Smoking Is NOT Very Glamorous...

I have been feeling a bit frustrated with my apartment lately. Am I being ungrateful for the roof over my head? I don't know about that but I am really worried about my children, especially Ronan. The neighbors below us smoke and it comes into our apartment. The bathrooms and laundry rooms are the worst by far but it still gets into the rest of the apartment, our clothes, our towels, etc... It's so gross to get out of the shower and put your face into a smokey towel. Yuck!

My day was spent on the phone with our local county health department, the EPA, and the local chapter of The American Lung Association. I talked with some really great people but unfortunately there is nothing in the nations clean air act that protects someone in my situation. It doesn't even protect someone who has purchased an apartment, condo, or townhouse. Is there something wrong with this picture or am I just being "insensitive" to the rights of the smoker? I went so far as to call some other apartment complexes to see if they had any non-smoking buildings and one gal told me that according to some right to housing act, they are not allowed to ask if someone smokes or not because it would be discrimination. I was totally appalled to say the least. Why is it that more and more, the laws protect those who would directly or indirectly cause harm to another person? Darn liberals!

So here we are, stuck in the one year lease from Hell. It is truly awful and I'm so afraid for the health of my family. I'm totally allergic to cigarette smoke but I'm a big girl and I can take it but what about my babies? It just isn't fair. Well, I'm not going to stop or give up on this one because it just isn't right. I will be calling my local elected officials tomorrow to see if we can get the ball rolling a little faster on legislation for people in my situation. Fortunately, I have already made some allies with a gal at the health department and a man from the EPA. Anyway, I'm at a loss. Has anyone been in this situation before? What did you do? I'm thinking of purchasing a couple of those portable in home air purifiers/filters. Any suggestions on a good brand?

p.s. Who else is old like me and remembers this poster from grade school?

Our New... Old Apartment

We've got our own place again. It's nice to have a place to call home again but it makes me miss our house even more, especially as I unpack boxes and smell the smells of our house. Our apartment is modest and constructed in the 80's so it has that great popcorn ceiling we all know and love... maybe, maybe not. It's a decent enough stop on the way back to home ownership but I imagine that will be at least a few years from now.

It's Been Almost A Month...

Well, it's been almost a month since we "abandoned" our home (it still hasn't sold) and our life in Arizona. I can hardly believe it! We left AZ on the 29th of August hoping to make it to our nephew's baptism on the 30th. Unfortunately we didn't make it because the trip took longer than we thought with another car in tow and the baptism was earlier in the day than we thought it would be. Since we have been here in Colorado, we have been staying with family (Troy's brothers). They have been so gracious and we are very grateful for their hospitality while we work to pick up the pieces of our broken life. Although, there does seem to be a bit of light at the end of this dark tunnel.

Troy and I have both found jobs to tide us over until something better comes along for Troy, which we hope is much sooner than later. I'm doing massage, pregnant belly and all (I'm still amazed I got hired!), and Troy just found out today that he'll be ASM for a local game store. His career field has been really tough to break back into, especially with the market the way it is, and his job being directly related to the local commerce and development.

On another note, we think we found an apartment we like, at a decent price, and it doesn’t smell like Top Ramen Noodles! Some of the places we have looked at have had the worst kind of apartment funk you could ever smell in your life! I was a little concerned when we found out how old the complex we like was when we were getting ready to take the tour. In the end, we were pleasantly surprised and pleased when we walked through the apartment door. Each time we looked at a different place, all I could think about was, "Do I really want to bring a brand new baby home to this?" I didn't have that thought with this place so it got immediate approval from the mommy in me.

Other than that, we are just trying to get adjusted to our lives here and are really looking forward to the day we have our own little place to call home again. I'm not too crazy about the whole homeless thing. OK, we aren't technically homeless but pretty darn close. I'm not too sure what Kaia thinks about all of this either. I'm sure it's hard for her and she really, really misses all of her little friends back in AZ. Sundays are particularly tough. Instead of being excited to go to nursery on Sunday, she cries and says she doesn't want to go. I know it's because her friends aren't there and her cousins have their own little friends that they play with. It about broke my heart when I peeked in on her last Sunday and saw her just sitting against the wall by herself while the other kids played. The ex-Primary President in me thought, "Hello people, don't you see the sad little girl sitting against the wall by herself?" Oh how I miss our ward in AZ. I don't think any will ever compare. I miss you guys so much!!! Anyway, we are trying to make things as normal as possible for her but that's a pretty hard undertaking when you are dealing with a two and a half year old. When we were on our way out of AZ, I don't even think we were across the NM border yet, she said, "Mommy, I want to go home." Talk about breaking your heart! It took everything I had to hold back the tears, knowing that we would never return to the home she has known since she was 6 months old. All I could get out was the fact that we weren't going back there and that we were going to CO to find a new home.

I guess that's it for now. I also wanted to say "THANK YOU!!!" to everyone for all of your thoughts, prayers, and support. I'll have lots of blogging to get caught up on once we get our main computer out of storage. We still have photos from our Labor Day fun and etc. sitting on our camera's hard drive waiting to be uploaded.

Private Moving & Garage Sales

We are having an invite only moving sale, which of course means all of you and not the general public are invited. Since we will need to move soon and still aren't quite sure where we will be going we have decided to sell some of our furniture, a T. V., and etc. We hope that many of you can come and help us out as well as help yourself to some nice things at a good price!

P.S. Click on the photo to enlarge for better reading.

Goodbye To Arizona

It was the Friday of Labor Day weekend that we left Arizona for good. We were all excited for our new adventure and where our journey to Colorado would finally take us. It was good to get a chance to say goodbye to so many of our friends the week prior to leaving. There are to many to name but you know who you are! On the way out, after we finally secured our PODS for pick-up, we stopped by our good friends' Zippy and J-Rod's house for one last goodbye. It was really one of those bittersweet type of moments. It sure seems like we've had a lot of those lately. Thanks you guys for waiting up so late to see us off, for the road trip treats, and other goodies. The drive out was sort of surreal and reminded me of when we first came to AZ from IL over 5 years ago. Troy was assigned to Luke AFB after graduating from the USAFA, which is what brought us to AZ in the first place. We were only married for about two months when we made the long trip out to AZ. It's amazing how the circumstances of our lives had changed from when we came to town to when we left. We came as newlyweds with all the excitement of a new job, new life, new town, and of course ignorant bliss. We left with the harsher reality of no job, a 2 1/2 year old, a baby on the way, facing the loss of our home, and being homeless. Wow! Looking at it makes me wonder why we didn't find a nice mesa to drive off of in the middle of New Mexico somewhere. But, we all know the answer to that. Faith. Plain and simple faith. It's not an easy thing to live on when that's all that you have but if you have the strength to endure, Heavenly Father most definitely blesses you in the end. Here are a few of the things we love that we had to say goodbye to...

Never Thought Seeing These Would Be Missed!

Spring Blooms In The Desert

Our Newly Madeover Bedroom

Our First Home

Swimming All Year Round... Almost!

Room Makeover

So we finally decided it was time to add some color to our lives, specifically in the bedroom...
Okay, not THAT kind of color.
Anyway, we decided to paint our bedroom, and put up some blinds. It took us a few days to get it all done, but we're very happy with how it turned out. Here are some pictures for you to see.