KatieDidIt

We recently moved to West Memorial. The boys will attend Stratford High School, however they will got to St. Francis until that time. Our little neighborhood (east of Kirkwood) is for some reason zoned to Spring Forest Middle. While the neighorhood is in revitalization, the school demo changes are not there enough for us yet. Spring Forest has too many issues at this time, but I think it will shape up to be a great school once West Memorial fills with 30-40 year olds with kids and the number of 65+ households depletes.

Its an incredible neighborhood and such a RELIEF after The Woodlands.

Putting kids, coming from any area not just Gulfton, from the ages of 10-19 together seems to be an absolutley HORRIBLE idea. I really don't understand the rational and how they think the social dynamics of this is going to work. Just because the children are more focused on education than their counterparts, that doesn't mean they are socially mature or not troublemakers. Plenty of bright kids are bullies, just look at the suburbs.

This is so sad: "The younger students already are planning their strategies for coping with potential bullies: "I'd just keep walking," 10-year-old Saul Bravo advised. "You don't want to get in a fight with the older kids. They can beat you bad.""

Margaret Long Wisdom High School 6529 Beverly Hill Lane.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/mem...ws/4961490.html

We terminated our contract on Otter Pond today. Both hubby and I feel like we need to stay in Spring Branch ISD where we are, or at least Katy ISD, for right now. Both districts have exceptional programs for special needs students, and I was not getting good vibes from the administrators at CISD. They seemed to be put out that I even wanted to speak with them about my daughter when she wasn't even enrolled in school yet.

Our condo is still on the market, but The Woodlands, sadly, is out, which means Life Forms is too. I am a little sad, though not too much. I truly believe God has already told us what we should be doing, so I am okay with this decision. There are no coincidences, ya know?

:closedeyes:

If it helps any, I think you made the right choice. Everything you need is right there and very close by, which helps quality of life. Find peace in your decision.

Our home is not selling up here and I fear we will have to re-sell the one we bought in town. It will sell in a week or less. The market up here is totally flat in our price range and I don't think we can support two houses for more than a few months. We keep dumping the price on a 3 year old Weaver and are getting less and less showings each week. It makes us ill, we are so ready to move back and move on.

Honestly if you are playing the real estate game these days, whomever writes the biggest check wins. I don't care if I was living in a BLVD home, where the neighbors want to keep everything "the same."

Snoop Dog writes me a check for 4 million, Snoop gets the house............I'm moving anyway

I totally agree about Tanglewood and The Houston Country Club compared to River Oaks and the R.O.C.C.

In 1978, when my parents divorced, my mother was kicked out of the Houston C.C. because single women were not allowed! My dad was allowed to stay a member. This despite the fact that my maternal grandparents had been members of HCC for 50 plus years and had been the original sponsors for my folks. Additionally, my paternal grandmother was never allowed to join the HCC because she had been divorced even though she was remarried. ROCC didn't have those same restrictions so she joined there. What's really funny is that the grandparents who were not allowed into the HCC were Mastersons!

In the late 1980s, my mom received a phone call from HCC asking her to come back. The policies had finally changed allowing recently divorced mothers to retain their memberships. My mom politely told them where they could go.

We joined Lakeside. Its a great, young club. It has some of its own hangups but in general you can join if you are from a good family from Houston or outside Houston. Its much more socially laid back that both HCC and ROCC.

Actually, very few Kinkaid kids lived in River Oaks back in the day. I'd say about 10 people out of our class of 105. Most came from Tanglewood, Briargrove, the Memorial Villages and Briargrove Park.

I grew up in Tanglewood. Most of my siblings went to Lee.

That said, I think River Oaks is way more open to differences than Tanglewood. Sure, there's the old guard around, but it seems like many of my mom's neighbors are not originally from Texas. Her newest neighbors (they move into a builder home next door in a few weeks) are from Mexico City. I have several gay couple friends who live in River Oaks as well. The location can't be beat.

Tanglewood is a tough crowd. They barely talk to each other much less an "outsider." Trying to get into the Houston Country Club is like getting into Ft. Knox. If you aren't third generation, wealthy Houstonian, you don't have a chance. River Oaks has always been more excepting of new people and of new wealth.

There are Mexican Nationals and Latin Americans moving into the Tanglewood Blvd section now. They don't care if they are wanted or not. There is a lot of eye rolling from the natives, but the nationals generally throw up a gate and security cameras and keep to themselves. So they seem to be co-exiting without too much animosity.

The association bi-laws are a hoot to read though. Unchanged since the 60's.....

All High Schools have SNOTS and SNOBS.

Memorial is no worse than any of them.

Galleria has a bad reputation? Wow.

Nah. Just anything associated with a more city atmosphere make people wrinkle their nose in the burbs.

Question: So do residents (and businesses) of Uptown (Park) consider themselves different or separate from 'the Galleria area'?

When we lived in Tanglewood, we would say Uptown/Galleria to people not familiar with Houston.. You say Uptown and they have no clue what you are talking about. You say Galleria, they think big, bad city. Blend them together and you might get a more possitive reaction.

people can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a house that is like every third or fourth house in their neighborhood.

Village Builders is a plague up here.

VOCC is the best Village up here. I love that little neighborhood of Life FOrms, Haydens somethingeranother. Wisteria Walk is the main road in.

Hey Vic,

We are very curious about Memorial Thicket. Half the subdivision is zoned to HISD (The only area south of the bayou to be zoned there) and the other half zoned to Katy. What gives? Do you know the history? Is there anyway to request the other district. Its weird to have the kids across the street zoned to somewhere completely else.

Thanks!

We just applied to Second Baptist School. Any "SnootySnot" report on that one?

X-Lapse.

Y'all are bringing me back. Loved NRG, Homage/Red Square, Numbers, Power Tools, and Rich's.

Never got too into EMOS/SOME but that might have had to do with the fact my boyfriend, sister, and I had a knife pulled on us on the dance floor. Not a good high!

Now, to tell you a story that you can make fun of me forever with, one night we went out to NRG. We were all buggin' and feelin' no pain but half our crowd didn't get in (bad fakes). We were desperate to find somewhere to go dance and ended up at some 18 plus club called Club Soda out on Westheimer. Anyone remember that cheese ball factory?

The old record rack on Shepherd/Alabama used to have great cds from the clubs. They had some original NRG music. I miss that place. If you like that music, check out www.razormaid.com

Gosh, I remember all those clubs very well. But first we would stop at La Carafe and have Purple Woo Woos. I was 16/17 and have no clue why I was served them or how I got into those clubs. I might even seen Parrot there!

I did X once and got the massive shivers.......ick. That was enough for me to never do a drug ever again.

Ah the days of Depeche Mode and "Taking a Ride" with my "Own Personal Jesus"

Yeah, when they rezoned it years ago it basically killed it. It was going down hill for a while, but giving that school to "the hood" was the end of it. Lots of my friends from Tanglewood/Briargrove families went there in the late 80's.

Anyway - to revive this dead topic, I talked with the mother of one of my friends in the Dairy Ashford area.

She says that some Walnut Bend parents became furious when they found out that West Briar Middle School filled and that they could not send their 6th graders there anymore. The alternative: the dreaded Revere.

So, what if HISD rebuilt Grady to be the size of West Briar/Pin Oak/Lanier and have 1,200 kid capacity? Grady could have full-sized athletic facilities and PreAP and PreIB programs to attract people chiefly in Uptown but also a few in Briar Meadow and Walnut Bend/Briargrove Park. This would also help as this gives another option to Briar Meadow parents in case the Briarmeadow Charter fills.

Vic. I don't think there really is enough room on that corner to do all that. My son had some T-ball games on the "fields" years back. What is currently open space is very minimal. And, the residents behind it would not put up with a hostile takeover of their properties.

Rezoning to the area is the only way to attract the residents. But currently most of the neighborhood, with that age children, fled to Memorial if they didn't go into private. So, I don't think there are enough kids to warrent a rezone. It's a Catch 22.

Well there is the flip side too, and what I see more of in the Woodlands: The stop and park and stay til the dismissal bell rings.

I know several mothers that basically are TOO involved in the school. Doing hours of work almost everyday. Everytime you walk in the door, you see them there. Even at home they are constantly fund raising, cooking for teacher banquets, crafting one project or another for their kids. My sister, who is a teacher in Virginia, tells me those mothers are just as bad as the stop and droppers. They are in the teacher's face and space and hyper obsess about their kids. I guess being somewhere in the middle is the goal.

While I like to be involved in the school, I also feel a strong need to have my own life outside my children, and my children need to know and see this. I also think its important for children to have a safe "testing ground" to see how they use the morals and character you have taught them, without Mom ALWAYS being there. I pick and chose a few events to participate in, and make myself available to the teacher as an aid about once every few weeks. Weekly email communication with all teachers is an absolute must.

But back on topic, I totally agree that its the parental involvement as a whole that makes a strong school and makes individual children a success. Many schools that are ranked Recognized might actually be a stronger schools than those rated execellent due to the strength of the PTO. Without involved parents, at any level, the teachers would be overwhelmed. And if you aren't involved with teaching the basics at home, the child will sink because so many of the basics are skipped or left for parents to teach due to the TAKS "preparedness" pressure.

But sadly, its the TAKS test results that defines a school Exemplary/Excellent, not the parents.

All the schools have great GT programs. We are currently in one. I do feel the education is much more sound than HISD and we get great art, music pe etc. No spanish and we still study for the TAKS .

Don't worry to much about the bored teens and their little distruction modes. At least they aren't forming gangs like they do in HISD and now SBISD.

I can't help you with Scouts, but I can ask a friend who has a son in it.

I don't know what your price range is so I really can't fully recommend a neighborhood. But you can look at HAR.COM when you have time and then ask questions about certain streets and areas if you see something you like. I still say Cochrans and the schools its feeds to is your best bet.

The below are the best in my opinion. I also think Cochrans Crossing is the best Village, which feeds to Galatas and Powell. Galatas would be my number one choice after living here 2 years.

GALATAS EL Exemplary ++ ++ ++ ++ NQ ++

POWELL EL Exemplary ++ ++ ++ ++ NQ ++

BUCKALEW

Coulson Tough and Deretchin are also wonderful and stay together through 6th grade but...........the area in the back is growing at such a rate that the school are bursting and putting up temporary buildings. There will be some shifting at some point once again in Sterling Ridge to accomodate a few more thousand kids that will live in the still unfinished areas.

Good Luck!

Greetings Native5th,

We moved from the Galleria 2 years ago and I understand the urge for both great schools and being closer to it all. We moved here for the schools and for the advantages selling our in-town ranch house would give us.

After being here for two years and seeing the massive changes underway, I would move to Cochrans Crossing. In fact, we may move up there from Sterling Ridge next year as we love a certain neighborhood and its much closer to TWHS and MCCullough. Cochrans is right in the middle of the woodlands, zoned to those schools you mentioned, and has houses in all price ranges. I love walking the areas off Cochrans Crossing between Lake Woodlands and Research Forest. They have everything from multi-million to wonderfully spaced houses around 200 or less, I am guessing. The area is mature, well-spaced, private, well laid out and has a the feeling of being in another town. Most of the homes are zoned to Galatas, Mitchell, MCCullough and TWHS.

You learn so much about the nighborhoods after living here for a year or so, its hard to find your niche when you are spending only weekends looking for houses.

24 karat gold tiles. So whether this is completely true or not, or that its just paint, the fact that it was mentioned means in about a year the mural is going have big chunks missing in it.........

There seems to be a number of houses for sale in this "block" all the sudden. A compact area that is suddenly selling always makes me wonder. Is it just time for a good turnover, or is something "going to happen" to this stretch of Memorial?

12823 MEMORIAL DR

13034 MEMORIAL DR

12923 MEMORIAL DR

13006 MEMORIAL DR

12926 MEMORIAL DR

12902 MEMORIAL DR

the house looks like it has good potential, and the realtor looks relly enthusiastic

and that backyard could be spruced up nicely, too

it is kinda far out there, though...

Massive traffic problems starting around 4pm in that area.

Here are some more pictures of Dr. and Mrs Rose:

http://www.houstontheatre.com/hgopera/hgoball.html

Jinx!

Woo hoo!

Edit: Well it was before I edited it.

Well from the scenes from that party, I fear that poor little pony is no longer pure.

I think she's hoping to become the Paris Hilton of Houston. I'm a little embarrased for her. I think she'll look back on this ten years from now and cringe.

Check out this video:

http://us.video.aol.com/video.index.adp?mo...;pmmsid=1729613

Is that Franklin Rose's (the plastic surgeon with the trashy wife) daughter.

Edit: Oops answered my own question. YES it is. RUN SWEET PRINCE RUN!! They look like the Ozbornes in this picture.

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:lNdJOb...t=clnk&cd=3