One Year, Take Two...

My friend Christel and her friend Jennifer came down to celebrate Christel's birthday. Fortunately, that Saturday provided great weather so we took the boat out to Shell Island.

Randy's parents and sister came to visit us the very next weekend (hello guest house). While Big L and Randy got up at 6 am to go fishing, the ladies headed to the beach!
That Sat. night, we all took a stroll around Pier Park.

Me, Randy, and Sis Lisa

The next weekend was Memorial Day weekend, and we planned an Aloha party for our friend Greg G. He moved to Hawaii the next week. R had that Monday off work, so we did what any couple who lives at the beach would do..fish and enjoy the beautiful Gulf waters.

Greg always makes me look so small!

fishing on Lake Powell

R drives the Gheenoe like a crazy man!

So beautiful at Camp Helen!

Relax and try not to get eaten by sharks

In June, R made me go fishing. It's not exactly my favorite activity, but he is my favorite guy, so I went.

R caught a baby shark

My big catch was a whole lot of seaweed

Since I am the paint warden of the home, I decided June would be a great month to paint the living room and hallway. This took forever as we had to choose from 5 colors, and then wipe the baseboards and walls and then tape and then paint the walls and baseboards. Fortunately, R's friend Curtis and his brother came for a weekend and they helped finish the first coat! (many thanks)

We also took a warm honeymoon trip to an all inclusive resort in Cancun, Mexico for our honeymoon. Yes, we had two honeymoons but I can assure you we enjoyed the second one more than the first.

The Royal beds..in our Royal robes and slippers! haha

Beautiful sunset before dinner

last night in Cancun..dinner was excellent!

My cousin Lydia got married in June, so R and I flew up to our nation's capital for the big event! We even took a day to see something we'd never seen before...Arlington National Cemetery. We didn't bring the tripod with us, so the only picture we have together is from the hotel..sad!

Beautiful bride and cousin

Yep, that's us in the hotel room

The last weekend in June, Randy's friends Gabriel and Rashel came to visit. Of course, we took the boat out. We were fortunate to see a school of dolphins near Shell Island. This was also during the oil spill in the Gulf. We were so lucky that the oil never reached us. The second picture is when they started preparing the waters for oil. (a little late, I might add)

Gabriel and Rashel

adding pylons to get ready for oil

In July, friends Kevin and Tracy and baby Wyatt came for their anniversary. It rained all week, and I really felt bad that they were couped up in our guest house. Lucky for me, I was able to spend some time catching up with them since R was out of town for work. We also had a visit from my aunt and my three young cousins..and their dog. That was also the week R had a colonoscopy and endoscopy..needless to say, it was a crazy week. The only pic I have from the fam's visit is a pic of my youngest cousin, Daelyn.

July was also the month of the dirt/new concrete driveways. We had to have dump truck loads of dirt brought in to our backyard to prepare it for the sod we are going to put in this year. We also had the dirt brought in before the concrete as we didn't want newly constructed concrete broken.

the broken circle needed some fixin'

future home of new concrete!

some of our backyard dirt

our new beautiful parking pads!

so much better than parking in dirt!!

For free chick fil a day, I made shirts for R and I to wear. I thought they were pretty cute! We also has a mishap with our bed. The picture you will see is a 10 inch hump. (long story). Thankfully, we purchased a new bed and were able to replace the damaged mattress with a new one (now in the bedroom in the guest house)

One night, we met up with Randy's friends Taylor and Amanda who were staying in Destin for a week. We ate dinner and then played around at Baytown Wharf.

The final event in July was Mark and Anna's wedding in Statesboro. Mark and Anna are our friends who encouraged us to meet, so of course we were there to celebrate their big day. R won a one night stay at a hotel in downtown Savannah, so we stayed there the night before the wedding.

stairs in Savannah

R and Mark

finally, a picture of us!

For 5 weeks, R had to take a training in Coronado, CA. Lucky for me, I got to visit for 18 days and enjoy exploring all that San Diego and the surrounding areas had to offer. We had a blast (but it was cold!). We visited the zoo, took a trolley tour, bought bikes and rode them around, saw the seals at La Jolla, visited Dr.David Jeremiah's church twice, and ate at the Cheesecake Factory six times. There are so many things we did, I could do on for a while..so to spare you...look at these pics. :)

The first weekend I was there, we drove to Bakersfield to visit my family and see one of R's late grandfather's dearest friends, Mr. Bob and his wife Dee.

Avery and Bella loved playing with Randy

In n Out Burger..not my favorite!

getting ready for church

with mr. bob and mrs. dee

view of San Diego from Coronado

balboa park

spreckles organ pavilion concert at balboa park

me, freezing in August..hotel coronado in the distance

La Jolla (seals behind me)

In La Jolla

cave in La Jolla

seals sunbathing

riding bikes at mission beach

R's hair is awesome

trying on hats at the zoo

We Made It! An Ode to Year One in PCB

I walked down the aisle on February 13, 2010 at 5:30 pm and said forever to a life with Randall John Whitehead. I had no idea what was in store for me...neither did he! Here is a recap of our first year of life together in Panama City Beach...enjoy!

We left Augusta on Sunday, February 14 and there was no turning back. We drove to St. Augustine where we spent the night at a Bed and Breakfast and then left the next afternoon for Orlando. We originally thought that it would be semi-warm in Orlando during February..2010 was definitely an exception. We were freezing! We were more excited to be inside the warm car/hotel/restaurant (or anything that had heat) than to be outside running around theme parks. 

We arrived in PCB a few days later, and came home to an utter disaster in our living room. Thanks to our good friends Greg, Mark, and Chris, our wedding presents and some of my belongings were nicely piled in the living room..ugh! Right away, we set out to work on it (luckily we had presents to open and that made it exciting!). 

Both of my brothers had to take suitcases of my clothes to Atlanta (no more room). We had to drive to Atlanta to pick them up, and decided to make a weekend of it in early March and attend my childhood friend Christina's wedding in Decatur as well. 

The new Mrs. "Ware"

When I got engaged, I soon became house nazi! I wanted every room a new color and had many order for Randy such as: new pantry, new bathrooms, mold removal..

yep, I said mold removal. You see, living at the beach has its perks, but it also has its downfalls like mold. In the winter, it is super humid here, and our windows are soaking wet every morning. Soaking wet windows since 1999 means mold growth (YIKES).

One of the first orders of business after the honeymoon was mold removal from the windows. We have 7 windows in our house and our master bedroom was nominated to go first. See below.

covered the entire room in plastic

ready to tackle some mold

scary!

started out small and then took out the entire frame

Needless to say, it was a tad bit overwhelming for these two newlyweds. What began on March 13 took the next month to complete b/c we had to do every room. Removing mold from every room meant plastic, removing the window frame, removing the mold, cutting a new frame and then putting it in, drywalling, caulking, painting, and then cleaning...a whole lot of cleaning. 

the plastic covered living room furniture

April arrived and by the 3rd week we finally completed the mold removal project.  We were fortunate to have spent a week in Orlando (R had to go for work)  and then headed to Augusta for Easter. At the end of the month, we took a much needed breather weekend to Mobile, AL for Randy's mom's birthday. Of course, we all met up at the Bass Pro Shop where we ate dinner and played around for a while. That also meant I got to play with our little nephew, Taylor. 

Little T: just reached 5 months

The Whitehead clan as Bass Pro

Once the fun was over, we got back to work. The first weekend of May we decided to have a yard sale, and my mom came down for a week to help and hang out. Did I mention that it was also Thunder Beach weekend: One of the largest biker weekends in the U.S.? It rained for the first 3 hours of our yard sale, and needless to say it put a bit of a damper on our sales. All the good stuff ended up going to a greater cause: the Rescue Mission.

Mally helps with the yard sale

To top things off, R and I had started painting one of the spare bedrooms; removing all traces of Auburn and replacing it with a more soothing color (it's going to become the nursery later anyway).

EEK

SLEEK

Welcome Fall!

I have this "thing" for pumpkins. Not sure exactly when it started, but I do remember that my mom caught onto this pumpkin obsession, and bought me my very first pumpkin that lights up when plugged in! After a couple of years, the darn thing started eroding, so she ended up buying me another.

Somewhere along the way, IHOP decided to try their hand at pumpkin pancakes. During my single years, some of us would head to IHOP after Sunday night church and have a most healthy dinner. I got hooked on pumpkin pancakes. 

This year, I asked Randy if I could buy some fall decorations. He limited me to $20 and said, If you wait until fall is over, you can get everything 50% off. Well, I showed him and went to HOBBY LOBBY and got everything 40% off in September.  It took me about an hour of wandering through the 4 aisles of fall related items, but I came away with 4 pumpkins, a leaf candle holder decoration, and some decorative leaves that I scattered around the house. I also had a gift card at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and bought 4 leaf placemats. (total I spent $14 something..I showed him :)

I decided that the month of October should be deemed pumpkin month, therefore, I have planned to make a food out of pumpkin each week. Beginning October 2nd, we will have pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, the next week pumpkin bread, the following week pumpkin mousse (for Randy's family who is coming to visit), I haven't decided on the 3rd week yet, and the last week is the grandest of all...I am having a perfectly pumpkin party for the bible study that I am in. We are going to carve pumpkins, and make pumpkin cookies and enjoy the last weekend in October.

WELCOME FALL!!

beach visitors

My mom and grandparents came to visit Randy and I for 5 days. My grandpa informed me before they came that he wanted to go fishing with Randy, and he had to watch the Georgia/Arkansas game on Saturday. What he didn't know was Randy and I don't have cable. We have an antennae that Randy placed on about 15 cinder blocks outside, and that grants us about 5 channels. Unfortunately, ESPN is not one of them.

Our best option was to head to Buffalo Wild Wings, where they have plenty of tv's and football to make any fan happy. My grandma is not exactly a big football fan. In fact, I doubt she's ever watched an entire football game in her life. She's not opposed to it, but it's just not her favorite thing to do for 3.5 hours every Saturday. Being the good sport that she is, she donned her new pink shirt from the outlets in Destin (it's close to red, right?), and we all made our way to BWW.

If you follow the Bulldawgs, you know that our team isn't exactly playing well this year, and I certainly didn't have high hopes of us beating the number 12 team. While, grandma, mom, grandpa, and I watched the game, my Auburn alum husband read through the manual for our boat.

Arkansas scored first (no surprise there), but then it was Georgia's turn. My grandma got so excited about one of the few good plays we had, she knocked over her lemonade!! Thankfully, the staff at BWW are used to this type of excitement, and they headed over quickly to help us clear the yummy sticky liquid from the table.

When he came back to the table with another drink, this is what grandma received:

Yep, another glass but this time it was accompanied by a plastic lid....like the ones they use for kids!
We all had a good time, even though Georgia lost, AGAIN....
Here are a couple more pics from our weekend...

life sans a second half

Randy had to take a 5 week class in Coronado, CA, and we decided we'd rather not be apart for that long, so I flew out there for 18 days. The last night of the trip, we both laid in bed wide awake. He spoke first, and asked me why my breathing was so eradic. I told him I kept thinking about the house and hoping that nothing had happened while I was gone. I even became paranoid about the garage door not opening....

We are fortunate to have a code on the side of our garage, which allows us to leave the house without taking our keys with us. I had planned on utilizing the garage to get into the house when I arrived home from the airport on Tuesday night.

Our friends Mark and Anna graciously picked me up from the airport and drove me home. While Mark got my bags out of the trunk, I walked to the garage and punched in the code...nothing. I did it again...nothing.

I started to get nervous..Mark even tried it a few times...nothing but some flashing lights. Maybe the battery was dead??? I began to somewhat panic..I had left San Diego at 7:20 am and arrived home about 7:30 pm..I wanted in my house!!

I called Randy and told him what was happening and he said to check the truck for a key..thank the Lord that we have a key entry truck (of which I forgot the code a couple of weeks ago and was stuck at WalMart for 2.5 hours). After sifting through about 15 other keys (what they are for, who knows), I found the key savior!!

We found out that something (lightning, maybe?) hit the garage and everything in it was off..sprinklers, timed outdoor lights, garage light, and garage door. What are the odds?? Needless to say, my plants look horrible and the outdoor lights still aren't coming on, but at least I was able to sleep in our new foam bed last night..oh how I missed it.

Hurry home dear!

Hail to the Red and Black

October 9, 1993. It was my dad and brother's birthday, and there was a party scheduled for that afternoon. The whole family was invited, and were planning on attending the celebration. The only one missing was ME.

You see, I had been invited to be a spectator in the Georgia vs. Southern Miss game in Athens, GA that day. I have no idea what came over my mom, but she agreed to let me go with Michael Cheney (my 9th grade crush) and his family to Athens. The night before, I sweated over what to wear. I had never been to a college football game before. Michael let me borrow one of his Georgia t-shirts (which I'm sure was at least 4 sizes too big for me), and I tucked it into some jean shorts and threw on some tennis shoes and was ready to go.

In October in Georgia, it's always cool in the morning and evening, but darn hot in during the day. I remember stopping on the way for boiled peanuts (of course), and parking about a mile from the stadium to tailgate before the game. What an experience. I don't remember the game, but I do recall that my love and appreciation for all things Georgia began that day.

I wave my red pompom to you mom, and say thanks for letting me go to the game that day...and  GOOOO DAWGS, SIC' EM, WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF

A Bit Of Irony..

It's no secret that I dated my share of men before I met my husband. Typically, I would only go out with a man once or twice before it was determined that he was "not the one". By the time I made it to grad school at age 28 1/2 (thank you very much), my mom decided that all men I dated would be called by a number rather than a name. She said that this way, she wouldn't learn who they were and become attached to them.

When I started dating Randy, he became labeled by my mom as the number 303. Randy and I had our first date on Valentine Day of 2009, and before he even got to my door, all the women of the family were referring to him as 303. (The poor guy). Believe me, no one thought it would last past the first date. 

In May of 2009, Randy and I were still dating, and I think my mom was finally believing that a husband could possibly be in my future. She decided that she should have a "meet Randy" get together in Augusta. By get together this means inviting our entire family, plus close friends of mine and hers. I think at one point, we had 20+ people sitting in the living room staring at Randy and I. It was quite an awkward evening, but those lucky people got a first hand look at my future husband.

Obviously he was the one for me, and we were married on February 13, 2010. Mom no longer calls him 303, but rather my favorite son-in-law (special, but he's the only one in the fam). It's nice to have a husband that's no longer a number!

*Randy has been living in Coronado, CA since August 8th for a training that lasts until Sept. 10th. I came to visit for 2.5 weeks, and when I walked up to the door of the hotel, this is what I saw....