Since John and I don't know what's going to happen in our future, we are taking steps to "study it out in our minds". We figure when the hearing is over, we'll have some ideas in our back pocket of how to move forward if necessary.
A couple of months ago, John found a job posted for Beaumont, Texas. I'm not sure how he made the connection, but he happens to know a guy from his residency who works and lives in Beaumont. On a whim, he called him up, and the guy, Kevin Waddell, was unbelievably happy to hear from John. Without giving away any of the bad details, John told him that he's looking for a new job.
Well that's all Kevin needed to hear. He literally pounced on it. John was ahead of him by a year in residency, and Kevin always thought really well of John. Kevin called the hospital higher-ups and people were contacting John almost immediately.
The main hiccup in even thinking about working here is that it takes eight months to get a Texas medical license which John can't apply for because the situation for him at the moment is up in the air (and won't be decided until his hearing date of June 5-6). Kevin, not knowing about any of this, was pressuring John to start applying for his Texas license now so that they can get going on everything. Trying to put him off without letting him know what is going on, I told John that he should tell Kevin that we would need to visit before we make the financial investment of applying for a license. I thought this would buy us quite a bit more time, but obviously Kevin is motivated as is the hospital, because they flew us out this week.
I'm not going to lie. I was super excited to come. I'm not sure if it's because it's a new place where I've never been (Houston is on the opposite side of Texas from where I grew up), or because I'm returning to the Motherland. But on the plane yesterday, I could hardly peel my eyes away from the sites outside of the window.
Let me start by saying this. Houston, and Beaumont especially (Beaumont is 92 miles east of Houston), aren't destinations. There really isn't a lot to do in these cities except work and eat out. This is the life we had in PA, and knowing that John likes the hospital and staff in PA and feels safe there, it's kind of a question of why we would even consider coming here. Plus, he already has his license in PA. However, the cost of living here is extremely low, and the income potential is extremely high, so in our minds, if we're going to be bored where we're living, we might as well be making tons of money that we can just bank....and move away sooner.
Plus, there's a temple 92 miles away. And an airport. And if I'm being honest, the church is really, REALLY strong here. Beaumont has the same population as Ann Arbor (not including the greater AA area i.e. Saline, Ypsi, Chelsea), and it has THREE church buildings in the city, each with several wards and branches (plus the church buildings in surrounding areas like Saline, Ypsi and Chelsea). And there is a very large Mexican population here (*relief* people here say "Mexicans" like I did growing up) which includes Spanish wards and branches. I joked with Daddy that he'll be called to be a high councilor, and he'll be asked to speak in the Spanish branch. He surprisingly replied that that would be really scary--he hasn't spoken that much Spanish in years. I reassured him that it was like riding a bike. Plus, the people would for sure love him. And bonus? When the girls come to visit, they would fit RIGHT in...well, aside from their blonde hair and blue eyes.
But really, I scoured travel sites, trying to find something interesting to do here and there just isn't much. But that's okay.
However, I couldn't contain my excitement when we landed. There really is something so wonderfully familiar in returning to a place that holds some serious childhood memories. We needed lunch, so we headed to Hard Rock Cafe, Houston. It was fabulous! Really good food and a fun (and clean) downtown. It's crazy to think that it was all underwater just over a year ago. And I couldn't leave without getting a pin for Mark.
Then, we had nothing scheduled for the rest of the day so we headed to the temple. Once again, we were not dressed appropriately, although I was relieved to find myself NOT wearing a graphic tee this time--I left that to John in his Charlottesville half-marathon t-shirt ;-)
The temple is majestic. It is huge, and beautiful, and the grounds are amazing. And the houses leading down the road to the temple? Mansions. Like, palatial mansions. However, once inside, I appreciated our teeny tiny Detroit temple for sure!
I had no idea where I was going, and it wasn't like I wanted to mosey (see that? the jargon is already coming back) around, looking for the dressing room in my orange capris. But the workers were so busy talking to each other that they were almost non-helpful. And the autistic YSA, working at the clothing counter, talking REALLY LOUDLY about my sizes? No joke, we had filled out the traditional pink and blue papers for what we needed when he told us (not whispering, mind you) that THOSE ARE ONLY FOR MISSIONARIES! I almost crumpled the paper and tossed it in my mouth, he scared me so badly. And then when he asked me my size, and I tried to whisper "16", he said WE DON'T HAVE NUMBERS. ARE YOU SMALL, MEDIUM, OR LARGE? I was just so happy to answer that question in front of the line of people. I then tried to book it into the dressing room, but this obnoxious worker kept getting in my way, trying to help me, but when I would turn back to her to ask another question, she would be talking with her friends again. Oh goodness.
I knew there was a problem with my dress when I went to use the bathroom before the session, and I hardly had to pull it up in the back. Yep, he had given me a dress that might have been short, even on Rebecca. But glad he knew I was a LARGE! because it felt like a tent. As I told John, that dress would take my temple vanity down a few notches, that's for sure!
So I don't know if it was missionary session, or what, but there were about a million missionaries there, most of them boys, and they were seriously the goofiest guys. It was hard not to be distracted by them. In fact, one of them was very "handsy" with his companion, putting his arm around him and rubbing his head and whispering in his ear...although if I'm being honest, at least someone was whispering. It reminded me of what Ethan said about the lack of physical contact on a mission...
And golly it's difficult to go to the temple now that we've been trained in every aspect of temple work. We saw so many errors from the officiator. I would look over the aisle at John, and I could see that he was looking to see if the experienced "second follower" was correcting the officiator. Nope. It was like the Wild, Wild West in that endowment session!
Then, when I got up for the prayer circle, I wanted to make sure that my back was to the curtain because I could tell people would be able to see the tops of my rented knee-highs under my dress. But the officiator didn't close the circle, and it looked like we were performing a show for the goofy missionaries. Oh goodness....
It wasn't until I walked into one of the most beautiful celestial rooms I've ever seen that I really felt the spirit. It was quiet, and reverent, and beautiful, and I had a moment to offer a very heartfelt prayer.
We wanted to leave for Beaumont pretty quickly after that, because we have learned the misery of rush hour traffic from both Philadelphia, Detroit and most recently D.C. (and it was 4:00). There's one highway to Beaumont along the Gulf shore, so if it was jammed, there'd be nowhere else to go. Once we got out of Houston though, it was smooth sailing. The geography is this weird mix of Grand Cayman, Tallahassee and Michigan(?). Deciduous trees with ocean clouds and closeness to the shore. It was really cool. And it didn't take long for us to drive by the oil refineries.
And Stuckey's.
Anyone know about Stuckey's? Let me tell you--it was the stopping point for every bathroom break between Lubbock and Tallahassee when my grandparents would come pick me up for the summer. I grew up with the yellow sign and pecan rolls. John, to my surprise, had never been in one, so when we saw one coming up on an exit, we got off.
I kid you not, despite being owned by some scarved, Middle-Eastern family now, nothing has changed in 40 years. It's full of all kinds of crap souvenirs....and I felt like I needed ALL of them! ;-). John took one look at the $12.00 price tag on a pecan roll and decided it was too much...but I would have given ANYTHING to see him eat just one.
I've tried to tell John that it might be a kind of relief to move here. People are Christian and conservative, so if nothing else, men will be men and women will be women. I don't know if we can get behind the shotguns, beer and high school football, but we'll have time ;-)
We then picked up some Schlotzsky's when we got to Beaumont and headed to the hotel. I do believe the hospital put us up in the nicest hotel in the area, because we walked in to a free dinner buffet. I had to laugh though (and obviously pull out my camera) when I saw the toppings for the salad. If anyone has ever wondered why I eat the salads I do, wonder no more!
We could hardly believe the beautiful welcome basket that was waiting for us in our room. It's obvious that Baptist hospitals is hoping to hire John! But John likes to point out that he'll just moving from the Catholics to the Baptists and with that, I'm wondering how I can go to the dinner party tonight without telling anyone that we visited the temple yesterday. I'm all for sharing the gospel and such, but we feel a bit cautious about sharing too much about our religion after all that's happened.
We cracked open the basket and for once, felt appropriately served while watching Master Chef. We didn't crave anything at all! ;-)
No joke, I was fast asleep by 9:30. Not even an episode of Game of Thrones could keep me awake!
A couple of months ago, John found a job posted for Beaumont, Texas. I'm not sure how he made the connection, but he happens to know a guy from his residency who works and lives in Beaumont. On a whim, he called him up, and the guy, Kevin Waddell, was unbelievably happy to hear from John. Without giving away any of the bad details, John told him that he's looking for a new job.
Well that's all Kevin needed to hear. He literally pounced on it. John was ahead of him by a year in residency, and Kevin always thought really well of John. Kevin called the hospital higher-ups and people were contacting John almost immediately.
The main hiccup in even thinking about working here is that it takes eight months to get a Texas medical license which John can't apply for because the situation for him at the moment is up in the air (and won't be decided until his hearing date of June 5-6). Kevin, not knowing about any of this, was pressuring John to start applying for his Texas license now so that they can get going on everything. Trying to put him off without letting him know what is going on, I told John that he should tell Kevin that we would need to visit before we make the financial investment of applying for a license. I thought this would buy us quite a bit more time, but obviously Kevin is motivated as is the hospital, because they flew us out this week.
I'm not going to lie. I was super excited to come. I'm not sure if it's because it's a new place where I've never been (Houston is on the opposite side of Texas from where I grew up), or because I'm returning to the Motherland. But on the plane yesterday, I could hardly peel my eyes away from the sites outside of the window.
Let me start by saying this. Houston, and Beaumont especially (Beaumont is 92 miles east of Houston), aren't destinations. There really isn't a lot to do in these cities except work and eat out. This is the life we had in PA, and knowing that John likes the hospital and staff in PA and feels safe there, it's kind of a question of why we would even consider coming here. Plus, he already has his license in PA. However, the cost of living here is extremely low, and the income potential is extremely high, so in our minds, if we're going to be bored where we're living, we might as well be making tons of money that we can just bank....and move away sooner.
Plus, there's a temple 92 miles away. And an airport. And if I'm being honest, the church is really, REALLY strong here. Beaumont has the same population as Ann Arbor (not including the greater AA area i.e. Saline, Ypsi, Chelsea), and it has THREE church buildings in the city, each with several wards and branches (plus the church buildings in surrounding areas like Saline, Ypsi and Chelsea). And there is a very large Mexican population here (*relief* people here say "Mexicans" like I did growing up) which includes Spanish wards and branches. I joked with Daddy that he'll be called to be a high councilor, and he'll be asked to speak in the Spanish branch. He surprisingly replied that that would be really scary--he hasn't spoken that much Spanish in years. I reassured him that it was like riding a bike. Plus, the people would for sure love him. And bonus? When the girls come to visit, they would fit RIGHT in...well, aside from their blonde hair and blue eyes.
But really, I scoured travel sites, trying to find something interesting to do here and there just isn't much. But that's okay.
 |
| The Houston skyline. It's pretty impressive! |
However, I couldn't contain my excitement when we landed. There really is something so wonderfully familiar in returning to a place that holds some serious childhood memories. We needed lunch, so we headed to Hard Rock Cafe, Houston. It was fabulous! Really good food and a fun (and clean) downtown. It's crazy to think that it was all underwater just over a year ago. And I couldn't leave without getting a pin for Mark.
Then, we had nothing scheduled for the rest of the day so we headed to the temple. Once again, we were not dressed appropriately, although I was relieved to find myself NOT wearing a graphic tee this time--I left that to John in his Charlottesville half-marathon t-shirt ;-)
The temple is majestic. It is huge, and beautiful, and the grounds are amazing. And the houses leading down the road to the temple? Mansions. Like, palatial mansions. However, once inside, I appreciated our teeny tiny Detroit temple for sure!
 |
| Flowers like these are COVERING the temple grounds. It would certainly be a beautiful temple for a wedding. |
I knew there was a problem with my dress when I went to use the bathroom before the session, and I hardly had to pull it up in the back. Yep, he had given me a dress that might have been short, even on Rebecca. But glad he knew I was a LARGE! because it felt like a tent. As I told John, that dress would take my temple vanity down a few notches, that's for sure!
So I don't know if it was missionary session, or what, but there were about a million missionaries there, most of them boys, and they were seriously the goofiest guys. It was hard not to be distracted by them. In fact, one of them was very "handsy" with his companion, putting his arm around him and rubbing his head and whispering in his ear...although if I'm being honest, at least someone was whispering. It reminded me of what Ethan said about the lack of physical contact on a mission...
And golly it's difficult to go to the temple now that we've been trained in every aspect of temple work. We saw so many errors from the officiator. I would look over the aisle at John, and I could see that he was looking to see if the experienced "second follower" was correcting the officiator. Nope. It was like the Wild, Wild West in that endowment session!
Then, when I got up for the prayer circle, I wanted to make sure that my back was to the curtain because I could tell people would be able to see the tops of my rented knee-highs under my dress. But the officiator didn't close the circle, and it looked like we were performing a show for the goofy missionaries. Oh goodness....
It wasn't until I walked into one of the most beautiful celestial rooms I've ever seen that I really felt the spirit. It was quiet, and reverent, and beautiful, and I had a moment to offer a very heartfelt prayer.
We wanted to leave for Beaumont pretty quickly after that, because we have learned the misery of rush hour traffic from both Philadelphia, Detroit and most recently D.C. (and it was 4:00). There's one highway to Beaumont along the Gulf shore, so if it was jammed, there'd be nowhere else to go. Once we got out of Houston though, it was smooth sailing. The geography is this weird mix of Grand Cayman, Tallahassee and Michigan(?). Deciduous trees with ocean clouds and closeness to the shore. It was really cool. And it didn't take long for us to drive by the oil refineries.
And Stuckey's.
Anyone know about Stuckey's? Let me tell you--it was the stopping point for every bathroom break between Lubbock and Tallahassee when my grandparents would come pick me up for the summer. I grew up with the yellow sign and pecan rolls. John, to my surprise, had never been in one, so when we saw one coming up on an exit, we got off.
I kid you not, despite being owned by some scarved, Middle-Eastern family now, nothing has changed in 40 years. It's full of all kinds of crap souvenirs....and I felt like I needed ALL of them! ;-). John took one look at the $12.00 price tag on a pecan roll and decided it was too much...but I would have given ANYTHING to see him eat just one.
I've tried to tell John that it might be a kind of relief to move here. People are Christian and conservative, so if nothing else, men will be men and women will be women. I don't know if we can get behind the shotguns, beer and high school football, but we'll have time ;-)
We then picked up some Schlotzsky's when we got to Beaumont and headed to the hotel. I do believe the hospital put us up in the nicest hotel in the area, because we walked in to a free dinner buffet. I had to laugh though (and obviously pull out my camera) when I saw the toppings for the salad. If anyone has ever wondered why I eat the salads I do, wonder no more!
We cracked open the basket and for once, felt appropriately served while watching Master Chef. We didn't crave anything at all! ;-)
No joke, I was fast asleep by 9:30. Not even an episode of Game of Thrones could keep me awake!
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