Nesting in Our New Home

Forgive my blogging silence this past week...we have been nesting in our new home!

We have been here a week and things are coming together. Last week I jumped right into training for my new job so some of the unpacking has been slower than I might like, but overall we have gotten a lot done and only a handful of boxes remain in our second bedroom. I am looking forward to a little more down time this week and knocking out the last bit!


We are really enjoying our apartment. It is quiet, so convenient to lots of great places (we walked to breakfast and shopping on Saturday for a morning date!), and has a great balcony that constantly has hummingbirds whizzing by (our neighbor below has a beautiful garden and humming bird feeders).


Much of this past week was spent doing paperwork and address changes that must be done with a move, we celebrated my mom's birthday, hung out with friends, and even took a day trip today to see my niece get baptized!

Tomorrow I am looking forward to meeting some of my little kindergarten ballerinas and teaching my first class at the studio where I danced from age 4 to 18!

I will try to post more this week as we continue to get settled!

Help! The walls are closing in on me and the STUFF, oh the stuff! Ronnie and I have packed so many boxes, but now it is getting really painful- the stuffy stuff around. You know, the stuff that is random and has gotten pushed to a really random spot since you turned your house upside down with cardboard boxes.

On a brighter note, I thought I would show you some recent purchases and give you a sneak peak of some decorating to come! In packing I found a Dillard's gift card with a little bit left on it. Knowing that we won't have Dillard's when we move, I headed off to the mall to make the most of it. I was lucky to hit some 70% shelves in the housewares dept. You would think that packing like 10 boxes of dishes would deter me- alas, it did not!

I snatched up 2 really cute plates. I had been on the lookout for cute plates to hang on the wall.


Of course when I saw the cute matching tea pot I just couldn't resist, especially when I still had a few dollars left on the gift card to spend.


Out of pocket I paid $1.91 and I am quite pleased with me purchases. The green will be cute with my living room decorating project. And speaking of my project, I thought I would give you a sneak peak:


More to come on that later when we get to the ham and things come together! Now back to packing...

And the winner is...

Watch this video to find out the winner:

Thanks for all the packing tips! We are making progress. Lots of boxes around, but I decided it is less stressful for me to live around lots of packed boxes for a week, then spend the week staring at all the stuff I still have to pack.


Ronnie created this ingenious Styrofoam model airplane hanger.

Nice huh?!

La Guadalupe Taqueria- you MUST try it!

Our friends Adam and Heather recently moved to San Diego. We were excited for them since we went there several years ago and loved it! We were telling them how we had the best Mexican food ever while we were there. They suggested that we check out La Guadalupe Taqueria here in town. We knew we wanted to try it before we moved and we had to run an errand near by so we decided to check it out. Boy were we glad that we did!

It's an unassuming little building near the corner of Old Canton Rd. and County Line Rd., but the service couldn't have been better! The server recommended the taco combo meal and we both ordered that. 3 tacos (chicken, steak, and BBQ brisket) piled high with fresh ingredients on corn tortillas made right then when we ordered.

Pictures don't do it justice...go try it for yourself though! You won't regret it!

***Don't forget to enter the coupon book giveaway below if you haven't already!***

Another Month...and a GIVEAWAY!

***the giveaway is now closed, stay tune for the winner!***

Oh dear! Another month has gone by and I have failed to blog. I thought I would fill you in this morning while I enjoy my tea and pastry.

(Fresh Market Strawberry Cheese Danish how I love thee!)

July was spent recovering from the IBC (haha), taking mini vacations out the back door to the apartment pool to escape the hundred degree heat and working out details for the impending move. Yes friends, we have a move date. Aug. 20 we head to the "Magic City." Ronnie will be teaching 3rd grade at an urban Christian school. We are very excited to be a part of the ministry of this school. They have been around for 20 years now and are having a dynamic impact on a rough area of town where many of these students do not know their father and have little chance for escaping the cycle of poverty and illiteracy that is very prevalent. It has been exciting to learn about how God is using this school to further His kingdom. Also, for the last 4 years 100% of their graduating seniors have been accepted into college...pretty cool, huh?!

We spent last week looking for a place to live and I had several job interviews. It has been neat to see how God has provided for our needs! Honestly, I had been worrying about where we were going to live. We knew we wanted to rent for a while longer so as to save more for a significant down payment, but rental options are not always the best. Let me tell you there are a lot of crummy apartments out there. There are also a lot of really nice places out there, but the monthly rent certainly reflects it!

Someone from my parent's church emailed my mom about an apartment for rent sign that they had seen in the area near them. I saved the message, but as we made appointments to see places I basically forgot about it. In the mean time, my good friend Memo suggested we check out the apartments where we have a mutual friend living. By the end of the week we were running out of options and the choices that we had weren't terribly appealing. I called the number that my mom had received via email and discovered that it was the same landlord of the friend that Memo had recommended. We also found out that the rent was GREAT! Better than anything else we had seen or really dared to hope for.

The apartment has hardwood floors and a cute balcony (see above- the pics are of the friends apartment who will be our neighbor)! They are also by a frozen yogurt place which is an added bonus :) We applied and payed our deposit on the spot and are excited to have that nailed down.

Now the packing begins...

Before I go pack some books, wanted to let you know I am having a giveaway!! You already know how much I love coupons. So much so, that a while back when there was a great deal online I snatched up a few of these Entertainment books. They have awesome Kroger and eating out coupons. And there are more than just the coupons that are in the book- you can print additional ones online! Some of my favs are buy 1 get 1 free coupons to Broadstreet and to Aladdin Mediterranean and even one for a free Little Caesar's pizza- no purchase necessary!


I have a brand new Entertainment Book with no coupons missing. Leave a comment giving me some packing advice and you will be entered to win! The giveaway will end at 10:00 PM on Friday night and a winner will be chosen at random. This is a local edition coupon book- sorry to those of you that don't live in the area. Feel free to still leave packing advice or enter if you know someone here that would enjoy this book.