Rice Cereal Video

Rice Cereal for William

Well today William got rice cereal for the first time. He loved it. I wasn't sure how he would do but he ate it all without spitting any out. Matt and I got it all on our camcorder but not on our camera so I can't download the video for you to watch. He was smiling the whole time I was feeding him. I got some great video. I will try and use my camera tomorrow so I can post it. It depends if Matt is home for lunch when he needs to eat so he can tape while I feed him. Anyway, he is growing up fast. He will be 5 months old next Monday. Ah......

I went to the movies TWICE this week. I think this is a record. I went and saw The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia. They both were great! I highly recommend seeing them both if you get the chance. I saw The Dark Knight with dad and Mamma Mia with Julie so I had a fun time hanging out with them. I have work again on Thursday so mom is keeping William. Other than that - nothing new in the Casper's World.

Back to Work!

Well work started back for Matt this week and I started my new job with RESA (Regional Educational Service Agency). Matt went back to work Tuesday - Thursday and I had to be at work on Monday and Thursday. Matt kept William on Monday so I was okay with that but on Thursday we both had to work so William had a babysitter for 10 hours. I just want everyone to know that we survived. I woke up Thursday with butterflies in my stomach with worry about leaving William. I prayed that I would just have peace about it. To my amazement, I didn't cry at all leaving him (thankfully he was still asleep so I didn't have to look at him as I left). I only called the house twice over 10 hours to check in. William did great. I of course got home and couldn't put him down. I just wanted to love on him the rest of the night. I even had a hard time letting Matt hold him. :)

Everything went great with my new job. They are having a hard time only using me around 6 days a month. They have me for 7 days in Sept and 8 days in Oct. They actually had me down for 11 days in Oct but thankfully we worked it down to 8. I don't think I could do 11 days away from William in one month. So there will be some months that I have to work more but then again, as of now, I only have to work 4 days in August so in the end it all works out. Everyone was SO nice and helpful. I was surprised to see all the people I knew from Thomasville. Alice Dickey, Mrs. Farrell, Alan Cleveland, Marjorie Jordan, and others. It was great seeing familiar faces when I got there. I also already new several of the consultants that I had met at math conferences that I was at. Anyway, I don't go back until July 31st.

Nothing else going on. I helped mom and Julie make Strawberry-Fig Jelly today and it was great spending time with them. I have very little plans this week as I don't work at all but Matt works everyday. I am going to continue investigating whether or not Matt and I need a home phone line or whether to just use our cells. Mary Lu - any thoughts on this? Matt and I think we could save each month by doing this so we are really looking into it.

Anyway, hope all is doing well. Chat with you later.

Mini Vacation

So Matt and I did decide to go on one more vacation before work starts on Monday. We are low on budget so our vacation was to the great town of Pelham. That is right, Pelham, GA! We went and visited Julie, Josh, and Anna Claire and spent the night to make it a "vacation." I know it is only 25 minutes away but if we didn't spend the night we wouldn't have felt like we truly got away. Anyway we had a great time for the most part. We put the kids to bed Thursday night and got a babysitter and the four of us went out and played some tennis. Of course it was boys vs. girls. Julie and I won the first set 6-4 and lost the second set 6-3. I truly think we could have beaten the boys in the second set if julie wasn't 8 months pregnant. She did great but you are a little limited being that pregnant. We had a blast hanging out and playing tennis. Friday was not so fun. Matt and I laid underground wire for the electic fence that Julie and Josh have. You may be wondering why we would be laying it and not Julie and Josh since it is there fence - well - OUR dog is the one that won't stay in the yard and has to be in a fenced area. Julie and I take turns caring for each others dogs when the other one goes out of town and when Julie's fence stopped working - Indy no longer was easy to care for. So - do to it being OUR dog that needed the fence, we laid it. It was not fun at all but it is done. So to reward us for our hard work - we went to Captain Frank's with Julie, Josh, and AC. Captain Frank's is like Crawdaddy's in Thomasville - seafood buffet and it is GOOD! We then played cards with Julie and Josh (Canasta and Rook). Matt, William, and I didn't get home until 12:30 last night (or early this morning). I was dreading the early wake up call from William but he ended up sleeping in too. He didn't wake up until 10:30 and that was after the phone rang. WOW! He went to bed about 9:30 but did get up a little to get in his car seat and come home. Matt and I were so grateful for the sleep in. Way to go William. Anyway, no pics were taken over the mini vacation so I don't have any to share. Now - vacation is over and back to work on Monday - uh.....

4th of July

Well I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. We did! We spent the morning working out (uh.... but using the new elliptical trainer we got) and then that afternoon we went to Mom and Dad's house for the big celebration. Julie, Josh, Anna Claire, Miriam, Mom, and Dad were already over there. Matt and I took German Potato salad, broccoli salad, and a dessert. Matt and I had also picked up some ribs at Sams in Tallahassee. Sams' ribs are full of meat and are a great price incase you ever need ribs. Anyway, Matt and Dad cooked the ribs and they were delicious. I had so much fun hanging out with the fam. I just missed Beth and wished she could have been there. After dinner, everyone but the Caspers went to the fireworks. We had to go home because it was William's bed time.

William in his red, white, and blue outfit for 4th of July!

This is our last week of summer as we both go back to work next week. Both Matt and I are on 11 month contracts so we get about 4 or 5 weeks break. Next week I have to go to work on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. That is 3 days away from William in one week. I am very worried about him taking a bottle for 3 days and it messing up nursing. I am even more worried since Matt starts work too next week and Mom and Julie will be in the mountains visiting Nana and Pop. That means William is staying almost 10 hours with a sitter. Ah..... I guess I have to get used to this idea since I did take this job with RESA and I know Mom can't keep him all 6 days a month that I work. I am meeting with the sitter this week to show her where everything is. I know she will be good but 10 hours is a LONG time to have someone else watching my child. Anyway, I am trying not to think about it because it makes my stomach churn and it makes me tear up at the thought of leaving him for that long without family looking after him. It makes me wonder whether this job was worth taking. Everyone kept telling me to take the job and I think I will love it but I am not sure I am ready to leave William and I just hope I didn't just say yes because it is a "sweet" job. Anyway enough about that as I am getting knots in my stomach just thinking about it. So no big plans for our last week of summer. We may go to Julie and Josh's and spend the night Thursday night to make it seem like we are on a small get away before work starts :) Josh has a 1/2 day so we can get together and hang out. Of course she is only 30 minutes away so we don't really need to spend the night but it makes it much more fun if we do.

Nana I hope you had a GREAT birthday! We were thinking about you!

Sorry - I know it has been forever since I last wrote!

Okay - so I am finally writing on my blog. I know that it has been forever.

We did make it home from out trip. We stopped in Atlanta and visited with Chelsea, Hudson, and Josh. Chelsea was my best friend all four years at Georgia - we were glued at the hip (of course Julie was glued too!) We met up with them at lunch and it was great seeing them. Hudson is SO cute. He has a great personality and was making Matt and I laugh throughout lunch. William decided to have a true blow out in his car seat so while we are supposed to be hanging out with them, we are spending a ton of time cleaning William, changing him and his outfit, wipping down the carseat (knowing we still had to get to Macon) and then cleaning ourselves (we didn't realize he had a blow out until Matt got him out of the car and it was all over his arm - ewwww). We did get it all taken care of and finally were able to head to Macon where we stayed our last night of the trip with Dianne Hattaway (good friend from FPD). William loved staying with Dianne. Dianne had invited several of our Macon friends over for dinner so we could see everyone. It was great. It was so nice of Dianne to have us over and then to invite our friends over so they could see us and William.

Me, William, Chelsea, and Hudson

William and Chelsea

William and Dianne

We have been busy doing little things here and there and I haven't had time to write. The sad thing is I cannot tell you what all I have been doing because I don't know - it just seems everyday ends and I have had no time to do anything. I am just staying busy with life.



We did make a new purchase this weekend. Matt and I did buy an elliptical trainer. BIG purchase but hopefully will give us beach bodies soon! I have a membership to the YMCA but the price went up - I was spending $50 a month and that was individual membership and not family. I have been going but it takes me over an hour to do just 30 minutes of cardio. Getting there, parking, signing in, stretching, getting on the machine, etc. I have time to do that now with Matt home for the summer but in just two weeks, I won't be able to go the YMCA until Matt gets home and he doesn't usually get home early. Matt also wanted to start working out and he quickly realized that it is WAY to hot in Thomasville to run outside. So we figured it was better to buy a machine that we both can use - with the convience of it being at our house so that I can use it while William is napping. The machine will pay for itself in less than a year IF we were to get the family plan at the YMCA so that Matt could work out. We finally got it put together yesterday. We are still figuring all the programs out. We are excited about it and I hope it gets good use. We are now looking for a CHEAP lcd tv (SMALL) that we can put in the room with it so we can watch tv while we work out. Until we find a tv in our price range ($100 or less) we will just workout to music. Here is a picture of what we got below.

Trip Day 5

Well, all I have to say for today is

GO DAWGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (winning in the 9th - 7 to 4!)

Matt and I went to Academy Sports this morning where I bought some tennis things like shoes, skirt, shorts with pockets, and a shirt. We then spent the afternoon watching FSU lose to Stanford (16 to 5 - ouch!). We had ribs, corn, and german potato salad for dinner - DELICIOUS! Matt's friends are here and I am about to go to bed. One of his friends bought William a rattle from Tiffany and Co. I have never gotten anything from Tiffany and Co. but my 3 month son now has. Crazy. We got some great photos of William sucking his thumb (he found the thumb today and was sucking it like crazy) and with the men.

Puppa and William

Puppa, Shelley, and William

William sucking his thumb!

Nothing is planned for tomorrow but to relax. Happy Father's day to Matt for the first time - Ahhhhh......