Bye bye bye Honda, hello MDX!

The last time I had a brand-new car I was 15 years old and didn't even have a driver's license. I remember I had to wait three months until I could drive my Honda Civic. It sat in my driveway for what felt it like forever before I could legally drive it. What I will remember most about my Honda is the cool, digital dashboard, the way one piece of my hair would always swirl up an blow straight out the sunroof, and of course the loud engine that sounded like a plane taking off when I would accelerate!

Flash forward to nine years later and I am at the Acura dealership falling in love with a 2008 MDX. It took an entire weekend to find this beauty, but when I did it was love at first site. Well to be honest it was more love at first site for Andy and I needed a little convincing on the color of the car before I knew it was the one! Nevertheless, it is totally awesome and is equipped with handsfree bluetooth so that I can chat with both hands on the wheel while I drive.

DIY chair makeover

There are three rules you need to abide by when doing a do-it-yourself  project…

The first rule is that you need to have all the necessary tools, secondly you need to have enough time, and the thirdly you need to have enough motivation to get the job done! Too many times before I have learned this the hard way, but on this particular DIY project I managed to get it right!

Remodeling the chair was inexpensive and only took a few hours! Here is what you'll need:

-Sandpaper
-A paintbrush
-Tinted wood stain of your color choice

I would recommend letting each coat dry before applying a new one. I would also suggest taking A lot of time to properly send your chair. This should help the wood stain absorbed to its fullest.


Good luck and happy DIY-ing!

Living Room Makeover

Anybody who knows Andy and I pretty well knows that we LOVE doing projects together. Whether it's mowing a lawn, selling a bike, fixing a broken dishwasher, remodeling a bathroom, you name it we have fun doing it because we are working on it together.

One cool thing about the remodeling of our living room was that it is one of the first times we were working on a project that was actually for US and for OUR HOUSE! 

We have wanted to redo the living room floor ever since we laid eyes on it. It was something that not only we wanted to do, but really needed to do. We were never able to use the front door to our house without tracking in mud and leaves. Now that we have wood floors we can wear our shoes in the house, walk through the front door and we never have to jump on our guests to take their shoes off before entering anymore!

Project Facts:

Total Days: 3 (we got lazy....after all it was Spring break/honeymoon)

Total Cost: $350 + $15 for Pappa Johns (it is tradition to order a PJ pizza when we do a project)

Tasks: Andy did the floors and I did the painting and snack-making.

Before.

Before.

Adding wall paint.

What was under the carpet.

Just getting started. 

Andy, doing all the hard stuff. 

1/4 of the way through!

Almost done.

Final Product!!!

UPDATE: I am married now!

It has been way to long since I last posted so this post may be long and a bit random. I seem to constantly find myself wanting to stop blogging for so many reasons, like lame content, sucky photos, infrequent posts, etc. but then I remember the main reason why I ever even started my blog.. it was to have a way to look back on my life and read and see about all the events, parties, dinners, get-togethers that I may have otherwise forgotten about.

So here it goes from the top:

Here is one of the last family photos we took before I got married! My grandmother threw a "despedida dinner", also known as a farewell dinner for Andy and I. We got to spend quality time with my family before the wedding day which turned out to be so valuable because I did not get to spend hardly anytime with them on the day of the wedding.

^This is my maid of honor who went above and beyond during my five month engagement. She did a lot of driving from Austin to San Antonio to make it to the special showers, parties, etc. THANK YOU!

 Below are the two photos I took on my phone on the day of the wedding!

 ^ I was too cold walking around in my dress, so to keep my arms warm I wore my "Mrs. Rafie" robe!

^This photo was taken by my 6 year old cousin Diego. He came to our table to say hi and then decided to snap an iphone photo of us. I am glad he did!


My Aunt Googie took some photos on her professional camera during the ceremony and below are the two she sent me. I absolutely love them! I can't wait to see the rest.

After the wedding Andy I stayed at the Elian Hotel and it was so nice! I wish we could have stayed more than one night.  The hotel manager blessed us with a free breakfast. It was the best meal that I had consumed that week. (side note....plan a move to different state, a rehearsal dinner and a wedding and you will for sure not have anytime to sit down and eat) so with that said, I was starving Sunday morning after the wedding so that made everything taste even better!!

 Above ^ elian hotel lobby ---

 ^Sunday morning breakfast at the hotel.



Later that day and I picked up our suitcases at this parents house and then were driven to the airport and flew out to Kansas City at 6 p.m. It was hard to say bye and I had to hold back tears as we left the airport, but change is good and this is Andy's and I little adventure that we will always remember and look back on and smile.

Here we are waiting in the security check line at the San Antonio airport.

Here I am at the Kansas City airport waiting for Andy to get the car. 6 suitcases total!!

This is about 12:30 in the morning and I couldn't help myself when I saw the gifts! I just had to open some of them!

And the photo above is the first photo taken of me in my new home as a married woman. As you can see I didn't wait a second to start opening gifts! It felt like Christmas coming home to all these boxes. Because of everybody's generosity Andy and I have some many nice things now! Thank you!

PART 2 to be continued later this week!

Bridal Shower, February 1, 2014

I have some very sweet aunts who went out of their to host a beautiful bridal shower for me. These are times that I will always look back on and smile. -- Feeling very loved!! Details: Silo on 1604, mimosas, salmon entree, Italian cream cake and a lot of fun gifts! My favorite gift of the day was my mustard yellow apron from Sur La Table.

Bridal Shower Numero Uno

I don't want to forget anything so I better hurry and write it all down.....

I had my first bridal shower this past saturday at Allie's house! It was so perfect and so much fun! Allie took care of every single little detail. We arrived and were promptly served a mimosa and then we mingled until everybody showed up. After that Brooxie prayed for the food and for Andy and I's future. Then we ate this amazing egg casserole that Allie had prepared. There was also a huge bowl of fruit salad, little smoked sausages and sock-it-to-me cake. We played two games. A toilet paper dress competition and a clothespin game, where if you say "marry or marriage" you had to give your clothespin away to the person who caught you.

Then to the really fun part when I got to open some gifts. I loved everything my friends bought me. Something about getting gifts makes me feel so loved. It's a wonderful feeling knowing that this person went out of their way to buy me something that they think would look great on me. Ahhh! It was great.


Here are a few photos from the morning.