OUR FIRST HOME {Part I}

Oh sweets! It is official! Joe and I will be living in our own home by April next year!

We are so super excited! I have always wanted to build. We have looked for so long and at so many houses a home that is truly for us. We really tried hard to fall in love with a home - and two came close. But when we really didn't want to invest the money up-front then tear into a house to change it to make it what we liked and our style. The longer we looked - the more it seemed like building was nearly our only option. Call us picky, call us anal (we passed a gorgeous home because the kitchen sink wasn't undermounted) call it whatever you want. I grew up in constant construction as a daughter of a builder - I don't want to live the rest of my life in it. No matter how comforting saw-dust still smells to me. So we are starting a new chapter in our life and a big new adventure!

Cheers! XOXO - Cas

Choices {Married; Living Apart}

Type. Delete. Type. Delete. That's how this post started so many times. When I tell people I'm married, and my husband doesn't live with me I get this look -- its hard to describe but I'll just say it's rude.

My husband is an Illinois State Trooper.  We've been together since college. Back in 2006; in the days when I wanted to be a hot shot STL attorney and he wanted to be a Child Psychiatrist. When we both worked full time, went to school full time and had a date night a week in the library of the University. Dinners included flashcards he would quiz me on for my legal Latin classes and 8 months of LSAT prep. We struggled for so long and waited for so long for the State Police to call. It was hard. The hurdles, and jumps and tests you take to become a Trooper still amazes me. But he passed them all & went to the academy. Six long months of not speaking during the week and only seeing each other Friday and Saturday nights. Graduation day, couldn't of come sooner. There has to be openings in a district to get assigned there.  The ISP district I live in rarely has openings. So he picked the closest district he could to me - about an hour and a half away. He immediately put himself on the transfer list to come home - but it is a first come first serve list. He was No. 12 on the list. We found a tiny 1 bedroom apartment for dirt cheap for him in the little town he lives in & I rent a nice west-side 2 bedroom that's about 5 minutes from the Courthouse.  He wants to come back to Springfield - and not put all our furniture in storage and force me to drive that hour and a half every day. Its a choice we made together. A sacrifice we both make.

With that I leave you with our reason - because we love each other and after all - it is just an hour and a half. Love is worth it.

with love

- Cass

 Photo above by St. Louis' own Ravetta Photography.