Lauren and I (sans Remy, sadly) are headed out this weekend for the yearly Petrella/Robinson/Teague beach trip to Seaside — cannot wait! Here’s a couple sets of photos you may haven’t seen yet to keep you occupied…

Jeanine & Kemble’s B-day party
Tech vs. Samford

Look for more photos (and hopefully some video) here after we get back!

On Thursday, my first day without Josh around, I came home after trying to connect to my school’s wireless (unsuccessful). I then realized that I had throughly confused my computer, who then refused to connect to the home wireless. (Not an Apple, obviously.)
Very frustrating, mainly because I know Josh could have fixed it in a heartbeat. However, I can still connect via wire, so I am not complaining. Furthermore, I’m still feeling guilty that I live in America after seeing some of those Idol Gives Back clips. No wireless, no problem.

Then my first weekend without Josh, I left on Friday to go to Mom’s, where Katie, John, Mary Ellen, and Caroline babysat me. (Thanks, girls.)
I came back on Sunday just in time to read up before small group (so it’s fresh on the mind) when I walked into my bathroom.
The last calm thought I had was that the floors were especially shiny that night.

Then I stepped into a puddle of water that spread throughout the bathroom floor and had formed a small stream into the hallway. (So small, I missed it on my way in.)
The toilet was completely full. And had, evidently, overflooded.
Then comes the best part.
I went into our pantry/storage/laundry room to get the mop, and stepped into another puddle of water.
The nasty toilet water (it may have been clear, but I wasn’t fooled) had leaked through the tiled bathroom, under the shower, and into the storage room. Now two rugs were soaked, not to mention a pile of darks. (Don’t worry, those were washed twice, Ultra Clean, Level 12)

However.
Let it be known, I did not cry. I (sort of) calmly called Josh and then the Maintenance Man, (okay, fine, I called my mom too) who unfortunately didn’t have the necessary parts on a Sunday evening to fix said toilet.
I went to small group single, germy, tardy, and unprepared since I never was able to read the chapter for this week. (But I finally got around to mopping the bathroom and storage room.)
I mostly went to learn and grow. A miniscule part of me went because they had a working restroom. TWO even. Spoiled Americans.

Last week, Josh’s mom was scheduled to come over and pick me up. (TWO broken Teague sewing machines- we HAD to get them to Joe the repairman as quickly as possible). After a very cheerful knock on the door, Mrs. Teague walked in, gave us some cookies, and was generally quite sunny and content.
It wasn’t until about a full minute of greetings and conversation later that she mentioned that she needed our help. As she was driving through the gate, it slammed shut and left a scratch on her Porshe.
Josh immediately left with her to go talk to the manager of the apartment. The manager’s first response was somewhat of denial. He told Mrs. Teague that it wasn’t that he didn’t believe her, but, well, “no one saw it happen.” Josh-he’s quick and asked him if the camera aimed at the gate hadn’t caught any of the action on tape. No, no, that camera just for monitoring, not taping. (No one was monitoring at the time.) The manager then got the idea to have Maxine, the leasing agent, drive her car through the gate.
If Mrs. Teague’s car needed a band-aid, Maxine’s car needed needed a stiff sling and a leg cast. The gate completely dinged in the side of her car while leaving a nice, long scratch.
The really sympathetic part of the story is after Maxine told the managerthat gate had, in her words, “killed her car,” the manager replied (to Josh and his mother), “Well, that’s good for you.”
He then went about contacting the gate company.
The coolest part is that after Mrs. Teague and I left, Josh had an idea for a good deed.
Remember that Mrs. Teague brought us cookies? She baked them for Josh because she felt like God wanted her to. Being the trusting Christian she is, she followed even though she wasn’t sure why cookies would suddenly be important.
Well, Josh decided to give them to the manager and Maxine to ease the feelings of everyone involved in a- wait, two- gate accidentS.
Of course, they were impressed, grateful, and caught by surprise.
That’s Josh, his mother, and God working together for you.

Over the weekend, my parents surprised Royal probably more than he has ever been in his life. He got the car of his dreams after driving around my old car for a while. Beau and I were chosen to go back behind the house to get the car just as Royal (our youngest brother) finished mowing the grass.

Royal was also recently elected to be the Student Body President at Lassiter. Congratulations Royal!

In case you don’t already know, Lauren and I have a new beautiful little niece named Caroline. God has blessed John and Katie with yet another little girl. Lauren’s sister Mandy took these photos on her first day and we thought you might enjoy them. So… enjoy getting to know Baby Caroline.

Happy, Happy Birthday to two Beautiful Bridesmaids. Annie Petrella is turning 18 today. She is officially legal to vote, buy tobacco products, and make her own medical decisions. Hopefully, she won’t need take advantage of all of these newfound freedoms, but nonetheless, a happy birthday shout out to her. We held a family party for her last night.
Also celebrating is Miss Tiffany Teague. We love and miss you Tiffany! But we’re also very proud of you as you’re living your dream of fashion design in Paris. If you haven’t already checked your mail, be on the lookout for a few cards from the States. I know I speak for everyone when we say that we can’t wait to see you in a few weeks. In the meantime, enjoy Paris. Eat a cute little french birthday dessert for me. =)
I love the fact that two of the coolest sisters we know share the same birthday. What are the odds? It makes it easier for me to remember the date, that’s for sure.
We love you and hope you both have a wonderful birthday.

Alright so here’s the set of photos from the family get-together a few weekends ago. If you want to get a high resolution copy of the image, just click on it as it comes up and a new window will open where you can right-click on the image to save it. The slideshow can be automatic or you can just click through them one by one to savor the good times for as long as you’d like! Thanks to Daddy and Mandy for taking the majority of these beautiful photographs. Enjoy!

P.S. If you can’t see the images, go here to install the free player.

This past Sunday the Petrellas (and Robinsons) invaded the Teague household, much to our delight. It was the first time the Birmingham branch of the family- John, Katie, and Mary Ellen- were able to meet the Teagues.
It was a lot of fun and we got some great pictures of the event. Unfortunately, the pictures will have to be posted at a later date, seeing as how Josh is the brains who knows how to actually put pictures up. I’m still impressed with myself for being able to post words and stuff. I understand some of you call it “text.”
For now, it will have to suffice to say that we had a really fun morning, which would have been perfect if Tiffany and Luke had been able to come. We missed you, Luke and Tiffany! (I almost let a “Tiff” slip in there. Josh’s influence.)

Some of my favorites from the afternoon:
1. The Famous Tortilla Soup I was FINALLY able to try. (Amazing)
2. Sydney’s awe at the rather large potted tree in the dining room.
3. Mary Ellen showing off her new crawling technique. (Think of a baby that’s been raised by gorillas and walks on all hands and feet.)
4. Jeanine’s dip (so, so good)
5. Showing the Teagues what it looks like when the Petrella sisters bust out three cameras to take about fifty shots of the same “photo op” of the girls.

But my absolute FAVORITE thing was seeing our combined families together. I loved showing off the Teague house and family members to my family, and I was excited that almost everyone got to meet each other. Thanks to everyone for saving that date and making time for us. It was a really special day for me, and I know for Josh, too.
An especially huge, HUGE thanks to Mrs. Teague and Jeanine for cooking all that food. Your work was appreciated, I assure you. Josh and I are incredibly blessed to have you both in our lives. And that goes for all of our family.

(Good news; I have officially signed up for cooking tips from Mrs. Teague, so perhaps poor Josh won’t have to eat Chick-Fil-A every night after all. Whew.)

Ta-da! We finally got our act together, pooled our skills and came up with something we think we can show off to our family and friends. We proudly present our own wedding website. Welcome to thefairskinneditalians.com. (Yay!!)

We thought the best way to begin a site dedicated to us and our love (awww) would be to first recognize those who have already done so much to make this whole thing possible.

Roll the tape . . .

• Mandy, Bryan, Jeanine and Beau – thanks for taking the risk of playing match-maker, you are thus far 1-2. Not too shabby.
• Mrs. P / Mom – thank you for taking on the role of unofficial wedding planner extraordinaire. Without your hard work and dedication we would not have a church, reception site or the moolah to pull this off. You could do this for a living now!
• Mother & Daddy – Thank you for supplying the get-a-way vehicle, even though we haven’t officially asked you for it yet. We love you! And also for the coming family get-together. Many, many other thanks to come.
• Mandy, Bryan, Jeanine, Beau (again), Mrs. Spitler, Meredith, Mr. and Mrs. Sandlin, Katie and John, Mrs. Robinson, and Cluster B girls- thank you, thank you, thank you for your generous offers to throw showers for us.
• Tiffany and Mother- The ribbon will be fabulous! Who knew I would be receiving fashion assistance all the way from Paris?!
• To the Bridal Party- thank you all for being willing to stand next to us on our big day. We would like to especially thank….
• ANNIE, ANNIE, ANNIE- We love you, ANNIE. We acknowledge that without your name in this post, we may never have seen tomorrow. So here you go- everyone, ANNIE MARIA PETRELLA of Tucker, Georgia, is a wonder, a doll, and a dream.
• Mike, Will, Ashley, Christie, and Tay for putting up with constant wedding talk. Let’s hear it for the roomies!
• Finally, big thanks to God for allowing us to do this and for all of the wonderful people He’s placed in our lives.

Please do not consider this to be your final thank you from us. You were on our minds as we racked our brains for our first post, so we thought we should indulge ourselves.

Be on the look-out for future posts, including such topics as Bridal Party featurettes, updates on the planning, and all the ways we can squeeze the life out of our brown and blue color combo. See you soon!