Very busy couple of weeks

So at the end of May I found Manavu apartments in Provo, which normally house single men but have contracts for marrieds from April to August. They are two bedroom, two bathroom, have a very large kitchen and living space, lots of closet space, and--best of all--have a kitchen table and chairs!!! And they are 125$ cheaper per month than our Nantucket apartment (granted, it means we have to move again in August, but that was kind of the plan anyway) AND we don't have to pay any utilities. I listed our apartment on Craigslist just to see if we'd get any bites, and after one weekend we'd had 3 couples come to see it, one that was ready to sign a contract for June, and one that was also quite interested. So we called up the landlord to let her know we were moving out (we were at the end of our contract anyway, but I had sent the check already for the next month so basically we were out of contract but would need a refund). But I was feeling good that we had found her renters and it shouldn't be a problem. Well, she had decided she was going to raise the rent by 100 dollars!! Needless to say, she lost all of those interested renters with the new price.

But I went ahead and signed the contract for Manavu for the summer because I just felt good about it. So we got our keys right before Memorial weekend, and I headed over there to clean the heck out of it. After about an hour and a half I was exhausted. Haha. I had no idea how hard it was going to be to move an entire apartment at 8 months pregnant. It made me realize how much I appreciate my usual, non-pregnant, strong body. As a single person, I had been able to pack up all of my belongings and stuff them into my car every single spring and clean up in just ONE day. We have SO much more stuff now--all the wedding gifts and kitchen stuff, furniture, memorabilia, clothes, blankets, food, and junk have just been collecting for the last 3 years has ballooned into many many truckloads. We started kind of slow--Raimo helped me clean after work, and we brought the first few loads of stuff over that day. We rearranged all the beds and furniture in the place to make room for our stuff, and that was kind of heavy too--again, seemed like it should be no big deal since I rearranged our furniture all the time without Raimo in the old place.

It ended up taking 6 days to get everything moved--it would have been less if I had done more packing beforehand, but it was such a quick decision to move so I wasn't very prepared. We had some help from the home teachers to move our bed, from Brendan to move a few large items, and from Raimo's dad to get the biggest stuff transferred on the last day. That last day was the worst--we still had to clean the old place, and it hadn't really had a deep clean in the 3 years we were there. But we had to get it done because we were leaving the next day for California. SO we cleaned the heck out of it-- I was pretty done. I kept saying to Raimo let's just not clean it and we'll give up the 250$ cleaning deposit. But we finished, and we went out to dinner at Red Lobster.

(PS still haven't gotten that deposit back, still haven't gotten a refund on that month's rent. I'm still hopeful--supposedly the landlord is in town this week so maybe we will get it after she checks out the place.)

We headed home on Thursday. This required MORE packing, but thankfully just a suitcase. I was surprised that the drive wasn't too uncomfortable. We made it in time for Reed's promotion, which was Friday morning. He was probably the tallest 8th grader out there! He is going to do great in high school. We went to lunch at Farmer Boy's, which I haven't eaten in years. The fried zucchini was such a treat! I never get to eat that! On Saturday I had a baby shower-- I was so surprised how generous everyone was! I was totally loaded up with baby clothes and stuff from my registry. I feel so much more prepared for a baby, and now when people ask what I still need, I have a much better idea of what to tell them. Just a few things, but honestly they are more of conveniences, not even needs. We are pretty stocked up and that is exciting. We stayed a few more days, spent some time in the sun, and came home on our 3 year anniversary. That drive was not quite as pleasant--I was really glad to get out of the car and just be home. I put all my baby stuff in our baby room (which is also the study and craft and guest room). It is really nice that everything has a place! In Nantucket, I had to keep all the baby stuff in the living room and in boxes. And everything is just more spacious in general. We can actually walk around in our bedroom and I will be able to make sit-down dinners.

So I have been spending my days in my pajamas just trying to clear the mess we made when we moved in. I have been finding a place for everything and actually re-packing a lot of stuff that we won't need before the next move in August. I've been organizing and throwing out a lot of things we don't need. I may not be nesting exactly, but I'm sure de-junking everything. I had 3 huge drawers filled with pamphlets and letters and cards and photos and all kinds of things I thought I would put in scrapbooks. Well, the scrapbooking hasn't really happened at all during college, so today I just put all of it in sheet protectors (in order by date) and filled three 3-ring binders with just memorabilia. I re-read some really nice notes and cards. I put most of our photos in albums already--I'm only about one year behind on photos-- but I plan on getting caught up and starting my baby's album!

Today I've been feeling some lower back pain--probably sat in the chair too long. For about 3 weeks in May I was having acid reflux. I just felt like I couldn't eat anything or else I'd feel it creeping back up my throat all afternoon and night. Thankfully that has not been as much of a problem lately, but I still can't eat too much or I suffer the consequences. I am looking forward to getting this baby out and getting to see her! I'm looking forward to bending over and being able to do everyday things like a normal human being. Oh, and to having wardrobe options again. I'm even excited to have a baby wake me up in the night because then I get to hold her!