Welcome to Our New Arrival

As of today, we adopted a new member to our family, a 2006 Nissan Murano. We are still looking for a name for him or her. We did not get to bring her today. We are going back tomorrow to fill out paper work and then we will get to bring her home.

As by my last post, we were researching Santa Fe's and Muranos. I came to the realization that if I got a Santa Fe I would be happy but only because of the price versus a Murano. So after making a trip to Smithfield (about 45 minutes away) to see a Santa Fe, I realized what I really want was a Murano. So I really worked hard to find a black Murano. There was one that I really liked but when I checked it out on the owners website it was already sold. So I saw another one in Smithfield and asked Billy to go look at it with me. I had already test driven Muranos and I knew how they felt. So we really went to go see how the Murano looked.

When we got there I really liked it. We test drove it and then it came time to talk price. I am so proud of Billy and I. We were really nervous about talking price with the guy. Before we went in to talk with him, Billy and I talked about what we wanted to pay for it. I said no more 15, 500. The car was listed for 16, 988. His first offer was about 15,700 before the extra fees and he asked us what we were looking at. I said 14.5 to 15. So he looked at what he could do. He called the owner of the shop and came up with 15.9 before the extra fees. I suggested to Billy that we wait and talk about it. The sales guy said hold on and see what he could do. I suggested 15, 7 AFTER fees, which would be about 14.9 before. He suggested 16 after fees which would be 15.2 before fees, but he had to call the owner again to see if that was ok. The owner came back and said that is fine. We said yes and the car was ours. The place actually had already closed so we decided to come back tomorrow and finish up the paperwork.

Planning Ahead

So Billy and I have come to the realization that we will need a four door car in the future. (Not any time soon though.) So while both of us are working we are looking into getting a new car. Here are some of the choices we are looking at:

First one up, Nissan Murano:
This is the pricer of the two. So we are looking the 2005/2006 models to get. I really like this one. I especially like it in black. We will probably get cloth seats because this brings down the cost on the vehicle. It is actually what is called a crossover. A crossover as definied by Wikipedia is, "a marketing term for a vehicle that derives from a car platform while borrowing features from a traditional Sport Utility Vehicle. (SUV)." Nissian Murano actually uses the Nissan Altima's car platform. So it is not necessarily a SUV.
Here are some stats we are looking for in a Nissian Murano:


Mileage 40,000-50,000
Body Style Sport Utility
Exterior Color Black
Engine v6, 3.5L
Transmission Continuously Variable Automatic
Gas Mileage 17 city/23 highway/19 combined


Next up, Hyundai Santa Fe:

The Santa Fe is a little cheaper vehicle than the Murano so we are looking at getting maybe a 2007 or 2008. I like the Santa Fe but it is definitely a vehicle that is more basic. It is also a crossover. I would like to get this car in black as well. This vehicle is not as popular as the Murano so finding the right color has been a challenge for us. Billy has told me to branch out and look at other colors, which is what we are going to have to do . Here are some stats we are looking for in a Hyundai Santa Fe.


Mileage 20,000-40,000
Body Style Sport Utility
Exterior Color Black
Engine v6, 3.3L
Transmission Automatic
Gas Mileage 17 city/24 highway/20 combined



There is no rush on our end. We are just looking for now. But if we find something for a good deal we will get it.

The Real Ones are In

The "long" wait is over. (It really hasn't been that long hence the quotation marks.) Our wedding pictures have arrived from our photographer, Dave Dutchess (my future-brother-in-law). They are awesome. I would love to post them all but there are way to many to post. I will just post a few that I like and I will let you go see the rest at Dave's website.

This was Dave's first wedding and I think he did an amazing job. Jessica, my sister, would tell me how nervous he was to do our wedding only because he wanted them to come out perfectly. There are several I love, there are several I like, and a few where I am too critical of myself. =) I can't wait to get some developed and have them hanging in our apartment.

Along with the picture CD, Dave and Jessica sent us a gift. A neat looking picture frame with this drawing of us kissing in it. I will have to post a picture of the picture frame and where it now sits in our home. It is one of my favorites!!!! As you can tell another one of our wedding pictures that Dave did is now our Blog picture. I would have to say this one is my all-time favorite out of all of them.

Here are a few of my favorites.

AJ's face in this one, cracks me up.

My mom and her parents

The moment I started to cry

A good picture of us both

The head table

My mom and I

Getting ready the day of

Dave took some pictures of Billy's car for him. This is the one I liked the best.

Billy and his mom

Billy and his guys



Just a neat picture



Some of my girls and I





Check out the rest of Dave's pictures at his website. Click the picture below and it will take you there.

Starting Our Life Together

So when we got back from the honeymoon, things didn't go exactly as planned. Before the wedding my car broke down. My dad spent a lot of time around the wedding trying to fix whatever was causing it not to want to start. He had to go back home and still the car was not working. My dad had changed the starter but that wasn't the problem. He changed the ignition switch but that wasn't the problem. Then he tried the neutral switch but still it would not start. My dad was able to get it started but you had to lift the hood and use a screw driver to start it.

So when we returned from the honeymoon that was our first item on the agenda. Upon arriving back into the US, I got a voicemail from Amanda, my old roommate, saying there was a note on my car that said that my car would be towed if it was not moved immediately. Amanda thankfully called the number on the sticker and explained that we were on our honeymoon and we would be back to get the car. When we got back we moved the car to the driveway of my old place. Dad suggested we try something that had to do with the security system in my car. When we tried to do this, we killed the battery and had to take it take the battery out and take it to Auto Zone to get it charged. We found out that our battery was bad so we had to get a new one.

When we got it to run at least again we took it over to Billy's parents. Billy and his dad worked on my car for a week straight while Billy and I used one car to get back and forth to work. After it was said and done we had replaced the battery, the security system, replaced my keys twice, and changed the alternater. Don't know exactly what caused the problem but my car was running.

While this was going on, I was having bad allergies from our new apartment. He ran 2 mold tests and found mold was growing but the tests didn't show a whole lot of mold. All places have some amount of mold but our tests were not showing a lot out of the ordinary. But if you were to step in our apartment it smelled moldy. We had a dehumidifier that we ran 24/7. We would empty every day when we came home from work. If we were home all day, I would bet we could change it at least twice a day. Our carpet was always wet. Our dryer was not working. It took 2 cycles to dry anything. We thought it was our dryer but ended up being the pipes in the apartment were clogged.

I finally went to the apartment complex and complained and asked them what they could do. They gave us the run-around for a very long time. Until.....

Our ceiling started leaking. It leaked all over our new bed sheets. Billy's parents took our sheets to the dry cleaners for us to get them cleaned. Thanks you guys for doing that!!! But we could not sleep on our mattress because it got wet. So we slept on an air mattress in the living room until the mattress was completely dried. It took a week for it to dry. We set up the dehumidifier next to the mattress and ran it full blast. So finally we had had enough. I kept on the apartment complex until they moved us into another apartment. When they finally agreed after giving us the run around again, they gave us 4 days to move, Tuesday to Friday. Billy and I both had to work so I packed as much as I could at night and Billy took off Wednesday. We had a lot of great friends and family come and help us move in such a short amount of time. That is how amazing our friends and family are.

Then it came time to get my car inspected. There had been a service engine light on for a very long time. We knew it was the EGR value and we replaced the EGR value and still that did not fix it. The light kept coming back on. We tried everything. Until it came to the day when if I didn't get my car inspected and paid for the registration by the end of that business day my registration would be taken away. Billy had exhausted all of what he knew. So he and his dad took it to a shop and they took a piano wire and cleared out a huge clog in my engine. Billy had tried to do this with a guitar string but it wasn't thick enough. Billy was so upset that what he was doing was right, he just didn't have the right tool. I was happy just to see it fixed. The car was fixed by 3:30 and as soon as I got out of school we went over and got the registration paid for. That was a miracle, only God could have let all that work out so smoothly.

This all happened in the first 2 months of our marriage. Man, if we can get through this, we can get through anything!!! =)

THE HONEYMOON!!

So here are some pictures of our honeymoon. They aren't the best but they will show you some of what it was like. A lot of them were from Billy's phone and most of the time we didn't think to take pictures or if we did they are shots of just Billy and I.

After the wedding on Saturday we stayed at a hotel close to the airport so that way when we got up the next morning we could just ride the shuttle that the hotel provided over to the airport. We got up around 5:30 I think it was. Our flight left around 7 something. I can't remember the exact times. The plane ride left like it took forever.

Once we got to the Sun Palace resort in Cancun it was around 2:00 Cancun time. Billy was really worried about the transportation to the hotel but it worked out really well. Most of the people spoke good enough English to be able to communicate some. They greeted us at the door with a carnation and some champagne. I think we were the only people who said no thank you to the champagne. Since we were a little early for check-in we had to wait around a while for our room to be cleaned. But once we were able to go to the room, we saw that is was pretty sweet. Here are some pics of the room:









Our week in Cancun was pretty nice, other than the heat. We had a pretty good time. I think the part that Billy enjoyed the best (me as well) was the food and service. Whenever we wanted something to drink or eat there was someone there to wait on us, at the beach, at the pool, and in our room (through room service). The best part was it was all free. Because we were honeymooners we had the choice of having a romantic dinner in our room or at the nice Italian Restaurant. We choose the diner in our room. It was pretty nice.


We also had free excursions to pick from. One day we went to Wet and Wild which was a waterpark just like the one here in North Carolina. I think we did more eating there than swimming. All the food was free at the park as well which was awesome!! Another excursion we did was we went to this historical site with Mayan Ruins. It was pretty neat but it was so so so hot out that it almost made the trip miserable. For lunch we stopped off at another Palace resort and we were able to go snorkling. I feel so bad for Billy because I had never done it before and I kept hyperventilating in the snorkling pipe. Snorkling is harder than what you might think if you have never done it, can't swim and the water is way above your head, don't like swimming with fish, and have a fear of drowning. The last excursion we did was ziplines which were pretty fun. I am scared of heights as well but I conquered those fears and had a good time. All and all this trip really tested me in many ways.


At night the resort had shows that I dragged Billy too. All of them were cheesy except for one which was a fire show. It was where people were dancing with fire. Billy would agree that it was pretty neat.


We had a great week and we didn't want to come back to our day to day life. Although we were ready to come home, if that makes any sense. I feel like I came back from our honeymoon 20 pounds heavier because of all the free food. But it was fantastic!!! Here are just a few more pics of our week in Cancun!!

On the bus to one of our excursions...

Hanging out in one of the lounges afte hanging out at the pool

After getting dressed up for dinner. Before we went to dinner each night we went back to the room and got dressed up.

After the maids cleaned our room, they would leave us a towel animal. Here is one of them.