About Us

Ramon and I met when I was on a long assignment in the Netherlands. I was sent from Atlanta, Georgia, USA to Groningen, The Netherlands to help turn down an old data center and turn up the new space. Ramon was contracting at the data center I was sent to help.

We chatted over porting fiber and connected over our love and respect for our families. I knew I had to ask him out or I would regret it forever. I found him on Facebook (because I was interrupted in person) and asked what his plans were for the weekend. He was already hosting several visitors from the states and invited me and my friends over as well.

That night we hung out with several local Googlers and my fellow U.S. visitors and then headed out to a dance club. Ramon and I hit it off, and with a mutual friends’ wingman maneuvering, spent the rest of the night getting to know each other.

The next month of my time in Groningen, we spent every day together. We never put any expectation around our time together but we both knew that this was something special. A few days before I left we decided that this was something real and we would pursue a long distance relationship.

For the next year we saw each other as much as possible, spending time in Taiwan and flying back and forth between the U.S and the Netherlands. He proposed just before New Years in 2017 in the same dance club that we hit it off. Then a year later in December of 2018, when his visa was approved, he moved to Atlanta and we were married.

I adopted Clarke from the shelter when she was 2 years old after Christmas in 2015. She is a rat terrier mix and an absolute tornado of doggy energy. Shortly after I adopted her she started have an occasional seizure and she was diagnosed with epilepsy. She 100% thinks she is a princess.

Ramon adopted Norah from a breeder in the Netherlands when she was just a kitten 12 years ago. She’s a Norwegian Forest Cat and is the most affectionate, sweet tempered cat, you will ever meet. After we moved into the new house she lost a lot of weight and she was diagnosed with a thyroid problem. She also 100% thinks she’s a princess.

The girls are very much like sisters. They get along most of the time but sometimes Clarke wants to play when Norah does not or Norah will steal Clarkes crate and dare her to say something. Most of the time they’re pretty cool with each other, especially when there are treats involved.

Any time I see an animal that needs adopting or toy with the idea of adding another pet to our family, I remember that there is no room for any additional animal egos, because these ladies are all it can handle.

After toying around and perusing house websites in early 2020, Ramon sent me a listing with the note, “found our house”. The pictures seemed perfect! I said, “I think you’re right”. If the house was in as good shape as the pictures looked, we had to put in an offer.

We got assigned a Zillow real estate agent, Aliaa, and she was just the enthusiastic negotiator we needed. After our first tour we knew it was our forever home and put in an offer immediately. After some negotiation (and an agreement to have the plumbing replaced because it was polybutylene) we purchased the house from the older couple who had been the only ones to live in the house since it was built in 1993.

We purchased the house in March of 2020. Our move in date was the date the state of Georgia declared a shelter in place due to Covid-19. We moved in and……. then never left. We were grateful to have a house we loved to hunker down during the pandemic.

The house has great bones but needed new siding so we hired HP Exteriors to replace it with Hardie Plank and changed the color from cheerful yellow to a rich, beautiful, midnight blue. Hence, the Midnight Manor. We have many more updates we want to do to the house so stay tuned.

We knew the Summer of 2020 we wanted to start trying to make a family. Covid-19 didn’t stop our plans. We were blessed and by September 2020 I was pregnant with a baby boy.

I won’t lie, pregnancy was not all it was cracked up to be. I expected a beautiful “pregnant glow” and instead I wanted to puke 24/7 and my body hurt in ways I never knew it could. My ligaments hurt, my gums bled, I had migraines, rashes, and I wouldn’t wish hemorrhoids on my worst enemy.

He was a big guy and we still went the whole 42 weeks. We were scheduled for induction the night of June 16th (his due date was June 4th) and I woke up that morning at 3:30am in labor. After 12 hours of labor, and distress on both our parts, we were wheeled in for a c-section.

On June 16th, 2021 – Adrian Alexander Rellum joined us and completed our family of 3. He is worth every bit of pregnancy pain I endured and more. Every day he brings us so much joy and he grows so fast we needed a place to document, so here we are. Welcome.