Yo soy boricua! Pa'que tu lo sepas!

And we're back! What a trip that was! We had such an amazing time in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean islands. I can't believe how fast the week flew by and it was a sad day flying home Sunday. When you're on island time it's easy to forget all your worries and stresses from home and it was a much needed trip for both of us. We took a million pictures- of course- so I'll start with Puerto Rico and go day by day.

San Juan & Fajardo, Puerto Rico:

After a slight mishap on our way to the airport (Trey unfortunately sliced his leg open slipping on the step getting into the parking shuttle to the airport- we had to bandage it the entire trip and make sure to keep the wound clean... poor guy), we flew into San Juan late on Thursday night and took and eventful 45 minute ride to a town called Fajardo. Eventful- because Trey got to experience driving in a place where all the signs were in Spanish, drivers have no concept of following rules of the road, and it was pitch black dark by the time we got there. And let's just say Puerto Rico doesn't have the best roads or road signage- and Trey's fear of going through the wrong lane on a toll or going the wrong speed made me laugh so hard I could hardly translate for him. Thank God I speak Spanish though. It really was put to good use on this trip throughout the whole week.

Anyway, Fajardo lies on the eastern side of the island and we decided to stay there instead of in San Juan to experience the Waldorf Astoria's El Conquistador Hotel. We figured everything touristy that there is to see in San Juan would be closed that weekend anyway since Puerto Rico is a very Catholic country and it was the holiest weekend of the year. Also Fajardo is very close to the world famous El Yunque Rain Forest and we knew we wanted to make a visit there. So, Fajardo it was and it was a great choice!

The resort was everything we thought it would be and more. The hotel is massive. It truly is the biggest on the island and certainly the nicest thing in the city of Fajardo- which is just an uneventful somewhat run down part of Puerto Rico. We couldn't believe the shanty like conditions you had to drive though to get to the beautiful resort and didn't even realize how great it was until we woke up in the morning and really got a feel for the view.

El Conquistador Resort

El Conquistador sits on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. The resort is so big it has 2 resorts in one and so many places and buildings where you can stay. It kinda felt like Disney World on the ocean. We had to take a lift from our section of the hotel down to the marina where a boat was waiting to take us to the resort's private island. Within minutes though we were on the water feeling the sea breeze hit us as we headed toward the island where crystal blue water and powdery sand awaited us. We were finally in paradise and we were in heaven! Little did we know the destinations would only get better once we got on our cruise a few days later.

The Funicular Lift

Finally relaxing by the beach! Ahhhhh

On Saturday we woke up early and headed to El Yunque National Park. Since Puerto Rico is a territory of the U.S. it was declared a National Park Monument by Roosevelt I think ? It is so well preserved and just as beautiful as I remember it from when I visited Puerto Rico in college with my family. One difference was when I came with my family we took a tour of the massive park by car. Well- if you know Trey then you know a car tour just won't do. No NO No... we did drive through most of the park stopping occasionally for photo ops at various points but we both agreed it would be fun to do a hike at one of the stops. Man was it a hike! I mean... 30 minutes my a** (according to the Fodor's travel book we had with us). Thank God I've been doing p90x! But the view of the waterfall at the end and the feeling of accomplishment felt good. We were ready to leave El Yunque by the end of that hike and head back to El Conquistador for a nice relaxing afternoon on the beach.

El Yunque

View from the boat leaving the beach...


They had parrots in the lobby!

On Easter Sunday our time in Puerto Rico was sadly almost over. We woke up early and found a Catholic Church in a nearby town called Luquillo. It was quite an experience to see how other cultures experience a holy holiday like Easter. There were basically tons of people standing outside of this quaint yet outdated church with no air conditioning that clearly couldn't accommodate many people. The church had doors that opened on all sides and they kept them open throughout the mass so the overflow could peek in. It was really neat and the wood carvings on the altar and around the church were very impressive.

Happy Easter!! It was a bright sunny morning- as most Easter mornings are.

Wood carvings in la Iglesia de San Jose Luquillo, Puerto Rico

Our next and last stop on the Puerto Rico tour from mass was a trip into the city. We headed back to San Juan and right into the heart of Old San Juan to take a walking tour through the town before we headed to the pier for our cruise. Boy was it hot! It was neat to see though and I always think of my mom when I see the streets of Old San Juan because she used to say it reminded her of her home and the streets in Camaguey, Cuba where she grew up. We had a great time walking around and on the Christopher Columbus fort we spotted our cruise ship. We got so excited and decided to pack up and head to the port!

Old San Juan

Next post... Royal Caribbean and First Port of Call BARBADOS!!!!!

Drum roll please...

IT'S HERE!!!! IT'S REALLY REALLY REALLY FINALLY HERE!!!!

As many of you know, Trey and I have been searching for months for the perfect table for our dining room. I'm not one to wait around in terms of setting up anything. In fact I think I unpacked everything when we moved into our new house within 2 or 3 days, but the one room in our house that just bugged me was our empty dining room (and our coat closet that held all of our fine china in boxes for months). Call me O.C.D or type A- I do, but I just love a neat and orderly house where everything has its place and I can finally say... well almost... that every room is done! Now for a rug, mirror on the wall, and some art work and voila!

To say this dining room table and buffet purchase was a nightmare would be an understatement. But two months later, 3 attempted weekend deliveries, 1 in store pick up, 6 or 7 hours on the phone with customer service, my sales rep, supervisors at Macys, delivery guys, etc it finally showed up this morning 8 am on the dot. And- for all our troubles I got a $200 Macys gift card and major discounts. Oh don't you worry- I still plan on writing a strongly worded letter on King and Spalding letterhead to the VP of furniture. Who knows... might be free at the end of the day? ;) What can I say... I am my mother's daughter and this ordeal was just ridiculous.

Anyway, I could hardly believe Macys actually followed through with it this morning. Some of the chairs are not up to snuff since I had to accept floor samples after Macys discontinued the line (after I ordered)- but I could care less at this point. I have 10 chairs, a table with no defects and a china buffett. And even though I'm working from home this weekend (which usually just makes me feel nauseous), I'm a happy girl!

I love being able to see the table when you walk in the front door!

One more post to just show my first attempt at sewing (with my mom's help of course). We attached the brown strip at the bottom to make the shower curtain in the guest bathroom downstairs longer. Not bad.

Happy Spring!

Ok, so I know the official start of spring is next weekend, but it sure felt great this weekend, so I say Happy Spring! I am so glad the weather has been so nice and I hope it stays for good this time. Trey and I took advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend and had a cookout with some news friends we made from our church retreat on Saturday.

Today we decided to spend some time outside making our front yard look better. We had some bushes that the builder planted when we moved in, but they just never seemed to grow. We thought it would be nice to add some more color to already beautiful pinkish purplish bushes (who knows what they are ? :) ha- and bought some pansies. I love how it turned out! It's so nice to have color and I can't wait for our knockout rose bushes to start blooming. Won't be long now...

Getting started...

Finished product (I almost wish we'd bought more)...

Abuela's 80th and Babysitting Little Kevin

I have been very fortunate to have all my grandparents around to watch me and my brothers grow up. I know I may be biased but they are the best grandparents in the world!

Last week my abuela (means grandmother in Spanish) celebrated her 80th. All of my other grandparents had a big bash for their 80th birthdays but abuela wanted something low key. So we all headed to a family favorite- Olive Garden. It was mmm mmm good and little Kevin (or should I say little Jon- looks just like him when he was a baby) stole the show in the restaurant. He kept turning around and flirting with this little girl at the table next to us. He's going to give those ladies quite a time batting his pretty blue eyes at them (as you can see more of in the pictures from last night when I helped Lisa out by watching him so she could go to a birthday dinner for her brother).

Little Jon

Good-bye Honda Accord! Hello New"er" Honda Accord!

Yep, we finally bit the bullet after much debate and back and forth. Trey decided to put my 1997 Honda Accord on Craigslist and Autotrader 2 weekends ago just to see if anyone would make an offer. We listed it at $3800 and by the next morning Trey's phone was blowing up with offers. We couldn't believe it! We hadn't even found a car for me yet so I was getting worried that we'd sell mine before we found one with all the features I was looking for. By mid- week we realized it was going to sell and my brother gave me insight that we had listed it too low. Hondas are well made cars and I guess mine had low miles for how many years I'd been driving it so we upped the price $500.00. And- people kept calling! We finally agreed to meet with a very persistent mother buying for her daughter on Thursday night after work...

First of all, who the heck goes to buy a car in the dark, in a parking lot with 43 hundred dollar bills in her pocket... and for that matter what crazy fools go to sell their car in the dark like that. I told Trey I left my rings at home just in case we were mugged. haha It was bizarre to say the least.

But, thankfully we met her in the well-lit parking lot of Rooms to Go by Perimeter Mall. She wasn't a psycho and she was ready to buy on the spot. I convinced us all to go to Panera down the street where we made our trade. It was so funny seeing her lay out the hundreds on the table. I politely excused myself to the bathroom to check to see the Ben Franklin symbol in the corner- just to be sure ;) ha.

We walked away with $4300, 1/4 of the original purchase price 14 years earlier of my beloved Honda Accord with 146,000 miles- my first and only car to that point. As much as I was ready for a new car, I have to say it was a sad moment seeing that girl strip my tag and put hers on. I almost didn't want to drive away.

The next day Trey got a ride to work with our neighbor and friend Brian and I took his car to work. I joked to Trey that if we didn't find a car that weekend he'd be walking to work. ha But as luck has it I picked him up from work that day and we went looking for a newer Honda Accord and found one with all the features I wanted that night. The deal we made was to buy another Accord for now and then when we have kids I get to pick the SUV and Trey will take the Accord for awhile... good compromise :)

Anyway, we ended up at Gwinnett Honda around 8 pm Friday night and with Trey playing bad cop, me good cop we found my car! It's a 2008 Honda Accord EX-L with navigation and I love it already. It has so much more pick up than my last car with a V-6 engine and it's been fun to drive around. I couldn't believe what a deal we got with low miles and everything. The dealership stayed open til 11:30 pm to push the deal through and the next day I went to pick up my new car!

Here are some pics of the upgrades...

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Snow day!

It felt like I was a little kid dreaming for a snow day so that I could stay home from school. This time it was staying home from work and it felt great when Trey and I looked out our windows last night around 8:30 and noticed the ground was already covered! We woke up this morning and it was a winter wonderland outside. It was so pretty and so deep!

We had so much fun playing in the snow and hanging out with our neighbor at the horse barn he works at off Paces Ferry. Definitely wouldn't recommend driving around in this weather. We only made it because he had snow chains on his jeep (and even then it was a little scary). Looking forward to another day off tomorrow! Our office already posted the cancellation. Yay! :)

Trey and Jay