Part III of the Soon to End Saga

So we were back to square one with finding a place to live. I was borderline panicked because our cash flow was extremely limited and we could not afford a hotel for more than two more nights. I spent the next day combing through the newspaper(keep in mind that I had spent at least 3 weeks looking for a place prior to our move). I was on a first name basis with several real estate company's secretaries in the area, so I thought I had a pretty good idea of what was out there. Many places I was interested in were rented by the time I made the call. And I had to be picky since we moved to a damper area and I have a baby with severe asthma who needed a healthy environment in which to live. We found a cute townhome that was almost a 30 minute drive to campus that we almost settled for because it was increasingly apparant that homes were filling up fast. At least the ones remotely in our price range. We decided against the long commute because we only have one car.Price range, now that's an interesting topic all on it's own. I had spent hours devising an imaginary budget in our preparations for the move. I researched cost of living on line and in my house search was disappointed to learn that it is much more expensive out east than in little old Bloomington. The amount I had budgeted for housing was quickly starting to seem unrealistically low. Most homes that were the same as we came from were at least 1,100-1300 per month w/o utilities! After a long day of calling and searching, I went back to the paper to see if I had overlooked any ads. I felt impressed to call the number for an ad that was only two sentences long and I obviously had missed before. When I called she met me 10 minutes later only to take me to another home like the first one. Well, at least it was clean, but it was in a horrible neighborhood and I could still smell the odor of mold and mildew. I was disheartened as I explained my situation with my son's allergies in reference to the mold. She said that she may have something that would suit his health needs but thought it was much smaller than we were looking for. At this point my priority list had gotten pretty small. Just get me into a healthy clean home for my kids! When we pulled up to the house I fell in love immediately! It was a tiny little white ranch home with a red door and red shutters and a large fenced in front and back yard. The Backyard had a brandnew storage shed, a large porch/deck and a huge maple tree that completely shades the back yard and has the perfect branch for a tire swing. Yes, the house is very small. Probably too small if we intend on making our family any bigger soon. But it will do. And guess what! It's $50 cheaper than the amount I had budgeted. I really felt the Lord's hand that day and was so grateful. The only glitch was that the house wasn't really ready to even be shown yet. It had been completely renovated that week and did not have the carpet or central air installed yet. She promised us it would be in when we moved in so we figured as long as we had carpet we could sweat for a couple of days. I was just thrilled to get in! When we arrived to sign the lease and move in our things that had made a nice home for themselves in the Penske, she let us know that the carpet guy had let her down. The carpet was not in yet so she had marched to his house and waken him to inform him of the urgency of the situation. We had arranged help from the ward to help us unload and we had a truck to return so we didn't have to pay an extra $100. So we went ahead and literally unloaded the truck into the shed, the backyard, and onto the back porch. The carpet was in by the afternoon so we were able to get some things inside the house. It's taken us over two weeks to make sense of where everything is. It also took over a week to get the central air in. So we were dripping sweat everyday and finding things to do at the hottest part of the day so we could get out of the house. A lovely man from the ward brought some fans over to help relieve us from the heat. Oh, I forgot to mention that while we were unloading, I foolishly let my boys run amuck in the backyard for hours not realizing the consequences. We have speculated that Lincoln might also be allergic to certain bug bites. Well we absolutely confirmed that he is definitely allergic to mosquitos and gnats. His body was completely covered in bug bites. After a day or so, they kept getting bigger and then started blistering. So basically, his whole body was covered in itchy blistering sores. So we drugged him with Benadryl to ease some of his discomfort. I felt like a terrible mother that day! In all the craziness, I felt so blessed to have my Mother-in-law there to help out. I'm pretty sure I would have had a nervous breakdown if she hadn't have been there helping out. I love you mom and appreciate you so much!
So, we got moved in, the carpet was laid, and the central air was installed. Except for a few holes in the walls that the Central air guys left and some shifting around to do, I think we feel pretty settled. And now I have my internet and so I'm a happy camper!