Home Sweet Home...

Warning:  Long post, with no pics...sorry!  I'm taking them, but have no way to upload them.  Also, it's taken me two days to write this post, and I keep falling asleep, so it may not make a lot of sense.

We arrived in Georgia last Sunday.  Everything went off without a hitch from SLC, even though the lady tried to tell us our flight was delayed and we'd never make our connection.  It really wasn't, and we thought 1 1/2 hours was plenty of time, so we wouldn't let her switch them.  But then when we arrived in Atlanta, our connecting flight was delayed, and then deemed broken.  We boarded the plane about the time we should have arrived in Statesboro. The kids were actually pretty good on the planes.  Breah thought it was a great adventure and was absolutely thrilled to be in a seat belt.  She kept buckling and unbuckling in anticipation for the flight, and once we were in the air, she was frequently making sure we were all buckled snuggly when the seat belt light was on.  Tayven slept some (not nearly enough) and throughout the flights could mostly be pacified by snacks.  He's really not one to just sit quietly on my lap, but everyone was complementing us on our well behaved children (I love it when we fool 'em!). 

After a long day of traveling, we finally arrived at our new home, the Holiday Inn of Statesboro. Breah was so excited. We walked in and she rans and jumped on the bed, fell over and says "This is TERRIFIC arrific!" over and over. Then we showed her her room, which was even more terrific. She has her own bed (as do Tinkerbelle and Pinkalicious), her own bathroom, her own closet, dresser, window, night stander, lamps, "CELL PHONE" (which we have to call her on if we need her), fridge (which she is now grounded from because she's left it open twice, ruining all the food we had in it), and her own table and chairs. She was so excited and suddenly became such a big girl. She could do everything all by herself. She even said the prayer all by herself, with no help, and actually said more than her standard two liner.

"Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you we could travel in safety.
Thank you that I can have all my own things.
Bless I can do all things all by myself.
Thank you for my friends.
Thank you I know the Gospel is true"

Isn't that the sweetest prayer ever? Unfortunately, her sudden, strict independance didn't last long. But she still does a lot (does anyone else have this problem? I know she's capable of doing things, she just refuses to do it all) and is an especially big helper when it comes time to unlock the door (she's the official self appointed key keeper, don't ask me how many times she's got sidetracked and lost the key) and push the "elegator" buttons. She's still loving the hotel, but at times she just wants to go home and see her friends. But at home, she doesn't have cookies everytime she walks in and unlimited access to the pool, or all the fun of having her own hotel room (although she does share with Tay here too). She's also a big helper when it comes time to do laundry. I tried once to do laundry with both kids in tow, but it's a chore. So I thought I could run up and put a load in while Tay was sleeping, and then Breah volunteered to stay with him. Now it's her favorite thing to do, everytime I need to do anything she says, "Well, you could just put Tayven down for nap, and then I could babysit him!" If only everything were that easy...

So, in case you are wondering, living in a hotel is not as glamorous as it might sound. It has it's perks, like eating out & not having to cook, having someone make your bed & clean, the king size bed, and the pool, but it got old really fast. Eating out is a nightmare. Tayven is always so tired and grumpy at that point that we  have to take turns eating(but the food is really good!) and if we bring food in, we have it smeared all over the bed. You can only eat out so much, and we have very limited fridge space, so we do what we can. And although having a housekeeper would be ideal, they rarely come before 1 or 2, on a good day. Today they came around 4ish, so by that point, I pretty much just threw the garbage out and let her go. That being said, we are all adjusting and making the most of this experience. We hope to find out about our house soon, otherwise we need to get into something else. Our stuff is on it's way, and we don't know where we're gonna put it!

Tayven is doing ok living here. He has a hard time being confinded to such a small space. His poor little head is covered in scratches, bruises and goose eggs. I can only imagine having to meet with social services now, having to account for every little scratch and bruise. He's always running into the desk or something. And when we're all here, we're all up on the bed while he's left to wander arond the floor. Not to mention the fact that he's cut 2 molars in the last week. I thought he was just unrested and had an airconditioner cold, but today I saw them, with the bottom two on their way. He's a good boy though, and has also found some perks. It took him all of one taste to learn that there are chocolate chip cookies at the front desk, and he runs straight for them EVERY time we pass, and he does not take "NO" well. He loves to run up and down the hall, stomp his foot in the elevator, and run around the lobby (eating cookies).

Breah is still on cloud 9. She thinks the hotel is the best thing to ever happen to her. She would be happy to swim all day, every day, but also enjoys snuggling on our bed to watch the "house shopping" show, or cartoons She's been anxiously waiting to make new friends her own age. She kept asking, "when will I make new friends?" One day we met a nice older lady in the pool, and Breah thought they were the best of friends. The problem with making friends in a hotel pool is not that they are all old women, but that they all leave, and we are still stuck here. After going to primary though, she has found a few her age. We were actually invited over to dinner on Monday with a family from the ward with 5 little kids. Breah LOVED playing with them and all their fun toys. We've also had another little girl come from church (also from St. George & Viracon) to swim with us a couple times, so that has been fun for her.

It's hard to leave everything we've known and love, and to be so far away from all our family and friends, but we know this was the right move for our family.  We are lucky to live in a day where we have access to phones and internet and can still remain in contact!  We promise to try our best to keep you up to date with our adventures!