Happy 1st Birthday Lucy!!

06.22.10

Today is a very special day in the Mangiaracina household. Our little baby Lucy is celebrating her first birthday!!! I can't even believe that so much time has gone by and that our loud, yappy puppy has turned into a loud, yappy one-year old! :) In all seriousness, Lucy has been a wonderful addition to our little family and I could not imagine life without her. We are celebrating tonight with some yummy bacon and chedder cheese treats and her favorite, a twisty stick.
She is a happy girl today! I tried to find a doggy-sized princess tiara but failed. Instead she got a Cutie bandana. Happy Birthday Lucy!!!


In other news, I am officially employed which is not only good news, but GREAT news!! Wouldn't you know that I found my new job at my old home, TIA. I am back working at the Toy Industry Association, but this time I find myself on the Meetings & Events team as their Account Executive for Advertising, Sponsorships and Promotion. I feel so lucky, not only because they allowing me to work from VA with monthly trips to NY, but because they are an AMAZING group of people that do AMAZING things. I'm so excited and happy about this wonderful new step in my career. Check out my new office diggs:


Now that I have a job, I finally feel like we can move forward with our lives as newlyweds. As you know, we have been house hunting and are hoping to find our first home sometime this summer. There are a few that have peaked our interest so once we get our approval, we plan to make a bid. More on that later! Right now, it's time to go have a PupCake! :)

Catching Up

I know...I know. I've been slacking. But being Mangiaracina is time consuming! I'm back now and have LOTS to report. Over the past few weeks, Ed, Lucy and I have been exploring our new town in many ways. Ed and I are knee deep in MRIS housing reports trying to find our first new home. Lucy is investigating every inch of the backyard and chasing after every squirrel she sees.

Memorial Day Weekend
We all decided to take a break from our separate activities and spent Memorial Day together at Gravelly Point along the beautiful GW Parkway. Lucy had a BLAST!! For those of you who don't know, Gravelly Point is a park that is right next to National Airport. In addition to the amazing views of the DC monuments, the location offers the pleasure of seeing many a landing airplane up close and personal. It truly is an amazing site - the planes are so close that Lucy thought she could catch them! We packed a picnic along with Lucy's new Frisbee and spent the afternoon running and playing.


After about an hour, the temperature reached 92 degrees with 100% humidity so we decided to head to Old Town Alexandria for ice cream. It was a busy day in the town and Lucy made LOTS of friends - her favorite being the duckies in the Potomac River. Because of the heat, it didn't take long for Lucy to tire out so after a big bottle of water and 2 ice cream cones, we headed home. All in all, a great Memorial Day in the nation's capital!



SATC2 in NYC
I was a VERY lucky girl this weekend as I got to spend it in NYC with my other husband and boyfriend - Jim and Daniel! I headed up Friday morning and after a quick stop at TIA to see my best work buddies, I took the LIRR out to Queens to start our weekend of fun! Jim and Daniel live in a beautiful house in Forest Hills. I love to visit them not only for their company, but to see the latest in fashion, interior design and food! After a few cocktails at the house while viewing the many wedding proofs, we hit an adorable french restaurant in Long Island City (who knew!) with some British friends in town for the night. Saturday was spent in the city where we visited the new High Line, lunched at Chelsea Market and spent 2 1/2 hours in a movie theater with our favorite gal pals: Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha. :) OF COURSE we had to see SATC 2 together!!!! We rounded out the day with dinner at a trendy restaurant in Forest Hills - another fabo day/night in the city with my boys!

Sunday greeted us with sunshine and humidity so we decided to make our own brunch and dine in their gorgeous yard. Chef Daniel worked hard in the kitchen to prepare an AMAZING meal of eggs benedict, hash browns and stewed tomatoes. The food was SO good as were the mimosas - best brunch in the city! Jim / Daniel - thank you so much for a wonderful weekend. Let's do it again soon!!!

The New Digs!

After a long and slightly painful weekend, our stuff is finally in 1 state and we are settling in! As you know, we are shacking up in my parent's basement until I get a job and we buy a house. We fixed it up a bit so that it feels more like our "home" - check out the new digs!!

Our new living room - mom and dad's couches paired with our entertainment center. It's like a match made in heaven! :)


Our kitchen minus the actual kitchen. All meals are served upstairs at Cafe Quartuccio.


The boudior - where the magic happens!


Ed's instructions each night - :)!!!


We do have our own little bathroom down here and a storage room for some of our stuff. My wardrobe is housed on the 2nd floor of the house in my old bedroom since the closet space is minimal in the basement. We did need to solicit the help of Public Storage to hold most of our belongings, but all in all we are happy and comfortable in our new (temporary) home.

The job stuff is starting to look good so once I land something we will begin our house search. We are really excited about this next new (very expensive) adventure - but will enjoy our cozy little apartment right now. :)

Bon Voyage NYC!

The big move is looming and we are pretty excited about it. Don't get me wrong ~ the thought of packing up the truck, driving 5 hours, and unpacking the truck at 2 locations makes me want to hurl, but I feel like we have been living in limbo since returning from the honeymoon. It will be nice to have all of our belongings in 1 state!

Dad, Ed and I are heading out tonight - hopefully after the big thunderstorm invades the area - and then will commence operation Move to DC tomorrow morning. I'm a bit nervous that our stuff (and I'm talking A LOT of stuff) will not fit into the 16' Penske truck and the 100 sq foot storage unit...but I'm told that I'm being paranoid and not to worry. Easy for them to say. :)

Our newlywed life has been pretty good so far. We are getting settled into our new life in DC and are looking forward to having our own space. Once I secure a job we can really start looking for a house which is so exciting it makes me gitty! It's amazing how much more we can afford down here in the DC Metro area vs. up in New York. :)

The job hunt is slow, but stable. I did have an interview yesterday with the American Nurses Association in their credentialing subsidiary for a marketing position and I think it went well. I have another interview next week for a membership director job so the options are open. I sent out my 66th resume today so I'm PRAYING that something comes through soon. As much as I love being home, it's starting to get a bit boring!!! Lucy loves having Mommy home though! :)

Anyone Hiring??

So it is week 2 of unemployment and the anxiety has started to set in. I'm not freaking out yet, but it would be nice to get some bites on one of the 65 resumes I have sent out!! Don't get me wrong, I do have some significant leads, but I think I will be nervous until I am employed.

So what have I been doing otherwise you ask? Well, unbelievably I have been quite busy each day! Sue has been in town so we have been doing some sister bonding. I've also been prepping for the big move this weekend - Penske rental, Public Storage visit, groveling of friends and family to lend a helping hand. :) Moving SUCKS (just in case you didn't know this already)! And lucky for us, we get to do it twice in a short amount of time. First down to VA from NY and second when we finally buy a house and move out of my parent's basement! We are hoping that we will be settled in a new townhouse by the end of the summer (fingers crossed!!!)

Tomorrow is THE big exciting day for this week - I'm heading to Social Security to officially change my name!!!!!! I figured this is a good task to take care of while I have the time off - especially since I hear I will be in the SS office for a good portion of a day. We finally received our marriage license so I'm going to take care of the name change with SS, DMV and all the other lovely people that care that I am now a Mangiaracina. NUTTY!!

I could get used to this...

We are on day 3 of unemployment and I have to admit...I'm starting to get used to this being home thing. My days seem to fill up quickly - so much that I honestly don't know how I used to fit work in! :) But seriously, I am trying to live it up while I can because it will all be over soon enough.

The job hunt continues and so far so good. While I really wish and hope to be back with my friends at TIA, I need to be realistic and find something down here in DC. I have a few interviews lined up and I have lots of people down here who are looking out for me. I'm lucky enough to have the advantage of being picky and find a job that I will really enjoy doing. My Nimble Fitness boys are keeping me busy with some design work (thanks guys!!) and I'm exploring an opportunity in wedding planning which really gets me excited. I had such a blast planning our wedding that I'm thinking it could be a good thing to explore as a job. Who knows...the possibilities are ENDLESS!!

Ed and I are heading back to NYC on Friday night for some more packing over the weekend. It is Mommy's Day on Sunday so we are going to spend some time with his Mom and my Grandmother on Saturday and then my Mom on Sunday. What is really great is that Suzy Q. will be in VA for a week or so starting this Friday so I'm really psyched about spending some time with her.

Next project on my docket - Honeymoon scrapbook. The pictures are uploaded here for your viewing pleasure!!

Goodbye New York ~ Hello DC!

So in an effort to stay busy during my unemployment (I need a job - help!), I decided to continue with the "Being Mangiaracina" blog post-honeymoon to keep all you lovely people informed of our life as newlyweds. It's amazing...in the course of 1 month I went from being a fiance to a wife to a newlywed and obtained a new last name more ridiculous than my own!

As you all know, we had an amazing time in Mexico, but now we are on a new journey and that journey is called the "Move to Northern Virginia - Get Laura a job - Buy a house" journey. We are currently in the process of part 1: Move to Northern Virginia. We spent much of this weekend packing our apartment up and yesterday we hauled it down to good old Fairfax, VA. I have to say, we are very lucky that my parents are so welcoming because we have dumped a LOT of crap in their house already - and it's only the first trip! We head back up to NY this weekend for more packing and more hauling and then on May 15th it's UHaul-time.

We are gonna bunk up at good old 4510 Overcup Court for a bit A. because I don't have a job yet and B. because we have made a decision to actually look into buying a residence rather than renting one. The accomodations are wonderful although I could do without all wall photos reminding me of my many fashion mistakes in high school! Lucy is pleased - not only does she have a huge yard to run around in, but she has Grandpa around to feed her all the table scraps she wants! :)

So far Being Mangiaracina has been pretty darn good. :)