Sun River Apartments

I'm venting on my blog so I can have witnesses and so others don't make the same mistake:

Do NOT move into Sun River apartments in South Salt Lake City. The management stinks at following through with pretty much anything. The worst offense: There have been cockroaches in our apartment since before we moved in. We have had multiple treatments (only after we begged/annoyed the crap out of the office folk) and they have done nothing except exacerbate the issue.


This past week alone I cannot walk into a room without seeing at least one cockroach. Today, I saw at least three every time I changed rooms. I've been using Clorox, Lysol and Windex sprays (basically, whatever's closer) to try to kill them because I just can't handle it anymore. They're showing up quickly enough that if we leave dinner out while eating dinner, they crawl into the food.


Unfortunately, we signed a twelve month lease and would have to pay fees for us to leave this horrid, horrid place before the contract is up.


Being a grown up sucks. End of rant. :D

This is how many cockroaches I caught in a fourteen hour period. Not pictured: 6 that were drowned and 10 that were so small I couldn't pick them up with a piece of paper to put in the container.

Crazy week!

                              We had a very interesting week. Monday, Azucena was excitedly running out of her room with a book for me to read out loud when she tripped on the edge of our area rug and rammed her face right into the corner edge of our coffee table. Poor thing cried for over half and hour and finally fell asleep for her nap with an ice pack pressed to her face.

Wednesday morning, I'm not 100% sure how exactly it happened, but Azucena cut her chin on the corner of the laptop. Poor baby cried some more and asked for something to put on her chin to help her feel better.

Friday afternoon I was getting ready for Erin's baby shower by actually doing my hair with a curling iron. I finished, set it on the counter out of reach and turned off the bathroom light and pulled the door closed so I could take care of Adelaide who was just waking from a nap. While in the kids' room, I heard Azucena start to cry and then she came into the room wanting hugs and cuddles. Turns out she'd gotten into the bathroom, grabbed the cord so she could pull the curler down, and somehow managed to bring the curler into the living room before actually burning herself. Luckily, she only got the edge of her pinky finger on one hand. Poor baby!

There are TWO pregnant ladies in this picture!

Thankfully, Azucena was able to have a much better weekend. She even started to eat sandwiches the regular way! (We found this out because she stole my sandwich when I was in the other room and started to bite into it instead of ripping pieces off.)

Please ignore our laundry pile

We also took her to the library. The nice one with the pillows and giant animal pillows and rocking horse dragon. She deserved the nice library! Azucena loved it. And I love this picture. :D

Poor lovely baby. I hope we have a less eventful week!

Twinners

September 10th had to be just about the worst day ever. I mean, it was a Monday, so we can make all our assumptions about that, then it also happened to be a doctor's appointment for Azucena, which meant driving all the way down to Provo so she could see her physician. But since it was her 15 month appointment, it also meant she had to get shots. Three of them. And because she's part of a study that's trying to combine immunizations (fewer shots for kids of the future!) it meant that this time there would be a blood draw. And because her appointment was during the day, Clark couldn't come and hold my hand while I held hers. Boo.

But it doesn't end there!

I was also around 28 weeks along which meant ::cue scary music:: the dreaded glucose test. Which meant half-fasting and drinking the nasty stuff and getting poked. Which I definitely hate. But at least Clark was off work at that point.

Anyway (and this is the light at the end of the tunnel), by the end of both visits, I realized that my daughter and I were twinners! I made Clark take a picture, since she's opinionated enough that I'm sure it'll never happen again. :)

The brave, brave souls.

Money makes the world go around

Thanks for all the commiserating on the driving, kids. It makes me feel slightly better about my judgyness (which I'm really, really trying to get over).

I won't lie and say the last few days have been easy, because they haven't. Nothing horrible, just lots of stress, mostly for Clark. It's the end of the semester and, technically, the end of his collegiate career and he has lots of final projects, presentations, and even had an exit interview today. The poor guy barely has time to sleep--and I mean this literally. It's all he can do to go to bed at 10 so he can get 6 1/2 hours before going to work full-time in the morning.

In addition to all of his emotional stress, is financial stress. You know when you plan on expenses (not necessarily budgeting, but at least knowing that your income is x amount and that that is your limit) and suddenly something sideswipes you? Yeah, Clark's car registration was due, which would have been, oh, $80 or so? But, no, his car also needed a brake job. Like, totally replaced. And he needed to get two new tires. And even though I suggested waiting on the tires and at least looking around because I've been places where they cost $55 each and that includes the company replacing them for you, the guy that Clark usually goes to said he'd find a good deal on tires for us and take care of it.

I was skeptical.

And right.

$80 per tire and a $15 fee per tire to put them on? That is NOT giving us a good deal. That is about $70 we didn't have to spend in addition to everything else. Which ten-upled our previously understood $80 for registration.


(That's his angry face.)

So, kids, just know that opposition likes to kick you when you're down. Now is the time that we could throw our hands up in the air and give up and blame everyone and lash out. But you know what? I'm going to post a happy picture. And then I'll say my prayers and remember to be grateful that we still have a warm home; healthy food; a beautiful, smart, wonderful, healthy baby girl; loving families; and each other.

Random Rants, driving

In a two week period, I was almost hit three times. All three of those incidents took place on campus property. Two of them at the same intersection. I actually stopped driving for a few days because I couldn't handle the stress and anxiety I felt after the third (really close) incident.

Today, while pulling into the Maceys in Provo, I almost T-boned a senior citizen because she completely ignored the stop sign. The white line on the road that says "stop." The giant red sign that says "stop." The fact that it's a four-way intersection and her direction of traffic has stop signs while mine did not.

I don't know how much more of this anxiety I can handle. I'm already on pins and needles when I travel because I have a baby in the car. I'm not sure how to make sure I can keep her safe when I have no control over what others do on the road.

Things that annoy the heck out of me:
*When I'm already going 5 mph over the speed limit (the most I'll push it) and the car behind me is so close I can barely see the bottom of their windshield in my rearview mirror.
*Cars that change lanes in the middle of an intersection. (Which is illegal in MO (where I took driver's ed.), but apparently is not here in UT. I know. I've called the DMV. It's "frowned upon" but not actually against the law. Although if a policeman is feeling particularly sassy that day, he can pull you over for "reckless driving.")
*Cars that don't stop at stop signs
*Cars that decide that their time is more valuable than everyone else that's going in the opposite direction by turning left even though they weren't even close to the intersection by the time the light turned red.
*Folks that drive cars that are bigger than they can handle. For example, the truck that's not between the parking spot lines or the car that constantly drives in two lanes of traffic.

New Neighbors (and a rant)

We have new neighbors.

Not that we were that attached to the old ones (we saw them in person, what, like, eight times?) but at least they were considerate!

Our new neighbors moved in at some point this weekend (we don't know, we were out of town) and have been kind enough to let us know that they wake up before 6 a.m. How do we know that? Because they wake US up before 6 a.m. And I don't mean five minutes beforehand. I mean 5:10 in the morning.

That's right, kids, 5:10.

Call me old fashioned, but I've always been taught that there's a sacred bubble between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8/9 a.m. You are quiet. You don't do things like vacuum when there are neighbors downstairs or throw a dance party with open doors in the middle of a complex. And you don't freakin' yell at whoever else is in the house and have loud, personal conversations at who knows what noise levels at 5:30 in the morning. Or, for that matter, have a soccer tournament(?) before 8 in the morning. (That's my best guess--there was a lot of laughing, muffled noises, and a big WHOMP against the wall that's right next to my head when I'm still in bed trying to sleep.

Rant over. I just really wanted to vent. And have it down in writing should I need to get more proactive (seeing as it's only been two and a half days . . . )

Side note: is it evil that I keep thinking, I'll have a newborn in about three weeks and she'll keep whatever schedule/volume she wants and won't that teach them?

Stuff happens

"And baby don't follow their lead
'cause you'll never know
Just how the story ends, or how the story goes
And you are so confused
And baby it's just like you
to say anything else

Whenever you get this way
Just getting up for the let down,
here they come and yes they're here to stay
Just getting up for the let down"

Sometimes life feels exactly like those lyrics. You get punched, fall flat on your back, then get up, knowing that someone or something else is there, waiting for the perfect time to punch you flat again. It's like when I used to play James Bond with a friend that knew it so well, he'd know what room I'd regenerate in after I died and run over there so he could kill me again. I think this is one reason I hate video games.

Christ's Love

Yesterday was a bit of a break down day for me. Even though some really good stuff happened (see previous post), some really not happy stuff happened, too. And, in the middle of Sacrament meeting, I just had a lot of emotions running through me. I felt bad that I couldn't really be there for others, but I'm so grateful to everyone who showed their love to me. I especially appreciate that my friend, Brother White, shared part of Isaiah 9:12, "For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." That last part especially helped me. And it made me want to see what paintings may be available online to help soothe my heart. I found this one:


The artist can be found here. I debated whether I wanted to use the above scene, or the one from the ocean when Peter is walking to Christ (since that is one of my favorite stories, especially the part where "immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him" (Matthew 14:31)) They are both such beautiful moments of Christ comforting the people he loves. Whether it be His Spirit or His children being the tools with which I feel His love, I am grateful to know that I am a daughter of God and am blessed to be able to have times of sorrow turn into learning experiences.

My sister is more awesome than your sister (for now)

Today was harder than most. I have some friends struggling and some lady rear-ended me, among several other things this week. I'd been fighting back tears for several hours and, after some comments made to me, they finally spilled over as I walked to my car for solace. Luckily, I have an amazing little sister who was willing to text comforting words to me while I debating on whether or not to just sleep in my car.

She's the best, and I can never express to her how much I appreciate and love her. (And, thankfully, I decided to come to bed.)