Emily Dickens Moves to Miami

Well this is my first post and I have a lot to say! My name is Emily Dickens and I have a lot going on in my life. I just got married to the love of my life Zach Dickens on 8.7.09. We got married at the Atlanta History Center in Georgia. My wedding was everything I could hope for and more. I was surrounded by my closest friends and family. It truly was the best day of my life.

After the wedding my husband and I went on a fabulous honeymoon in Key West. We spent a long weekend in Key West during their famous lobsterfest. The streets were full of people and tents with fresh lobster and the town was alive. It was a lot of fun.

When the honeymoon was over we drove to our new home in Miami, FL. My husband will be attending the University of Miami Law School this year and that is what brought us down here. We live in a community called Brickell and it really is amazing. We walk to the grocery store and take the metro to any place we need to go. It is a wonderful new experience for me to live in such a huge city!

Our first week in Miami was a lot of fun. Since we came here directly after the honeymoon we didn't have any of our things we only had 4 suitcases, one which had an air mattress in it. When we got to our new apartment, the walls were painted a ugly yellow color so since we had a few days until our furniture was going to be brought down we decided to paint. So we went to Home Depot and picked out some colors; beige for the living room and orange (my fav) for one wall in the bedroom. The next few days were filled with painting while standing on paint cans (because we had no stools) and sleeping on an air mattress with nothing but a sheet for cover. Needless to say we did not get much sleep considering we were freezing most of the night! When you live without furniture for a few days it really makes you appreciate a bed.

On Thursday evening my parents came down with all of our furniture! Even though they had it all we could not move anything in until Friday morning because the apartment complex has certain move in times. Zach and my dad did bring up all of our wedding presents and we began to open them all up! It was a lot of fun and we had a ton to open. After we opened them up the room was full of wrapping paper and boxes. We got a ton of stuff.

Friday morning Zach went to his first day of Law School and my dad and I started to move in the boxes, then Zach came in to help with the big furniture. After about 15 trips up and down the elevator we got all the furniture into the apartment. It was so cluttered I thought we weren't going to have enough room for it. We worked all Friday organizing and cleaning to try to make the apartment look decent.

After looking through the kitchen we realized that we did not need all the gifts given to us. We made a pile of gifts to return. On Friday night Chris came over from work and we all went to Coral Gables to eat at the Cheese Cake Factory. It was a good time listening to Chris' day-to-day at work and my parents had a great time. It was late but we still wanted to try to make it to Macy's to make some returns. It closed at 9:30 and we got there around 9:15. Luckily the sales associates were very nice and even though she was off the clock she stayed until it was all figured out. Which wasn't easy considering we only had about 2 gift receipts. All said and done we got $590 back in credit! We were thrilled. We went home and continued organizing until we couldn't keep our eyes open.

Saturday when we woke up we hung up all of our paintings and pictures. My parents wanted to leave around 4 since they had a long drive ahead of them. First we went to Target to return the rest of the things that we needed to. The issue was that we didn't have very many gift receipts. We figured they could just look on the registry and figure it out, it proved a little bit more difficult. Although we finally got it all figured out it took about 30 minutes. The Target was slammed with move in for the university around the corner. So it was not a fun trip, we picked up a few things we needed and then left for lunch. We next went to Macy's again to see if we could find a comforter. First I got the rest of my dishes and glasses then Zach and I looked at the comforters. Since we were completing a registry we got an extra 20% off of our total. Since we ran out of time, we left to take my parents to their car so they could head home. When they left I got a little emotional! I just felt so old or something. I am always getting emotional about crazy things.

Zach and I went back to Macy's and purchased a comforter and some towels for the bathroom. I LOVED the comforter in the store and just knew it would be perfect. We then went to Bed Bath and Beyond then William Sonoma then to Tiffany's then to Target and then had a nutritional dinner at Taco Bell!

- Tiffany's Side story: We received a Tiffany's Tea Set as a wedding gift. It was very pretty but not very practical and it didn't match anything. As we were looking through the box we realize it had been re-gifted (because we found the original card) so we felt okay about returning it. We walked into Tiffany's and had a VERY nice sales associate. He let us return it even though it had been purchased about a year ago. We had $250 which was awesome, but we had to spend it right then. So we looked around for about 20 minutes. Zach and I found a wine canister that we loved and it was the $240 so we exchanged it for that and then he gave us the $10 in cash! We actually made money in the Tiffany's deal. It was awesome and the canister is SO beautiful.

I was exhausted and when we got home we had a lot more work to do. Once we put the comforter on the bed, we both were not happy with it. I was upset only because I was tired of dealing with it but I knew it was not worth the $279 that we paid for it. I was so exhausted at this point I decided to take a shower and go to bed.

This brings us to today! (I told you I had a lot to say) It was the first night in a 4 nights that Zach and I got to sleep in a bed, our bed! We were excited. So I slept well, considering we have 2 egg crates a down comforter and a memory foam mattress cover to sleep on. It is like the princess and the pea. I woke up at 12 pm which was so nice! I made lunch for Zach and I (just turkey sandwiches) and then we got going on our 3rd day in a row full of errands. First we went to Ross to look for comforters. It was so crowded and small and dirty it literally made me feel ill. We didn't find anything good so we left and went to Marshall's across the street. This is where we found a great comforter set. It is Hotel Collection and it was a fraction of the cost. We purchased it and then headed back to Bed Bath and Beyond to return the things we had bought the night before and then to Target to get a few more household things. Lastly we went back to Macy's. We returned the comforter and had around $300 left that we could spend. Basically I felt like a kid in a toy store. We went up to housewares and bought so much cool stuff for the kitchen I can't even tell you. Things like an Ice Cream maker and a tea kettle, an immersion blender, an automatic soap dispenser and a juicer for example. We had a lot of fun walking around and around looking for awesome stuff that will hopefully last a long time. We left elated and with a FULL car!

Our last stop was the grocery store. This was our first real trip so I knew it would take a lot of stuff and time. I had made a detailed list and even printed off some coupons. We spent about an hour and a half in Publix and by the time we were through we had an embarrassment of food in our cart. Literally it was embarrassing. Although we did well price wise and I saved $27 with coupons! We packed in the already full car and drove the one block home. It took some skill to get everything up to the 11th floor but somehow we managed. I was starving so after the groceries were put away I immediately started making my first real dinner in Miami. I made Bruchetta Chicken a recipe that was part of an amazing gift given to me as a wedding present. I made a salad and mashed potatoes. It actually was delicious and I am getting so excited about all the amazing things I can make for dinner. I forgot how much I like cooking it really is a lot of fun! I am so domestic haha!

Well that pretty much sums up the move. We still have a lot to do but the apartment is looking fabulous and I am excited to have visitors! All my posts will certainly not be this long but I can't wait to share my trials from day to day with living in a new city and looking for a fabulous career!