Settling In

We hope each of you had a great holiday. With the move, we didn't have time (or the energy) to put up a tree or decorate. But, we had a fabulous dinner with my mom and Mike. My mom brought over all the Cuban food she made (yummy!). Mike enjoyed his time on the back patio. It's very relaxing back there (until it gets dark and the mosquitoes get hungry).


I can't believe we've been in the house for 10 days now. And what an exciting (yet exhausting) 10 days it has been! We have unpacked 95% of the boxes. Fans, light fixtures, garage door opener, and alarm have all been installed. Brian's office desk will be delivered on Wednesday, so once it arrives he'll be able to get his office together. I'll upload pictures next weekend of our progress.


On Friday, we went to Orlando to have dinner with Greg, Liz, Mark, and Renee. It was great to hear more Greg, Mark & Brian stories from UF. The stories are always so comical! Greg & Liz are moving back to Estes Park, Colorado tomorrow. Estes Park is very beautiful. It is where Greg & Liz met and were married. We wish them all the best and hope to visit there soon.

Brian used his new grill for the first time on Saturday. We had our neighbors over for the UFC fight. Patrick was uber-excited that Chuck Lidell won his fight. Patrick wanted to run down the block screaming, but we talked him out of it. After a night of drinking beer and taking shots ... Patrick and Amber walked home safely. We'll have to do this again in January for the next UFC fight with BJ Penn (my favorite UFC fighter).



The Mirasolas came by today to see the house. It was great to have them over and to see little JC. He's absolutely the cutest, happiest little boy! I just love watching him roam around, exploring all that is around him.

Mark & Renee are coming to town tomorrow to celebrate New Year's Eve with us. Brian will get to grill again, so he's excited. We wish all of you a happy, prosperous and safe new year!

36 hours to go!

So, I guess I jinxed myself when I mentioned Verizon on a former post. See, Verizon decided to disconnect our DSL 10 days prior to our "transfer" date to Fios at the new house. They did this even after we called twice to confirm the 20th as the day DSL would be disconnected and Fios connected. Noone ever told us it took them 10 days to transfer an account. Two calls later - we're still without internet connection. I'm down to "borrowing" internet connection from someone in the apartment complex. Gotta love unsecured networks... if it wasn't for this - I couldn't publish this post. Nevertheless...

Brian and I are still preparing for our move into the new house. We have so much left to pack! Tonight, we moved another dozen boxes to our storage unit in Ruskin. We have plenty more to box up! We're so excited, but completely exhausted. We haven't had much sleep lately and we're constantly on the go. We're going to stay up as long we need to tomorrow to get everything ready for Thursday. We just have to be at the house Thursday at 8:30am for our final walk-through with our contractor. Closing is at 10am. Afterwards, Brian and I will spend the day moving boxes from storage to our house - until Verizon arrives for installation. We were told the arrival window is 1-3pm and that it will take 4-6 hours for the installation. Guess I'd better prepare dinner for the three of us...

19 days till closing!

Closing is fast approaching ... we have so much to do and to schedule. Thankfully, I've put a schedule together for the first few days to make sure we know when things are being delivered and installed. We'll be adding more to it soon. It'll be hectic the first few days, but it'll all be worth it. We hope Verizon doesn't give us as much trouble with the installation as Brighthouse has given our neighbors, Patrick and Amber. BH keeps changing the installation date, which in turn effects other things.

We went by the house last night. They installed window screens and blinds, and have started cleaning up the house. It looks great! Our contractor will do his own walk-through early next week to make sure they take care/fix items before our walk-through on the 11th.

Brian

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love this time of year ... the food, the family gatherings, the change of weather. Brian and I enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's. We ate so much food... we couldn't resist, though. I made my first pie ever, which actually turned out pretty good (thanks to my mom). I struggled a little with rolling the crust, but with my mom's guidance - everything worked out. Brian was a trooper and ate a piece of pie (even though he's not a pie fan). He thought it was really good. Gosh, I love that man! :-) We hope to have Thanksgiving at our house next year.

We went by the house tonight (again) to take some pictures. The weather dropped 10 degrees within an hour, so it got cooler, quickly. The weather was nice at 64 degrees. We noticed our front door was painted and we now have a stove/range in our kitchen. Every time we visit, the house looks better and better. It's hard to describe just how excited we are about the house. We are so antsy to move in. A month left until the big day.

Approximately 4 weeks left!

Another week has passed... we really like how the carpet looks in the bedrooms. Gutters look good too. The inside of the house was a bit weird. It looked like someone came in and threw white paint balls randomly on the walls. We assume that the workers did another coat of paint on the ceiling and are going to do another coat of paint on the walls soon to "fix" the mess. My mom accompanied us on our trip to Ruskin. She saw the house and our storage unit... we had to bring the fans and a few more boxes to storage. There's still so much to do in the next few weeks...

The house is almost complete...

Brian and I are so excited about our new home. We can't wait to move in next month! We signed the contract back on April 1st, so it seems as though this process has taken FOREVER. But, it's been great to take part in the process from beginning to end - picking the colors, fixtures, etc... And while we've enjoyed our 3+ years in our apartment, December 20th can't come soon enough. We're ready for this new stage in our life together. Ruskin, here we come!

Learning

This is the first time I've posted a blog, so I'm trying to get the hang of it. So far, so good - but there's much more to learn. Please bear with me...