We went to McKinney, TX to visit my family (part of my family) for Christmas. We didn't see Carolyn's family because she was home in Washington, and we didn't see Rachel because she was visiting Carolyn. We had a great time visiting my parents and Michael (Nichols). Mike N. didn't have to work the entire visit! And Santa was really good to us this year :) Mom taught me how to sew...again. The personal progress Knowledge Value sewing project when I was 12 didn't stick. I made throw pillows for our couch. I bought the fabric months ago, and didn't know how to thread my sewing machine. And now I know. Next time I have a day off, and I'm not taking a CPA exam or moving, I can sew something! I made Cafe Rio Salad with Brazilian Limeade for my family and some guests for Christmas dinner.
We are moving again. This is our 6th move of our marriage. I don't want to move ever again. We keep moving because of school, school, school, and now, work.
Here's our moves:
May 2009. 1st apartment together, a summer only sublet on 156 N 100 E Provo. Rent: $400
July 2009 Tiny studio 222 E 300 S Provo. Rent $350 per month including utilities SCORE!
August 2010 357 S 1300 E Salt Lake City Basement apartment. Moved to Salt Lake City so I could walk to school @ U of U. I was there for Grad school. Rent $650 including utilities. For the record, it was a mistake! I was willing to move to Sandy over Christmas break, and buy another car. But it was too much of a hassle for Mike to move in the end. We learned never to live in a Basement, you get depressed.
May 2011 Biggest move ever to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for Mike to attend law school here. 7th St. $380 per month Summer Sublet. This place was huge and I loved LOVED the huge windows. It also had huge cockroaches, too...*shivers*
August 2011 Moved to 8th St. in Tuscaloosa. $450 per month The students all moved back to Tuscaloosa, and they are a pain in the rear. So is driving to and from Birmingham for 10 hours a week. Get me outta here!
January 2012 Moving to Bessemer, AL. 2bds 1 1/2 bath townhome in an apartment complex.
So I know I said we were moving to McCalla, and we were. We hadn't signed a lease at Brook Villa in McCalla because we would have to start paying rent immediately, and we didn't want to do that. We had a backup place that costs a lot more money in mind, too. Tannehill Townhomes off exit 100 in McCalla were just bought up by an investor and they had 5 vacancies last time I checked, but they are $900 a month. So we waited until after we got back from TX to sign our lease at Brook Villa. We drove up there to pick our apartment and sign a lease, and we just didn't feel totally good about it. There's no DSL internet, so we have to tether internet from our cell phones. And we would have to sneak and hide Spock. No pets allowed. Also, there were no units with a dishwasher available. The landlord is really nice and suggested we try another place further away from the freeway. This place did not allow pets either, but had internet. However, our cell phones did not work. Internet was the tipping point, so we completed an application and even wrote our check.
Mike was about to sign the lease and scan it back to the manager, when I looked up our new apartment in Green Pond, AL on the map, and google said it would take 45 minutes for me to get to work and for Mike to get to school. It's exactly half way, but it only saves me 15 minutes and poor Mike has a terrible commute, too. I'm still going to be too exhausted to do anything after work. There's no other choices in McCalla, so I looked for apartments in Bessemer, off exit 1 on I-459. There are many more choices. I found a place that is right on the border between McCalla and Bessemer. It allows pets, it's cheaper, it's nicer looking, it has cell phone signal strength, it's the same 45 minute commute for Mike, but it's all freeway driving, and it's a 25 minute commute for me. No complaints there! Also they are very strict about their background checks, so I hope it's safe. Not a soul was outside their apartment when I visited in person, so I guess everyone has a job. There was no mention of section 8 housing on the ad or on the application, so hopefully it's not a section 8 neighborhood. I've heard bad things about Bessemer by a clearly racist source, so I don't know if I totally trust their judgement. The neighborhood looks nice to me. It looks nicer than our neighborhood in Tuscaloosa, so I think it will be ok. So long as I avoid Wal Mart on the 15th and the 30th...to my friends in Tuscaloosa...Did anyone go to Wal Mart yesterday? I did Yikes!
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