Time Flies

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. I am such a slacker! :)

I guess I need to give you some updates - The Spoofhounds went to Fair Grove and beat them and ended up going to the dome last weekend. They played Clark County at the done. Unfortunately they lost 10 to 7 but it was one heck of a game. I was rather impressed with the game considering it was high school. Normally high school games are pretty slow moving and it was actually a quick game. The boys really played hard it just wasn't their day. :(

As for my BEARCATS... Well they're on a roll. They beat Abilene Christan two weeks ago and just yesterday they beat North Alabama... What does this mean for the 'Cats - THEY ARE HEADED BACK TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THE FOURTH YEAR IN A ROW!!! What does that mean for my husband and I - We're headed to Alabama on Friday through Sunday. I am not looking forward to the drive. It is about a TWELVE hour drive! That part will not be fun but it will be worth it to watch the 'Cats in the championship. I really hope we win. We have lost the three years in a row. Each year it is extremely painful because we just barely lose. One year by three points, another by four points, and last year by five points. I really think this is our year though. Our senior boys are determined because they have been for three years and still haven't won! So I am hoping for the best!

I am pretty excited that I don't have school tomorrow! Tomorrow is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception so we don't have school (gotta love teaching in a Catholic school on days like these!) I have a feeling that it won't feel like a day off but at least I won't have to be teaching since I don't feel very good. I think I have a sinus infection. I am pretty sure it is from sitting out in the cold game yesterday. I think I am going to try to get into the doctor in the morning so hopefully I will feel better before we leave for the game. I am also going to work on some school stuff - including my lesson plans for Friday since we're going to the game.

Oh and I decided to start my Master's in Reading this coming Summer (Summer 2009). I am pretty lucky because I don't have to take the GRE, which I am extremely excited about. Instead I have to read and article and write about it. It is basically an assessment to make sure that I am ready for their program. I went to talk to Dr. Drew (the professor in charge of the Master's in Reading program) and somehow she convinced me to take this writing test TOMORROW at 2:00 p.m. I can't say no to Dr. Drew. So tonight and tomorrow I will be reading some articles to prepare myself! I hope I do well on this... I am pretty nervous but Dr. Drew assures me that I me that I am going to be fine! I'll keep you updated on how it all goes!

Well I better go and get to work on my reading and writing!

Thankful for the Quick Week

I am sooo thankful right now that this week has gone by so quickly. I really needed it to! I will admit it... I am one of those crazy Twilight fans! I can't wait until Friday for the movie to come out. I am going to watch it with three of my teacher friends. I am going to basically sprint out of school tomorrow in order to buy tickets for the show and I am planning on getting to the theatre early to get good seats! I just have to make it through today in order to get to the show!
Today is going to be busy but shouldn't be too difficult. I am going to St. Joe this morning on a field trip with my students. We are going to Bishop LeBlond to watch the play Oz. (It's supposed to be similar to the Wizard of Oz but it's cheaper to do because they don't have to pay so much to put it on!) Then we get back at lunch and then they go to computers. They will come back to the room and do math then recess and then reading (since we can't do it in the morning). So it should be a piece of cake day - if you will notice I did say should... something can always go wrong so I am going to pray for a peaceful day. After that I am running home to help Michael pull seven or eight pork butts. My staff at school is doing a service project for Christmas. We are serving at the Shepherd's Kitchen that is run by another church. We are donating the food and our time to serve these people a meal. The Shepherd's kitchen is like a local soup kitchen. So I am doing that from 4:30 to 7:00 tonight. Then GREY'S!!
Like I said, make it through today and I will be floating on air tomorrow.
Saturday we are going to the Bearcats playoff game. I am probably going to freeze but it will be worth it to see Pitt State come here on our home turf! I am really hoping we win and I hope the Spoofhounds do too. They are traveling south for their game this weekend.
Sunday is a shopping trip with my staff from school! (This is why I titled the blog - The Crazy Life of the Casteel's - because it is always crazy around here! )

Trip to Joe Town

This evening Michael and I headed to Joe town. I was in need for some fleece. I am going to make my niece and nephew tie blankets for Christmas. Our Wal-Mart just doesn't have much of a selection. I had my mom go check out Jo-Ann's fabric in St. Joe and it just so happened that they had all of there non-licensed fleece 50%!!! I was pretty stoked about that. So Michael and made plans to go to St. Joe tonight before the sale ended.

On Monday night Michael went to Spoofhound game... It was freezing so I bailed. It's not my idea of fun to sit in the cold rain all night. They spoofers ended up beating Trenton and have a game this Saturday vs. Carrollton.

Tuesday I had a basketball game I had to go to. My cheerleaders were cheering during the boys game. Michael came for the end of the girls game and stayed during the boys game. He had off for Veteran's day so he helped his dad. At school we had a VERY nice Veteran's day service.

Now... It is time to get caught up on school stuff... and then off to bed!

Another Exciting Weekend!

We had another GREAT weekend. Our weekend started out the weekend with an exciting Halloween! We had about 35 to 40 trick-or-treaters. I had all of my students except for one which I thought was pretty good. We also had a lot of our friends' children. We even had a little pumpkin that was only two weeks old. Little Mr. William McCollough was the cutest little baby pumpkin EVER!

Our neice and newphew even came down this weekend for Michael's dad's birthday. Once Neal and Paige had come trick-or-treating we decided to turn off our light and hang out with Michael's family. We were over there for about a couple of hours and then we headed home to sleep!

Saturday morning it was up early to get ready for the football game. We baked cookies, and got a couple of things to go tail-gating. We got over to Beaver's house at little after 11 and ate. We hung out over there until right before the game and then we headed to the game. The 'Cats beat Emporia 56 to 7. It was nice that we won and that we haven't lost any games in the conference! After the game we headed to the South room at the housing to celebrate Michael's dad's birthday. His mom had made a turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, stuffing, etc. After we were done eating we headed to Michael's parents' house to play games. We played Apples to Apples and Urban Myth. We left and stopped by a Halloween Party. Several of my friends were having a "VERY" good time... We left and came home and went to bed!

Sunday was a beautiful day. We went to church and everyone sat together as a family. Afterwards everyone ate at the Mandrian and then we all headed to Bedford, IA. We went to the Lake of the Three Fires and went for a walk around part of the lake. It was such a beautiful day for a walk and to hang out with the family! I took A LOT of pictures and a couple turned out pretty well! I've posted some of them below. I hope you enjoy!

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Wow! I have a huge sense of accomplishment this evening. I have just finished my parent-teacher conferences! I'm telling you they are the one thing I dread the most the whole year. It doesn't matter if I am telling parents all good news I still dread them. I am hoping that this feeling will subside after a few years! I know I felt a little better than the first time I had conferences!

Now for our busy weekend...
Michael got home on Friday night. We were supposed to go to my parents house that night and help them with their tile. Michael decided that he was too tired after his busy week of being gone to his conference! So we ended up staying at home that night.
We got up the next morning and headed to St. Joe. We helped my parents for a little bit and then it was off to Topeka, KS for the NWMSU game vs. Washburn. It was a really close game and it wasn't the 'Cats best but they ended up winning 24 to 21. We went back to St. Joe and helped some more on the tile.
Sunday rolled around and we worked at my parents house until about 12:30 and then headed back to the 'Ville. Once we were back in the ville we went over to a friends house and helped her paint and do this thing with tissue paper on her walls. We were at her house from 2 until 7:15 or so.
So basically I spent my whole weekend doing home improvements for other people. This of course made me want a house even more than I already did. I just wish we could go buy one or build one but as my father says, "Money doesn't grow on trees." I'll just have to wait and be patient. Our time will come and I just have to have faith that God has a plan for us!
As for tonight... I will be home most of the evening by myself so I am thinking about watching Fiddler on the Roof. I think that might be an enjoyable evening. Tomorrow at school will be a little hectic but tomorrow evening I have nothing planned and that is kind of nice. I am really excited about Thursday though... the Hangar (movie theatre in town) is showing Ghost Busters for $5.00 and Michael and I are going to see it. Then Friday is HALLOWEEN. I love trick-or-treaters and HALLOWEEN. Michael's sister and her family are going to be in town so that makes it even better and it is Micheal's father's birthday! So it is a busy but enjoyable week. :-)

My last night as a single girl ;)

Well... It is my last night as a single girl... tomorrow Michael will be back home! I'm pretty excited about that. I haven't seen him since Tuesday morning and that was for about five minutes and he wasn't really coherent yet! He had just woke up.

I am stoked that Michael will be at home! The only thing that is kind of a bummer is that when he gets home we won't get to really spend a lot of alone time together because we are going to my mom and dad's house to help them tile their kitchen. We are working on their kitchen Friday night and Saturday morning. We will leave their house on Saturday mid-morning to head the the NWMSU game at Washburn. Then we will come back to the ville. On Sunday we are going to help my friend paint her stairway.

So it's another busy weekend for us - not to mention at some point I will have to get all of my lesson plans done for next week and get ready for our Parent-Teacher Conferences. There's definitely a lot to do this weekend. I think I am going to do laundry tonight and watch Gray's Anatomy! :)

Life as a Single Girl... At least for the week ;)

So this morning my lovely husband left for his maintenance conference that is down at the Lake of Ozarks so I am a single girl for this week. Which is a strange feeling. I feel odd being at home by myself and just the cat. I havne't done this in quite a while. I haven't been at my apartment knowing that I am going to sleep in my bed for the next three nights by myself. By the way... I'm not the only one that is feeling wierd - The cat puked twice tonight when I got home!
So this evening I went with my friend - Amy - to go eat pizza. We went to eat with our school's volleyball team because she is the coach and we were celebrating the end of their season. After we were finished we went to the NWMSU volleyball game.
At the game they decided to have a PINK OUT night. Everyone was supposed to wear pink to bring awareness that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. They were passing out free pink shirts to people with pink shirts but they didn't have enough for everyone so they were just randomly handing out. I felt really bad for our volleyball girls. Only four of them got a shirt. I was trying to get one from the guy handing them out for a younger student who is moving after this year. She was almost in tears because she really wanted a shirt. I talked to the guy and some very rude college students were complaining that he handed them out to all of these "12 year olds and not the college students". She as being extremely rude and obscene. She was saying the "f" word and making a complete fool of herself. So we just walked away. The volleyball girls were talking about her later and I just told them that they should be proud of themselves because they acted more mature than the dumb college girl!
Now.... that I have vented I am headed to bed!
Night!

Fun Weekend!

We had a really fun weekend! It was homecoming this weekend for NWMSU! Friday night we went to Bubba's parent's house to celebrate his birthday. After we ate supper and had cake and ice cream I dropped all the boys off at the bar and came home. I just relaxed on Friday night. Finally at 1:30 in the morning Michael called me and said that he and the boys were ready to be picked up. I went and picked them up at the bar. Then we went back to Bubba's parent's house and we were there until almost three in the morning. Michael was feeling NO PAIN by that point! I told him that I had planned on going to the parade the next morning and that he was going with me. I knew the Saturday morning was going to be rough for him.
We got up on Saturday morning and Michael took some medicine before we left. It was pretty chilly but I enjoyed the parade. Michael was pretty cranky but that's what happens when your hungover! :o)
After the parade we came home and Michael took a nap. He finally woke up at 12:30 and we headed over to the tailgate. The game started at 1:30 in the afternoon. We went to the game which was wonderful. The BEARCATS won 56 to 7. After the game we helped pick up trash in the stands and left. I told Michael that it was too nice of a day to hang out inside all day. We decided to just drive around. We went out by Mozingo Lake and drove around and then we went to Parnell and ate supper at the bar. I love their food! It is WONDERFUL! Then we came home and I watched a movie called "Living Proof" on Lifetime. It was a really good movie. I asked Michael to watch it with me and he came in and laid down on the couch and feel asleep.
We got up this morning and I took a shower. Michael made breakfast (french toast and bacon). Then we headed to church. After church we drove around and looked at houses. We're a little disappointed because we would like to buy a house but there just isn't anything in our price range that we think is worth the money and/or doesn't need completely remodeled! So I guess we're just going to have to wait for a while to get a house or build.
Now it's 2:15 in the afternoon and my husband is asleep on the couch (the Chiefs just weren't worth watching today) and my cat, Callie, is asleep on the top of my chair. I think I may join them and take a short nap and then it's time to get ready for school this week... Yeah lesson plans... You can tell how enthusiastic I am about writing them can't you!
Have a good week!

Another Medical Disappointment

Well I have had yet another medical disappointment. For those of you who don't know in the end of August my doc found a lump in my breast. I got an ultrasound done and it didn't show anything but my doctor wanted to make sure that it wasn't anything because I have a strong family background. I went to Maryville's hospital to get a MRI done and I couldn't do it because of the way they had me laying and the fact that I am clostraphobic. So they decided to get one scheduled in St. Joe. This is going to be an OPEN MRI so the clostraphobia shouldn't be an issue.
I take off work (which means I have to write lesson plans for a sub) and so does Michael and we head to St. Joe. I get to the hospital and they inform me that they don't do Open MRI's at the hospital and that I will need to go to the OPEN MRI office which is NOT in the same building. So we jump back in the car and head back the direction we had just came from.
We get to the Open MRI place and ... they don't have me down for an appointment! They call several other Open MRI places and... guess what... no appointment for me at any of those. Finally they call the hospital and guess what... they have an appointment for a regular MRI (which if you remember was what I tried to do in Maryville). So we drive back to the hospital, by this time we are late for the appointment, and check in with the desk. I get back there, change in the robes, and get ready to do the MRI. I go in we try again... and I get stuck just a little bit. The nurse removes some of the mats (that are there for comfort - by the way it isn't comfortable at all with out these and they are expecting to be in there for 20 minutes) and I try going in again. I get all the way in but I can't breathe because of the machine pressing on my back. I tell the lady to GET ME OUT NOW! She starts telling me how I might try KC because they have a bigger machine (thanks... I don't already feel fat enough, let's rub it in that I can't fit in the machine) and that I will definetly need some vallium. I, of course, start crying and go change and have a minor panic attack as we are leaving the hospital.
I am so frustrated with all this stuff. I would just like it to be done and over with. If they need to give me something to knock me out to do it... then let's do it so I don't have to keep taking off work and writing lesson plans!
Sorry... just needed to vent!

Interesting Perspective

I have never been one of those people who comes up with deep insight but I have recently realized that I have some interesting perspectives on a couple of different things. I have figured out that rarely can anyone actually say I screwed up (including myself) and while that isn't new to most people I am amazed at how it is still true. People mess up and blame it on others so much so that they end up damaging others' self-esteem. Let me just say when you are struggling to have any self-esteem it is hard to have others sit there and blame their problems on you. I know I can never get away from this guilt as it occurs to everyone but I just wish I could find away around it where I could let it go and not let it bother me so much. I guess it's because I try so hard in certain areas in my life and yet.... to no avail if there is any problem it is all my fault. I know that I am not perfect and guess what... I probably did screw up part of the time in this instance but it isn't all my fault.
How does a person get self-esteem when they can't find anything that is worth feel good about? I know this might seem like a downer but it is just what is going through my head. I guess all I can do right now is give all this confusion up to God and hope that he will help me. I just want to know that everything isn't my fault all the time. That would be a good feeling! I guess I am just going to have to take it in baby steps. One thing at a time and one day at a time.

Busy Day Ahead...

Michael and I have a busy day ahead! We are going to go up to the Elks Lodge to watch the Bearcats game around 1ish....Then we will go to the Pheasants Forever banquet and after that we have to cook some BBQ. We are cooking a case of pork butts for the Knights of Columbus family picnic tomorrow. Michael almost forgot that he agreed to cook the pork. Hopefully the meat will turn out really well!!! I know that will make Michael happy! :)
It was nice this morning we actually got to sleep in together! It was wonderful. Michael and I haven't been able to sleep in a VERY long time! We both really enjoyed that!
Off to my busy day! Gonna go clean and head to the game! GO CATS!!!!

Our Crazy Life

As most people are aware our life has been extremely crazy as of late. My father-in-law accidentially cut the top of his wrist while working on a dishwasher. This happened about two months ago. The same day that this happened the doctor thought that she felt a lump in my breast. That made our evening really interesting because we didn't want to tell Michael's parents and cause them more striff especially when his dad was getting ready to go into surgery. Michael's dad's surgery went well and he is healing slowly but it is getting better. Michael has been running calls with him at night so we haven't seen each other a lot. Next week (Wednesday) I go to St. Joe for an open MRI. (I already have had an ultrasound and they didn't find anything but my doctor wants to double check because of my family history - my grandma died from breast cancer when she was 42 and my aunt had breast cancer at 25 years old) Hopefully once we've gone to this open MRI we will get a clean bill of health and be done. Not to mention in the middle of all of this.... My dad hurts his back and they won't let him work for over two weeks. At on point we thought that he was going to have to have surgery.... He isn't :) So we are all very happy about that!

I will say that I am amazed that next Friday is the end of the first quarter. It doesn't seem like it is October 10th. In a little over a month it will our anniversary. It is amazing to me that we are already up to a year. The only crappy thing about it almost being our year anniversary is that we still don't have our photo album from the wedding photographer.... Can you believe that???? It's been a YEAR (almost)! We have been talking to her for months about this and she has finally gotten us website where we can see what it looks like. Michael and I are pretty disappointed! It isn't nearly what we thought it was going to be. She doesn't have any pictures of the boys (groomsmen) in the book and it doesn't have any words in it at all ... Like... Michael and Jamie Casteel or our wedding date... NOTHING! I am just really frutstrated that it is taken so long and it doesn't even look that good.

April Fools Day

Well today is April Fools Day! I haven't had anyone fool me.... yet You never know there's still a lot of day left.

It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks. Last week is just kind of a blur with the funerals and then trying to teach. Friday night I went to Flem and Beanie's house. Becca, Neal, and Paige were in town (For the first time since Christmas- but we didn't see them Christmas because we were on our honeymoon so this is the first time Michael or I have seen them since our wedding in NOVEMBER!) I just hung out with them that night. Saturday I actually spelt in ... I couldn't believe it. I got up at 9:00 a.m. I went and got Michael and his friends lunch. They were out at his friends house working on the food (meat) for the D.A.R.E. auction. Michael stated at his friends house on Friday night so that he could cook pork butts all night. They cooked 30 pork butts. I help them pull the pork, then came home and showered. After that Michael and I headed to the gym for auction. The auction lasted until about 10:15 or so. I got to see some friends so that was nice. Since Michael and I had been around the meat all day we decided that we wanted to go somewhere and eat. We went to Applebee's and ate. Then Sunday we went to church and headed to Atlantic, Iowa to see Michael's grandmothers. We saw one grandma (who isn't doing very well), two aunts, and one uncle at one house. This is only the second time that I have met one of his aunts. She lives in North Carolina so it is rare for her to be back. Then we went and saw the other grandma and drove home.

So... all I can say is that I am extremely exhausted and to top it off Michael isn't feeling very well. So I am going to have to take care of him and try to get him to feel better. I hope it's just a head cold and nothing more.

Gotta Go.

Jamie

Back to School

Today was my last day back to school since last Thursday at 12:30 p.m. I have to say that I was excited to get back into the routine of school, although this wasn't exactly normal. I went school and taught for a little while and then went to our third and final funeral this week. I am soooo glad that all of the funerals are over now!

I was missing several kids today. I was missing two all day and then I had one that came late and one that came early so basically I had eight out of eleven today. A lot of people would think it is WONDERFUL to have fewer kids but actually when you have that many gone it becomes a pain. You don't want to start teaching new concepts because 1/4 of your class is gone and you don't want anyone to be lost. So it is kind of more difficult and kind of easy at the same time.

Well... I'm gonna go watch John and Kate Plus 8!

Jamie

One Funeral Down... Two More to Go!

Well, today Michael and I went to our first funeral out of the three we are going to in the next three days. Tonight I am going to the visitation for Brian. After the visitation they are having a prayer service. So I am leaving around 6:30 and won't be back until a little after 8:00 p.m. This makes for a very long day. I just feel bad for all of these families. Losing loved ones is such a hard thing.

To make this day a little better I decided that I would watch Enchanted today (without Michael-of course). I thought it would help me not be so sad by everything that is happening around us. It is such a cute movie. I adore it. It is a beautiful love story and I needed that after the funeral this morning.

I better go. More later.

Jamie

A Week/Weekend of Sadness

I write today in total disbelief of what has happened in the last week. Thursday morning we found out about Kenny Shaffer passing away. Then Friday we found out that Brian Halley had passed away and then this morning we found out that Mary Dorrel passed away. This means that in a matter of three days (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) Michael and I will be going to three funerals. I just can't believe how this all happened within such a short time period and how ironic it is that it all happened during Easter weekend. I am just hoping that all of these families are starting to find peace. I also feel bad for these young children that have lost their fathers. It is definitely a sad weekend for the community. I just pray that I can help my student.

God bless all of you and I hope that you appreciate your time with your family because you will never know when the last day will be that you will be with them.

Jamie

Mundane Day

Today is proving to be a rather boring day. I was going to sleep in but Michael kept getting phone calls this morning so I couldn't sleep. I got up and just relaxed this morning, took a shower, and then cooked lunch for Michael and I.

After we finished eating Michael and I talked about buying a house again. It seems to be a conversation we have a lot! I am hoping we make the best decision for us. We may buy or we may go ahead and build on the lot that he bought before we got married. We'll just have to wait and see... :)

Then I laid down with the cat and we took a nap together! She is so darn stinking cute! I adore our cat. I should tell you a little bit about her since you don't know her. Her name is Callie. She is a calico cat and female (of course... goes without saying). She is almost a year old. We got her from one of Michael's friends. He lives out in the country ... so she was a farm kitten. She was the only one left from her litter. Her mother took all of the others before Michael's friend knew. We now know why she took all of the kittens away. Callie has herpes (NOT LIKE HUMAN HERPES!). Cat Herpes is TOTALLY different than human herpes. It just makes it really easy for her to get upper respiratory infection. So she has colds all the time. She sneezes and stuff like that. Our vet feels sorry for us so she has started to give us a discount. We love her no matter what. I can't imagine not having her now that we do. She is too much fun. She is still in kitten mode sometimes and that makes our life more exciting!

Back to my mundane day.... I am going to do laundry and I am going to clean the house. SUCH FUN :(

More later,

Jamie

Sadness

So I have been looking forward to this day (Thursday) all week long and now that it's here I wish it wasn't. This morning my husband got a phone call that stated that a guy that he knows that is only two years older than him passed away after suffering from a heart attack or stroke. This happened last night. This kind of freaked my husband out because he was only two years older than him.



Then I find out later that one of my student's parents isn't doing well. They don't think that he'll make it through the weekend. It is both amazing and ironic to me that this is the time of the year that we are supposed to be celebrating Jesus' life and resurrection and I know one person who has passed away and it looks like another might soon. I feel sadness for both families. One family struggles with the pain of a sudden death and the other is suffering through the battle of cancer and watching as their family member gets worse. I also wondered which would be worse. I don't really know. I see how much pain my student is in but I think at least she is getting to talk to her dad and then I think about the sons of the man who passed away last night. I wonder if they would change things if they knew that last night was the last time that they would talk to their dad. I know that this is some pretty deep stuff to be writing about but it is what I am thinking about and I figure that this is the best way for me to do.



I think that today was one of the toughest days for me teaching wise. It was because it was a educationally tough day it is because it was an emotionally tough day. My student asked me if her dad was going to die this week. Do you know how difficult it is to answer a question like that to a EIGHT year old??? I told her that I didn't know and that the only person who knows that is God. I couldn't think of anything else to tell her. How do you comfort a child when their parent is dying? I don't know. I wish I could be better trained in this but I am doing the best I can do. I just hope she knows how much her dad loves her and how much we all (at the school) care about her too.



Well... I am going to go and read to hopefully take my mind on such tragic events. I will pray that everyone has a wonderful Easter and that whatever happens that God will take care both of these families.



Jamie

Short Week!! Yipee!!!!!

I am so very excited. This week is Holy Week (I teach at a Catholic School) so we are going to have a short week for school! We have school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and get out at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday. Then NO SCHOOL on Friday AND Monday! I am just excited for it to be Thursday at 12:30 p.m. The sooner the better.

Even though this past weekend was a disappointment (because of missing family members) we still had a nice time. Friday night Michael and I just relaxed. Saturday morning Michael went and worked out and that afternoon we watched August Rush together. If you haven't seen August Rush you need to. It is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! Michael and I both loved it. We actually saw it in the movie theatre and then rented it because we wanted to see it again. After the movie we went over to Michael's parent's house. His mom, dad, sister (it was her birthday), brother-in-law, and us. They ate veggie soup and I of course... at a mini pizza I brought with myself (I'm and EXTREMELY PICKY EATER... Michael makes fun of me for it!). We just hung out and chatted. It was nice. On Sunday we went to Squaw Creek which is a wildlife reserve type thingy. It has a TON of birds. We drove around and checked out all the different type of birds that we there. Then we headed to Sam's Club in St. Joe to buy stuff for our Easter Dinner we are having the coming Sunday. It was a nice little drive for Sunday. Then we got home and picked out wedding pictures. I am going to finish this tonight. :)

I better go... :)

Jamie

Disappointment

Throughout this whole week the thing that has helped me push through conferences and everything else that has happened has been the fact that the whole family was going to be able to get together this weekend (this is the Casteel side). Now... Paige (my niece) is sick and they aren't coming. I have been sooo looking forward to everyone getting together to celebrate my sister-in-law's (Natalie) birthday on Saturday night. The plan was that tonight Becca (my other sister-in-law), Natalie, and I were going to go to the movies after the fish fry. Tomorrow Michael and I were going to go see his grandmother and then come back tomorrow night for the big birthday celebration. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO disappointed that we won't get to have the big celebration like we had planned. Michael told me that Paige was upset, Becca was crying on the phone to his mom (Debbie aka Beanie - yes it is a weird nickname), his mom is upset and Natalie too. As you can tell, all of us girls were excited about the visit.

I probably should tell you that the last time that most of us were together was for a funeral. Becca's mother-in-law passed away. Michael, Tom (aka Flem - again another weird nickname), Debbie, and I all drove up to Northern Iowa to go to support Tom (brother-in-law; aka Stoll - we like nicknames as you can tell), Becca, Paige, and Neal (nephew).

So we were ready to see each other under happy circumstances but I don't know when that will be. They said they may try to come down tomorrow if Paige feels better. I guess this is supposed to be a 24 hour thing. The only problem is that we are supposed to get snow.

I'm just bummed because it was such a long week with conferences and everything and I was sooooo looking forward to some girl time tonight and it isn't going to happen.

All of this is why I named the blog The Crazy Life of the Casteel's. I don't think it needs further explanation.

Hopefully I'll have better news next time!

Jamie

Still Crazy

Well... I still feel like I am going crazy. In fact crazier! Right now I am saying some prayers that God will guide me and help me to do what is right. I feel kind of lost right now. I am wondering if I am supposed to be a teacher, if not what should I be? I went to school for five years to be a teacher and now that I am I don't know if it is what I am supposed to be. I keep hoping for some kind of sign that this is what I am supposed to do OR a sign of what else I should be doing. I just feel confused. I'm not sure what I need to do so I am doing the only thing I can, praying. We'll have to see what happens!

Venting

So today I have ran the gamete of emotions. I have gone from tears to laughter and all the way back! I don't know exactly how it happened but it did.

You're probably wondering why. Let's just say one word - SCHOOL.

It's amazing to me to think how people can be so critical of the education field. People always say that teachers should be doing this and doing that. They talk about how this is wrong with the education field and that we should be doing things different AND THEN say But I could NEVER be a teacher. Everyone seems to think that they can solve the problems in the education field but don't want to enter. My favorite is when they say... You have off the summers. Actually I don't take off the summer. I am going to a conference that will last a week, most likely I will tutor kids this summer like I did last summer, I will read books about how to be a better teacher, review lesson plans from last year to make them better for next, etc. BUT I HAVE OFF THE SUMMER. Why is it that no one ever says THANK YOU for what you do - the time you spend here (school) - the money you spend - for not going to some other profession where you could be making a TONS more money. It would just be nice to have a little bit of thanks.

Sorry for all the complaining.... just frustrated. I really do like my job. It would just be nice to have some positive feedback than a ton a people complaining.

More tomorrow

Daylight Savings Time

Seriously... who invented daylight savings time anyway.... this whole spring forward is REALLY annoying.

I had a rather long weekend. I was getting ready for conferences. It seems like it shouldn't take that long considering you only meet with the kid and parents for 20 minutes but it takes me forever to get ready. I think it is because I am slightly OCD and want to make sure that I can fit as much into the conference as possible!

So this means that I got to school at 6:45 (which is old time 5:45) and started making sure I was organized. Then I taught all day and had conferences until 5:40 after school! LONG DAY but a good one.

Now for some more randomness - Last night I saw some friends that I hadn't seen in awhile. It was nice. Their son has gotten sooooooo big. He was six months yesterday and is already around 22 lbs! He's extremely long too. They've already had to change him into the bigger car seat. He is getting big and so is their daughter (2 1/2 years old). She is going to be a knock out when she is older. Good luck to her dad who will have his hands full with the boys.

Well... That's all for now!

JJ

So I read Jenni's blog all the time and I figured that I should probably try it. She does such a WONDERFUL job expressing herself in her blog.... I thought WHY NOT???

Since this is my first blog I don't really know what to say?

I just got married in November to a pretty great guy (Michael). He is a Maintenance Supervisor at the Housing Authority in our town. He loves to be outdoors (hunt, fish, etc.) and LOVES... I mean LOVES to BBQ. Like the real BBQ not using the grill in the backyeard. He does the kind where you are cooking for hours and you go to competitions! He loves it and I don't mind trying all of the food. :)

It seems like we are busier now than we were before we got married! We (more specifically ME) are booked from now until May 31st. I don't know how it happened but all of the sudden I looked at the calendar and we don't have any free weekends! I just hope that these weekends start getting nicer. It has snowed EVERY WEEKEND since we got married and that was in NOVEMBER!

I guess I better sign off....

Hoping for spring to come soon...
Jamie