A Day in the Life of a Babinsky: 2012

We made it! After a great trip travelling through Virginia (staying with the Banks) and Pennsylvania (staying with the Ostergards) we arrived in our new state; Rhode Island. Since the beginning of our travels we have had a desire to live in New England. The chance finally came with our new job in Westerly Rhode Island. What an incredible blessing, and journey it has been.

These kids have grown so much. The familiar picture of the packed up van changing with the growing of our children. They are becoming their own little people, and we are loving seeing the people they are turning into.

These are a few pictures of our new apartment. I share this story so we can remember our "worst weekend ever" but knowing that it got much better, and we are so happy with where we ended up.
We stayed in a hotel since we didn't know anyone, which was $125.00 a night (cheapest one we could find). So we knew we needed to find a place quick. I went through about ten during the day on Saturday. Each one of them were at the top of our price limit and were horrible. They weren't just old; they were either filthy, broken, next to horrible people, etc. It was all bad. A realtor finally called me back and told me she had a perfect townhome for us. So I went over with her that night. The place was cute, but old and needed a thorough cleaning. I told her we would take it if the place was cleaned, some minor repairs were made, and the carpets cleaned. She quickly agreed. We moved in the next morning. The carpets had been done by her "friend". They were disgusting after supposedly being cleaned. I had agreed to pay for it up front and have it come out of first months rent. I also wrote a check up front for the fix it guy. So with the carpets being gross, and the place about half way clean we moved in thinking we would survive, and we just needed to get out of the hotel. Then we notice there is no regrigerator. When I point this out the realtor says, "Oh I thought you noticed that.." She assumed we would be fine moving into a place with no refrigerator for three months. I told her that was not okay. She said her friend would bring one over the next day. So I put our few necessities in a cooler and hoped for the best. The next day driving home from church I called her asking if the fridge was in. She said, "my friend has it and doesn't have anyway to get it to the house." My response, 'we will come get it right now with a truck.' After about fifteen minutes she wrote back and said her friend "checked" the fridge and it doesn't work. She suggested we could borrow her office fridge and she would have us use her brother's fridge. So we lugged her office fridge to the house trusting she would follow through. Another 12 hours and no fridge. When I called her about it she said "you know I'm just trying to be a good person and help you people out. I've done all I can isn't that good enough." I told her it was not. About 20 minutes later she texted and said, "if anyone shows up asking for the landlord just tell them she is at the store." After feeling awful about the whole deal anyway I asked why. She said "well, they are foreclosing on the house and the bank might be looking for them. It's not a big deal, just do what I told you." I had felt sick since the moment we walked in so I told her we were getting out the apartment immediately and she needed to tear up our checks. She then proceeded to tell me in a text that I was a horrible person, that I needed to trust her, that she was just trying to be a good church going Christian woman. That I was being dishonest which she never had been. She completely turned the whole thing on us. It was surreal. The next day after cancelling all three checks she again called me and told me what a terrible person I was for stopping the checks. That I should have to pay for the carpets to be cleaned and the handyman. Along with calling me a few other choice things. I've never felt so lied to and mislead. I actually was throwing up the whole time we were moving out. And to end it all, Ryan locked the keys in the house when we had left more stuff in it. The thought of ever looking that woman in the face again made me disgusted. Ryan knew it was the last straw. So he pushed in the airconditioner and had Raiyah crawl through the vent, unlock the door and let us in to get the rest of our stuff. It truly was the worst weeked I think I have ever had. Luckily we had looked at a really nice duplex the first night we arrived in town. She had been too pricey so we didn't take it then. But when I texted her asking if we could move in that day she had lowered the price to our level. And the funniest part was, I told her a little of what had happened and she said, "don't tell me it was......." I just laughed when I heard the realtors name. I told her it was and the girl said, "that woman is one of the most dishonest people I know." That night in a brand new duplex we all slept much better and were excited to enjoy Rhode Island from there on out. And we have truly loved our three month travel assignment. I will try and catch up the last three months quickly.

Wilcox Park is one of our favorite places to go. It is a beautiful park adjacent to the library in Westerly. There are 64 different kinds of trees (all mapped out) and plenty of room to run and play. THere are activities, festivals, and concerts all of the time.

The Babinsky family is from Pennsylvania. Ryan has heard the family talk of it since he was a little boy. His dad moved to Utah with his family when he was a kid. It was so much fun to actually see the places we have heard about, and visit where his Dad, and Pop grew up. This was a wonderful highlight of our trip. Wish we could have stayed longer.

This is where Ryan's Pop and Grannie bought their first home; and they lived in until they moved to Utah. We were able to stop by and ask the owners if we could take a quick picture.

Mahanoy is where Ryan's Pop (Grandpa Babinsky) grew up. It's an old Coal Mining town. We spent a few hours visiting with his Great Uncle Paul who still lives there. We both started laughing the moment we met him because he and Ryan's Dad look EXACTLY the same. He was really fun to get to know. Very welcoming and full of the Babinsky cheer. We will go back and visit for sure. We would love to get to know him better.