to move or.... to move... oh wait it's too expensive!

For a while now Andrew and I have been looking at other cities and states to live in (when I say states I mean New York or Connecticut.) We've also been looking at other places in Jersey. It's just so frusturating because we can only live so far from Manhattan since Andrew has to go in everyday. We love our little apartment and to be honest it isn't little and it's fairly inexpensive for the east coast, but there are a few negatives of living here.... like parking, you have to circle around the block several times and if you're lucky you're able to find a spot on the same block as your house, as opposed to 2,3,4,5 blocks away. There is the resurant right next door that we share an alley way with. They are so noisy all the time when taking out the trash and what not. They wake up Decker due to screaming at each other. Then there is the main street we live on that has horns honking at all hours of the day and night, the garbage truck that comes at 4 am every morning and stops literally 8 times in front of our house since everyone just chucks their trash out from their door. We have no natural sunlight in our house and sometimes it's a little depressing. We have no dishwasher, but that's more of an annoyance then anything. We don't have AC :( The fact that no one speaks English in our community so it's hard for me to make friends and find other parents that want to do stuff. Our front door doesn't work anymore so I've resorted to going around back through the laundry room, you think oh that's not bad but when it's freezing and I have a 30 lb baby/car seat and there is snow up to your mid calf in the back alley so you have to tromp through it.. yeah it's bad! It also takes us about 25-30 minutes to go anywhere. We can't shop at local stores because either you pay super high prices, or you shop with some pretty scary people. To add as of late, the construction upstairs with the banging and the hammering. All while Decker is napping. Awesome.

So now that I've shared the negative I do have to say that I honestly LOVE our actual apartment. It is perfect for us and so beautiful. Hard wood floors, a huge laundry room(which is a big luxury here) Our bedrooms are the perfect size and everything is super nice. Our community is really safe, even safer then Idaho Falls. That's really saying something for the fact that right across the river is one of the most dangerous places in Jersey, let alone the entire country. Every night we get to throw our trash on the side walk and it's picked up in the morning. We have a lot of little parks in walking distances that are beautiful. I have a 2 really good friends here who I love and adore and am super thankful for. We have been experiencing a new lifestyle which opens our eyes everyday. We have great landlords who usually are really good about fixing things asap. We have heat! We have a beautiful kitchen and it's huge. The train is only a mile from our house and it's way cheap from here.

I'm just seriously having a hard time because yes I am missing the suburbs. I'm missing yards, soccer moms, nice people, english speaking people, a normal branch/ward, not sharing walls with people, a driveway/garage, and I'm sure the list could continue but I think you get the point. Everywhere that we actually want to live is just so expensive. I love a few places in Jersey but the taxes are RIDICULOUS! I guess this is the state to live in huh? I just can't figure out why the taxes are through the roof. Then I would love to live in the city but again for a place like this it's just way too expensive and we wouldn't have a car, but I mean really why would we need one with all the transportation. Then it would also come with some of the negatives stated above. There are other places in New York, but they aren't suburban and ahhhh I just don't know. I'm just really frustrated and discouraged. I actually like it here in the East and yes I miss Idaho but I think I would love it a whole lot more could we find a nice little house to live in with actual neighbors. Hmm I'm sure all 3 people that actually read this are probably bored of this post so I thought I'd just vent some of my frustrations. It looks like we'll most likely be in this apartment for a few more years... waaa! I guess that just means no more kids until we move because I am NOT doing the whole parking 3 blocks away with a toddler and car seat for a baby. Ok ok I really am done.