Farewell to Wroxton Court

Red and I are moving out of our apartment today.  Many of you may be thinking that sounds strange as you know we are living in Sakhalin.  Initially, we had kept the apartment thinking we would be back in under 6 months, so we took only the necessities and left the rest there.  Now is it time to move everything out – some things in a shipment to Sakhalin and the rest to storage.  We have been reminiscing about our two years in the apartment and writing down memories, and thought we would share some of them with you. 

 

Some of the things we will remember…

When we first found our apartment a couple of months prior to our wedding, we celebrated by buying Mexican cokes and sitting on the wooden floor in the dining area.  We thanked God for providing such affordable (1100sq feet for $1050 in West University!) beautiful housing in a great neighborhood with huge trees and close proximity to both Red’s office downtown and BCM where I was in PA school.  We dreamed about our future together and finally living together in our new home.

 

I moved in first, as my apartment lease was up, and Red moved from his and Erin’s apartment back in to his parent’s house.  It was amazing for me to live alone for the first time, even if it was just for a couple of months.  If I wanted to have study group over, I could, if I wanted to be alone, I could be, if I wanted to have friends over, I could – freedom!! (and no cats!!)

We remember practicing for our first dance in the living room, a foxtrot to Jack Johnson’s Better Together.

Our Actual First Dance

I remember sleeping at the apartment the night before our wedding, Lindsey stayed with me and helped carry out Red’s plan to surprise me with a letter and flowers the morning of our wedding day.  We were so excited to go home together for the first time the night of our wedding.

Leaving the Fire Station - Going Home Together for the First Time

We celebrated in the cul-de-sac and in the kitchen for finishing the Houston Half Marathon with Lori in January 2010.

Lori and I after the race :)

Red and I After the Race

We remember four months of ER, surgery and internal medicine rotations in early 2011.  Red is an amazing husband and would wake up early to feed me breakfast, drop me off at Ben Taub, pick me up from Ben Taub 13 or 14 hours later, feed me, put me to bed and repeat.  I would have been miserable and exhausted without him – he was a great example of selfless love during that time.

 

We remember tons of rather gross medical stories being told over dinner.

We remember planning interview speeches, white coat speeches, and graduation speech.

White Coat Speech

We remember studying and preparing while leading a growth group at Grace Bible Church.  (We miss you guys!!)

We remember fighting while trying to pack for Guatemala.  We remember forgiving each other, moving on and enjoying our amazing trip to Guatemala with Living Water International and great friends.

Next to the Completed Clean Water Well

We loved having people over for dinner, games or movie nights.

Dinner at the Apartment

We remember many games of Ticket to Ride and Carcassone.  Thanks Chris and Rachel for introducing us to both!  (…and after our two person games, one of us would gloat while the other sulked…and I admit, my gloating may have included an occasional “I win” dance!)

I Will Win!!!!!

We remember making homemade pizzas and dancing around the apartment to Taylor Swift.

Being Goofy :)

I remember (and will forever cherish) the night Red ordered a pizza and he, Erin and I watched Despicable Me.

We remember Saturday morning breakfasts of pancakes or popovers, eggs and chicken apple sausage eaten sitting on the couch laughing at episodes of Fresh Prince, the Cosby Show or planet earth.

We remember when we both realized that we might be sick to our stomachs due to lead from the old pipes in the house.  (The house was built in 1938.)  We started drinking bottled water and felt SO much better!!

We remember nightly ice cream dates.  Often eat out of hand painted pottery bowls we made on a Valentine’s date.

Daily Dose of Ice Cream..Kemps Moosetracks

We remember crossfit workouts outside on the cul-de-sac and the strange looks we would get from neighbors.  Specifically, I remember walking around Rice with Jane while Red and Alex worked out. We approached the house and saw Red doing squats with Alex balanced on his back.  There were also plenty of days where Red used cinderblocks for cuttlebell, watermelon as a wall ball, etc, etc, in our crossfit workouts.

We remember conversations with friends over dinner.

Red and Scott

Rosemary and I

We remember when Red lived alone for two months while Carrie lived in Sonora, TX in an old hospital room for her community medicine rotation.  Enchanted Rock, Caverns of Sonora, West Texas Friday night football and Big Bend here we come!

One of several cards I sent Red while I was gone.

I remember Red climbing the tree outside our bedroom window to machete off the branches that had been scratching at the window.

 

We remember Carrie’s surprise birthday party where everyone was waiting for a long time because Carrie was drying her hair and had no idea what was going on.

So Surprised!!

Lots of People Hiding in the Living Room!!

Friends :)

We remember fun weekends with friends and discovering that all children need to be happy is a balloon and a Red solo cup.

We remember trying to make Lindsey’s iPod birthday cake on the griddle and it not working so great…it’s the idea that counts right?!

Don't ask me why we used the griddle...fail...

We remember Carrie graduating from PA school and starting her job with Tejas Medical.

PA School Graduation :)

We remember finally getting the apartment set up a year into our marriage after Carrie graduated from PA school.  We were both so proud of our cute, clean and organized home.  Thank you, thank you, thank you  to Natalie/mom for helping us accomplish everything!

Home Sweet Home

Feels Like Home

We remember meeting up with friends to go blueberry picking…yummy!

We remember wearing our warrior dash hats around.  Katie C – that race was so much fun!!

What a Handsome Warrior!

We remember driving to many Aggie football games from here.  Whoop!

Aggie Football



Thanksgiving Tailgate McGehee Style

We remember proudly displaying our bright yellow “Stop Ashby High Rise” yard sign complete with a scary tower monster on it looking to devour the neighborhood.  We also remember being so glad that we rent, not own, this property as the high rise is set to be built one block away.

These Signs Are Everywhere in Our Neighborhood

We remember talking in our apartment the evening we found out we might be moving to Sakhalin.  Honestly, we had a fight because Red wanted to keep his big news a secret until dinner and I wanted to know right then, particularly if it had to do with moving.  We had to have a redo and I went outside, came back up the stairs and he told me he had big news (and what it was) and then went to dinner at Benjy's to talk.

Our First Journal Entry About the Possibility of Moving

Things we will not miss…first world problems…

The jet engine air conditioner that made it impossible to have conversations at a normal volume and woke us from sleep multiple times at night.

Being woken up by our downstairs neighbor’s crying baby – correction, two year old – for 3 hours straight at two in the morning…it was so bad we slept on the couches one night.

The lack of phone service in our apartment. AT&T needs to get on that.

Not being able to do P90X Plyometrics workouts in our living room because we had downstairs neighbors and the floor was kind of like a loud trampoline.

The lock on our outside front door being backwards and always having trouble opening it. 

Unlocking the front door, going upstairs, only to realize that whoever had left the apartment last had locked the front door with the inside locks…time to head to the back! (or vice versa)

Our next door neighbor leaving notes on the Tahoe for parking too close to the driveway, parking too close to the trashcan, etc, etc, etc….or how every time we parked in front of our next door neighbor’s house our car was covered in bird poop.

Only one out of four outlets in the house working.

Clicking on lights in one room, only to have them go off in another room because all of the lights/fans were programmed with the same code…and could only be fixed by completely uninstalling the fans and then re-installing them, which we did not do.

Just a few of the things we will miss…

We will miss having a home close to family and friends, where people could stop in and say hello, and we could share a meal together.  We will miss living five minutes away from Erin and Abby.

 

We will miss the community at GBC.

Fall 2012 Community Group

We will miss living so close to work, so that we could spend more time together at home and less time commuting.

 

We will miss our landlord.  We had the best landlord ever – if anything broke, Cesar was there that day to fix it himself, or had a brand new oven delivered the next day.  The entire two and a half years we lived there he never raised our rent – such a blessing!

Believe it or not, we will miss our tiny bathroom, where you could “shower, pee and brush your teeth all at the same time”.

We will miss being close to TUTS and Broadway Across America performances and watching from our nosebleed season ticket seats with friends.

We will miss walks around the neighborhood and walks/jogs/runs around Rice University.  So many friendships were formed and furthered along those paths.  Going around Rice was a sure recipe for getting Red to talk…that man likes to be active!

We will miss being so close to our favorite restaurants, Pasha and Benjy’s.  We will miss being to walk to  Swirrl and Half Price Books on dates.

We will miss being able to walk to Miller Outdoor Theatre to enjoy free summer symphony nights, musicals, movies, 4^th of July fireworks, etc.

4th of July Fireworks at Miller Outdoor Theatre

We will miss having slumber parties with guests staying in our second bedroom: Rock, Alex, Emily, Josh and Anna, Rosemary, Lori, Phil, Lindsey, Josh, Ally, Kathy and Nicole, Chessy, Grace, Erica and Hallie, etc. (So happy we decided to get an apartment with a second bedroom.)  Everyone is welcome to come visit us in Sakhalin, all you have to do is get here: lodging, food, entertainment, etc is on us!

Red's Workout of the Day!

We will miss living in the first place we called “home” together.  It was in that house that we laughed, cried, fought, made-up and loved one another for the first two years of our marriage.  We are sad to be leaving and hope you have enjoyed sharing in our memories of the place.  The great thing is that our home is simply wherever the two of us are, as long as we are together.  So for now, Olympia House 5B just outside of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Sakhalin Island, Russia is our home.

 

**We would love your comments if you have memories with us in our first home, your memories help us remember better!**