"Out in the West Texas town of El Paso..."

As a lot of you know, Justin is being station at Ft Bliss and that means we're moving to El Paso, TX in July. I've never been to Texas so I was pretty anxious to see our new "home". I put home in quotations b/c our home will always be Indiana, as that's where our family and friends are! I've been reading and doing all kinds of research about where we're going and some things looked good and some things had me a little worried. If you aren't aware, El Paso is in the farthest Southwest corner of Texas. It's 1 1/2 miles from Jaurez, Mexico and hours away from Las Cruces, New Mexico. If you follow the news (like I TRY to do) you have probably read about all of the violence in Jaurez. This had me quite concerned. Once I got to El Paso and started to explore and talk to local people I learned that El Paso is quite safe! Any violence that's happening on the border, stays on the border and does not come up into El Paso (what a relief!). El Paso is also up for an All American City award and is the 3rd safest city in the United States w/ a population over 500,000! I was definitely surprised at all of the brown; brown mountains, brown buildings, brown ground, etc. The East side reminds me of Lafayette (they have grass and trees!) and that's the side of town we'll be living on! There are also 2 or 3 malls in El Paso (a girls dream)! The weather is great w/ the average winter temps in the 60's and the average summer temps in the 90's. Luckily it's a dry heat, so no humidity!! On the downside, the winds are crazy and often create sandstorms (ouch!).
A view from the West side of El Paso, overlooking the Lower Valley

Due to lack of water, the majority of people have rocks for front yards!