We're not going to be homeless!!

We went to Bentonville and found a house! It was the last house we looked at and instantly loved it. We signed the lease and got the keys within about 30 minutes. Its a brand new house (less than 6 months old) and we'll be the first tenants! Here are a few pictures from the realtors website:

The house is much bigger than it looks, its about 1600 sq. ft., 3 bd/2ba-- we have enough room for Mike to have a home office and we'll have a guest room for anyone that visits!

We love the kitchen, plenty of room for entertaining.

Love, love, love the double sinks in the master bath!

The view from our back deck:

I wish we had a picture of the closets-- they are seriously huge--about twice the size of the kitchen in our current house! The house is actually in Bella Vista, AR-- Mike has about a 15 minute commute. The area is gorgeous-- tons of lakes, golf courses, great camping sites etc. Looks like we'll be packing this week and moving on Saturday! We're so freaking excited!!!

We're Moving!!!

Congrats to my amazing husband on his new job!

Mike was offered a position with Wal-Mart at their Corporate Headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas & he accepted! He starts on February 5th- so we have to find a place ASAP-- we'll be moving next week. We drove to Bentonville yesterday to look around & fell in love with the area.

We've picked out several rental properties online & will be driving over on Monday to take a look and hopefully sign a lease. We plan on waiting about a year before purchasing a house. Its feels pretty surreal, I can't believe we're finally getting out of Tulsa (even if it is only 120 miles away!)

Possibilities...

It seems like all we do is wait... wait for an interview, wait for a call back, wait for an offer! Mike's job search is going great, but I just wish I knew where we were going to end up. So far, here are the possibilities:

Madison, Wisconsin.

Here is downtown Madison at night--gorgeous! The city itself is in between two lakes (an isthmus). The Madison slogan is "Lake.City.Lake." :) Mike has been dealing with a really fantastic company right outside of Madison. They receive around 1,000 applications a day-- so the fact that he got an on site interview seemed like a big deal to me! Mike flew up last week and we should here something back in a week or two. This city is our first choice!

The picture above is Madison in the winter! The lake from the first picture is in this photo too...its just covered in ice & snow!! Yikes, I know the winters there would be really terrible, but everyone I've talked to thats been there says its a really fun town, I think we'd love it! The housing is more expensive than Tulsa, but I've found some really great houses online- lots of older homes with "character".

our next option is:

Bentonville, Arkansas.

Yep, thats right, Mike could take a job working for THE MAN--aka Wal-Mart Corp. I can hear Brooke screaming now! LOL!! He'd be a software developer at their headquarters in Bentonville. It would be an amazing opportunity for him to get job experience and work for one of the largest corporations in the world!

Bentonville is super tiny, but on the positive side, is only 110 miles from Tulsa and has incredibly cheap housing. I'm talking about houses that in Tulsa would be $350,ooo, are $145,000 in B-ville. Mike and I have been drooling over several realtor websites.

Yet another possibility (although a small one!) is:

Jersey City, New Jersey!

Mike has actually been offered a position here. He turned down the first offer and is waiting to hear a counter offer. This one is a long shot...housing is horrible, the company isn't our favorite and its super far away from friends and family.

But...its right on the west bank of the Hudson River, across from NYC-- thats a big plus for me! I love love love Manhattan. But, its a long shot, I highly doubt we'll end up here.

Finally...

Tulsa!

Mike is in the final stages of is interviewing process with a really great firm here in town. We'd be close to our friends and my family and wouldn't have the stress of a big move. Neither of us are really wanting to stay in town, but if the opportunity is good enough and the salary high enough- we would stay. The great thing about Tulsa is the cheap real estate- we've been thinking of buying a home in Bixby. Its really grown a lot and the new construction homes are fantastic.


So thats our story. Hopefully we'll know something soon and we can start packing!!

I'm loving the new schedule...

The new schedule is AMAZING!

Last week I started a new work schedule-- I only work on Thursday & Friday. Its been heaven, seriously. We've had home cooked meals almost every night-- from actual recipes, with actual vegetables (aka not from Taco Bell or the microwave!). We've eaten at our dining room table. We've had clean clothes to wear, and a nice vacuumed & dusted living room to hang out in.

We also spent some of our wedding gift cards at Williams Sonoma (love that place) and BB&B. Yay for new bathroom stuff, linens, and coffee maker. Mike got the coolest espresso maker-- he loves it & drinks from it way too much!

Brooke's threats have worked, I promise to update more!

the happy couple

Here is a goofy pic of us during Christmas Eve dinner (that I cooked!)

A Post for my Husband!!

This is the last post I'll make before Christmas and I want to wish a Happy Early Birthday to my wonderful husband!! Happy Birthday Mike!

And, since I've been a blog slacker, congrats to him for receiving his Masters in Computer Science from OSU last week!!

Hope everyone has a great Christmas!

WEDDING PICS!!!!!!!!!

http://www.johnlewphotography.com/slideshow/solano/index.html

click on the link for a slideshow. you can look at the rest by going to the "shopping cart" icon after the slideshow!!!

Important!!

I watched a great movie last night--granted, it was a Lifetime movie, which are usually laughable, but this one was different! (even Mike liked it!) Its based on a true story of a 27 year old (27!!!) woman diagnosed with breast cancer. Seriously scary to think it could happen to me or one of my friends-- self breast exams are soooo important, especially if breast cancer runs in your family!

So, thats it-- watch the movie or read the book (which I am about to start).

In other news, I have either a really nasty cold or the flu (FUN!) Mike has been a terrific nurse, but I'm tired of chicken noodle soup & hot tea!!

O' Christmas Tree!

Our Tree!

I didn't have the energy to deal with a real tree, so Mike & I bought a new artificial tree last night. It 7'5" tall (so much better than the tiny tree we used last year!). The picture is from Target's website-- I'll take pictures of our tree this weekend.

First Honeymoon Slideshow!!

| View Show | Create Your Own

We're Home!

The honeymoon was the most amazing trip ever. We have over 400 pictures and around 4 hours of video of all the cool stuff we encountered on the different islands. I wanted to start the "picture assault" slowly-- the one above was taken on "The Road to Hana" drive on East Maui. We had stopped by a waterfall to take a few shots and (since we were in a rainforest!)it started to rain--still one of my favorite pictures!

 

We're Married!!!!!

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

Seriously the best night of our lives!!
Everything was amazing and more than we ever wished for. It was so overwhelming to have so many of our friends and family in one place- we felt so blessed.

I am just so full of absolute bliss right now, the wedding stress is over, we get to leave for Hawaii in 6 days & I'm married to the man of my dreams!!

Life is good.

Wow...

We just got our marriage license!! I had to sign the name I'll take after the wedding-- first time to sign "Angela S. Solano" on an actual legal document!!

I'm pissed

about Lost!!!!!

What the hell?? I can't believe they killed him- he was one of our favorite characters!!!

I swear to God, if they kill Locke, I'm done with the show.

worst.blogger.ever.

seriously-- i'm bad- I haven't written in about a month!

The wedding is 11 days away, I cannot believe it!!!

All the planning is finally coming to an end (yay) and I'm just sooo ready to be married to Mike!!

We are so excited to see all of our friends & family!

The Count Is On!!

Invitations are out--yay!!!!!!!!!!

Now we wait for R.S.V.P.s...

'eff these allergies

seriously, allergies are killing me---what the hell? maybe its just Tulsa? I guess I'll test that theory this weekend. After work, we're heading to OKC for The Flaming Lips show-- looking forward to the concert & hanging w/ Sarah & Matt!

Then, a night in an OKC hotel--and driving to Dallas on Saturday!!

My family has a custom jewelry business in Ft. Worth & Mike & I will be picking out our wedding bands!!!

then another night--this time in a Texas hotel room!! yay for a weekend away from T-town. Everyone have fun at Homecoming!!

Road Trip

My lovely mother & I are leaving this morning to make our annual pilgrimmage to the American Idols Concert. I know, I know-- lame!!! But, we love it & go every year, so there!

It will also be really nice to get a few days away from wedding planning!

Pinkie's House

Sorry if your tired of Pinkie pictures, but I just took these & love them!

This is how she sleeps-- she always has some part of her hanging out of her little house- what a weirdo!

I couldn't believe she stayed still for this one!

Turning away from the camera-- she apparently isn't a fan of paparazzi!

Using the same pose as the Olsen twins when they're avoiding the media!

Finally she retreats in the house-- obviously irritated with me...
that one paw always cracks me up-- what a weird color!

Stuck in my head...

Mama don't make me anotha' meatloaf,

Forget the Mac and Cheese!

I want some fun piled on a bun,

I want a Manwich please!

WHY????? I've never eaten a manwich sandwich before, but this song is stuck in my head!!