The "Move"...

The wedding was incredible. Everything I never knew I dreamed of happened. The flowers were stunning. The cake was delicious and picture perfect. Speaking of pictures, those were incredible, as was the video. Derek is the man I never knew I needed. He is my rock and my soulmate. We smiled essentially all day. It was the best day of my entire life. The honeymoon was also incredible. I wrote all about it in another post. After we got home from the honeymoon we had a few days to pack and organize and stuff. It was Friday when we got back. We were also exhausted so we napped and lounged all day. Then Saturday through Tuesday I packed and got ready to move to Auburn. Wednesday rolls around and Derek brings me Aurora, our German shepherd, so I can take her and Luna at the same time. My dad hitched the trailer to his truck, mom hopped in with him, I've got the girls and lots of stuff in my car and we head out. Now. I have never seen our apartment. We chose it because it was in our budget and allowed German Shepherds and was literally the only place like that with an apartment available this month. I signed without seeing. Big no-no. The website made it look great, and it was our only option so we jumped on it. Me and my parents got there around 2pm, and did a walk through with the assistant manager of the place. She was nice. It looks like an old motel with floor to ceiling windows on the front of every apartment. There were grassy courtyards in the middle where you could walk dogs. We walk in to the apartment and it is old. Very old. The countertops are painted. The carpets are disgusting and stained. The blinds have been chewed on the bottom by a cat, that the manager assured me had not lived there. (Derek is severely allergic to cats.) The doors in the apartment don't close or latch. The windows are so thin you can hear peoples footsteps walking past outside on the sidewalk. There were people smoking everywhere, including our downstairs neighbor and side neighbor so the smoke drifted through our old creaky wood floors and filled our apartment. The walkways outside are stained black with cigarette ash. The toilet wasn't fastened to the floor so it rocked around when you sat on it. There were about 15 children running around the courtyard screaming and yelling from after school until around 10:30pm, and then after that there were tv's blasting until late in the night. Most of this I discovered after my parents had left after we spent hours and hours moving all my stuff in from the parking lot about 65 yards away from my front door. Up and down flights of stairs. I was distraught. I knew Derek would hate it but I couldn't afford better by myself. The dogs didn't sleep a wink. They were on guard 24/7. I walked them multiple times and Aurora never pooped while on the leash. I was afraid she would hurt herself holding it so I took them to the dog park at the back of the property the second day I was there after I went to my new job to do paperwork in order to start on Nov 21. She finally pooped. They ran around. It was okay, until I walked back to my place and a guy yelled at me from the balcony and then ran down to talk to me about the dogs and then proceeded to ask me if I came this way often. I was worried so I said my husband and I moved in yesterday (definitely not telling him I was alone). He apologized and walked away after saying that's all he wanted to ask me. I spent the next day inside with the dogs all day except for my brief trip to Walmart to get food and some organizing bits to try to make the place homey. I was going to make the best of it. I unpacked all my boxed and sorted through what I wanted to send back home when Derek and his parents got there Friday. Sleeping didn't really happen because Aurora couldn't be still. She paced and looked out the window every hour. Finally she curled up next to me on the air mattress and slept for a little while because she was touching me. Derek got there Friday around 1pm. He pulled into the parking lot, got out of the car and said "No. no no no nonono." We went into the apartment and he lost it. Started freaking out about how bad everything was and how bad of a neighborhood and how he couldn't leave his car in the parking lot. So I started crying which I never do. I was distraught because I didn't know where we would go. I couldn't afford anywhere nicer. No where would take Aurora. I told him to call it right then. Are we staying or no? And told him to call his parents immediately to tell them his decision because I was done making decisions. I have been making all of them since April. My brain was done. He said no we can't stay here. It's not safe. So we called our parents. Mine were relieved and said they didn't feel comfortable leaving me there Wednesday but didn't see any other options so they didn't feel like they could tell me so. Derek's parents finally pulled up and took one look inside and said no, start packing. We took Derek's car to a friends house and came back to the place to tell the manager we were leaving. I told them I lost my job which may very well end up happening now. They refunded some of my money but not all, so we are out a pretty penny over all this. Weirdly on the way back to the apartment Derek received a call saying he has a phone interview next Monday for a position he applied for near Atlanta, Ga. He applied Monday before I moved down on Wednesday and they called Friday. We are praying this is God telling us we are making the right moves now. We packed it all up that day and Derek stayed with me and the dogs that night. He had his pistol right beside us all night. The next morning my parents came over with our empty trailer. They had driven all afternoon the day before to get to us to help pack everything back up. We got it done in a few hours and wiped down the apartment. Our parents were very proud of Derek's decision to leave an unsafe, unclean environment. Dad also told me it was a huge fire hazard with grills on every walkway underneath wooden awnings, electrical wiring not up to code, and faulty switches that would have been easily overloaded (that's the electrical engineer in him). Now we are back in Huntsville. It has been one hell of a week after getting back from Mexico. No rest for the weary I suppose. Our stuff is still packed in trailers. The dogs are happy again though. Luna's nub started to wiggle again for the first time in a week when we got home and she's been glued to my side the whole time. We are looking for new options in Auburn but mostly praying the interview goes well Monday. We want to move to Georgia. If it falls through I may have to go down and stay with a friend in Auburn and work for a few weeks until December rolls around and people start graduating and moving out so some places open up. Everything is up in the air right now and it is a strange feeling. I'm just beyond thankful that we have capable, supportive, loving parents who are more than willing to help us until we can get our feet under us. They are starting to realize just how different it is for new graduates to start out compared to when they all left school years ago. We are trying everything we can to support ourselves and leave their nests, and we thought this was it. Hopefully next time will be the real deal. Love,Jessica