Moved In!
We've moved in, we're drinking lots of coffee, and we even have some plans to meet some fellow runners (/friends?).
Well. I say we've moved in, but that only means that technically all our stuff is in the apartment. In boxes. Our address is Olympia but we are in the middle of of a town called Lacey. We actually go through Lacey to get to downtown Olympia. I haven't figured that out yet.
Have I told you I love our apartment? We found one through this Army off-base housing program. Basically, the Army has a list of apartments that they have relationships with. It's kind of nice, because it's means that they have looked over the leases, so we know that they don't take advantage of military people. James was told in a housing briefing that sometimes apartments will offer "move-in specials" but if a military person has to break a lease (which he/she can do by federal law if it's because of deployment or change of station), then they can technically ask for the "specials" back without breaking the law. So if the move-in special was $200 off/month for the first year, they can't charge the fee for breaking the lease but they could ask for all that "discount" money back. So there are stories of people getting this huge charges at move-out..A little scary. :/ It also means we don't have to pay for the background check, we get 5% off rent, and the Army automatically deducts the rent from James's paycheck and pays the apartment for us. But it doesn't take all of his housing allowance (like it would have if we had lived on base). So we're still saving about $300/month by living off-base. Pretty sweet.
Ahh Washington. They drink a lot of coffee here. There are Starbucks everywhere, plus these little coffee stands all over the place. Although we haven't made it to too many other coffee places besides Starbucks. His mom gave us a bunch of coupons for free drinks before we left, so we've been having a lot of Starbucks lately. After the coupons are gone though, we will for-sure start trying some more of those little coffee stands. Maybe we can ask some of the runners tonight what they recommend..
Yes, so tonight, James and I are meeting the Olympia Running Club for their Wednesday night 5 mile run. Hopefully I am able to keep up and meet some nice people. I haven't been so great about running with all this craziness. This weekend, we are hoping to start looking for a church too.
Btw, I went on a bike ride yesterday. This was my horizon:
Whenever the sky clears up, we can see that. We moved here right in the rainy season, so it's rained at least once a day since we got here. We did go check out our complex's hot tub last night though. In the 50 degree rainy weather. It was actually quite lovely. The only bad part was having to finally get out and scurry back all the way across the complex in a towel, soaking wet in the cold. Then we watched some Scrubs while drinking Chocolate wine in front of our new electric fireplace. God is good.
Well. I say we've moved in, but that only means that technically all our stuff is in the apartment. In boxes. Our address is Olympia but we are in the middle of of a town called Lacey. We actually go through Lacey to get to downtown Olympia. I haven't figured that out yet.
Have I told you I love our apartment? We found one through this Army off-base housing program. Basically, the Army has a list of apartments that they have relationships with. It's kind of nice, because it's means that they have looked over the leases, so we know that they don't take advantage of military people. James was told in a housing briefing that sometimes apartments will offer "move-in specials" but if a military person has to break a lease (which he/she can do by federal law if it's because of deployment or change of station), then they can technically ask for the "specials" back without breaking the law. So if the move-in special was $200 off/month for the first year, they can't charge the fee for breaking the lease but they could ask for all that "discount" money back. So there are stories of people getting this huge charges at move-out..A little scary. :/ It also means we don't have to pay for the background check, we get 5% off rent, and the Army automatically deducts the rent from James's paycheck and pays the apartment for us. But it doesn't take all of his housing allowance (like it would have if we had lived on base). So we're still saving about $300/month by living off-base. Pretty sweet.
Ahh Washington. They drink a lot of coffee here. There are Starbucks everywhere, plus these little coffee stands all over the place. Although we haven't made it to too many other coffee places besides Starbucks. His mom gave us a bunch of coupons for free drinks before we left, so we've been having a lot of Starbucks lately. After the coupons are gone though, we will for-sure start trying some more of those little coffee stands. Maybe we can ask some of the runners tonight what they recommend..
Yes, so tonight, James and I are meeting the Olympia Running Club for their Wednesday night 5 mile run. Hopefully I am able to keep up and meet some nice people. I haven't been so great about running with all this craziness. This weekend, we are hoping to start looking for a church too.
Btw, I went on a bike ride yesterday. This was my horizon:
Whenever the sky clears up, we can see that. We moved here right in the rainy season, so it's rained at least once a day since we got here. We did go check out our complex's hot tub last night though. In the 50 degree rainy weather. It was actually quite lovely. The only bad part was having to finally get out and scurry back all the way across the complex in a towel, soaking wet in the cold. Then we watched some Scrubs while drinking Chocolate wine in front of our new electric fireplace. God is good.
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Beautiful scenery! Glad you guys are getting settled in. I've been praying you make some awesome friendships even if it's only for a few months... God doesn't want you to be alone! And I'm glad you're getting your coffee-fix :)
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