Moving Day!

Yesterday our wonderful packers came and packed up all our stuff (plus the Suman’s green pillows…sorry!) with a total of 47 boxes.  It was so nice, we didn’t quite know what to do with ourselves, so we stayed in our pjs till about noon.

Makenna’s nursery with all of our wedding gifts

I’m still trying to get adjusted to my new last name, and find it frustrating when I spell it out for people, they insist on putting the “A” before the “L”, making it “Maladineo”. This however, is a twist I’ve never seen before, and it is written on all of our boxes.

We found a super sweet deal on furniture here in Provo (IM Home Furniture), but we couldn’t fit it in our already furnished apartment, so Ferd rented a U-Haul to store it overnight until the movers got here today. This was an adventure.  First of all, because we didn’t pay for the insurance, we had to visually inspect the whole truck and chart down every scratch we saw, or we would be charged with damage. And if you’ve ever noticed, U-Hauls are covered in scratches. We only drove the beast about 8 miles, but it burned through about 1.5 gallons of gas (partially due to the fact that we had the AC blowing b/c it was about 96 degrees outside).

The U-Haul ramp was a huge pain. Literally. Fernando pinched his finger in it trying to lock it in.

Our moving truck. Who knows if our stuff will fit in.  The truck is already partially filled with other people’s boxes.

With all of our belongings packed away. We are left with nothing but a laptop and a TV. Luckily, my sister Cheryl and her family just moved to SLC, so we’re going to hang out with them today.

Birthday Weekend

Friday Night BBQ

It was a fun-filled weekend. Friday night, I organized a BBQ for one of my old wards. I moved out of there two years ago and there were a lot of people that I wanted to catch up with. Even though many people have since moved on from the BYU scene, we had a fair turnout. We spent the night grilling burgers, playing bocce ball, and just recounting stories from days of yore. Diane did a pretty good job keeping herself entertained since I was bouncing back and forth between conversations with old friends.

Saturday – Birthday Day!

We pretty much relaxed the whole day. Since everyday is a Saturday (now that neither of us is working), we woke up late, ate a nice breakfast, and then relaxed some more. Melissa decided to come down early so she could spend one more day with us; we decided to hit some balls at the local driving range. Other than being a bit warm, we had a great time.

As dinner time approached, we made our way over to Pizzeria 712. It’s this fantastic pizza joint that just opened up in Midtown Village in Orem. My favorite pizza was the one that had corn, freshly made ricotta, leeks, and something else. It was fantastic. Afterwards, we came back to our place, played Carcassonne and enjoyed some delicious brownies baked in the Baker’s Edge pan (a great pan for those who loved the edges on their brownies).

Sunday BBQ

If that wasn’t enough, we had another BBQ with Dustin and Cheryl’s family on Sunday. They just moved to Utah a few days ago and we wanted to be able to have a fun and relaxing dinner with their family before we head out (one more week!) It was good to see them. We hope that Dustin’s first day of work goes well.

Our New Home

You guessed it! We found our new home in Houston! Diane and I are very excited to have made this big decision as we can now move forward to other wonderful things like buying new furniture.

The Arrival

Yesterday, Diane finished her last day of school! No more school for the both of us (well, maybe I’ll get a MBA down the road). She came home around 1:30pm, so we jetted over to BYU to get some things notarized and we left for the airport. The trip to Houston was pretty uneventful and long. Since we wanted to save a few hundred dollars on airfare, we decided to catch a flight on Southwest. Unfortunately, the only flight that was going to work with our schedule this weekend had two layovers. Ugh, how awful. I am a serious advocate of direct flight because I don’t like hanging around other airports when I could be on my way to my destination. Anyway, after about 5 hours of traveling, we made it to Houston–a bit tired, but still in one piece.

We were fortunate that Advantage Rent-a-Car gave us a free upgrade since they ran out of compact vehicles. We were pleasantly surprised when we received a Hyundai Sonata. Secretly, I’ve been wanting to drive the new Sonatas since they look pretty nice. I still have a few issues with the brand name, but the car has been great to drive. It’s extremely smooth, has plenty of room, has strong and ice cold A/C, and gets great gas mileage.

Our beautiful rental car

Pretty sexy…

We stayed at the Marriott Springhill Suites located just north of Reliant Park. It’s located near the area we were looking for apartments. The place was decent; nothing out of the ordinary. The only complaint I would have is about the mattress. Talk about firm and padless. It wasn’t as bad a wooden board, but it was a contender. 🙂

House Hunting

Thank you to all of those who are still reading. We’ve now reached the point of this post. We met our realtor this morning to go look at apartment complexes near Hermann Park (Houston’s equivalent to Central Park). We started off at this ultra modern complex called The Lofts. It was total industrial style with exposed ceilings (think air vents hanging down), concrete floors, and exposed brick walls. It didn’t take more than five seconds to realize this was not the place. However, the prices were very reasonable for the area.

Our second stop was very promising. It’s called Amalfi at Hermann Park. It’s a brand new complex (still under construction) that was beautiful! It’s a Mediterranean-style building with lots of great amenities. Unfortunately, they weren’t offering any specials (e.g., one month free rent), so the two-bedroom apartments were out. We decided to look at a one bedroom (w/ loft) and loved it! I was pretty much sold the minute I walked in the door. However, it was only our second stop, so we decided to keep on looking.

The next stop was next door at the Esplanade. It’s two-bedroom apartments were also out of our price range and the didn’t have any one-bedroom places available until August. So it was out. Our final stop was the MacGregor. It was looked just north of the first complex. The price was very reasonable and the units were quite spacious. However, the decor and amenities left us wanting.

Drum roll, please…

So, after stopping at four places, it was time to start narrowing down our choices. You probably have guessed already…we chose the Amalfi! Rather than continuing to look, we felt that we had a great apartment in a fantastic location for a pretty reasonable price. We took some pictures (which do the complex no justice whatsoever). You can visit their website to see more professional photos: The Amalfi at Hermann Park. We ended up getting a one-bedroom loft apartment (approximately 964 sq. ft.). Here are some pics (they’re not very good).

View from balcony

Another shot from the balcony

Swimming pool (slated for August 2008 opening)

Kitchen

Another shot of the kitchen

Master bedroom

Master bedroom from the other side

Master bathroom

Hallway from bathroom to kitchen

Loft

Loft closet (bigger than our closet)

View from the loft

Well, there you have it. We had a fantastic day and we’re very excited to have found a place. Now it’s time to buy furniture!

Our First Campout

A few weeks ago we decided to go camping up South Fork Canyon in Provo. We recently acquired a  lantern as a wedding gift, and Fernando had been wanting to use his $100 eight-person tent (shout out to  Costco) for over a year now. We decided to invest in some Costco sleeping bags, which were also a  great deal. We headed up Friday night with Chris and Ashley to set up camp and make tin foil dinners.  Some of our single friends joined us shortly afterwards for some delicious s’mores. If you haven’t tried Reeses in a s’more, you should. The peanut butter adds a twist a regular Hershey bar can’t compete with.

Thankfully, the campsite had bathrooms. And fortunately they didn’t smell due to a fan which sucked the air downwards. I was very surprised when my toilet paper seat covering was immediately sucked down. Fernando said he enjoyed the breeze. 😉

After a very chilly night (for me at least) we woke up to Fernando cooking us pancakes and eggs. Then we started our hike up to a beautiful meadow, where we frolicked, blew grass whistles, and played catch. Then we hit up the Enclave pool just like old times.

Dippidee—Cupcakes Galore!

After reading a blurb about this place in Square magazine, and having driven by several times in the last two weeks, we decided to venture out and try Dippidee. It is located at 476 N 900 W in American Fork.

The inside is a cute little blue and brown cupcake boutique. But they offer more than just cupcakes. They have cheesecake, cookies, and chocolates too. Although the large homemade Oreo looked fantastic, we decided to try out their cupcakes. We bought a white cupcake with blueberry filling, and the chocolate cupcake with a cream filling. Both of which were very sweet and heavy. We enjoyed flipping through the books of beautifully decorated wedding cakes. I still think its fun to look through wedding stuff. You’d think I’d be sick of it by now. Anyway, Dippidee is a fun little place to go if you have a sweet tooth. Plus it is the only place I’ve seen that sells huckleberry soda.

Charlie Boy’s Pit BBQ

While on our way home from the Parade of Homes in Saratoga Springs, we stopped at this cute little
BBQ place…and we are very glad that we did.

Charlie Boy’s Pit BBQ

Chillin’ outside the shack

It’s located at 88 W Main St in Lehi, Utah. This place has been open for only 6 weeks and is owned by
“Charlie” who has been in the BBQ business for over 30 yrs in the South. The menu is pretty simple
with BBQ chicken, beef, or pork sandwiches for $5, baked beans, coleslaw, and potato salad for $2, and
homemade vanilla and chocolate ice cream for $3.

Doesn’t it look scrumptious?

Homemade ice cream

The BBQ sauce is a sweet, Southern style and the meat was very tender. The ice cream was pretty
delicious too. We definitely recommend getting the “Half ‘n Half” (half vanilla, half chocolate) This
place was definitely worthy of a “high five” (we’re coming up with a rating system for restaurants we
visit–stay tuned!).

Sammy’s: The Best New Restaurant in Town!

Fernando recently joined a Facebook group called Utah Restaurant Explorers (just say no to Olive Garden!). Every week they pick a restaurant between Provo and Salt Lake to go try. A few weeks ago they went to Pizzeria 712 in Orem; last week they went to a Lebanese restaurant in SLC. Unfortunately, we missed both those trips, but last night we were able to join them at Sammy’s Cafe off of Center Street in Provo. It is a cute little white and blue cafe that has only been open for a few weeks. The place was jam packed with about 45 people and unfortunately they were short on staff. But the food was amazing! I got the Sammy’s Choice burger–a quarter pounder loaded with provalone, bacon, avacado, grilled onions and mushrooms, BBQ sauce, and veggies–messy but melt-in-your-mouth tastey. The sweet potato fries were delicious as well. The menu included a large variety of different kinds of milk shakes, with the option of mixing their homemade pie into. Both the Oreo shake and the Oreo Cream Pie shake were so good! We highly recommend Sammy’s!

Recipe Blog

Announcing our new recipe blog! Click on the link on the right side of this page. Its called Deelish and is found at deeliciousness.blogspot.com. These are all recipes we’ve tried and love. Let us know!