My husband and I have have had plans to move away from Florida, I've actually been trying most of my life. My brother and his family moved to Wake Forest, NC and I had gone a few times to visit since they moved and I was definitely in love with the place. I had spoken to my husband about the state and potentially moving there and he was more than happy with the idea, in fact he was the one who actually suggested Charlotte. Since there are many Publix there, we could just ask for a transfer and have job security.

 

  My oil change was due just before the trip, which was a good thing since we would be traveling a few thousands miles. I had my husband do the dirty work after I bought the oil and the filter.

 

 Since my brother lives in NC, we had decided we would stop by and see everyone. Naturally that meant getting gifts for my niece and nephew. I headed to one of my favorite stores, DD's Discount to see what I could pick up for them. I found a complete outfit for my nephew, checkered shirt, belted cargo shorts and maroon colored shoes, which he loved. For my niece I found two flowy top, a cupcake skirt like the ones I own to match her fashionable aunt and the cutest little purse!

  We headed out Friday night July 21st after working and packing to let the traffic die down some, In Miami, there is never light traffic, which is one of the reasons we are dying to move away. We were driving all night and we were able to enjoy the sunrise along the way, great view.

  It was a 12 hour trip to my brother's house in Wake Forest, which was a good decision to make since my husband had been driving all night with no sleep and straight to Charlotte was 15 hours. We had some breakfast and took a nap for a few hours, later that day my brother took us out on a little supermarket tour and the one we got out of the car to see was of course Publix. This is the one that was still under construction the last time I was there, so it was nice to actually see it finished. We actually saw the one in Wake Forest, Charlotte, which is the one we called and Concord. The one in Charlotte I was told later on would be the one I would be transferring to and Concord would be the one my husband would be going to, again since Publix doesn't allow marriages in the same department, shame since we work so great together, though I might be trained as a baker apprentice soon and the position I was going to be transferred as is bakery clerk, which is what they need.

  We looked at the bakery and there are actually different products that are not sold in the south Florida stores, I had never seen them, but my husband had since he's been doing this for many many years. Also at these stores the hot case doesn't exist, which are the croquetas, empanadas, pastries, etc. Looking at the desserts counter picture now, I see that these are the desserts that are just coming new to our stores, funny since Publix is a Florida supermarket.

  We spent that first night at my brother's and headed to Charlotte the following morning, Saturday, to check out those other two stores and meeting with bakery managers and store managers. After that we explored the city and neighboring ones, I had taken multiple snapchats instead of pictures, so I had to screenshot my snaps to get them on here. We drove by the Charlotte motor speedway on our way back from exploring Concord.

 

  At Home was a store I had fallen in love with on one of my past trips and told my husband we definitely needed to go there, it's a home store that sells decor, furniture, household needs amongst other things. My husband definitely loved it as well, we ended up purchasing a few things. In the parking lot, just before heading in, we caught a few geese flying by.

 

  We hadn't taken any pictures together during the trip and I thought it was time, right outside of the store.

  We also had plans to see some houses and neighborhoods, we drove into one really nice one with many beautiful homes, but those would definitely be expensive.

 

  We started driving back a day earlier to make a pit stop in Kissimmee to see my husband's daughter. This time we left early morning and got quite a bit of fog along the way, here it was in South Carolina. All in all it was a great trip, a nice getaway and an informative trip.

It was a little bit cooler than the previous days here in NC, so I wore one of my new thermal shirts I had bought to wear here, the other was in the previous post. It was still reaching the 70s, so I didn't add much more to this outfit, I only added my plaid cape/poncho from Old Navy when we went the dollar store and when I was leaving to the airport. I had arrived at the airport much earlier, checked I'm my bag and had time to kill while I was there. I actually missed my flight amd had to be on standby for the next morning at 6:15am. I only slept 3 hours, the 6:15am flight was canceled and the next flight wasn't until 12:20pm, which was delayed to 12:50pm. I  actuality it was delayed until 1:47pm and I had to be at work at 2pm until midnight. I arrived at about 3:40pm at the airport, had to find my luggage that had come one day earlier and then catch an uber to drop off my luggage, change into my uniform amd head to work. I made it at about 5:40pm to work to work until midnight to then wake up at 5:30am the next day to work again. I was so dead the next day, barely had any energy and had to try and get sugar in my system to wake up and work until 3pm.

New navy thermal from Rainbow, leggings from Charlotte Russe and booties from Sears.

Freshwater pearls necklace from no more rack, pearl earrings from Forever 21, new ring also from Forever 21, Guess watch and bracelets from Miss A.

It was a cooler day here in North Carolina finally, but not by much. Still it didn't stop me from breaking out my recovered NYC map Kate Spade scarf that I had left in Nicaragua months ago and got back on my lost recent trip there last month. I had seen it worn this way and wanted to try it out myself, North Carolina was the first place I could do it. I had bought some new long sleeves to wear over here and it turned out to be the warmest Christmas in history, at least I was able to wear some of them.

Black thermal tee from Rainbow, skinny jeans from Forever 21, belt taken from Marahall's dress, scarf from Kate Spade and sandals from Rainbow.

Pearl earrings from Forever 21, pearl ring was a gift from my mother and Guess watch.

Later that night, we all headed to Raleigh to go to Frankie's Fun Park that my brother had heard of and thought it seemed like gum and boy was it. We first did laser tag, which was my first time and I it was a lot of fun, then the kids did some of the games that are inside, then the real fun began. The outside are has many go kart tracks and we went for the one at the end that had 2 seater cars and a bigger track, we loved it so much, we all rode I twice. The first time I drove it with my nephew then I went on a single car. You spend quite a bit of money here, but you have loads of fun.

The day after Christmas amd again I wore a shirt that was my present. I had received two shirts that were the same, but different colors, one in Ivory and the other in blue. This day I wore the blue one as it was a warm time and I had brought only cold weather clothes, so these gifts worked out perfectly. I belted it because it was a little loose even though it was a size small, but maybe these sizes are for older women, still worked though.

New blue top from Nine West, skinny jeans from Forever 21, booties from Sears and belt from a dress bought at Marshall's.

New earrings from Aldo, ring set from Henri Bendel, Guess watch and blue bracelet from Miss A.

My sister in law's family wouldn't be arriving until evening a Christmas day, so the festivities wouldn't be until nighttime. So, for the daytime, I had to wear something else in the meantime. Even though it was between 70 and 75 degrees today here in Wake Forest, I wanted to wear my hat and scarf. I stayed mostly indoors, so it was ok and this scarf isn't too hot.

Skinny jeans from Forever 21, black button down shirt from TJ Maxx, brand The Limited, booties from Sears, scarf from Charlotte Russe and hat from JCPenney.

This scarf is actually the same infinity scarf I brought last time, but since it's reversable, I wore the other side this time. One side plaid and the other side squared.

I wore this small belt since this shirt doesn't fit just like most of my clothes, which is from a dress bought at Marshall's.

Earrings were a gift, ring from Beya, watch from Guess, white bracelet from mini in the box and pearl bracelets from Miss A.

It's Christmas eve and my first full day here in North Carolina. It's a lot warmer than I expected and hoped, so I had to wear a cooler shirt and since today is the warmest day of all the days I will be here, today's high is 77. It was a very hectic and non stop day yesterday with it being hair washing day, bus traveling to buy what I was going to take for my family up here, then going to work to drop off a Christmas present and say hello to everyone, finish packing, trying to eat and having a beer to try and cool down because it was very hot outside, but had to end up drinking it really fast because my Uber driver was here, repacking at the airport since I had just thrown things in there, switching shoes, checking in my luggage, but there were lines, rushing to my gate as boarding time had already happened and the plane was already full, but made it to my flight. While waiting in line for airport security, I saw a woman behind me in line that looked like Sissy Spacek as I could only see her profile, when she turned, it was definitely her. Would've been great to take a selfie with her as she was right next to me, but we were both in a hurry.

Skinny jeans from Forever 21, plaid shirt from Rainbow and booties from Sears.

My first time wearing my new jeans was for Sunday brunch and I tripped, fell on my knee and ripped them a bit sadly. I still have the bruise on my knee and it got worse, hard to kneel on.

Bracelets from Miss A, new ring from Charming Charlie, freshwater pearls necklace from no more rack and new ear jacket from Miss A.

This is the first time I bought an ear jacket and my first purchases from Miss A, they are actually really nice and I love that I can switch out the top earring for different looks.