Our First Place

Not long after Jason and I got engaged, we went apartment hunting. We quickly found a "perfect" place- new carpet, washer and dryer, dishwasher, vaulted ceilings, recessed lighting, crown molding and underground parking... as well as a hefty rent tag, all utilities paid by the tenant, and an outrageous deposit. Since we still had about 4 and a half months until the wedding, we decided to keep looking.

One day we decided to search for the cheapest apartment we could possibly find. Our parameters were simple- a place for a bed and preferably on the northeast side of Center and University Avenue. The first place was a "studio apartment"- the current tenants had a kind of crazy look in their eyes as they swore that it was "everything they needed". Jason describes it as the kind of place where you can cook eggs in bed while brushing your teeth. We passed.

The second place was painted all white- walls, doors, cabinetry. The place had a lot of light and seemed nice. The couple was nice and VERY athletic- the husband told us all about how the ward was leading in the BYU softball intramurals. They told us the walls were very thin. We passed.

The third place was on 100 North- far enough away to not be considered "south of campus". It was a one bedroom/one bath with a big living room and kitchen, a hall closet and a linen closet. No washer or dryer, no dishwasher, no air conditioning or ventilation of any kind- the heat came from electric coils in the ceiling (with burned plaster to prove it) and the kitchen counters were mustard yellow. It was perfect. I felt like Brigham Young- This was the place! We signed a contract the next day.
And it was the perfect first place for us. The rent was $445 a month, and we got another $40 a month knocked off when we started taking care of the lawn- raking leaves, mowing the grass, and clearing the snow. After a particularly heavy snow, we spent an entire morning shoveling the parking lot with two shovels and a hoe (for chipping apart ice). A kind neighbor brought us hot chocolate because we looked cold.

We moved in with a couch, a step stool to rest the old TV on, and a wood-paneled microwave that work a good 75% of the time. We didn't have a bed and thought that would suffice until we got back from our open house in Denver. Ha! Even newlyweds need a little more wiggle room than that, and we bought a bed the next day.A few months later, we went to Hollywood Video to splurge on a movie, and came home with our red couch instead. We also had a piano in this apartment for a while- I loved it, but I have no idea how we got it to fit.

We saved up all of our Christmas and birthday money that first year and bought a 36" TV. A tube TV (this was before the days of affordable flat screen TVs, sonny). We bought it a few days after Christmas, and there was no one around to help Jason get it into our apartment except the scrawniest neighbor we had. I don't know how heavy that TV is, but I do know it took the two of them a good 30 minutes, several breaks, and the use of a rug to slide the TV the last 10 feet up to the door to get it in our place. And I know when we moved, it took Jason and my brother-in-law less time and less props to carry it half a block down to our new place.Our first fight as a married couple was over closet space. Jason ended up with one-third of the closet, I got the other two-thirds and the hall closet. He was also kind enough to unpack and arrange the kitchen one day while I was at work. When I got home I promptly rearranged the whole thing to suit my liking.

More than once, we locked ourselves out of the apartment and I had to crawl in through the bathroom window to unlock the front door- once my church clothes, in the dark.

As I mentioned above, there was no ventilation in the apartment, except for the bathroom window that we kept cracked open (which helped for all the times Jason made me crawl through it). One day I was cleaning out our bedroom and moved the dresser, only to find a WALL FULL OF MILDEW GROWING IN OUR BEDROOM. There is no feeling as disgusting as realizing that you are sharing your bedroom with MILLIONS of tiny microbes, multiplying and replenishing themselves on your BEDROOM WALL.

There was a bush outside our front window that turned a beautiful shade of fire red in the fall. I still have some of the leaves of it mod-podged into a Valentine's Day decoration.
Jason wheeled his bike into the apartment every night, for fear it would get stolen or rust. It had a place in our bedroom right next to him. That probably wasn't such a bad idea, since one night someone broke into our car. The only thing of value that was taken was a cheap softball bat, and it cost us probably triple the price of the bat to replace the broken window. I think we would have given the bat to the thief, had he asked, just to spare us the cost of replacing the window.

There are many more memories to come, but I'll stop here for now. We loved our first place. It was was the picture of a 'poor starving college' couple's place, and it was perfect for us.

Rollin'

Finally! At 7 months, Adam is rolling over. I suspect he could have done it for a while now, but just didn't feel like it. I also thought I would for sure witness the first roll, but alas, I laid him down, turned around and he was flipped when I turned back.
But! I've got it on video! This is about the 10th take, so he's not quite as happy and smooth in his roll as he was at first.

And an earlier, failed attempt at catching it on video-

And this one I call "We should have bought a jumperoo instead!"

In the Beginning...

My newlywed sister-in-law asked me what kind of dates Jason and I went on when we were first married, and I had a great walk down memory lane thinking of all the things we used to do BC (before children, that is). We started this blog a week or two before Leah was born, which means that there is a full 2 and a half years of "The Morales Family" that hasn't been recorded, with the exception of a few journal entries and a digital file full of pictures.

I'm not committing to anything grand, but I've decided to revisit life BC here once in a while. Just to remind myself about the beginning. It was only a few years, but it's time that we'll never have back, and I don't want to forget it.

*****

I'll start with an adventure we took near the end of life BC. In June of 2006 we drove to Colorado, as we had done many, many times before. On I-70 there is a lake just off the highway called Hanging Lake. You can hike up to this beautiful, hidden lake that is perched on the edge of a mountainside (hence, the "hanging") in 2 or so hours. We'd driven by the sign to the lake many, many times on our many trips to Denver, and this time I decided we should make time to stop and hike the trail. I was 2 months or so pregnant with Leah, and I thought it might be the last time we could do it so easily.
According to Wikipedia, the hike is "a 1.2 mile climb in what the Park Service calls a "difficult" trail. Hikers are advised to bring enough water. The trail is quite steep in some areas areas and requires hikers to traverse very rocky areas. There are very few level spots on the trail." I am not much of a hiker, but I grabbed my hiking stick, as I told Jason all good hikers need, and we headed up. The trail follows a river, and I can remember at times on the way up thinking we were getting lost, but Jason always assured me we were going the right way because we could hear the water running down the mountain.
We had a good chat on the way up, nothing I can remember of consequence. We probably spent most of the time talking about the baby and being pregnant and becoming parents. (Side note, we didn't tell anyone in Denver that we were expecting a baby at that time. In fact, I don't think anyone knew yet. Hee hee! Sneaky, weren't we?)

This is me pretending to know what I might look like with a pregnant belly. Ha! What a surprise I was in for!)

Then we reached the mountain-scaling part of the hike, where there are stairs cut out of the stone in the mountainside and rickety metal pipes coming out of the ground to catch you if you start falling off the side of the mountain. I was nervous- it was a little tricky, but the views were amazing. We kept climbing up these stairs, and all of the sudden, there it was! This beautiful, crystal-clear lake that we had driven by so many times before and never knew it was there. It was cold up there, but so worth the hike.
We were chasing daylight on the way down, and I remember talking about how we could stop by and hike this trail again in 10 years or so when our kids were driving us crazy on our roadtrip and needed to burn off some energy. So get ready, kids!

All-In-One

He claps! He coughs! He fakes you out and then shows off his pearly whites. Oh how I love this sweet little boy. He gives the best hugs and he pats me on the back while I'm burping him. Such a handsome little fellow.

And I don't know that I've ever mentioned this here before, but before he was born, I worried about loving Adam as much as I loved Leah. I thought I would have to make room in my heart for him- I didn't realize that my heart would just double in size. A mother's heart is an amazing, wonderful thing.

Family Restaurant

After Leah's dance class today, she started begging to go to a restaurant for dinner.  She spied Panda Express and said, "They are waiting for us!  They are asking, 'Where are the Morales'?' 

Since we just got back from Chicago and lots of eating out, we headed home instead and set up "Morales Place".  She thought it was fantastic!  I drew up a quick menu with the food we were already eating for dinner and a few extra choices, we set up a table in the living room, and Jason was the server (or the 'giver' as Leah said).  She loved it all!

I think just having something new made all the difference from getting through the crazy dinner hour to making it a night of fun!  Plus, we got to talk about manners and spending money, so it was a teaching night, too (just like most other days and nights, right, moms?).

It's All Relative

So, yes, everyone (except me) has been sick for the last few days, but we thought, Why not take a trip to Chicago to really amplify our suffering?  We had a few things we wanted to pick up from Ikea and we wanted to go to the temple, so we decided to make an overnight trip out of it.

The hotel was fantastic- Leah had so much fun swimming (a significant change from this), the temple was wonderful, and Ikea was sold out on two of the three items we wanted to buy.  Note to self- check stock BEFORE planning an OVERNIGHT trip to another STATE to pick something up.  Lesson learned.  But, still, great memories made.

I am loving the one thing we did get- this bookshelf!  I got the idea from this blog, and I love how the books are displayed- much more interesting for those who can't read book spines yet.

And yes, Leah has been wearing her swimsuit pretty much all day every day since we've been back.

So Much to Say

Her: Mommy! Look! There are baby tulips inside the flower.

Me: Oh, those are called the pistil and the stamen.

Her: We don't call flowers bad names! Those are there to protect the baby tulips from the insects... that's another name for critters.

*****

Her: The boy from the story and I were about to kiss and then it started to rain so we ran in the house and he jumped back into the story book.

Oh really? Why were you kissing?

Because a seagull was about to steal my glass bed. But now we have a fine glass house and he can't take it anymore.

Me:.....?????..... (Wondering to myself what kind of bedtime stories Daddy reads her!)

*****

Her: Mom! My friend sent me the recipe and we can make Valentines Day cookies.

Me: Really? What do we need to make the cookies?

Her: It says first that we need some chocolate, and then some rice and then... some kiwi. And we bake it in the oven for 3 days and then we can eat them up!

(A little later)- The recipe says we need to add some fish and then some dirt and mix it all up. Oh, and we need to add some weed.

Me: Weed? You mean wheat?

Her: Yep we need some wheat.

Me: (Again wondering about those bedtime stories...)

Good thing she wasn't really in charge of the cookies. We actually made Mrs. Field's peanut butter cookies- and they tasted like the real thing!

Bath Night?

Need a reminder of how little your kids really are? Stick them in the bathroom sink!

Things I Love

We've been sick this week. Actually, Leah's been sick and has shared it with all of us. I've been focusing a lot on the hard things, and that's not helping anything. So I've made a list of things I love.

1. Packages! Letters! Email! Mail means so much to us now.2. Super bendy babies. Yummy toes! (and happy 7 months, Adam!)3. Leah dresses herself. Most days she runs around in clothes that are seasonally-inappropriate, (maybe why she's sick?!) but I love the fact that she takes such care to dress herself. I think she went through 4 outfits this morning before settling on this.*And going along with mail, Leah is dancing with paper Sarah in this picture*

4. Sleep. In any quantity, it's better than no sleep at all.

5. Jason. We have been so blessed with his schooling- I know most husbands are overwhelmingly busy and gone from 8-8 every day, but Jason has enough flexibility to stay with us when we need him most. Nothing like a game of Morales Family Showdown to get you moving and laughing!6. Our house. The space, the warmth, the sanctuary. I love that we have a place of our own in this unfamiliar state to call our own.

There. I think that helps. I just don't think I ever realized how hard it would be to move away from family, friends, and familiarity. Even 6 months into it. Kudos to all of you who have done it- now tell me how to adjust!

A Day in the Life

Just stumbled across this never-published post...

Packages-


Valentines-


Peek-a-boo-



Yummy toes-

That's the stuff our days are made of!

Happy Valentine's Day

From the Future Heartthrob of America!

The 6-month-old trash compactor

I have to preface this post by telling a story. Back when Melanie and I were dating we were cleaning up from breakfast at Melanie's place one morning and we had cleared our plates and Melanie's plate had the last bite of a breakfast sandwich on it. Rather than let it go to waste, I ate it. A few seconds later Melanie came over to the counter and asked what happened to her last bite. When I told her I ate it she was so mad she said, "You...TRASH COMPACTOR!" To this day I ask her if she's done with her food, even if it's sitting on the counter, ready to be thrown in the garbage, and to this day, Melanie teases me about being a trash compactor whenever I eat the rest of her food.

Now that you know the history of the term, "trash compactor," I have to admit that Adam is a trash compactor. That kid will eat anything he can get his hands on. And there is no satiating his appetite either! The other night he ate two jars of baby food and half a bowl of rice cereal along with some pieces of bread. Tonight I couldn't shovel the food into his mouth fast enough. He looked like a baby bird waiting for its mother to drop a juicy worm into its mouth. After watching him eat I have a feeling that I will never been a rich man because it will take every penny I have to keep him fed.

-Jason