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!!

I just want to thank the Lord for this beautiful Spring He has given us! The air is clear and warm and there is not a cloud in the sky.

Lots of busy days ahead of us! Mark will be walking on May 1, 2009 and May 3rd will be our one year anniversary!! The house hunting begins shortly after next weekend in Tuscaloosa. Keep us in your prayers that we will be able to find good housing that will allow our Rottie and that is in our price range. Oh, and the packing has begun! Thankfully it will not be too bad because we never really fully unpacked!

The Lord has been so good to us to guide us where He wants us to be. The move to Tuscaloosa was not our first choice, but it is were God wants us to be and we are looking forward to the move.

Weekend in Birmingham

Mark and I went to Birmingham this past weekend for the second time this year! I know it has been way too long inbetween trips but school is very demanding of Mark's time. We arrived Thursday afternoon about four (just ahead of traffic!), immediately dropped the dog off, and headed to Wings ( our favorite place to eat). Our wings were of course fabulous, but our time spent there was cut short due to a very friendly drunk guy who could not keep his hands off Mark and an old coworker.
Friday started off with a wonderful surprise! I was invited to go with my sister's family to her ultrasound to find out the sex of their baby. It's a boy! Everyone was excited except for my neice, Emory. She was super concerned that the nurse was hurting my sister, so to try to ease her discomfort, I took Emory to the caffeteria to pick out a special drink ( also so Sarah could finish up her Dr.'s appointment). Emory picked out a purple drink and a red drink for Aunt Grace! Next stop was to drop Emory off at a friend's house and Sarah and I had a great time seeing friends and shopping! Later that night, Mark and I went to eat at another one of our favorite places, Kobe, and went bowling with some frinds. I won the first game, but I was challenged well!
Saturday morning I got to sleep in some and then go to the mall and lunch with another friend. We went to Zaxby's (what else!) after some very important sho shopping. Mark and I then went to have some Margarittas with Kara and had a great time! When alcohol is involved, you know it will great, especially with her!! A wedding was next on our agenda and then an evening with our old high school buddies. There was alcohol there too!
Unfortunately, we had to head back to Atlanta on Sunday but not before a fantastic lunch with my inlaws and getting my mother-in-law started up on FB.
It was a great weekend!!! I love you all!!

Who Put All The Sugar On The Trees?

Ok so I am a little late on telling ya'll about our snow day, but better late than never, right? I honestly do not watch the news on a consistant basis so the fact that one of my friends called me super excited Sunday morning that it was snowing in Alabama was kind of a shock. But, unfortunately, I do not live in Alabama, I live in Georgia where it was raining, not snowing! Mark and I were very dissapointed. Mark more so than me, but both of us were walking around the apartment grumbling and complaining that of course it was snowing were we did not live anymore (a very pleasant way to start out our Sunday morning don't you think!) Let me stop right here and call Mark out on his 50/50's. If you have been around him long enough, you will find out that Mark is not a "lucky" person when it comes to 50/50. His chances statistically speaking are the same as everyone else, however his "luck" is more like 10/90 realistically. I am not kidding you! I did not believe it at first, but I have had to regretfully agree with him that yes in fact he is wrong 90% of the time when faced with 50/50's. (he will not abmit to being wrong on any other occasion!) So the fact that it was snowing in Alabama and raining in Georgia really got under his skin! Well, not but about an hour later the snow started to come down in large white clumps. It was a beautiful scene watching the snow fall! I called my friend to let her know that it had started to snow and finally be able to genuinely share in her excitement.
God blessed us again for Mark's open lab to be cancelled due to the weather, so Mark did not have to drive to Tech on the icey roads. Instead we took Jade outside to enjoy the unusual weather. It was her first snow and she did not know what it was at first. We treaded though the melting mush to her field so she could run around and play in it. She had a blast!! Juking this way and that way, leaping over hills and bushes and sliding around on the wet ground! We took several pictures and videos which are posted on both mine and Mark's Facebook pages. Go check them out!
One of my mother's favorite childhood stories to tell about me is when we were sitting in a chair together one winter's morning and I looked out the window behind us at the snow that had fallen the night before. A mixture of shock, disbelief, and wonder spread over my face as I asked my mother, "who put all the sugar on the trees?" I gave my mother the story of a lifetime after I exclaimed triumphantly, "I know! Dan did it!"