Hello family. Justin left a little while ago to head out to Ohio for a couple gigs so I am left with some time to write a real update.

Bullet points:
-Found a new place to live. If you didn't know, our current home is way too small. It has no storage space. We knew this when we agreed to take it but somehow we thought we had a steal. Then we moved our stuff in and since then it's been chaos. Mess and chaos. I haven't really ever felt comfortable in this house. I feel like our stuff is always out in the open. PLUS we had/have an ant issue. As well as a brief mice issue a few months back. Both of these things made us super anxious to find a new place to live but we thought we were stuck in our lease until December. We thought wrong. We discussed with the landlord (rather, Justin discussed.) and he said the lease was really just there in case we up and decided to disappear one day. So at that time we began to look more aggressively. Knowing we had more time and could make an informed decision we looked at a lot of places. Some of them were nicer than others but we always found a problem, mostly that we couldn't figure out the moving IN process. The living there would be okay but moving in, not so much.

Finally we happened upon a second floor, two bedroom apartment with laundry hookups IN the apartment (Horray, no trecking down three flights of stairs) It has TWO entrances including an open stairway in the back to a private deck. The bedrooms were moderately sized. But with the HUGE living room we weren't too worried about bedroom size. The most important part is that there is an extra room for ALL of Justin's musical equipment. So now we can have a REAL living room with an entertainment area and if it works out, maybe a space of my own at the back of the room.

Its not the prettiest of places, they don't allow pets :( (we might be able to get around that after they have seen how we are as tenants) and its a stall only shower. But its certainly workable. And its somewhere that I can see me being able to get creative with. Oh and it has off street parking which is a Godsend.

So we're moving in a week. I will update with my new address when I figure out what it is exactly.

-The day after move in, our two friends are getting married. Steve and Mari. Steve used to be in Draw the Line but isn't anymore. Details need not be posted all over the internet. It just wasn't his decision. But he's happy. Anyway, Mari lives in PA right now so recently we took a trip down to PA and spent a day touring Philly with the two of them. It was a lot of fun. Anyway, their wedding is Quohasset, Mass. Right on the water. It's going to be beautiful! Plus two of our friends from MI are flying out for the wedding so we get to spend time with them.

It's going to be a busy week. After we move in and attend tis wedding, we have to get as situated as possible so we can pack for our vacation. October 4 we fly to Los Angeles. We're staying with Justin's grandma Wanda. Sunday we think will be touristy stuff around her area...which HOPEFULLY My best friend in the whole world will be joining for as she lives in CA now. Monday and Tuesday we're planning for Disneyland with one of those nights devoted to visiting Casey at her home. Wednesday we're going with Justin's grandma to Hollywood!!!! Thursday is Universal and Friday we fly to Hawaii where we will probably spend the next three days on the beach. Then Monday we fly home. Well..we start our flight home.

We leave Hawaii Monday morning. We get to Los Angeles at 9:30 something at night. At 11:55 pm we have to board a plane to Atlanta. Then we fly to PVD from there. If we get home without any delays it will be a miracle. A serious miracle. Please pray for me.

And thats all the excitement I will be having for a while. I want to come home for Christmas but I don't have a plane ticket yet and I dunno how I will be able to afford it since I can barely afford to pay my bills. Justin is coming home with me though.

On the work front, I've been told that when the people in suits decide to address our staffing issue, I will be promoted to secretary and get a hefty raise. But I dont expect that to happen soon so I am not sure what to do. I have to get extra money somehow. I was approved for SOME overtime but its only going to amount to like 50 bucks if I just work 2 hours...so I don't know.

Ah well I should go now. I have been going into work half an hour earlier this week so I can leave at 4:30 when the rst of the non-billing staff leaves. I like leaving early but getting up earlier kinda stinks! BED TIME

Hi hi.

Couple items of interest:

I started a Project 365 today. This is a project a lot of people do. You take one photo per day and share it. Most people do it of themselves. Others do it of objects and things in their lives. I dont know which I am doing. However, my first photo and all the ones to follow can be found at this link

http://shuttercal.com/calendar/iamrenaldo/

Today is the one year anniversary of me moving away from Illinois. Crazy. Maybe I will write about more later but I am on a time crunch. Things are fine, moving into a new place just as soon as we can make a decision. Will be sure to keep everyone updated.

Love ya!

Hello all. I haven't updated in a couple months but I thought I would. Uncle Pepe left me a comment a while ago on here saying he wasn't sure I would see this but if you comment me, it gets sent to my email so I do see them!

I was home the 10th through the 13th(very early AM) to see a friend from high school get married. It was a very rushed and short trip and I regret not being able to see more of you. But summer is a busy time. It was fun though. On Friday night after the wedding I drove up to Schaumburg where Justins band was playing. While I was there I got to see a lot of the fans that I met last year at the same big weekend in Chicago. It was a ton of fun. Saturday mom came up to another Draw the Line show with me. That was cool. Everyone got to meet her and a lot of people said she was very sweet :) Plus she got to meet the band, so thats cool.

Nothing much going on other than work and trying to keep cool. It's been wicked hot out here. We're in a heat wave right now. I think today was the 4th day of 90+ weather. Good times.

Since I last wrote I planned out my major vacation for the year. October 4th Justin and I are flying to Los Angeles and hanging out with his grandmother for a few days. We're gonna do all the touristy stuff and Disney/Universal, which I am very pumped for. Then on the 10th of October we're flying to Hawaii!!!!! I cannot wait! We will only be there until the 13th though :(

Possibly getting a new phone in August, with a new phone number. Will be sure to tell you guys if that happens. I am definitely getting one, I just don't know how soon bc Justin and I are going in on a family plan together.

Speaking of Justin, we're doing really great. We celebrated our one year anniversary in June. I took him to Boston for a day and we did a Boston Duck Tour. Then on the actual day he took me out to dinner at Cheesecake Factory. DELICIOUS!!! We're discussing the possibility of buying a house. Our lease is up here in December but we really don't want to rent again. We feel like we're paying so much to rent that we might as well pay the same to own. But we aren't even preapproved for a loan yet so we still have a lot to figure out. Its just an idea!

I'll be back in Illinois the 31st through the 3rd but for a wedding that I am in so Ill be pretty busy! My hope is that I can come home for Christmas and that Justin will come with me but Im strapped for money so I can't plan that trip yet.

Hmm I guess thats about it. I always appreciate hearing from people. I miss you guys a lot!
Oh and I paid for a pro account on flickr so I can post all my pictures there now!!

Here is the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/25177514@N00/

Hope everyone is good! Love ya

I am coming home in 9 days!! NINE DAYS!!! YAAAAAAAAAY.

But the reason I am posting is because I am also planning to come home July 10-13th. On the 12th, Draw the Line (Justin's band) is playing in Chicago. YOU SHOULD ALL GO SEE THEM WITH ME!

That's all!

Long long overdue update...I have been a slacker. Even though I thought of writing on many occasions I held off for some final news on my job. It drove me crazy enough to wonder every day when I would hear something else, no need to put you guys through it!

So brief update of the job situation. I was offered the position and it took a few days before I heard that my LOM (Legal office manager) could actually OFFICIALLY offer the position to me. Then once she did that I had to wait and hear if they were going to pay me at my counter offer. After I heard that was all squared away it took a week for my background check to go through. And on Friday I heard the back ground check went through. Today I officially became a Liberty employee. HURRAH FOR BENNYS!!!!!! It only took me five months to find a solid job! Ha. That's the job update.

Life other than work is going fine. Justin and I are quite happy together and I am getting super close to his sister. She tells everyone that I am her cuñada which means sister in law in Spanish. And momma Jennee seems to like me a lot, too. She is always asking about my job and asking how I am. And I love Justin's adopted siblings, too. They are so cute. The two year old is in love with Justin. He is in awe of everything he does. But I REALLY miss you guys. I miss playing with the little kids and being able to come over to P&E's or Uncle Vic and Aunt Tina's for get togethers. I really really miss that.

Everyone keeps asking when I am going to come home and I wanted to come home in March before my birthday but I don't know if that will happen. I have to talk to Dianne and see if I can take two days of unpaid vacation. It will be a couple months before I actually acquire any real time off. However, I am in a wedding in August so I need to make a couple trips home before that. Don't fear..you will see me again!

AND cousins reading this..you need to come visit meeeeeeee! Actually, anyone can visit! Justin and I only have room for two people who don't mind sleeping on the futon together.

And then there is the bad stuff. I know you all heard about the shooting at Northern. I really don't know what to think about it. It's so very sad and it was very hard to hear about it. I wish I could be there for my friends who are still on campus..or even just to go up and lay down some flowers. So sad. I don't know what's wrong with this world :( Plus, hearing that news pretty much ruined my amazing Valentines Day.

Justin cooked up this story about needing me to take his car to work and left me a note in there to call him just before I got to work. He had left me a card in the visor. Then he met me for lunch with a box of chocolates and at lunch (Olive Garden) he presented me with an IPOD FULLY stocked with ALL of my music and the music of his that he knows I like. It was so cool. Then we got back to my office and he said that my birthday present was already in my car because he didn't want me to have to wait...So I open my car to see the IPOD stereo installed. I haven't stopped listening to my IPOD since I got it. Love it!

Well, thats all I have for now. I have a feeling I am getting a cold. So I am going to relax. Love you and miss you all

So!!! Since Wednesday, the day I was supposed to be interviewing at Liberty Mutual's law office, I have been working. On Tuesday there was this big gaggle of phone calls between me and my original staffing agency resulting in me having the job I was going to interview for on Wednesday instead of interviewing for it. Turns out they actually had a temp at the office currently so it was decided that I would start temping on Wednesday and in a few weeks if they think I am doing a good enough job the law office will hire me as a permanent employee.

On Wednesday I went to the law office and met with the people I needed to meet with and started working!!! They are paying me $3.75 more than the last place and my commute is 20-30 minutes. It is FABULOUS. I get off work at 5 and I am home by 5:30. YAY! They seem to really like me and I am getting good feedback so things are looking good for me finally settling into a job here.

I got my Rhode Island license in the mail today, so I am officially a resident :D

Thats all the news I have for now! I am still setting my sights on a weekend trip back west...so fingers crossed that I get into a nice financial routine and caught up with bills so I can come home!

Long overdue for an update!!! So let's see. I left off after that horrific commute home in the snow storm. I obviously survived that and two days later, Justin and I moved into our house in Portsmouth. Moving day was COLD and slippery. In fact, Justin's sound guy, Mike fell at one point. I felt really bad but we were so glad for the help. We thought one truck load and a couple car loads would do just fine but it ended up taking us two weeks of random trips to get all of our stuff from the apartment. It's finally all at our house but a lot of it is still in boxes.

Christmas was good. Pretty low key though. I had a cold from the previous Thursday that I was still trying to fight off. I had both Christmas Eve and Christmas off from work. Justin's work Christmas party was at a bowling alley on Christmas Eve so we went to that. It was fun. I met some neighbors of ours who have this baby. He's four months old but he's the size of a nine month old. So that, paired with bowling, I was TIRED. We went to Justin's moms for dinner that night and returned Christmas morning for breakfast and presents. It was a lot of fun to watch Justin's little brother and sister open their gifts. Jalen Mekhi, the two year old was so excited about the first present he opened that he couldn't be bothered to open another! It was very nice. After breakfast, Justin and I went home with the intention of relaxing a little bit, getting ready and then going to dinner at this one family's house. These were the people that fostered Jalen and Julianna before they came to live with Justin's mom and step dad (The two youngest kids are adopted if you did not know!) Well around 2:30, Jennee called and said Joanna (Justin's other sister) wasn't going to the dinner so we didn't HAVE to go if we didn' want to. Justin told Jennee that we were going to go if she wanted us to but that I really was not feeling well and had been sleeping since we got home. So we decided not to go.

The rest of Christmas was spent being lazy. Eventually our friend Corey came over and we played some Rock Band. Back to work for me on Wednesday. Thursday the person taking my position at work started. I was informed that they were replacing me the previous Thursday. Ian said I was doing a really great job but he knew that I wouldn't be there long term because of the commute so they had hired someone new. So that Thursday and Friday I trained the new guy.

On Friday the 28th Justin and his family left for the Galapagos Islands. Justin's grandfather Tom was supposedly going to get married on this cruise so he had the whole family going. (This was planned MONTHS before I was in the picture and since I am not married to Justin I probably wouldn't have gone anyway lol) Well, Tom and Dare had to get married before the cruise due to licensing issues so they didn't get married on the cruise but they had a big dinner to celebrate anyway. Justin has been gone since then and he comes home tonight (FINALLY). Its been a long ten days!

While Justin was gone I did a whole lot of nothing. I had plans for New Years Eve which were canceled at the last minute because work let us leave at three on NYE. So I fell asleep before midnight!

This past Wednesday was my last day at work and on Friday I had a meeting with a new staffing agency here on Aquidneck Island plus an interview with a yacht broker in Newport. Both went well and I am supposed to hear back from the broker about a second interview this week. That job would be great because the hours are fantastic, the pay would be decent but I would also get commission and benefits after three months. The commission check would be like an extra paycheck some months! In addition to that, I got a phone call a little bit ago from a woman representing the legal department for Liberty Mutual in Raynham, MA. She got my name from the previously mentioned sound guy, Mike who works for them as well. There was an opening in their legal department for an office assistant and he sent her my resume. I have an interview on Wednesday. It's a little farther away than I like but its NOT Boston and it's something to at least look into. She said I am more than qualified for the position and despite it being an entry level job there is always room for advancement. So we will see!

That is about all that is going on with me. As soon as I start getting a regular paycheck again I am going to look into a weekend flight home. I miss you guys a lot and I hate that I had to miss two holidays. Keep me posted about whats happening with you guys! Love you all, I am going to go do something to keep myself busy.