First dinner guests

Last night was our first time inviting people over for dinner! Jose's aunt Josie and uncle Jorge, Lindsey, Andrew, Danica and Anastasia (our favorite little girls to spoil). A couple of weekends ago, Jose and I asked to borrow the girls for the day. We took them with us to some model homes, and let them have fun climbing the stairs. They did not forget their stair climbing lesson! That is all they wanted to do! Jose and I had a lot of fun entertaining for the first time!

We've moved in!

We just got our new home hooked up to internet and cable! Finally! It has been a very, very busy 6 days since we got the keys and I’ve been wanting to blog our progress. But since there is so much to say, I think I’ll recap in a few points and then let the pictures do the explaining.

Quick Recap:
1.Rain and moving do not mix (unless you want to stress about new beige carpet and mud on the floors).
2.My husband and Dad can do anything, and they are strong.
3. I am not a good judge of paint samples, and will be living in a bedroom that is not what I wanted. And have two extra cans of Behr Burnt Almond that I decided I didn’t’ want to use downstairs afterall.
4. My husband, dad and I should not quit our day jobs and become painters. However as point 2 suggests, by the 3rd room they proved they can do anything.
5. My mom and Bridgette can clean anything. Really anything. (Even the stove that was so disgustingly dirty that Jose and I decided to buy a new stove instead of trying to clean it. But after 6 hours of my mom cleaning the disgustingly dirty stove, it looked as good as new, and we returned the new stove we had bought. True story.)
6.My body is not in shape to climb stairs 100 times a day. I woke up Day two, three and four barely able to move.
7. I found enough pennies, nickels and dimes in the move that the total amount probably would have paid our down payment.
8. I understood what a goldfish feels like when we didn’t have blinds up for the first 5 days.
9. Target employees and I are on a first name basis, after going at least twice a day for the last 6 days. Which reminds me, I have a third bag of returns to do.
10. We will not have a guest bed for awhile. Mattresses are waaayyy more expensive than I thought. But will still welcome visitors—as long as you are happy with an air mattress!
11. We love our house! Every time I go down the stairs and look around I smile. We have both agreed that it still doesn’t seem real, that we own this home, but it feels more like we have been in a vacation rental with my family (they have been around everyday to help so much! We are so blessed!

Check out this album of pictures to see the before and after process
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2060938&l=ce675&id=68600295

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!

Funding has gone through for our house! Some time tomorrow, not sure when, it is going to be recorded through the county, we will get our keys and be home owners. It feels like we have been waiting for this day for so long. I am so grateful that God has blessed us with this great opportunity!

Couldn't sleep

My mom told me that my grandma asked her if I was having trouble sleeping because I was excited for moving day. I thought that was a little weird because I have slept just fine. Until last night. I don't know, blame in on the fact that my eczema prone skin decided to break out in a rash and itchiness as soon as I laid down. Or it possibly was because our new house is clean and germ free and ready to be lived in. Or maybe it was because we bought our paint last night, and the cans are all lined up waiting to be used. Or the boxes are just waiting to get transported and unpacked. Or that Stephanie was sleeping in our living room and was watching another episode of HGTV Moving Up and I wanted to watch it with her. I really don't know what caused me to be wide awake at 10:30-1:00am (actually a teenie tiny part may have been that Jose was snoring, and he never snores), but it gave me a chance to reminisce about my past birthdays. I started at age 10 and tried remember all my parties. Then I realized Stephanie celebrated three of my birthdays in a row with me, and I had to go tell her (at the same time I went searching for my eczema cream).
19th Birthday- Stephanie went to Santa Maria with me. We went to the drive in, SLO, and Madonna Inn with friends.
20th Birthday- the Ramirez's came to Santa Maria and we had a lobster bbq (SOOOO good)
21st Birthday- Stephanie and my roommates went to San Diego for the weekend.

Oh and in the middle of remembering all my past birthdays (which by the way I was able to do), I started planning my 25th Birthday/Housewarming party- side note: on HGTV First Home, a 39 year old woman was trying to buy her first home by the time she turned 40 so she could have her birthday/housewarming, but HGTV gave her a surprise moving in party and decorated her dining room, which I think is unfair that they will do it for her and not me. Anyway, back to my party. In my insomnia/excited hours I planned that my 25th party will include : appetizers (everyone bring one to share), ice cream sundaes (I have a million ice cream sundae cups in my parents attic that I bought in high school), and the signature drink the MARleneTINI. Yes that is right, while laying in bed I created my own drink. I would like to keep it a surprise until the unveiling at my party (most likely on Saturday, March 7th-mark your calendar), but I'm too excited. So here is the recipe- 7-up, vodka, and cherry and coconut flavored syrups. Shaken, not stirred. Add a cherry to the glass for a nice touch. I did wake Jose up to tell him about the MARleneTINI, but he just kind of grunted, so I went to the living room to tell Steph. She thought it was funny and laughed, but I think she liked the idea. I had to refresh Jose's mind this morning, and I think he liked the idea too.

I forgot to refresh his memory about waking him up another time last night. I had forgot to tell him that when Steph and I were cleaning the downstairs bathroom we noticed that it used to be painted hot pink/magenta. I had to scrub little hot magenta splatters of the mirror, and if you look closely at the screws and the edge of the mirror you see traces of magenta. Since I forgot to tell him, I woke him up at 12:00 to let him know. His response? "I'll pretend you didn't tell me that." But to be fair, he thought I said "I think we should paint the downstairs bathroom hot pink" not "The downstairs bathroom used to be painted hot pink." I'll have to remind him. On second thought, maybe I shouldn't. He may not be happy I woke him up so much, and I don't know if he finished his coffee yet!

All that to say that I had trouble sleeping last night because I am so excited and anxious to get our keys and MOVE IN! Our house is ready for us! My parents and Stephanie helped us sooo much this weekend to clean the place. It smells so good when you walk in now- in a garden fresh, bleachy sort of way. I totally recommend the Clorox disposable toilet bowl cleaner wand. Uh-mazing. I DO NOT recommend Tilex and a scrubbing sponge on base boards unless you want to strip paint. And 100% totally recommend Steph as a cleaning buddy if you want a hard worker and positive support!

Terrible, Horrible, No good, very bad day

Actually it isn't that bad, but I love exaggerating and wanted to use the line from a kids book I used to like.

Anyway, we aren't getting the keys to our new home tomorrow...there is a hold up with escrow (they are waiting on the HOA paperwork. You kidding me? Something that minor?!). The new projected closing date is next Thursday or Friday. If I didn't have a choice, I would say I can't wait another day. I mean there is no room in our tiny place, I cleaned the stove and oven 'til it shines, and we threw away all our food. That means eating out for a week!

You always know there is a possibility that escrow won't close on time, but everything was going perfect, and we were told repeatedly that it would close on time, so imagine our surprise two days before Moving Day! Ugh.

We still love you Chargers.

We just wanted to take a minute to thank all of you for your condolences over the lose of our Charger season. Your concern means a lot. We are hanging in there, and still proudly sport our Charger clothing (by we I mean Jose who recently acquired two new hats, a shirt, and a multitude of Charger signs to decorate the garage).

As for our previously announced Charger Superbowl party in the new home, the plans are being revised. The party may still happen pending the house being in presentable enough shape to show off (if the AFC west division winners were playing our Charger camping chairs would have sufficed as adequate living room furniture). Stay tuned for an official invite.

For now, lets just try to remember the positive aspects of the season. Lets focus on the little 5'6" lightening bug zig zagging down the field, and not criticize him for his lack of zigs and zags this past Sunday.

Moving in three days!

I am getting sooo tired of this

Until I think about this


And all this room!


This morning was more stressful than usual. After a year of living together, our bathroom seemed extra small. It was so hard sharing a little sink, and fighting for mirror space. You would think we would be used to it, but as of today we have had enough! Haha, only three more morning to deal with it!

As far as packing is concerned, we are doing well- though it seems never ending. I can't handle the maze of boxes that is consuming our 600 sq feet!