Andrew and Kelly

2008-08-01T14:04:00.004-05:00

Our last birthing class was Monday, and as a special treat the nurse brought in a sympathy suit for the guys to wear. Hahaha! Here are some pics of Andrew "sympathizing"!

2008-05-25T19:17:00.015-05:00

On May 18, Andrew completed his first olympic distance triathon. We drove six hours to Lubbock, TX. Andrew had to swim one mile, bike 25 miles and run 6.2 miles which he completed in 2 hours and 46 minutes. He did fantastic and I am so proud of him! Here are some pictures from the day.

Andrew and Mark getting their transition zones set up

Andrew and I :o)

Andrew on the beach getting ready to start the race. He and Mark were some of the only competitors without wet suits. The water was 63 degrees!! Brrrrr!

And they're off. You can't even see Andrew in this picture because he's already so far in the lead!

Andrew coming around the last turn of the one mile swim. He came out of the water in seventh place out of about 125 people! He's a great swimmer!

Running to the transition zone.

Getting ready for the 25 mile bike.

There he goes!

Starting the 6.2 mile run. What a stud!!!

The last hundred meters.

The finish is in sight!

2008-05-24T17:45:00.006-05:00

Well, the track season is over. Our Midway men's 4x400 relay team won state!! Here is a picture of me and the team at our track banquet.

Here are some more pictures from the banquet:

2008-05-24T17:41:00.001-05:00

Here is a picture of my bigger belly!!

2008-04-09T17:43:00.002-05:00

New Pictures!!!

2008-02-17T14:10:00.005-06:00

Greetings! It has been pretty busy in the Whitehead household since December! We had a fantastic Christmas break visiting family back in Indiana. Semester two is going great for Kelly and Andrew. Andrew is keeping very busy with his classes at Baylor, and Kelly is enjoying coaching track at Midway High School.

This week, the baby is officially 14 weeks old. It is 3.5-4 inches long, and it's about the size of a fist. We're really looking forward to after spring break because that's when we'll be able to find out if our little one is a boy or a girl! (No more calling it "it"!) :o) Here is a picture of Kelly's belly:

We'll do a better job of keeping everyone updated from now on! Talk to you soon!

2007-12-01T09:42:00.001-06:00

November 5- Mom and Dad's Visit to Waco

Here are some pictures from mom and dad's visit.

Dad in his new Baylor Football Student Section shirt.

Mom and I pretending not to pose for a picture at the homecoming parade because dad likes "natural shots."

Front row seats for the parade! Woohoo! The little girl in the chair behind us was so cute!

One of the Baylor Bears

One of the Baylor Bear Balloons.

At Jason's Deli after the parade

Andrew cam home early from his conference to surprise me! He was able to see mom and dad, too!

One of the projects was to hang up this sign from the farm.

2007-12-01T09:35:00.000-06:00

October 7- Heart of Texas Fair and Rodeo

You can't live in Texas and never attend a rodeo, right? Well, we went to one at the fair with one of Andrew's professor's and his family. I think one rodeo experience is enough for me. :o)

See the rope around the little calf's neck? Yea, not a fan. The only part I really liked was how well the cowboys handle their horses...it was amazing.

Andrew and Kevin with their "world famous" turkey legs.

2007-09-29T20:30:00.000-05:00

We had some friends over for Andrew's birthday, so here are a few pics of the "pre-party" festivities!

2007-09-15T21:22:00.000-05:00

Sami is getting so big! We had to get her a collar recently because she has been escaping. :0 She never goes far...just the bushes on the other side of the fence and into our car port. One day we went outside and she was walking along the top of the fence just like a squirrel! Whenever we get in our cars to leave, she likes to climb the fence into the car port because she knows we'll get out of the car, pick her up and put her back in the yard. She sure has us trained! Here are some pictures of Sami with her new "breakaway" collar!

2007-09-15T21:10:00.000-05:00

School at Midway has started, and it is going great! I have wonderful students, and my assignment, though challenging, is really going well. Here are some pictures of my classroom that were taken before the "customers" officially arrived.

This is my door when it is closed.

This is my door when it is open.

This is my reading center (thank you Target for donating the video rockers).

This is my desk area.

These are my student tables. Andrew and I spent a long evening cutting out the circles you see as a border around the top.

These are my student computers.

2007-08-25T15:11:00.000-05:00

See What You're Made Of - Visit The Official Site

Click the link that says TEST YOURSELF to see how "bionic" you are. It's really fun!

2007-08-01T11:18:00.000-05:00

New Stuff (again!)

Last night from 11-12:30 Andrew decided to install the a new ceiling fan in our living room. The one that was in there puttered out in this hot Texas heat (and it was a piece of junk!) We also got a new rug, so here are some pictures of our updated living room. We love how it's finally becoming our own.

2007-07-31T16:29:00.000-05:00

Cameron Park Zoo

Wow, the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco was amazing! Yes, you heard me right; Waco has it's own zoo. We went today, and I must say my expectations were not too high. I was blown away by how many animals the zoo had and how well laid out everything was. The habitats were really great, too. We got there at 9:00 and it took us a good three hours to get through everything. Here are some pictures of the animals we liked best:

The tigers and meercats were the first things we saw. There were two tigers, and while my camera didn't not do a very good job (I really need a Canon Rebel xti), the tigers were actually really close to us. One was in the watering hole and came out to see us when we were at the exhibit.

The flamingos were making weird honking-type noises. A little kid came up and said, "Mommy, why are all the flamingos farting?" It was pretty funny.

The jaguars were my favorite (even though Andrew got stung by a fire ant at this exhibit!) They were so close I felt like I could touch them, and they watched us with an eerie intensity. It was kinda scary, but they were magnificent creatures!

This swallowtail was photographed at the outdoor butterfly and honeybee garden.

The black bear was so cute just sitting there licking his paws. There were also three white rhinos. On our way out, this one came very close to us when he (or she, I don't really know) went down to get a drink. And there's every ones favorite: the elephant. This one was busy munching on some hay when I snapped this photo.

I wish I could have taken more pictures of the indoor exhibits like the aquarium, the reptile room and "The Brazos at Night." There were lots and lots of snakes and lizards and Gila monsters in the snake house, and we got to see an armadillo, raccoons, bats (yuck!), a opossum, and several really cool owls at "The Brazos at Night." It was dark in there, but they had black lights so you could see. The raccoons were very large, and Andrew said he thought they were trying to figure out how to escape. How raccoon-like! I had never seen an owl in real life, so these really fascinated me. Very Harry Potter-esque. I wish you all could see the armadillo because it really is a freak of nature! :o)

2007-07-27T15:41:00.000-05:00

New Stuff!!

Check out the pictures of our new coffee table (it only took 7 stores to find the perfect one) and the new pictures we have in our dining room!

This is a picture of a live oak on Baylor's campus.

This is an Aspen tree from Colorado.

And this is a waterfall on a trail we hiked in Colorado.

Because you scrolled all the way to the end, here are some pictures of Sami:

2007-07-23T12:54:00.000-05:00

:o(

Well, we had to say goodbye to Max after only 19 short hours. We had a wonderful evening with him. Some friends stopped by, and their two daughters had a blast playing with him in the backyard. Although, I think he was a little worn out by bedtime. The next day Kelly went to the store to get some chew toys and treats for Max. While she was checking out, Andrew called and gave her the bad news...he found the owners.

We put a sign in our front yard that morning that said we found a puppy. Our next-door neighbors saw the sign and referred us to some neighbors behind us down the street at whose house they thought they had previously seen the puppy. Well Andrew waited until Kelly got home to take the dog to it's rightful owners. The gentleman who answered the door did not speak much English, and he didn't even know the dogs name because he said it was his sons. Kelly was a little wary of this family, and she is praying that they treat Max with all the love and affection he would get at our house. We miss him, but it was a fun 19 hours!

2007-07-20T21:27:00.000-05:00

MAX!!!!!!

You never know what kinds of surprises await you when you go out to your car. We were excited about eating out a Dicky's (our fav BBQ place), and we were headed out to the car when we heard it. A tiny little yelp coming from under the CRV. Low and behold out tramped a little puppy. Can you believe it? My prayers were answered! A little brown and white mutt-looking puppy was wagging his little stub of a tail so hard when he saw us. At first we didn't know what to do. Whose dog is this? Where did he come from? To make a long story short, we now call him Max and he lives in our backyard. We've only had him for an evening, and we're going to try to find his owner tomorrow, but until then he's ours! (Well, Kelly's because Andrew does not want a dog...despite the loving pictures...hmmm...)

If you have any idea what type of breed(s) he is, we'd love to know. There's some definite Pitt bull, but he's not full bred.

2007-07-18T10:44:00.001-05:00

Painting the Living Room

We just finished getting the living room painted, and boy was it a job! The original color was a cantaloupe/mustardy yellowy orange, as you can see below:

We went through a variety of ideas for colors that would look good in this room. The dining room is green, so that color was out, and the kitchen is blue, so we couldn't use that color either. Our couches in the living room are a dark green, so we didn't want something dark. We thought about a light yellow, but I heard that yellow makes babies cry, and I don't want a bunch of crying babies in the living room. Eventually, we decided to go with a pretty shade of gray.

You'd be surprised how difficult it is to find "light gray" at Home Depot. All the grays they have have a hint of another color in them. There's blue-gray, green-gray, red-gray, etc. We decided since our couches were green that we would go with a sage gray. This color looked really good when we held the chip up to the couch. So, we taped the room (going through 2 rolls of tape), primed, and began trimming with the sage gray color. On the walls, this color looked identical to the couch. How could this be? When we held the chip up, it was several shades lighter than the couch! So, I took the paint back to Home Depot to be adjusted. The man at the counter said that I had to pour out some of the paint from the can in order to allow room for "adjusting." As it turns out, there is a law in Texas against dumping paint anywhere but into a certified container. The man said I could buy a bucket and pour the paint into that somewhere other than on Home Depot property. Frustrated, I just decided drive home and pour the paint out there. Once home, we decided the sage gray would look good in our TV room, so we kept it.

Back to Home Depot! (woohoo) I eventually found a color I liked called "dolphin fin." The man at the counter (the same one mind you) assured me that there were not any traces of other colors in this gray. It was simply black mixed with white...what I wanted all along. After a brief period of waiting, my paint was finished. The man took removed the lid to reveal my color....bright blue? I told him I didn't think this color would dry light gray. He checked his ticket and discovered that he typed in "dolphin" instead of "dolphin fin." We had a good chuckle, and I headed home.

Once back, I discovered that Andrew had re-primed everything. We got to work on re-trimming with our new color. We weren't too sure about it at first because it looked very light. We learned that you really have to wait until the whole room is finished and dry to make a good judgement. Once it was finished we loved it! What do you think?

I guess you'll just have to come visit to see for yourself how awesome the color it. Pictures just don't do it justice! See you soon!

2007-07-12T12:23:00.000-05:00

Working in the Yard

Today we decided to get rid of some of the giant elephant plants that were growing the flower bed in our back yard. Andrew pulled them all out while Kelly chopped and bagged. Look at the size of the leaf that came off one of the plants!

Sami is turning into quite the gardener herself. She loves pouncing on the shovel and digging in the dirt. She even enjoys being buried! She jumped in a hole that Andrew was filling with dirt and didn't want to get out!

All in all we had a very productive day. Our backyard is getting closer and closer to how we ultimately want it to look. Okay, time for some lunch!

2007-07-05T22:05:00.000-05:00

The Grill-Master!

Mmmmmm...our dinner tonight was especially good because it was cooked not inside on the stove, but outside by Andrew on our new grill!! We had some delicious hamburgers, but I'm especially looking forward to steak night!! Yum! When Andrew was putting the grill together, little Sami (who actually is getting to be medium Sami) couldn't just sit there and watch, she wanted to jump right in a help!

2007-07-03T13:22:00.000-05:00

More Sami!

Sami is getting more and more comfortable in her backyard. She loves to play! (Especially with Andrew's feet!! She's a biter!) Here are some pictures of her playing on the back porch.

Sami

2007-06-28T14:29:00.001-05:00

Well, folks, it's official. Hell has frozen over because Andrew said we could get a cat. Just out of the blue one day he up and told Kelly that she could get a cat. Thinking this was some sort of a trick, Kelly didn't quite know how to respond, so instead she went out and got a paper. She called the humane society and found out that it cost $75 to purchase a cat...now that's just crazy! So, in the paper she found several ads for free kittens. One add in particular said "free black kitten" and this particual kitten had already had shots. Kelly called the number, asked about the kitten, and got directions to the woman's house. We went there, and an older lady was holding a cute little furball. She already had three cats, and this little one showed up on her back porch. She took it to the vet, but her husband laid down the law saying that three cats was enough. So, she just wanted the kitty to have a good home. Since we both liked her, we said thanks, plopped her in a box and drove her home. We decided to name her Sami, and the rest is history. Below are some pictures of her first week on Colcord Avenue. We're still working on getting some good ones. She's so fast that most of the pictures we took were blurred. :o)

Sami has already climbed that tree a few times and gotten stuck!

We have this "ornamental grass" around our back porch, and she loves pouncing in and around it.

Sami loves to be held, but on her own terms. I think she was ready to get down during the second picture! Ouch!

Befores and Afters

2007-06-25T14:07:00.000-05:00

Okay, okay, okay! Due to the high demand (ha ha) of people wanting to see the changes we made on our house, here are some before and after pictures. The befores are the ugly pictures to the left, and the afters are the beautiful pictures to the right. Enjoy!

The Kitchen

The Dining Room

The Laundry Room

The Bedroom

One Week Later...

2007-06-18T14:45:00.000-05:00

Well, we've officially been Texas citizens for one week now. We arrived in Waco with Kelly's parents around 11:00 on Monday the 11th and saw our house. We were a little sleep deprived and down-hearted because we REALLY saw our house and all the work that was going to have to be done to it. We decided to stay in a hotel for the night, but as it turned out, there was a convention in town and all the hotels were booked. We discovered this little fact after driving from hotel to hotel until 2:00 in the morning. At this point, it came down to a decision: stay in the $24 horror-movie type motel that not-surprisingly had a vacancy or go back to the house and unpack the couches from the truck. We decided on the latter, and about two hours later found us all four asleep in the living room with Mom and Dad on the couch, Andrew crunched on the love seat and Kelly on the floor. Depressing start right? But don't worry, the week gets better.

We just got back from the DFW airport where we said our last (tearful) goodbye to Kelly's parents. As we look back over our first week, here is a list of everything we did:

-totally remodeled the laundry room (patched, primed, painted and shelved) and got a washer and dryer
-painted the dining room from eggplant purple (yuck!) to a pretty seafoam green
-tore down plaid wallpaper in the kitchen and painted it "sonata" blue (it matches our Denby dishes perfectly!)

-tore out the back door and put in a new one
-got a new fridge for the kitchen and fixed the very poor job the Sears deliverymen did hooking it up
-painted our bedroom from scarlet red (where did these people come up with their colors?) to a "chocolate froth" brown on three walls and "sonata" blue on the other

-cleaned all the very old venetian blinds
-cleaned the bathroom (this literally took a full day because it was pretty grimy)
-fixed the leaky toilet

-planted a weeping willow tree (a gift from mom and dad :o)

-we made an average of two trips a day to each of the following stores: Home Depot, Lowes and Wal-mart

-and we decided to take a break on Friday night, so we went to Austin to visit our friend Matt.

We can both say now that we absolutely love the house that we literally despised upon our arrival to Waco a week ago today. It's coming together, and we are looking forward to making it more and more into a home during the next five years.

Coming soon.... Befores and Afters!

pictures of our house

2007-05-29T11:25:00.000-05:00

Here are a few more pictures of our house:

This is looking from the dining room into the kitchen

Here is a picture of the kitchen

This is part of the backyard. We love the roses!

the big move

2007-05-29T11:19:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! Thanks for visiting our blog. With our big move to Texas coming up, we want to be able to keep all of our loved ones updated on the happenings in Waco. The official move date is June 11, and we are really excited about getting into our new house. It is located on a very historic and scenic street in Waco. We have two big trees in our front yard. One is a live oak and the other is a magnolia. The previous owners had beautiful landscaping, so hopefully we'll be able to keep up with all of that. (Kelly doesn't like working in the yard all that much :o)

This is a picture of the front of our house. It is white with green shutters and a red front door. (How quaint!) Keep checking our site for more news!