Labor day and lazy weekends

It has been quite awhile since Labor Day weekend by now-but we have been doing so many things that we haven't had time to sit down and tell you all the things we have been doing!

For Labor Day weekend we had many guests. Jason's brothers Derek and Brian came in town, along with Brent (a friend from home who just moved to TN), and our friend Mike from Jackson!

Kathleen, Jason, Derek, Brent, Mike, and Brian at the fireworks show.

We heard from many people that "Boomsday" was the biggest holiday in Knoxville so we were happy that we could be here-and bring friends. We spent most of Saturday tailgating with the LeGrands and hanging out downtown during the football game. We checked out some cool places downtown. Sunday we spent more time in West Knox for the morning, then mid afternoon we headed downtown again for the Boomsday Festivities. We went to Calhoun's to find some space by the river for the big fireworks show. It was great! Did it blow my mind like people had promised it would? Not quite-but maybe because it was raining.

The next weekend Jason and I went to First Friday. 

All the art galleries and little shops have an open house. The weather was perfect and it was fun and relaxing. We went to Kate Moore's studio- she is SO talented. 

On the way back to our car there was a concert in Market Square. It was like a 40's swing rock band. The Knoxville swing dance association was giving free swing lessons, too. 

After another full week of school for me and studying for Jason, ending with a LOT of relaxing and catching up on sleep. On Saturday we decided to go to the Knoxville zoo. While I was getting ready, Jason checked their website to see if there was anything fun going on that day at the zoo. Come to find out, it was teacher appreciation day-sponsored by Kroger. It ended soon so we quickly left. Teachers got in free...AND Kroger had a tent of goodies for teachers. We hit the jackpot! 

Plus we had a blast together. We are still adjusting to the geography of the city.. even the zoo had inclines. Quite different from the flat lands of Jackson, Gulfport, Starkville, and Memphis. 

So after a particularly tough week, the generous speech path at my school gave me this chocolate chip cheesecake cupcake. How nice is that? I work with some really great people. 

Anyway, things are going well here. We miss all of our friends and family, but we really like Knox. 

Thanks for keeping up with the Caswells.. 

More guests!

Greetings!
After another week of school, I had a perfect weekend to recharge me for this week!
Julie (one of my sisters) and her boyfriend Andy came in town.  Andy plays waterpolo and there was a tournament in Knoxville this weekend so they met here and stayed with us.
Turns out waterpolo tournaments are totally awesome! You basically get to lay out at the pool and watch really strong athletes play a sport that I can barely follow the rules. Andy's team barely lost in the championship game.

We had a great time with them visiting. It was pretty laid back. Saturday night I went out with the bride-to-be...Shannon (soon to be Moore). It was a bridal girls night out at a "posh night club" in Old City Knoxville. We had so much fun! 

Sunday morning we went to our church's big community day. They cancelled all masses except for one on Sunday at 10. (And one on Saturday in case you can't make it on Sunday). They had a huge outdoor mass. Everyone was encouraged to bring lawn chairs and a picnic lunch for after mass. The priest had an awesome homily. The mass was half spanish/half english to promote unity between the two parish communities. All week leading up to the mass there was 24/7 adoration where everyone was invited to spend an hour in prayer for our parish. We were also encouraged to take a name/address of a parishioner to visit at their home to introduce ourselves, tell them we are praying for them, and invite them to the special mass. 

All in all it was a wonderful weekend. I already can't wait until next year's outdoor mass!

First weeks of School!

Wow! 

The last two weeks have been exhausting and exhilarating!
I have started school! Today was the first day of week two with students. So far it has been challenging, but pretty good. I think next week I might actually make it home before 5:00! The kids are great, but it is indescribably difficult to juggle the schedules of 25 IEP students, making sure there is time for all related services (PT, AT, OT, SLS, etc.) and all their daily classroom activities. Plus, it seems like every day someone brings me a new student. I am just starting to get the hang of it, though! I am starting to feel much better about it all. And I love them all so it makes it all worth it. :)

Kathleen on the first day of school!

Here are some pictures of my classroom. Big thanks to Jason and my TA's who helped pull it all together. Obviously, my theme is a patriotic theme.

A few things have changed since I took the pictures. The rest of the wall space I expect will be filled up soon with tons of things my kiddos do and learning charts too! I love the school where I am teaching. Everyone there is very helpful and even the administrators are extremely approachable. I am so blessed that I landed a job at this school. I have a lot to learn from the wonderful people on my team! 

Meanwhile, Jason and I have had a great time exploring some more of Knoxville! 

Last weekend we went to "The Teacher Supply Depot." It is a WONDERFUL system that PTA does for Knox County School teachers! They take office supplies, donations, and gently used teacher items and 4 times a year they open the doors at 7 am and teachers line up to get in there and take everything they can carry. They even take big supplies- I got an office chair (SOO comfortable!) and an awesome cubby system for my classroom, along with tons of other things. 

We heard the good stuff goes early, so Jason (knowing that anything I get free won't come out of our budget) graciously woke up with me at 3:45 am to get in line at the school across the street. I was number 25!!!! That means I got to go in the very first group through!! It took about 3 hours. Then my incredible husband came back to pick me up and help me pack my stuff into the car. 

The line ahead--I loved the people we were near--other sped teachers!

The line after--a little before 7! When I left the depot with my goodies for my class, they were giving out the ticket for 225!

Afterward we headed downtown to go to the farmer's market in Market Square. We had a great time wandering around, enjoying the day. We love Market Square! Then we walked to the "Old City" to try some yummy cupcakes at a new cupcake store, Scrumps. They had a sampling as a debut! 

After the first week of school, we had  three wonderful guests- Jason's mom, dad, and brother Derek. Thanks for the visit! (Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of us showing them around.) - but it was a blast!

A Special Guest, Wedding Pictures, and Videos

We had our first guest! 

We were so happy to show off our clean, relatively organized apartment. Then we unloaded my mom's van of wedding gifts and boxes left behind in Memphis-and we were immediately overwhelmed again. 

Luckily, my mom didn't mind too much when we put her straight to work. 

We finally have a kitchen table! Although we still don't have much room for it... 

As a reward for her hard work and long travels, Jason and I prepared a big meal! Jason grilled chicken, I made a special green bean recipe (which included fresh hand picked peaches!), and I made a special dessert. I made watermelon sorbet from scratch! We did more than eat though...We also went to see Jason's new school, my classroom, our new parish, Turkey Creek, and the World's Fair Park. Then we wandered into Market Square and accidently found Shakespeare in the Park (and Rita's Italian Ice!)

I'll admit, it doesn't look as good as it tasted, but I assure you we fought over the left overs the next day. 

Made from scratch watermelon sorbet

Not to mention the fact that we managed to summon all of our will power to resist eating the last of our home-made-from-scratch-with-hand-picked-peaches peach cobbler that we made earlier this week.

Here are a few pictures from that:

It would have been nice to have a picture of the finished product before we took huge hunks out of it, but if you could smell it, you would understand there was no time for pictures. 

In other news! 

Some of you may have heard word of more pictures from the wedding-

Well, we got a disc (3) with over 1000 pictures. We narrowed it down to a solid 740. Ok.. I know you think that's extreme, and honestly you don't have to look at all of them-we won't be offended! But Christen Jones is so talented that they all turned out so well! 

Wedding Pictures Web Album

Meanwhile, there is two videos you need to see. 

First, is the video that summarizes the wedding day. It is a short video but John Michael Hailey caught so many moments that give you a clear picture of what the day was like. We are so grateful that he was there to get all of this on camera and for the time and effort he put into putting it together. It is priceless!

Kathleen and Jason Wedding Day - Video by John Michael Hailey

Second, is the Hands Prayer, which was featured at our wedding. Some people have been asking about it. We heard the prayer at our marriage prep weekend retreat in Jackson, MS. We fell in love with it there and knew we wanted it incorporated into our wedding. John Michael Hailey did an awesome job throughout the day of capturing the hands that have offered us immeasurable support. 

Hands Prayer- Video by John Michael Hailey

Let us know what you think! 

Married One Month and Everything is Peachy!

Yesterday we celebrated our one month anniversary! We are so happy to finally be settled into Knoxville. After the wedding we spent time in Jackson, Jamaica, Gulfport, Memphis, Nashville, then FINALLY Knoxville.
We have been trying to get all of our stuff unpacked and get ready for the upcoming school year. In our free time we have been doing some exploring of Knoxville and looking for any excuse to use our wedding presents!
On Friday, my friend Katie from Catholic Heart came over and went to the pool with me. Then Jason and I went to Turkey Creek for the night, which is an extremely nice shopping center. It has just about anything you can imagine there.
As we were pulling out of Target:
K: Hey, that looks like a frozen yog-
J: WE'RE GOING. (already halfway to a parking spot.)
Needless to say, we were very excited to find a frozen yogurt place close to our apartment.

Saturday we were excited to use our new electric griddle to make pancakes! 

After we waited for the weather to cool off a bit, we took a trip to The Fruit and Berry Patch, just outside of Knoxville. We had a lot of fun going through the rows of peaches. It reminded us of our favorite orchard in Starkville, MS- Reese Orchard... and of course our favorite orchard farmer- David!

We filled up our little basket with peaches. Then when we went to check out, our taste buds led us to buy a strawberry fruit slushy, a sugar free apple pie, and (sweetened with splenda) apple butter.

Sunday we got to go to mass at our new parish. That night we went to the Double A baseball game-Tennessee Smokies! They feed into the Chicago Cubs. 

After the game there was a free Christian concert with Sidewalk Prophets and Chris August. We had a very good time. the weather was perfect. We enjoy going to baseball games so it was a perfect date!

Sidewalk Prophets

Chris August

We spent a lot of time on Monday and Tuesday getting ready for my mom's visit to Knoxville and starting to get my classroom set up for the school year. We encountered a lot of critters, but we also uncovered a ton of useful stuff. I can't wait for the school year to start! 

Like a good wife....

Tonight was the first night I cooked something for Jason that didn't already come in a bag. By his request I made a favorite from my childhood....spaghetti and beans! We made it a little different, but it tasted better than I remember!
My mom used to make this for me when I stayed home from school sick because I was the only other one in the family who liked it. It was our special treat.
I kept thinking about that song "The Good Stuff," when he talks about "eating burnt suppers the whole first year, and asking for seconds to keep her from tearing up..." I was quite scared that would be Jason tonight, but it turned out ok, aside from the tomato sauce splatters on the ceiling...

Official Residency and Power Tools

Yesterday Jason and I went to the TN DMV. After waiting for 3 hours we finally got processed! I got my name changed and a new TN license with my new address, and Jason became a TN resident. Although it was an incredibly long wait, the people were actually really nice and helpful. Overall a pleasant experience. Especially because I remembered my Kindle and I am really into my book.


Then we spent a ton of time going to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond and finishing up our registry. That took so long that we could barely carry it all to the apartment from the car when we got home.

One of our favorite things we got at Target is a power drill! We were instantly glad we did because so many of the things we bought needed to be assembled. That kept Jason busy most of the day since I was at my orientation for my new school district. I got lots and lots of information about all kinds of insurance and benefits and rules and regulations...
But look what I saw when I got lost on the way! They already named a road after us and we haven't even been here a week!

So tonight after a huge trip to Kroger (approximately 2 minutes away!!), we set to work on 2 projects. Jason put together a storage/bench for our bedroom, while I worked on organizing the guest bathroom and getting it ready for our first guest!

This is hanging in the guest bathroom... it's a gift from  Danny Brough

We ended the night with a frozen drink made in our new Ninja! It's so much fun using all of our wedding gifts!