Apartment drama

I'm not a very picky girl. When we decided we needed to move for the baby, all I wanted was relatively inexpensive rent, 2 bedrooms, and a washer/dryer would have been a plus. Well, I found all of those things, and we got our keys today. I went to check out the apartment tonight, and after 5 minutes in the place, I walked to the leasing office and requested a transfer to a different unit.

I really am not that high-maintenance, but I just can't live in that place. There was nothing really wrong with the unit itself, although the kitchen and bathroom were smaller than they had been in the other unit I'd toured, and the appliances were a little old. Those things I can live with. But the lady at the renter's office told me that it was raised off of ground level, and it wasn't. You have to go up stairs to get to the front door, but the back door opens onto a ground-level patio, which is literally about 10 feet away from a busy street. No way am I moving into a place like that with a child. I would constantly worry myself sick. A toddler could run right out of the apartment into oncoming traffic in less than 30 seconds. Besides, I just don't feel that safe on the ground floor in an apartment complex when people are constantly walking by. Also, the patio smelled very strongly of smoke, even though there was no one around, so I guess the neighbors are heavy smokers, and I can't really live with that either.

So I went straight to the renter's office and asked to transfer. Luckily (I guess my luck hasn't run out yet!) there's another 2-bedroom unit on the 2nd floor available on the opposite end of the complex, far away from the street. We'll be finalizing the transfer on Thursday. To me, a $600 transfer fee and $10 more in rent per month is well worth the money!

Anyway (calming down now), we spent most of the weekend trying to get rid of the fleas (thanks to all who made excellent suggestions, they helped a lot!) and I think we got rid of the majority of them. I also shopped for maternity clothes with my mom. I don't really need the tops yet, but the pants situation is getting kind of dire. And my Bella band is getting kind of annoying. I had a lot of difficulty finding clothes that fit-- what the heck do pregnant teenagers do?? But I ended up buying clothes in the smallest size they had, and hopefully I will just grow into them. I am sure I will long for the days when I was too small to fit into any clothes, so I'm not complaining at all! Although the saleslady did get a little snippy with me ("those pants are too big for you. You need an extra-small. And we don't sell that here.")... even though I didn't even ask for her help!

Then yesterday for our first anniversary, we went for a hike in a nearby state park that has pretty waterfalls, and had a picnic lunch. Then we did some shopping, went out to dinner, and rented a movie-- a perfect day! My parents even got us a little cake from the same people who did our wedding cake, so we had that for dessert. It was Tahitian vanilla bean with raspberry preserves... yummm... I'm eating a piece of it right now and it is still just as delicious as it was a year ago.

Now Tyler is gone again, but only for a week this time. He does occasional jobs for the guy who did all the dinosaurs for Jurassic Park, and this time he's in Portland, Oregon dealing with one of this guy's traveling exhibits. It's good money for us, so I can't complain about him being gone-- besides, it's only a week, that's nothing to us!