We just moved into a new apartment on Saturday and it was the smoothest, most enjoyable move ever! Ok, well moving isn't that appealing with the packing, planning, and unpacking, and the actual move can all be stressful. But in the 3 1/2 years that we have been married, this it the 7th place we have lived in! That is crazy to think about, and I can't believe it! We've gone from our first place in Rexburg, then to an internship in Portland, then back to Rexburg to finish school, then to downtown Boise for my student teaching, then outside of Boise to Nampa for David's first big kid job, then to Windsor Mill for David's new job out here and now we are in a new place a little further away from the grungy city of Baltimore. I don't like to share exactly where we live for our family's security and privacy until we leave. Who knows who reads this blog?
Anyways, when we moved out here from Idaho we didn't really know where to look for a place to live. David wanted to be close to his main office, but we weren't willing to pay thousands of dollars per month for rent for a decent/clean/safe place to live. So we got a little further out and found a place in Windsor Mill that let us sign a four month lease...and another plus was that it had a $175 deposit (opposed to $1200 that most other places wanted). We figured we could live here for a little bit and if we liked it, we could stay, and if not, we could survive the four months and then scope out a new place we liked better. It is obvious we didn't like our last place. We dealt with it, but I am glad we only did the four month lease!
We scoped out a new place that would keep us in the same wonderful ward and put us closer to a large portion of the families in our ward. We got back from our Christmas vacation and finalized our new apartment and David was assigned to West Virginia. So we all headed out there for three weeks and I was getting nervous about all the moving stuff. When we got back, we had two weeks to get everything planned out and packed/cleaned for our move. I was ready for it! I think having the 3 weeks where I couldn't do any packing, but wanted to (as much as anyone wants to pack) gave me a jump start and I was ready to dive in and get to work.
During these last two weeks David was assigned to Delaware which is almost 2 hours away, so I would drive him up on Monday and he'd stay there in a hotel all week and then come back on Friday. But then on Saturday's he has to go in to the office in Baltimore and work all day. At first, I was overwhelmed and shocked about it wondering how in the world I would be able to get everything ready in time to move. Not only that, but he was going to have to work every day but Sunday, and so he wouldn't be able to help nearly at all with the move!
I got to work and David helped when he could, but between him packing up his suitcase for the next week's work and getting some sleep after working 12 hour days, I didn't expect him to have to do much. I had friends that offered to watch Katelyn so I could be more productive, but Katelyn got a bad cold and an even worse cough that lasted a solid two weeks, so I didn't feel right passing her off and letting her pass around her germs.
Little by little, I packed everything into boxes. I went dumpster diving in the McDonald's cardboard dumpster and got all my boxes. They are the perfect boxes and they were free! We look like fast food junkies with fries, filet-o-fish, McChicken, hash browns, and McNuggets boxes all over the place. I actually liked packing it all on my own because David and I seriously disagree on packing methods. My way is slower but more organized, and his way gets the job done quick, but isn't organized. I like boxes, he likes mostly black garbage bags and as little boxes as possible. With him gone, I was able to put everything in boxes and got to do it my way, but I had to do it all on my own.
The Elder's Quorum president asked when we needed help and we let him know and he arranged a group of guys to come help us on moving day. I was nervous if anyone would really show up. They didn't have to, it was all volunteer and with David having to work, I would have to do it all on my own, and so I prayed hard that everything would go smoothly and as planned. We rented a large U-Haul truck for the day. I dropped off David for work, dropped off Katelyn at a friend's (she was all better), picked up donuts and juice for the moving crew, and headed home to pack up the few last things we used (blankets, pillows, and bathroom stuff) and then the moving crew showed up. Six guys from the ward came and packed the truck full in an hour. I vacuumed while they cleared each room and then we ate donuts and chatted about how David got out of this :) Then we headed to the new place and unloaded in an hour and some of the guys took their truck and brought back David's new desk (from someone in the ward). We dropped off the U-haul (got ripped off on gas) and then I went back to the old place and did some final touches in the cleaning for an hour and checked out. All of this by 2 pm! I was so happy everything worked out so well! It couldn't have gone better! A very welcomed answer to my prayers. I shed a few tears of happiness as it all finished completely grateful. Grateful for a ward that cares about our family. Grateful that my hard work and planning was right on. This move was nearly stress free and I never had to pull all-nighters to get everything ready in time like other moves.
The new place is a definite upgrade from the last one. Our old place 1)had been painted so many times that it was caked on and building up so much the doors would stick and peel off. Katelyn thought it was fun to peel it which scared me. Kids eating paint chips was always a joke, but it was a realistic fear at that place. 2)There were two doors to our place. There was an entry way swinging door that led to all the stairs up and down to the individual front doors. This stairway always smelled terrible! Someone smoked in their apartment and it stunk up the entire stairway....gross! When it would get really bad, someone would come through and over-use the air freshener and it was nicer than inhaling the smoking residue, but still gross because you could taste it as you breathed. 3)all the outlets were loose and less than half of the plug-ins worked and the ones that did were usually loose and the cords would fall out and wouldn't hold the plastic plug in protectors that would keep Katelyn out. 4) We were possibly the only white family there in the complex and we felt like we were out of place. 5)all the floors had creaky uneven boards so it made it hard with Katelyn's sleeping. We could hear nearly every step the neighbors took, plus every step we took. It made it hard to keep Katelyn asleep often. 6) I didn't feel safe. Nothing ever happened, but I felt as if it was only time before something did. We often heard people yelling outside and they talk so fast that the only words I recognized were swear words. I often saw the cops there and one of our neighbors commented that "it was a good area, and if it wasn't then the cops are always quick to show up." 7)The windows were very loose and had a lot of wiggle room. They wiggled as we walked around the room and if neighbors slammed doors. We were able to hear any and all cars (people honk way to much around here) and voices outside. 8) none of our ward (friends) lived near us 9) we never felt comfortable leaving the blinds open I always felt a little scared, but I love having daylight come in each day. Here we are facing away from EVERYONE! I love it and we have a little backyard area that leads into the woods! It will be great for Katelyn to play. And we even had two deer come visit our backyard today and me and Katelyn were fascinated by them. We love the privacy we have here and that we can freely open the windows and not worry about eyes peeking in on us. 10) While I am complaining, I might as well add that there is no Tillamook cheese or ice cream. We don't get that luxury out here and we miss it so much! We haven't found anything that is good enough to replace it yet.
We are really liking our new place and we are noticing the big and little changes and so far the good is outweighing the bad by far so we feel good about this decision. I am sold with the ice maker in the freezer...we are terrible at refilling ice trays and we are terrible at it and always spill water all over the place when we do fill them up, so I am thrilled about that nice little thing. Now to unpack all these boxes!
Anyways, when we moved out here from Idaho we didn't really know where to look for a place to live. David wanted to be close to his main office, but we weren't willing to pay thousands of dollars per month for rent for a decent/clean/safe place to live. So we got a little further out and found a place in Windsor Mill that let us sign a four month lease...and another plus was that it had a $175 deposit (opposed to $1200 that most other places wanted). We figured we could live here for a little bit and if we liked it, we could stay, and if not, we could survive the four months and then scope out a new place we liked better. It is obvious we didn't like our last place. We dealt with it, but I am glad we only did the four month lease!
We scoped out a new place that would keep us in the same wonderful ward and put us closer to a large portion of the families in our ward. We got back from our Christmas vacation and finalized our new apartment and David was assigned to West Virginia. So we all headed out there for three weeks and I was getting nervous about all the moving stuff. When we got back, we had two weeks to get everything planned out and packed/cleaned for our move. I was ready for it! I think having the 3 weeks where I couldn't do any packing, but wanted to (as much as anyone wants to pack) gave me a jump start and I was ready to dive in and get to work.
During these last two weeks David was assigned to Delaware which is almost 2 hours away, so I would drive him up on Monday and he'd stay there in a hotel all week and then come back on Friday. But then on Saturday's he has to go in to the office in Baltimore and work all day. At first, I was overwhelmed and shocked about it wondering how in the world I would be able to get everything ready in time to move. Not only that, but he was going to have to work every day but Sunday, and so he wouldn't be able to help nearly at all with the move!
I got to work and David helped when he could, but between him packing up his suitcase for the next week's work and getting some sleep after working 12 hour days, I didn't expect him to have to do much. I had friends that offered to watch Katelyn so I could be more productive, but Katelyn got a bad cold and an even worse cough that lasted a solid two weeks, so I didn't feel right passing her off and letting her pass around her germs.
Little by little, I packed everything into boxes. I went dumpster diving in the McDonald's cardboard dumpster and got all my boxes. They are the perfect boxes and they were free! We look like fast food junkies with fries, filet-o-fish, McChicken, hash browns, and McNuggets boxes all over the place. I actually liked packing it all on my own because David and I seriously disagree on packing methods. My way is slower but more organized, and his way gets the job done quick, but isn't organized. I like boxes, he likes mostly black garbage bags and as little boxes as possible. With him gone, I was able to put everything in boxes and got to do it my way, but I had to do it all on my own.
The Elder's Quorum president asked when we needed help and we let him know and he arranged a group of guys to come help us on moving day. I was nervous if anyone would really show up. They didn't have to, it was all volunteer and with David having to work, I would have to do it all on my own, and so I prayed hard that everything would go smoothly and as planned. We rented a large U-Haul truck for the day. I dropped off David for work, dropped off Katelyn at a friend's (she was all better), picked up donuts and juice for the moving crew, and headed home to pack up the few last things we used (blankets, pillows, and bathroom stuff) and then the moving crew showed up. Six guys from the ward came and packed the truck full in an hour. I vacuumed while they cleared each room and then we ate donuts and chatted about how David got out of this :) Then we headed to the new place and unloaded in an hour and some of the guys took their truck and brought back David's new desk (from someone in the ward). We dropped off the U-haul (got ripped off on gas) and then I went back to the old place and did some final touches in the cleaning for an hour and checked out. All of this by 2 pm! I was so happy everything worked out so well! It couldn't have gone better! A very welcomed answer to my prayers. I shed a few tears of happiness as it all finished completely grateful. Grateful for a ward that cares about our family. Grateful that my hard work and planning was right on. This move was nearly stress free and I never had to pull all-nighters to get everything ready in time like other moves.
The new place is a definite upgrade from the last one. Our old place 1)had been painted so many times that it was caked on and building up so much the doors would stick and peel off. Katelyn thought it was fun to peel it which scared me. Kids eating paint chips was always a joke, but it was a realistic fear at that place. 2)There were two doors to our place. There was an entry way swinging door that led to all the stairs up and down to the individual front doors. This stairway always smelled terrible! Someone smoked in their apartment and it stunk up the entire stairway....gross! When it would get really bad, someone would come through and over-use the air freshener and it was nicer than inhaling the smoking residue, but still gross because you could taste it as you breathed. 3)all the outlets were loose and less than half of the plug-ins worked and the ones that did were usually loose and the cords would fall out and wouldn't hold the plastic plug in protectors that would keep Katelyn out. 4) We were possibly the only white family there in the complex and we felt like we were out of place. 5)all the floors had creaky uneven boards so it made it hard with Katelyn's sleeping. We could hear nearly every step the neighbors took, plus every step we took. It made it hard to keep Katelyn asleep often. 6) I didn't feel safe. Nothing ever happened, but I felt as if it was only time before something did. We often heard people yelling outside and they talk so fast that the only words I recognized were swear words. I often saw the cops there and one of our neighbors commented that "it was a good area, and if it wasn't then the cops are always quick to show up." 7)The windows were very loose and had a lot of wiggle room. They wiggled as we walked around the room and if neighbors slammed doors. We were able to hear any and all cars (people honk way to much around here) and voices outside. 8) none of our ward (friends) lived near us 9) we never felt comfortable leaving the blinds open I always felt a little scared, but I love having daylight come in each day. Here we are facing away from EVERYONE! I love it and we have a little backyard area that leads into the woods! It will be great for Katelyn to play. And we even had two deer come visit our backyard today and me and Katelyn were fascinated by them. We love the privacy we have here and that we can freely open the windows and not worry about eyes peeking in on us. 10) While I am complaining, I might as well add that there is no Tillamook cheese or ice cream. We don't get that luxury out here and we miss it so much! We haven't found anything that is good enough to replace it yet.
We are really liking our new place and we are noticing the big and little changes and so far the good is outweighing the bad by far so we feel good about this decision. I am sold with the ice maker in the freezer...we are terrible at refilling ice trays and we are terrible at it and always spill water all over the place when we do fill them up, so I am thrilled about that nice little thing. Now to unpack all these boxes!
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