One other thing...

I forgot to mention in the previous post about the current issue in our current apartment. We came home from camping Sunday night to find a super wet spot on the carpet in our master bedroom. On that same wall, in the master bath, the wall/paint is starting to bubble up on the ceiling. Back in the bedroom, we found out that our bookcase we had sitting near this wall was water damaged. The carpet underneath is wet and stinky. The wall itself is wet and has mold growing on it. When you gently push on the wall you can see it dent in. There's obvious water damage being caused by either the second or third floor. I called Sunday night to leave a message with the front office about this. They called me back Monday morning and sent maintenance over. He spent five minutes looking at it and said "yup. water damage. i'll check apartment 203". Then he left. And I haven't seen or heard from him since. Since then, the room SMELLS awful. We're breathing in the mold/mildew. It's disgusting. I called back to the front office on Wednesday. I got the same lady as I did on Monday. She said she'd check back with maintenance to see what the status is on the work order. I still haven't heard or seen maintenance at all. The room is getting worse. This CAN'T be healthy to live or sleep in that room. Pete did some research online and found the number for the 'tenants union' in our area. After talking to a neighbor, she informed us that maintenance has 48 hrs to fix a mold issue. It's been over 48 hrs now. So when Pete gets home today he's calling the tenants union to report this. (the neighbor we had talked to said she reported them over something when she first moved in, and the owner ended up being fined $5,000 and the head manager got in trouble).

I just hope SOMETHING goes right with on of these places.

What a mess!!

It's been just about two weeks since we signed the new lease to move. The ladies in the office had said the place was ready to go. The new place was obviously not ready to be moved in to after seeing its current condition. Last Thursday Pete went in to talk with the head manager Mikey to find out when it would be ready (since I was told a week prior to that that the place would be worked on and be ready). Pete was told painters would "be coming next Wednesday to paint, and then you should be ready to move in that Thursday". Well, today is Thursday. We won't be moving today. The painters did come yesterday to paint. After dinner Pete and I went over to see what else had been done (there's a long list). NOTHING! Nothing else has been done except painting. I'm so frustrated. What has maintenance been doing this entire time???!!! There's no point to move over there when they still have to go through rooms to tear stuff out to replace it. We made a list of everything that STILL needs to be fixed/cleaned. We won't move in until it's complete. We decided that if this drags on to August 15th (a whole month since signing the lease) then we're just going to forget about moving and stay where we are. Lately I've been so depressed/pissy about our current situation. Boxes are everywhere. Just about everything is packed. I don't have any desire to cook in the kitchen. Then you add two little super active boys and every day normal stuff to the mix....it's just chaotic.

Science Center & Taste of Seattle

A couple of weekends ago we met up in Seattle with Jessica and her boys at the Science Center. The current 'traveling exhibit' is the 'circus'. The exhibit was so much fun. Pete and I got to pretend to be acrobats and do some flips in the air. We also walked the tight rope. All the boys had fun running around, looking at everything at all the exhibits. We spent a few hours in there before heading out to walk around outside at the "Taste of Seattle". There was so many delicious places to eat. We decided to split everything we ate, that way we could eat more. The first thing we tried was some deep fried alligator (see picture). It really did taste like chicken. Pete treated all the boys to an airbrushed tattoo. Clifford picked a shark (on his neck) and Kristjan picked a turtle (on his arm). We walked around there for a few more hours before parting ways for the day. The day was a lot of fun, though we were super exhausted by the time we reached home.

Dorothy Lake, Part 2

This last weekend we went out on another family backpacking trip. Pete took us up to Dorothy Lake, where he went with Daniel just two weeks prior. We left Friday afternoon as soon as Pete got home from work and didn't return home until late Sunday afternoon. The lake is up Stevens Pass. I'd never been up there before. The drive was long but the view was beautiful. The hike itself really was easy; just a little tiring since you're constantly going up steps. We made it to the lake as the sun was setting. The spot Pete wanted to camp at was already taken, so we settled for a nice little island on the lake instead. On one of the trips crossing over to the island, Pete's foot slipped on a log and he jammed his toe, tearing his toenail (he had a few choice words when this happened). The island we camped on was nice, with a little area for cooking, and a spot to go down to access the lake. The bad thing about the camp site was all the bugs and mosquitos (I came home with TONS of itchy bites!!). Saturday we spent the day in the lake. I'd never jumped in a lake before, so Pete made sure I got initiated. It scared me!! I don't like swimming in water that I can't see through (I've watched Jaws and other misc scary movies way too many times). The first jump in I was basically pushed in by Pete. He got a good laugh at me. The next few I did myself. Even Clifford jumped in a few times (Pete dunked Kristjan in only once). The water felt so good on that hot day. We took a late nap that day to try to kill time and escape from the heat of the sun. The meals we ate were all delicious. We brought up tortillas to make wraps out of everything. This was the first camping trip where I could honestly say I was stuffed after each meal. When we woke up Sunday morning, we were all ready to go home. We ate our breakfast and packed up as quick as we could. Before we hiked out, Pete had us walk down to the lake's edge. He convinced me to jump in the lake one last time (with our clothes on). We held hands and made a run for it. It was awesome!!!! We hiked out in wet clothes, but it felt refreshing. Hiking out was easy. We were starving by the time we made it to the car. A quick little trip to McDonald's on our way home helped us feel a bit better. We really enjoyed Dorothy Lake. It was a great hike for the kids, and there's plenty of other islands to camp on. We're definitely planning on going back there again this summer.


Pete checking out a possible camp site on one of the islands
Pete carrying Kristjan over to the island
Pete and boys
Me and my boys
Picture of me after our hike. I was so hungry and tired
There was a full moon. It was extremely bright; it was like a spotlight shining at us in our tent
Pete took this picture of me and the boys still sleeping in the tent-or at least I was still asleep
Our morning view
Getting ready to go swimming in the lake
Boys before going in the water
Our attempt at a family picture
The sun during the day was extremely hot, and there wasn't any shade on our island. Pete put up a tarp to try to give us some relief from the sun
Clifford and Kristjan goofing around
Me and Kristjan
Pete decided to carry both boys at the same time across the lake on our way out. He wore his shoes instead of going barefoot so he wouldn't hit his toe again.
These are the stairs we had to go up and down during the ENTIRE hike. It was like a never ending step aerobic class!!
Clifford is ready to go home