On Saturday August 27, 2005 I was planning to go wedding dress shopping with some of my bridesmaids. The plan was to meet up around noon and go to New Orleans to a couple dress shops. That morning one of the bridesmaids called and canceled on me. I went to work and a few hours later Tory called to let me know that he was on his way up to Baton Rouge and had all of our stuff in his car and we were evacuating New Orleans, Katrina was coming her way. Once he got to Baton Rouge we tried to find a hotel room North and West and had no luck. His Uncle Scott did have a hotel room in Houston so we planned to leave on Sunday morning and take the back roads to get to Houston. Tory's sister and her family were going to Shreveport to her brother-n-laws, and the other uncles were going across the lake to wait and see what the storm did. Tory and I left Baton Rouge on Sunday morning and took all the back roads and made it to Houston in about 7 hours. Lets just say the hotel was not a Hilton Brand and it was terrible but better then nothing. 4 adults and 2 kids in a small hotel room gets very tight, and one of the kids does NOT like Tory. On Monday Tory and I went to play golf at this golf course we had been wanting to play at, Tour 18, just north of Houston. We loved the course and loved the area. When we returned to the hotel, we then learned what was happening in New Orleans and really could not believe the damage. Tory's parents house did have some damage and his sister lost her big oak tree. (it feel on their car that they had just made the last car payment).
In March 2006, Tory received a call from a recruiter about moving to Houston. The economy had taken a hard hit after Katrina and we had started looking for a house and had not come up with anything. I thought that we were crazy not to even explore the possiblity. Not knowing anyone in Houston, I got on the wedding board, the knot, and asked where to live and work and we keep coming back to the area were Tour 18 was located. We had 3 days to decided on a job and find a house. The last house we walked through was the house we are in today. When we walked through where the front door would be, we both just knew that this was our house.
It was very hard for us to move away from our family. Most of Tory's family all live within a 5-10 mile radius with the exception of one uncle that lives across the lake. The move did make us closer to my parents and we have been thankful for being able to call them when we need a babysister. We do wish that we were closer and the 5hour trip is alot longer now with 2 kids and 2 dogs (one still gets car sick).I am so thankful now how things have turned out for us. We have made some amazing friends here in Houston and I can not thank them enough for all that they have done for us. They are amazing rolemodels for us as parents, and husbands & wives.
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