Greetings from Texas! :-)

Hello from America! We live in such a great country with so many freedoms that can be takn for granted in other countries.

The plane ride on the 4th was the longest day of my life and I won't get into the details, but I will never, ever, ever, take a plane back to Europe...EVER!!! Yes, the ride across the pond was that bad! : /

After we took a shuttle to the Enterprise place we found out that our reservation wasn't in the system!!!

Our confirmation number was packed up by the movers, but that shouldn't have mattered because our names were taken down. Ugh!!! Calling from Germany to the States to places like these sometimes is hard because of static or just the distance.

After trying several different names (as our last name is always messed up) and still not having any luck, Enterprise said they were completely sold out of cars, so we went to 3 other places and they all wanted $700 for 2 weeks!!! Ugh..come on now???

Then we went to Budget and was able to get a great brand new (under 400 miles) vehicle for $311. It's a Toyota Matrix. It's awesome! I will take a picture later...once I get new batteries in the camera.

It gets awesome gas milage too!!

So after we got the car we went to locate our hotel and uh...well...just pray for us that we don't get shot or catch some disease because this hotel is hmmm...I do I say this without being mean....ghetto! LOL.

It looked sooooo much better online!

We couldn't switch hotels because they already charged it to our account last month.

We think this is one of those hotels where people actually live here.

At least our room has nice cold air conditioning! :-) Even though the bed sinks to the ground and you can feel the mattress springs in your back....

I carry disinfectant wipes with me at all times and I am glad I do because I had to wipe down pretty much everything in the room.

As I type this I am looking up at the lamp with a red party light bulb...hmmm...where's the white one? LOL.

I won't share with you the 'continental' breakfast and how we got ill from it.

As I said, pray for us till we get out of here on the 11th...

Anyway we have been having fun driving around and getting our bearings straight..and of course visiting every single Wal-Mart and Target among other places. :-)

We have had lunch at Whataburger and dinner at On The Border, that was yesterday. Today we grabbed some subs from Wal-Mart and had those for dinner. Yum! We have missed those. :-)

It's been near 100 degrees here. Not too bad with a/c. :-)

Today we drove around and found out house. Our realtor had put our mail in the house for us which was a blessing.

I took some pictures below for you all. They didn't turn out as well since the electric still isn't on and plus my batteries in the camera were dying.

But at least you can see my new home sweet home...

Downstairs bathroom

A view from the master bedroom

Upstairs bathroom

One side of our dining area

Other side of the dining area

View from the dining room looking into the kitchen.

Spare bedroom

The other half of the master bedroom (sorry it's down here and not with the other picture...crazy thing...lol).

Part of the living room

Other half of living room with fireplace.

Hallway leading towards the bathroom, kitchen, dining area and laundry room closet.

Stairs leading upstairs you can trip and kill yourself on...don't ask...lol.

Kitchen

I didn't get any pictures of our little backyard as like I said the batteries were dying but it's small and has grass...lol.

There is also a storage area around the back of the house which I still have yet to look in.

So that is our new house.

Today in the middle of our running around we went to Lowe's and bought a fridge and a washing machine.

We got 10% off the fridge and then they give military discounts and we saved $108 on the whole bill! Great discount huh?

The total was $1,142 or something like that and we handed the cashier $1,200 in $100 bills and she was floored...lol. We heard her tell the other cashier next to her 'these folks just dropped $1200 like it was nothing for them'...lol.

We also get a rebate back of some sort. I will have to review all that later too see what it's about.

Those 2 appliances will be delivered Tuesday afternoon and hopefully the electricity will be on by then....

We bought a $10 Trac Phone from Wal-Mart plus a 60 minute phone card to go with it. The total for both of those was $32 which I think is good. We just need to have a phone of sorts for the time being while we figure out which phone / Internet provider we will go through.

I plan on going to church Sunday evening...which reminds me I need to call the Pastor and see if he or someone else can come pick me up as I don't know how to get there yet. It's not too far from the hotel.

I was going to try and go in the morning but I have a feeling the jet lag will still be in effect and I won't be able to move.

I love Sunday evening church services so I can't wait to go tomorrow...God willing. :-)

I have no idea what's in store for us for tomorrow. I know we need to look into getting some dressers and a sofa so we will probably go do that.

And we need to get in touch with the realtor and let her know we are alive. :-)

Well it's past 10 p.m. and I need a shower and head off into the sink hole known as the bed...lol.

I hope you all have had a blessed 4th!!! Please, do share with me what you and your family did! I would love to hear your stories!!!

God bless you!!!

~ Dawn