On the Road Again

Well, it’s been fun Houston, but it’s time to say goodbye. When we left Ohio for Texas, I fully expected that this was the place we would call home for years to come. We talked about buying a house. Explored where the kids would be going to high school. Made plans for the foreseeable future. And Houston has been good to us in a lot of ways. My husband has had a good job, we were never short of things to do, and sometimes we enjoyed the weather. Sometimes. But things change and we are moving on. We are headed to Arizona for a new job and new possibilities.

We went into this moving decision with great hesitation. My husband and I are adults and we can handle big life changes. But I worried about how this next change in our lives would affect the kids. Mainly our 8 year-old daughter, since the boys are still too young to know what’s going on. When I told the oldest we were moving again, she was surprised of course. And a little bummed. She didn’t want to leave her school or the friends she had made. As my heart sank, she began to perk up. She started asking questions about what Arizona would be like. She began to think it would be kind of cool to get to live in another state, see new things and make new friends.

Kids are resilient, thankfully. Over these last several weeks, I have made peace with our decision to leave for greener pastures. One of the issues my husband and I have with Houston is the traffic. That may not seem like a big deal, but it has affected our lives. My husband can add an hour and a half or more to his commute, both ways, if he leaves at the wrong time. If there is an accident or rain, it might be 7:30 before he arrives home. Because apparently, Houstonians believe that raindrops are aliens from outer space sent to destroy us and they can no longer drive or function through it.

We thought about all the school activities and sporting events he would miss out on. And I was starting to get used to getting the “eat dinner without me. I’ll be home late” phone calls. To alleviate this, he began to leave home earlier in the morning to get home at a decent time. But that meant getting up at the crack of dawn. And earlier bed times so that he could be rested, often not long after the kids were in bed. So, more time with the kids, virtually no time alone for the two of us.

While the traffic congestion was not the only factor in our decision-making, it definitely helped make the decision easier. My husband lived in Arizona for several years before we met and often spoke of how much he missed it. During one of his many moments of reminiscing, he mentioned that he wished he never left. I immediately gave him the look of death. To which he promptly corrected himself and said not if it meant never meeting or marrying me, of course.

I’m not thrilled about the actual moving process, or the road trip, but I’m excited about what the future holds and this next chapter in our lives. This is certainly not how I envisioned my family life. I thought I would get married, have a few kids, and raise our family in a house with a white picket fence. We’d live there until at least the kids were grown. They’d grow up going to school with the same friends from kindergarten through graduation.

But life is never how you planned it. If you’re lucky, it’s better. I’ve learned that while a house consists of four walls, home is where the heart is. Where our family is. We’ve changed houses, states, schools and jobs. But our bond and love for each other has only grown stronger. And we’ve gained a lot of memories along the way.

My childhood was very different than my children’s. I had a very stable home as a child. I moved once when I was 5 and stayed in that house until I moved out on my own. I never had to change schools and saw the same faces for years. But I never saw much of the country. Ok, I saw none of it. We never left Ohio and our big “vacation” was going an hour away to Sandusky for our annual Cedar Point trip. Which was tons of fun because it was all I knew. You don’t miss what you’ve never had.

My kids will know something different. We’ve been able to take some really cool vacations together. We’ve enjoyed the beautiful beaches of Florida. Witnessed the amazing mountains of Colorado and Tennessee. My daughter became a pretty good swimmer in South Carolina.

We’ve lived in Ohio and experienced the four seasons. We’ve holed up in the house in front of a fire, drinking hot chocolate while we watched the falling snow. Then we played in it and made snowmen. And when Spring arrived, we were so grateful because there was nothing more beautiful after months of a dreary, cold winter.

We’ve lived in Texas and gone to the park on a February day with short sleeves and sunshine. We dressed up as pirates and went to the largest Renaissance Festival in the country (because everything’s bigger in Texas). I’ve watched the children play in the sand on Galveston Beach. We’ve gone to the San Antonio Riverwalk and visited the Alamo.

When we move to Arizona, we will take them to see the beauty of the Grand Canyon, one of the things on my bucket list. We will be close enough to take day trips to California, New Mexico and Nevada. They are enjoying this country and life in a way I never could. And despite my concerns about traditional “stability,” I believe when they look back, they will have fond and fun memories because we were together. And it’s all they knew.

So, here we go again on our next great adventure. Hopefully, we will survive the 2 day car ride without driving each other crazy. I’m not looking forward to being between a toddler and a baby in the back seat, while my daughter asks “are we there yet?” for the millionth time. But as stressful as moving can be, I’m looking forward to it. Because no matter where I am, as long as it’s with these crazy people, I’m home.