PICTURES!!

I finally got pictures of my house! Actually I finally felt it was clean enough to take pictures of it. But I went on a cleaning spree and took the picts. It will be dirty again in 10 minutes when I get Rhys up and start cooking dinner. Here's Rhys in his crib. We have a fan clipped on the side of the crib so it blows on him all the time. If it's 85 degrees in his room it actually feels pretty good. He's getting used to being hot.

This room was painted this blue color when we moved in, which was perfect. His room is all fish and coral reefy, which I think is super cute, and perfect because we live on an island in the Caribbean.

This is my entryway (where the lizard lives) and I love it because I love the plants and the way the stairs go up and the vaulted ceiling. It's a bad picture to show that but I think it's cool.

I love my kitchen (except we don't have a dishwasher yet, hence the empty spot by the fridge. We have to wash our dishes by hand, eek!!) We have a dining room with a table and chairs but we eat at the bar cause it's convenient.

This weekend our family decided to take a drive towards the center of the island, which is the mountains. We were going to stop in Caguas but it didn't look too exciting so we just kept on driving. I'm not sure the name of the place we ended up but it was a cool little place with booths set up where you could buy souvineers and these resteraunts where your lunch was cooking in the window. Nice, Huh? Scott had the ribs and I had, well, a hunk of pork really. The cook takes a big cleaver and chops off a hunk for you to eat. It was really good actually. They kept the skin on so you just have to watch out for hair. Weird I know, but it was really fun and a cool experience and I'm glad we went. I would go again.

He's cute, I promise!!

So Sarah told me the other day that Rhys looks like a goober in the pictures I post. I just want to say that he is cute and not always goobery. I just post those pictures because I think they're funny. So I wanted to post some non-goober pictures of my son just so everyone can know that he actually is adorable!

See, he's not gooby, or goofy or whatever. Actually, he is goofy and that's why I love him so much!!

Our new Mascota

We got a new pet the other day. It came in with a plant I had potted and left outside for a while. He lives in my entry way between the two plants I've got in there. Someone suggested that I should just leave him because he can eat all the bugs in my house. So I don't mind him being there. It's just weird when I walk through the entry way and I can see him scurrying across the wall or floor. Anyway, I can't think of a good name for him, so if anyone has any suggestions pass them on.

P.S. Sarah is supposed to be having Brenner tomorrow so everyone keep them in they're prayers that everything will go smoothly. We love you Sari and we're excited to see little Brenner!!!

Seeing the Sights!

So this weekend we made our way down to check out Old San Juan. It's pretty cool. It was like a billion degrees (no exaggeration!) so we only stayed for a couple hours. It's not like we won't have time to go there again. We visited one of the forts there named Morro. It was such a beautiful day. There were a bunch of people on the lawns flying kites and there were booths set up were you could buy a kite to fly if you wanted. Here is Scott on his way to the fort.

Right to the side of Fort Morro is a really cool cemetery with these awesome sculptures. It was a really cool view.

Scott and Rhys at the fort. He's always got at least one hand in his mouth (Rhys, not Scott). He's a really good baby to have to cart around. If he wasn't so good we would never be able to go and see stuff.

Our little family at the fort. Aren't we hot? We literally are!



We are experiencing our first Hurricanes and tropical storms here in Puerto Rico. Hurricane Ana was on her way towards us yesterday and was supposed to hit this morning. They turn the water and power off here right before the storm hits and you never know when they will turn them back on. So Scott and I got ready with our new generator, water storage and propane grill. He made me get up at 5:30 this morning to fill up the bath tubs with water just in case. Luckily it didn't hit us hardly at all. All we ended up getting was called a tropical depression which gave us a ton of rain and a really cool thunderstorm. This morning Rhys and I laid in my bed, I had opened the blinds in my room, and we just watched the thunderstorm. Some of the lightning was so close the thunder shook the house, and that's pretty good for a house made out of cement.
We are watching Hurricane Bill now. The first news said it was going to hit us pretty hard, but last I heard was that it's path changed and we might get only a little bit of it. You never know what will happen though so we're still going to prepare. Better safe than sorry.
We were talking to some of the people in our ward that have been here for a while and they were telling us that the locals don't always hate the hurricanes because it's an excuse not to have to go to work. So they just stay inside and drink until it gets over. The other day we were at Costco and there were people with shopping carts full of beer and Scott saw someone loading up the back of their pick-up truck with just alcohol. I guess we all prepare in our own ways.

Donde la Vida es Bella

Yo habla espanol... wait, no I don't!! We finally have the internet! It's wierd how dependent I've become on the internet. I'm connected with the outside world again! We're almost done unpacking and our house is feeling more and more like a home. I still have boxes all over because I just got my bookcases and so now those boxes and the boxes that had the books in them are laying in the middle of my floor.
Things have been crazy here. Living in Puerto Rico is an adventure for sure. They do things so wierd here! The way they do some things just does not make sense to me. For example, when you are registering your car, the place you get your registration is not the same place you pay for it. So you have to go to this place and do some paperwork or whatever, they send you to some place across town to pay for it, then you have to go back to the first place and show them that you paid and then they give you the registration. Why don't they just take your money at the first place? It doesn't make sense right?!! Some of the things they do just boggle the mind! It's not all been bad though. I still feel good about being here and there are some really beautiful and good things to experience.

P.S. while I've been writing this the power has gone out. Lovely!


Anyway, I've got some pictures at last. I don't have any of my house because it's still kinda messy. It's a work in progress. But this is a picture of part of the drive to our house. Pretty much this drive was what sold me on wanting to live in this town. Some of the other places looked pretty ghetto but this was more like Tropical Paradise. I love the palm trees.

This is one of the beaches we drive past to get to church. It's really pretty. I took Rhys and Sasha on a walk there this morning and we saw some little crabs running around. One of the bummers about this place is that people leave garbage all over! So right behind me in the picture is a highway that is littered with trash. Its really upsetting because it's a beautiful beach that people have messed up.

I love these trees. I don't know the name of them but someone told me that they are Puerto Rico's state tree. They have these beautiful red flowers all over them. I want one.

Did I mention that we got Sasha? Well we did. This is what she does about 85% of the time. You can't see but there is a fan right by her head. The rest of the time she is following me around the house getting under foot. Our friends here have a little tiny white dog. She's about the size of a cat. She and Sasha have become friends and they like to play together. It's so cute cause the little dog thinks she's a big dog and Sasha doesn't know she's a big dog and the little dog bosses her around. They like to chase eachother and it's so funny.

Here's Rhys!! He's getting so big!! He's getting two bottom teeth now and starting to drool like a madman. He loves this little bouncy car.

He wasn't sure what to think about this hat. I thought it was funny.