Priceless

3 airline tickets: hundreds of dollars and thousands of travel points

Suitcases brought with us: two for the human, one for the dog

Number of panic attacks in Texas: 0

Times we heard the cry of "doggie doggie doggie!": countless

Number of migraines in Texas: 0

Places we went in Texas: too many to count (at least 2 or 3 a day)

Number of times Owen did deep pressure tasks: (at least) 20

Keeping your sanity during a family reunion?  Priceless.

I love my family, but 10 days in one house with 8 people, one baby, two dogs, and one puppy...  It can get a little stressful at times.

Owen and I did so much and went so many places and I had no migraines and no panic attacks.  I was able to go places all day long (one day I even woke up at 5:00 with Owen and we were out until 11:00 at night!).  We went to the Galleria (think mall on steroids) in Houston, we went to church, and even went to the Nutcracker ballet!  Never could I have ever thought I would have been able to keep up with my family like that without the crashes I used to experience.

Owen did great on the airplanes, but I'm planning on making our travel stories their own post entirely.

Here is our trip, told through pictures!  I know there are more pictures somewhere and I'll add them to our facebook page when I get a hold of them.  Enjoy!
 

Luckily we were at this restaurant at a really off time because Owen was nowhere near out of the way!  The servers were really great and kept telling me not to worry about moving him because "he was sleeping".  I am still working on figuring out the best places to put Owen when we go out so that he is as much out of the way as possible; I know it's all me though.  Owen can curl up really small when he needs to!

Snoozing at lunch in Houston with a family friend - Owen attracted lots of attention here, we had people come talk to us at our table and as we were leaving I heard one man tell his wife, "See! I told you there was a dog here!"

We started playing a game when we went out places, trying to get pictures of Owen with things balanced on his head while he slept - we weren't very successful with the picture taking, but you can balance a lot on Owen!  For those of you not "in-the-know", Pappasitos is a hugely popular Tex Mex chain in Houston, the food is phenomenal and it is always crazy busy.  I was so proud of Owen here, with all the people, smells, and food on the floor, he just curled up and went to sleep!

Owen's at the Houston Ballet!  We saw the Nutcracker while we were in Houston; I was a little worried about how Owen would act with the music, but he slept through it!  In fact, he slept so well that during the first act he was whimpering in his sleep and during the second act he started snoring and grumping!  The people around us who didn't see us sit down were very confused!  The children were great, I heard lots of parents explaining that he was a service dog and was working, and I had one little girl ask me very politely to pet Owen (I had to say no as there were hundreds of little kids and I wasn't about to open that can of worms!).  The adults on the other hand, were not so great.  But I'll talk about that later.

Road trip!  My mom, Owen, and I drove out to Katy (about 20 minutes from Houston) to look at the area.  Katy has a great school district and is really good for special education and I'm hoping to apply to work there (along with some other districts) for this upcoming school year.  Owen snoozed the whole trip and when we got home he looked confused as if to say, "Why are we back home?  Did I miss something?"

 

Owen and I also had breakfast with a principal of the elementary school I went to when I lived in Houston.  It was great getting to meet with her and she is going to help me get my resume out to different schools in the Houston area, hopefully in a few months we will be back in Houston interviewing!  The tables were quite interesting at this restaurant, and there wasn't really room underneath for Owen, but he found a spot.  Wedged between the pole and the wall! (Don't worry, he didn't sleep with his head smooshed like this the whole time, I don't know what he was thinking!)  When it came time to leave, I had to move the table so he could get out!  He took the opportunity while I couldn't reach him to hoover up some crumbs on the floor.  Whoops!

Probably Owen's favorite part of the trip was getting to meet (and love on) lots of little kids.  Almost every night we had people over to my grandparent's house and they brought their kids.  This is Owen's favorite little girl "making sure he stays" while I got his dinner ready.  She then remarked while he was eating, "Wow, he's a really good eater." :)