The Kids Have Moved Out

 *** Note: For obvious security reasons, this post is backdated several weeks.  It was written late March 2025.  And for less obvious practical and logistical reasons, I'm just way way way behind.  On everything. 

Let's talk housing.  Fair warning: this won't be a positive post. 

From the moment we stepped into Apartment #1, we agreed we had to find a house asap.  We would look at everything that might be a possibility and be as flexible as possible and do our very best not to be picky.  Our minimum requirements were: 

- 3 or 4 bedrooms (bedrooms are generally small and not sharable)

- 2 bathrooms

- decent sized yard for the dogs

- near public transport / school bus

- 225 sq m (2200 sf ft)

We really have tried to be open minded and easy about this and not compare too much to housing in Texas.  If we wanted our house in Texas, we should just have stayed there.  So I really do believe we came into this with a good attitude.  

It's honestly hard to know where to start or explain how terribly all of this has gone.  I'll try.  

We spent the first four weeks here in an 80 sq m apartment. We call it Apartment #1.  It was uncomfortable and difficult to function with everyone so squished in like that.  We didn't have the dogs yet, and that was our only saving grace.  We looked at EVERY property in Oslo that might possibly be a fit for us.  All one of them.  And then another one that had only three bedrooms.  I checked the rental listings every day for new properties.  They didn't come.  We started to hear a little about timing, and how January / February isn't the best, the market will wake up in April as we get closer to summer.  Ok... well, why didn't anyone tell us there would be nothing available?  We could have waited until summer to move.  Our patience and hope were draining quickly.  We also started learning about how the tax laws have changed recently.  The new laws are now taxing rental owners at a much higher rate, making it less appealing to own a rental property.  The effect here is that as rental houses reach the end of their leases, they are getting listed for sale now, instead of rent.  The only remaining rental properties are almost exclusively in one of two categories.  1. Inherited property (old and not updated or maintained)  2. Norwegians abroad for a few years that intend to return to their homes.  

So we waited.  And we dug deep for more patience and distracted ourselves with some of the things the city had to offer.  After one month, a larger temporary apartment became available, so we packed everything up and moved into what we have been calling "Apartment #2", or "The Palace".  We don't have a car, so this was two days of me packing and unpacking suitcases, ski gear, and everything else we've accumulated since we got here, and hauling it two bus stops and up two flights of stairs (no elevator), while everyone else was at school / work.  I'm being brief, but this was a significant effort.  With housing looking so bleak, the hope was that this larger apartment would be more comfortable for a longer wait.      

Apartment #2 was nice!  Much larger at 150 sq m, space for us to spread out a little bit and live comfortably enough while we waited for a house to pop up.  It was only three bedrooms, but the girls were understanding enough about sharing a bed (not a bedroom, a bed) for a little while.  And yes one bathroom.  But the kitchen was good sized and while limited, definitely doable for the short term.  We expected to be in The Palace for 1-3 months, but of course were hopeful for a house sooner rather than later.  

Unfortunately, things don't get better from here.  Long story short, the person in charge of booking the temporary apartment for us forgot to extend our booking past one month.  So after only two weeks, we found out that in just two more weeks, we'd have to move again.  Y'all, we are not ok.  Kerry is trying to work a demanding job, and the kids are in school and trying to start a life here.  We cannot keep moving every 4 weeks.  And what's more, no one could find a place for us to go.  I have been through all the emotions at this point.  Meanwhile, no new houses are coming up for rent.  Less than one house per week in the entire city of Oslo.  Everyone spent a week or so scrambling, trying to find us a place.  Zero three bedroom apartments available.  No houses for rent.  We did look at the few houses that were out there, and actually put bids on two of them, but didn't get them.  Both houses were well out of our price range set by SLB, but this is such a complex issue that I can't get into it right now.  

As we were nearing the end of our time at The Palace, we were also in the final stages of negotiating a lease agreement for a house that was way too expensive and not very nice.  But out of desperation, we were going to try to make it work.  The kitchen in this house is about 40 years old, and the electrical wiring is so out dated, that if you plug in your toaster, sometimes it trips the entire braker and the whole house goes black.  Yes, the housing situation here is that bad.  In the end, the owners decided they really didn't want kids and dogs in their house, and they wanted renters that would remodel the kitchen for them at the renter's expense, so needless to say, this one fell through.  Last I checked, the house is still available if anyone wants to pay $6000 / month to live in a house with questionable wiring and an expensive kitchen project. 

Moving on.  Well, literally I suppose.  We checked every airbnb in the area, all of them.  None are available until summer.  There are no temporary apartments available over 80 sq meters.  At this point, we have already been in suitcases for 7 weeks and we are tired of it.  SLB should not have brought us here if there was nowhere for us to live.  And now, the dogs are coming.  Because we couldn't drag this on any longer.  My mom had already taken two months of her time to stay in our house with the dogs, and she needed to move on.  Not to mention we are still paying for that house, so we needed to get renters in and stop the money drain.  It was time to get the dogs here.  So we are getting kicked out of the palace, have two big doodles on the way, and nowhere to go!  

The only solution anyone could come up with was two separate apartments in the same building.  Laughable, right?  We looked at them anyway, and said no.  No, we cannot split up our family and live like this.  It's not vacation y'all, we have work and school and regular life going on.  Each apartment was about 55 sq meters, so they weren't huge, and we had no guarantee if they would be on the same floor or not.  BUT, remember that expensive house I was mentioning?  At the time, we thought it was going to work out.  So we took the two apartments, because there was literally no other option, and thinking it would only be for 5-6 days, and then we'd be in a house.  Three days into it the dual apartment set up, the house deal fell through.  This was a devastating blow to an already fatigued and increasingly hopeless family.  More than once I asked to be sent home, and there were some very serious talks about that being an option.  We want very much to be here in Oslo, but if there is nowhere for us to live and function as a family, then we need to go somewhere else.  However, we didn't really have time to dwell too much on any of this, because guess what?  The dogs are coming.  In two days.  And we need dog food, and leashes, and a plan for how to get them and their giant crates from the airport to these tiny apartments where the crates alone will take up 1/10th of the space.  

And so, that brings us to the present.  Two of the children (guess which ones?) have moved out.  They live next door, with their own TV, fridge, and it appears this particular apartment comes with food and laundry service (funny how mine doesn't).  I feel like I have college kids living next door, college kids that haven't outgrown legos yet.  Most days I walk in to find Pringles and Froosh (yummy little smoothies) trash mixed with toys all over the living room floor.  They don't seem to be hating this set up nearly as much as I do... 

Is this acceptable?  Does anyone think this is ok?  We are completely at a loss over here.  While the odds are low, if something were to happen in the other apartment, day or night, I wouldn't hear it and wouldn't know about it.  Doesn't this seem unsafe and entirely inappropriate?  I don't understand why a company would do this to a family.  I do understand that the housing situation is both unexpected and unprecedented, but I don't see how that justifies splitting up a family.  From where I'm sitting, no one wants to take responsibility for putting us in this situation, and certainly no one is prepared to do anything to fix it.  In fact I have many more opinions on the subject and those who have had a hand in this, but I have been strongly advised not to post them on the internet.  For now.  

We expected challenges when we moved here, but this is really beyond anything reasonable.  This is negligence and a gross lack of preparation on the part of the people whose job was (and is) to coordinate this international move for us.  

Well there you have it, our housing story recap, as ugly as it is.  Next, we'll fast forward a few weeks, and I promise better news!

And just for fun, some photos out and about:   

The Library and Sunday Exploring

It's almost hard to remember what we did on weekends in Texas.  I know we were always busy.  Really busy.  Well, we aren't now.  And that little apartment, we had to get out.  The main branch of the public library had been recommended to us a few times, and J.R. needed a library card for a school field trip, so we took our open Sunday and made a day of it.  

This was unlike any library I have ever been to.  Unique to Norway?  Europe?  Or maybe it's just a big city thing and suburbia didn't quite measure up.  Now that I think of it, how often does one visit libraries when traveling?  Not so often for me.  From the moment we walked in, it was clear that this library was a destination.  It was buzzing with people - families, children, couples, students, The Deichman Bjorvika Public Library was a hot place to be on a Sunday.  It's worth remembering that almost all shops, including grocery stores, are closed on Sundays.  It's almost like you HAVE to spend the day with your family...

 

The library spans... 5 floors?  6?  7?  I'm not even sure actually.  It's huge!  We went straight to the children's section and never really left.  The English section isn't as extensive as I was hoping for, but at least it exists.  This is true for both children and adult books.  The kids all found a few interesting options though, and then went searching for a spot to read for a bit.  The kids area is full of nooks, crannies, tunnels, and small rooms to explore, and children are encouraged to make themselves at home.  Shoes off of course, and during the winter, snowsuits and heavy coats as well.  The most unusual part of the experience, for me at least, was the noise level.  This was not a calm and quiet library!  There were children running, laughing, some reading, playing, climbing - just being kids!  And this seemed to be totally acceptable behavior in the library.

After collecting our stack of books to check out, we went searching for a small snack or pastry before heading back for ice skating lessons.  We didn't find one.  But, we did find several other fun distractions!  The iconic Opera house is right next to the library.  We didn't explore the building itself much, but walked around the outside and along the waters edge.  It was a beautiful and sunny afternoon and a great hour to be outside.  And then the sun set and it was freezing again.  The kids wanted to feel the icy fjord water, and the play structures were a nice surprise.  

I believe the jagged structure in the middle of the water is a floating sauna.

We also found this strange playground right by the Munch Museum (which we have not visited yet), but only stayed for about 5 minutes because I was freezing and hungry.  The kids are looking forward to going back when it's warmer out!  Exploring new parks and playgrounds is quickly becoming a favorite activity over here!

 



 

              

Finally, Skiing!

 All I have heard from these kids since we got off the plane is "I want to ski."  The entire first week we were here, the sun didn't come out at all.  The highest temperature we've seen in weeks is about 39 degrees Fahrenheit.  And there is no staying inside and hiding from the cold, we are out in it every day, walking to / from the shops and the school bus stop.  So I wasn't particularly keen on spending several hours out in the elements on the weekend by choice.  But, the children were not to be deterred, and morale is fragile all around, so it's necessary to work some fun things in when we can.  And while the cold feels everlasting to these Texans, it isn't, and ski season will be over before we know it. 

Oslo is one of the only cities in the entire world where you can find ski slopes right next to a big city.  In about 45 minutes, you can go from downtown to a ski lift.  So. Cool.  Things like that make me think I could live here forever.  

I wasn't in the mood to deal with the hassle of skiing and more cold weather, but I'm so glad we did.  It was the mood booster we all needed.  The first hour was predictably rocky, as we rode the train thirty minutes (sooo faaaarrr) and then spent the next full hour sorting out memberships, rentals, lessons, lockers, and changing ski boot sizes 6-8 times per child, all while reminding the eager and anxious children to please be patient... please.  J.R. and Penny have skied twice on previous ski vacations.  Clara was too young both times, so she was brand new to snow sports, and opted to start with snowboarding over skiing.  Snowboarding class was full, leaving us with a private lesson as the only option.  I tagged along and watcher her eat snow for an hour, while Kerry took the other two to the bunny slopes to warm up before they jumped right into an intermediate group lesson.

The ski area near us is not very big, but that's ok!  There are two restaurants on site and menus are very limited.  Well, food in Norway is a bit limited all around, but that's a subject for another post.  But they do have hot chocolate and coffee on tap at all times so everyone is happy.    

The snow and ice are nature's best playground and have been irresistible for the kids.  They just cannot stay off of it if it's around.  This is a very helpful distraction while waiting at bus stops or even just walking from point A to point B.  

This bus stop was particularly interesting - the scenery and rocks are so perfect they don't even look real!

Water break after a couple of hours on the slopes...

And now using their water cups to play in the snow

When you spill your hot chocolate but it still loves you anyway <3

We went both Saturday and Sunday, because the lessons we had the big kids in was a two day course.  By Sunday evening, we were all wiped out.  For day 2, Clara convinced me to try snowboarding with her, and the sun came out - yay!!  And then by Monday morning, I felt like I had been hit by a bus.  Snowboarding 101 isn't easy y'all.    

A weekend of fun in the snow was exactly what this crew needed!

      

Apartment #1

    Our company has a process for handling international moves.  It's standard.  Residency paperwork is done in advance, and everything else gets figured out when you get there.  It is normal to reside in a temporary apartment for 4-8 weeks while searching for a long term home and getting a feel for the city and different neighborhoods.  There are two reasons for this.  One is the idea that after a few weeks, you might have a better idea of what part of town you want to live in, and therefore you end up in the best house for you and your family, instead of on the wrong side of town.  It's a nice idea I guess, if it worked.  The reality of the situation is that there are no houses.  There are barely even short term apartments available.  And that's how we ended up here, in a 4 bedroom, 80 sq ft apartment, with the tiniest kitchen I've ever seen and ONE bathroom for the five of us.  Thank goodness we left the dogs at home for now.  The location is good though, we are only about a four minute walk to one of the main shopping streets, and about 9 minutes to the school bus stop.  The other, more practical reason, is that it takes 4-6 weeks on average for the shipment of goods to arrive, so even if we had a house, we'd have nothing to put in it.       

Alright, a brief tour:

** Warning, may be frightening for readers who have only lived in Texas-sized homes **

Living room, children for scale.  We can't really comfortably all watch a movie in here.  

Breakfast / work / games / homework / clutter catcher / dinner table: 

Again, we struggle to all have dinner at the same time.  The plates and chairs barely fit.

The ONE bathroom.  Ugh, no one warned me about this.  One bathroom for five people is really not ideal.  It's especially problematic in the morning when everyone needs in there for various reasons and we have a school bus to catch.  It is common in Europe to have the washer and dryer in the bathroom.  I'm not really sure why.  I moved one of the chairs in here to we'd have a place to put our clean clothes while showering, otherwise they would just go on the floor I guess?  There are also zero plugs for blow drying hair, so we have to do stuff like that blind. 

The dude den.  Good thing all he does is sleep in here, because there isn't space for anything else.

Same set up for the girls room.  Slightly more junkified, in the way that girls tend to do that.  

There are two other bedrooms, one of which we have been using for storage / closet space, the other one for the adults.

And, the kitchen.  It is my greatest success of 2025 that I have been successfully feeding my kids out of this space for the last three weeks.  See what happens if you open the dishwasher and the freezer at the same time... you can't.

And now that I've showed you all that, we're moving!  The housing situation is dismal.  They have showed us two houses so far.  One of them is very expensive and well out of our price range.  And old and not well insulated and the fireplace is dangerous and sometimes the lights go out if you plug in kitchen appliances?  No thanks.  The other one, well, let's just say it makes this apartment we are in look kind of nice.  It clearly hasn't been updated since about 1975.  In the last two weeks, not one single new house has become available for rent in the entire city of Oslo!  So this weekend, we are moving to a different apartment, about twice the size of the one we are in, and hopefully a little bit nicer.  Probably still just one bathroom though.  It was not available when we first arrived or we would have been put their originally instead.  We had hoped to find a house asap, but since that isn't happening, we are relocating to a bigger apartment, and preparing to bring the dogs over, even though dogs in an apartment is no no no fun.  But it's temporary.  This means a new route to school, and a new bus stop for the kids.  So far they have all been holding up really well, but I am nervous to keep pushing the limits on how much change they can handle without falling apart. 

Walking to and from the school bus stop, and a little bit of the surrounding area.

 

Oslo : Week 1

  Hey there, can you see me ok? Hear me? It might take me a minute to get all the dust off this old thing.  It's been many, many years since I even opened this page.  Most of you probably don't know this, but I kept up a decent blog about our experience and travel while living in France.  Well here we are, just over a decade later, and we're at it again.  Never in a million years did I think I would be raising expat kids, but when life calls, the only answer option is to answer it. 

First things the first - the journey.  The days and weeks leading up to departure day were nothing short of exhausting.  So in the final 24-28 hours, when I felt worn out and tired, I didn't think anything of it.  We had been running on fumes for weeks already.  I also knew how fortunate we were that our family had not dealt with illness at all in about 10 months.  Seems we really did pay our dues when the kids were toddlers, because they  don't seem to get sick too often anymore.  Alas, as you have probably guessed, our luck ran out.  About half way over the Atlantic to be exact.  The long flights are uncomfortable as it is, but roughly four hours into the long flight, it became clear that it was not just fatigue I was dealing with, but something more sinister.  By the time we landed in Amsterdam, I was pretty sure I had the flu.  Unfortunately, we still had a layover and another flight, and then about a 45 minute van ride through a snow storm to get through.  Traveling with the flu is 0/10 for me - do not recommend at all!  And so, the first several days here in Oslo were not quite what we expected. 

Despite regular doses of Ibuprofen and Dayquil (miraculously packed in a suitcase and NOT available here!), I was still barely functional.  Now factor in that we don't know where anything is, don't know how to get around, and everything is in a different language that looks mostly like a strange mix of consonants, and we can say that the first week was not so great.  Oh also, the average temperature is about 25 degrees Fahrenheit, ya'll it's COLD.  AND had jetlag to cope with!  Basic survival was a chore, forget trying to do anything fun.  But we kept marching ahead, got the girls in school on day 5, then JR the following week.  His start was delayed because his entire year was away on a week long "winter education trip" - skiing.  In Texas if you opt out of a field trip, the school finds another place for you.  Here, just go home, see you next week.  But fast forward a week, and they are all settling in nicely at school.  We've started riding the school bus, and it seems no matter which approach we take, the commute to and from school is about an hour from our current apartment.  Phew, that is a big change.  We sure do miss a ten minute bike ride with friends.  

So here we are now, two weeks in, and we are finally starting to get our feet on the ground (when we aren't slipping on the ice) and venturing out a little bit more.  Saturday we celebrated our first Norwegian birthday - Gratulerer med dagen Penny!  We were totally unprepared, but threw some plans together last minute and it turned out pretty great.  She requested crepes for breakfast, then we met some families from the school for ice skating and hot chocolate, then a little roblox time, followed by a fun dinner out, a visit to the candy store, and more roblox time.    

We have some work to do on the ice skating... 

For Penny's birthday dinner we went to a place called SALT.  It's kind of like a restaurant, sauna, art, and entertainment venue / club all in one.  We only did the restaurant, which offers a very limited menu of foods to be cooked over an open fire.  This was a lot of fun!  The only offerings were chicken sausage for the kids, and reindeer sausage (seriously) for adults, corn on the cob, and of course, marshmallows!  I'm still not even sure if reindeer are real creatures, but I'm starting to think they are and that they eat them over here.  Weird.  Sausages in general seem to be a very popular food in Norway.  Anyhow, the kids (and I) started off nervous sitting around a fire, but quickly got the hang of it and enjoyed the experience.  SALT is located right on the fjord, we had a water view the entire time.  At one point, of the girls looked out and said "Mom, I think someone is getting in the water!".  I assured them that no one was getting in the icy fjord, absolutely not, no way anyone would voluntarily... oh wait look at that.  These people were going from the hot saunas to the fjords for an ice plunge.  We had on three layers and were still cold, and there were people (not very many) in swimsuits going for a dip in the icy water - you could actually see ice on the water!  NO!      

All in all, Penny said it was a really good birthday.  These kids have actually done incredibly well so far.  They haven't complained much about anything, even though there have been a lot of changes and adjustments, and they've done a great job of being open to new experiences and ways of life.  I think it has still sort of just felt like a vacation for them, and they haven't had too much time yet to miss home.  Although home is here now, so I guess I should say their old home.

More info coming soon on our temporary living set up and general life around here, but for now, I hope you find something this week that makes you as happy as this marshmallow made Clara...

 

  

      

Today I Wore Jeans

I am having the most unusual day.  It's a little after noon.  I've just pulled a casserole out of the oven.  The laundry is folded and the floors have been swept.  The dishwasher is running.  The baby is napping, the big boy is at preschool, I have a warm cup of tea in front of me and a pumpkin candle is burning on the counter.  Things feel... alright.  It's the closest to calm and content I've felt in a long, long time.  There is so so so much more to do.  But for right now, at this moment, I have the rare sense that I have accomplished enough.  And to top it all off, the weather seems to finally be giving us a little break from the heat.  I wore jeans today, and didn't regret it!      

The kids don't stop.  This, I'm pretty sure, is fairly normal.  We have a 2.5 year old and an (almost) 8 month old.  The little one has already taken a few steps, and is fast working on her walking skills.  She's everywhere all the time and there is nothing I can do to contain her.  The 2.5 yr old thinks he's 14 and runs the house.  He's independent, head-strong, stubborn, defiant, energetic, and clever.  He does his best to outsmart us every day, and most days does a respectable job of it.  I also can't remember the last time our family went more than a week without someone being sick.  We keep getting dragged down by viruses, colds, tummy bugs, ear infections, fevers, coughs, etc.  While we are thankful that it's never anything serious (despite a couple of good scares), it's very tiring, and often difficult not to let it bring us down mentally as well as physically.  As if little kids aren't hard enough, we seem to have had a long lasting bout of bad luck in the health department.  It's been exhausting and frustrating.  I know little kids get sick a lot, but it really does feel excessive, plus the adults in the house keep getting it too - literally every time!

We also bought a house in July.  So this makes 3 moves in 5 years for us.  I do believe we'll stay put for a while now!  I've had enough packing and unpacking and organizing and reorganizing.  We are thrilled to have found a home in a wonderful neighborhood in the little city of Fulshear, Texas.  I sure never thought I'd end up here!  After nearly 3 years in inner-city Montpellier, France, Texan surburbia has been a shock to our systems.  But we are slowly figuring it out and getting the hang of it.  I miss France nearly every day.  And not just because of the wine and cheese!  Although I do miss the wine and cheese... But I also miss the weather.  Texas is so very hot.  I think it's hotter than it was before we moved away.  I miss walking the streets.  I miss long, four-course dinners on terraces.  I even miss struggling through the French language on a daily basis, even though I often hated it when we were there.  I miss traveling and seeing the world.  I miss the view from our window overlooking a large, old, beautiful building.  I miss JR's nursery and the sweet ladies that cared for him every day.  But of course, I missed Texas when we were gone, and this is a much better fit for us right now.

We are ready for some normal, average, somewhat boring sounding but really actually fun life.  Weekends with friends watching football and more holiday parties than we can fit into our calendar.  Spending time catching up with old friends as well as making new ones.  We need more mornings in sweat pants without feeling guilty about it.  And maybe we'll even fit in a little time for personal hobbies between diaper changes, constant laundry, and late night work meetings.  The Huguet House is slowing down for a little while, and it's a refreshing change.  I often long for our days of jet-setting and living out of suitcases, but that will come again later.  Right now, you can find us eagerly awaiting sweater weather and cooking up giant pots of gumbo in our new home at

5703 Trinity Bluff Ct.

Fulshear, TX 77441

         


          

Life Lately: Settling In To Katy, Texas

Four months back.  That's it?  It feels like much, much longer.  In fact, it almost feels like we never left.  Not that life is the same, it's not at all!  We are in a different house, a different neighborhood, different jobs, our family looks different, and yet, the fact that we just spent three years living in France, seems very surreal.  It's hard to believe we did that, and it's hard to believe it's over.  And now, it's back to American life and culture more or less as we left it.

We are slowly settling into our new house and new lives, much slower than I'd like in fact.  But then I have to remind myself, it's only been 4 months!  We arrived in Texas at the end of June, spent two weeks in a hotel, and then 2 more weeks waiting on our shipment of furniture and goods to arrive.  So really, the first month hardly counts.  And since then we've been in and out of town a lot, visiting family while we can still travel, using our free weekends furniture and baby shopping in order to slowly fill this big new house, and of course, watching football!

"Helping" unpack

Splash pad with cousins

I spent weeks searching for a suitable preschool for JR, only to come up empty handed (every single one around here has a wait list, and he's on them), so we fill our days running errands, exploring playgrounds, and searching for exciting things to keep our social butterfly occupied.  He has started swim lessons, and absolutely adores them.  He's not very good at most of the training exercises, but he is almost always the happiest baby in the pool.  In general, he's too busy smiling and giggling to learn how to blow bubbles or close his mouth under water, but he'll get it eventually.  For now, I'm learning lots of tricks for handling babies in pools, and it's a great Monday morning activity for us.  As it turns out, anything involving water is a big hit with this boy.  If we find ourselves with an empty afternoon,  we almost always end up playing in the sprinkler in the backyard:

And seeing as Houston only recently got the memo about fall, this setup easily lasted us through mid-October.

Settling in has been a frustratingly slow process.  Moving internationally means changing nearly everything, and all those little details add up.  For the first couple of months, we felt buried in paperwork: expense reports, ID cards, utility bills, medical insurance (sore subject for us after experiencing the French system), 401K, vaccination schedules, and many other little things that all seems to take an hour or two each to sort out.  Then there's the fact that we went from a small two bedroom apartment, to a big four bedroom house.  Not that I'm complaining!  Living conditions in France were one of the biggest frustrations we had in our time there.  Our apartment was small, and not all that nice.  Organizing was impossible, especially once JR joined us and the whole place exploded with baby gear, and it was incredibly frustrating to feel like I couldn't get a grip on things.  But it's the price you pay for inner-city living, and we sure did love being able to walk into town every day.  Now though, space is easy to come by.  Which means I have no excuse for poor housekeeping!  So a lot of time has gone into furniture shopping, sorting through boxes of things and getting rid of stuff (this is usually a pre-move activity, but we did it after), and figuring out what to do with all of this space.  We've made a lot of progress, but still have a long way to go.  In reality though, this house isn't it for us.  We are renting right now, while we get to know the area and different neighborhoods, and plan to buy next summer.  I already feel like we have one foot out the door, and decorating hardly seems worth it.  

It's good to be back.  We know that Katy is the right place for us right now, and there is a comforting reassurance that comes with knowing your lives are moving in the right direction.  France was good for us for a while, but as our family continues to grow, we need to be back in a place where we feel we can provide the type of life and upbringing that we have in mind for our children.  The future still feels very blurry.  We aren't sure how long we want to stay here, where we might want to go next, or what might be in store career-wise, but for right now, and most likely the next few years, Katy, Texas will make a great home base for The Huguet House.

Come visit anytime!

The Huguets

5039 Big Meadow Ln.

Katy, TX 77494