Top Ten Reasons Why Texas is Great

The long awaited..... 

TOP TEN Reasons why Texas is so GREAT that it should be tattooed on your foot:

10. CRICKETS.
Yes, I am serious. (and no, NOT the semi-baseball sport!)
Although I am not a fan of Texas Heat, I am a huge fan of sitting outside on the back porch (YEAH for all those Porch Nights!!) in the summer, listening to the crickets chirp. To me, it is NOT summer without that sound...
and it is something I miss in Denmark, the land of no crickets.
We sit outside in the summer, but there are no sounds. Kinda sad, in my opinion.
If I could have the Danish summer nights with a nice breeze and SUNLIGHT until midnight PLUS the chirping crickets of Texas, then to me, that would be the ultimate summer night! 




9. Texas Lingo. 
Yes, we did give the world "Y'ALL", but that is just the beginning! 
There are LOTS of words/phrases that could be on this list, but here are some that I PERSONALLY use on a regular basis (causing some interesting looks here in DK!)

• fixin' ..... Not as in "fixin the broken lamp".... but rather:  I am fixin' to do that. (Honestly I TRY to keep this one at bay because we sound so uneducated when we say it, but I do hear it come out of my mouth every now and then)
• holler ....  Just holler if you need something. Yep, I use it OFTEN! 
• dadgumit .... a favorite "nice" curse word 
• and what have you  .....  in Danish, it is like "osv...." ... We use it to end a sentence, with the assumption that the person we are talking to knows just what we are talking about..
• coke .... In Texas this does not always mean "Coca Cola"... it really means soda (which is a YANKEE word!)

We also have some of our own units of measurement in Texas:

• a mess of..... As in:  "a mess of beans"  (yes, it is a UNIT of measurement that all of our Texas grandmas can understand!)
• She's about knee-high to a grasshopper... a measurement of height... 
• big ol'  .... as in: I got a big ol' knot in my shoulders..or... He has a big ol' mess to clean up! 
• a bushel and a peck ... as in: I love you a bushel and a peck. My mom sang it to me... I sang it to Jess... and I have been known to sing it to Mads! 

And then there is the VERY useful phrase to let everyone know you KNOW what you are talking about...

      "This ain't my first rodeo!"  

(Yes, as an English teacher, I confess. This is the one time I use ain't!)

And the phrase to let everyone know just how busy you are right now:

      "Busier than a one legged man in a butt kickin 'contest!"

8. Driving Etiquette
This one shocked the heck outta Mads the first few times, but it grew on him pretty fast!! 

The majority of Texans respect another driver's need to hurry, even if they don't feel the need to hurry themselves. They will almost always pull onto the shoulder of a two-lane road just so the guy behind can pass. But remember----you need to wave to say "thank you" as y'all zoom on by! 


This seems like such a small thing, but it just one more example of how friendly we are..... helps restore your faith in the goodness of people! Remember: Just because we carry guns in our pick-ups, that doesn't mean we aren't friendly! We only use them if we have to! :-) 

7. Bluebonnets. 
There is something incredibly special about driving along the Texas highway and seeing the bluebonnets in bloom because it is the sign for all of us that winter is over. 


You know--they are the STATE FLOWER of Texas (and you are not supposed to pick them!) but you are ENCOURAGED to stop alongside the road and plop your kids down in the middle of them and take their pic! We've ALL done it! 


And where did Bluebonnets come from?? No matter what botanists say, Texans will argue that the only way to answer that question is with the LEGEND OF THE BLUEBONNET. 

6. 99.5 THE WOLF. 

Yes, seriously. 

This item is not just about the awesomeness of "country music" in general, but to me, one of the things that makes our state great is 99.5 THE WOLF. 

And now I must thank Apple for the "iTune radio" app because that means I can have the Wolf in the CAR, in the kitchen when I'm cooking, in my office... ALL OVER DENMARK! There is something pretty special to be sitting at my desk at work and hear "It's 2:00 in Texas!"

Makes those 5000 miles seem much smaller.

5. MEXICAN FOOD....and to be more specific... TEX MEX--THE ULTIMATE comfort food, hangover food, latenight scarfing: It has many purposes; all of them delicious. And in our house, Mexican Food IS A STAPLE!

And so far, I have been to every "Mexican food" restaurant in Herning, and all I can say is... We have NO Mexican food restaurants in Herning, REGARDLESS what the signs say. 

If we want Mexican food, we stay in.

4. ICED TEA AKA "Wine of the south"

No, I do not want beer, wine or coke with my dinner. 

I WANT ICED TEA. Unfortunately I live on a continent that has not figured out the iced tea phenomenon yet. 

However I do love that when I give folks the choice of what they want to drink when they come to our house for dinner, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, they pick ICED TEA! 

In fact, I am drinking a glass of it as I type this blog.

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So now for the Top Three. 

The three things that I think are most special about Texas life and Texas culture... and without these three, the other 47 wouldn't matter. Family is a big deal in Texas. A really big deal. I hope it's that way in other cultures, but I can assure you.... FAMILY is the key to all we do in the south. 

I hope you listen to all three songs. 

And that they touch you the way they do me. 

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3. MOMMAS. 

2. DADDIES.

1. DAUGHTERS.

The greatest part of my life in Texas is that girl living out in the middle of the country, just outside College Station. Sure, I love Mexican food, Mavericks, and Country Music. But there is a kind of love reserved for our daughters... it's like nothing else.

I hope you have fallen a little in love with my Texas as I have shared these 50 things.
Trust me; Texas is not the kind of place you will visit only once. 


Mads thought that in 2006.... and now look how his life turned out. :-)
We Texas gals are something special.... we come from good people. Just ask...we'll tell ya!