I finally have a place to live!

Well, actually, now I have TWO Places to live!! Crap!

Hooooorrrrraaaaaayyyyyyy!

I got a call right before I took my lunch break saying that I got final approval to move into a three bedroom townhouse I applied for last weekend. Yay. It's pretty cute, the back door opens to the neighborhood playground and the pool is beside my building. Rent is high-ish for this area, but amazing compared to what i've been paying in Va.

The problems? It's in the next town over, in the wrong (and not good at all) school district, and it will add about 20 miles to my commute. Ten into town to take the kids to school, and then i'd have to backtrack ten to get to the highway to head to work.

That's if they could even stay in their current school.

If they had to change to crappy schools they would, well, be in a crappy school. They also wouldn't be able to go to Grandaddys house after school so i'd have to pay daycare, and they wouldn't get that time with him which is a HUGE negative in my mind.

Before I could call her back to return the message I got another call.

On Sunday I was flipping through the classifieds and saw an add for a 3 bedroom double wide and a 3 bedroom singlewide, but no prices or locations were listed. I called just to see and she told me they were both rented already. (The rental market here is smokin) Then I got a "buuuut, I have a four bedroom that I just found out is coming open. The girl is still living there but it's on xyz road, you can ride out and look at the outside and I can call you when it comes available so you can see it."

I asked and it was in the RIGHT school district, so it took nearly everything I had to not offer to give her a deposit and first months rent then, but I kept cool. I'm a cool cat.

20 minutes later I had ants in my pants so my stepmom and I took the kids and rode out to see where it was so I didn't waste my time if it sucked (although it could have been a shack and I wouldnt care, as long as it's the right school!)

We got there and found the driveway, but I wasn't sure which one it was. A girl stepped out on the porch of the one I *thought* it was so I jumped out and asked her if she knew for sure.

I ended up talking to her for almost an hour, asked about the rent, utilities, the landlords, etc. She was super nice as we chatted so I thanked her and started to go back to the car when she said "Well, i'm packing and it's a mess right now, but do you want to see the inside?"

YES YES TRIPLE YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She rocks my socks. We looked around and it was *much* bigger than it looks from the outside, the kitchen is kind of dated with border (ack!) but she said he's pretty ok with painting and whatnot as long as it's tasteful (how hard is it to be as tasteful as apple border in the kitchen?!?)

She told me to let her know if I was getting the place and she'd try to leave the swingset and a few other things and then oh so kindly warned me that sometimes the neighbors cows get out and come in the yard..."but it's not a big deal, just go out and smack them on the rear end and they'll run home"

Can y'all just see this city girl smackin cow butts all the way home? Lord have mercy!

Anyway, I called again and told them I did decide to ride out and that i'd met the girl and saw the house and asked if I could fill out an application. I went that night to fill it out and talked to the landlord a while. He said he'd get back to me by the weekend.

He ended up calling today and when I answered I got

"Hello Steph? I was just calling to tell you we decided to go ahead and let you rent the house." all calm and collected, like he didn't even realize how freaking monumental that call was.

Joshua is pumped, he's all about getting a paintball gun and target and shooting in the field. Jordan is mad because the kids that live there now told him sometimes when the wind blows you can smell cow poop. Jake has no reaction because he's so pissed at me because he's in trouble for fighting at the babysitters house this morning.

I'm freakin pumped!

I finally found an affordable place, without getting married OR going on welfare!



Oh, and the rent is $109 cheaper than the townhouse, that's $100 more a month I can put in savings (and a couple vanilla lattes from Starbucks if I ever find one here!)