Lamar and Caleisha do California

During the first week of July, Lamar and I went to California for our friend Sheree's wedding.  We arrived the morning of the first and stayed until the 7th.  Our flight out was scheduled for 7:40 am and I was sooo stressed that something was going to go wrong all the way until we were in our seats on the plane, lol. ^.^  I discovered that travel is def an anxiety trigger, and that sucks because I love traveling!

This was truly the trip of Snapchat for me lol!  I used the heck out of that app and between the photos and video, I had more than 400 files ^.^ and they are still not organized... sigh...

After we arrived in LA, we went to In-n-Out Burger and I ordered cheese fries... which came to me with a cheese slice on top. >.< #fail  We stayed in a hotel out in Whittier which turned out to be WAY too far from everything we wanted to do lol (we'll do better with hotel choice next time we go anywhere).

Breakfast for day two was at Heavenly Pancake somewhere in San Fernando. The food was great & I bought a mug ^.^ After eating we spent hours running around looking for a pair of nude flats for Sheree's wedding.  I'd asked her if her service was going to be long and she told me to expect an hour and a half... heels were not going to work!  Later that afternoon we went to Sheree and Justin's rehearsal dinner which was really nice.

Wedding Day!  Sheree and Justin got married on July 3rd.  It was quite a nice outdoor service, although all the bridesmaids were in direct sun lol.  We were saved by Lamar when he brought us fans.  I love that guy!  He and I spent cocktail hour and reception running around making sure things were going smoothly.  At one point, Sheree's dad pulled me aside to thank us for all our hard work *.*  Lamar and I kept saying to each other that we should start a wedding day of coordination company.

The 4th of July was spent with family!  We started the day with brunch at a little diner called Mimo's Cafe and it was delicious.  Then we went to my Uncle Choppy's house for BBQ and fun!

July 5th was our "do everything we want in LA" day.  We went to the Griffith Observatory to see the Hollywood sign, but to be completely honest, I was WAY more excited about the Observatory itself.  I think I actually lost my breath a couple times lol.  

After the Observatory, we went down to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  We took lots of photos, bought souvenirs, I got trapped in an awkward conversation with Sonic the Hedgehog, and we saw the skinniest Superman ever to walk the planet!

We ended the day in the best way possible (in my opinion)... with a trip to Da Poetry Lounge!  Shihan (one of my favorite poets from college) was taking money at the door and I almost squealed.  Literally.  Lamar wasn't even phased lol!  He shared a photo on snapchat with the caption "wife geeking out because Shihan took our money to get in Da Poetry Lounge."  I'm so glad he understands lol!!  The open mic was pretty awesome and reeeeally made me want to get back into writing.  I know it'll come back around.

We spent the 6th at Knott's Berry Farms.  We rode almost all of the roller coasters and played an underwater laser gun game.  Lamar absolutely WHOOPED me!  In my defense, I was looking at the target for the wrong gun... come to think of it, that is a horrible defense lol!  Anyway, we had a great time.

One thing that I wanted to do no matter what, was see a west coast sunset.  So after leaving Knott's Berry Farms, we navigated to the nearest beach which was aptly named, Sunset Beach.  We got there in time to set up our cameras for photos and a nice time-lapse of the sunset (video at the end of this post).

IT. WAS. SO. FLIPPING. COLD!!! What's up with thaaat?  Well, despite the frigid temp, it was a beautiful sunset.

Our last day in California was July 7th and we stuffed that day full of activities too :)  We left the hotel in the morning and went to Downtown LA.  Lamar planned the whole day's activities.  We would start at the Last Bookstore, then go to the LA Museum of the Holocaust, and finish up with a trip to Venice Beach before heading to the airport.

The Last Bookstore was uh-MAZE-ing!!! And the fact that Gathered yarn shop upstairs made it even better!  I didn't buy any yarn, although I kinda wish I had in hindsight.  Oh well.  The LA Museum of the Holocaust was so heavy.  I kept thinking, while walking through the exhibits, "who made you god?"  ...sigh...

Lunch was served at Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles.  Lamar got Obama's Special and loved it!  I got side orders of mac & cheese and cornbread.  I was not prepared for the thickness of the cornbread... I need to get that recipe because that cornbread... THAT cornbread... THAT CORNBREAD!!! ::falls out in the floor::  Was delicious.

Venice Beach was fun. We saw some street performers and a couple guys who should just stop lifting weights... I mean y'all win.  Just stop now lol.  And, I was prepared for the beach breeze with a hoodie!  We stayed at the beach for a touch too long and ended up having to rush to the airport.

We made it onto our plane and settled in for a 3 hour overnight flight to Ohio, a 3 hour layover, and then a short flight back to Orlando.  Lamar slept through the whole thing.  I, on the other hand, couldn't probably because of a combo of trip anxiety and turbulence.  At one point, I looked out the window to see the sun rising and I was soo confused at what time it was.  Jet lag is real lol!

We got home the morning of the 8th and it felt so good to be back.  Our week in California was so packed full of activities that I felt (and still feel) like I need another vacation to recover ^.^  So yeah!  Cali was great.  We got lots of souvenirs.  I'm so glad that Lamar and I were able to have that experience together.

Our Second Wedding Anniversary!

This past Wednesday was Lamar and my second wedding anniversary!!! Yay!  We spent the day at Wet & Wild getting on all the water rides and having a good ol' time ^.^

Anywho, I have been thinking about what to write for this anniversary post all week.  I thought maybe I'll do a list of songs that remind me of Lamar or another questionnaire.  Or maybe I'll just show photos from the day.  After quite a bit of thinking, I've decided to write about a girl we saw at the park.

She was in line in front of me on two rides and I noticed her tattoos.  The first was a constellation and the other was a semicolon. 

"A semicolon is used when the author could've ended a sentence, but chose not to.  You are the author and the sentence is your life."  [click -here- for more info about Project Semicolon]

Then I noticed her scars.

Seeing this girl made me reflect on my own mental health struggles and triumphs.  It also made me think about how blessed I am to have someone as caring and compassionate as Lamar.  In our years together, he has always tried to understand what I'm feeling when my moods swing.  He always asks questions to prompt me to try and explain what anxiety feels like... what the downswings feel like.  He will even drag me out of the bed if need be, lol. 

Seeing her made me remember my scars.  My burns.  My dark days.  My promise to keep up the fight.

Seeing her with her boyfriend made me think about how we are not islands.  We are not ever truly alone in whatever our individual struggles are.  We are never too broken to be loved.  There are times I think back to the poem I was reciting right before Lamar proposed and I remember the very real worries I had and sometimes still have, "Will you still love me depressed?  Will you throw me a life line?  Will you count out reasons to smile? Will you remind me of the good in life?  Will you still love me?"  And every time these worries come up, I see his goofy smile or something that reassures me...

Of course, I will.  What kind of a silly question is that?!


 
I love you Lamar.  Thank you for being my buoy when the waters get rough.  :~)

Welcome Back Saturn: Caleisha Turns 30!

My THIRTIETH BIRTHDAY was on Feb 24th!  EEEP!!!  Sorry for yelling but it's pretty cool to hit such a major milestone.  Honestly, I think that a few of my friends had a harder time accepting the fact that my 20s were over than I did lol ^.^  I really enjoyed all the celebrations we had from the Sabbath lunch with friends and family to amusement parking with friends to spending quiet time hiking in the woods by myself. 

I (in true Caleisha form) made it a goal to document as much of my birthday celebration as possible.  So needless to say, I have an abundance of photos and video clips to share.  The video clips are of my hike through Wekiwa Springs State Park and will be edited together so you can experience what happens when one decides to go hiking without first checking the weather -___-  *shrug* Anywho, right now I'm going to share some of my favorite photos from the #caleishaturns30 festivities!  Oh! And I am so glad that hashtagging is a thing :)  Not only do I have a record of the things I posted on social media, but I can also see what my friends were posting as well.  Is it crazy to have a hashtag for every milestone in my future... I don't think so ^.^

A bunch of my friends and family came together for Sabbath Lunch before my birthday.  It was awesome. The weather was beautiful so we spent a lot of time outside chatting.  The kids were playing in the yard and Tootie only chased them once lol.

Sunday, we went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.  It has been a very long time since I went to an amusement park with a large group of friends.  It's pretty cool to have the opportunity to go since Lamar works there.

We wore our Thing shirts he got us for Christmas.  Thumbs up for cuteness ^.^

The award says 'Worlds Greatest Sweetheart' and that's so true. He planned all the activities and really made my birthday celebration awesome!

I went hiking solo in Wekiwa Springs State Park on my actual birthday since I was the only person off work, lol.  To celebrate my first Saturn Return, I wore my Orion shirt.  I need to make more space/star themed clothing... I love this shirt!

Yep... I went hiking in white tennis shoes... because I'm a grown up... and I do what I want! hehe

While I was out in the middle of the woods, it started raining... I had no umbrella or anything so I ended up spending quite a bit of time huddled under these big leaves.  Not as dry as I could have been but I got soaked... slower... -___-

I ended the night with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with Lamar.  We talked about our days and just spent time together.  It was a great ending to my #CaleishaTurns30 extravaganza ^.^

December Date Nights

Lamar and I use to be really good about keeping to our Wednesday date night 'schedule' but we've gotten away from it in the busy-ness of work life.  So to remedy this, I set the December have at least 2 date nights.

Since I was planning to do December Daily, I knew I would want to do photographable things for our dates.  Enter the Downtown Apopka Christmas lights installation!  We had his & hers hot chocolates (mint for him and oatmeal cookie for me) and we went to walk through the park.

It was so much fun!  We took lots of pictures, including a few long exposures... because we're photo nerds after all ^.^  We even recorded ourselves singing carols and sent the video to my parents (who got quite a kick out of our silliness).

I love having simple dates like this, where we go out, while still spending one-on-one time together.  Lamar said that's something he loves about me is that I come up with these simple little ideas that turn out to be so much fun.

The next 2 date nights were stay at home movie nights.  One night we watched Insurgent and the other we watched Jurassic World.  Both movies were really good.  Movie nights are always a great goto ideas because you don't really have to plan anything.  Just pick a movie, grab some snacks and get cozy!

The last "date night" we had wasn't an intentional "date night."  Lamar's dad left his Chinese checkers game set after Thanksgiving and one evening I asked Lamar if he wanted to play.  We played two games, both of which I lost... evidently I'm terrible at strategy games! Just terrible!!  Anyway, it was fun to take a spontaneous moment for us to hang out together.

I'm glad I set that date night goal for us.  It definitely stayed in the front of my mind throughout the month.  Now I just need to get on the ball this month as we're more than halfway in and haven't had a date night yet.  Lemme get on this!

What are your goto date night ideas??

Our Wedding Tree: The Chinese Plum

When I moved to Florida, one of the first things I remember being REALLY different were the fruit trees.  I've never lived somewhere that had so many fruit trees just everywhere.  One day, Lamar and I were driving somewhere and he pulled the car over and started picking fruit from this tree on the side of the road.  He got back in the car while rubbing the little fruits on his shirt and started eating them.  I was like, "What is that?! You didn't plant that! Is it safe! What if you're allergic! AHHHH!!!" That was my introduction to Chinese plums or Loquats.  I tried one when we got home (with benadryl close by should the need arise!) They were delicious and I'm not allergic ^.^

Fast forward to March 13th of this year, I planted a Chinese plum seed from my in-laws' tree.  For the first 2 and a half months, it looked like nothing was going to come of it and it even got some sort of mold in the soil.  So I partially chalked it up as a loss, but kept watering it just in case.

Some time in May I came out to see that it had sprouted ^.^  I was super excited about it and showed Lamar.  He was like "YES! Now in 10 years we can have our own Chinese plum tree and get fruit from it!"  He also remarked that since I planted it within our first year of marriage, it can be our 'wedding tree'.  Isn't that sweet!

So here is our Chinese plum wedding tree now.  It's quite a strong little plant and it always makes me happy to see.  Plus I just think its really really cool that I ate the fruit, planted the seed, and then grew this plant!  It's the circle of liiiife!!!

18 Things for 18 Months

Yesterday, Lamar and I reached our 18 month wedding milestone. Hurray! I bought him a cinnabun and put 1.5 candles on it... cuz I'm cute like that ^.^

I also thought it would be cute and fitting to do an 18 things list.  So without further ado, here are 18 things I love about my husband!

1. His dedication:  Lamar has been leading the young adult choir at church for the last few years and even though the turnout is always way less than it should be, he has never quit on it.  (Despite my thoughts that he should, lol)

2. His musical talent:  I love that he sings and plays the piano.  I think it's really cool how he can pick up songs and separate out the voice parts and teach the choir.

3. The way he supports me:  He is always there to listen to whatever idea I've come up with and always has faith in me completing those goals.

4. His ideas:  Every so often we'll be riding in the car and he comes up with a whole play or book idea, and they're really good.  Now he just needs to sit down and make it happen!

5. His desire to learn:  He loves learning new things and that's awesome in itself.

6. His sweet-tooth:  Because it gives me an excuse to donuts and ice cream ^.^

7. The way he mixes desserts:  When we first started dated, he use to make this "malted milk, ice cream, chocolate drizzled, floating island of happiness" dessert.  I can't even remember what all was in it, but it was ridiculously good!

8. How cute he is with kids:  I love seeing him interact with little kids.  It's adorable.

9. His way of being motivational:  He wants everyone to succeed at whatever they are doing, whether they are his students, friends, or family.  He always has uplifting words to give the kick in the pants needed.

10. His imagination:  This goes along with the ideas, plays, and books he makes up.  I love that his imagination is still active and he hasn't grown out of it.

11. His even keel attitude:  This is something I'm still trying to learn from him.  He has the ability to stay calm in so many situations while I'm freaking out about something that hasn't even happened yet.

12. How he goes along with my photo ideas:  Last year he wore a crochet elf hat in our Christmas pictures... this year he work reindeer antlers... all without complaint.  Well he did wear a shirt that said "please don't make me do stuff" under his sweater... lol

13. He's so encouraging:  I love when he tells me how he interacts with students.  He has a way of encouraging them when they're doing poorly and it endears him to them and they try harder because they know he honestly cares.

14. He's optimistic:  This goes along with the even keel attitude.  He has a way of looking at the bright side almost all the time and you can't help but smile about it.

15. He's forgiving:  This needs no explanation.

16. He's committed:  He says once he says he's going to do something that's it.  Whether it's our relationship, his work at school, or his work at church.  That is a very admirable trait.

17. He never gets mad at me for having a down swing:  He tries to lift me out of them or get me to see what's actually wrong.  If there's nothing he can do, he just stays nearby.  He never makes me feel bad about it.  And I appreciate that more than words can say.

18. He's so loving: What else can I say? This man is such a blessing!

A bit ago, I was going through some old blog posts from my xanga.com days and I found a list of traits I wanted my husband to have.  It was amazing to see that Lamar possessed nearly all of them.  It just made me even more grateful to God for moving us in such a way to meet. 

Happy 18 Month-TA-versary Love!!!

Calamari Dates: I-Drive 360 Experience

A couple weeks ago was Veteran's Day and since Lamar had the day off we were able to have a date day! Huzzah!

We went to I-Drive 360.  That's the area where the Orlando Eye, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, and the Orlando Sea Life Aquarium are located.  It's actually quite a cool setup with all three attractions being housed in one building.  Plus free parking ^.^

First, we went to Madame Tussauds.  We took a picture with President Obama and MLK.  I put my foot next to Shaq's and I'm pretty sure his foot is the same length as my whole shin!  Lamar's hands are the same size as Serena Williams' o.O and he danced with Michael Jackson and I'm a hair taller than Beyonce' lol.  Being in there was a little creepy mainly because I kept expecting them to move. Ugh... that thought gives me chills!

Next we went to the Sea Life Aquarium.  I felt like a little kid squealing about the tiy jellyfish and itty bitty Nemos.  We also saw Dory (Regal Blue Tang) and a huge Gil (Moorish Idolfish).  Towards the end, they had a rock pool area where we could touch everything in it.  So. Many. Weird. Textures!  But I touched everything except the fish because it was too fast.  I think my favorite things to touch were the sea cucumber and the anemone.  The sea cucumber was weird because I couldn't feel it, but I saw that I touched it... does that make sense?  It was like sticking your finger into a bubble.  The anemone closed up and tried to sting my finger but couldn't because my skin was too thick.

Lastly, we rode the Orlando Eye.  It was really pretty to see the city from so high up at night.  I took a time lapse video and it came out pretty cool.


To end our date day, we got a few souvenirs: a ridiculously huge mug for Lamar and a bunch of pressed pennies and a shopping tote for me.  Then we ate french fries at Shake Shack while watching a group of people play petanque.  Of course Lamar started quoting the Cosby scene. ^.^  I definitely want to go back and play.

All in all the day was really good.  We don't get to spend many non-Sabbath days together because of our work schedules.  So that Wednesday was a welcomed change in pace.  We took lots of pictures and I kept pretty much every piece of paper for scrapbooking :)

What was the last excursion you went on?  Have you and your significant other had a particularly awesome date day/night recently?  What are your go to date ideas? Leave a comment, I want to plan more date nights with Lamar.  I've definitely learned that you have to make time to spend with the people you love.

Have a great weekend!

All About Us Scrapbook: Part 2

Here is part 2 of my scrapbooking adventure!  Huzzah!  These pages were a lot of fun to put together.  At first, creating the layouts was kinda daunting, each for its own reason.  The full 12x12s were hard because I literally started with a HUGE blank canvas... I also felt like I was wasting space if I didn't pretty much cover the whole paper.  On the other hand, the Project Life pocket pages were hard because I didn't think about photo orientation when I was choosing photos to print.  So I'd end up with not enough photos in the proper sizes and have to figure out ways to trim them to make them fit.  *shrug*

With future layouts, I wanna get more into layering and embellishing.  Right now my pages are very simple... photos, journaling, filler cards.  I definitely have plenty of room for growth.

Now lets get into these next layouts!

These photos are from the first time Lamar and I went to Lake Guntersville State Park.  I love everything about these photos!  Lamar was super proud of the black & white one he took of Kiva watching me wade.  He said he had to shoot it a bunch of times to get it just right.  I'm glad he did because it is quite beautiful.

This is Lake Guntersville State Park one year later after the huge tornado outbreak.  It's crazy that wind did all this destruction.  Oddly enough, whenever I look at these or remember this trip, I feel this almost awful reverence for nature... how a storm can chew a tree to splinters.

This paper is uh-MAZE-ing!  I had a lot of fun going through all the text and highlighting the bits that fit us.  My favorite line in it is, "I can't wait to see the journey we go on together." I also love that sentiment paired with this photo from our engagement shoot.

All the photos on this page had to be trimmed and MAN it was so fiddly!  I got to use more of my little letter stickers and did a lot of journaling as you can see.  One of the best parts of this layout is the sticker on Lamar driving the go-cart.  I wanted a race car themed sticker for the photo, but I didn't want to go and buy a whole set.  What I ended up doing was drawing a flag on paper, cutting it out, and running it through my sticker maker.  Ta-da! Handmade stickers in my scrapbook!!

Of course, as a doggy-mommy I had to do a few layouts dedicated to Kiva & Toot :)  The journaling on here are things the dogs enjoy and a handful of their nicknames.  I found these packets of paper die-cut embellishments on clearance at Joann's and used them on this page.  I feel like I was dipping my toe in the embellishment swimming pool ^.^ Not bad. Not bad at all. 

Here's another page of the girls.  I water color painted the background paper, and I think that'll be something I try again.  I used a page of dog themed stickers on here and wrote a little journaling around their close up shots.  

That's it for this part of the All About Us Scrapbook ^.^  I have been working busily on finishing the rest of the pages.  Then I ended up adding the remaining 12x12 page protectors back into the album.  So when they're all done, the album will have 20 12x12 layouts and 10 Project Life layouts.

I've already purchased a new ringed scrapbook album to make it easier to change up the page protectors.  And I'm trying to decide how I want to approach the new book.  It'll probably be just like this one, a running record of our lives as we go.