Have I Told You Lately That I Love You: Life as a Married Couple

These days as a married couple are amazing. We are receiving God's blessing's daily. There are lessons consistently happening for us. There is a huge change taking place in my life and in my family's life. My father has accepted the Pastor position at Southwood Bible Church in Tulsa, OK. This Sunday, February 20th will be the last day that my father speaks from our pulpit at Truth Bible Fellowship. This is a difficult pill for me to swallow right now and I am on an emotional roller coaster. My dad will be gone by the end of the month to head to Tulsa and find a home. My sister, Shaina and my mom will follow by June. My father has already sold our house to our old neighbors, the Crawfords. Erik has been a rock for me to lean on. I'm understanding that I am now an Esparza and a Mrs. And I am 100% okay with that. It is still sad [and hard] to think my parents and minnie me will be so far away.

On other notes, work is picking up for both of us. Erik is swamped with items on his agenda at G&G Holistics, plus he is dealing with school. On top of that, his photography is finally picking up. He photographed the Pinecrest Bike Day on February 5th. It was a gorgeous day and a GREAT event. We both had a wonderful time! This weekend he is photographing Emily Feuillebois for her 3rd birthday. We also have Cathi Chandler flying in from Georgia to photo shoot with Erik all day Sunday to re-build/update her modeling portfolio. On April 16th we are photographing Amanda Azan's morning wedding and also have a pending wedding for the evening (keep reading to hear what I have that night! haha). In May we are photographing Chris Olson's wedding on the 13th and we have another wedding for Nataly & Tarik on the 20th. For Nataly and Tarik we will be doing both photography and videography so we are gearing up for the excitement of that. We are grateful to God for allowing our business to take off.

On the catering side, this is the time of year for Gala's and Silent Auctions. On Friday, Feb 25th, we are catering for Westminster Christian School for 300 guests at the Palmetto Bay Village Center with a 'Moon over Miami' theme. The next day, Feb 26th, we are catering for Ransom Everglades at their middle school for 425 guests with a 'Key West' theme. The following Saturday, March 5th, we are catering for St Thomas for 350 guests with a 'Hollywood' theme. Shortly after, I will have all four wisdom teeth removed on Tuesday, March 15th. Saturday, April 2nd is the Auction & Gala for Temple Judea for 300 guests and the grand finale is April 16th for the Miami Children's Museum 'Be a Kid Again' Gala for 500 guests. On top of that, we have a lot of little parties and a few bar mitzvahs and such. In between, I have been hired by a client at my old place of employment, Deering Bay Yacht & Country Club on May 7th. And I will be the day-of coordinator for my dear friend, Chris Olson for his wedding on May 13th.

So the Esparza's have their hands full right now but we are very excited for what God is doing in our lives. We are excited for some down time in the summer and plan to spend the 4th of July and Erik's 31st birthday with mom and dad Esparza at their new ranch in Summerfield, FL! :)

Oh and our Valentine's Day was simple and sweet. No roses or chocolates in our house. I like roses on days I don't expect to receive them! Instead, he made me a hand made card, we cooked dinner together, I made him a cappuccino chocolate cream cheese cake and we just simply enjoyed being together....... no computer, no tv, no phone! :)

Until next week..... we wish you all as many blessings as we are receiving.

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You: Finances and all that Jazz

Do you know why people work so much? Because of bills.... and on the off chance there aren't bills, then there are WANTS. I used to always live by WANTS. I magically turned those WANTS into NEEDS and BOUGHT. Thankfully I wasn't insane. I saved a decent amount of money to let myself learn lessons the hard way. I spent more than I needed to on other people. As if I could "buy their love" per-say. I love my parents, but they are making changes in their life too and were not in a financial place to pay for an insane wedding. Nor did they think it was necessary. I, on the other hand, grew up a Disney Princess and was intent on have the wedding of my dreams. I've heard the complaints of guests and family about how our wedding day went down. Some people were frustrated with the last minute venue change - my best friend for TEN YEARS completely missed the ceremony because if it. That sucked. Some people were frustrated with the food (even though the catering company was one of Miami's BEST) - my mom FINALLY sat down to eat her salad and they had already removed her plate for the main course, she was bummed! Some people were super annoyed with the DJ - my poor nephew's ears just couldn't take it at a mere one month old and he had to leave early and I missed out on my dream picture of trading my bouquet for my handsome nephew. My dad must've asked the guy 12 times to turn it down! :( In his defense, I was the bride and I told him I wanted the reception to sound and feel like a night club, and he did that for me. Some people were sad at the outcome of the pictures - even  I was a bit bummed. My first grade teacher came all the way from Georgia for this event and there wasn't a single picture of her. I know we took one together, but I guess it wasn't captured properly. Amongst others that weren't photographed, the photographer did his job and followed the bride and groom and we remained on the dance floor. So those who didn't dance, you'd think they weren't even there. Even in our full family picture, my brother-in-law, Elias is holding my nephew, Emmaus and they are like "poking their head" into the picture. The photographer had the view and could've rearranged it but *sigh* he did the best he could  I guess. And we did get GREAT pictures for what he did capture. People Erik and I chose, and we decided to put my savings towards this wedding. We chose against a honeymoon and against saving the money for the future. We had options and we chose to celebrate. I put so much time and effort into that day. I can only hope that our friends and family found some enjoyment amongst the complaints and disappointments. It was, by far, the happiest day of my life (so far) and the beginning of an incredible journey with my best friend. With that, Erik and I have had to rethink and re-determine our priorities when it comes to finances. I can no longer think as a "me" but rather a "we". And WE are truly blessed. God has given us a bit of extra money to cover things. I am having to take my wisdom teeth out this month and Erik is having a root canal and crowning. That is a decent chunk of change that is coming out. But we were also blessed with the ability to make our trip to Jensen Beach at the beginning of the month and Erik was able to put some money into some photography equipment that he desperately needed. God is good all the time. He always provides when we need it, even when it is not always obvious. We discuss constantly and try to review our funds. I have a GREAT budgeting system that my dad taught me many years ago that I am happy to share. So far, it is working for us. And while I do crunch the numbers at the beginning of each month to make sure we still stand strong, I do have faith that whether it looks negative or positive, it is always in God's hands.

Until next time...................