A new home (part I)

Todd found an apartment online a month or so ago. It looked nice -- way bigger than the apartments I'd found and not much more money than the other ones. The only problem was that they were booked full. At first they told me there were a 'few' available on August 5th. When I called back the next day to make a deposit, the "few" was just "one" and it had been taken already. Ummmm, yeah. OK.

I decided that I would just look around once I got here. What I found were a lot of section 8/subsidized housing or BEAUTIFUL brand new Senior/Assisted living apartments. One of the teachers told me that the apartment complex I'd thought about checking out was OK but the windows and doors weren't that great so she wouldn't recommend them. Back to square one.

I drove around today around 11 a.m. just looking for some apartments in an area close to K's daycare and not far from my work. I passed by two duplexes (I think one was technically a townhome) with "For Rent" signs in front. I called both of the numbers and the townhome person said it was $1000/month. Forget it. The duplex person it would be $900-950, depending if we wanted to sign a year lease or not. They sounded nice enough but said it wouldn't be ready until at least 9/1. Forget it.

So I thought about the apartments Todd had originally found online. I used Mapquest, Yahoo Maps and even Google Maps (from the apartment's website) and got THREE different ways to get there! It's in such a new area that none of the ways were very accurate and, of course, I got totally turned around. I FINALLY happened across it. They didn't have a 2 bed/1 bath available (naturally) but they had ONE 2 bed/2 bath available. I toured the model (2 bed/1 bath) and it was fine -- pretty spacious for an apartment and it is in a nice area -- SUPER close to her daycare and not far from my school either. I'll be able to make a big 'loop' in the mornings -- go one block to the main street, make three turns to get to daycare, then come back to the main street and continue across to school. Total trip is about 5-6 miles. A daily total of 12 miles is a LOT better than the 110+ I used to drive to/from St. Paul's!

The apartments are SO nice. More expensive than I wanted -- but once the house sells, that will help a lot. And we could sign a 9, 10 or 12 month lease for the same price so I signed a 10 month lease -- that should get us through the school year and then we can decide if we want to keep renting or if we are ready to buy or whatever.

Here is the link: www.eagleslandingapartmentcommunity.com

AND -- the very funny/odd part is that when I was chatting with the lady who gave me a tour today, I found out that her younger brother went to Grace Lutheran in Pocatello and that SHE is thinking of putting her daughter in a Lutheran school, but didn't really realize that there was one so close by in Idaho Falls! Every the "salesperson" that a Luth. school principal has to be, I told her that there is a waiting list, but if she calls soon the school board may be able to split the class into two groups and her daughter could get in...and if she doesn't get in, she could definitely think about bringing her for 1st grade.

THEN I went over later, after picking up K from daycare, and dropped off our brochure, welcome letter and other information! You just never know...

K had an AWFUL day at daycare today. I knew it would be. She was wide awake from 3:30 - 5 a.m. Her nose was so snotty, I'm surprised she could breathe. She did finally go back to sleep until about 8 a.m. but was just "off". I should've given her some tylenol or motrin this morning. I'll know better next week if she's still like this. She was horsing around at lunchtime because she wasn't hungry and fell off her chair, bumped her cheek and got a small bruise. Then she refused to eat, refused to nap... finally fell asleep as everyone else was waking up and then ate all her lunch -- at around 3:30 p.m! She didn't really enjoy "water" day outside (I thought for sure she'd love it... guess it wasn't fun enough just playing with the water tables)... I know she'll enjoy two days at home with me, but I also know it's important for her to go there and be around everyone everyday. Despite everything, they said they really DO think she's getting better overall. I'm hoping by the end of next week she'll really start to open up. We move next Wednesday (not that we have any furniture, really) but I am borrowing a crib/mattress from one of the teachers and I hope that will help her feel more at 'home'. Once I get all her toys/books, etc there, I think that will help too. Although people either smile or get a good laugh out of the fact that I have her little Sing N Play chair and a bunch of her toys out in my office. I think I should keep a few things in case Esther has to babysit her during my meetings and in case I have a shy Preschooler come for a tour. Kids love books and stuffed animals, etc.

That's all for now. I still can't get the wireless network to work with my laptop at school yet. So no pictures yet. Soon, I hope!

-Tanya