moving

I am so freaking excited to move.
This apartment holds a lot of unhappy memories.
A lot of heart break.
I am excited for a new ward.
We didn't really fit into our old ward, and there were some strange dynamics.
We are sick of the city and the homeless people and the traffic.
I am sick of having an empty nursery.
This change is so needed. I already feel lighter.

After a whole Saturday of searching last week, we found exactly what we were looking for. It's a place a friend of mine actually lived last year. I always loved her apartment, but thought it was too far away from where Nathan works and we only have one car, so I didn't even suggest it. But after we were touring our 900th apartment and I was still unhappy, the relator said their company owned a few other properties including Santa Fe Apartments. She said she had lived their for 2 years a loved it. I knew my friend had loved it as well. So we decided to head over. I knew I loved the area, but Nathan had never been there before and he instantly said he loved it. A big thing for us was a good "area" to move to. We sacrificed a good area for a good apartment for the first 2 years of our marriage. Our current apartment is perfect and we love it, but it's down town on the gross side. We can't just walk outside. It's scary outside! So we loved that the area was cute shopping centers and neighborhoods.

The second the woman showed us the apartment, I knew I wanted to live there. It's a 1-bedroom, so technically a downgrade, but I don't care! It's open and spacious and we will have a way bigger bedroom than we have now. So if we do get to bring a baby into the world soon, we can share a room. We will be on the top floor which aparently most people hate because our rent is cheaper on the third floor. We love, and requested, the third floor. I HATE living with people above me. Plus, the stairs will give me exercise. We have an awesome mountain view. It's further from Nathan's work than we originally planned on, but he can use his work car most of the time so it shouldn't be a problem. We are so excited to live in a suburb. I have lived down town for a combined 4 years. Down Town is the only place Nathan has ever lived in Utah. City life is fun, but only for so long. We want to feel safe. And we don't want to have to drive 20 minutes to get to a Walmart.

Today I needed to go to Target so i decided to go to the one that will now be literally next door to my new apartment. Then I explored the area. I made a list of all the awesome things I saw just to tell Nathan. Some of these may seem silly to you, but you have to understand we have lived in a nasty city for years surrounded by business building after business building and homeless person after homeless person. And you always have to pay for parking!!

Awesome things that are within 1-5 minutes from my new home (yes they are mostly food):

• Super Target
• Walmart
• Ross
• Deseret Book
• In-N-Out
• Chick-Fil-A
• Panda Express
• Costa Vida
• 5 Guys
• Pei Wei
• Bed, Bath, and Beyond
• All basic fast food places: McDonald's, Wendy's, Carl's, Sonic, Arby's, KFC, Burger King, Subway, Taco Bell
• Melty Way
• Kneader's
• Smiths
• Jimmy Johns
• TJ Max
• Rumbi
• Smash Burger
• Chipotle
• Noodles and Co
• Applebee's
• Red Mango
• Paradise
• Old Navy
• Home Depot
• Whole Foods
• Blue Lemon
• Denny's
• Papa Johns
• Chili's 
• Across the street is a GIANT park
• We live on the same street as the fire station. Not really that cool, but hey, they'll get there fast!
• There are tons of gas stations!!! It was so annoying that down town, there were hardly any gas stations. And before they built a Maverick on 5th south a couple years ago, there weren't any gas stations near the freeway entrances. And each gas station has like, 2 pumps. It is the worst.
• Big parking lots for every store and restaurant. NO PAID PARKING!!!!
• We are 1 minute from the 215 and 5 minutes from the 15. And a 15 minute drive down town.

So yeah, I am pretty stoked.
Here's some things I won't miss about our current living situation:

• The empty nursery (can I say that one enough?)
• The weird way our ward handled the loss of our baby and how they all kinda ignored us after
• Living in an enclosed building. It will be so nice to open my front door and be outside! I feel so claustrophobic in this building sometimes.
• Having to drive forever to get to normal grocery stores and restaurants.
• Having to pay for parking every where I go. (Places like the post office! COME ON)
• Having no light in my kitchen. My new kitchen is smaller than current one, but there's no window and no natural light hits there.
• Feeling scared of the people who live near me.
• Not having a neighborhood.
• The worst of the inversion and awful air.
• All the food places around us being hole-in-the-wall places. Those types of places are only fun for so long. And they're always full of hipsters.
• Traffic.
• The homeless shelter being around the corner.
• The constant reports of drive-bys and robberies happening in the neighborhood next to us.
• The drug deals that happen at McDonald's. 
• The crazyness that happens in April and October every year. (Don't get me wrong, I LOVE General Conference. I HATE living down town during General Conference).
• Hipsters. Hipsters everywhere. And not just casual hipsters. Like, city-dwelling, I am so deep and different, all vegan all organic, super judgmental, dressing like freaking weirdo hipsters. Salt Lake is basically just homeless people and hipsters.
• The fact that we can hardly leave our apartment whenever there is an event for Jazz Game at the Energy Solutions Arena. SO. MANY. HUMANS.

Things I will miss about this place because I'm bored and want to make more lists because this blog post isn't already long enough:

• We could walk to the Gateway. 
• We could walk to the temple.
• We could walk to General Conference.
• We could walk to City Creek.
• This apartment is new and nice and cheap.
• The management here is the bomb. Never had a problem in 2 years.
• Our apartment has a view of a really pretty courtyeard full of trees. Lady watched the birds allllll day long.
• Being in an inclosed building keeps our heating bill really low.
• Down town is really cool sometimes.
• We lived right next to Nathan's work and school.
• I know Salt Lake realllly well.
• Having 2 bedrooms is cool. 
• I have lots of cupboards.
• It's only $25 of pet rent.
• It's really quiet here. We have only heard our neighbors once or twice.
• Despite the heartache, we have had some really great times here as well.

Basically, this is a really long blog post.
2 WEEKS UNTIL WE MOVE!!!!