Tuesday, April 15, 2014

The Big News


Gotta love Crush!

We are moving to Disney World.....I mean Florida!

Most of our friends and family found out last week when we officially announced it on Facebook, but I figured I'd make it official here as well.
This is how I feel. :)

Jon had a job interview in FL a few weeks back that he was very interested in. Last Monday he received the good news and so this little family will be making the move in less than 2 weeks! Now, two weeks is not a lot of time to find an apartment, pack up everything, and move down there, but we are doing it! Call us crazy, but the excitement makes it worth it. It is going to be a crazy two weeks, but knowing that there is castle at the end of the tunnel (get it), will make it worth it.

Charlotte is a beautiful city and we have had many adventures here and although we've enjoyed our time here in Charlotte, it just hasn't felt like home.We have both always loved the idea of living in Florida for different reasons (obviously mine is Disney and the beach). We would easily pick warm/hot sunny days over snow days any day of the year. We both just don't deal with cold very well (especially after this past winter).

Yay!
Even on our honeymoon (which some of it was in Miami, Key West, and Disney World), we talked about how exciting it would be to live there one day. We both participated in the Disney College Program which gave us 6 months to experience the Florida life style while we were in college and loved it! With everything that has been going on at work, we decided to keep a look out for any possible positions either of us would be interested in applying for and see what happens. We came to the conclusion that we would regret not moving more than we would regret moving and deciding that Florida isn't the place for us.

How do you pack and move an apartment in two weeks? Our theory is Sell, Donate, Trash. We had been talking about getting a smaller apartment anyway and this helps encourage us to get rid of things we don't need. This weekend, I put out 4 large trash bags full of junk and donation pile has taken up a wall in our living room.

I have a feeling this is what our cars will look like on moving day.
We are excited to start this new adventure and I hope that you guys will read along through our journey.

TTFN (ta ta for now)!
          ~Katie


Saturday, April 5, 2014

Happy 1st Sunday of April!

Happy 1st Sunday of April!

The last time I made a post was Feb 16th!!! Man, that was a long time ago. I really do try to write, but I plan on setting a goal of posting each week.

1 word describes how it's been since then....CRAZY!!! Work=Crazy. The only way I can describe it is by this pic:


To say I am exhausted would be an understatement. Working a minimum of 9 hours each day, working weekends, and skipping my lunch break each day stinks. By the time I get home I usually crash as soon as I sit on the couch. I've also worked the past 3 weekends at Radio Disney as well. The one good thing from all of this work is the overtime. We decided to do some shopping for our apartment and for ourselves.

One thing we purchased in February was an Xbox 360! I have been wanting one of those babies for a while, but decided to wait until after the wedding to get it. I love playing the Just Dance games! My parents have one at home and my sister and I always play. We usually play the sweat mode and play for an hour or two at a time. Since, the Xbox One came out I knew that eventually a good deal for the 360 would come out. Finally, I saw the target circular one Sunday with a decent deal on one with a bigger hard drive (I guess that's what you call the memory storage :)
Yay!


After going to two Target stores, I finally found one near home that had them in stock...only it was a misprint! Talk about disappointment. However, the store manager was very kind and stated that since it was in the circular, he would honor the price! Yay! There was one issue when setting it up at home (the kinect cord was frayed) and when I tried to exchange it at the target near my job the clerk stated that this kinect #'s didn't match the box #'s and she couldn't exchange it. I was fuming! The fact that I bought it thinking it was new, opening and realizing that someone had already used it and damaged it, and then being told I can't exchange or return it.  I went back to the original Target that I bought it at and thankfully they honored the store policy. They also said that they had no clue what the previous store clerk (at the Target by work) was talking about and that the number's did match! Crisis and drama averted! I thought I was going to have to put my big girl panties on to make sure I wasn't screwed over.  So, we have been playing a lot of Just Dance especially on the weekends. :)

Happy Birthday Mamá!

A few weekends ago, Jon and I drove back home for my grandma's  Mamá's birthday weekend. She would kill me if she heard me say grandma! When she started getting grandkids, she stated that she was too young to be called Abuela (spanish for grandma), so we all call her Mamá. We had a lot of fun! Hear are a few pics from that weekend:

 
Look at these two! Don't worry I'm not driving while taking the pic, this was after I had finished parking in front of my parent's house.

For Mamá's birthday, we ate at a restaurant that was on the water (I forgot the name). Then afterwords, we walked around Dowtown during 2nd Sunday. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to be there for another 2nd Sunday to do some more shopping, I mean walking. :)
Family time!

We would move back to the ocean in a heartbeat!
Afterwards, we went home so that Jon and I could be there to sing Happy Birthday and have cake with her. If you can't tell, I come from a very serious, no-nonsense family:



"Are you sure I'm related to these people?"


Bookpolooza! My Book Obsession


My goal for 2014 is to read! I love to read, but these past few years with college and working for the wedding, I have not had a chance to read more than 2 or 3 books a year. That's a big deal for me when my mom always made sure that we were reading books a few times week (we didn't call her Princess Belle for nothing). For the past two years I have made lists on top of lists of the books that I want to read. I even started taking pictures of the books on my phone and have a "Books to Read" folder on my laptop. Thankfully, my sister and a co-worker introduced me to the app Goodreads, so my camera has alittle break from all of the book pictures. If you don't use Goodreads, I highly recommend it. All you do is open  the app, hit scan and scan the barcode of the book. Once it scans, it will show you the book, reviews, and you can add it to My Books list that you want. I have three lists; read, currently-reading, to-read. 

So for Christmas Santa left me a few books I had wanted.

My goal is to read atleast one book a month (which I already failed for the month of March). 
1.January - Boston Terriers for Dummies
2. February - You Had Me at Woof by Julie Glam
3. March - Epic Fail
4. April - I am currently catching up on my Shopaholic series

As you can tell I am a light reader. I can't read heavy books that are too deep because I get very emotional. I try to limit myself on the heavy reading to a minimum. I love the Shopaholic (even before the movie) series by Sophia Kinsella and she is one of my favorite authors. I started reading the series, but never finished. Thanks to goodwill and Habitat Restore book store I am able to finally finish them and catch up on some other books. Julie's Cafe & Books at the Habitat ReStore has paperback books that are 3 for $7. During my two trips (and going to the goodwill) there I was able to find some of the books I have been wanting to read. 

Habitat ReStore Book Store trip 1
No, I am not expecting, but I figured for .99 cents, I can save it for when we do need it!

Habitat ReStore Book Store Trip #2

I've decided to not work as much overtime as I did last month, so hopefully that will give me more time read and post! Since the weather was so beautiful this week, I was able to sit on our patio and read twice! That is the most I've been able to do in a long time. Time to read some more....

TTFN (Tata for Now),

Katie