I found an apartment!!!!

So, after some VERY exhausting days of looking around for apartments, Joy and I finally found the PERFECT place to live!! Here's the story... on Sunday, Joy was supposed to arrive. I was able to find some open houses that day before she was coming in so I woke up semi-early :)... went to check out an apartment on the upper east side (which was way too expensive), stopped in for the 1:00 PM service at the Journey... (my new church... I'll write more about that later!) and then went to another apartment open house in East Village/Greenwich Village Area. I fell in love with it the moment I stepped foot in the door. It is a one bedroom with a 3 foot LOFT above the bedroom, a little kitchen area, a RED WALL in the living room area :) and beautiful bathroom. Everything looked fresh and new and just felt like home. I quick called Joy and started taking pictures on my camera phone to show her. So she ended up looking at it that night with me also and loved it too! We decided that although the loft is only about 3 feet high, we could put air mattresses up there as our "sleeping room" and use the whole bedroom for "office space"... since the bedroom really wouldn't fit two beds anyway. Also, this would open up more room to put a dresser down there and a book case. Anyway, I was so excited about it... the only problem was that it was going to be a long commute for me... we've finally figured it out to be about 45 min... but for most of that commute I'll be on the 5 express train and I figure I can sit there and read or do lesson plans/grading papers... so it will be fine! :) This apartment is in a PERFECT location... there are little shops all around, a gym 3 store fronts away on my street, AND a laundry mat pretty much right next store! I was so excited. Altho we didn't take it Sunday... we decided to check out some other apartments today (just to make sure)... but THAT was exhausting! We went around all Manhattan with some French guy: Franswa (sp?) who was hilarious to be with... but we didn't really see anything that stood out to us... and all of them were at least $200/month MORE expensive than what we wanted to pay... not to mention the $3000 we'd have to pay in Realtor fees ... BLAH! Finally, we decided to call Peter... the Realtor who showed us the one in Greenwich Village and call it a day... taking the apartment.. and talking him down his fee to 2,000!!!! :) And, you know, I was worried at first, like if we took an apartment I may regret it, or wonder... what if there is something better?... but as I sat there and signed my name off to the 120 East 4th Street I couldn't have been happier! PRAISE GOD! :)

So Joy and I treated ourselves to some subway.. even got the whole meal and drank pop AND ate a chocolate chip cookie... and then opted to take the tram over the river in the Roosevelt Island to get home.. check out the pics below! :) Anyway, God is SO GOOD, He has worked out everything perfectly and I can't wait for all of you to come visit! (but please, not all at once! ha :))