Just when you think you have heard it all . . .

All of these quotes come from the animal clinic where I work and they are real!

"I am calling to make an appointment for "Lucy." I am her secretary."

"My dog has been coughing for a few weeks and I need to talk to the doctor. I think its from all the cat food he has been eating."

This call came in thirty minutes before closing time. "My dog has been bleeding for the last three weeks and I need to see the doctor right now!"

Owner: "My dog is scratching, but I have never seen a flea on him. Can the doctor look at him?"
Me: "Yes. Are you sure you have not seen a single flea?"
Owner: "Oh, I am sure! He sleeps with me and that would be gross."
Me: "Ok, sure. Are you using flea prevention?"
Owner: "No, but I swear its not fleas. It must be allergies or something."
Me: "Ok, let's let the doctor take a look."
Doctor: "Mrs. Smith, "Buddy" is covered in fleas."

"I do not bathe my dog. She licks herself clean, like a cat"

"I have a question. Can my dog get sick from being around other dogs?"

Doctor: "Miss Jones, your Miniature Dachshund weighed in at 30 pounds today. He needs to weigh closer to 10 pounds."
Owner: "Are you saying my dog is fat because my dog is not fat."
Doctor: "Yes Ma'am, "Charlie" needs to loose about 15-20 pounds . . . "
Owner: "My dog is not fat! My dog does not need to lose weight! He is just fine!"

"My dog needs to have her teeth cleaned? You mean you clean dog's teeth? I have never heard of that. How do you get then to sit still to do that?"

"I need to make an appointment for my cat to see the doctor. I think she was attacked by a Grizzly Bear."

I love my job! It keeps me on my toes!

Friends or foes?!

I once heard that sharing secrets helps friends grow closer together. I recently discovered that if you do share secrets with "friends" you run the risk of living in fear. For example, I shared with some work friends that I am not so fond of eyeballs. I learned this when I had to dissect a sheep's eye in biology. I cut into the eye, it squirted its contents back at me and down I went. A few days after sharing this with work "friends" I received a text of a dissected cow's eye. EEEEWWWW!!!

Well, I cannot play the victim all the time. This past week at girl's night, a discussion of phobias was going around the table. A friend confided in us that she had a fear of backbones. She cannot tolerate having her back touched or seeing another person's backbone poking through their skin. We all asked questions trying to understand how she lives with this fear and inevitably started in on the jokes just to see her squirm in her seat. It was hilarious from my point of view, but i know all too well how she felt.

The worst is when you tell a friend a secret-secret that you do not want everybody to know and they tell anyway. No I am not talking about gossip. I am talking about an embarassing mishap that you do not mind your friend knowing but do mind others knowing. I mean, is it that far of a stretch of the imagination that when you tell your friend in secret it should stay in secret? Obviously, a friend of mine does not understand this concept.

My secret-secret happened a few years ago when I was getting married. My soon to be mother-in-law gave me a bottle of Alli pills after I had expressed to her that I wanted to lose a little weight before the wedding. She told me to take two capsules before a meal and it would prevent my body from obsorbing 30% of the fat in the meal. She warned me that it could cause some intestinal issues including passing orange "stool", but not to be alarmed. The orange "stool" was actually the fat passing straight through without being obsorbed. What she did not tell me is that you should not take it when you eat fast food or a meal very high in fat which is what the instruction booklet tells you because it could cause anal leakage. The concequences of doing so is why Alli helps you choose healthier meals.

Getting back to the point, I had been taking Alli for a few days at my main meals. One day, I had Guthries and so I took two Alli capsules. That evening, Mark and I were at my apartment watching TV. We were laughing when I felt like I needed to pass gas. Since Mark and I had been together for almost 6 years I felt comfortable enough to not only pass gas in front of him, but to joke around about it with him. While we were laughing, I proceeded to "let one loose" not realizing that just a little bit of force would also help let loose the anal leakage of orange "stool" caused by eating a high fat meal. The smile was immediately wiped from my face at the astonishment of what just happeded! I jumped up to run to the bathroom leaving evidence of my mishap on the couch cushion and a hysterically laughing fiance! Just to be clear, I did not poop my pants! It was the undigested fat the Alli encircled to remove it from my body in a not so flattering way. All Alli users know what I mean. Mark now refers to this incident as my "epic fail."

I reveal this because my "friend" has already told everybody, so why not?! But, with every good story there is always an exaggeration. She calls it my "sharting story." I did not poop my pants!

I love technology!

So, a friend of mine gave me her Blackberry phone because she was moving. I have been wanting a Blackberry since they came out but I could never afford the phone. I am so super excited to have it!

I went to verizon on Friday to change out my phones (which took over an hour of waiting time) and quickly became too busy to play with my new phone. Today is the first chance I have had to play around and change all my settings.

I could not for the life of me figure out how to set my ringtone. I was so incredibly frustrated! I finally resorted to going on line. The Blackberry website told me to do the exact same thing my phone told me to do. My frustration escallated, but i followed the instructions and guess what? I managed to change my ringtone!

Now that I have that done, I had to post my success on Facebook! So I do and a friend immediately responds with a comment about the Geico Boss's ringtone that is Ring a ding a ding ding o ..... ringa dinga ding ding o ..... you know the commercial. So I go to the website on my phone and download that ringtone. That song really cracks me up and now I am going to be laughing everytime I answer my phone!

The List

Tonight, I was thinking of a list. A list of things I want to do but for one reason or another, I cannot. Here is what made the top ten:

10. I want to buy my dog a cute stuffed toy, but the cute stuffed pig would require surgery in less than five minutes.

9. I want to decorate my house, but it costs too much money.

8. I want to do my taxes, but I still have not received my W2 from my last job.

7. I recently took up knitting and I want to finish my scarf, but I never seem to have the time.

6. I want to give away my mentally challenged cat, but no one seems to want a broken cat.

5. I want to have kids, but I need to wait until Mark is out of school.

4. I want to take a vacation, but it costs too much time and money.

3. I want to expand my cooking expertise, but I do not own the required cooking pieces to many recipies.

2. I want a garden, but I know myself and I would get bored half way through planting seeds.

1. I want to finish the laundry. Do I really need to include the reason?

Have a great week people!

Ho Ho Holidays!

I love christmas! I love the food, I love spending quality time with my family, and I love decorations. I love everything about christmas. Mark and I went down to Mobile to celebrate christmas in my parent's home. My sister's family came as well. We all had a fantastic time. I think me and my niece were the most excited. My absolute favorite thing about christmas is to see the reactions on my family's faces when they open their gifts. My niece's reaction was perfect! Per my sister's suggestion, I bought Emory some new Disney Princess and Fancy Nancy underwear. Then I found some very cute socks that were brightly colored and had the days of the week on them. I then had a sudden realization, I am THAT aunt! I am that aunt that gives underwear and socks as presents! I do not want to be THAT aunt! Even though my sister told me that Emory wants those items and that she would be overjoyed when she opened her present, I had to get her something fun. I went to look for a coloring book and found a Disney Princess coloring/sticker book. I knew Emory would like it because I loved it! I almost got one for myself. :) When she opened her present, she did like the underwear, she liked the socks more because there was a purple pair (her new favorite color), but when she pulled the coloring/sticker book out of her bag, her face lit up and she immediately started chattering about a friend of hers who had one and she wished that she had one just like it! Needless to say I was elated because she loved her gift.

Mark and I drove down to Mobile on the backroads from T-town. It was actually a very pleasant drive. We drove through the boonies of Alabama. We saw Catfish farms, horses, cows, and two donkeys. We also were fortunate to pass by not one but 2 paper mills. Childhood memories came flooding back to me as I breathed in their putrid stink. My dad worked in Sylacauga and sometimes Mom would drive us kids down there to visit him at the hospital. On our way, we had to pass through Childersburg where a papermill resided. All of us kids would hold our noses and breathe through our mouths. Good times!

Now we look forward to New Year's and resolutions!

Hodge-Podge!

Oh my! I cannot believe it has been that lomg since the last time I have blogged! My father wrote me an e-mail telling me to update my blog. I did not even know that he read my blog! Thank you Daddy for reminding me to update my blog!

So, I got a job. I am working at BPAC again! Going back to that clinic was like going home. I know the job, I know my coworkers and what to expect from them, I know my bosses, and I know our clients. I love my job!

My nephew is growing! Emory, my niece is growing as well. She just turned three in October and Ethan is now three months old and weighs 15 pounds! I got to look after him on Saturday and he is such a laid back, happy boy. I cannot wait to meet my children.

My parents came into town a few weeks ago for Ethan's baptism. It was so great to see them! I cannot wait till christmas so that I may see them again. Mark was unable to see them because he has been so busy.

Mark and school have a very intimate marriage. Law school is a very demanding wife. Needless to say, we do not see as much of each other as we want to. Law school lives up to her rumored behavior of sucking time from your life. This semester is almost over and the next one will be here before we know it!

I cannot believe how this football season has shapped up. Such promise at the beginning has turned into disappointment! The iron bowl is the only game left of any importance before the sec championship. Did I mention that I am going to the sec championship? That's right!

The Jade is doing fine. She gets to go to work with me and play all day! The guys at the clinic take such great care of her. The bitties are also doing well. It is time for their shots! They cannot wait, I am sure of it.

Halloween came and went with little excitement as well as my birthday. We had an eighties themed party at Blue Monkey for my birthday and Kara and I were the only ones who dressed up! We did not dress up for halloween though I did get Jade a costume. The plan was for her to answer the door for the trick or treaters but none came. Very dissapointing.

Our next adventure is Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Mark said that we could get a tree this year! Hopefully he will not go back on his word!

No work and no play makes Grace an anxious girl?

No, I do not have a job yet. It is now September and I do not have a job. Day after day I pray that this time I venture out to apply for a job I will get a call back for an interview. Day after day I hear nothing. This is the longest time I have been unemployed since I was 19 years old. I am going crazy! Not really, but I need a job.

Well, if I do not have a job how do I fill my time you ask? I am not only the cook, maid, and errand girl anymore. I am now a landscape architect! Well, maybe not an architect of our landscape, but I now mow and edge the "lawn" (I say "lawn" because we have weeds not grass). I have been working on our backyard as well trying to kill all the weeds. I started with weeds as high as mid thigh and in clusters as big as size 4 soccer balls. After a grounds crew did a poor job of dealing with the height of our "lawn" I have been tackling the large clusters of weeds. I have sprayed and watered just to have succeeded in turning a quarter of our backyard into a dust bowl and the other 3/4 are still thriving like champs.

I have also become the "get 'er done!" person when it comes to repairs to be made that should have been made before we moved in. Case in point, our microwave made a funny noise when a friend tried to heat up some left over pizza when he came to help us paint in June. We told our landlord about it at that time and I have had a working microwave for only ten days now. I know that might seem miniscule, but when your oven does not work either, how are we to eat? I am very thankful to now have a working oven for 2 days. I hate to be rude but it should have been working since we moved in over a month ago!

The best job I have aquired while being stuck at home is dog trainer. Since Jade was a puppy, both of us have been very involved in her up bringing. We have been so committed to her that she became our child. We discussed in depth how to discipline her, when to feed her, crate training her, leash training her, and so much more. We need to be on the same page so as to not send comflicting signals that might confuse her while understanding that she is not human. She was actually a pretty easy dog to train. She was house broken in one month and had all your basic commands down pat by two weeks. One thing we had to realize about her is that she will be a puppy for a long time and we could not let her roam the house unattended lest she chew up anything valuable or get into something that could be detrimental to her health. So, we bought her a play pin. It kept her confined without having to be stuck in her crate all day. I was a miracle worker for us and, even though she was very capable of jumping out of it, she loved it. However, when we moved to our new place, the play pin did not fit so well. I then took it upon myself to transition her to the kitchen. It took me and Jade one week to go from pin to kitchen with a babygate to just kitchen. It is so great to have her out of my living room! It is also better for her to finally be able to have full access to her water bowl and to be able to lie in her padded crate whenever she wants instead of on the hard wood floor. Now if I could just teach her how to fetch me a beer . . .

So, as you see I am not completely without things to keep me occupied, but we still have no income. I really, really need a job!

Nephew Ethan is here!

Yeah! My nephew, Ethan Skocelas, is finally here! I am sure that the rest of us cannot be as gleeful as my sister! I know I will be in her position one day and would appreciate the recognition when the time comes. She is such a wonderful person! I cannot imagine having the ability to share my newborn with so many people. I know I would want to be so selfish and not let anyone one else hold him, at least until he starts to cry! I cannot claim that I will even allow Mark to hold my newborn! They had just as many people visiting this delivery as her first delivery. I do not know how she puts up with all that commotion just hours after delivering. I pray that I will have it together to not only allow people to touch my newborn but to hold conversation and be patient enough to repeat myself over and over!

Did I mentoion how perfect he looked! God did another great job weaving my sister and brother in law into one person! I was given the opportunity today to spend some time with my family and I was allowed to hold Ethan after his lunch and he gracefully fell asleep on my chest. I hated having to put him down in his bed to finish his nap. I already love him so much! Emory, my niece, seems to have adjusted pretty well so far. She is so sweet to her new baby brother other than asking if they could put him back into mother's belly! It was basically a question of couriosity not animosity!

All Moved In

Wow! It was tough, but we got it done!

Thank you all who kept us in your prayers on July 31st. Even though we were delayed 45 miniutes due to rain, we managed to get everything to Tuscaloosa safe and sound! It took about five hours to load the truck and about one hour to unload it! Mark tackled the 24foot monster of a truck. I am glad I did not have to drive it! Picking up the truck was not bad but returning it . . . now that is a horse of a different color. We drove across town for about twenty minutes, stopped and turned around because we thought we missed the place to drop it off, just to turn around again and the place was up the road from where we stopped the first time! Then I had to battle the steep dirt road in the Cobra as I followed the truck into the lot. Fun, fun! We have only one more box to unpack but we have to wait until we can buy a new bookshelf.

The animals are adjusting fine! Jade loves her new outdoor space! The kitties have found new places to hide! I love being able to park my car in a garage and its so much easier to unload groceries! It is so nice to not have to battle for a parking spot in an apartment complex!

Mark starts oreintation tomorrow and I have completed my first round of job searching yesterday. My sister is being induced this thursday so my mom came into town yesterday. She came over today to see our new place and to hang out for a bit with us. I always forget how much I miss my parents until I get to see them again. I cannot wait for Baby Ethan to get here!

Everybody Loves Atlanta!

Nicole and Robert (some friends of ours) came to visit us from the Ham last weekend. Friday night, we went to Dave and Busters and had a blast. I swear that place is worse than a casino! Well, I have never been to a casino, but I imagine that money slips through wallets and exchanges hands just as quickly! In my head, I held an ideal that D & B would be very similar to my old Chuck E. Cheese days, and it was to an extent. First, you get a prepaid credit card (which they charge you 2 bucks for) and choose how much you want to spend. Of course, this all depends on the game token : dollar : tokens per game ratio. I do not want to get into it, because it is very confusing! :) Did I mention that I had coupons for a not so great deal? Secondly, you have to swipe your card like a credit card to play the games. After eating dinner, Nicole and I started off with a couple rounds of Ski Ball. I love Ski Ball! Then, I found my true talent playing a coin game. When the game starts, it gives you several coins to drop in the slot of your choice. Then it will push your coin forward and hopefully push other coins up front forward and over the edge and the machine will spit out tickets! Mark and Robert played basketball and some other games. The best part is that you can drink and play at the same time! Man, I could spend a fortune in that place! At the end of the night, we all took a stroll through the prize store and cashed in our tickets. Nicole and Robert had over 2400 tickets and Mark and I had over 4200 tickets. Nicole saw a huge plush giraffe when we all first walked past the store before starting to play. It was 3000 tickets, but she did not have enough to get it and she had to have it because she talked about all night so we all combined our tickets. In the end we walked away with 2 plastic D & B cups, 2 t-shirts, a plush Buzz (GT's mascot's name), a plush blue dog, and the 6 foot giraffe (I named her Jazzy which is short for Jasmine). I want to go back so bad!
On Saturday, we went to Six Flags! Nicole signed us up for Flash passes so we did not have to wait in line, but we still only got to ride 4 rides. I had many not so great coupons for Six Flags too! I did, however, have two great coupons to get them into the park! :) After waiting in line to park, we had to wait in a line to get tickets, and another line to get into the park and then another line to get the Flash Pass. All this took about 2 hours! Blah! The first ride we went on was the Mindbender! It was great, but I got a little freaked out because I had not mentally prepared myself for the day's activities. After eating lunch, we rode the Batman! I really like that ride! Acrophobia was next and I do NOT like that ride! I fell victim to peer pressure and agreed to ride, but when it came time to actually sit in the seat, Nicole bailed and I desparately wanted to follow in her foot steps! Unfortunately, I did not decide quickly enough and up I rose and around I went, then down I came and I shall never do it again! You know that feeling of anxiety that would overcome you when you did something really bad and you knew your parents knew about it, but you had to confront them anyway knowing what would happen? Multiply that by one million and you have my level of anxiety and distress 200ft in the air, listening to the guy count down to the moment I would plummet face down to the ground, trusting and praying that the hydraulics were engineered by a Tech Grad and not a Georgia Grad! I could barely walk when the ride was over and my hands shook for the next ten minutes. The last ride that we rode was the Goliath, but I decided to sit that one out because I had had enough excitement for one day. Nicole and Robert drove back to the Ham from Six Flags and Mark and I enjoyed a relaxing evening at home! Thanks to them for a wonderful weekend and a small dose of fear factor!

*+*July 4th*+*

When most people think of family holidays, their minds usually think of Christmas and Thanksgiving first, birthdays might follow as a close second, then Labor Day, Memorial Day, and Spring Break bring up the rear because these holidays revolve around weekends. July 4th is like a floating holiday people take at a more convenient time. For me, July 4th has always ment a great time with family and an excuse to play with fire!
July 4th was always my third favorite holiday after Christmas and my birthday. My parents would take us on two vacations every Summer as a child. One would be a week in Texas visiting my Dad's family (which I always enjoyed as well) and the other was July 4th in Atlanta visiting my Mom's family. My mom has two older brothers and both of them would bring their families as well. Everyone brought fireworks because you could not buy fireworks in Georgia but you could set them off. There was always a ton of fireworks! On other nights my cousins and I would spend hours collecting as many lightning bugs as we could. One year, a neighbor of my grandparents I had become friends with invited me to join her flag twirling group and walk in the Dunwoody parade. I was super excited and my mom bought me this great red, white, and blue dress to wear. The only drawback was I had to take a nap before the parade! Another year, my Aunt took all of us and our cousins to Stone Mountain to see the laser light show and the fireworks. We brought blankets to sit on, a cooler for cokes, and snacks. We had such a great time, we decided to go again another year! Unfortunately, those trips were retired as all of us kids grew up and with the passing of my grandparents.
Last year, my sister invited Mark and I to go with them to Thunder on the Mountain. If you have never been, its an awesome display of fireworks around Vulcan. Nothing like Stone Mountain, but still pretty great! We had a fantastic time that night with my sister, brother-in-law, my neice and their friends.
This year, we did not go anywhere and it was great! I loved being able to relax and sleep in a bit. All we did was go to the pool for about an hour, eat at Dreamland (of course we had to have BBQ!) and watch the fireworks display at Lenox on tv!
To this day, I am always excited about the forth because of all the great memories I have of my family and my childhood. I look forward to having kids and getting together with family to form many new memories!

Our eyes were bigger than our hands!

Last weekend, Mark and I strolled down to T-Town and painted our house. I think we bit off a little more than we could chew in one weekend, but with the help of friends and family we got it done.
We got into town on Thursday and immediately went to Home Depot (after eating at Wings of course!) to purchase all the supplies we would need to paint a house. Except the paint because we had already purchased it. Little did we know that this would be the first trip to a home improvement store, but not the only trip!
Friday began slowly with a sleepy wake-up call at 7am. After a quick breakfast and a 45 minute drive, we began working on cleaning up the basebaords and walls to tape off everything. This was my nightmare and I could only take so much. Not because I have an aversion to cleaning but because I have an aversion to hundreds of pairs of eight legs and eyes. That's right! They were everywhere and they came in all sizes! Luckily, I have a very sweet husband and a generous Mother in Law who took care of eliminating most of them. After the nightmare was over, the taping began. We taped and taped and taped until the word lost all meaning! We sent Mother Kajdos home about 6pm because Mark and I had planned on putting the first coat of paint on the walls of the office and the guest room. We did not leave till about 11pm. What a first day!
Saturday began with an even harsher wake-up call at 7am. After another quick breakfast, another 45 minute drive, a visit to Lowe's AND a 30 minute search for a Starbucks, we got started on painting the largest area of the house. Kara and I started by painting with a brush and Mark started the rolling. It worked out great for me that he liked to roll and it worked out great for him that I liked the brush work. Matt showed up about 1pm and with all of us working very hard with very few breaks we got everything done, except the master bedroom. Can you believe that we ran out of paint? Kara went with me on the third and final trip to Home Depot to get one more gallon of paint at 9pm. That seemed to finish us all up and we headed home about 10pm.
I bet you can guess how Sunday started! An early alarm at 7am. It was especially hard for Mark since he stayed up to hang out with friends till almost 3am, but we made it down to the house by 9:30am and the clean up began! Mark and his mom removed the tape around the baseboards while I was up and down the ladder removing the tape around the ceiling and painting over mistakes. We left about 2pm with a satisfied feeling and pictures!
All in all, everything went well and I do not want to see another paint brush for a very long time!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 7 year anniversary! I know that now we are married some people might think that it is ridiculous to recognize our dating anniversary, but this day has ment so much to us for 6 years. And now we have achieved 7 years together! We have accomplished so much together over these past several years (I can actually use the word several!). We have grown up together, experienced college together, and owned pets together. We have loved together and lost together. We have visited other nations and conquered the interstates together. We also have many of the same friends that have stuck by our sides as well as both of our wonderful families. We have moved numerous times and put up with trash roomates together. We have known each other since 6th grade and we are best friends. The Lord chose to save us, bring us to Him and then bring us together. His unconditional love has taught us how to love each other even when we are angry. I love my Mark with all my heart and I look forward to a lifetime of many more accomplishments with him!

Rainbow House

Mark and I are planning on painting the house we will be renting in Tuscaloosa next weekend. If you have ever painted a room, then you know the headaches that go along with it (and I am not talking paint fumes though they do give me a migraine). Picking out the new color can be fun, but because there are so many other colors to choose from you tend to second guess your first, second, and maybe even your third and fourth choices. Then you get a small sample and a brush, go home and paint a small area, let it dry, and your choice is made. Mark and I spent about an hour and thirty minutes picking out colors for our new place and each color has a stunt double. Next move was to take the swatches to the house and see what they look like in the light up against the walls. We went down there last weekend to test them out. Unfortunately, it is too expensive to buy samples of 14 different colors and we also do not have the time to come back and see what they look like in different lighting at different times of the day. We did do the whole "hey, what do think?" "what about from the doorway?" "how about here in the corner?" and it seemed to work just fine for us. We settled on 6 great colors that work together and flow nicely threw out the whole house. We even eliminated one color completely. We then bought our paint and we are ready to throw down on some hard work next weekend. We are thinking it will take us the entire weekend to complete the job. We plan on doing the prep work on Friday (cleaning, taping, setting up) and we have recruited Mark's parents to help us. Saturday, the actual painting begins and we have recruited help on that day as well. Of course, what ever does not get done on Saturday will be completed on Sunday. We have no help recruited for that day! :)

Please pray for us next weekend that everything goes smoothly and without any hiccups!

Trash or Treasure

It never fails to amaze me how much junk a person can collect in one year. And by a person I mean Mark and me together and individually.

When we moved to Atlanta, I did not realize how much stuff I had collected over three years. I had something around 8-10 garbage bags of clothes that I donated and double that amount of trash bags full of trash. Bar stools were gotten rid of along with countless other odd items still left over from my high school days. I was pretty satisfied with the work that Mark and I did on weeding out the needed and not necessary.

Now that we are moving again, I have begun the same process. I have not started packing, packing, but I have started to clean out boxes that were never unpacked in the first place! I must assume that if a box full of items was not useful for the past 10 months, it should be tossed out in its entirity. Unfortunately, my curiosity gets the best of me and I have an uncontrollable urge to find out what these unuseful items must be! In the end, it turned out to be very educational and rewarding.

There were many exclamations of "hey, that's where the staplers were!" and "I forgot these pictures existed! Look how tan I am!" and my all time favorite, "what the hell is that?!" I never thought that I would need to unpack, to be able to pack, just to unpack again!

Memorial Day Weekend

Mark and I traveled to Mobile, AL for Memorial Day weekend. We had a fantastic time! This was Jade's first marathon car trip and she did very well!

We arrived Thursday evening just in time for dinner. Even though we had not been to Mobile since last Summer, nothing had changed. Friday, my Dad had to leave after work to go to a conference in New Orleans to speak about a medical precedure on Liver cancer. He practiced his speach for me Thursday night and it was really good! My mom and I went and had pedicures done Friday afternoon, after that, Mark and I went bowling with Josh and his girlfriend, Jamie, and then Mark, Mom & I went to eat at Wings! It was a great day!

Saturday, we all went to eat at the Oyster House! Then we came home and watched a movie with Mom and Dad. On Sunday, we went to church at Grace and heard a wonderful sermon on happiness. It was so good to see some old friends and to meet some of my parents friends. For lunch, Josh invited Mark and me to eat at BWW with him, Jamie and her daughter. You can never go wrong with BWW. Sunday afternoon my parents took a nap and we went to Home Depot to pick out paint colors for our house in T-Town. That evening, I played a round of cribbage with my Daddy and he won best 2 out of 3. Believe me that is not a good thing! He has bragging rights until our next match!

Unfortunately, we had to leave Monday afternoon, but not before Mark and I had a wonderful morning full of conversation and coffee with Mom and Dad. I cannot wait until I am able to see them again!

Ok so a lot of stuff has been happening, but I have been too busy to blog so this might be a long one!
A few weeks ago, Mark and I made a trip to Birmingham to see family and friends and to also head to Tuscaloosa to look for a place to live. I had done lots and lots of research online trying to weed out suitable places that would also accept our Rottie. I found this one (that's right, one!) apartment complex that had lax enough rules on dog breed and size and also looked amazing! We were also informed, from the plethora of info that Alabama sent Mark, about a realestate company that rents houses amd apartments among the usual realestate activities. Fortunately, the houses for rent did not look that bad online. Sorry I cannot say the same for the apartments for rent! Mark called both of these places and scheduled appointments for us to check them out.

The apartment complex was awesome! They were nice people and the apartments were very spacious, some had hardwood floors, and came with a one car garage attatched to each apartment! The price was right as well, but we still had to meet with the realestate agent. On our way we talked and decided unless a house blows us away completely, we would be heading back to the apartment complex. Well, a house blew us away! Given, we only looked at two houses, but I had looked at thirty online and none of them compaired to the garden home! I am also very excited to inform you that we sign a lease this week and we will be moving in two months!

It is such a cute house! It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms (just what we wanted!), a two car garage, and a fenced in square of land out back for Jade! They also did not mind our dog!

Praise the Lord! He answered our prayers and blessed us with a more beautiful home than I could have imagined! Did I mention that we get to paint it!!

Weekend Blessings!!

Ok, so Mark graduated May 1!! The ceremony was boring, but it made me proud to see him walk across the stage knowing he has accomplished the second goal he has set for himself in his education. His parents and his brother were there as well as a close friend of the family. I was pleasantly surprised when they were calling out the names and an old high school mate's name echoed in the Georgia Dome. Unfortunately, I was unable to say hello to her and her family, but Mark spoke to her and told her I was there. We went to a late dinner together to celebrate Mark's hard work and also look forward a year when we will be in the same place attending Mark's brother's graduation from GT. I am telling you that these Kajdos boys are going to produce more degrees together than there are members of the family! Both of them will not only achieve an undergraduate and Master's degrees, but Adam is planning on getting his PhD and Mark will be starting Law school in the Fall!

I cannot say enough about how proud I am of Mark's hard work these past several semesters. The long days and nights of attending class and working on project after project. It was not a rare occurance that I went to bed many, many hours before he closed his eyes just to wake at the same time as me and the Sun. Mark is not just a hard worker, but a dedicated student who enjoys what he is studying and committed to making sure he has the right answer every time no matter how many hours and pieces of paper it takes! This Fall he will be attending Law School at Alabama. I am convenced that he is thoroughly prepared to take on that challenge and excell in every class!

Sunday was our one year anniversary! I know! I cannot believe that it has been a year already! We are no longer newlyweds! But it is depressing to think that this time last year we were in the Virgin Islands sunning ourselves on the beach! A whole year to reflect on blessings and miscommunications! At least we were together and not long distance. To celebrate our one year accomplishment of both of us still living, we went to the Georgia Aquarium. It was something that neither of us had done before and we were both excited to spend that time together. We also decided to see the Titanic exhibit that was at the Georgia Aquarium. After walking around for about four hours we went to eat at Pappadeaux's. It is a Cajan seafood restaurant and it satisfied our desire for an excellant meal. We splurged and had a bottle of wine with our meal. My bedtime creeped up on us quickly after coming home and watching a movie together. All in all it was a wonderful day and a great weekend!

Pobrecita!!

My poor baby girl got hurt this week! Mark was playing with her in the field like we do every day. She was having a blast chasing her frisbee and her tennis ball when she walked up to Mark ready for another chase and he noticed her foot had blood on it. He examined it and she had split her toe nail!! Of course he immediately called me and I asked him to bring her to work for Dr. R to look at her. It was not too bad, her toe nail just needed to be clipped back and then bandaged untill bedtime. It was the much needed Elisabethan Collar that really got to her. She was so pitiful!! All night she acted as if she was being punished with the forelorn looks and the refusal to eat her dinner. She did not seem to mind the collar. Everytime we had to put it back on her she sat still and and lifted her chin for us, but after it was velcroed in place the eyes would droop and the tongue would slowly come out and go back in again. She layed around all evening pouting. Finally, bedtime came and it was time to take the bandage off. She was very good and sat very still for me. Mark had to hold her head so she would stop licking my hands as I was working on unwrapping the very well taped up bandage! The very second she new her imprisionment was over, she started racing around and wanting to play. Of course she had to get in a cat chase before being banished to her crate for the night! All in all she is just fine and back to her annoying self!!