Heart, heart, heart.

Hi all! Well, I hope you love Valentine's day just as much as I do because I am not ashamed to have a cheesy Valentine's blog background! :) I'm so excited about getting to be in an elementary class during V-Day, because we'll get to do the whole Valentine's Post Office thing! I am most definitely making Valentines for all my kiddos! I simply adore Valentine's Day. I don't know why. It's not that I love the super romantic take-you-on-a-fancy-date-just-to-impress-you kind of thing...I just love all the cute stuff at Target! And apparently I buy lots of it too! :) Leave a comment if you do too! :)

Anyway, I just realized that 2009 begins my THIRD YEAR of blogging! WHOA! I can't believe I've been blogging that long! I remember when I first started! Crazy. Well wahoo!

Brrr...

Today was freezing AND we had a teensy bit of "precipitation." You know what that means! The whole town shut down! I love living in a town that freaks out about a little cold weather and uses any excuse to pull out fancy titles such as "Ice Storm 2004." So, today I reaped the wonderful benefits of that--school was closed! Which meant I got to sleep in, spend a wonderful morning sitting around in my PJs, and then finally got to catch up on some of my lesson plans in the afternoon. Throw in a little fun with friends at the end of the day and YAY! I needed this oh-so-lovely day! It was like a mini vacation.

Well speaking of mini vacations, sorry I haven't been on the blog-o-sphere for a few weeks! Lots of things have been going on though! The biggest thing is that I started Student Teaching! It's wonderful! My mentor teacher is simply amazing and her teaching style is similar to mine/what I aspire to, so it's very easy to mesh in and work with her class. My only complaint about student teaching is that I hate having to go to bed so early! :) I miss being a night owl.

Weddings on the weekends have been a little draining, and my last one until May is this coming weekend! I'm so glad I made the wise decision of not taking any more weddings until I graduated. I'm not sure if I could have handled it all! But come May, I'm booked with weddings for almost every weekend until the end of August! I'm so thrilled and blessed. It's going to be busy, and I just can't wait!

Let's see what else is new? Well I don't want to bore you to death with in-depth musings. Life is good. I've been re-reading the Christy Miller college series (Cherith, that's for you!) and they are like my little escape after a day full of crazy kiddos. Want some good music? My new favs are Brooke Fraser's album Albertine, Taylor Swift's new CD Fearless, Sufjan Steven's Michigan album, and Coldplay's Viva la Vida!

Well it's bed time for me! G'night!

A slice of Happiness.

The days after Christmas were just as sweet as the days before! My family took off to Dallas on the 26th to spend time with my brother and sister-in-law. It was such a great time! My parents and I stayed at the Gaylord Texan (Hey guys, let's go Gaylording!) which was so much fun! I get a kick out of staying in fancy hotels! The whole place was decked out for Christmas! I love Christmas. :)

So the whole trip was filled with good times with the fam including Christmas Dinner, Christmas light looking, and shopping (I bought a coat and a swimsuit in one day. Yes, weird.). The last day, I split with the fam to go shoot a wedding in Ft. Worth. It was a crazy fast paced day, but the wedding was beautiful! I've started editing the photos and they are awesome! Have a look on Facebook...I've uploaded some new ones!

This day before New Years eve, I'm at Starbucks, editing all my dear little photos. I've also found a new respect and love for Coldplay. I've never been too much into them, but now I am! Their short album Prospekt's March is rocking my world!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

What a happy day! I just love Christmas. I hope yours was wonderful.

So today ends the Christmas Countdown! :) I woke up and had a feast of cinnamon rolls (my fam always gets Grandy's cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning) that were delicious. Then we got ready for the "Casey Christmas 2008." Every year, my grandparents have ALLL of us Casey kids, cousins, aunts, uncles, grand kids, great grand kids, and such over for Christmas dinner and a pick-steal Christmas present thing. You know, commonly called Yankee swap, Chinese Christmas, Dirty Christmas...it seems like every person I meet has a different name for it. Where did all these names come from? Anyway...

Last year we had the Casey Christmas at Prime Time, a local family fun center. This year we did the same thing. The exciting thing here is that Prime Time is closed Christmas day, meaning the whole huge Casey side of the family gets the place to ourselves (yes, we have connections). Free games, free bowling, free drinks, free go-karts, free lazer tag, free putt-putt, free pool. Yeah, it's AWESOME! So we got there about lunch time, ate, stole presents from each other (I ended up with a Chick-fil-a gift card--yeah!), and then PLAYED GAMES! Man. So fun. It really brings the family together too. :)

After being gamed out, six or so hours later, we left, smiling, and headed home where I got to spend some time with my lovely best friend, Emily! It was so great to see her! We exchanged Christmas gifts, and then just caught up! Emily is so special to me...we've actually been friends since we were born! Literally, and even though we don't live in the same town anymore, we still keep up and make time to visit! That kind of friendship is priceless to me, and I don't know many people who have a friend like that. I'm so blessed! :)

Merry Christmas Day! :)

The Christmas Eve of Christmas Countdown 2 0 0 8!

Merry Christmas Eve friends!

This day was just all around wonderful! Let me share the ingredients of this wonderful day with you:

1/2 tsp   Sleep til Noon

3 tsp      Wrap more Christmas presents!

1 cup      Hang out with Scott and give him his kick-tush Christmas present (a Sufjan Stevens                          VINYL record!)

2/3 cup Beltway Christmas Eve Candlelight Service (simply beautiful)

1 gal       Open Christmas presents with the fam!!

Keep reading if you want the long version, otherwise Merry Christmas Eve! :)

Yay! It was such a wonderful day! I did sleep til noon, but that was because I stayed up til 4 AM the night before editing photos and re-fabulous-ifying my website! Go look! New logo, new pictures...I'm so proud! Anyway, when I did wake up, I hung out around the house with my mom, wrapping presents, drinking coffee, and enjoying the day. Scott got off work early and so he came over and I gave him his awesome Christmas present-- a Sufjan Stevens Vinyl record! It was awesome and he loved it! :) Then we ran around town and met with huge success as we tried to get his costume for his family Christmas (they all dress up at Christmas for a family picture...different? yeah, but definitely funny!). 

Later that night, my parents and I went to Beltway's Christmas Eve candlelight service. It was such a beautiful time, I hardly feel like trying to describe it because I know I just won't do the sweet time justice. Let me just say, the Lord spoke His love over me...and it was such a gift! There are a few song lines that we sang tonight that have just been so powerful to me:

(from Amazing Grace)

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear

And grace my fears relieved

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed.

I really understand those first two lyrics now...I've lived them. As I sang them, the truth of grace was so powerful and undeniable. Grace is a beautiful mystery! 

As we left the service and headed home, my family and I were so content and joyful. It was lovely! A little later, my brother and sister-in-law came over and we opened Christmas presents! Oh how fun! I LOVED the gifts that I got everyone this year, and it was so fun to watch them open their presents! I, as well, received so many cool gifts from them, including a vintage camera, an owl lamp, and a necklace from Anthropologie! :)

To top it off, right now I'm listening to Amy Grant's Home For Christmas album (which I grew up listening/dancing to). Hearing those familiar songs and thinking back on the blessed memories attached to the songs just brings joy to my heart. Check out the songs "Emmanuel God with Us" and "O Come All Ye Faithful." They are a couple of my favorites.

Anyway, I'm also glad to say that I totally love my hair now! :) And I'll be posting pictures of it soon, so don't worry! :)

Merry Christmas Eve! God is with us!

Christmas Countdown! The Short Version of 2 Days Away!

It is SO late...so here's the short version (like my hair now ha!).

Christmas-y things: Tonight my family and I drove around a looked at Christmas lights! Yay! Then we came home and ate a lovely dinner and watched the Polar Express! 

Told you it would be short! :)

P.S. The total hair changing process is now finished! Today I went back to get some high and low lights put in. It looks awesome! I'm getting much more used to my short hair, and am liking it!

Merry Christmas!

3 Days Left! Christmas Countdown 2 0 0 8

I drove home late tonight with the most gorgeous night sky as my companion. It was simply breathtaking with the dark blues contrasting the swiftly moving grey clouds. The moon lit it all up, causing the sky to take on a much more ethereal mood. This lovely sight was relieving to take in; Today was a day of massive change. I don't really feel the need to explain it all in great detail, but a while ago I decided to cut my hair and give it to Locks of Love, and today I actually went through with the plan. Maybe it sounds like no big deal, but it was to me personally.

10 inches. TEN inches. Ten inches. 10.

I cut off ten inches. Going to the beauty shop on this blustery winter day with my mom and sharing the excitement and thrill was an absolute blast! So much fun! I loved the experience and I loved how my hair turned out. But of course, it's going to take some getting used to, and that's been sort of difficult. I keep exclaiming to myself, "I can't believe you cut off all your hair!" Crazy. But I'm glad I did it. It's such a great feeling knowing that my hair will be used to make someone's life a little brighter. :) :) Let's just hope I get used to my short hair quickly!

Anyway, on to the Christmas-y thing of today! I initiated Scott into my Christmas tradition by making him watch "Fay's 12 Days of Christmas" with me! Oh I just knew a guy with his kind of humor would really appreciate that video, and he did! :) 

Merry Christmas!