Whatever is Wonderful about the Weekend which I will now Recap on a Tuesday.

Sorry guys, I have no excuse. Haha. Things have been wonderful, obvi, because when are they not in the life of a future McCaslin? Wonderful, but sickly and boring. I don't have a lot of updates! I'll go through, day by day, just to make sure I don't miss any hilarity. So when was the last post? About subbing on Monday, yes. So beginning with Tuesday....

3/20 - The Jace Man came over to my house to play because his babysitter was sick. Talk about some fun times. He is just one of the best behaved toddlers I've ever met. I can't believe he's two! If these are Jace's attempt at the Terrible Two's...I might kidnap him around age 5. He was just so sweet. He napped twice, ate all his lunch and breakfast, played by himself when I needed him to, and got bored of watching TV after about half an hour. He's a wonder child. We kicked around a soccer ball and read every book in the house, not to mention swung on the swing and played with Blue, the cat. There was a wasp in the house all day and we both chose to ignore it. I was really worried that it would come out from its hiding spot while Jace was napping and wake him up, and/or scare him and/or me to death. By the way, did you know I almost never kill bugs? There's a fun piece of Mary Lou trivia. On the surface, I'm really not afraid of bugs...I can handle them if I have to. You've seen my Critters posts and heard the story of the enormo cricket in my bed. I don't, however, enjoy getting close to bugs if I can help it. I kill them from a distance if I can, and if I can't, well, I'll probably just ignore them and hope they go away. Depending on the potential harm they pose me. Anything with stingers? I'm probably just going to let them run the house and hope they find an open window or the hole they came in. Last week there was a wasp inside, and I just left the house for two hours hoping it would die or leave in that space of time. I'm not a fan of angering the critters that could potentially hurt me. Wasps are the boss of me and I'm not afraid to say it! Eventually the one in the house committed suicide in a flourescent kitchen light, thank heavens!

We did some of this...

A lot of this...

And even an occasional smile! He likes me! He really really likes me!

3/21 - Jace Man again, and equally as fun on Day Two. Same activities, except this time we also drew pictures and threw a baseball in the backyard. I was amazed he could manage to nap twice in such a noisy house. There were roofers fixing some wind damage to the roof all day, but he slept right through all the banging and hammering. He could, but the house sure couldn't! At one point the roofers hammered so hard that a light fixture came clattering to the floor in my bathroom. Luckily it was a light fixture that doesn't work, so there wasn't much of a loss there. Still! Crazy hammering fools! Also, my boyfriend took me out to dinner in Dyersburg and we got two free cookies and had lots of fun together. It's been so boring this week and last not seeing him! Matt just started a 2nd job (hopefully short-lived, because 60-70 hours a week is crazy talk) and it meant I didn't see him until 10:00 every night, except Wednesday! Thus it became date night.

3/22 + 23 - Thursday and Friday were both uneventful. Friday was yet another sick day for Miss Lara, who spent the whole weekend on medication to keep her fever and coughing at bay. Here's what's tough, putting the kids to bed all by myself three nights in a row. It was really sad. Thomas and Lara weren't sad about me putting them to bed, but it's just not something I feel is my job...for this reason, I made them stay up late enough to say goodnight to Daddy on Friday and Saturday, when sleep mattered less. It was pretty doggone late, but I just felt lonely tucking them in all by myself. I hope it doesn't become a regular occurence!

Digging the St. Patty's day gift from Gram and Granddad Secules!

Oh also, we made one heck of a tent in the den.

The McCaslin family is serious about tenting. Lara models the comfortable seating arrangements inside the front door.

There was even a secret compartment behind a wall of couch cushions where the kids could hide...from I don't know what!

3/24 - Was a fun day out for the kids, although I think the lack of sleep made them pretty darn testy. Also, Lara still wasn't 100% healthy, making the whole day a bit strenuous on her little body. We went to a wonderful place in Yorkville called Todd Family Fun Farm for an Easter Egg Hunt, and let me tell you...it was a great place. It was too cold for an outdoor Easter Egg Hunt, and it kept looking like rain, but we still had fun and got free food and candy! The only serious problem with it was that there were prize drawings for collecting a certain number of eggs...and Thomas was the very last of the prize-winners to choose a prize. Would have been totally fine, except there were only two very girly stuffed animals available to choose from. It ended in tears, justifiably. I wouldn't have been able to cope if I waited that long thinking I'd get a cool prize as well. After that we played on the playground, which took everyone's minds off the lame prize giveaway and was crazy fun. We went from Todd Farm to Nanny's house for play time for los bambinos and Look at Baby Pictures of Matthew for the adults of the crowd. Isn't that everyone's favorite hobby? Yes, I think so. Especially when your fiance was so cute as a tot.

Taking pictures of Thomas is a study in disappearing feet.

The best part was our next stop, McDonald's to see Daddy on his lunch break. It was lots of fun and made up for the fact that I didn't get to spend any time with him the whole whole day long. He had to leave pretty much as soon as we got there to go back to work, but at least we got to see him! And the kids got non-stupid Happy Meal toys, which is always a bonus!

3/24 - We ended up skipping church to attend a birthday party for Matthew's stepbrother at his dad's house. We gave him a homemade gift certificate for a free oil change, which everyone thought was very clever. Matt's idea, my handiwork and coloring expertise. We make a good team ^_^ So I think we're going to get married.

3/25 Yesterday I went on a three mile walk and got bitten by a dog. Also Matthew went to the doctor for his leg and they put him back on another nerve medication to see if this helps any better than the last million things the doctors have tried to take away his pain. Man oh man. Those were really the only notable things that happened yesterday. Also, my FMIL had a successful surgery and made it home. Also, my dad turned [old] and got a cool cake from my sister! And homemade cards from his stepgrandchildren (mouthhhh full, we're going to have to just go with plain old grandchildren) and hopefully a card from his daughter will be arriving today?

Last but not least of the tent pictures, a foot going inside to explore!

Goodness. Now I've updated everybody on the last million years in which I haven't had internet access at the right time so couldn't post anything. 

Into the Lion's Den We Go!

Yesterday finally arrived! I didn't know then that yesterday was what I had been waiting for, but I knew once it got there! At round about 9:00 AM Monday morning, I received a call - hooray! from Mckenzie Elementary School's beloved secretary Ms. Derrinda. She asked me to come sub for a 2nd grade classroom for a half day! What an absolutely perfect way to experience being in a classroom for the first time - half a day on a Monday afternoon. I cleaned myself up, put on a pretty 2nd grade appropriate dress (which, let's be honest, is my whole wardrobe because I am a 2nd grader at heart. 2nd grade was the best year in elementary school for me. Thank youuuu Mrs. McClung!), and headed out the door to the big bad Mckenzie Elementary School! I got lost, and I'm not ashamed to tell you that. I had directions and everything, but I still had to go into the Middle School to ask how to get to the Elementary School. Don't wanna talk about it.

Anyway, it was absolute trial by fire! I learned an incredible amount from being in a classroom for a few hours. Like, for example, don't trust the teacher to have spare pencils that work -_- We lost a good 25 minutes of class time because nobody could sharpen their pencils. Curse you RoseArt! Why are you still in business! Your products are rubbish! Seriously though, who has ever gone cheap and bought RoseArt over Crayola and been really impressed? That's right, nobody. Because they are rubbish. Lesson 1 from the 2nd graders: Bring pencils, and a sharpener in case the one in the classroom also leaves a bit to be desired.

Really I would like to blame the whole day's crazed atmosphere on the pencils. Because really, how much of a student's attention can you expect to hold if they have nothing to do their work with? Aside from that, there weren't a lot of serious problems. The computer logged me out of the kids' online math textbook, so we had to do the Math Lesson the old-fashioned way...still on a computer though. It just didn't have an animated cartoon to go with it. What a shame that we didn't get to reaffirm the students' ADD in school that day! I can see myself already turning into one of those technophobes that thinks all the computer animated nonsense will be the death of us. ^_^

Due to the lack of order over pencils and math, we moved at a very slow pace. I'm ready for next time though! If today wasn't a Hang Out with the Jace Man day, I would be all over town applying to sub for other districts as well. The pay is doo doo, but the experience is completely integral! Especially for someone like me, who needs to experience all different grade levels so I can choose a concentration in college.

If any Tennesseans read this blog and know of a school district that has friendly students and needs subs, let me know! I'm too enthusiastic about it to just stay in one group of schools! Hahah.

See Y'all ;)
TFMM

Weekend Recap

It has been an event-filled few days, to say the least! Firstly, it turns out we did not make it out of the Pink Eye Warzone unscathed. On Friday, Thomas stayed home from school with me, and Sarah picked up Lara early from school because she was complaining about her eyes as well. It's ridiculous how stuff like that can just go around and around inside of a school if we aren't careful! But don't worry, at least our family is being very VERY careful. Hopefully we've seen the last of those crazy swollen faces! They're much cuter without goo running out of their eyes, aren't they?

With breakfast and some remnant goo

It's a progression of cuteness, as he gets more and more awake.

Playing a really neat game that's on Seussville.com based on Green Eggs and Ham.

And then we watched a Veggietales movie!

And thennnn....

Well, since Thomas and I had such a long day to hang out together on Friday, I was going to devote a whole post to the fun stuff we got to do. That's not how it worked out, though, since Lara came home from school two hours early. So now I'll just show you/tell you about the nifty stuff the Three Musketeers did together on Friday afternoon!

We made bunches and bunches of cookies. They were soooo good. Green in honor of St. Patrick's Day on Saturday! But then we ran out of green icing, so we switched to pink...in honor of Lara! She likes pink! As you can see ^_^ They sort of turned into "The Cookies for Boys" and "The Cookies for Girls," and everyone kind of forgot about the St. Patrick's Day aspect. That's okay though because they were probably some of the best cookies I've ever had. We did well.

Saturday came around quickly thereafter, as it so often does! I got another full day of one-on-two time with the FSB's (Future Step Babies) - actually it was only a half day technically - because Matthew had to go to Wal-Mart for his orientation. This gave Thomas and Lara and I some wonderful opportunities for unbridled playtime on the Kinect Adventures game we all love, and outside with bubbles, and Play-Doh: all the things that Matt doesn't really enjoy the mess of or the hassle of getting out! That's what good babysitters are for, right? Matthew arrived back at the house for a late lunch before Nanny came to pick up the kids for a grandkid sleepover night. Sleepover Night is code for Thomas and Lara are sleeping at Nanny's house to give Matt and Mary the chance to do something for grownups on a Saturday night. Which, to be honest, we don't ever have much desire to do, but we had scheduled grown up fun last weekend anyway. Grown Up Fun for us meant going on a long motorcycle ride with Matt's cousin Wheeler, his wife Amanda, his stepbrother Jay, and his girlfriend Holly to Jackson where we got Chili's and just hung out without having to worry about bedtime or the kids staying up too late. It was jolly good fun! I hope we get to do it again soon. Wheeler and Jay are hilarious...poor Amanda and Holly weren't feeling to well, so they seemed a bit out of sorts. I'm sure they're crazy fun when they're at full health though! You'd have to be to be married/dating those guys :) Slash friends with my fiance, because he's tons of fun.



Sunday was the day to really get stuff done. "Day of Rest" applied only in that we didn't go out grocery shopping or anything! Matt mowed his whoooole lawn while I washed the weekend dishes and cleaned up the house in general. It feels so good to walk into a clean room sometimes! I'm the first to admit that tidiness is not the most important priority in a household, but when it finally gets reined it, it just looks purdy! We also took apart the engine block on the Datsun (I helped, oooohhh yeah - say it like the Kool Aid guy), and Matt took that to Dyersburg with him yesterday to get it repaired or parts for it or something that it needed. I can't quite claim mastery in engine mechanics yet. I'm so totally getting there though. As an example, yesterday I watched the movie Keith because Netflix told me I should. In the film, Keith is a high school senior, classic truck enthusiast who wins the heart of Natalie by...well, by being really weird, basically. Anyway, one of the ways that he courts her is by taking her to the shop where he has some work done on the his old Chevy truck. Natalie is unimpressed, so Keith sends her an engine-related gift in the next scene. And believe you me, I ALMOST shouted at the TV, "That's a carburetor rebuild kit!" but I didn't have time before the girl on the movie screen read the note from Keith saying it was, indeed, a carburetor and a rebuild kit. I was really, really impressed with myself. Ask me what a carburetor does, and I've got nothing. But I can identify one! So that's something! By the way, the Datsun is just a shell of a car right now - in case anyone was wondering. There's nothing under the hood, no hood for that matter, no wheels, and no interior. I think that's probably good because now the only direction to go is to put stuff back in! Which gets it closer to being driveable. Terribly exciting.

That was the weekend guys! I have two more whole posts to write, but they're about yesterday and today. I don't wanna crowd this post with any of that Weekday Junk! It's called a Weekend Recap for a reason. Don't be so greedy :)

Whatever is Wonderful...Thursday

Sorry folks, again I am a day late on my hardly regular Wednesday post. This time I have a better excuse, though, because the internet was down litttt-er-all-y all day. Sounds incredibly frustrating (trust me, it was...especially with the job and college applications on which I spend most of my productive hours working), but really it spurred on the wonderfulness of yesterday:
1. The lack of productivity inside the house kept pushing me outside and outside and outside! Oh boy was it ever worth it! Just now I am watching the sunrise outside the back of the house on the back porch. The whole weather and look of things reminds me very much of this:

Which is great.

2. I got a sunburn yesterday. This is one of my tricky ones that doesn't sound all that wonderful until the explanatory process is finished. Here's why it was wonderful: it was March 14th. In the middle of March, I was able to go on a walk at 11:30 AM in 80 degree weather with a gentle breeze. My walk lasted a bit longer than an hour...I think about 3 or 4 miles, and I have a nice bit of color on my cheeks and shoulders. It feels great. Also, I made a new friend on my walk!

He stuck around with me for about 1/2 a mile before he stopped in the middle of the road and watched me keep on walking. He said he was very sorry, but he's not allowed to go any further from his house, so enjoy my walk and have a great day. Haha, I have another closer picture of him, but I don't want to embarrass him...he was using the facilities when I got around to getting my camera out.

Today I doubt I'll be adding to the summertime skin, since it's forecasted to thunderstorm (again, March. Schwa?) but I hope to continue the walking thing regularly until it's too hot to step outside for that long. I know those days are coming!

3. None of us fell victim to the Dreaded Pink Eye, miraculously! Not even I, who lacked the caution one night to wash my hands after administering eye drops to the invalid's eyes (Matt pointed this out when I started to rub my eye about half an hour later), or who hung out with her a whole day alone on Friday. In fact, it seems she managed only to infect her little brother Hudson since Sunday at Mommy's house, and he's doing much better. Hooray for jumping that hurdle! Let's hope it stays jumped. Also, on that note, did you know that kids are prescribed Amoxicillin for pink eye nowadays? Isn't that weird? I mean, in our family, half of us developed an immunity to Amox* by the time we were 10 because it was prescribed for every little thing, but now pink eye? Isn't that just going to further immunize kids against it? I was a little confused. Especially because Lara was given this ginormo bottle and only takes a tsp. twice a day. If she stayed on the bottle until it was finished, it would take months! All for pink eye? Perhaps this is totally normal. It seems extreme to me.

4. Coffee is. Enough said :D

5. It's Thursday! Which are always wonderful when they come around every 7 days or so becausseeee...Matt gets to start his weekend with the kids! And I have lots of babysitting this weekend because Matt has to get orientated to Walmart on Saturday, plus I'll probably pick them up from school today and tomorrow. :) Hooway!

This is what it looks like outside right now. I'm so blessed!

Now I'm going to head inside because the sun started to come up...and now is hiding behind clouds, presumably for the rest of the day. And it's cold.

See Y'all!
TFMM

Weekend Recap

A good weekend was had all around, I believe, though really we didn't do much. On Friday, Miss Lara was home with the dread Pink Eye, so we hung out all day together! Fun except for the paranoia that comes with being near a person with pink eye...it just makes you want to touch your eyes all the more. Like when someone near you yawns. Except grosser and more germy. Regardless, Lara helped me with chores and caused me to reminisce the whole day on how fun it used to be to help my mom or dad with chores before they got tedious and annoying. Most likely for the benefit of my parents and nobody else, I will list some of the great fun we had (I wish we had pictures! Sorry folks, I'm new at this...plus it's not my camera that I use so I limit myself):

1. We made muffins together. Reminded me of learning to stir pancake batter at around the same age as Lara, and of course she got to help spoon the batter into muffin cups, which was really hard to watch and very messy. I was pretty glad that she tired of this quickly and went to go hang out with her toys until I was finished.

2. We went grocery shopping together. Still skinny enough to fit in the baby seat at the top of a shopping cart, she designated herself as that grocery-into-the-cart-putter...or thrower, as it steadily declined. Lara is excellent at picking out all the stuff we don't need. I now understand all of the moms who would come through my checkout line at TJ's looking frazzled and vowing never to go grocery shopping with their kids again. Hahaha. We did get a few things per her suggestions that weren't such a bad idea, like chocolate cookie mix and green frosting from the clearance rack, which are going to make excellent St. Patty's day treats.

3. We did laundry together. This brought back vivid memories of doing laundry with my Dad in our much larger Maryland laundry room. The washer and dryer were about 10 feet apart, making a great game out of successfully transferring wet clothes into the dryer without dropping every pair of socks. I also helped by separating the dirty clothes by color. It brought me back when Lara burst into squeals and giggles over touching a dirty sock...as if the whole hamper of clothes wasn't already...dirty laundry. Silly kid. :-)

So that was Friday. Lara and Mary bonding time. And bond we did. On Saturday, Matthew and I had a bit of a day date to Jackson because Nanny wanted to play with her grandbabies all day. We walked around that Mecca of wondrous things, Target, looking at baby clothes and kitchen supplies and stationary (how awesome is it that I'm marrying somebody who loves window shopping for all the same things as me?! So. Completely. Awesome.) and also went to that other Mecca of Guy Things, Harbor Freight Tools, picking up some pretty Gweat deals on car stuff for the Datsun. That may have been all we did, but BOY did we ever kill an afternoon. We accidentally skipped a meal and arrived back at Matt's house right before Nanny came to drop off the kids.

Then came Sunday! The clocks changed, we were all tired, I had lost my voice...it was just a sluggish kind of morning. But to church we did go! Then Sarah came to pick up the kids, and Matthew got this crazy idea in his head that he wanted to clean the house. Well, surely that wasn't what to do on the day of rest (according to me the anti-tidier), so instead we watched Top Gear for awhile. Sitting on the couch for an hour had the obvious desired demotivating effect...so after that was over, we decided to go on a bike ride! And it was super, duper fun. I told Matt I needed some biker chick gear if he wanted to make a routine out of these Sunday evening rides now that the weather is warmer.

I'm banking on this. :D

Or this!

Definitely some of these...

Though my helmet is red and black, so the pink might clash just a bit. Hurumph.

And that was our eventful weekend! Wonderful times had by all, as mentioned before. And now, I have some serious, serious laundry and general weekend catchup to play around the house. It's been real!

See Y'all!

TFMM

Adventures in Munchkinland

Last night, Matthew and I enjoyed a new experience with the kids. Perhaps some of you have heard of it; I certainly never had. Sarah sent the kids home on Thursday with a box of Squishy Baff, which is a product that is supposed to turn your bath water into slime. Thomas and Lara's mommy doesn't have a bathtub at their house, so the new fun thing that she bought got to come to our house to try it out. I'm here to put in my product review. It might be important in case anybody's kids try to convince them to get it for them.

Ah, Thomas. The things you get excited about continue to amaze and confuse me. Luckily I did not have to be in charge of giving you a bath.

I was pretty adamantly opposed to Squishy Baff in the first place because it requires kids to say "Bath" with a speech impediment! What's that all about anyway! Secondly, come to find out it's As Seen On TV. Probably it wasn't first on your list of reasons to limit the kids' TV screen time per day, but now you should move it a few points higher. Those TV ads have some of the weirdest stuff on it, including but not limited to Pillow Pets, Squishy Baff, Moon Boots, and anything else that isn't worth buying. Hah.

So here's what ya do: fill the bathtub with water, and pour in the squishy bath powder. Stir it around for 10 minutes, and the water turns into the grossest, weirdest consistency green stuff. I wouldn't really even call it goo because it doesn't just thicken the water, it makes it clumpy and chunky. It's more like crushed up gelatin than goo. Bath time in general was about 50 times more complicated because Matt didn't want Thomas' hair to get that gunk in it because...ew...so he had to go infant-style and pour water on his head with a cup to wash it. Matthew ended up rinsing him off AFTER he had a bath...which, really, when ya look at the big picture, is make the whole bath rather redundant, donchya think?

Thomas was having a hey day, though. He picked up the bath goo and slung it all over the tile to watch it fall slowly back into the bathtub. Lara, however, was much less amused. She did NOT want to take a green goo bath (good girl), so she bathed in the other bathtub while Daddy tried to dissolve Thomas' water. On the box, it says the goo will dissolve back to water in 5-10 minutes. We waited about an hour before it was really liquidy enough to go down the drain. Good thing there are two bathtubs, or Lara would have been up until 10:00 just waiting to get in the tub!

Moral of the story: Well, there are a few.

1. Don't use Squishy Baff again.
2. Don't teach your children to have a speech impediment.
3. Don't watch so much TV.
4. Don't buy things off the TV when you do watch it.
5. If the kids were given a cool new toy but aren't able to use it in one house, make up a reason why they can't use it in your house...because there may be a really good reason why they couldn't use it in the first house!

https://www.trysquishybaff.com/ Here's the website for Squishy Baff if anyone wants to have a go! Only $20 plus $10 shipping and handling! Great huh?

See Y'all,
TFMM

Developments!

All right folks, the future McCaslins (one current and one future, now that you mention it) has been doing some serious work and serious sitting and watching, respectively, on the lifeless baby Datsun. The first step was to push it into the garage on a beautiful Saturday morning, which was pretty fun. Wanna see the work that we've done? Chyeah I knew ya did.

One of the head bolts broke off inside of the engine block while Matt was trying to take off the cylinder head, so he has to buy new head bolts and drill out the broken one before moving any further. This is the exhaust-less, pretty much everything-less view.

Well, it's definitely been a discovery process to try and take apart this car. Lots of things have come out from under the hood and been declared useful or complete junk. I actually am learning a lot! I'm going to do my very best to accurately caption these photos, but please don't hold me accountable for all the technical terms I'm going to screw up! It's been a few days since we actually took these pictures and Matt explained what I was looking at. In retrospect everything looks like wires.

A side view, for those who actually know what this is a picture of. For everyone else, look at that weird red plastic squid thing in the top left corner! I can't remember what it's for, but it still sits there watching us.

The carburetor, valve cover, cylinder head, and a BUNCH of other stuff got taken to work with Matthew to be cleaned. Luckily for him, most of the parts are in good enough shape that he can just clean them up and put them back in under the hood. It amazes me to think that he's going to be able to figure out where all that tubing goes, but I guess this is sort of his career. Perhaps I need not be so very amazed. 

Pile of parts that are now in line at the part cleaner at Tim Castellaw Ford. Apparently the carburetor (bottom left, crazy looking) is ridiculously complicated compared to modern ones.

 Though we got lucky with the amount of stuff that could be reused, there has also been a sizable accumulation of junk. The head bolts, a crazy amount of little bitty tubing, and all the gaskets are going to have to be replaced. Luckily, it's none of the most expensive parts that need to be replaced. Also, obviously, the interior is going to be redone. You remember that picture from my first post?

Seats are a pretty high priority, right after actually making the thing run. There's not any reason to sit in the car if it won't go anywhere, after all! 

Pile of crap!

 Take a moment to notice that Matthew did break down and let me wash the windows. Hooray! They're bright and shiny now. It's wonderful.

There's your update on our 35 year old baby! Stay tuned, kids!

See Y'all!

TFMM

Whatever is Wonderful - Woopsie!

Haha so in case you didn't realize, folks, it's Thursday. I didn't realize it, so I thought I would bring it to everyone's general attention in case you, like I, were a day behind. Man, I don't know how people keep up with these crazy blog things! I guess, maybe, it's more motivation to write a post when you don't do the same thing every single day, unlike myself. Anyway, there's my excuse for skipping Wednesday's regular post. At least I have to regular posting days! I need to just keep adding a day every few weeks, and eventually, I will be updating every day.

Here's what was wonderful yesterday ;):

1. My wonderful future-mother-in-law got me introduced and into the system of substitute teachers at Mckenzie School District within about an hour of arriving there! It sure does help to have connections sometimes, huh? I haven't gotten any assignments yet (oh just trust me there WILL be a post about my first day, whenever it may come), so I'm considering applying to a few other school districts just in case it takes a little while for a reputation to build with local schools. The point is, though, Shelia was the biggest help and I just could not have done any of it without her.

2. Matthew is just...wonderful. He deserves a whole Wednesday post dedicated to him. Did you know: Exactly seven months ago today, he was driving me to the airport in Jacksonville after John and Jessica's wedding. Such a gentleman :) and still proving himself today. But really, only seven months! I can't believe he's only been in my life that long.

3. I was sick on Sunday! That wasn't wonderful at all, but after just two days of feeling awful and wanting to sleep allll day (which is what I did, which is why I think I feel so much better) I am almost 100% better! I have a lot of chest congestion still, but the general fog has lifted and I am back to my normal level of energy. I know, watch out world. Hehehe.

4. Matthew got a second job! I'm posting this as wonderful mostly to convince myself that it is. It means he'll basically have a whole second paycheck every week just for savings, which is great. It also means he will work from 8:00 AM until 10:30 some nights, so I'll hardly see him. Luckily, it's all very transient and he will only keep the job for as long as he can stand it. I feel his bad for his poor leg that hurts so much after just an 8-hour day! What on earth will it feel like with an extra five tacked onto that four nights a week? Sheesh! Pray for him and his leg!

5. On Tuesday, Matthew's mom and I went over to his sister Toni's new house over in Milan. It is SOOO gorgeous! I am really happy for her. This is one of the ones I would have taken pictures of, but I didn't want to seem weird for going around her new house taking pictures of random stuff. Anyone who is friends with Toni can wait and see for themselves. All other Pennsylvanians will just have to imagine how nice it is. Not bad, not bad at all for a first house! Man it's pretty! Another wonderful part of this was Matthew's mom brought with her fixings to make a snack which was, if I do say so myself, super delish. It was basically an entire can of crescent rolls, rolled out on a cookie sheet, cream cheese spread on top of that, cooked ground sausage on top of that, and another full can of crescent rolls on top baked in the oven. It was crazy good! I encourage y'all to try it. Mom, if you can think of chicken packets, these would be sort of like sausage packets instead of chicken. Supahgweat.


So there's some wonderfulness to get you through the day. If any Tennesseans are reading this right now, you might need it with this weather! It's forecasted to be gloomy and doomy for the whole weekend. Blergh!  I think some serious puddle jumping is in order!

See Y'all!
The future Mrs. McCaslin

Weekend Recap

It was a BIG, event-filled weekend, but I don't have any pictures to show you! We did lots of fun stuff on Saturday, and - silly me! I left my phone and Matt's camera (which I have more or less decided should be mine since he never uses it...) at home all day. :( Oopsie. So I will just have to tell you about what we did!

Matt had to work on Saturday in Dyersburg, and there was a charity event at his Ford dealership, so we decided to make a day out of it and all go into town for the festivities. Then we could give Daddy a ride home at the end of his half day at work! So Thomas, Lara, and I all got to ride in the incredibly high tech and comfortable and pretty 2012 Ford Focus. If anyone has an extra $20000 lying around, you can feel free to send it my way! After that adventure, we went over to Chick-fil-a where I had breakfast and the kids had playtime on the playground for way longer than they are normally allowed. It was a great Saturday for them so far! When the kids got home, they played outside for awhile as the Datsun got pushed in and out of the garage multiple times. This had to happen because Toni and Shawn gave Matt their old couch! Yayyy. It's really nice.

I am officially listed as a substitute teacher for Mckenzie Special School District, which is scary because I could get called in at any moment for any grade level in any subject! I'm just holding my breath for my first assignment!

Sorry I've been a bit negligent/boring with my blog updates. I've been coming down with a cold or flu or something and just haven't really been feeling much motivation to do much of anything. Hoping I feel better and can enjoy this beautiful weather and work if they need me to! I can't think of anything much else to update on. If I do I will return accordingly!

See Y'all!
TFMM

Whatever is Wonderful Wednesday

There's a lot of wonderfulness right now, guys. Prepare yourself.

1. It is so unbelievably warm outside...I'm just in shock! Yesterday night when Matt and I were working on the car, it was so warm outside at 9:00 PM that we didn't need coats on! The high yesterday was 75 degrees. 75! It was even that warm after a big ole thunder shower right before noon. Crazy talk. I am soooo not complaining. Hopefully I can handle the summer heat, with as warm as it is right now!

2. My darlingest future mother-in-law. She is being so incredibly helpful with finding me a job. I mean, she's practically doing all the work for me! I'm so thankful for such a generous and helpful person watching out for me and helping along the way. I may not be unemployed forever with her help! Wouldn't that just be nifty?!

3. My Fair Wedding, Say Yes to the Dress, AND Whose Wedding is it Anyway? are all available for Instant Download on Netflix. How cool is that?! And that's not all either because it also applies perfectly to Matt's boy TV needs, as we can also get every episode of Top Gear, Sons of Guns, and Top Shot. Best. Investment. Ever.

4. I am a registered voter. I have a driver's license. I've been fingerprinted and applied to substitute teach at Mckenzie Special School District. I have a car. My application is being processed at the University of Tennessee at Martin. I guess I really live here guys! So cool.

5. The church is just great. The pianist/Thomas' music teacher/pastor's wife told me I had a lovely voice and should sing a special last Sunday. Isn't that lovely?

Okay, there's my five ;) off to work on a Datsun update!

See Y'all!
The future Mrs. McCaslin