Y3W

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This Y3W has a double meaning for me. First of all, my mom, Eva and I travelled over the highways to Virginia on Tuesday. I would love to say we were there for pleasure, but this trip was all business! We went there to search for a new place for our family to live once we PCS (for non-military people, that means Permanent Change of Station) this summer.

I was dreading this trip. Normally I am a 'rider' on long drives. Both my husband and dad like driving on long treks. Unfortunately, neither of them was with us, which meant my mom and I would be doing the driving. And to top it off, the weather was predicted to be rainy and gloomy for most of the trip.

When we got there, we quickly changed and got out and about looking at places. And we saw a lot in the 1.5 days we were there. In case you weren't aware, the housing market in Virginia is a little on the expensive side. (especially compared to our current home-state of Texas which is on the cheap side of the spectrum!) And since I'm not working, we have to budget our expenses off the small housing allowance we get from the Air Force.

So the apartments/houses that were in our price range were depressing me. They would be cute, but tiny and lacking storage. Or I'd have to sacrifice a bedroom and/or bathroom. Or they would be in a not-so-desirable part of town. So after 1.5 days of this, I decided to just make a spreadsheet of everything I saw, so my husband and I could look at everything and just pick the best available option. I was discouraged to say the least.

I had a couple more apartments left on my list, that I had ruled out because they were a little far from the base (or so I thought at the time). Yesterday morning, before we left, I decided to stop by these apartments on the way home. I mean, what could it hurt, right? Well, we only ended up looking at one.

Because it is THE one!

It is a 3 bed, 2.5 bath townhome, with washer/dryer connections, a nice sized patio, wood-burning fireplace and updated kitchen and bathrooms. The property manager was genuinely a sweet lady, and the apartments were well maintained, inside and out. originally I thought it was too far from the base, but it turns out, that it will only be a 15-20 minute drive, at most.

So I left Virginia in a great mood. And I returned to Ohio in an even-better mood. We were blessed with beautiful weather on the trip there AND back, and only experienced a couple light showers during our stay. The driving went much better than expected.

And NOW, I can finally focus on Eva's party, which is NEXT SATURDAY --- EEK!

Have a good weekend!