Our 1st Anniversary!

Well, today is our very first wedding anniversary. We can't believe it has been a whole year already. It really has flown by! We have been given so many blessings in this past year. We have taken our first vacation together, experienced our first time to organize our own high school mission trip for the youth group, joined our first married CG (for people who don't go to cLife, that is short for community group, our in home Bible studies), made many new friends with other married couples, moved out of our first home (our lake view condo) and into our very first home which we own. We've also gotten our very first pet, a kitty named Winter.

While sometimes it is hard to adjust to living with a new person with different ways of doing things and unique quarks, we have had a lot of fun this first year of marriage. We have grown closer than we thought possible when we were just dating. We both feel very blessed to be given this gift from God. What a wonderful thing to get to spend your life with your very best friend.

I love you very much, Casey. Thank you for a very memorable year.

Homeowner Update!

I guess it's about time for an update! My last update was Saturday, November 22nd and a lot has happened since then! We moved into our first house on November 25th (the Tuesday before Thanksgiving) and have had lots to do ever since! For a week we didn't have Internet, so I felt cut off from the outside world. It was okay though because we had a lot to keep us busy. I was so thankful that I had an ENTIRE WEEK off for Thanksgiving. Vacation days, in my opinion, are the #1 reason to be a teacher. I know that you should love kids and all that (and I do), but you just can't beat the vacation days with any other job. Casey and I debate our jobs a lot, and while his is super flexible during the day (he is able to leave and run errands if he needs to) and mine is not, he does not get near the days off that I do (duh!). Who else can say that they only have to work 180 days out of the year? I have 185 days OFF--that means I am off more days than I have to work :)

Anyway, back to the house. We had some pretty good help moving even though it was a weekday. Casey took off of work that day, and we also had both of our parents, Casey's grandmother, and Jeremiah help us move. We got EVERYTHING moved out of the condo and into the house in one day. Amazing. I thank Casey for being the "packing Nazi" for several weeks up to the move. Without him, nothing would have been in boxes. I absolutely despise packing.

The next day (Wednesday) Casey was as sick as a dog. He took off work that day, too. I was excited for him to be home with me until I realized that he wasn't going to be any fun! Thursday we went to both my mom and dad's sides of the family. Afterwards we drove to Austin and bought tickets for the A&M / UT game. I guess that has become a tradition for us! We have gone four out of the past five years. It's always a lot of fun, but it is MORE fun when the game is closer. This year was a little bit of a let down for me, but I know that Casey was excited to be in UT's new stadium. They added a section in the endzone. It holds a lot more people now. Of course, I still don't think it is cool as Kyle Field :)

Friday we slept in a little since we got home from Austin at 2:30 in the morning. We then went to have Thanksgiving with Casey's family at his grandmother's house (mom's side). We stayed over there for a while, but cut it a little short because Casey was sick again!! He had this stomach virus forever!

Saturday we did some more unpacking when Casey felt a little better. We also went with my mom and got a new washer and dryer at Lowe's. We went and saw the new James Bond movie that night. It was good, but not nearly as good as Casino Royale. I loved Casino Royale. And I really like this new James Bond. He is more rugged than the typical tall, dark, and handsome type.

Sunday I stayed home for the morning services while the new washer and dryer were delivered and hooked up. I went to the 4:30 service (we now have 3 services on Sunday! They are all the same, so that's nice when I want to sleep in:)!

Monday I went back to work. It was a hard day! I've learned that it is always really hard to go back to school after a vacation. I think the kids feel the same way. The rest of that week was typical. All work and no play. Ha ha. Thursday night we did get to go out with Charlie and Ginni! The came over and saw the new house, and then we went to eat at Snuffer's! Yum!

Finally the weekend came and Friday night Casey and I had dinner with his parents at Martinez! Yum, again! We also saw their newly painted house. It looks great! So great, it inspired us to go home and begin painting our furniture. We are painting two bookshelves and my old bedroom furniture. They are all pine and we are going to paint them black. I am excited to see how it all looks. So far we have only done one bookshelf...we have a LOT left to do. My bedroom furniture is made up of a LOT of pieces. Saturday we had the ELF BOWL all day. It is a football tournament that we put on for the youth group. It was awesome! We had 18 teams show up! It lasted from 9 to about 4:30. Last year's champs, the Rumble Bees, one it again! Protect the Hive! Today I stayed home again this morning to stay for the DirectTV guy to come and give us HD cable and DVR! This will be my first time EVER to have DVR. Casey told me he thought it would revolutionize my life (not his, just mine). I "tape" things ALL of the time! But I tape them on a VHS tape in my VCR. It is pretty outdated, I know. I am also really limited, too because the tapes are only 4 hours long, so if I am leaving 4 hours ahead of time my show won't tape! I am so excited about DVR!!! Yea!

Anyway, I will post some pictures later from our Thanksgiving week! Happy Sunday!