.....mostly my friends!

The near constant sunshine

Never having to think about putting layers of clothes on

Driving a huge car and being able to throw a fully unfolded push chair into the boot. 

Never having to search for a parking space!

The unlimited shopping on my doorstep

Drive thru banks, Starbucks, restaurants .....Fadi's!!

The girls school

and yes I do miss all of these things!

I don't miss

The heat and humidity...the  feeling of needing to jump in a cold shower after going out to the car or walking to the postbox.

The insane and quite frankly nutty drivers out on the I10

The feeling of being stuck indoors for so much of the time.

That I couldn't really walk anywhere.

The cost of kids activities.

Our grubby, badly maintained house and our awful landlord!

I think it's fair to say that although Houston didn't really suit us as a family, there were a lot of positives too. We had some fab holidays, we made some lovely friends and we have lots of lovely memories and photos of our time there. 

Well we are now back in sunny and ever so slightly cooler Banchory, a pleasant 21 degrees today and we were lovely and toasty warm! I am loving being able to walk to preschool with Martha while she scoots along on her bike and picking them both up after school and slowly dawdling home in only a way that a 4 and 6 year old can do. We are pleasantly warm by the time we all get to the top of the hill but all that fresh air is doing us the world of good....after all we have 15 months of fresh air to catch up on!

Fearne has settled fabulously into her new school, not one wobble since she started 3 weeks ago. She's in a class of 27 which I though she might find quite daunting after being at Yorkshire Academy, but she seems to be taking it in her stride. I was slightly concerned that after 3 months of no school she may have forgotten about reading and writing, but quite the opposite, her handwriting has hugely improved, and her reading is more fluent. She is thriving being back here and spends most of her spare time out on the small cul de sac we live in riding around on her bike with all the other children, something that just wasn't feasible in Houston.

Martha is equally settled here, she runs into preschool a good few minutes ahead of me and is already busy doing something by the time I arrive to hand her over, not even a glance or a goodbye wave at me! The nursery staff are lovely and have been asking all about how Fearne is getting on, and delighted to know that a year in Houston as improved her confidence ten fold.

Henry LOVES the outdoor space at home, he loves the fact that he can climb the steps and get on the trampoline all by himself with no help. The only indication we have that he is busy bouncing is the squeals and giggles we can hear coming from outside....at which point we tend to run quite fast and zip up the safety net around him!

Banchory is a very transient place, full of Oil and gas families, it's a bit like living in a little expat town nestled in the Scottish Hills, so as lovely and picturesque as it is here, there are times when you end up feeling quite sad about all the comings and goings. One of my closest friends here left for France last week, another will be shortly going off to Perth, Australia and then another mum and her little girl who I have got to know in the last few weeks through the preschool is also moving to Perth next summer. So as much as I love being back I know that at some point I will have more goodbyes.......and I really am not a fan of them!

As for weddings....lets just say la la la la la .....we have a venue, now I need to find caterers as we had to change the first date and the original caterers were fully booked, I provisionally have a minister booked but we need to go and meet him at church in a few weeks (no giggling allowed), I tried on some wedding dresses last weekend and took along a few friends to be honest with me, so I now know very sort of what I want to wear.....and that's is about all I have done! Oh and I asked Alison to be one of my bridesmaids so I'm leaving my hen weekend in her very capable hands.....think that's a big round up of how our wedding planning is going! Clearly I need to get a wedding planner on board to help me out!

We're off to Findhorn (http://www.eastgrange.co.uk/index.html) next weekend with a group of my lovely friends here, camping in Wigwams by the beach, can't wait. I'll put some photos on here next week as I haven't really taken many recently.....unless you want to see a shipping container and mountains of removal boxes!