No more just trying... Im training!

I have sat down so many times in the past few weeks to try to write a post on my blog and everytime something has come up! Even now Im sitting here trying to concentrate on writing this and I cant stop looking around at my house, which is a total wreck right now, and thinking I should be up doing something about that rather than writing a blog post! I have flowers, bows, ribbon, tutus and everything else strewn out on the couch and floor, a huge pile of laundry that seems endless and a stack of stuff piled high on my kitchen table from last weeks running in the house and dropping everything only to run back out again... Im exhausted just writing about it!! My husband is amazing and right now while Im writing this he is trying to straighten up and watch the kids so I can "have a moment". He is the greatest!

Needless to say our last couple of weeks have been crazy so here is a recap...

2 weeks ago I had the flu, or something similar. I rarely get sick so being that sick was no fun.

My grandmother visited for a couple days and it was great to see her. She lives in Ohio and I usually only see her once a year so she got to meet Caedon for the 1st time!

Ive had a couple of photo shoots for my new photography business Heidi S. Casey Photography (like Heidi S. Casey Photography on fb to take advantage of the great session deals I have running for the next 3 weeks) but last tuesday I had my first official paying photo shoot and it went great!



Carson started soccer last week and it is so stinkin' cute to see her out there playing on a team. She has become much more outgoing and less shy since she started and actually likes her 6 foot tall coach enough to talk to him!! Im just impressed that when they run drills almost everyone on the team can take direction and complete the drill. I cant wait for her first game next week!



Matt and I joined the YMCA and Im ashamed to say that with all the craziness these last 2 weeks we still have yet to go...

There was a fire in our neighborhood! Last week Matt and I were watching a movie on the couch around 11 pm when we heard a loud crack of thunder and a bright flash of lightening out front and everything went black. We lost power. We sat on the couch for a few minutes just enjoying the quiet, the sound of the storm outside and just feeling peaceful. This didnt last for long, we started hearing sirens and lots of them. This is pretty normal since we live in town less than a mile from the police station and 2 miles from the fire station, but as they got closer we realized they were on our street. Matt ran to the door to look and realized something was on fire. We ran outside to see where it was and to our shock 2 houses up there were 30 foot flames coming out of our neighbors RV. It took 45 minutes to get the fire out and miraculously noone was injured and there was no damage other than the RV. It was such a sobering experience to have something like that happen so close to our house. I am thankful for the protection over our family and home and most of all thankful that noone was hurt and noone lost their home. God is good!

We found our Home Church!! We have been going to The Cove Church Statesville for about 2 months now and we are sure that this is where God wants us. We no longer feel restless and lost, without a home, Thanks to all who have been praying for us throughout this time!

One of the biggest things going on is my new business venture. My mother-in-law is opening a store in town called Unique Finds, a consignment store that also has furniture and home goods. She has offered  us an opportunity to rent a room in her store for my boutique and after alot of consideration and going back and forth on whether to do it or not we made our decision and Carlee's Corner Boutique will be open for business in 2 weeks!! I have all new products (now you understand the flower, ribbon and tutus strewn out all over my living room) and I have been busy making hairbows and headbands and everything else to try to get ready for opening. Not to mention now I have to update my website with all new products, take pictures of everything I have and somehow figure out an easier way of keeping ntory (right now Im typing everything into blank spreadsheets and manually changing numbers and prices). It is such a great opportunity and I am so thankful that God is blessing us. It is challenging and I feel like all I have done these last few days is organize, label and make hairbows but it will all be worth it! Please pray for us that God will continue to bless and guide us!

Last but not least... My sweet baby celebrated his 1st birthday with 2 parties and lots and lots of cupcakes!



While CJ celebrated his 1st year of life, I celebrated (or rather dreaded) turning 25... and while Ive joked about being a quarter of a century old, or 1/4 of my life being over, I have to admit I had a really hard time with it. Its not like I have been out living the life of a carefree 20 something yr old considering Im married with 2 small children, but for some reason hitting the 25 yr mark made me realize my early 20's were over. That and the way my knees ached after briefly trying to work out last week. Things will never be the way they were before this point and I am ok with that. Im excited about what 25 is going to bring. I am leaving all my insecurites, baggage and failures in my early 20's. I will no longer let things get in the way of my relationship with God, the blessings and path he has set out for me. No more just trying... Im training!!

loneliness

I have had several conversations lately with friends and family where the topic of loneliness seems to come up. It has inspired me to really take a deeper look at my own life and the loneliness I have felt throughout. In the conversations I had I realized that just because you're married or have a group of 10+ best friends or even the closest relationships with your family you aren't exempt from feeling loneliness. We as humans have such a strong desire for relationships, we desire a companion in our life at all times and when that need isn't being fulfilled we begin to feel lonely.

God knew what he was doing when he gave us that desire! He made us to want to have a companion to talk to, get support and advice from and love us. He also wants us to realize that we as humans will always fall short of the perfect companion or relationship. He gives us amazing people in our lives but as amazing and wonderful those people may be, there will be times in our lives when we feel completely alone! This can be a great thing if we can learn to take advantage of it. This loneliness gives us the opportunity to reconnect with our Father who has that same desire to have a relationship with us. We go through stages (or seasons as I've heard someone say) and loneliness is just one of those seasons. I find in my own personal life that sometimes it takes a day of a little self pity and insecurity for me to realize the relationships I keep seeking here in this life are never going to be enough for me. I'm sure some of you have had this figured out for a while, I just seem to have to remind myself of this constantly. If I would put as much time and effort in my relationship with God as I do trying to please and pursue people in my life I know the other relationships would begin to become more fulfilling instead of causing lonely days and insecurities of myself as a friend and partner. My relationship with Him should be the focus where in the past I have focused on those who have a relationship with Him. I'm still in awe when I think about how God created us out of His own desire to have a relationship with us.
Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

My husband and I went through a long period of extreme loneliness after we had our daughter. This was such a hard time for us to be going through so much at our ages and to have no friends to share that with. Our families have always been there for us and I am thankful for the blessing they are on our lives but they couldn't fill the void we felt. During such a lonely season in our lives we found a church that was full of people who desired relationships with us, pursued us and made us feel like we were family. Our lives changed in such a huge way because God fulfilled our desires for something more. The best part was we found a new friend in God. We came back every week filled with hope and a desire for more out of our relationship with God. I have to say I am so thankful for that time in our life! I still have many lonely days but when I do, I try to remind myself that in my loneliest hour He was there for me and came through in such a huge way by satisfying our biggest need during that season and He will continue to do that for me through a personal relationship with Him every day.
Psalm 68:6 God places the lonely in families.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

New Camera

My wonderful husband allowed me to pick out a new camera with the money we got back from our taxes. My old one had been acting up and the pictures were starting to look worse and worse. I LOVE my new camera and Im so excited to experiment with all kinds of new pictures. My sister was in need of graduation pictures (she's graduating from App. State in 2 months, woohoo!!) and of course I was super excited to have a reason to do a photo shoot. I think they turned out great! Of course taking the pictures was the easy part... Ive been editing for hours now! Let me know what you think...

Here a few of my favorites from the shoot.

Life without internet...

Whew... its been one of those weeks!

On Monday our computer started acting up and shortly after crashed! After an entire week of being at the computer shop having what the computer guy said were tens of thousands of viruses cleaned out and $135 later, I have my computer back and up and running. Being without my computer this week was so much harder than I thought it would be and made me realize that I rely entirely too much on it!
I couldn't check facebook! Meaning I wouldn't know what was going on in other peoples lives! Surprisingly, this was annoying for the first day and then the need for a fb fix was gone.
I couldn't check my email, my etsy shop, my google checkout status or my pay pal account to see if I was getting any new orders in (I didn't).
Most importantly I had bills to pay and without Internet I was at a loss of how to pay them! I had to actually get in the car, drive to the places and pay the bills, with 2 small kids!
And of course there was the issue of what am I going to do with free time now? I mean a day without computer is fine... but a week?
The first few days I kept thinking how did my mom do this? But then I started to realize that while the internet has made my life much easier, my dependency on it has had some negative effects.
-I rely entirely too much on the internet, keeping all of my bills, important business files, pictures, videos, tax info and much more in my computer and while I try to back everything up I'm sure there are things I miss.
-My social life has stopped being as personal as I could like and has become more about status updates. I think fb is great for keeping in touch with friends and it has done wonders for advertising my business, but I miss the personal real feeling of relationships that are more than being tagged in someones post or writing on someones wall! I am thankful for the friends I have that never use fb to "update" our friendship but would rather pick up the phone for a personal connection.
-Ive allowed the excuse of handling all bill paying and business advertising etc.. online to interfere with face to face to connections and good old fashioned networking which is necessary when starting a small business. Its also a great excuse to leave my house and usually results in a trip to the park or a memorable experience with my kids.
- I have let time with my kids suffer so I can get online! When Carson walked in the living room after the computer was gone and saw the desk with no computer on it she gasped and said "Oh no! Mommy's computer is gone, she is gonna be so sad! That is her life!"
Wow... something like that can change your life! I had so much fun this week not being distracted by the upkeep of my business website, trying to advertise on various websites and blogs and looking for new ways to improve. I enjoyed an entire week of playing in the floor with the kids for more than 15 minutes cuddling with them on the couch watching movies, and actually watching the movies.
My goal is to spend less time worrying about my business and social networking and more time enjoying every moment with my family!
Meaning I need to STOP writing now and go enjoy this Sunday afternoon with my wonderful family :)