Our Adventures

Two new parents and a toddler

Wedding bells

It's an amazing feeling getting engaged to the man of your dreams. I still have to pinch myself sometimes. It is so fun and exciting to be able to plan a wedding and talk about getting married.

Scott has been really good about the new madness, but he did ask me on Saturday if I'd be this manic the whole year. I've been online and scouring bridal magazines nearly nonstop. We searched together for honeymoons for a few hours though. For years I've put the idea of a wedding out of my head and hadn't really thought about what I really want.

On vacation after the proposal we sat in the hot tub on the deck looking for shooting stars (we saw 4 between the two of us) and talking about what we wanted for the wedding. Yeah, it was pretty great....

We pretty much decided on a mountain wedding weekend for our parents, siblings and best friends. We hope not to offend all of the extended families, but we really want to relax and enjoy our wedding. Plus we don't want to go into debt or make dad shell out a lot of money. We'll be visiting Kentucky, South Carolina and Raleigh for parties as soon as we can and hopefully we can have some live video of the wedding for everyone to watch.

We hope we can rent some houses that are close to each other and DIY the wedding. Then have a pig pickin' for the reception.

I just wish we didn't have to wait a year, but I suppose I need the time to pull this together long-distance. We have also decided on a Caribbean/Central American beach honeymoon at a luxurious resort. Which one and where, I don't know.

We're Engaged!!!!




We just got home from our amazing vacation. As most of you know, we got engaged! I didn't want to broadcast it until we could tell Scott's parents in person and see the joy in their faces. We told them today, and they were thrilled. So I'm now the future Mrs. Scott Whittamore! How weird is that?

On Monday morning, April 5, Scott and I woke up at sunrise to enjoy the view of Nantahala Gorge on the deck of our yurt at Falling Waters Resort. We were staying in yurt #8, the most private. I was preoccupied with setting up the camera for a photo, and Scott said he was going to the car and asked if I wanted anything. "Just some hot chocolate," I said. He returned from the car and reached out to hug me. He looked in my eyes and said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me before getting down on one knee with the most beautiful ring I've seen. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes," I squealed. I had no idea it was going to happen and was completely surprised by the 7:30 a.m. proposal. Those who know me well know I don't function well in the early morning hours. But it was more perfect than I imagined it would be.

My dad and Judy came to visit and stay the night, so we ran down to their yurt to tell them the good news. I was relieved that dad welcomed Scott and called him the son he never had instead of telling him again about his shotgun. Luckily dad has always loved Scott and so has my mom.

Now for the wedding planning. Anyone have a chateau they'd like to donate for the big day?


Elk and views


Today we woke up early to drive 2 hours to Cataloochee in Smoky Mountain National Park to see the elk in the valley. The trip was about 30-40 miles, but the last 10 or so were on a winding one-lane dirt road with no guardrails all the way up and over the mountain.

Yesterday we had some car trouble after climbing a big mountain and got stuck in Waynesville for an hour or so. By the grace of God or good karma we rented the last car, a Ford Explorer, at the Enterprise that was only open for another hour. The nice lady at the desk called Earl at his garage and he said to bring the car right over. Otherwise we were going to have to have it towed to the Volkswagon dealership in Asheville and maybe never make it to the cabin. But we did make it to check in to our cabin see the gorgeous sunset view.



Today was great. After finding a few elk at Cataloochee and waking up at 5:30 a.m., we drove back on the Blue Ridge Parkway to hike and see Waterrock Knob and a little bit of remaining snow. It is the second highest point on the Parkway, and it was beautiful. But hot! It was 74 degrees at the top of the mountain. And the car thermometer read 90 degrees in town.
We had dinner in Bryson City after hiking a few more waterfalls at Deep Creek. Then we drove up the Road to Nowhere into the park. I would write more but we're exhausted. More pics to come soon!

Bryson City, Yurts and Smoky Mountain National Park


We're now outside of Bryson City staying in our yurt and hanging out on the deck with Dad and Judy. We have a great view of the Nantahala Gorge from our deck. And the stars are spectacular.....


From Macon, Ga., we drove up to Athens and around the campus of UGA. Very beautiful. Then we made a beeline for the Dillard House and ate a huge family style meal of ribs, country ham, fried chicken, country fried steak, biscuits, cornbread, cabbage casserole, green beans, black-eyed peas, sweet potato souffle, greens, coleslaw, tomato-cucumber salad, potatoes, and blackberry cobbler with ice cream. And yes we tried it all! And it was good! so good.

After filling our bellies we drove up to Dillsboro and stayed at a hotel near the river.

Tomorrow we check in to our cabin.

Here's a photo of the Bryson City courthouse.

On the road again again

We're on Interstate 75 about an hour outside of Macon. I can't wait to get off the interstate tomorrow and start vacation. We're headed to Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a little hiking and relaxation in our hot tub with a view. Stay tuned for updates. On to Athens in the morning and then to a famous southern family-style restaurant called Dillard House. We've heard its realllllly good!

Visit from Grandma

My grandma Taylor came to visit on Saturday with her friend Ruth. They flew in from South Carolina into the Punta Gorda airport to make the trip a direct flight and a lot easier.

On Sunday Scott and I went over for lunch and I asked my grandma multiple questions about the family tree, which I've been slowly working on. I just discovered the My 7th great grandfather, Thomas Lindley, owned a mill on Cane Creek in Orange County, NC. Yeah, that's really close to Chapel Hill! The Lindley family mill is still there and in operation since 1755. I never knew this the whole time, and our Hwy 54 house in the Hill is probably 20 miles away. They were Quakers that moved from Penn., which is pretty cool. Scott says they were quite liberal for their time, so that, I like. Here's someone singing the praises of the mill's organic flour on their blog. UPDATE: Here's an article about Lindley Mills in Our State Magazine. And here is a website I found with the Lindley Family History.


Grandma told me so much about old family members that I can't remember hardly any of it. But it's been great hanging out with Mom and Grandma this week. On Tuesday, we had some fun at the Edison Home and then lunch at my house. Grandma was very proud of my garden because she's a gardener too, and she loved my home improvements.

Stay tuned...We're going to the Smokies in NC Easter week!

Amanda and Evan are coming!

This will be the shortest blog ever, but I can't wait for Amanda and Evan to visit this weekend! Amanda and I are walking/running in the Race for the Cure while Scott babysits Evan. God bless him.

Carrots















We are cooking carrots from the garden tonight!




We pulled up about 6 fully grown carrots from the garden this morning. Yesterday I enjoyed another salad from the garden, too.

Old photos and a new room

We finally got around to painting and redecorating Jack's old bedroom. I posted a photo a few weeks ago. Well, it's pretty much done. I'm excited that we put up lots of our photos on the wall.

We also had to clean out the closet in the room, and while organizing photos, I ran across a stack of negatives from college. As you know, I just turned 31 (ugh) and it will be 10 years since I graduated from UNC. It was hard for my eyes to adjust to looking at negatives again, but I discovered some gems. I took them to the photo store to have them scanned, because who has a negative scanner anymore?

Check them out!


Vince Carter




Haaaaaywood!





Now they're on my wall after hiding away for ten years. Next week I'll take lots of undeveloped film to see what other goodies I can uncover. I just hope there are no embarrassing college party photos on there!

Super bowl!















A few weeks ago, my boss casually mentioned in passing that I would be the one going to the Super Bowl "if we decide to send someone."

"What?" I said. "Did you just say Super Bowl?"

It was for real, and I didn't even have to beg to go! I found out last Thursday that I would be going to the big game! I knew it would be a long day, but it's probably the last Super Bowl I'll be able to go to for quite a while considering that newspapers are cutting back more and more.

Anyway....I drove over to Fort Lauderdale Sunday morning to the convention center to catch the media bus to the stadium. When I got there I still had no idea where my credential would allow me to go. I knew I wouldn't be on the field and would have and upper photo pass. When I met the reporter I was very pleased to discover I had at seat on the front row in the endzone!

On the way to the game, the media busses had a police escort all the way to the stadium. No stopping for stoplights, and the cops blocked the exits on the highways so we could pass with no traffic. I felt like a VIP.

To make a long story short. It was a long day but a great experience. I was wedged in with a row of other photographers, but it was a great place to shoot the game. I'm short, so it was nice to be able to see over people's heads and not be knocked around by photographers who are much larger than me. I spent half the game shooting and the other half sending photos to the paper.
I did go up to the top of the stadium at the 50-yard line to get an overall shot, too.

By the way, it looks like I'm wearing a sack because I had to wear the color-coded photographer's vest they gave us.

Here are my galleries from the game:

Super Bowl fans and faces. (I saw Rob Lowe!)



After the game I stayed with my old friend Pete Stella and met his amazing girlfriend Rossana. He found a good one! It was really good to catch up with Pete and see his dog, Minky, too.

Lunch on Captiva

Today was a good day.

I had to go to Captiva for an assignment today to photograph one of the houses on the beach behind one of the many gates that line Captiva Drive. It was a cool house with an amazing view.

It was my last assignment of the day, so I decided to eat my lunch on the beach. It was a beautiful blue-sky day, 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. It felt so good to sit there and listen to the tiny waves crash on the sand.

This was a very welcome change because I usually eat lunch in the car or at my desk at work. And I never go to the beach. Maybe I should start going more.......

Room Makeover



We decided it was finally time to paint the workout room this weekend and boy what a difference a coat of paint and some new bookshelves can make. Unfortunately I forgot to get some before pictures, so we'll just settle for the afters. Amanda and Jack will probably be the only ones to appreciate the difference, but we love it.

I picked up the new lamps with fabulous shades at HomeGoods today and I got the bookshelves at Ikea last weekend on the way home from Amanda's house. The walls look a little green from the yellow cast from the lamps, but it's a beautiful shade of blue-green called 'rolling hills.' The new blinds and photos will go up soon!



Help for Haiti

A reporter and a photographer from my newspaper, The News-Press, were sent to Haiti yesterday to document the recovery and relief effort and to find people with Fort Myers ties.
Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. The devastation is astounding, and they are working around the clock to tell the story. They got to the Dominican Republic last night and were in Haiti about 8 a.m. today.

Here are Andrew's photos from today.

The photos and Rachel's stories can also be found on the page with their updates. Here it is.

Also consider making a donation to help the relief efforts. Maybe your company has company match, too.
I just made a donation to MercyCorps and made my own donation page. But the Red Cross and these others need help, too.
  • Yéle Haiti: http://www.moveon.org/r?r=86026&id=18575-6533137-1V_BUWx&t=3

    • This hits really close to home because we have a lot of people from Haiti living in Fort Myers, and one of Scott's former students has family there that still can't be reached.

    Snow in Florida!!!!


    Yes, it did snow in Florida this morning! I'm in Daytona visiting Amanda and Evan Stinnett and woke up to the sound of sleet hitting the window. By 10 a.m., it was sleeting and snowing. It reminded me of NC-style frozen precipitation.
    Here's some sleet the accumulated on Amanda's patio chair!

    Snow in Florida???

    There's a lot of hubbub about the cold weather here in Southwest Florida. Today was the first day it got above 70 since New Year's Day, I think. And today it was barely 70.

    I know this doesn't seem cold to many of my northern friends. But I've never used my heat this much since I moved here almost 10 years ago. It's never this cold this early, and it never stays cold like this. I'm running out of warm clothes. At night it's been in the 30s all week, and I'm hoping it doesn't get as cold as they predict this weekend. I'm worried about my garden freezing!

    I'll be heading to Daytona to see Amanda Stinnett tonight, and we're hoping for some SNOW! It's raining now and it's gonna get colder.

    Tell Mel


    Last November (2008) a coworker told me she had breast cancer. I was relieved to find out that it was stage 0, but it was still scary. I asked her if I could document her ordeal for the newspaper. She agreed as long as I didn't show any sensitive parts. She decided she'd do a first-person written account of her story, too.

    Now Mel is one of the toughest women I know. She does the Tell Mel column for The News-Press, and she's not afraid to call out scoundrels in her weekly column. It's one of my favorite reads in the paper every week. It's a consumer advocate column where she sticks up for the little guy. It makes my bleeding liberal heart go pitter-pat. Anyway.....


    We began with her initial appointments leading up to her first surgery, and I followed her all the way through radiation. Her story is very moving. I'm pretty proud of the way everything turned out. I did a photo gallery and two videos where she tells her story as the photos and video play. Hope you like it!!




    As a result of her diagnosis, a lot of others went to get mammograms. This is the only way her cancer could have been found. It was too small to feel. A few of her friends were also diagnosed in the following months, including News-Press Bonita Springs editor Betty Wells.
    So GO GET A MAMMOGRAM! please!

    Several months ago, my friend Amanda's mother Kathy was also given the news that her breast cancer had returned. She was treated for cancer years ago and had been feeling bad for a while. We're relieved that she if feeling better and gaining her strength and that the medication seems to be working. Amanda and I are doing the Race for the Cure in Kathy's honor to raise money for breast cancer. Join us! or donate to our cause!
    Here's our team page......


    Happy New Year

    Well I begged and begged and was finally off New Year's Eve. Last year I rang in the new year taking photos of other couples kissing while I was working for the paper. This year was much better.

    Scott and I had a great dinner at Crave, a little hole in the wall in a strip mall. We eat breakfast there a lot, (I always get the shrimp and grits) but this was our first dinner there. It was reeeallllly good. We didn't have to wait for a table and had the place to ourselves by 8:15!
    So then we went to Publix, got some champagne and went home to watch the crazy people in the rain in NYC.

    We tried to start a fire in the fire pit, but it quickly burnt out. All of the logs were quite damp and much too thick for the tiny fire pit. So we headed back inside and played a little Super Mario until Jack joined our "party."

    By the way, we are totally addicted to the new Super Mario. Kylie, you should get it.....it's ab fab.

    Not a bad new year's at all.
    It was a beautifully bright full moon.
    This photo was taken about 10:00 p.m. New Year's Eve.

    Easy Bloomin' It


    Well, the garden so far has had mixed results. The first few squashes formed and promptly fell off and rotted away. And then the plant came down with what I think is powdery mildew.

    The lettuce has been a success and I have harvested a little for salads. The spinach just up and died overnight. And the carrots, I think, are going to make it.

    So I was jazzed to open a Christmas package from Amanda Stinnett the other day. It was an Easy Bloom Plant Sensor. It will tell you when the plants need water, diagnose problems and help decide which plants to put in empty spots. (Thank you, Amanda, it's AWESOME!)

    It's been hard at work since the day we got it. The first day it told me I needed to water every single plant. It literally beeped with everything but the banana trees. Then I set it to monitor mode for the squash. It determined that everything was fine as far as light, water and temperature. (But we have had the coolest week of the year here). The plant sensor is now monitoring the carrots. We'll see what the report is on those.

    My lingering problem is getting the squashes not to fall off before they grow. After a little research I found that they weren't getting fertilized. I guess there aren't enough bees around. So next time a male and female flower bloom, I'm gonna have to hand fertilize them. Hopefully that will happen soon!

    The garden finally grows!


    We had a little soil snafu when we planted the original garden. All the squash and zucchini died and the lettuce and carrots sprouted, but never really grew at all. We figured it must have been the soil because another squash plant in a container was growing like crazy.
    So we begrudgingly dug out half of the old soil and replace it with better -- um, more expensive
    -- soil and replanted. Everything sprouted really fast and we planted some butternut squash plants that were in small pots. So far so good....

    Then yesterday I noticed below one of the squash flowers was.......a tiny squash!!!!!!!!!

    I was really beginning to think I'd failed on my first gardening attempt. Our window box lettuce has done really well, too. Hopefully in a few months we'll have carrots, too.












    We also have watermelons sprouting as well as spinach, zucchini, and a plethora of pineapple plants.




    spinach


    watermelon