updates

Hello friends! I always feel so bad when I neglect our blog. I am so sorry! But you can imagine the craziness my life has been lately. However, all great things! A lot of things are working in our favor. So we are very happy about that. Here are some updates!

1. Ronnie was in CHINA (yes, on a totally different continent!) for 2 weeks on business! I was freaked out most of the time. I was so nervous about him flying for so many hours, what he was eating, how he was feeling, hoping and praying we packed enough for him to wear, etc. What can I say? I love him so much and I'm always making sure I am the best wife possible. But he's back (in atlanta, though) and is safe back home! Good news is that he's coming to NC TODAY! That's a whole day earlier and will work and be here through the weekend. This is the most we've been apart since we've been married. I dreaded it. But he will be back home soon!

2. Our paint job in our new home is DONE! Just minor things need to be retouched. But the house got a total paint job. The amount of the cost KILLED me, but it will be worth it. I love how it looks. Pics soon, I promise!

3. My brother Mike has been visiting me and keeping me company while Ronnie is away. It's been great. Some moments I want to kill him, some moments I am so thankful for his help....but overall I am relieved I haven't been alone. It's been a lot of work keeping the house "show ready" as prospective buyers are lurking in almost daily. Lots of laundry, organizing, cleaning has to be done daily! Mike has been a lot of help.

4. I told my principal about us relocating. She was not happy about the news. But she's very supportive. She had such nice things to say about my work. I do love my job! I sure hope I can find another permament position quickly in GA! Please pray!

5. I don't know when I will be back in GA again. But I am tired of living out of a suitcase. It seems like I have for months! I've been working really hard, as well. We have testing in about 3 weeks! But the good news is...SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE! So, things will eventually settle down before I know it.

6. We haven't sold our home on our own. But we are planning on selling it to Ronnie's company who will then in turn sell it on their own. This is great news! They are giving us what we paid for it, so we are not losing anything.

So, yes, we are busy. But everything is falling into place. I hear American Airlines is offering a fantastic deal to travel to Atlanta from Miami until November. The rate is $78 each way. So, we are looking forward to having friends and family visit us in our new home! *hint, hint*

Sneak Peek: Our Master Bedroom

One of the things I got most excited about our new home is choosing to paint our master bedroom in a color of "my" choice. In our first home, the room was painted in green and since it is my hubby's favorite color, it was VERY HARD to convince him to change it. So, I had to settle. (OK! more like compromise. ha!)

Our friends Jose and Maritza in Miami recently remodeled their entire home. When I visited them and saw the color of their new master bedroom, I totally fell in love with it. It was the perfect baby blue, but not juvenile. Very soothing, relaxing, which is the feel I've always dreamed in a master bedroom. So, the color stuck and that is the color I decided to go with. The paint is from Sherwin-Williams and the color is "Iceberg". I can't wait to see the room furnished! Thanks Maritza!

The picture qualities aren't great. But I wanted to give you an idea. :)

updates

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Some updates:

1. Ronnie left this morning to officially begin work in Atlanta tomorrow. He's staying in a hotel by our new home, so he can begin to adjust to his new schedule. We are about 20 miles North from his office. So, he hopes to get a feel for the traffic. We hear it's pretty bad. But if he leaves a little before 6am for work, and around 4pm to get home, he should be looking at a 25-45 min commute. (we hope!*)

2. I will be joining him on Friday. We close on the house then! Can you believe it!? We are sad and excited at the same time. I guess we are just pretty anxious, too.

3. Painter should begin working on the house on the 20th. I can't wait to see how our dining room and master bedroom turn out. We picked out a "milk chocolate brown" (but not too dark, more in between) for the dining room. And a perfect "iceberg powder blue" for the master. I can't wait to see how it looks against our mahogany furniture and white linens.

4. I will continue working through the school year. Ronnie will be coming to NC on the weekends, or I will drive to GA, etc. Hope this time goes by quickly! I don't do well at home without him. I tend to get very unmotivated. I guess it's understandable!

5. We have interest in our home in NC. So, we hope to get some kind of contract within the next 2 weeks or so.

Our feelings about everything vary from hour to hour, day to day. Some moments we are sad, some moments we are hopeful. But for the most part, I have the bible verse above (Jeremiah 29:11) in my mind and I keep reminding Ronnie of it, too. We are just anxious for it to all to fall into place. We know deep down this will only make us stronger. We are anxious to see what else our future holds. We know we are blessed. :) We are so grateful to the Lord.

family room

Just got back from my best friend's Janelle's wedding in Miami.

Janelle got engaged while visiting us for New Years 2009. It was a wonderful, surprise engagement on top of Grandfather Mountain in Boone, NC. It was very important to me that I was able to be a part of it. (I took this picture below) Jay is a GREAT man who LOVES her so much. He did a great job planning his engagement to Janelle.

I helped her plan this wedding. Planning lasted a year and we were so anxious for it to all come together. Janelle is like my sister. Being her Matron of Honor was very special for me. She was my Maid of Honor for my wedding. I even let her borrow my veil for her something "borrowed" and I couldn't have been any more proud to do so. I will blog more about the wedding later, but I just wanted to say how very happy I am for her and Jay. I just think about the wedding and tear up....it was very emotional and special. I was happy to be able to visit my family, as well. It was hard to leave Miami this time. I guess its because I don't know when I will return. Either way, the entire weekend was very special for me and I will treasure it forever!

The weekend before returning to Miami, Ronnie and I went to GA to meet with the painter to get an estimate. We got a great deal to paint our master bedroom, dining room, and some repairs around the house. We hope the painter to get started sometime after we close this month. Things with our current home are going smoothly. We get visitors practically daily, so we are praying everything is successful in the end.

Meanwhile, I'd like to share with you with what our new family room looks like! I am in love with our brick fireplace and built-ins. It's a BIG open area attached to the kitchen. I love the wood floors and I really like the carpeting for those cold winter nights snuggled on the couch. We plan on having our TV set on the wall over the mantle (like we have in our current home). I LOVE the windows that look out to the patio and backyard. And lets not forget the ceiling. I wish I knew what that kind of ceiling is called right now. But I think it makes the room! Here are some pictures.

The only thing that gets us is the fireplace....sorry folks...it's a total FAKE! But it looks pretty! We'll live... :)

View from the laundry room to the open area of the kitchen to family room.

Peek into our new kitchen

Take a peek into our new kitchen!

Pinch me! I can't believe we own such a kitchen! This is my favorite part of the whole house. What I love the most is that I have a great open area to entertain. I love to host! Now I can cook, chat, drink my wine, and watch TV in one major area. (I will show you the rest of the living space soon.) The builder really paid attention to detail with this kitchen. I love my stainless steel appliances. We still need to purchase a fridge, however. That is the only appliance in the kitchen that is missing. Keep in mind this was a former model home, so it has several upgraded details you wouldn't otherwise get unless you pay for it. I love the cabinets and granite. I can't believe I have GRANITE COUNTER TOPS! The faucet is even an upgrade. I love the vintage farm house type sink. Do you love it? I am still dreaming. This can't be mine. No way! I can't wait to cook my first Cuban meal here! :)

Our New Home

It took a lot of consideration where we wanted to move to in Atlanta. We definitely couldn't consider anywhere in Atlanta directly because of the prices (too high) and the madness of traffic (we left Miami for a reason). We have really enjoyed living outside of Greensboro in the more of a rural setting (less traffic, fresh air, open spaces, less hectic). We were between Alpharetta or Cumming, GA. Both are close to where Ronnie's office is and in the outskirts of Atlanta.

We went the first weekend in January to house hunt just to get a head start and did not expect to find 2 houses we loved and were at a great price! We were lucky that both were in either Alpharetta and Cumming. We made an offer on the Alpharetta house, but it got turned down. So, we went for the house in Cumming (which happened to be cheaper, too!) and they took our offer! Living in Cumming might mean some traffic, but we love the house so much that we will just have to make some sacrifices, but nothing we can't handle. Here is a preview of the house. We are in love! We've gone back since then for the inspections and are going this weekend to meet with the painters. I will follow up with how that goes next week! We are super happy and feel extremely blessed! We have tried to let everything just fall into place...and it has. God is awesome!

I will miss my first home a lot. It's already up for sale and we've had interested buyers almost 3 times a week. Wish us luck with that. We don't want to get stuck with 2 payments at any point in time...not fun!

January : where did you go?!

January came and went for us! We were so busy every weekend away in either Florida or Georgia! I was extremely exhausted by the time the month was over. But I am so grateful to God it was busy because of very exciting moments.

First of all, my friends Jackie and Lino were finally married and had the most magical wedding at Disney World! We flew out for MLK weekend. I was a busy BM capturing all the moments and soaking it all in for them. I am so happy for them because I know how much Jackie planned/worried for it to all come together. She was a beautiful bride and he was a happy guy. Everything turned out beautifully and I am so happy for them! I am always happy when my friends are happy. Congratulations J+L ...you finally did it!

Then, my best friend Janelle celebrated her Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party! The following weekend my bags were packed and I was on a plane AGAIN headed for Florida. This bridal shower couldn't have been any more perfect. Forget the theme and decorations (which came out exactly as I envisioned, btw) , I've never seen my sister so happy and overly joyful in my life! She is so in love and so ready to be married to Jay. And that melted my heart to see her so beautiful and content. Jay is the ONE for her. I know he will take good care of her and love her forever. They are truly blessed to have each other. I can't wait for the wedding, which is the last weekend in February!

The Bachelorette party was right after the bridal shower. It couldn't have been any more perfect to do it this way. A full day of celebrating the awaited wedding and Janelle. We head to South Beach where we stayed at Gansevoort Hotel. We partied like crazy! We got beautiful, a little tipsy, went dancing, etc. Again, Janelle lived it up! She looked beautiful.

And finally, I haven't blogged about the exciting news in our lives yet because when we first learned about how our future would change we had mixed emotions. Needless to say it came to us as a big surprise. I haven't blogged about it because we've had a lot of thinking to do and decisions to make and it has not been an easy time, especially since it came right before the holidays and all the wedding planning I was helping in doing. In late July we learned my husband's company had decided to relocate to Atlanta. Our mixed emotions about it all had to do with the fact that we had JUST moved to NC from Miami, we love our home, I LOVE MY SCHOOL, and we felt we weren't ready to make another move. But after much consideration, and after we realized that there were no other jobs hiring, we made the bold decision that THIS OPPORTUNITY was the best for us. I truly believe God handed this to us and He has been the one who has helped us get through it all. We've relied so much on our faith this time. God is so awesome. We had a timeline and we used the entire time to really plan out our future. And it has lead us to make this life changing decision. This has definitely brought us even closer. I have so much pride in my husband. He works so hard and wants the best for ME and US and always puts US first. This was not easy on him at all. I have to admit that I've been his back bone through it all...I tend to be the positive one in our relationship. But it was all because of God. He listened to me and helped me be strong through all of this. Our friends and family have also been very supported and hopeful for us, too. So, that helped us a lot. THANKS YOU GUYS!

So, there you have it. We are going to be "Nesting in GA". I can't believe it! I will be a GA Peach!

I will blog so more later on to update you some more about our transition. We already went house hunting twice in January. I am getting more and more excited about it each day. I am so proud of my husband and I am hopeful this will all be a new and exciting journey! Can't wait to see what God has in store for us next!