Our life in a lil' motel, far away from home, out in the heat, oh what joys!

I love this little face...those big blue eyes, curly hair full of hairlights (only curly in Texas though), cute little smirk, such a people-personality. After experiencing being a mom for almost a year and a half I now know why God made babies so cute....because they are hard work! Any parent out there reading this KNOWS what I'm saying, right? This thought has run in my mind so many times when changing diaper after diaper, laundry after laundry, food on the floor, food on my dress as we're walking out the door, energy to play when I'm exhausted, tugging at my knees when I'm cooking dinner..."well Miss Kaylee, I'm glad you're so cute because if not this job wouldn't be worth it." I love being her mom. What fun we have together. She is my little bud day in and day out.

Something that's so important to me is to have control in my life... to be organized, clean, on time, put together, and everything that goes along with that. I lost a big part of that when I became a mom and I spend so much time during every day trying to get it back. And it does come back....for moments at a time...oh and it's wonderful, like when the house is completely clean and organized, when we are able to be on time or early to something (no unexpected dirty diapers, messy clothes....), when I look down at my clothes and I'm clean with no food on me from little fingers, when the laundry and dishes are all done and nothing is waiting for me to get to it. BUT, I am learning something here in this ride we call "motherhood." I'm learning to let the laundry stay undone just a little longer without fretting, to let Kaylee's food on my clothes not bother me so much, to not worry if my hair doesn't look just like I want it to because I didn't have the time that day, and if I don't get everything done that day I needed to, I'm learning to say it's ok...because I played with my little girl, I read her a book, we went swimming, I read my scriptures and prayed, we took a long walk, we sat down at the table and had dinner with dad and enjoyed being together, and we ended the day together by reading and praying before Miss Kaylee's bedtime. My joys in life are changing, and change is a good thing.


After that note, here are some pictures of what the first month in San Antonio was like. We were living in a 400 sq. foot motel, one bedroom but not even because there was a big opening so you could swing the TV stand to face the bedroom or living room, we had little millipedes that liked to visit, neighbors that liked to smoke, and mold living in our AC unit. I didn't know why my allergies were so bad that whole month until I saw them clean out our unit a few days before we moved out. Below is a moderate picture of it. This isn't even bad. The guy had taken it out to clean it and this is what was left. I almost died when I saw what we had been breathing in for a month...it was foul. Anyway, we took this little motel because we really had few other options. We only needed a place for just over two months, with furniture. We couldn't find that anywhere, only three month leases with prices jacked up because it was a short term lease (we only needed it for just over two months), and no furniture. They don't do furnished apartments here like up at BYU-Idaho. So this was our best option. We didn't have to sign a contract but could leave whenever we had stopped paying till. We just had no idea it would be so stinky and gross. BUT, with that in mind, I wouldn't take back our experience there. I enjoyed swimming with Kaylee all the time, taking walks and seeing the same little Korean family also taking a walk, I really liked the ward after only three weeks and was sad to stop going there, I liked living so close in the city to so many things at my finger tips, and...what an experience after all! Living in a tiny motel...it was crazy but another one of those chapters in my life.

I'll have to post pictures of the place we're staying at now. We're house sitting this beautiful, big, new house on the outskirts of the city. Wow, what a difference living somewhere clean and with space makes. I'm so grateful!


We went to Sea World two weeks ago. We almost died! Do you have any idea how hot and humid it can get here from 2-5pm? Well, let me just say that Jared and I both wished we weren't there until we decided to jump in the kid water place with all of our regular clothes on. We were so miserable with sweat dripping down every inch of our body that we didn't care anymore...so we soaked ourselves...and oh it felt great! That's how you do it. You go to Sea World, get right in the water, and stay wet the rest of the day. Then you don't notice the humidity because you're wetter than the air.


For Father's day it has become a tradition for me to get Kaylee up and we make cinnamon rolls for breakfast. She had a blast "helping" me.
Can you see why I said I love this face! This is what I see almost all the time with her. What a happy little girl.