Sea World

Being residents of San Antonio, we decided to get Season Passes to Sea World so that we can go anytime we want! This is the best deal because we can go for just a few hours and see a couple of things and then go home and come back another day. Perfect for the pregnant lady as well as for going with friends who have little kids that need to take naps...

First order of business: pictures in front of Shamu!

We visited the Dolphin Cove and got to see these beautiful and intelligent creatures up close.

We also viewed some high-flying talent from these amazing water skiiers.

We can't wait for our baby boy to come because Ben was feeling a little left out being the only guy in our group of friends that didn't have a stroller to push.

We discovered that strollers can be a nice transportation device not only for our baby, but for the many bags that come along with attending a water park...
Next week: actually hanging out in the water park and viewing some 4th of July fireworks!

We have been so blessed to be near close friends in our move here to Texas and we are super excited to be able to go to Sea World with them as often as we want!Micah, Katy, & Madison in front of Shamu with us

Pink Ladies

Because of our proximity to both USAA campus and the nearby University of Texas at San Antonio Medical Center, there are a lot of USAA new-hires freshly graduated from college and med school students. This means a lot of young couples in our ward that are just starting their families, like us! My first Sunday here, about five new girls introduced themselves in Relief Society and most either have a toddler or are pregnant! We are certainly enjoying the atmosphere and the abundance of new friends that are in the same stage of life as us.

Tonight our Relief Society Presidency hosted a welcome dinner for the new sisters in the ward. It was pretty hilarious when three of us showed up all wearing the exact same pink maternity shirt and then two more pregnant friends showed up, also wearing pink shirts!

My new friends: Adrienne, Aubrey, Karen, Lisa, and Me

It will be really fun when all of our babies are here (we're all due in July and August) and we can learn and grow together as new moms! I'm so excited and feel so blessed to have the opportunity to make new friends. :)

Catching Up

I plan to spend the next few days getting caught up on old posts. So if you see something show up from last December, its not a mistake. It's me playing catch-up. :)

P.S.- Hooray for U.S. sports the last couple of days! I'm not typically a sports watcher (however, it is always on in the background when Ben is home) and I really don't watch soccer or tennis, but I've been keeping tabs on ESPN the last couple of days:

The United States defeated Algeria in the World Cup to advance to the next round. It was amazing because one of our goals was taken away (again--it happened in a previous game) and then Landon Donovan made the winning goal in the 91st minute.

The Wimbledon match between American John Isner and a French player had me hooked all day yesterday. The longest tennis match in history, they were tied at 44 games in the fifth set when I started watching. I was disappointed when they decided to call it for the night because it got too dark. They finished the game today and John's victory of 70-68 in that fifth set was awesome!

Baby Furniture and Tortillas

We finally got our baby furniture! We picked it up at the local Wal-Mart (Note to self: Next time, just have it delivered to the house. It was too much of a hassle trying to pick it up from Site-To-Store) and Ben got going on putting it all together. He really is so good at this stuff, and I can tell that he loves it. He gets excited every time he gets to pull out his power drill :)
Meanwhile, I decided to take a crack at homemade flour tortillas. We recently had a RS Activity where a sister from Mexico taught us how to make them (we also learned how to make corn tortillas from a sister who grew up in El Salvador). I had some beans and stuff to make burritos, so I figured, why not? Now is as good a time as any to attempt to make my own tortillas. Let's just say that it really is an art. I have no idea how they get them to be so perfectly round and still so thin at the same time! My first attempt:Ben said it looked like an amoeba and tried to show me the way he learned to do it Nicaragua. His was more round, but a lot thicker than mine:By the time I had made a few more, they were starting to get a little more round, but they still weren't great:
I guess I will need to keep practicing. But now that I have furniture in baby's room, I feel like I can start unpacking his boxes and getting organized in there. I will post pictures as soon as I have his room done.

Two Year Anniversary

I love this man so much:

For our TWO YEAR Anniversary we ate at The Chart House Restaurant at the top of the Tower of the Americas downtown. Sitting atop the 750-foot tower, the restaurant slowly revolves so you get a full view of the city as you enjoy a most delicious meal.

We enjoyed it so much on our anniversary last year (here for Ben's internship), we came again. Comparing the two experiences, we would recommend going at night after the sun has gone down. The view is better and the sun isn't glaring in your eyes. :)

After dinner we walked around the observation deck. It was a huge wind tunnel and my hair and dress were flying everywhere!

Is It Too Much To Ask?

Is is too much to ask for a home that is safe and secure?

I would love to be able to walk into a room without first turning on the light and searching every corner and all the walls and ceiling for signs of giant roaches (about 3 inches long)...

Is it too much to ask for updated appliances?

I would love to have a stove that has coils that actually lie flat instead of trying to precariously perch a pot of boiling water or a pan of hot oil on coils that are lopsided...

Is is too much to ask for apartment updates equal to that of my neighbors?

I would love new tile in the kitchen and bathrooms and (as mentioned above) a stove that is more recent and updated like I jealously found last night in my friends' apartment...


I don't want to live the next year or two in a home that I hate. This complex is 30 years old and they only do updates "as needed." I think that mine needs it. We are at a lower elevation than some of the other apartments and so we get all of the "water bugs" (aka giant roaches) that come up the drains after it rains. The managers sent an exterminator in here yesterday to spray and we bought roach traps, but there has to be a better way to prevent them from coming up the drains at all. Plus, there shouldn't be any holes by the dishwasher that allow them to get into my kitchen! My friends have nice stoves and mine is ancient. The coils won't lie flat and it doesn't even have a clock on it! And the tile is incredibly old and (I never thought I'd say this) I'd rather have new vinyl floors like my friends. All these things (and others) caused the flood gates to open and the tears to flow for a long time as I drifted off to sleep last night.


Are my expectations too high?

Ben says that I have just been very blessed to live in nice places my whole life.

Am I wrong for being envious of my friends next door? Is it considered coveting?

Ben has a plan to try to fix all of these problems for me. He's killed a few roaches already and always reminds me of how blessed we are and how things really could be worse. I know I wouldn't be able to do this if I didn't have him. Despite my current state of misery, I am so grateful for a husband who understands my distress and is willing to get me a tissue and just hold me while I cry.

Thank you, Ben. You are more than I could have ever asked for.

First Day of Work

Ben started his new full-time job at USAA today. This whole week is orientation, but he is really excited to finally be starting. His first day at USAA also meant my first day as a housewife and (soon-to-be) stay-at-home mom. I was so excited, I spent most of the afternoon organizing my recipe box and planning a menu for the week. I found a recipe for these pizza rolls that looked really good.* We both felt like we've officially begun "real life" today when I had a complete meal all prepared and setup for Ben when he got home:
*Unfortunately, I didn't really like the pizza rolls, so I'm not going to bother sharing the recipe... Maybe I will try again sometime and tweak them to my liking :)

Everything's Bigger in Texas

It has been over a month since I posted, but the last month has been so busy! I promise I will post pictures and such of the following events, but here is what we have been doing in the last few weeks:

-Ben's graduation from BYU. I am SO proud of him.
-Multiple baby showers
-Vanessa's retirement from teaching
-A long and exhausting move to San Antonio, Texas

You know how they say everything is bigger in Texas? We were starting to think that was a lie. We love our apartment, but it feels kind of small and cramped (compared to our mansion with vaulted ceilings in Provo). But last night I had an encounter with the biggest cockroach I have EVER seen in my entire life (no exaggeration). It was as big as the palm of my hand and crawled up the wall in the bathroom. It took all of my willpower not to run out of the bathroom with my drawers down. I'm surprised the neighbors didn't hear my screams of "Ben! Save me!" He thought it was pretty hilarious...