It’s Official…

I’m no longer a member of the youthful whippersnappers in their twenties. I have now crossed over into the mature realm of those in their thirties. And what has my newly acquired maturity afforded me? Well, the realization that age is just a number. I always thought that a person in their thirties was mature [a nicer word for old] and had life figured out, but as my age inched towards that number, I realized that turning thirty doesn’t instantly morph me into a “grown-up” with answers. Turning thirty doesn’t mean that I now know exactly what I want to do with my life. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop acting goofy and start being serious. It doesn’t mean I’m going to have to start wearing mom jeans and stop listening to rock music.

Nope, thirty is just a number. And while with age comes wisdom and maturity, I no longer have the pressure to have life figured out. I’m still the same person I was when I was 29. I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I still sometimes feel as if I’m playing at being an adult. I still turn to my parents for guidance. I still listen to rock music.

So I’m going to spend this morning mourning my twenties by stuffing my face with cake, and spend the rest of my birthday looking forward to the possibilities that thirty has to offer. In the meantime, you can enjoy a collage of me and some of the mature moments I’ve had over the years.

xo

Old Woman

Adopt a Puppy

I have some new prints that will be making their way into the shop soon…

Meet Angus:

and Winston:

xo

nessa dee

Mr. Camera

I’m sorry for my sporadic blogging behavior. I blame it on the sporadic camera behavior that my Nikon is exhibiting. You see, he decides that some days he wants to take pictures and other days, well, he just refuses. I’ve talked with him about this, how my blogging hinges on whether or not I have pictures to illustrate the miniscule amount of words I actually type in my online journal here, but he’s not too sympathetic to my case. He doesn’t realize that my blogging time is limited, and when I do have something to talk about, I need to have a reliable tool to capture in a picture what I refuse to type in words. Sure, I do have hands that can draw pictures on paper that can be scanned into a computer that can be put on this blog that will say what I can’t convey with words, but who has time for that?

Okay… I might have a little time…

Well, maybe we should discuss picture content in our negotiations before I make any further threats.

xo

nessa dee

Hawaii

I just realized that I never posted pictures from our trip to Kauai. Well, here’s a pictorial account in completely random order.

I was really tempted to have the kids flown in and never leave the island. It’s that beautiful. But alas, I came home.

xo

nessa dee

Please Vote!

Hi All,

I recently entered my Race to the Moon” print in the NASA and Etsy Space Craft contest, and it’s one of the finalists in my category.

Check out the finalists by clicking on this link here, and vote for your favorite piece of art. If your favorite happens to be my print, and you want to, say, vote for my print, that would be awesome!

Many thanks and extra x’s and o’s!!

nessa dee

The Military Forces Museum

In honor of Veteran’s Day, I’m posting pictures from our recent field trip to the Military Forces Museum here in Austin. The museum is full of artifacts, military machinery, weapons, and giant dioramas featuring different battles in history. The museum’s collection spans from the time of the Battle of the Alamo to present day.

I’m always in awe when standing in the presence of history. Right now we’re studying the Civil War, and to go to this museum and see actual uniforms that the soldiers wore, or weapons they used in battle just brings everything to life.

We learned a lot about our history at this museum. If my kids took anything away from the trip, I hope it’s the realization of the great sacrifice the men and women who serve our country have made to preserve our freedom. Our docent spoke very passionately about thanking people in uniform and our veterans. So to all of those men and women who have served and are serving…

thank you.

nessa dee

Finnanigans

After hitting Audrie and stating it was an accident, we had a little talk about the difference between an accident and doing something on purpose. Finn’s response:

“But Mom, I was going to hit Audrie because I wanted to let Trixie in, but when I got into the kitchen I didn’t want to hit Audrie, but then I hit her, so I didn’t decide to hit her, I just did.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mom, sometimes when I’m eating, like this, I think there are beavers in my mouth sawing my food.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After telling a reluctant Finn that we weren’t going to the Children’s Museum, but rather a military museum, I showed him pictures of what we were going to see there. The first picture on the website was an army tank. Upon seeing this, Finn shouted:

“Mom, I love you. You’re a genius!”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The last tomorrow, on Halloween i got lots of candy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Observing the crescent-shaped moon:

Mom, the the Cheshire Cat is smiling at us. He brushed his white teeth and now he’s going to bed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With some sweat bands wrapped around his wrists acting as handcuffs:

Mom, my arms are under rested.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun is really rising down!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finn: Mom, I’m going to make some valiant food.

Me: Valiant food?! What does that even mean?

Finn: I don’t know, I made it up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Referring to his stuffed animal:

Mom, do you know who my new, new best friend is? Comet! He’s my 20th best friend.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mom, I love curly fries even more than you.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mom, you’re my best, best friend in the best wide world.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That last statement made up for the curly fries.

xo

nessa dee

Wedding

Nothing like a wedding, in this case my baby cousin’s wedding, to get the family together. It’s hard for me to believe that RJ, my little cousin, the one we always picked on when we were growing up, is now a married man. Mind boggling. You always know that these milestones in life we’ll come around eventually, but when they’re here it makes you realize just how quickly life goes by.

[I love this picture. This is RJ, tears in his eyes, watching his bride to be walk down the aisle. So sweet.]

As you can see, Audrie was one of the flower girls for the wedding, along with Kim’s [the bride] daughter, and her son was the ring bearer.

[RJ and his sister, Jenna]

[ mom of the groom, watching the ceremony]

The whole wedding was gorgeous, the weather was perfect, and the ceremony was sweet.

After all of the formalities, the Casey clan took to the usual pattern of acting a little goofy.

[Cousin Kyle donning Finn’s tie]

[Finn donning a golf ball eye]

[Posers]

[Mr. GQ Lance before he realized I was taking his picture] [and after]

[Finn’s response to getting his picture taken with family]

[Our attempt to get him in the picture]

[The bronze sculptures at the venue]

[This picture cracks me up. I thought I was capturing this great picture of my grandpa’s pensive look, but there’s a bit of a distraction in the background]

[I have no idea where Lance gets his goofiness from.]

RJ is the second out of ten Casey grandchildren to tie the knot. The first? Well, I bet you can guess. I had to wait ten years before I was joined on the other side by one of my cousins. Of course, I was just a baby when I got married. Serves me right.

[Casey grandkids sans two]

We’re so glad to have Kim and her kids as a part of our family. RJ, not only did you gain a wife and kids, but we gained wonderful additions to our family.

You did good man.

xo

nessa dee