Excitement

I've neglected my blog for the past few weeks out of sheer necessity. Life got insanely hectic, and it still kind of is. But the chaos is worth it and is actually SUPER exciting. And clearly the excitement is evident on Alex's face in this picture.

It was early in the morning, hence our lovely hair, and particularly Alex's inside-out shirt. :)

*drum roll* Alex and I are in a new apartment! Specifically, a duplex! We found out officially that we'd have a new place at the beginning of July or so. Then it took the management a couple weeks to clean and do repairs. Our move-in date was set for July 20th, so I had most of our stuff packed up and ready to go earlier that week.

But alas, the 20th came, and Alex and I walked into an apartment that smelled strongly of cat. Amplify the smell of cat by having a crazy-intense preggo sniffer, and you get one very unhappy girl. ...I may or may not have shed some tears over it.

However, it didn't devastate my excitement enough to keep me from taking pictures of everything. 

We have a lawn and everything!

cute little kitchen immediately on your right when you walk inside

dining room - on the right is the doorway to the kitchen

view of the living room from the entrance

My favorite feature of the duplex - the big back yard with a playground! 

Set of closets next to the bathroom. Yay, storage!

Another closet/pantry next to the living room!

Baby Hershey's room :) This got me sooooooo much more excited for him to get here already! 

Our room. :) 

Our closet in the bedroom. Hard to tell, but the closet is HUGE! 

But it wasn't just me; Alex wasn't exactly diggin' the smell either. The previous times I had set foot in the apartment, all the windows were open, and there was a strong breeze. But once the windows were all closed and the temperature rose, cat aroma clogged your sense of smell and taste.

We talked to the manager, and she was so great about it. She said they'd replace the carpet and it'd only take a couple days! They finished up the carpet on the 25th, and we have since begun the process of moving in.

Andy helped Alex move our gloriously brand new king-sized Simmons mattress on Monday. Let me tell you; I've never been one to feel decent - let alone fantastic - about spending oober amounts of money, but I do! I feel FANTASTIC. Granted, it was on sale, but it was still oodles and oodles of money. But it was BEYOND worth it! Seriously, it's the most comfortable mattress I've ever laid on. Not to mention the 600 thread-count sheets I got on super sale from Tuesday Morning. AND not to mention the heavenly-soft comforter set my mom got us. (And it only took us about 7 hours of shopping and then returning to the same stores over and over again for us to decide.)

Anyway, hands down, getting this mattress was the best decision I've ever made. Well, behind the decision of marrying Alex of course! (But the mattress is a realllly close second. ;-)

finished off with really nice end tables we got for cheap!

We love it! It's seriously better than anything we were hoping for! We've been really blessed to have family donate nice used furniture, and we've found a couple great deals on other used things too. So we're in the process of getting everything moved in and making it homey. :) I'm super excited for my mom, Terri, Katie, and Macie to help me out with decorating ideas. Like, really excited. Because my decorating capabilities end with looking at my wallet and not wanting to spend money. But I know they'll have great ideas on how to do things for cheap. :) 

I just feel so very blessed. Blessed to have stumbled upon such a great apartment for such a great price. Blessed to have the kindest husband in the world who makes me the happiest I've ever been. Blessed to have a healthy growing baby in my belly, kicking stronger each day. Blessed to have such wonderful family around me. And blessed knowing I have a loving Father in heaven who is continually watching over me, and providing me with sweet tender mercies when I get too stressed, overwhelmed, or exhausted.