One year in Temple

I had to search my photos forever to find something Temple related, ha! It's not the prettiest city. This is the old Santa Fe Train Depot near downtown, which is now a museum and, well, still a train station.

Somehow a year has passed since we moved to Temple. Well, a year in some days. We moved here June 1st. It both feels like just yesterday and a million years ago. Our life in Austin seems very distant and unfamiliar, mostly because when we were there we were carefree and childless. What is that? Temple has been all about baby. Preggo for half, new parents for half.

Y'all all know, I hated Temple when we moved here. Hated it. I kinda blame months of morning sickness which began I swear, the week we moved up. But I also blame Temple, because it does suck a little. ;) I wouldn't say I love living here now, but there are things about it that I like. It was the perfect place to have a baby. Quiet, easy, affordable, full of kind folks and little old ladies and men who love babies. Really a decent place to spend 75% of your time never leaving the house. It's been good to us, which is convenient as we've got at least another year here ahead of us. Silent scream/sigh of relief? I go back and forth. Every day is grows on me. And seriously you'd never think it, but Temple is booming. SO many new businesses have opened just since we've been here and there are a ton more on the way. There are like twice as many places to eat now! Places to eat have a big influence on my appreciation of a place. Probably why I loved Austin so much.

The town is still and will probably always be terrifyingly conservative and very much like what you'd imagine a Texas town would be like socially. I feel very much out of place when things like politics or religion come up. Don't get me started on all the bumper stickers. Terrible place to live if you're vegetarian. Which saves us moola. We are also far younger than most of the citizens. By like 30 years. BUT as with southern towns, most folks are endearingly kind and polite. Which is refreshing. Everyone is very nice. Unless you're a minority. I kid, I kid! (Kinda.)

No one can drive (or park) worth a damn, but getting across town still just takes ten minutes. And there's NO TRAFFIC. We still love our little apartment and all the lovely folks that live in our complex. I've never met my neighbors anywhere I've lived, but this small town thing y'all. Our neighbors gave us baby gifts. We don't even know these people! It's crazy and kinda sweet. I legit think they'd give me a cup of sugar if I asked. I won't because strangers scare me and I'm never short on sugar, but it's a nice thought.

The VA where Brendon works is really the best thing we could have imagined. We could not have planned it better. Everyone there is soooooo nice and kind and family friendly. Every time I go visit him I am swamped with smiles and hugs and boy do they looove Indiana. I'm glad we're here for another year, if for no other reason than Brendon gets to keep working where he is. And the thought of moving to a new city again and resettling with a 4 month old is kind of terrifying. Thankful that we are not!

So YES, I am ready to be staying another year. Would I rather be in Austin with my fellow liberal weirdos? Maybe. Well, let's be real, yes. Could we afford it? Maybe not. I really do think this is the right place for us at the moment. And we're helping to spice Temple up a little! It needs a little weird.

An update on life, generally.

So there have been lots of fun announcements here lately, but not much in the realm of day to day life for the Hogans. So, not that people are hankering to know, but I thought I'd fill the internet in. Also here's a picture of Sophie, my hardworking sewing assistant.

Clearly she's a huge help. Not sure what I'd do with out her.

We've been here in Temple for... almost three months? Is that possible?! I'd say we're pretty settled in. Brendon has been doing the residency thing, which recently has consumed all his free time. Kind of like being in school again. Lots of research, lots of projects. No tests though! He's also been working the odd weekend a month or so as a pharmacist at CVS, just for extra cash and to keep up his tenure there. I think he secretly loves it. And I think Brendon also secretly likes it here in Temple. He likes the slower lifestyle, the convenience of small town living. Plus he's surrounded by like minded folks at work, doing what he loves. There are a few things that bother both of us about Temple, but I think out of the two of us, he's more at home here.

I on the other hand, can't help feeling a little out of place. There are wonderful things about living here. It takes ten minutes to get any where (whether in Temple or Belton), no where is EVER busy, and it is cheap cheap cheap. Living here is saving us a ton of cash compared to Austin. Also, our neighborhood/apartment is SO NICE and quiet and safe and just really the polar opposite of our place in Austin (yet cheaper?). But, there are also downsides to living here. Here goes my rant, bear with me. I often think of living here as going back a decade. Life in 2005. Or earlier. I am a millennial, for sure, that just came from a tech driven city so this slide back into the past has been... frustrating at times. I mean, we'll look up restaurants and there just wont be a website? HA, how tech reliant can you get, right? I think it's because there just aren't a lot of young people here. There is a giant retired population, and then families. Not many young folks. The young folks that are here are mostly all doctors and medical folks. And the majority of those doctors and medical folks don't even live here, they commute from Round Rock or Georgetown or Austin (understandably). So there aren't a lot of "young people" things here, because there's no market for it. And man, being a vegetarian in Temple is challenging, to say the least. If you don't want Asian or Italian food, your options are pretty much nilch. Which is saving us lots of money on eating out! Silver lining! There is also a shocking lack of good coffee, but I'm a coffee snob. So. Unsurprisingly, the Temple/Belton area is VERY conservative and VERY... Texas. We are bleeding heart liberals as my dad says, so that can be a little frustrating. And NO ONE CAN DRIVE HERE. I swear to you, the Hogans drive faster than 95% of the the population of Temple and Belton combined. Driving below the speed limit is a thing here. There's no traffic, but there are figurative turtles on the road you have to dodge. Aaaand, no one will visit you when you live in Temple. I mean, at least in Austin we had the "oooh Austin is cool, lets go see the Hogans", we got nothin' here.  I don't blame them. If we want to see people, we go to them.

OKAY. Rant over before my head falls off. To be fair, most of the three months we've been here, I was basically sick. So that's not a good start. And I hated Austin (and Denton) when I first moved there, but ended up loving it. And obviously Austin makes any other Texas town (especially a small one) seem like a foreign country. I get that. And I was born and raised in Texas, so you'd think I'd know. I guess I just got spoiled. And Austin sucks in many ways. It's overcrowded, the traffic is horrendous, hipsters everywhere (I secretly miss y'all though), and it is expensive. Settling down there and purchasing a house would be challenging. So I think Temple is good for us. As much as I grumble and moan about it, it's a smart place for us to be right now. Did I mention how cheap it is? And Austin is just down there road and I'm there once a week.

Which brings me to, what the heck am I doing for a living? I'm 70% a housewife, y'all. I work once a week sewing at my job down in Austin, but aside from that I chill at home. It's weird, but it works for us right now. I'm going to have my hands full with a Seahorse in a few months so we decided just to forgo me trying to get a, well, lets be honest... shitty job just for a few months. So I'm at home! Which has been perfect, because the past few months of being knocked up have been real rough for me. I'm doing mostly better now, but I still have the occasional date with my face in the toilet, so it's nice to do that in the comfort of my own home. I've been keeping my self busy with sewing (for me!! for fun!), cleaning, cooking, you know. House crap. And I don't mind! I've worked my ass off since I was a teenager, so it's nice to have a break. And the cats think they've died and gone to heaven. They loooove having a human around all the time. Just wait, y'all. Soon there will be a tiny human with hands that love to grab cat tails. (None of this would obviously be possible without my super hero husband, Brendon. That boy is the hardest working person I have EVER met. And he is also the kindest and sweetest, and always makes me feel... important. No matter what. Damn, I love you Brendon, and so does the Seahorse. She told me.)

So that's basically it! We've got a fair bit of traveling ahead, in state and out, the next few months before the Seahorse arrives, so I'm pretty stoked about that. Especially since I've been feeling somewhat normal again. Lots of fun adventures squeezed our ever shrinking time as a family of two. Plus two cats. Life is pretty good you guys. I know I just whined about Temple for a good paragraph, but I do not want you to think for a second that I am not LOVING life and thrilled at where we are in it. We are lucky ducks. Actually, eff luck, we both worked real hard to be where we are. So we are enjoying it. Even if Brendon is up to his ears in medical articles every free moment and I'm wondering if my esophagus will survive this never ending heartburn and oh my god we will be responsible for a tiny human very soon, WE ARE HAPPY. Because we're together. And it is almost FALL, praise the pumpkin gods.

Austin to Temple

Quick update on life. It's been messy! And busy! But also really good. We are in Temple and have been for two weeks tomorrow. Our apartment is a dream, cheaper than our apartment in Austin, yet bigger and nicer and quieter. We're surrounded by new housing developments on two sides, an old neighborhood on one, and a field of wildflowers on the other. We face the wildflowers (my allergies!). We're on the outskirts of Temple, on the way to Belton. So we kind of get the best of both worlds. Temple is nice and actually pretty big, but I think Belton might be my favorite. It's smaller and cuter and they have a river and a lake. I'm partial to living near water. But the two towns are basically smashed into one another, so lucky us. I was honestly terrified that I would hate it here after Austin, but I don't. I adore the lack of traffic and the slower pace. We haven't had much time for exploring, but from what we've seen, we like it here! The cats do too.

It's been a nice two weeks of a whole lot of nothing. Well, that's a lie. For the first week Brendon studied his butt off for the NAPLEX (Which he passed! One more test in July and he'll be a licensed pharmacist! What a process this is!) and he's been working part time at a CVS here in Temple. And I've been just chillin' like a villain (insert sunglasses emoji) and working once a week at my sewing job in Austin. It's been a nice change of scenery and breath of culture (and a chance to satisfy any cravings for Austin goodies), and enough of a taste of Austin and it's traffic to make my commute home a happy and relieved one. But mostly we've been relaxing when we can. Watching lots of movies. Lots of cuddling. Lots of sleeping in. It's been good for us, because the last four years of our lives have been go go go GO and now we've had a much welcomed moment to breathe. And we've had visitors! My momma-in-law and little bro-in-law came to stay for the first weekend we were here and my mom was here yesterday! I love visitors. This is an open invitation to anyone who wants to trek to Temple and hang out. I am an expert at relaxation at this point, come chill with me.

Just as we get settled in, we leave for our little summer vacation next week. A real one, where we go somewhere, because I've definitely been on vacation for two weeks already. And then Brendon starts his residency when we get back! Which is a bummer, but hopefully means our lives will settle in to some sort of routine. Don't get me wrong, I like this hanging out in limbo we've been doing, it's been a nice change of pace, but I am not-so-secretly a huge nerd who needs a little structure in her life to thrive. Only a little though.