Cody's New Home: Winter Haven, FL

Just thought I would give a quick update on Cody, since he doesn't have a computer yet down in Florida (I doubt Hampton Inn would like to see him in their computer room every day). He was put right to work on Friday, folding so many shirts he never wants to do laundry again. He worked another long day on Saturday. The course had their first outing, so it was a quick orientation for him and other other two guys working down there. His boss, Jonathan arranged for them to stay at a member's house the last 2 nights. Tomorrow they move into their condo for the season. It's actually located in Winter Haven, about a 15 minute drive to the course just north of Lake Wales. 

Cody said his drive to work consists of a orange-grove lined 'scenic drive'. The short commute is just a smidge different than his 45 second corn field lined drive to the Harvester. The guys he's working with all seem nice, aside from the sleep talking and the extended conversations about east-coast way of life. Cody's excited to move into their condo tomorrow and start cooking for himself again.

More to come as the season continues, I'm sure...

to: Goode

be warned: i'm really mean.
see you in a few,
calliat

Florida Living

Hello everyone! I made it to Florida, it only took two days with some stops along the way. So far everything is going well. I met with my boss for the first time today and we had lunch with him. I don't have much time to post because I am using the computer in the hotel since i am without one. Hopefully I will be able to upload some photos of our drive and the course I will be working at. In case you are wondering why I am saying our, its because my mom made the drive with me so it wouldn't be as bad. We tried to get a photo of every state we crossed into but that was a difficult thing to complete with us driving at night and not really knowing when we would be driving into a new state. Our first stop was just south of Nashville, TN. No hotel for the first night, only slept for about 6 hours at a rest area. It worked out ok since we arrived at St. Augustine in time to see the coast!

This means we also had time to stop in Atlanta to visit Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves! Sorry you Cardinal Fans, we only took pictures of Busch Stadium road side... The facilities at Turner Field were amazing and I cant wait to hopefully go to a game sometime! Next we Finally made it to Florida after another long day of driving. We found a restaurant near our hotel, which I dont think we will ever stay in a place like that again, thanks though dad...So this brings us to the end of our trip, we finally made it to Lake Wales and visited the golf course. Everyone I will be working with seems great. Also I will be living in Winter Haven for the next six months, soon I will be posting my address for all those who might need it.

Everything fit! And I even had vision out of my rear view mirror!Thanks for the treats Emlyn!

Busch Stadium, our first day of driving. thank god for good weather all the way down!

Just thought I would snap a shot of the Air Force Base

Here was our first stop. We tried Steak n Shake for the first time, really not that impressed. McDonalds gets my vote over it any day. I am sure Otis would agree with me

Just proof that we were actually there. We got to visit some amazing places inside the stadium

Thought this would be funny! Sorry for stealing your ideas, but i saw the statues and just had to do it.

Not quite the real pose, but close enough!

Here is a view from the press box! pretty amazing. Sorry emlyn, no penny press. They put them away for the season already!

I think I could play for the Braves someday!

This was the beach that was right out front of our hotel. To bad the view wasn't a reflection of our hotel room

Now to where i will be working... the course is in amazing shape and looks really fun to play. Here is a picture of a floating tee box for hole #11 I believe. Not for sure though

This is the Colony House off of hole #18 which is also called Colony House. it is where people can stay when they come visit. Only $400 a night...

 More pictures will be coming of the course as soon as I have more time. I will take photos of where I will be staying also, the first couple of nights will be at a members guest house. He said the view is the best in Florida from my bed room. More pictures are on the way soon.

Miss you Emlyn and can't wait for you to come and visit!

Mission Accomplished

Cody and I had a successful day in Des Moines yesterday. My engagement ring was able to be sized, however, the band I had thought would match perfectly, didn't match my ring at all. Jared quoted me $1450 to build a matching band to my engagement ring (ha!). That was well-over my $300 budget for a band. The only other option was to dismantle the same setting and build a matching wedding band for $1350. (ha ha!). So we left pretty disappointment. However, we stopped at a couple other jewelers to look for Cody's band. He was just as picky as I was. In every store he had it down to about 2-3 bands. On a last ditch effort, we tried the last store at Jordan Creek: Greenberg's. The gentleman that helped us was awesome, and once his coworker bought over the band, I knew it was the closest match we had seen all day. My hope was renewed. Cody was able to find a band he didn't want to take off, and that was it! Finally, a little success in the ring department. We ended up going about $400 over our ring budget, but considering the alternatives, we're ok with that.

Cody thought he looked pretty bad-ass with the scan gun.

Yep, pretty excited about the Corningware we registered for!

The bands we finally agreed on and bought! (We had to take them out and look again in the car.)

As a long-standing promise to his bestie, Cody registered for a case of Miller Light.

So, we are now officially registered at Younkers (and younkers.com) and Target (and target.com). It should be listed under Emlyn and Cody's Wedding Registry or some slight variation on that. We know it's a little early, but this was something we wanted to do together and didn't want to have to squeeze it in when he comes in December. One more thing off our to-do list!

A Beautiful Morning at the Harvester

Just thought I would share some pictures of the course from Cody's condo. It's our last few days together before we take a 2-month hiatus. We're planning on going into Des Moines this afternoon after Cody gets off work. Hopefully we'll find our wedding bands and register for gifts!

Ticket Prices

I thought I would start keeping track of airline prices. The goal is to post at least once a month.

These are all from 8/29/11-9/5/11 from expedia.com (Most have at least 2 stops).

OMA-ANC -$602
STL-ANC- $562
MSP-ANC- $650
CMH-ANC- $552

Winner this week.... Columbus! Hopefully the prices will fluctuate a bit and we'll catch on the downswing.

Ready to Wed (almost)

Cody and I completed our educational component of marriage prep this weekend... one more hurdle down, only a few more to go. We have a couple meetings with Fr. Beran in Wayne (hopefully to be done when Cody's back for graduation).

Yesterday also coincided with our 4th anniversary. Can't believe we've been together that long! (He's still putting up with me). We took this picture at the Village Point mall between our class in Fremont and catching church. We enjoying dinner at Upsteam before heading back to Lincoln for the night. Cody drove back to Rhodes early this morning for one of his last RCIA meetings before heading down to Florida. He leaves the 18th already! Hopefully Cody will be able to post pictures of his drive and where he'll be living/working for the next 6 months on here too, for everyone to enjoy (/be envious, whichever).

Have a great Sunday!