Took me long enough!

Well i finally figured out how to post things and put pictures on here. It is great fun. here are some pictures... Nate has learned to roll over and loves to giggle. He is the sweetest little guy and we are having tons of fun with him. I am in Maryland with my family while Aaron is doing some training for work. Kelly and I (unless kelly changed her mind) are going to go to disney world this nov (late nov early dec.) anyone want to come... Let us know! it should be a BLAST!!! Ashley.. you know you want to enjoy the magic of disney!

Alabama Craziness cont...

Sorry Kelly, had to get Jer some Scrubs for work right then!! I am not normally so cruel;) If you are just tuning in, read my other post first;)!!!

So, we arrived to our new apt with our fully loaded truck, our car, and jer's parents car, we were hot, tired, hungry, and very anxious to get into our place (Alt to B'ham is 2 1/2 hrs). The manager told us we had to sign 16 or so pages of a contract agreement before we could have our key. He rushed us through it and then gave us our key at which point we asked if the apt was definitely ready for us. He told us that yes it was although we may have to wipe down the counters with some 409 if anything and that the cleaning lady should have been in...and if for some reason she hadn't, just let him know and he'd take care of it. Now, at this point I need to back up a bit...When we first looked at the apt place he showed us 2 available ones--one was quite nice and the 2nd was absolutely trashed--rainbow color stains everywhere and trash and filth galore!! Turned out we were given the 2nd and they said that they had redone the apt and we had no need to worry. Well...hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa--yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We opened the door and at first were highly impressed--new carpet and freshing painted walls. Then we checked out the patio, kitchen, and bathroom and I nearly fainted right then and there!!! They were horrendously filthy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The cleaning lady had not been in after all! We called the Manager and he told us he would come and clean as much as possible after his shift and that anything he couldn't do, the cleaning lady would do after the long weekend--ha in 3 days!!! Luckily we were headed back to Atlanta for the weekend anyway otherwise I don't know what we would have done:( I wanted so badly to cry and scream and laugh all at once. Well, I called Michael the manager on Sunday to find out if he really did clean and he said actually hadn't and he would get to it that evening--I made him assure me though that Jer would be able to take a shower in a clean tub and that we'd be able to use the kitchen on Monday and he assured me he'd have it ready (Jer was starting his new job on Tues).

We arrived Monday to find that only very basic cosmetic cleaning had been done and that the tub was just as filthy as ever!! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh man was I livid, if I was a curser I would have cursed!!!!! I mean...our feet were sticking to the kitchen floor and well, I won't even tell you of all the grossness--maybe I'll post pics when I get a chance!! AND, there was a large bag of trash just sitting on our patio!! Anyway this whole past week I have been fighting like crazy with management trying to get them to do their job--they have finally come to do a little maintenance and a cleaning lady did a bit of cleaning but the situation is still pretty ugly--oh and we are getting 100 bucks off of rent!! We have only been able to unpack a few things!! Anyway, without telling you everything I will just tell you that Management has treated us sooooo badly that we got a hold of a relative of Jer's who is a big time lawyer...he has assigned a co-worker of his to us to deal with this mess. He is taking care of us as a friend to the family and so we will not be charged. Management is going to be extremely sorry that they didn't take 3 hrs to fix our place up!! It is all very stressful and yet very exciting at the same time!! We are pretty sure that not only will our place be fixed up but we will also most likely get a month's rent free. In the end things will be good for us!

Luckily, thru all of our traveling, and our boxes being everywhere, and filth being all around, Eli has been a little angel for which we are extremely grateful!! Now, although management has put a bit of a bad taste in our mouths, Hoover (part of B'ham) is wonderful, very pretty, and full of fun things to do and see. We are sure we'll love it here once everything settles down!! Anyway, soory about the majorly long post!! We just had to share with y'all!

Take care:)

Crazy Crazy Alabama!!!!!!!!!!!

Ladies ladies ladies (and gents--I think there are a few who might read this:>) ....Alabama has been the ultimate adventure for us!! I really don't even know where to begin! The last few weeks have been busy and fun and stressful and maddening and scary and wild and crazy!! Should I start with the good or the bad...hmmmm...I think the good, I like feeling happy!! Birmingham and the surrounding areas are amazing! The place is huge! Most of the people are incredibly friendly and helpful and funny and very welcoming (I will explain about the OTHER people shortly)! We offically moved to Birmingham on the 1st of Sept. But...much took place before that! We stayed with Jer's parents in Atlanta for about 2 weeks, Jer and his dad traveled from UT to Atl. with our big ol' Ford and car attatched to that. After 3 long days of driving, a missing chair (which is now in Wyoming somewhere--you are welcome to it Erin!!), a missing crib leg, and a shredded tarp, they arrived safe and sound! We parked the truck in the back yard --it was quite the sight!!

Sometime during our stay we made two trips up to Birmingham to check out our home-to-be and to try to find an apartment. I will spare you all of the details but the 1st day was fun, we saw a lot of fun places, but had no luck with finding a nice apt--oh, and we somehow came across the projects when we took a wrong turn...that was the scariest and saddest thing I have EVER seen, we locked the doors and drove as quickly as possible to get out of there!! On our second trip we were with Jer's grandparents and they helped us find an apt. We had success this time. Oh, and we ate lunch the craziest establishment I have ever been to--I loved it! The place was packed, the line was huge and yet we were sitting at a table eating lunch within minutes of arriving. What happens is you get to the front of this cafeteria style line which has about 8,342 food choices. One server is in charge of a small section of items. When you get to them they quickly say, "whatmeat?" or "whatvegtable (said that way!)" or "whatside" etc!, if you don't respond within 2 seconds they ignore you and push your tray to the next server. Before you know it you are at the cash register and are lucky if you managed to get anything on your plate!! HAahahahaaaa! It was great--I will treat any one of you to it if you come and visit us!! Anyway, the rest of the day we apt. searched and finally found one we really liked and that was affordable and in an excellent area (close to EVERYTHING). So, we paid a deposit and were told that the apt would be ready for us by the 1st. Everything was going great!!

Then...we arrived on the 1st to a disaster...however, we have to run to the store so I will have to continue the story in a few hrs hopefully...

PS--I've loved all of the posts you guys have done recently--I miss you all!