Who Needs Sleep??

I can't believe that we have again reached a "We need to move" stage.

As much as I like this place:
It is spacious and has room for Steven's "office",
It has air conditioning and a central heating system,
It has a garage and some what reasonable parking,
No one has been murdered here and it is mostly police officer free...

We have acquired horrendous neighbors. When we first moved in it wasn't bad at all. In fact, hardly anyone lived around here.

However, we have always had issues with kids to the one side. There was an entire stretch of at least a month where every week day, without fail, at 4 PM the younger kid would come home and wail on the door and the older kid would refuse to open it. It became our "inside joke"... 'It must be 4 PM Honey!'... Finally one day Steven made a point of seeing what was going on and we got a little visit later that night from the Father. He apologized profusely and we think he tattooed the garage code on the kids arm.

Then the Mr. and Mrs. Next Door moved in. Their dogs have been a source of much frustration. One of them mugged poor Cruiser for his treat. They let them out without leashes and Steven almost hit one by accident because he was running loose and we were backing out of the garage! We were glad that nothing serious happened, but they simply open their door and let the dogs do whatever they please with no respect for other residents. I'm fine with having dogs around, but I don't like that.

Then the worst happened. We went to bed on Thursday night and I was just about to drift off when I heard a snoring sound. Steven doesn't really snore much and at first I thought it was just him. I kind of nudged him but it didn't do anything. Then I put my head nearer to him. He was fast asleep and quieter than a mouse! Where was this noise coming from?? Oh yes, it was Mr. Next Door. He was snoring so loud, I thought he had Sleep Apnea. It was a long, loud vibration followed by a short almost choke and then quiet. Repeat. All night. I got no sleep. I could feel it through the wall in the bed. Finally last night I simply got out of bed and slept in my guest bed.

This morning we moved some furniture around. The bed is now on the only unshared wall. I actually think the room looks bigger and we have a better TV position. Go us! A simple fix, but still...

The up side of this is that it might be time to start thinking about a new place. Again. Time will tell. But for now, at least, we should be able to get some sleep...

New "Post Label"...

The setting: Our bedroom/bathroom this morning

Its 5:50 am and the alarm goes off...

Steven diligently gets up and heads off to the shower. Julie rolls over and swats at the clock, silencing the alarm and relishing in 10 more minutes of peace...

All of a sudden, Julie hears a crashing sound!

Steven: ARGHRHRHHGHGHGHG!

Julie: Sitting up a little more in bed "What happened!?!"

No response from Steven...

Julie: Still trying to wake up, now pushing the covers away to get up "Are you ok!?!"

As I walk into the bathroom I see my husband bent over the tub with the ATTACHED shower curtain rail balanced on his shoulders (ala Atlas the world bearer of statue-d fame).

Julie: "What the heck!!?!?"

Steven: "Yeah, it just fell on me"

We have absolutely no explanation for why the attached (yes, I feel the need to emphasize that it is actually attached to the wall, and yet still collapsed on my Husband this morning) shower curtain rod fell down, much less on him, this morning.

But we are re-affirmed in our need to move. Hence, the need to create a new "label" for posts: "We really need to move".

Now, if only the Supreme Overlord of All That is Good in Housing would smile on us long enough to actually:

1) Find something we liked AND
2) Let the current owners accept our offer.

Until that happens, stay tuned for more quality posts about our current housing mishaps.

IKEA! (Yes, I love you, again)

We got a new coffee table at IKEA last night. A few things will stand out as significant whenever we look at it now:

1. The big dog in the back of a Subaru on I-5 that just kept doing circle after circle in the hatchback. Hilarious.
2. Steven turning to me and saying 'I think we can do it' in a Bob-the-Builder reference to getting the flat packed box into the Altima. We did do it. Because we rock.
3. The five to eight fire trucks in our apartment complex when we got home...on site due to an apartment fire close (but not too close) to our unit. Apparently 19 people are displaced from their homes and its 300,000 dollars worth of damage. Ouch. (Further solidifying our need to move-soon.)
4. The least labor intensive IKEA purchase we've made yet. 15 minutes...while laughing at references to Shrodingers Cat on a rerun of The Big Bang Theory.

Steven is happy with the coffee table because it is roughly the exact dimensions as the old one (just wider) and therefore continues to be great for putting your feet up on...

I'm happy with the coffee table because I will no longer get splinters and my big red bowl has a new home.

Its a win-win situation. And it looks fabulous in our living room. :)

Dude,...what the heck happened to my car?!?!

I'll start off by saying that I'm really mad...

When I got up this morning I just did not sleep well and was very grumpy and tired. I decided not to go anywhere or do anything and just sit around and relax. Which was fine until Steven decided to go to the store for stuff for dinner...

He comes back inside and says, "Someone vomited on your car"

I'm going to let that sink in here....

SOMEONE VOMITED ON MY CAR.

We've questioned moving before, that was before the thumbtacks that have recently been left behind our car, pets pooping on the sidewalks and no one picks it up, beer cans and boxes left in the back of Steven's truck, and we can now say that our car has been vomited on too. We took into to get it cleaned up at the local car wash and its fine...but still.

I officially think its time to move. I feel like we live in the slums of Lake O.

Moving...the Shakespeare of it all...

So, we finally found a new place to live. Yay! This comes after having spent two whole days driving around Tigard/Tualatin/Sherwood/Parts of Lake Oswego, familiarizing ourselves with map folding techniques, arguing about which Boones Ferry Road is which, throwing up our hands in protest of ancient baseboard heating and the like.

The real treat of it was getting nice and cozy with our Thomas Guide. I managed to find a "Shakespearean" named street near the majority of places where we stopped of to look. Some examples:

1. House on Hamlet Drive...
2. Apartment complex near Tempest drive....
3. Apartment complex near Shakepeare drive....

Odd? Possibly. Funny? You bet. We had a good laugh as we realized we'd been driving by the same places and used them as landmarks. We'll be getting settled in tomorrow and this weekend. I'm still holding out that we'll be able to sneak off to the beach and enjoy one day of the long weekend. You never know!

Happy Labor Day! ~ Jewels