My first Christmas Married!

Well I have had my Christmas as Mikala Casey! It was glorious, wonderful, amazing and perfect. My family did somethings a little different this year, some new traditions with a new family! My mom braved the stores Christmas Eve as a last minute shopping trip to buy us all new Pj's. This was a new thing for us, hope we keep this one! Then Christmas morning we got up slowly, ate orange danish rolls (my favorite) and prayed together as a family. When breakfast was over we opened presents. And let me tell you Josh racked it up good. I decided that since my mom hasn't ever had a son to buy for she decided to go all out on Josh! He got more presents then all of us, though mom claims she spent the same on all of us, I think he might of got a little extra ;) 

Us opening our presents before going to my grandparents was a first for me. We usually took all of them to their house and open them with all of our cousins, but not this year. We did go to my grandparents house to open gifts and have lunch in the later morning!. This was fun because of course we did our family pictures by the tree and this year we had a hard time getting one, we seemed to goof off a little...ok a lot! Lastly we went and saw a movie another new thing I hope we do forever!

So yes I had a perfect Christmas with my husband! An amazing day with my family! And a memorable day with my Savior!

Jesus in the Spotlight

Well it is almost here. The day before family, presents, food and more family! But what is it also, the day we seem to skip over sometimes. Well at least the meaning of it. Jesus. One simple word for one simple idea.  Why is he pushed aside during this day? Why is the story not being read? Why doesn't he get the spotlight? I think to be able to answer those questions you have to think about your life personally. Everyone has a different reason or excuse. Everyone has had a different kind of roller coaster year. 

For me it is so simple it should be laughed at! I have enjoyed my first year of marriage and all the joy and happiness that that comes with. I haven't always stopped and just Thanked Him for EVERYTHING He has done for me. But I can tell you that this last week, I have been able to move Jesus in the spotlight. Josh has been planning the Christmas Eve service this last two weeks or so and I have watched him show me how simple Christmas should be. He has planned this service with one mindset...How do I bring together the birth of our Savior to the death of our SAVIOR? Because really Christmas isn't and shouldn't just be that Christ came to earth as a human but also died a painful death for us. 

So really I say all that to just remind you and yourself to put Jesus in the spotlight this weekend. Remember he came to earth for us and died for us. He has blessed you all throughout this year and will continue to bless you as long as you remember him and thank him for all things. Merry Christmas!!!

I got a Job!!

Well I have decided on a different job! About a week ago I got called about meeting with a family who was wanting a full time nanny! I had a profile on a site but wasn't really expecting to see anything. Well I decided it wouldn't hurt to see what the job was going to be. So I sent my references and then set up a time to meet them. I honestly was a little scared about the references because I needed to put Eastvue done. So I went ahead and told the family ahead of time what happened and said i was hoping that I would still get a decent reference from them! 

Josh and I went to meet the family Rick, Tiffany and 7 week old Whitley! I loved them right away and we all hit off well. I found out that I got great references even from Eastvue!! They offered me a full time or a part time job with them. Josh and I had to spend a couple days praying and really talking about taking it. I finally felt a peace about it as well as Josh. It was great when I called Tiffany to tell her that I would take the job. She was soooo excited. Which made me feel good!

I know some of you could say you really should of subbed it would give you more experience, which is true. But this is something with a consistent schedule which is something I personally really need. I need to know exactly what I am doing every day, not get a call at 6:30 every morning calling me in! I am so excited about this. Whitley is a good baby and I am getting her at a young age so I get to see her grow up! I know this is something that God would love to see me do!

Thank you all for your prayers and concerns! Do keep praying as I don't start full time for another four weeks, so we are still having to watch every penny we spend! But I love you all and Thank you again for everything!

The Casey family on Thanksgiving!

Josh and I at the shore in New Jersy

My amazing apple pie for Thanksgiving!

God has a sense of humor

So Josh and I had a slap in the face by God's sense of humor this weekend! Josh and I were talking Friday night about how we had never been invited over for lunch or dinner by anyone in the church. We had been told over and over again how friendly the church is. We had gone to our sunday school teachers house for a group party but that was it. Well Saturday morning we had to be back at the church and a lady came to me and asked if Josh and I would like to come over after church on Sunday for lunch. I laughed a little and said of course we would! And let me tell you the lunch was great, the food and the conversation. It is an older wiser couple in our church that I trust and admire.

That afternoon Josh came to me and said " SO how do you like God's sense of humor?"

Laugh

Well I have an interview on Monday for a part time nanny position!! I am so excited! I was able to fully explain to the mother my situation with work and how it all happened. It was nice to know that I was telling her the truth and she just said "well you are human you make mistakes." It was like a ton of bricks lifted off of me to know that someone believed me, who was possibly going to hire me. Well anyways I thought I would let you dedicated followers..haha...know my good news! Please keep me in your prayers though that everything goes well and that when she does call Eastvue that the call will go well. Love ya guys

Pause...Breathe...Smile

Well I am going to take a pause from Josh and I 's beginning and update you on some interesting things going on in our crazy lives.

Josh and I had a week from hell, last week! We got to to go to New Jersey for Thanksgiving and that was a huge blessing. But we got back in Joplin and we hit the ground running. Josh had rehersals every night for The Living Christmas Tree and I needed to get back to work and ready for finals. Tuesday afternoon I very quickly, unexpectedly and unfairly was fired from my job. I was speechless, I couldn't even argue why because my heart was in my stomach and there was a knot in my throat. Now the incident I got fired over, I was and still am sorry about. It was an accident, I am human and I make mistakes. I am still working through emotions and feelings over the incident and we (the other girl i work with was also fired) have found out that some of the teachers aren't getting the whole story about what happened same with the parents. 

Me as a married girl of almost 7 months my first thought was "How am I going to pay the bills!?" I am still worried about that, but we are taking it a day at a time. If it wasn't for Josh's stupid jokes and making me laugh I never would of made it through this week. I would of stayed in bed everyday probably! Thanks Babe for sticking with me! So on to the rest of the week.

Josh got through practices and on to the shows; Thursday night and then two shows everyday through Monday! Saturday afternoon I got a call from Josh asking me how I was feeling, I was fine, but he was not! He then consisted to throw up for the next 12 hrs almost non stop. So if you see the day you will see that that means Josh was sick on Sunday! So who got to get up and get the church ready...me! I was already dreading going to church and people asking how my week was and all I wanted to say was "Awful, yours?" I got through church and then came home to my sick husband who was recovering fairly well! I started some laundry and figured out my dryer was once again not working!! 

breathe 

Thankfully Josh only had a a 24 hour bug and he was able to be in the program Sunday! Which was good because we had four sets of grandparents coming in and my parents to see the Musical! Josh and some guys were able to put together a mini stomp routine and I was put in charge of taping it and guess what...the batteries went out! It was the cherry on top of the week! Yes I know we might laugh about it later and we right now are doing well, but not much laughing! So there is a small glimpse of our week. This is not much detail, but I will take time through out the next couple weeks to explain more!

Engagement night

When i got to my parents house on October 26th I walked in the front door and was greeted by rose petals. They were leading to my room, so I followed! When I made it upstairs to my room Joshua was standing there with his guitar, 100 plus candles, and a little table with something on it (didn't pay attention to that much!). Before I could say anything Josh asked if he could sing me a song that he had written, I would post the words but they might embarrass Joshua so I won't. I said "yes of course." When he was done with his song he put his guitar down.

He took my hands and gave his little speech which was something like this:

"I love you

You are my best friend-the one my heart loves

In you, God has given me inspiration and hope

It's in you that I have seen what true beauty and purity are

you are the picture of perfection for me

My love, I want to spend the rest of my life with you.

To hold you

To cry with you

To make a future with you.

Most of all I want to love you through sacrifice.

I want to spend everyday for the rest of my life serving you as Christ would, showing you

love by sacrificing my wants and needs for yours

You are the one that I want,

The one that I need,

The one that I love.

Mikala Bryan, will you marry me?!"

Yes I keep every letter, card that Josh has given me these last two years! Now let me tell you that I was home for my birthday and I honestly wasn't expecting this. I thought with the table that maybe we were going to have a romantic dinner or something, so I was in utter shock. So much shock that I answered "yes of course" and our very first kiss EVER wasn't all that great! But the second one was all that I dreamed of and more!

So you want to know what was on the table when I walked upstairs?!?! Well there were two glass Dr. pepper bottles, so much better then anything I have ever tasted! And also a notebook/scrapbook that Joshua had put together with ALL of our facebook messages that we had written to each other since February of that year! Yea that is right I have the most thoughtful man in the world!

the "M" word

Yea so it was time to mention MARRIAGE to our parents. We had many thoughts on them, whether we should graduate then get married or me transfer to Joplin and we would get married in the summer and finish school together. I wasn't surprised by our parents answers...pray about it. They supported us in what our decision may be, they gave some advice here and there about things. Financial issues needed to be looked over, whether we could handle the stress of working full time and going to school. We talked, talked and we did a little more talking about it and well we didn't come to a decision at all before we both to school for the fall.
Now as a girl this was very frustrating. I knew growing up that my ultimate dream was to get married (relatively young) and have a family. Realizing that that dream could be 8+ months away was unbearable at times. We were now back to our long distant relationship...
It was overly frustrating at times. We had cell phone issues, we got to the point where we hated even talking on the phone because all we really wanted was to be together. We would see each other about every 4-6 weeks depending on money! But at the same time we were spending a lot of time with our friends, consulting with them or just hanging out. We knew that there was a possibility we would have to leave our singleness (well you know what i mean) and I would be moving away from the life I knew as a girl on her own from the last 2+ years.
Come October 26th I came home and found a wonderful early birthday present...

OK so I am sorry it has been so long, I know I just left you guys hanging!
So our first summer together was interesting to say the least. We had been dating about a month and a half when all of the sudden we lived in the same town, going to the same church and I was "the Joshua Casey" girlfriend. Now to make things more interesting his family was moving away to New Jersey to take a Senior Pastor Job. So I was now dating a guy who is a musician, an emotional and sensitive musician at that, who adores his family but was having to cope with them moving 2,000 miles away! Wow I had my work cut out for me!!
Joshua started his first internship at Cedar Ridge under Harold, who he admired a lot. So this was great, he was working in his church under his favorite person doing what he was called to do! This was perfect he was seeing the good, the bad and the ugly of the church. But he grew so much, maturity wise and spiritually. OK so lets go back to our relationship for a minute.
Thankfully Michele and the kids (his mom and siblings) were staying in Broken Arrow fro the summer because they hadn't sold the house yet. This was a blessing in disguise for the both of us. I was then given a chance to spend time with hos family and fall in love with his three youngest siblings. We were getting support from Michele and Craig in our relationship allowing to bloom. We then decided it was time to talk to our parents about the "M" word...

Our beginning

So here is my first post! Its sad because I started my blog before my husband and he has already posted twice! Speaking of my husband let me start there with our story.

In January of 2007 Josh posted on my facebook and we started writing back and forth to each other. It got the name of "The novel" because 80 plus pages later we had our beginning. We talked about everything under the sun...our family, our faith and our disappointments in life. Now if I go back a little further you would know that Josh and I had met at our church in Broken Arrow, but he was going to school in Missouri and I was in Arkansas. So we really didn't see much of each other unless we came home to visit our parents. 

On March 31 Josh asked me if I would go on a date with him and I of course said yes. He took me to Taco Bueno (my favorite) and the bowling alley which in time he beat me at both games! From then on out we started our long 

(distant) and complicated relationship with its typical ups and downs.