New Year

2012-Wahoo!
Look at me-posting less than two weeks after my last post. Could it be that my New Years resolution is to post more than once a month? I am not going to answer that.. because to make a resolution and not follow through sounds like failure, and I would like to just make a good solid effort and if I do it, great, if I don't-maybe next year!

This weekend we are in Nashville, TN hanging out with the Caswells, watching the NFL playoff games (let's move on from that sensitive subject-), and going to meetings!!
Jason had a meeting with the TAPA. (Tennessee Association of Physician's Assistants). He represents South College as a voting board member. Can you tell I am a proud wife?
The first week after we got back from our major travels over the holiday Jason attended a cadaver lab in Johnson City, TN. The lab went with the GROSS Anatomy class he took last quarter. I always stress the word GROSS.

Reader beware: this may get a little lovey dovey... 

While he was gone, I had to spend the whole week without him. It was rough--the first time we had been apart since July! At first I thought-"Well, this is great! I can do all the things I can't do when Jason is here..."
Watch chick flicks, read all day long, be super crafty, leave things out when I am temporarily done with them so I can easily pick up there later, wait to unpack (he likes to get it done within minutes of walking in the door-obviously I like to wait a few days..), go out to eat, eat jelly beans for dinner, stay in my pajamas ALL day, etc. 
Well, it took all of one hour for me to wish that he was there making me feel guilty for not unpacking my suitcase-but to avoid getting mushy on a blog, just know that he was very much missed.

          On the last day before he returned (which, rest assured, I spent cleaning the whole day after I got home from work) I was inspired by a story I read to meditate on the fact that marriage is to be a reflection of what Christ has done for the Church-lay down his life. In the same way we are called to lay down our lives for our spouse. As I was preparing for Jason's return and looking back on the activities (and nonactivities-see pajamas all day) that I had done for the past week, I was overwhelmed with the feeling that the things I have sacrificed, laid down, in order to gain a life of marriage and union that is a reflection of Christ and the Church, pale in comparison to the things I have gained by having a loving, supportive, faith (and fun!) filled man as a partner for the rest of my life. My heart swells with the love I have for him, and I am humbled by the thought that as much as I feel for him, Christ feels infinitely more for the least of his people. 

How great is our God! 

Happy New Year!

Seasons greetings!
Wow! December went by so fast!
My semester wasn't over until December 22, but Jason had about a week after his killer week of finals to relax. Of course, relaxing for him includes studying for hours a day, sleeping until 6:40 am, cooking, cleaning, and catching up on other things around the house. Sounds relaxing, right?

December 22 we took off for Nashville. We had an overwhelming "Christmas Eve" dinner that night, then woke up the next day, and celebrated Christmas morning!!! We got tons of great stuff from the Caswells-and Santa! Jason's parents got new stockings for the whole family this year- Saints for the boys and Vera Bradley for the girls- check it out.. SO CUTE!
After another gouging of more incredible food, we took off again on the journey to Saint Louis.

We spent the night at Grandma Dee's playing games. The next day we got to spend some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa Platten.
Click here for a hilarious video of Grandma and Grandpa Platten and K&J Caswell
That night, of course we went to the annual Platten Family Christmas Eve Bash. We played Reindeer Games. (HA HA- see picture below!)

The next day we went to my Uncle Kevin's house for the Christmas Day party for my mom's side of the family.

Luckily the Legrands were able to meet us for lunch as we were leaving Saint Louis, for our annual Legrand/Platten Christmas lunch. It was full of laughter and good memories, and of course missing Jonathan, Laura, Hayden and the kids.

After driving to Nashville just in time to watch the Saints play, we got to sleep because we had to catch a flight to New Orleans in the morning. It was an easy flight, and Jason's Godmother picked us up at the airport. The days in New Orleans were filled with extremely filling food, fun games, quality time with family, and making memories. Jason's grandparents are such special people, and we are so blessed that we were able to spend time with them this week.
We also took a trip to Abita Springs, LA to tour the Abita Brewery. We had a group of about 25! We also went to the famous Acme Oyster House, the French Quarter, and the French Market. One night we celebrated the birthday of Jason's Uncle Dennis-and the whole week it seemed we were celebrating the exciting news of the engagement of cousins Jeff and Nadja.

The only thing at Acme Oyster House for a girl who doesn't eat any type of seafood. 

Unfortunately on New Year's Eve we had to fly back to Nashville- so we missed the Gravois family New Year Celebration. But we had our own celebration. Maybe it sounds lame to you, but we spent it exactly as we wanted... We were home by 8, in our pajamas by 8:30, drank hot chocolate, played rummikub on the floor, and watched the ball drop.

When we got to Nashville the Caswells had left us champagne, 2 flutes, and 2 Happy New Year hats. They are so thoughtful!!


2011 has honestly been the best year of our lives. We wait with joyful anticipation of all the blessings that are to come through our most Gracious God in 2012. I hope your holidays have been filled with as much family, friends, and blessings as ours.

A Funny Story

So, most of you know that my new job is very tough. Today I drove home laughing the whole way about something that happened at school. The laughter was so therapeutic that I had to share it- and record it for when I am wondering why the heck I signed up for this.

I have a student who I refer to as my "special project." I love this kid to death, but he cannot control his behavior sometimes. It is not uncommon for him to yell out, be extremely disruptive, try to get out of work, and he tends to use bad language. He is being reinforced for "calm behavior."

Ok, so he and I are working today on reading. He is reading to me because I am going hoarse (now my voice is gone, but that's another story). I picked out an Amelia Bedelia book because he has a good sense of humor and he had never tried that series.

So here is my kiddo, reading along. He comes to a page that reads:

"Throw it to first base," yelled the boys, "Put Dick out."

So Amelia Bedelia threw the ball to first base. 

When he gets to the name "Dick," he stops. I know he can decode it, so I look up.
He says, "Well, I'm afraid to say it.....I think it's a bad word."
This coming from the boy who cusses out his mom.
Then he sits there giggling to himself trying to decide if he should say it or not.
I tried to assure him that it was a name, and that it would be okay to say because it's a name-not a bad word. I told him it was short for Richard. He could not get it through his head that someone could be called that.
So he skipped it, and kept reading. The next two pages had the name on it, too. and he would come to the word, stop, giggle, whisper it under his breath, and continue reading. It was hysterical. He would also stop periodically and ask questions like, "Why would they name someone that?" "How can he be called that?" "I don't understand why that word is a name."
His laughter was contagious. Such a refreshingly positive interaction!

I love fourth graders! (Today...)

Thanksgiving

This year we decided to so something crazy. We have missed both of our families so much that we wanted to work it out to see everyone over the break. Our plan: leave Knox Tuesday after school. Drive straight to Nashville for a birthday celebration with Jason's family (see last post). Cook-out at Derek's house on Wednesday. Thanksgiving lunch with Jason's family Thursday afternoon, then quickly get in the car and drive to Memphis Thursday night for dinner with my family. The girls shop until they drop (literally) on black friday-the real holiday in my family. Saturday pack up and head back to Nashville in time to watch the bulldogs beat up on the "black bears." Sunday-reluctantly head back to Knoxville and get ready for a long week at school.

We realize this plan is crazy busy-but when else will we be able to do this. It might be our last year like this, so we need to take advantage of the opportunity. Who knows where we will be or what Jason's school will be like next fall!

Here are some pictures from our first few days in Nashville:

By the fire pit at the Caswell's..

At the fire pit at the Caswell's.. (notice the puppy Nola)

At Derek's house, getting some love from Brutus..

So when we got to Memphis we were so excited to see my family-and my extended family (my dad's brother John and his family were there, per tradition). 

Jason holding the sweetest new addition to our family (via Laura), Avery.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner and (per tradition) waded through towering stacks of Black Friday ads. This year so many sales started early, that Jason went home with Hayden and the kids, and the sisters (and honorary sister- Becs) started our shopping! 

From Left: Laura, me, Julie, Becs...
Waiting outside of Target

They handed these out in line at Target--pretty tasty too. 

Chaos at Walmart

Poor Mama, waiting in line to CHECK OUT at Kohl's.. 

We spent most of Friday recovering from our all night shopping spree, watching football, and playing games. Back to Nashville on Saturday to catch the biggest game of the year-when MSU beat "The School Up North." (3rd year in a row I might add..)

Although we got caught up in traffic on the way back to Knoxville, all the driving really paid off. We were so happy to have time with our family. It flew by!

What was the first Thanksgiving all about?
Getting out of your comfort zone-Indians and Pilgrims alike. Praising God for all you have with all you have.
That's what our first Thanksgiving is about too.
All we have known for our whole lives is how our individual families celebrate Thanksgiving. Now we are each stepping out of our comfort zone to experience new things with new people. We have learned a lot about each other, our families, and how big our waistband can expand. Plus we spent a lot of time reflecting on all we have to be thankful for this year- in our opinion, we are most thankful for each other-because being together helps us to get through the things that we find hard to thank God for.

Happy Holidays! :) 

So much to be thankful for!

Greetings, friends and family!
Jason and I have so much to be thankful for this year, it would be difficult to list them.
Of course, since Jason just had a birthday last weekend-I should mention how thankful I am that to have him in my life for one more year!

I started his birthday party early-he hates getting his gifts before his particular birth DAY. That doesn't work too well with me because A) I can't keep things like that a secret, and B) I open my gifts and cards as soon as I get them. (He has started hiding even the cards that come in the mail so I won't get to them!)

Anyway, I made him a canvas for our room. It has similar colors to our bedspread. It has a line from a Bob Marley song that we heard almost on repeat during our honeymoon. Pretty much is was this song and One Love played one after another on repeat.

Work in progress-covering the fabric with paint over  letters I hand-cut!

"Don't you worry, about a thing..."
Wish you could see the colors and the background better!

Friday we went to the house of one of Jason's friends from school. We played wii for hours! (After watching the bulldogs win their basketball game at Madison Square Garden.
Saturday we went to lunch at Genghis Grill, then to Menchie's Frozen Yogurt for dessert- gotta love the birthday specials!
The next part of Jason's gift was that he could spend a certain amount at Earthfare. Usually we just walk around with our mouths watering wishing that we could buy all of our groceries at a health food store-but knowing that we could easily spend double the amount we pay at Kroger. Speaking of health food- Jason's brother, Chad, and his wife, Laura, sent him tons of Franola Granola! (to us, Franola Granola stands for two things we love: healthy food, and Fran.)

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with friends, playing games, watching another heart breaker against Arkansas, and relaxing. 

Sunday of course meant back to studying. But it didn't seem so bad going into another week knowing it was just a 2 day week. Hooray!

Enjoy your break! We have big plans! There will be an update on that soon too! 

Feeling Better

Well! There has been a virus going around the Caswell family this week. Monday and Tuesday I was sick, then Thursday and Friday Jason was sick. So now it is Saturday and we are both taking a break by having a relaxing weekend.
October was a fun month. Jason has gotten into the full swing of things at school. In the past 10 days he has had 8 tests! And he only has 4 classes right now! Needless to say, he is very busy studying.
I have been going to a lot of training sessions through my school district. I have learned a lot, but it is hard to miss school-and plan for a sub!

In other news, we have really enjoyed spending time with family friends. We were able to go to a UT game with the LeGrands, and the Moore's have come to Knoxville to see their sweet grandbaby! It is hard being away from family, but it helps when we get to see these friends who are like family to us.

For Halloween we carved pumpkins at Kate and Rob Moore's house. We didn't do any Halloween parties or anything, but we got ready to hand out candy on the big day. Sadly, we only got 1 small group of trick-or-treaters... More candy for me I guess! :)

Here is what we do every year for our pumpkins: We each buy a pumpkin. We carve it so that the other person cannot see it. We have a contest at the end to see who has the best pumpkin. This year, we both did Mario themes. Irony! 

Jason's parents drove through Knoxville on their way to Baltimore to visit his older brother and wife, Chad and Laura. They took us to dinner and dropped off their dog, Layla, for us to watch for the long weekend. It was fun having a dog-but it definitely showed us that our schedules don't allow for pets very well. Genevieve also dropped off something else: a sewing machine! I have been inspired by pinterest, so I am excited to start trying some of the (simple) things I have seen. She also taught me how to use it, although I don't know if I am a very good student.

 Yesterday, Veteran's Day, I had the opportunity to skype my dad's parents so a fifth grade class could interview real WWII veterans. It was so neat showing them off. How wonderful is technology?! Thank you to all who serve, and the families of people who serve. We know what a sacrifice you make, too.

Jason and I cannot wait for the holidays! (and for the holiday BREAK from schools!) Stay warm!

Starting School

Yes, today is worth two posts. 

Jason started school this week! 

He is already swamped by the amount of work he has to do. It is a Saturday afternoon and he is studying. Fortunately its just a 2 year program. I am confident he can make it through these two years. 

Next week is fall break for Knox schools system, so I will be out of school on Thursday and Friday. I will be at training on Monday and Tuesday. I am quickly realizing that it is easier to be at school then to have a sub. 

Please keep us in your prayers as we start this new chapter in our new chapter of life. It is going to be challenging, but with each other, and of course Christ, we will become stronger and come out better in the end. 

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!