Bitch!

Here's a story:

Anybody who follows me on Facebook is ultra-aware of the fiasco that is Our Upstairs Neighbors. We hear every move they make. We hear every raunchy sexscapade (I give the guy credit, he can last a LONG time, but now that you're officially grossed out....) and, most recently, we can even hear early morning puke sessions. Hurrah!

I've been fed up for awhile, but a few weeks ago I decided to start fighting back - it simply would be out of character for me to not be a fiesty bitch. So I began throwing objects at the ceiling whenever they were making ridiculous amounts of noise with the hopes that they would just get the point.

I think I had only done it a few times prior to tonight.

But yes, tonight. Tonight put a solid kabosh to my new sport.

As usual, we were innocently watching TV and they were being annoying. I gave Tom the "I'm so fucking over this" look several times before I decided it was time to strike back (hey, at least I gave them a chance to clean up their act!) I took Aiden's bottle and threw it at the ceiling. They continued with their noise. I continued with my throwing. Finally I hear a foot pound in a steady pattern and I know it's a purposeful move. So I get even more pissed, crawl on top of the couch, hold the bottle to the ceiling and pound for quite a long time.

We then hear the door open upstairs. Tom says "Oh you're going to get it now..."
I wait at our door, gearing up for a smack down.
Dude finally knocks, I open the door, and he goes, "Are we being loud or something?"

HE WAS SO. NICE. ABOUT IT. He was so ridiculously nice and apologetic that I, in turn, tried to apologize for myself (though it didn't go very well because I was so taken aback by his niceness).

After I closed the door, I crawled into the couch, hugged my pillow, and whimpered about what a bitch I am.

Tom went back up and talked to them about how horrible I felt. They apparently thought it was kind of funny. So now, not only are they super nice about my ridiculousness, but they also can be cool enough to find humor in it. They then preceded to ask Tom if we wanted to join them in a game of cards.

Fuck them for making me look like a shitty human being. Yes, now I have an entirely different beef with them.

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Life in a Blurb

School is easy. Aiden is hysterical. Tom actually wants to get engaged (come onnnnnnn financial aid refund money!!!!) I might be planning a Boston trip for October.

WOAH. Back up!

Boston?

Yes, Boston. I left a piece of my heart there, so I have to go back and visit it every once in awhile. Oh, and there's a really awesome doctor there that specializes in my craziness (who woulda thunk?) and I'd like to catch up with him a bit. I might possibly even be talking to a group of people with my same sort of crazy and be telling that them that, while they'll never be completely de-crazied, a normal happy life IS possible afterall.
Me being inspiration (again, who woulda thunk??)


Watch out Beantown!

A Quickie

I am officially back to being wayyyyy too busy for this.

We're back from vacation! I don't know why there's an exclamation point at the end of that, because I'm certainly not happy or excited about it. We had such an amazing time in Eagle River. Aiden experienced so many new things that I'm quite shocked his little curious head didn't pop off. Despite not getting naps at his usual times, and going to bed late, and not being in his house, he was absolutely perfect the entire time. He was even pretty good during the 4 hour trip up and 4 hour trip back.

Evidence of how tired the poor guy was: He went to bed at 7:30 last night and slept until 8:30 this morning. 13 hours!

We all wasted no time getting back into the ho-hum of life. Tom went off to work, and I packed up my bookbag and hurried off to school. Yes...school. Before I ever got to campus I logged onto my online courses and realized that I had a whole bunch of assignments already waiting for me to complete. Then at campus I got a huge wake-up call: my Anatomy & Physiology class is probably going to be the single hardest and most rigorous class that I have ever taken. There's no rest for the weary in this class. Quiz, lecture, lab. Repeat at every. single. class. Luckily enough for me, my Written Communication class is a complete joke (I just completed an assignment on simile's and metaphor's, a la 5th grade), my Sociology class requires very little outside work, and I've already taken Intro to Psych twice. Still, Anatomy & Physiology is alllllll memorization and that is definitely my weakest point when it comes to school and learning. The icing on the cake? IF (I say IF) I pass this class, I get to move on to Advanced Anatomy & Physiology next semester.
Shoot me now.
I should put up a poll for people to vote on how many times it takes me to pass these damn classes, but I can't afford to have my ego knocked down any lower when it comes to this.

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Apartment Update!

That amazingly adorable townhouse located within walking distance from our current location is OURS. We signed the lease last night! I will shamelessly admit that I still drive past it whenever I have the time because I love to stare at it and think about how perfect it is. I didn't think we would end up finding the perfect place, but it happened, and I'm so relieved that the looking process is over.

Now we just have to move. And I hate moving.

So far it's looking like October 1st or a little after is our move-in date. I will be negotiating a move-in date with the people who are coming into this place because I'm not entirely sure I want to be homeless for so long.


But now I sleep. =)

And The Winner Is...

The apartment decision has been made!

I might get e-stones thrown at me, but we didn't choose either of the two previous apartments. ::ducks behind computer screen::

But let me explain!

We were driving to Tom's parents house via the back route.....



...when we drove past a sign similar to this:



Since we already passed Felix St. I quickly whipped a U-y....



...and began searching for the address. I knew I already liked the location, and the plethora of trees surrounding the street was a good sign, so it already had stuff going for it.

About 3/4 of the way down the street I spotted another one of these a few houses down:



We came to the end of the street, and at the end of the street, in a cul-de-sac, rent sign out front, we saw this:



The first thing out of my mouth was "Noooo wayy....." while looking much like this:


(yes, it was windy inside the car)

So I took a closer look:



And it was still just as beautiful.

There was a little tube by the For Rent sign that said INFORMATION so I made Tom get out in the rain and grab a sheet from out of it. It quickly entered my head that I shouldn't get my hopes up because it was probably way out of our price range.

Tom came back with the piece of paper which read:

FOR RENT

LUXURY TOWNHOUSE

155 Felix Street
Wales, WI 53183

2 Bedroom / 2 1/2 Bath; powder room on first floor, two baths upstairs

Living Room, Kitchen/Dinette with snack bar, Laundry Room

Full basement

Attached one car garage with automatic door opener

FEATURES:
- Sliding glass patio door leading out to a wood deck
- Living room has vaulted cathedral style ceiling with a gas log fireplace
- Appliances include washer/dryer, stove, refrigerator, and dishwasher
- Master Bedroom has a six foot arched window with cathedral ceilings
- Central Air
- Energy efficient gas furnace

AVAILABLE:
October 1st, 2009

And finally, at the very bottom, it listed a price. A price that falls PERFECTLY within our price range..

Which led me into unimaginable excitement.



Tom called right away and spoke to the lady for awhile. We set up an appointment for 7pm today to see the inside of the place.

I have to say, if I hadn't been as busy as I was today, it would have been hell waiting for that time to roll around. I was really optimistic because the outside of the place was so nice, and the description had a lot of great things listed. I couldn't imagine it being something we wouldn't end up wanting. We already knew everything about the place, so unless it was a complete junk yard on the inside, there wasn't much left to find out.

For the most part I would say it lived up to everything we hoped and dreamed it would be. The only two negatives are that it's a tad bit smaller than we had been wanting( Aiden's room will be smaller than it is now, and our room will be smaller than it is now), and we still have to deal with carpet in the dining area. Besides those two things, the place is perfect. The basement is even nice enough for us to set up a gaming area and play area for Tom & Aiden.

It's a cozy little place with a stunning yard full of huge trees, a beautiful deck for us to enjoy summer dinners on, and we only have neighbors to ONE side of us. Nobody walking above our heads, nobody running bathroom fans below our feet. The neighborhood is exceptional, the location is ideal.

Our application is in, and we were the first people to see it, which means if everything checks out, we will be the ones to get it.



So now we wait.

Moving On...(no pun intended)

It's time to talk about something other than the apartment situation, but don't be fooled into thinking that it's not still consuming my life.

For a brief moment I'm going to focus on the big hoorah that is going to be my last weekend before school starts. (I feel incredibly weird saying that.) We're driving into the great Up Nort' with my parents to visit with my crazy grandmother. Luckily we're staying in a hotel, and Tom, Aiden and I have our own room. It's going to be the only summer vacation for this year so I'm pretty happy that we're going. It will be Aiden's first stay in a hotel, and the hotel has a pool so swimming should be fun. We're also planning to go horseback riding and take a lap or two around the go-kart track.

Perfect timing, really, because we all need a break from life.

And speaking of a break - I have no idea what's going on with him, but Aiden is the KING of crabby lately. Maybe he was over-tired this afternoon, but not a single thing was making him happy and this seems to be a continuing problem. It could be teeth. It could be utter boredom. It could be something completely out of my realm of knowledge. Whatever it is, it's testing every level of my patience. Solution? Send baby to Grandma's for a fun afternoon while mommy gets her head back on straight. So that's what tomorrow has in store for us. I'll probably use the time to run some errands in preparation for our weekend. Me-time will be enjoyed no matter what I'm doing though.

I do have some sort of news on the apartment topic, but I'm not quite ready to share, so check back tomorrow for a potential update if all goes well.

The List

We're done searching for apartments. We're both tired of it, we've seen all we need to see, and we have two solid options.

Here's the magical pros and cons list.

Stone Creek Apartment

GOOD

- Cathedral ceilings make it seem very open

- Two bathrooms so Aiden can have a monkey bathroom

- Pantry in kitchen

- Tons of storage

- Both rooms have walk-in-closets

- Nobody above us

- Garage!

- Extra den area (however it's NOT closed off)

- Can paint, but have to paint it back before we leave

- Community pool

- Cheap utilities

- Perfect location

BAD

- Only two bedrooms, no room to grow which would mean having to move if we need more room

- Bedrooms are on the smaller side

- No yard

- Feels like an apartment

- Dining room has carpet (not good with a baby)
-Rent is more expensive

Lower Unit Townhouse in Waukesha

GOOD

- Three great sized bedrooms provides room for Tom to play games in, and expansion area if necessary

- Nice layout

- Large dining room with hardwood floors

- Felt very home-y

- Great deck that we could actually put a table and chairs on

- Yard for Aiden

- Good storage

- Nice closets

- Walking distance to the park

- Priced well

- Ability to paint

- 9ft ceilings
- Cheaper than Stone Creek by about $100

BAD

- People living above us

- No pantry

- No covered parking

- Driveway is VERY steep and we are responsible for snow removal

- Utilities would be a bit more costly

- We aren't huge fans of ghetto downtown Waukesha




So, it's that time again.....
(and feel free to leave comments!)

Eating My Words

I have no idea why I ever got so excited about this "let's be absolutely crazy and move!" business. Well, okay, hearing every detail of the upstairs guys puke-session yesterday morning might be some of the reason, but other then that? I can't figure it out.

I thought it was going to be a relatively easy search because I found endless possibilities while I was looking before I really should have been looking (if that makes any sense). But now that I really should be looking, we're hitting dead-end after dead-end. Hitting the 'Refresh' button on Craigslist every two minutes and buying a newspaper daily is getting a bit annoying now.

Here's what I've learned though: Apartments are in high demand. And apparently, townhouses are in the highest demand. We fell in love with a place in downtown Waukesha that was completely renovated yet still had loads of character, put in our application, the chick called all of our references - and then we found out she gave it to the first people that applied. I think that was my official point of being SO over this.

But since the people taking this place have already signed their lease with a move-in date of October 1st, there's really no turning back now. So I'm going to see yet another townhouse today. It has the potential of being perfect (3 beds, 2 baths, central air, attached 2 car garage...) but I don't have my hopes up too high. Things tend to sound a whole better than they are.

Dazed & Confused

The mass tour of apartments began this afternoon, and I now remember how hellish this was the first time.

We visited two side by side town homes, and then re-visited The Lodge, and I am not a step closer to figuring out what the right place is for us. There's one town home left in the running, and then of course The Lodge, where we saw a brand new floor plan that I love even more than the original we saw. I'd still like to keep looking, but I need help first.

Here's the rundown:

Chic Apartment Complex



We love the new-ness of The Lodge. It's modern, it has tall ceilings, we can paint, it's within our price range, and it has almost everything we want (plus it's never been lived in before!!). It's also in the perfect location for us. Problem? Its just enough space for us now and offers NO room to grow. I was hoping for some extra space for Tom to play his stupid video games in and Aiden to have his own playroom. Is that necessary? Probably not. Also lacking in these fancy apartments? A garage, and most importantly - A YARD! We have a growing boy who, in a years time, will probably be dying to play outside. If we had a yard, he could have a playground and a pool and all of those fun kid things.


Pleasantville Townhouse

It doesn't get much more family-friendly than this. Sidewalk lined neighborhoods, a great backyard with a deck and a two car garage. Also a huge bonus? The FOUR bedrooms. That's more space than we even know what to do with! So where's the hang-up here? Well, price is a huge factor. It's about $100 over our comfort zone, plus the utilities would probably be pretty rough considering the size of the place (however if I go the townhouse route I can always keep looking for a more budget-friendly place). The location also isn't ideal, although it's not bad either. And lastly, it's definitely been lived in. And yes, Tom and I are suckers for some fresh drywall and never-used bathtubs.

So folks, I need your opinions here. Do you think we should go for the cool new apartment despite the fact that it's not 100% perfect? Or should we be a bit more practical, and, for the same amount of money, get something that has everything we want?

Let's hear it!

Operation: Relocation is a Go!

I spent hours making this apartment spotless yesterday (no, I'm serious, it looks magazine-worthy) so we could show it to the potential new renters, and I was kind of bitter about it because I didn't have much hope, if any, that these people would even be very interested.

Just imagine me scrubbing the toilet, whispering obscenities under my breath for having to put so much work into it all.

They showed up right on time and had very positive reviews about the place. They reminded me of Tom and I six months ago, when we thought this place was a castle made out of gold. "A walk-in-closet! Great sized rooms! Oh, it's like one and a half baths."
At the end they explained that yes, they really liked this place better than the last one, but they had already put in an application for the other one and wanted to wait to hear back from them.

Imagine my surprise when, 20 minutes ago, I received the email saying, "We'll take it! What's next?"

I literally ran across the apartment and shouted in excitement at Tom.

So what does this mean for us? Well, we start another massive hunt for the perfect apartment. And I kid you not, we WILL find the perfect apartment this time. With a much larger budget than we were dealing with before, I've actually been able to find plenty of places that could possibly be in the running (not that I was looking obsessively or anything).

What are we looking for in the new apartment?
- A garage, or at least underground parking
- Washer/Dryer IN the unit
- Much more space - preferably an extra bedroom or den, or a finished basement
- A yard for Aiden would be wonderful
- Central Air! Enough of this "sleeve unit" crap. It barely gets the job done.
- Less neighbors (which means either a townhome or an upper unit)
- The ability to paint would be a huge bonus
- The newer, the better. In the case of The Lodge, brand spankin new, which totally wins me over.

So here's to another adventure.

YEA-UH!

There officially might be hope for us in regards to the apartment situation. I wasn't banking on too much with the Craigslist ad I put up, but after a re-post I managed to sucker someone in. I might've accomplished this by completely leaving out any pictures that showed this apartments true 70s character, so I won't be shocked when these people come to see it and I never hear from them again. But mayyyybbbeeeee the lovely low price and free heat will be enough.

If so, let the apartment hunt begin!!!

If not, I'm going to cry. And then re-post my ad again. =)

The MIL Complex (Or The Complex MIL)

Tom and I went over to his parents for dinner last night. I've never had any problems with that - in fact I've always told Tom that we should try to spend more time with his family. Unfortunately, though, I think that has officially ended for me. Granted, we've never had a night like last night before, but frankly I only see it going downhill from here. Maybe I'm wrong (please let me be wrong).

I'm not going to bore you with the gory details, but here's a rundown of the lovely evening:

• Tom's father complaining about "stupid liberals". Well buddy, I AM a stupid liberal (and this was the only thing I said about the subject). A very proud stupid liberal, in fact, because at least in my liberal-ness I'm not a close minded, anti-change individual who simply hates someone because they aren't exactly the same as me.
  
  
• I brought up the fact that Tom and I had decided we'd like to get married on the farm. Tom's mom was pretty excited about the idea and we both started going back and forth with different wedding ideas. At one point Tom said in a very annoyed tone, "Let's save the marriage talk until we're actually engaged." A pretty huge blow on his part, especially in front of his family. He's usually very excited about the idea of getting married when we're alone together, but once it's brought up around other people? Forget it.
  
  
• Tom's mother asked when or if we plan on getting Aiden baptized. Tom started to say that we weren't very interested in doing that, and I very honestly said "I don't believe in God, so it's not something I feel comfortable doing." His mom basically had a heart attack and had to sit down, and then said "You're going to make me want to fight for full custody." EXCUSE ME?! Where does someone get off saying that???

We left shortly after and I was pretty upset for the rest of the night. Tom has promised not to give me a hard time about getting married in front of people anymore, which is good. It's just a shame that his family can't accept me for who I am. I always envisioned myself marrying someone who was very close with his family and whose family I was very close with. I wanted to be able to spend time with my mother or sister-in-law without my husband and enjoy it. It doesn't seem like that's going to be happening, though.

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Wassup Aiden?

I keep having to do double-takes when I look over at Aiden because he's constantly standing up and doing whatever he's doing. He crawls to his destination and very expertly pulls himself up and checks out the world. Literally every time I turn around, he's standing up and playing. I'm still not used to it, and I still constantly ask myself where time has gone. He's my baby. My baby shouldn't be standing.

Despite the fact that I'm in denial about it all, it's a pretty cute site.

We took him to the doctor yesterday because he's been driving me nuts with his crankiness, and he appears to be on a sleep strike of some sort. 30 minute naps and waking up at 10pm every night don't fly with me. His ears looked clear, and he has a pretty mucus-y nose, so we're assuming he's got some sort of virus. He's slept a pretty decent amount today so let's hope whatever bug he has it's moving out.



Standing up + nekkidness = parTAY

A Walk In The Park

Tom, Aiden and I ventured to the park on Sunday. This particular park has an awesome walking path along the river, a huge flower garden, and of course - baby swings! Aiden also got to play in the grass for the very first time. We really enjoyed ourselves, the weather was perfect, and I'm absolutely in love with the pictures we took while we were there.

Mission Accomplished

I finally got my little trouble maker to stand up while being filmed. It was quite a task, let me tell ya.

As you'll be able to see, he's not quite at 'Pro' status yet.

Where Did My Baby Go?!?!

Aiden has reached yet another huge milestone. Seriously, my heart just got over being broken from the whole crawling thing. Now here I am again, wondering where time has gone. Why won't he listen to me when I tell him to STOP growing up?

Here it goes..........




.....he pulled from sitting to standing.
::cries::


I didn't even see it the first time. I must have been zoning out at the TV or something, but I looked over to talk to him and (it took awhile) but I realized he was much higher than he normally was. And then I did the quick, "OHMIGOD!" and clapped and cheered for him. He was pretty happy about his accomplishment and just stood there and laughed.

Luckily he did it again once Tom got up and we both got to watch him. I didn't catch it on camera though.

It's just going way too fast for my liking. I'm so incredibly happy that I got to stay home with him for the past month and actually watch him grow instead of missing all of it.

Believe it or not, birthday party plans are going to be underway relatively soon. We have to get the invites out sooner than normal because his birthday is Thanksgiving weekend. If we want people to come, they're going to need to know well in advance.

Just not fair.

Doh!

I completely forgot!! I re-decorated this blogger!

The banner is a result of me getting back into the graphic biz. Once upon a time I was semi-good at that stuff and I could've whipped that up in a few minutes. This, however, took hours. Mostly because I couldn't decide what I wanted, but I had to put quite a bit of effort into re-learning things, too.

It looks okay though, right?! I'm pretty proud of it.

Glimmer of Hope

I forced Tom to call our landlord and ask if we could get out of our lease on the condition that we find someone to take it over. His answer was yes, and I was busy posting an ad on Craigslist not even 5 seconds later.

I took a few pictures of our dwelling for the ad, so I decided I'd share them. Please keep in mind the 70's fixtures are NOT my doing. I've tried to decorate in an effort to downplay the retro-feel of the place.




The living quarters, which is actually quite large for an old-school apartment



We recently moved the dining table against the wall to create more space. I haven't decided if I like it yet, hence the extra chair still chilling out. And yes, we use our dining room cabinet for Tom's game-playing "man-zone".



Can't complain about a lack of storage in this kitchen. I hate everything else though.



I liked his old room a thousand times better, but I fell in love with the monkey bedding from Pottery Barn Kids and an all white room needs color, so I went for it. I think it would look better if it wasn't so white though.



Our bedroom. I can't say I hate it, but I'm not totally in love with it either. It needs more color.



Love the balcony! I wish we had a small table out there because it's so fricken cute and pretty with the flowers (and fresh paint!)


For our first place together it's not horrible. And most importantly, it's ours. I feel incredibly lucky to be where we're at with things because I know it could be so much worse (like not living together at all). But we're definitely ready and able to move into something a bit - er - nicer. I haven't gotten a single reply to our Craigslist ad yet, so I might consider going the newspaper route. People in Wisconsin just aren't in with the Craigslist thing it seems. I'm just so desperate to get out of here.




The End!