Settling In - Our New Apartment and Neighborhood

Marc and I have spent *MANY HOURS* getting our apartment together over the past month and this weekend, I'm happy to say, we're finally FINISHED!....well, sorda... If you know me and the way that I decorate, it'll always be a 'work in progress' but we're both happy with the outcome as of now. Take a look at where we started and how far we've come - it's slowly starting to feel like our home.

View from our apartment...

Our room - in the beginning...

Our room - after some serious work!

The extra bedroom - in the beginning...

The extra bedroom now - a.k.a. my new office!

Our kitchen - in the beginning...

Kitchen - all put together...

Living Room - in the beginning...

Living room NOW!

We've been out and about in the neighborhood as well, meeting lots of fun people - love to walk Maddie and Dexter down by AT&T Park and even went on a long walk last week to the Ferry building. The pups seem to be adjusting well and are loving their new-found freedom at the dog park behind our new place...they're making lots of new friends but of course miss their crew from the NYC Tate. ;)

AT&T Park

Bay Bridge

Front Entrance to AT&T Park

Yacht Club on the Embarcadero

We're definitely enjoying our new apartment and city - looking forward to lots more sight seeing and will post more pictures soon!

Andrew's Blanket

So for the past several months, amidst all the moving around and trip-taking, etc., one thing has remained constant: I've been working hard on little Mr. Andrew's baby blanket! =) This blanket is well traveled as it's joined me on work trips, cross-country car rides and multiple airline carriers over the last year - haha. I've always loved to cross-stitch due to my Grannie and Mom's influence growing up, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to make something for my new nephew/Godson. Marc and I did a great job of hiding it all this time so it was a surprise to Les and Bill and Drew......good stuff! Thought I'd share a couple of pictures - I'm so proud of it. Thanks to Grannie for helping me with the final pieces!

Les sent me this last picture of Andrew enjoying his new blanket...LOVE IT! Is he precious or what? =)

Getting Back on Track

Wow, I know...it's been a REALLY long time since I posted...again. Things have just been so crazy hectic around here but I'm happy to say that we're finally getting settled in our new place and I'm actually finding myself with time to spare in the evenings... Imagine that.

I think the best thing to do is give a quick recap of our time since we left Florida...just in case I leave anything out, you can always check out marcmagnone.com for the day-by-day details. Marc did a better job of staying on track but between the two of us, I think you'll be pretty caught up.

As a very brief overview of the way our May looked... We quickly flew into Houston from Florida (picture below is from our one-night stay...Dad treated us to Pappadeaux in Beaumont) and dropped off the pups and then flew out to San Francisco to buy a car and find a new home. We were in San Francisco a week - bought an Acura RL (love it...even though it definitely fits in the 'family car' category...I think I'm getting old) and found a cool apartment in SOMA, just about 3 blocks away from AT&T Park. Y'all know how much we love baseball and this area seems to be very up and coming - I'm pumped.

Dad treated us to Pappadeaux's in Beaumont our one night in town between Florida and CA

View from our hotel room at Hotel Nikko San Francisco

First dinner in our new city - Fisherman's Wharf complete with a stop at the Ghiradelli Factory - YUM!!!

After finding those two very important things, Marc stayed here to start work and I headed back to Houston for time with the family. Was in Houston for about 2 weeks where I had an absolute blast - got to hang with my Grannie, see my girls, meet Miss Maya Claire, hang with Mom and Dad, catch up with MFC...it was really cool. And then...I flew BACK to San Francisco to help Marc set up the apartment, once everything arrived on the giant truck from Long Island where it has been stored all these months. Maddie and Dex stayed with their grandparents and Marc and I went to work making our new place...our new 'home'.

Finally met Ryan...this BF approves! =)

We celebrated my birthday at Tres Agaves - this awesome mexican food place around the corner from us...they must have known I'd be moving in because the salsa rocks and the chips are flowing... Dream come true for this Tex-Mex crazed girl. After 'setting up shop' and celebrating my birthday, it was time for one more trip to see our great friends, Byron and Jess, get married. Talk about an adventure...

Planes - Trains - Automobiles...and I'm not kidding. We took a red-eye out of San Fran at 12:30 am and landed in Houston for a two hour layover... Then boarded a puddle-jumper-plane to Cincinnati, Ohio... Then rented a car and drove 2 hours to Ashland, Kentucky, hometown of the Judds and Billy Rae Cyrus...but more importantly, Jess's hometown. We had so much over this weekend - there are no words to describe it. I think Marc and I were both in tears on Sunday as we had to say goodbye to our NYC besties. What a beautiful wedding, gorgeous bride and handsome groom, both with a heart of gold...it was all just perfect.

We flew back to Houston and stayed a couple of days with the family - it was really great. I love my family so stinkin' much - it's amazing to me that daily I feel closer and closer to them. They are my heart and soul and I love the special times we get to spend together. After a good visit in Houston, we headed back to San Francisco WITH Maddie and Dex to start our new life as Californians!

This was out front of Mom and Dad's in Mont Belvieu - just before we headed to the airport for our final trip into San Fran...

The pictures enclosed are from our journey...enjoy them and we'll post pictures asap with tales of our first few weeks in San Fran, apartment pictures, job updates, etc. Enjoy and take care everyone!