Texas Take Over

Texas Take Over

   9:45 AM       Cassie

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Remember this post when my sister and her boyfriend got a wild hair and up and moved to Texas.  Wah.  Well, they are here to give you a quarterly update on how life is, deep in the heart of Texas!

Howdy from every one's favorite Texans.

First day as residents of beautiful Canyon, Texas!

Things down here are going well so far.  Can't complain about our 80 degree weather (we keep that in mind when we think we miss Southern Illinois) we have been having these last few weeks.  Besides the fact that at the beginning of March we had Amarillo's largest blizzard.  The photo below is our back door.  19 inches of snow and 45mph winds.  19 inches!  They shut down major highways.  No one was going anywhere!

But we made it through it and now we are soaking up the sun.  Golfing on the weekends.  Going on hikes.  Just enjoying the outdoors and then sun!

Here is a little recap on everything we have been up to these last few months.

So why did we move to Texas in the first place?  Phils' job.

Phil is employed at ADM as a Grain Terminal Operation Manager.

Trains from good ole Southern Illinois and St. Louis travel to his facility full of grain.  They then load tractor trailers full of grain and send them off to the feed lots.

They don't call this place the Beef Capital of the United States for nothing.

Miles a miles of beef cattle line these red dirt roads waiting to be made into delicious steaks.  It was hard having to go through lent down here with all the steak houses around and the limited amount of fish frys.

Phil has been learning a lot, everything from the railroad system to the fact that everyone eats burritos instead of sandwiches for lunch.  He is more than happy to admit he is taller then most of his co-workers!  Ha (the joys of working with mexicans).  Anyone who knows Phil knows how excited he is about this.

So what have I been doing while my grain hauling, burrito eating, giant of a boyfriend works?

After 5 days of being unemployed I was about to go crazy sitting at home.  I was offered a job as a front desk clerk at a RV sales lot.  Yes, paint yourself your own picture if you must.  Ha.  But I needed something!  I worked there for a little over a week when I received a call from a bank offering me a position as a bank teller.  This was more of what I wanted to do so I accepted the job on the spot.  I am really enjoying the bank I work for and the people I work with.  I even placed in a chili competition we had at work!   One thing we both agree on is Texans are very polite!

So what do we do besides work and stare at all the deer heads Phil mounted in our apartment?

Since we have been down here we have tried to visit interesting places. One of the first places we went to was Palo Duro Canyon. The second largest canyon in the United States.  It was pretty neat to be only miles from this beautiful sight.

We have also done the touristy thing of seeing the Cadillac Ranch.

Let's take a second to talk about my awesome tan.  ha.  Kidding.  But really let's talk about Phil's awesome ability to take pictures.  He really is good!  All of the cool photos you see from us down here are all courtesy of him.  I mean come on, I can't do it all, right?

However so far my favorite place we have traveled to is Red River, NM.  It is a five hour drive from the flat lands of Texas to the beautiful mountains of New Mexico.  A nice weekend getaway for our three year anniversary.  Another awesome photo by Phil.

There's also a small zoo down here we checked out once.  And well, once was enough for us.  It's NOTHING compared to the St. Louis Zoo.

Overall we are enjoying ourselves!!

Living together has been one of the best things we could have done (awww, how cute, right?). I still love coming home to Phil everyday, and I think he'd say the same too.  Yes, we have learned a lot of things about each since living together, but they are all things we both can live with.  I'm happy to say I have only had a melt down or two.  We had to draw the line a few times when it comes to certain issues.  Ha.  Having the outdoor channel has saved Phil from having nature withdrawals.  And having FaceTime has saved us from getting in the car and driving home once a month.

We are always welcoming visitors!  We've had two so far.  So if you are taking a road trip and heading through the area let us know, we'd be happy to see you!

Now we're off to pack our bags, catch a plane and head to St. Louis for some weekend fun!