We're Moving!

We're finally moving out of the apartments and buying a house! We're so excited this time has come and look forward to having a place of our own. We were so blessed with how everything worked out and couldn't be more pleased with the home, location, etc. We will want lots of visitors now that we have more room!

Living in the apartments has had it's advantages and disadvantages. Here are 10 things I will NOT miss about the apartments!

1. The garbage truck. I know we will have a garbage truck coming to the house but it will not be at 7:00 am on a Friday/Saturday/Sunday morning and he will not be picking up a dumpster that's RIGHT outside our bedroom and SLAMMING it down on the pavement, sometimes repeatedly if it's stuck on the lifter-thing.
2. Parking in a covered parking spot that's just far enough away from the door that it makes carrying anything inside/outside a pain in the rear.
3. Smelling the cigarette smoke from our downstairs neighbor
4. Sharing walls with 2 different families (one who likes to play Hispanic music very early in the morning)
5. Walking by the dumpster to get to and from my car to get inside. I've learned just to hold my breath--bleh!
6. The light to the tennis/street hockey court right outside our window that is very bright and makes a LOUD buzzing sound (not fun when trying to sleep)
7. Having to go down stairs and out to the bbq area whenever we want to bbq. I can't wait until I can just walk outside my back door and do this and not have to carry charcoal, lighter, lighter fluid, bbq, spatula, hot pads to carry the bbq back upstairs, the food, and the charcoal starter.
8. The paint--the apartment complex's way of "cleaning" when someone moves out is to just paint over everything so in the cupboards and drawers there is this nasty brown paint that everything sticks to (dishes, toiletries, you name it) . The best part is standing in the bathroom and finding long hairs that have been painted into the wall. Kind of gross?? Yes. I think so.
9. Speed bumps. I don't mind these so much when I'm driving but Steven likes to drive over them very fast and yeah...let's not go there :o)
10. Our little stacked washer/dryer. Where to begin with this? No wonder I started buying more clothes when we got married and moved into the apartments! I wanted to avoid having to do laundry because I knew it would take FOREVER if I started.

NOW...with all that said, there are probably more things I will miss than not. Here are my top ten things I WILL miss from the apartments.

1. Our ward family--I have loved this ward so so much and I love all the people there. They have become like family and if there was anyway we could stay in the ward without living in the apartments, we would.
2. The trees/grass. This was one of the things that attracted me to this apartment complex. There are huge trees everywhere! I loved taking walks/runs or even just driving down Fiesta (a small street by the complex) because it felt like I was back east. It made it so much prettier and more bearable. It didn't feel like one of those old, nasty, empty apartment complexes (sp?).
3. Going to friends' apartments and being able to walk there to get to them (same with visiting/home teaching!). When the boys would go play basketball, Megan W. and I would just walk over to Desiree's apt and visit and when they got home we'd walk back to our places. It made it so convenient for whenever we needed to borrow sugar, flour, etc. on Sunday when baking (thanks to all those who helped Steven out :o) or walking over to Joey and Camie's to borrow a movie.
4. The big green grass "field" behind our building and the many frisbee games Steven and I enjoyed there. I hated that the front of our building faced the tennis courts and stuff but loved that there was no one behind us but a big grass field.
5. Being able to call the front office whenever we had something go wrong with our water, electricity, air conditioner, appliances, bugs, etc. and having it all be F-R-E-E!
6. Being so close to a costco and walmart...although we'll probably save money not just running to walmart every time we needed something and making a thousand trips! And not being too far from the freeway was nice as well.
7. The fact that it was the first place we ever lived together and we'll never live here again (I know, I know-cheesy but I'm sentimental when it comes to this kind of stuff).
8. Being around so many people--I know we'd complain about the noise and stuff sometimes but noise meant people and people meant we were part of a little community who all had something in common. I know we'll be in a community in our house but we won't pass each other walking to turn in our rent or check the mail or when getting out of/into our cars.
9. The closets--I have loved the closets in these apartments because they are huge and can fit so much stuff!
10. Having our utilities paid for...the small and simple things we come to take for granted when living in an apartment complex.

Anyway, we really are excited to move into our house tomorrow and we look forward to all the new opportunities (that's really just code for responsibilities) it will bring us!