On to the Next Adventure

   There was so much back and forth discussion in January about what we were going to do with our living situation once our apartment complex with super sweet employees (who knew our names and would call us each time a package was delivered to the mail room- and we get a lot with all of Emma's medical supplies) got bought out by a new company and all new employees took over. Our 7-month lease just ended April 1st, and on January 1st we were notified that starting on our lease renewal date, there were new "going rates" to match the prices of all the apartments in the Sarasota/Lakewood Ranch area. This apartment was already extremely expensive in my opinion (double what we were paying in Orlando in 2015) and they were tacking on another $530/month!!! PLUS we would have to pay even more on top of that for leasing month-to-month until our house was done being built. There was no way we were going to pay that much!! So we began looking for other options, mainly staying at an Extended Stay.

  *We ended up picking this apartment back in August because it was the only one we could find not too far from Michael's job that had availability at the beginning of September. We had to be out of our house that we had recently sold by September 12th. A lot of other apartments we called in that area with better prices didn't have availability until November 2021 or January 2022, but because everyone was doing the same thing we were- renting an apartment while their house was being built. 

  (Here are a couple cute pictures of me and Emma that Michael took when we first moved down here! It's so rare to not just have a selfie of me and her these days.)

  Unfortunately, our house might not be finished for another four to six months (closing date is scheduled for the end of July, but it could get pushed to September, according to neighbors telling us their houses took a couple extra months) and an Extended Stay is definitely nowhere near the price I thought it would be. However, Michael did the math and it would still be cheaper than staying at our apartment, so that was the plan for a little bit. A few days later, we realized we would have to get a storage unit to hold all of our furniture while we are in the hotel all those months, and that math, plus outrageous pet fees at the hotel, made the price equal out to almost being the same as staying at the apartment! So then for a few days, our plan was to "bite the bullet" and stay at our apartment. 

  Luckily, Michael did a little more digging and found a great apartment complex (after looking at a few others that I wasn't a fan of) that was almost across the street from the Extended Stay. They had a one bedroom apartment that looked big enough for us to turn the living room into Emma's bedroom with her crib, but also have enough room for the couch and TV. Towards the end of January we took a tour there and really liked it a lot! They have a lot of fun amenities, including free exercise classes. We signed all the papers that night to start the 6-month lease mid April, which was the soonest they had available. We were hoping for April 1st, but oh well. 

  So since there was a two week gap between the leases, we booked the Extended Stay for that time and that is where we are now. Somehow being here with boring cable and so many commercials (haha) has given me the motivation to write all these blog posts! We have been watching The Office and Michael's shows on TLC at night. At home we use a Roku to watch Hulu and Netflix, ad free, and I had been keeping myself busy with lots of holiday card making and Polaroid scrapbooking. I am glad to have this time to get all these blog post updates pumped out for you though!! I will probably make a post that shows off all the scrapbook cards I have made (and mailed) for the holidays, since they always have a picture of Emma on them. :)

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  Michael's mom was so sweet and drove down from Birmingham last week to help us with our move. I had boxed up -what I felt like was a lot- throughout the month of March, but there was still so much stuff in our two bedroom apartment! Michael packed up most of his things the weekend before we moved, so by the time his mom arrived about 90% of our stuff was boxed and labeled to either be stored until we move into our house, or to take to the new apartment. There were also a few boxes labeled "Extended Stay". Michael rented a Uhaul and three dollies for the day, which really helped get things moved. I stayed inside with Emma and did more boxing, and later, deep vacuuming.

 **Most important! ^^ ;)

  On Monday, March 28th, I took Emma to the pool for one last hang out. I love the cabanas they had there, especially these big, comfy couch areas. Definitely one of my favorite parts of the complex. The whole pool area was beautiful. Not worth staying for though! And the last sunset I looked at.

   We had to leave Sasha gated because we had the front door open and she thinks she is all good to take herself outside unsupervised! Also, she is a sweetie, but definitely gets under our feet. It's much better for her to watch everything that's going on from a distance.

  Ah, The 10-ton Beast of a couch! I helped a tiny bit getting this out of the apartment. This couch has been with us since we met. Michael and I were sitting on this couch when we shared our first kiss in the summer of 2009. When my roommate, Shelby, moved into a new apartment a year later, and realized this couch wouldn't fit into her space, she told Michael that he could have it if he got it out for her. So we've had this couch for 12 years! I slept on this couch after Emma was born because our bed was too high with our box spring under the mattress (we don't have that anymore), and my C-section pain wouldn't allow me to get up that high. But the couch was the perfect height. Sasha slept with me on the couch for those days. Several friends and family members have been able to spend the night with us because this super soft couch was available to sleep on. It's way too heavy and big to bring into the new apartment, especially because we'll be on the second floor this time, so it will stay in storage until we move into the new house. Then it will be in Emma's playroom.

  When it comes to filling a space, Michael is a master at Tetris and making the most of gaps. I thought the storage unit we got when we moved down here in September was super full, but somehow he has been adding things for the house to it for months! And it is just now at max capacity. Everything in this truck went to a second storage unit near the new apartment. 

  Sasha slept in Emma's empty bedroom, where Michael's mom slept for the night on her own blowup mattress that she brought. Sasha loves to snuggle with people, especially under soft blankets!

  Someone else had to get gated in the middle of the night. She can very easily scoot and crawl off the mattress. It was funny to hear her pulling on handles and crinkling the baby wipe bag, but her ventilator tubing can only go so far and we needed her to go to sleep, so we had to put the cage up. Neither of us got much sleep since she was awake for a long time and her alarms kept going off. I don't sleep well on a shared blow up mattress since Michael likes it soft (so it feels like a water bed), and I like it firm. Meaning he left it soft. But whatever, he was the one doing most of the work.

  Emma had her appointment to get her KAFO braces (knee ankle foot orthosis) at 3pm and that took two hours, plus a lot of traffic on the way back, so Michael was frustrated about being at the apartment longer than we hoped. The new management was so nit-picky about everything, such as if there were any nail holes they would charge $20 each to fill them! And $200 for each bathroom that didn't look extremely cleaned like sparkly brand new. Michael definitely wants our deposit back too. So he and his mom did a lot of cleaning while I did Emma's treatments, diaper changes, and milk, as well as boxing up the last odds and ends. Still we didn't get out of the apartment until after 9pm, arrived at the Extended Stay at 10pm and went to sleep around midnight. 

  Michael had to wake up at 4:30am on Friday to pick up the last few things from our apartment that wouldn't fit into our car and his mom's car on Thursday night, then go to work. At Noon he went back to the apartment office to turn in the keys and do a walk-through to make sure everything he worked so hard on was to their liking. But they said they weren't available to do the walk through at that time.. of course. So he went back and made an 8 minute walk-through video himself so if they try to call us out on anything, he has proof that everything was perfect went we left!