My thoughts (Brittany)

So I just got back from orientation for PA school at Wayne State, finding an apartment in Detroit, annnnd staying with Ashley! I had a long time to think on the way home so thought I would share....

I am soooooooo pumped for school. I really enjoyed meeting my classmates, my mentor is wonderful, and I feel so much better now that it is over! It will be a very busy time, and very hard, but I am excited! Driving over to Detroit Monday morning, I was super nervous, but then I was just so thankful that I was not going over for another interview, and just thinking where I was last year, and how much God has blessed me. Last year at this time I was going to apply, and dreading beginning the application process (which suuuucks), not engaged to Mark yet, and feeling a bit discouraged about becoming a PA. I was driving (verrrry early) on Monday and just praising God for how far he has brought me. I am starting a great school, moving back to Michigan, and married to literally the most amazing man in the world. Anyway, we got to buy our medical supplies, hear our daily schedule (which turned out to be more manageable than I had expected), meet our professes, and learn that we get all the breaks that Wayne gets! I was thinking that we didn't get as much time off, but we do (for the first year at least!). Yay! Classes start May 10th and I can hardly wait!

I got to stay with Ashley in Lansing on Monday night, which was great. I love her so much and it felt just so normal being back (and especially staying with her), we ate at Cancun (our favorite Mexican restaurant ever), watched the office, and just chatted. :)

Then today, I went to Detroit to find a little place for Mark and I to live. I felt a bit overwhelmed (to say the least), but I just had to get out there and find something (like I said classes are starting soon!). My lovely husband helped make a map and chart of the apartments that we had looked at on-line. Learned an important lesson today (well lots of important lessons), things on the Internet are not always as they appear (go figure right?). Well, yesterday people at orientation who were more familiar with the area helped me rule out a few right away, and then today, I ruled out several based on just driving by the neighborhood. It really broke my heart and surprised me. I have heard how Detroit is really struggling, and it sure is. I have heard the unemployment rate this January is 16% and Mark and I were reading this article (that of course I cannot find right now) but saying that the average American spends something like $37k annually on life (NOT including mortgage or rent), and the average person in Detroit spends $16k (which was the lowest ranked city in the US). So many buildings are trashed, or burned partially down, and there are so many homeless people. It breaks my heart. There is so much crime and violence, so anyway, lots of neighborhoods got crossed off the list, we just would not be safe.

Finnnnnallly found this place in Warren (parkviewtowerapartments.com), and they were great, and its about a 30 min. commute (which I finally came to terms that I will have to commute). The lady who helped me was so encouraging and sweet. ANNNND I felt safe! Okay, here is where the ridiculous begins...so Mark and I have money saved up. We have listened to Dave Ramsey, have amazing parents who have taught us to live below our means, save our money, don't buy things we cannot afford (we aren't congress) and so on. Anyway, thanks to an inheritance my grandma left me, an amazing God, living debt free, lots of frugal-ness, and saving LOTS, we have enough money for me to pay for grad school, and a still quite a nice emergency fund. But, apparently this does you no good for an apartment. I explained that Mark was leaving his job to move up here (his income qualified where he is at now), and they said we could not be qualified. I asked if we could pay a whole year up front and they said no. THEN, she suggested that I take financial aid, and we would qualify then. Ummm?!?!! Excuse me? Take out a LOAN for school that we could simply pay for? (which is totally another story for another day), but I think that it is so engraved in peoples head that they HAVE to go to college, and HAVE to take out loans, that it is sad. There are so many other ways, but anyway, I digress. So, back to this sweet apartment lady, she figured out that if we just made no indication that Mark would be leaving his job in Texas that it might work out. So, we are going to fill out the forms, pay for a whole year, get a one bedroom apartment, and pray that everything works out!

Here the apartment is - in all its glory:

Oh yeah! And cool thing about the apartment is that you can paint the walls!

And here is sweet Anna who I got to babysit Saturday night :)

Love, Brittany