On the Hunt

Last week I think sometime we received a letter from our apartment complex about resigning our lease. At first I thought it was crazy to get something already since our lease isn't up until March 1st but after reading the letter it states you must give them 60 day written notice if you are not resigning which would be December 31st...holy crap that's just around the corner!!

Back to the point of this letter, it also informed us that our rent would be increasing a minimum of almost 8.5% we would have to sign a 12 month lease for that increase, any other lease agreement would result in a higher increase.  When I first read this I was floored....almost 8.5% increase, thats f'in insane!!  I know that the area we live in is extremely expensive compared to other areas we have lived but that is a huge increase.  As it is we probably already pay more in rent than most of you pay for your mortgage...typing that made me a little sick.

Bottom line, the hunt is on for a new apartment.  We are hoping to get something in a safe neighborhood with a yard or at least a park for Jackson to play at and if we are lucky a place that has storage!  Storage may seem a little odd to want but currently we have totes filling every closet and also sitting randomly throughout our house it's annoying!

Hopefully I will be able to post soon about a new place but if not I guess we will just suck it up and pay the 8.5% increase.

2 weeks & counting

We have been living in our new apartment, in our new town, in our new state now for 2 weeks!  And by living I mean without any of our stuff....its been a little rough and I am pretty sure everyone should probably feel bad for the Man as I probably, most-likely haven't been the most fun to be around.  But the good news is the moving truck is coming TODAY!!!  This is amazing news to hear because I don't think I could sleep on our air mattress for much longer, I guess 3 1/2 weeks is my limit.

Since the moving truck isn't here yet and I really can't report on how smoothly the whole unpacking and actually getting settled process has gone I will save that for another day and skip to the exciting stuff going on.

Within the first week of living here the Man managed to have a couple of interviews and land an AMAZING job at Amtrak!!  He starts in a week...thankfully!!  This way he still has time to help unpack ALL of our crap and get it some what organized before starting a new job and before the baby gets here.  Also in this first week he found out he was accepted to college and will be starting that the end of May!  I am super excited for all the things he has coming up in the next few weeks & months, I know he will do great :)

Because my blogging has been pretty nonexistent lately, I am blaming the baby making me extremely tired and not wanting to do anything other than sleep, I am just going to continue this post with our other big stuff.  I originally intended on doing a separate post but oh well!

Yesterday the Man and I bought a new SUV!!!  We are so so so excited about it.  With him starting his job in a week it put a little pressure on us but we found the perfect vehicle for us.  It is a 2012 Chevy Equinox.  We have only drove home from the dealer but we already are very happy with our purchase.

The Man took this photo of the car right before we drove away!  And in case you can't tell the color it is icy silver

3 days and some odd hours

So I have been a really horrible blogger lately...there are a few reasons for it, not sure if they are 'actual' justifiable reasons but none the less they are reasons. First off, the Man is home and after him being gone for almost 6 months it is awesome having him back.  Secondly, I have been more tired than I have EVER been during this entire pregnancy!  And lastly to say we have been busy planning/getting ready to move across the country would be an understatement!!

So on to what is actually going on....

Last week the movers came and picked up all our stuff.  If you have ever dealt with a moving company before you will completely understand how frustrating it can be.

This is what happened: they called on Friday and said they would be there Monday.  So we rushed to pack EVERYTHING we owned over the weekend.  

just the stuff in the kitchen...the living room, and spare bedroom looked just like this!!

Monday came and we packed up the last few things and waited and waited some more and then waited some more.  Once 4 p.m. rolled around we were a little concerned and not really that impressed.  So we called the company and they kindly informed us they weren't coming till Tuesday morning which happened to be right when I needed to be on the phone for a work conference call, how convenient! So I call my boss and explain that there is a chance I won't be on the call.  10 min. later the moving company calls back and informs they won't be there now until sometime Wednesday afternoon, really people you changed your pick-up time in 20 min!  So finally Wednesday afternoon the movers got here and loaded all 100 and something items we had as we just sat there and watched.

So now the Man and I have been living in our apartment with basically nothing, not even joking.  We currently have 2 suitcases with clothes, an air-mattress, 2 lawn chairs, some old knives, 2 small cookie sheets and then our computers and my work printer.  As you can imagine at 33 weeks pregnant I am extremely uncomfortable and I am pretty sure every day is a battle for me to be in a good/positive mood about the surroundings.  I am really hoping that the moving truck arrives at our new place the day after we do so I don't have to sit in another lawn chair for a really really long time!!! I am totally not counting on that happening and I am figuring that we will be with the same things for at least a week in our new apartment...makes me want to cry just thinking about it!

the latest in living room furniture!

But the good side of things we are leaving on our road trip in about 3 days...it all depends on when I get done with work on Wednesday.  To say the Man and I are excited does not even come close to how we feel about getting out of this 'black hole' of a town.  We are over the moon excited to basically start a whole new life in a completely different location. 

I would like to apologize for the extremely lengthy & wordy post...I will work on taking more pictures and posting more often once we are all settled in!

packing, packing, and more packing

I am not really sure where time is going...its already the middle of February and we are moving in exactly 2 weeks!!!  HOLY CRAP!  Mentally the Man and I are both already moved but other than that I don't think we are even close.  Call me crazy but I actually really enjoy moving.  It 'forces' me to get rid of things that I never use but have been finding an excuse to keep and it just plain-old changes things up, making old things seem new again.

Most nights we try and pack at least one box or cross off one more thing off of the to-do list...this list is almost 2 notebook pages long, we have a lot of shit to do before we move!!  So tonight was no different we packed up all of our my shoes that will not be needed for the next month.  As you can see from the picture below I might have slight shoe addiction...now I do know a few people that have WAY more shoes that I do, just for the record. Good thing we packed those up after I ordered 2 new pairs of boots from VS...they were 75% off, how could you not buy any!  I really hope I can walk in the one pair, they are 5" heel! And every girl needs a pair of booties :)  I am a little upset because when I went to find those links I see they added a bunch of new boots that I might have bought instead of a different pair.  Don't judge my scatter braininess and how we went from packing to buying boots at VS, it's the baby!

All 3 white bins are full of shoes!

After that was all done we also packed up the diaper bag, which is actually what reminded me to blog...don't ask.  I really understand that most normal people put diapers and things that you need to change a dirty diaper but our diaper bag is filled with clothes, blankets and even 2 bottles.  We figure that if this baby does decide to make his appearance before we get to our new place or before the moving truck gets there we need to be able to keep him warm and feed him.  So we figured we will just buy diapers, wipes and things like that again I don't really even know what other things we will need once the baby arrives or after we get settled into our new place.  Are fingers are crossed that we can repack the diaper bag with all the necessities whatever they may be after we are settled into the new place and before the baby arrives.  

Next to tackle is packing a hospital bag for me...again I have NO clue as to what should go in this bag but it will be packed by the end of the weekend! If anyone has any suggestions provided that people actually read this I am totally open to hear what I should/shouldn't pack.

a BIG change

Since sometime this summer the Man and I have been seriously talking about moving and what the next year was really going to have in-store for us.  Again because I am a little scattered brained I am not sure if I have mentioned that the Man is getting out of the Navy...well kind of...instead of being active duty he is going to be a reservist.  Both of us were glad for everything the Navy has done for us but we are both ready for a change.  

Back to where I was originally going with this post...

With the decision made to no longer be active duty we needed to decide what we wanted to do and where we wanted to live.  Both of us are not big fans of living in California and really wanted to try and somehow get back to or closer to our families.  Because I really really like my job we thought it would be pretty awesome to transfer my job...this way we weren't both unemployed and starting in a new city.  

So the search was on for my job to be open in a different state....first we thought we might go to Texas or Virginia, well both of those positions ended up being a down grade from my current job...so the hunt was still on.  While inquiring about the position in Virginia, we learned of a potential opening in the spring of 2012....this would be perfect for us, since the Man would be active duty till this time.

Well long story short ok maybe its not that short after talking to what would/will be my new boss the position is open and I will be doing my current job in Maryland!  We will be in the Washington D.C. area, just on the northern Maryland side of it.  So without knowing anyone or ever being in the area I am not counting the field trip after 8th grade since I don't really remember anything useful from that trip, sorry Mom & Dad!! we are going to just pick up and move there.  It is a little very scary thought but I think hope together we will love it.

I am sure I will have more posts about this subject that will probably clarify parts of this post that might not make sense due to the baby stealing my brains and making me a scatter-brained forgetful person

The "itch" to move...

We have lived in our apartment for almost 18 months now and I have the itch to move.  This is something I am going to blame my parents for, since we moved a lot.  The Man on the other hand is perfectly content with staying where we are at....which doesn't surprise me since his family never moved while he was growing up.

There are a lot of reasons to move and a lot not too....

To Move

• Could use a bigger place (3 bedroom instead of 2)  this way Nicki will have her own room when she lives with me
• The area we currently live in isn't the best neighborhood in town
• A place that included laundry or had laundry hook-ups in the apartment

To Stay

• Cheap rent = saving money
• We don't HAVE to have a 3 bedroom....2 currently works fine for us
• Everything is already in this apartment and has its place (In my eyes this is a lame reason but I know the Man would say this is a reason to stay)

Those are a few of the reasons to move and stay that I can come up with, stay tuned to see what gets added to the list when the Man gets home and what our end decision will be.