Crystal Blue Goes Cincinnati Red

We celebrated Mother's Day in our new ward in today. We are hanging out in Cincinnati this summer, because Regis has an internship with Procter & Gamble. Living in Ohio is a very new experience for me. I've never lived in the midwest; I spent all my youth in California and left only to go to Utah for college, where I've lived ever since.

My impressions so far have been mostly positive. I love how green it is here. We've met some friendly people, especially at church. The only effect of the humidity I've noticed is positive: my knuckles aren't cracking like they do in Utah. (We'll see how I like it in August.) My only real gripe so far is that TONS of people smoke here. It's gross.

Our apartment here is fairly nice for a short-term rental. It's on the top floor, so we don't have to worry about people above us making noise -- just the people below us blowing smoke into our windows. I'm very glad we decided to rent furniture. It makes it much more homey to have a table and actual beds and a couch, especially since the couch is better than the one we own in our Orem apartment. There are sliding glass doors out to a wood balcony, which the girls absolutely love. I live in constant fear that Evie will slip through the railing, but she loves running out there to eat popsicles, especially if she can do it in the nude. There is an extra room (which the management refers to as a "den") that the girls are using as a playroom. I'm seriously reconsidering my previous assertion that we don't need a 3-room apartment until Regis graduates. Again, there's one real downside: the kitchen is teeny. Since I probably spend 30% of my waking hours in the kitchen when I'm home, it's a problem, but hopefully we can handle it for the summer.