How we’re adjusting with moving to Texas

We’ve been getting lots of questions about moving to Texas, so here are a few answers to some of your frequent questions!

outfit details
yellow striped swimsuit (on sale for $30!! wearing size small long)
cut off shorts (mine are last season, but this is the same style)

 

Let’s do a little Q&A about our move to Texas

It’s been an entire week since we’ve moved to Texas, so obviously we’re not settled yet (in fact, our moving truck full of our stuff just arrived yesterday), but we’ve been getting lots of questions about the move, so I wanted to do a little Q&A style post to answer some of your FAQ about our move to Texas.  

 

Why did we move to Texas?

I shared about this a couple of times, but in case you missed it — my husband got a job promotion that moved us from Orange County, California to Dallas, Texas.

He works for Enterprise, and was the director of Southern California for the last four years. His promotion moved him to director of the Dallas region.

 

How do the boys feel about the move?

We had two months to help them mentally prepare for this move, so it’s gone actually pretty smoothly.

B has been the most worried about it, and was definitely the most sad to leave his class at school. Fos and San are still young enough that they don’t really care.

We went and visited their new school in Texas last week though, and they instantly felt right at home. The teachers and classmates were so sweet, so outgoing and so excited to have a new kid in the class. After that tour, he felt much better, and their first day of school yesterday went smoothly!

How did the boys’ first day of school go?

You guys are so sweet and so many of you asked about their first day of school yesterday! It went better than I could have imagined. Both of them jumped in the car after school with huge smiles on their faces and tons of stories about their day.

B particularly had a great day, and that was a huge answer to prayers.

They both have great teachers, and the kids in their classes were all so incredibly friendly. I’m so, so relieved to have that first day under their belts and to have had it go so well.

 

What part of Texas did we move to?

We are in a suburb north of the Dallas Fort Worth area.

 

Are we buying a house in Dallas?

Yes! Philip traveled to Texas back at the beginning of December and found us a lot in a new build neighborhood. It won’t be ready until this summer, so we’re in a rental house until our new home is ready.

Will you be sharing about your home building process?

Yes, absolutely! Right now it’s being framed, so we’re still a few months out. But once all the fun stuff starts happening like paint colors and countertops and decorating, we’ll be sharing all of that.

 

Do we have advice about packing and moving?

The short answer is no. Since Philip’s job was relocating us, they took care of everything. They hired packers and movers for us, which was amazing and took a huge burden off of us. They also shipped our car and flew us all out. We honestly got spoiled.

But if you’re looking for a good moving company, the company we used was Berger Allied Movers, and they were great.

 

Do we have any family in Texas? Or know anyone?

We have no family in Texas, and I only have a handful of blogger acquaintances in Dallas. So basically we know no one.

But, we had no family in California either, so we’re certainly not worried about it. We love a little bit of independence, but also being a quick plane flight away from our families.

However, our babysitter, who worked for us part time in California, moved with us to Texas. She goes to school part time, all online, and has a few more years of school, so she thought an adventure to a new city would be fun for a couple of years. We did not expect her to move with us at all, but when she offered, we were beyond thrilled to have her come. She won’t be living with us, but will be a few cities over in a college town and will continue to help take care of our boys. My boys absolutely adore her, so this will make the transition for them so much smoother.

Also, between school and church, I know we’ll be able to find lots of friends. Everyone in Texas so far has been so friendly and kind!

 

What did we pack for the time in between houses?

We were in between houses for only one week, but we didn’t know how long that would be until after we’d packed up the house. So I packed for each of us for about two weeks, just in case.

For me, I put together a capsule wardrobe of about 10 pieces that would make a ton of outfits. I’ll be sharing all about that next week!

For each of the boys, I packed three pairs of pants, two pairs of shoes (sneakers and boots that worked for church and weekdays), five shirts, one sweatshirt, and one heavy coat. Also two pairs of pajamas, and their socks and underwear. That ended up being a perfect amount for them, and if we’d gone two weeks we would have just had to wash everything sometime in the middle.

We flew to Utah for a couple of days during our in between period to attend Philip’s mom’s funeral, so we had to have Dallas clothing and Utah clothing, which made things a little trickier.

We also brought two backpacks with an iPad, a couple of novels for Benson, coloring pages and colored pencils, a couple of matchbox cars, and a gallon sized ziploc bag of LEGOs.

 

What are we most excited about in moving to Texas?

There are actually a lot of things we’re excited about, but definitely the biggest draw is the cost of living. We’re excited to have a lower mortgage, a bigger house and lot, and no state income tax.

But I’m also excited to explore a new city, meet new people, try new restaurants, and have a fun new adventure!

 

What are we most sad about in moving from California?

For me, two things: the people and the beach.

I honestly didn’t feel sad when we left our home there — it was a fantastic house and we loved it, but it wasn’t our forever dream home and I never felt super attached to it.

When we lived in Huntington Beach, that felt so much like home to me. I was so sad when we moved in-land two years ago (of course happy to have a backyard and our own home, but so sad to leave the area). Our area inland never truly felt like home to me, so leaving it wasn’t as difficult.

Thank goodness for facetime and phones and social media to keep me connected with all my wonderful friends back in SoCal!

 

Honestly our first few days in Dallas have been a dream. We moved into our rental home yesterday, where we’ll live for the next five months until our new home is finished being built, and although we’re still drowning in boxes, I feel so happy to be here.

 

If you have any other questions, leave a comment and I’ll answer them!

xx

Merrick