Texas

Well the Dietrich family have been official Texas residents for over three weeks now. We have already seen the nice benefit of getting to keep more of our own money. There is no state income tax here, which is something unusual for us since we have been Iowa residents our whole lives. The kids love the new house and more space. They also enjoy having cows, or more specifically longhorn cattle, almost in our backyard. The town we live in was once only about 3,000 people or so. But has grown significantly, due to housing developments sprouting up all over the place. I think the official population is something like 15 or 20 thousand now. But it is all housing developments sprinkled throughout cattle pastures. So we feel like we live in the country.

We've noticed a few things unique to Texas so far. It is very true that Texans love being Texans. They definitely take pride in their state, which is evident wherever you go. I can't go to the bathroom in a gas station without being reminded that I'm in Texas. They have pictures of their state everywhere down here. Along with sayings like "God Bless Texas", "Don't Mess with Texas", "Never Surrender", and "Freedom Don't Come Free".

We have also noticed almost every other car on the road is a truck, SUV, or Hummer. I didn't think people still bought Hummers, but apparently there are thriving Hummer dealerships down here. Cowboy hats are everywhere as well as signs for rodeos, bull riding, and BBQ's. The Texas twang is rich here and people are almost as friendly as Iowans! We have also noticed a growing dislike for Obama down here. We have a NOOBAMA bumper sticker on our van and have gotten honks with thumbs up from people passing us by. A few days ago after exiting the interstate a guy honked at me and signed to roll down my window. I was a little taken aback, but I smiled and rolled down my window. He smiled at me and said "I got to get one of those No Obama bumper stickers. Where can I find one?" Hopefully this is happening in more states than Texas, but I have definitely seen a lot of Stop Obama bumper stickers down here.

We are headed for a dude ranch and the cowboy capital of the world this weekend. I'm really excited for this even though I won't be able to ride a horse, but the bed and breakfast type ranch we are staying at is promising a huge cowboy breakfast in the morning.

The pictures above are of Dad and Madeline at the Enchanted Springs Ranch near San Antonio. George Strait films a lot of music videos there. A great movie was even shot there that Dad and Mom love! The other photo is of Madeline in her gymnastics outfit as today was her first day of gymnastics class. She had a lot of fun, but got two stamps on her hand instead of one (one stamp is good, two not good) because she wanted to jump off the vault too many times. Got to work on the listening concept a little more with her.

That's all for now!