And so it begins....

Well this past weekend proved to be one for the record books.  It was a weekend of moving, cleaning and painting to my new apartment in Chicago.  In preparation of this move, I rented a 14' U-Haul to try and accommodate all the furniture, presents, and stuff that has been accumulated in my life over the past couple of years.  Here's the skinny on the weekend:
Wednesday -  My mom and I go to pick up the U-Haul; I drove it home, scared the whole way.  We went and picked up our new mattresses .
Thursday - I spent the majority of the day filling that 14' U-Haul AND my mom's van.  Plan?  Leave Louisville by 4:30...what time did we leave?  6:30.  Plan?  Stephen would have a group of guys from Bible Study lined up to help unload the U-Haul.  Reality?  We arrived at 11:30 so there was only 1 guy remaining (I'm surprised he even stayed - what a great friend!) only to discover a FILTHY apartment.  We did not finish unloading the truck and van until 2:30 (3:30 KY time) in the a.m.  Stephen I proceeding to drive around Lincoln Park in search of the closest U-Haul lot where we could dump the truck - UNSUCCESSFUL.
Friday -  Plan?  Clean part of the day and paint the rest.  Reality?  We spent the ENTIRE day cleaning...2+ hours in the kitchen, 2 hours in the bathroom, 1 hour on the TUB...DISGUSTING!
Saturday - My mom proceeded to clean the ENTIRE weekend while my sister and I began to paint....we continued to work up until we left on Monday (which was supposed to be 11 am, and turned into 1:15pm...notice a trend here?).

Am I happy with the apartment?  Well, I'm MUCH happier about it now than I was when we arrived to find it in shambles...however, there are a lot of damages that I did not notice when we first saw it - I guess I was just excited by its size.  I cannot wait for ALL of you to come and stay with us and enjoy our new home in Lincoln Park.  I NEED you to come and help it feel more like my home.  

Here is a picture of the colors we painted:

The Amber and Copper colors at the top are in the Family/Sitting Room; the Olive Green is in our bedroom; the dark tan (Mocha Syrup if you will) was an accident...it may eventually go in the dining room; the tan is the bathroom.  

I can't wait for you guys to see it with everything else :).