A Post for my Male Readers

Something Matt and I saw in the Walmart parking lot last weekend: a true feat of engineering. A physical beauty. A beast of horsepower combined with the physique of a supermodel.

I'm lying, here's this ridiculous car we saw. :-D

The men working in the truck next to it were staring and laughing at it as well. We watched the guy get out of his DIY gull wing door and slam it down with all the airs that accompany someone who has a real sense of accomplishment for this vessel of genius he drives.

Do feel free to note and mock the blue painter's tape around the headlights, fresh out of the body shop, er, this guy's garage. Ah yes, because we needed a bit more  evidence that this is the most handmade car in the entire world.

What's the best part? That would be the door handle. Because no, the car doors don't really close, and yes, there are metal handles on both doors of this car.

I thought you all would appreciate it. Matthew and I certainly laughed and laughed and laughed. We just couldn't get enough.

Another fun vehicle from the 4th of July Parade in Millville, Pennsylvania. Note Pennsylvania was not a member of the Confederate states during the American Civil War. Note we don't have much at all historically to do with the Confederate states or associated emblems. All right here you go!

Had a decal on the back of the bed that said "Lift it high - Fat chicks can't climb." Classy, America. This is why people don't like us.

So there ya go!

:-) See Y'all!

TFMM

Road Trip Recovery

After a small vacation from our vacation, Matthew and I both returned to work and school and real life. We spent all of last week in the car  on vacation with my family in Pennsylvania, Thomas and Lara and all. Lots of fun times were had - the day we arrived was a retirement party for my dad and celebration of all 6 kids being in the same location for a whole 24 hours. Throughout the week, we (my parents and Matthew and the kids) went on exciting adventures to World's End State Park, Reptiland, the park, Lorson Mountain, and all kinds of other far off fantastical realms. Here's some pictures!

On our way to the park to try out the Birthday Boy's stomp rockets and giant paper airplanes!

Expert Navigator of this wagon ride.

A picture of the baby dinosaurs missing their mommy with Lara. In honor of her mommy! Thomas and Lara invited their mommy to come to Pennsylvania with us next time so she could see all the cool stuff.

Miniature Paleontologists!

A definitely NOT miniature snake!

Butterfly and bat wings in the Reptiland gift shop.

One of my stepchildren...I mean, wait, my fiance, a grown up. Yeah...

Climbing on the jungle gym at Montgomery Park.

Another stepkid, I mean, grownup.

Having the time of his life :) Color coordinated to a T.

Nanny Nanny Boo Boo, Daddy got higher than you do!

Lazy Lara in the enormous swing so she has to have someone push her.

The skateboard-less skate park adventure

Running down skate ramps is so exhilarating!

4th of July Millville Parade - super hot, super fun! And LOTS of candy!

Handsome boys :D

As you can see, we had a wonderful time. :) I refrained from photography during the backbreaking 16 hour drive to and from. There may have been slightly less happy faces. But we survived, and everyone gained a newfound appreciation for their own beds by the end of the journey home.

See Y'all!

TFMM

(Speaking of which, I've been doing lots of work on my Wedding Registry - how much FUN is that! If anyone wants to see the flippin' sweet stuff we love, check out Target and Amazon :-D)

Well isn't that Eerie.

This was my devotional email for today. Brothers and sisters in California and Pennsylvania? A baby named Mary Lou?! It caught my eye, that's for sure. And it's fairly stream of consciousness, which I know everyone loves.


The Way Things Should Be

So Dad comes off the mountain that he was wintering on.  And big sister flies out on spring break from California.  And little sister and her husband fly out from Washington, and I walk over from my apartment four blocks away.

I don’t know when it happened, but sometime ago it became normal for a nuclear family to live in four different states.  Sure, sister’s in Cali, brother is in Pennsylvania.  Sure, we see each other every few years and shake hands like strangers who happen to be in the same compartment of a train.  I don’t know when it became the way things are, but I don’t like it.

Maybe it’s because twenty years ago the anchor of this family was buried in a Grand Rapids cemetery.

This February a little baby girl was born, name of Mary Lou, same as her grandma’s was.  And by March the far-flung clan was all here.  Dad was sleeping in my apartment; the girls were over with the baby.

The time passes fast and then it is the last night and with one sister already gone we go to dinner at a nice Italian place and there are two decent bottles of wine and it’s two weeks to Dad’s birthday so we sing happy birthday in the restaurant, like any family does, except we’ve never done this before.  We didn’t really do birthdays after a while.

Afterwards we go home and there is the lazy debate over what we should do, but we don’t really do anything.  We end up with the two blonde-haired girls and the dark-haired girl playing a banjo and a piano and singing old hymns, and Dad being Grandpa on the couch with Mary Lou on his knee, and the boys sitting around with books.

I’ve got Faulkner in my hand but I’m not really reading it; I’m listening to the beautiful voices and I take a sip of the wine and man, I feel good.  Like this is the way things are supposed to be.  Like this little miracle baby is what the family needs: a new heart, a fresh and pretty thing to gather around and to take that name, Mary Lou, and not make us forget, no never to forget, but change it around somehow so that the sorrow enhances the joy she brings, making it more true, more honest.  Not a joy of ignoring or naiveté or even innocence, but a joy of full-eyed measure.

Sitting there, I knew that things can get better, and I get an idea of what is meant by heaven.

"And the one sitting on the throne said, ‘Look, I am making everything new!'" (Revelation 21:5).

Catching up on the Last Two Months

As a means of making up for lost time and there really being some things I think I just won't have time to dedicate a whole post to, I decided to just post all of the pictures that I haven't gotten to and give glorified captions for each. That way I can quit feeling guilty about leaving stuff out, and I can begin taking current pictures again so I'm not a week or two behind at all times.

Circa about 2 months ago, we watched a piano and a brother and a Nanny and a Jace ride down the street. This is just as terrifying as it sounds. It's strapped in at the bottom, and we were only going about a mile to our house, but the road was bumpy and we were RIGHT behind them watching its every move. The happy ending, of course, is that it made it to our house!

And now we have a new piano! A lovely lady who is now my hair stylist put up an ad on Craigslist and Matthew got me this little beauty. For those of you who didn't know, he had actually bought me a baby grand piano awhile back, but it was in such bad shape that we decided not to try and repair. This, my new pride and joy, will hopefully be a good start for teaching piano lessons and schooling my kids to be child prodigies. Yay! I love my fiance!

Moving on, here is the most delicious endeavor into Southern cooking I have made yet. A collaborative effort, we made sausage gravy and biscuits (and vegetables, to make sure we're not unhealthy, haha) The delicious idea, the biscuits, and the sausage were made by me, and turns out my Matthew is a gravy makin' fool! So he made the gravy and it was probably almost the most delicious thing we've ever made yet. Soooo good.

Proof that it was sooooooooo goood!

Hey - wait a minute, how'd he sneak in here? ;) Here is Prince Charming himself, looking I do believe very impressed with our cooking skills. He looks so happy ^_^ I like to think I may have had something to do with that smile!

The other man in my life at the moment - Teri's new baby Austin with his Aunt Amanda, Matthew's cousin's wife. In this picture we're all at Granddaddy's surprise 80th birthday party, which was a blast over the first weekend in May. Granddaddy was really touched by the number of people that came to pay tribute to a wonderful man. I can tell he's wonderful and I haven't known him nearly 80 years. But people say that Matthew's a lot like him and looks a lot like him...so I bet we can all say it's safe to assume I'd like him. Anyway, here's an adorable picture of a big ole sleepy baby.

Matthew and his little man checking out the fishing prospects at Granddaddy's pond.

Same ole sleepy baby, now in the arms of Matt's stepmother Candi, who is also now my BOSS. And let me tell ya, she's a  good one. We all have so much fun working in the bakery/deli and it is a great way to spend time with my Father- and Stepmother- in-law.

Thomas enjoying the fishing with his Aunt Shelby and Daddy's foot. 

Lara blowing some successful bubbles. I promise her  look would be a lot cuter if she hadn't had the liberty of choosing socks and wearing a clutch across her body all day. I honestly don't know where either of those ideas came from, but the rest of her sure was pretty!

There's my man again. Still sitting by the pond. Smelling something funky.

Oh wait no he musta just been making a funky face at ME. WHAT?! At least he's happy now ^_^ What a smile. I sure do love him.

Hey the baby woke up! Now in the arms of his mommy and being generally just  the cutest person in our family at the moment.

So...here is a picture I took of the cat...and my attempt to feed him that went somewhat awry. The food did eventually get onto his plate, but uh...it may have gone a few other places. I dunno how he ever got to eat the bits that landed on his back. I guess cats are pretty flexible :P I was just trying to keep him in shape.

Battle scars from my first week at work. 10 points for anyone that can figure out what these marks are actually from! Hint: They aren't bruises and they didn't hurt.

A closer up version of my battle scars, haha.

Just about the prettiest preschooler that you ever did see! So proud of her!  Kindergarten and 1st graders will be in our house from now on!

This cool guy enjoying a spinning flyer that was sent to him as a Grammy gift! We sure do love these!

Andddd kindergarten graduation: Thomas receiving a Science Award! Wooohoo, who's surprised? Not me! Haha

There you go guys. The next post I write up will actually be a little bit current, hopefully. But this will probably keep you entertained for awhile at least. Now you've met Sally and my Car, so we can get on with real life and real updates from now on! Yay!

I'll See Y'all on the flipperoo side!

TFMM

Blue needs a little sister.

Yes he does, and here she is!

My Negative One Year Anniversary Present from Matthew

Um, and edit...as I published this post I realized I should maybe clarify the title - Nothing about my present was negative, and neither was our anniversary. I went around calling Memorial Day weekend our "Negative One Year Anniversary" it's a year before our wedding. In case anybody was a little worried. That's all it was about!! May 25th, 2013 everyone. By the way. In case you hadn't heard. :)

Two new family members have been adopted in the last few weeks, one of them has a tail and one has an engine. One has fur and one four wheels. I'll let you figure out which one is which.

This one doesn't have a name yet because I have not received my license plate with which to choose letters for a name. However, it is a Honda Fit and it is a present from my amazing fiance.

 Matthew just showed up at Food Rite on Memorial Day and took my car to Jackson. We had heard about an Altima available for trade and thought it might be a good, even trade for the Maxima, with better gas mileage. Matt sent me a text saying no on the Altima, but there might be something else there I would want. And then he shows up about 10 hours later with one of these. He's making payments on it, so I guess we have to get married now because that's a pretty serious commitment ^_^

Pennsylvania Seculeses: Watch this space! You'll be seeing this baby roll up at your front door in about 3 weeks!

The McCaslin family loves hatchbacks.

Plenty of room for two carseats PLUS lots of storage space whenever we need it! That third seat, where the carseat would normally go, folds up for underseat storage, the whole back seat folds flat, and the bigger backseat, where the two seats are in this picture, also can fold up to put stuff underneath. Super cool!

Oh, and I needn't mention the difference in gas mileage. Aside from only having a 10-gallon tank, making my gas fillups about a third cheaper every time than they were in the Maxima, it gets between 35 and 40 miles to a gallon. Which is a lot, considering it's basically a low-setting minivan. Sorry Mom, it's definitely not an Up Car. But there is LOTS of head room, giving it the illusion from the outside of being one! Haha.

I love it, and Matthew knew I would. With as little as I know about cars, the Honda Fit is the one car I actually talk about seriously liking the look and driving ability. We see/hear about it a lot on Top Gear, our vice of choice (although lately he's been getting into Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters - no no no) but in England it's called the Honda Jazz. I'll be honest, I like that name a lot better. I kinda wanna change the little emblem on back to one that says Jazz. It's on the list of expenses :P

Stay tuned for my next post, which is about our other adopted family member ^_^ She came just a little bit later in the week after this girl arrived.

TTYL, TFMM.

:-D

A Ketchup Post

Here's what I think we all need to do regarding mine and Matthew's life - we need to do some serious ketching up. You saw my last post where I grovelled for forgiveness from all of my friends and family. Well, the grovelling is over. I'm here. Not really - I have to go to work in about half an hour and I haven't gotten dressed yet so this is going to be a Speedy Gonzalez kind of post. Like usual. I gotta start setting aside writing time for when I get home and I'm not babysitting and I don't need to fix dinner right away. Today won't be one of those days because I'll be picking up T+L on the way home from work today.

I want to give you beautiful picture updates of everything we've done, I really do. Why am I not going to do that? Because this week just so happened to be Lara's graduation from Pre-School. No connection, you think. That's where you are mistaken. You see, Matthew and I both skipped out of work for an early lunch (really early, we left around 9:30 from our respective workplaces) in order to go to her graduation at 10. We arrived at the school (he picked me up because Food Rite is on the way from his work to her school, precious right?) just at 10:00 AM, and Lara's mommy told us that apparently the note sent home was wrong, and it didn't start until 10:30. This was a problem. We both had to be back at work pretty darn close to 10:30, and now it was looking more like we wouldn't be able to leave until like 11:00. Matt did some quick finagling and called up Nanny to come watch her graduate in our stead. We stayed justttt long enough to see Miss Adorable herself looking all kinds of cute and super excited about graduating, and then we had to skip out. We gave Nanny the camera, though, so all of my pictures that I've taken over the last 2 or 3 weeks are MIA until I get it from her. She has requested a date with her grandchildren tomorrow, though, so I'll make sure to exchange camera for babies tomorrow.

What else has happened? Hm..............................................

Here are some pictures that I owe from awhile back that never quite made it into posts. That's a bit of what has happened. :)

Lara - Look Mawy I can drive with my eyes closed!! She was very impressed with herself.

Lara inside of a set of tires being a ham as usual. We couldn't get Thomas to do the same...they have very different opinions of pictures being taken of them.

Lara the future mechanic learning from Daddy

This picture warrants some serious explanation. We are in the Walmart parking lot where we had to wait an hour for our pictures (Daddy's birthday present) to be done. The kids had gotten new umbrellas for Easter which they were obsessed with, but hadn't gotten to use for real since it hadn't rained yet. I promised to keep them in the trunk of the car so we could use them if it started to rain while we weren't at home. While we were waiting at Walmart, the rain started. For awhile we played in the empty part of the parking lot, over by the pharmacy. This didn't last long, though, because I didn't have an umbrella so I was cold and wet. I had the absolutely brilliant idea to get back in the car, recline the two front seats, and open the sun roof. My car became an instant April Wonderland. The next picture is also a very cute representation of what we got up to while we were waiting.

So happy that it finally started raining!

Thomas loves science projects. We found this one in a Family Fun magazine (Thanks Aunt Sue!) We created a balloon zipline where the air in the balloon is the force which carries a drinking straw down a line of dental floss. They loooved it. We kept it up all weekend and there are still balloons floating around! Not literally floating...I guess sitting. Sitting around.

Once the balloon is off, there is serious excitement in watching it fly 10 feet by itself. See here - excitement. I'm not entirely sure what Lara is grabbing onto. I guess maybe the balloon. She caught it mid-flight!

So there ya go. A little bit of all the fun we've gotten up to. But wait, there's more! More to come whenever I get the camera back from Nanny.

See Y'all!
TFMM