We ended up breaking our lease at the Roach Motel early because the Hubba got an internship with the Speaker of the House in our State House of Representatives. So we needed to move to the capital for a semester! I was so happy!
Fortunately, my mom lived there in the capital and actually had a home with a ….I always called it the “back house”. She always called it “the cottage.” Anyway, she bought the house when my grandmothers were coming out to live with us. My great grandmother lived in the main house with us because she needed so much care. But my more independent grandmother lived out in the back house that my mom had updated when she bought the house.
My great grandmother had died in 1988 (she was 101!) and my grandmother died in 1991. It was now 1994/1995 and the back house was empty. So it was perfect for us. It was just another little studio but my mom wouldn’t hear of accepting rent from us so we got to live for a semester rent-free.
The internet is failing me because there are no photos. I don’t know what the new owners are doing with that back house. I doubt they’re renting it since I can’t find anything about it online…
Anyway, it was a tiny studio but nicer than our first studio by far. Plus it was nice to be close to my mom and she and Baboo had a sweet relationship then. Baboo loved to be with MamaDo while she watered plants and played with her dog.
This time here was very poignant. It was the first time the Hubba was away from home all day every day. And they were long days! Sometimes I wouldn’t see him for 12 hours or more. Even though I was technically “home”, I was away from all of my adult friends. We were attending my home ward for church, but there weren’t very many people my age. This was the place I found out I was pregnant with Wiyah. During this time I also volunteered as a teacher’s assistant for my old French teacher at my old high school. That was crazy! Baboo’s first birthday was celebrated. The Hubba and I discovered Ben and Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream on a date night here. But there were some difficult challenges as well. One of my strongest memories was the Hubba and I standing out in my backyard looking at the stars together and feeling so…
…whatever the name of the feeling is when you feel overwhelmed with life and look up at the stars.
sparkling blue 