Dear Texas,

We got off to a rocky start, you and I. When I heard that we had the opportunity to move to Texas I was worried. My mental picture of Texas was a hot, dusty place with flies. I came to visit for a weekend to go house-hunting with my husband. I remember thinking, as I flew into Austin, how green it was here. It reminded me of Florida.

We moved into the beautiful hill country. Our first summer here it rained a lot. That's what it does in Florida in the summer so we felt right at home. Then it rained so much it started flooding and our real estate agent warned of flash floods. Ummm......flash floods?! Only at the creek, though. We just needed to tell our kids to be careful because floods can come on suddenly and you could get caught in the current and drown. Ummm......drown?! Florida has a much better system for handling rain. It just soaks it all in...no flash flooding. Maybe you should try that.

Our second summer here it didn't rain at all. Everything dried up and died. Gary spent the summer moving the sprinkler all over the yard to save his grass. Everyone started to get worried about the drought conditions so our church leaders asked us to pray for rain. We prayed for rain and boy, did we get rain. It was a welcome relief except for the flooding. Really, you should try and work on that issue. Flooding is a bit excessive, don't you think?!

Our third summer here you seemed to get it right. A little bit of rain every week and no flooding. That's a much better plan if you ask me.

We decided to take a road trip to Utah this summer. We headed off to Albuquerque, NM the first day. My vote was to stop in Lubbock because I am a bad travel companion, but I was out-voted so we kept on going. We stopped along the way for potty breaks. Every time we opened the doors, those flies that I had worried about, would fly into our car. It was not pleasant. Carson does not like bugs. We tried to be nice and open the windows to let the flies out but they didn't leave. When Carson sees a bug he screams.....REALLY LOUD!!! It makes us all a bit grumpy so we started squishing the pesky things. I kind of think you should get rid of the flies.

Two weeks later we pulled back into Texas. Oh...hello flies and hot weather. We did not miss you at all. I will admit, though, that when we pulled into our little town it was nice to be home. Yes, you did it. You made me love you and I am happy to be back. We had a nice trip.

So really, you are a great place to live. There are a lot of good people here that agree with me. We have made lots of friends and love it here. If you could just do something about the hot summers. You should get some advice from Utah because the weather is much more pleasant there. A little coolness in the evenings goes a long way! Also, the flies are really annoying! Maybe if you spent a day in the car with Carson you would realize the error of your ways. Oh, and I thought you had gotten it right on the amount of rain you could handle but then you started flooding again. You should probably keep working on that.

I don't want to end on a negative note though so let me just tell you....the snow last winter? Nice touch!! That was a great idea. One day of snow, just enough to make a snowman and then *poof* gone by the afternoon! Good work. Utah could learn a few things from you!

Love, Shanon

PS Thank you for not giving Gary a ticket on the first day of our trip. I guess he was so excited to see Utah that he forgot to obey the speed limit. You have some really patient highway patrolmen here. That was so nice of him to just give Gary a warning. Don't worry, I gave Gary the stink-eye and told him to slow down!