From Texas to Florida and back again...

Hey Harris fam! Lindsey asked me to try this out and see how user-friendly it is. So far, so good! (Easier than the online training I'm currently avoiding for my new job anyway! 🤣) I thought I'd tell a bit of how we ended up back in Texas for those who haven't heard the whole story yet. Buckle up! 

We had been living in Florida for about 3.5 years after I took a job at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg. When it was just Brent and me (and our dog Bucky!), it was kind of a big adventure, and we enjoyed living near the beach, but we missed home. That only multiplied when I got pregnant with Lincoln. I hated the idea of him growing up far from grandparents, aunts/uncles, and cousins. Then COVID threw a huge wrench in things, made it hard to get to know other young families, and kept us from traveling home as much as we would have liked. Raising a toddler without family support nearby is HARD, y'all. 0/10 do not recommend. Needless to say, we were ready to come home. Ending up back at Baylor had always been my dream, and last summer I was thrilled to see they had a position open in my area. I applied and crossed my fingers, but never heard a peep back, despite some initial encouragement from one of my former professors. Finally in February or March, they sent back a single email thanking me for my application, so that was that...or so I thought. 

Around the same time, a former boss of Brent's posted on Facebook that she had some supervisor positions open at Waco Transit System. I encouraged him to reach out to her, just on the off chance that these positions paid enough for us to just move back without me having a full-time faculty position. She was thrilled to hear from him and said they'd love to bring him on, but unfortunately the salary just wasn't at that level. But this pushed me to take a closer look at some schools I hadn't checked into before, and I came across a position at McLennan Community College in Waco. Full-time, tenure-track, everything I could have asked for. But it had been posted for a LONG time, and we were way past the usual academic hiring cycle. I applied anyway, and heard back within a week. They wanted to do a Zoom interview! I actually thought I bombed it, and texted some friends that "it's going to have to be a God thing". Well, I think He was waiting for an invitation. They called within a few days wanting to fly me out - to WACO, which if you've ever flown to Waco, there is literally ONE gate and the flights are $$$. Everyone usually flies to Dallas or Austin, so I kind of had an inkling they were serious about me. The interview went well, we jumped through the few remaining hoops, and I accepted the position at the end of April (one week AFTER my contract for this school year was due at my previous school, because sometimes we have to take leaps of faith...). We moved pretty much as quickly as we could, and have loved spending the summer in Texas seeing all the family we missed so much (and eating Tex-Mex and Whataburger whenever we want). Here are some recent pics! 

Easter 2022: one thing we do miss so much about Florida is our awesome church where we were so plugged in. 

Lincoln's first football game. He loved it! Our local high school won state last year, so it should be a fun season! 

Enjoying a Shipley donut...if you know, you know! It's literally at the end of our street.

Thanks for reading this far, if you did! Looking forward to keeping up with everyone better. Love to all! 

-Jen