life gets in the way!!

sorry...i have been a slacker! actually...we have just been extremely busy and had a lot on our minds! i dont even know where to pick up!

i guess the most exciting news is that we are leaving uab, and we are gonna start travelin in about 3 weeks! our last day there is august 18th. as of today we have been submitted to georgetown university hospital in washington d.c. i would love to go there and nicholas has never been, so that makes it more exciting! how it works: the travel agency submits us, the hospital calls to do an interview, we have a lil time to think about if its worth going there, then we make our decision! we really want to go to texas bc we could be a lil bit closer to heath and suz, but for some reason its just not workin out. i would also love to go to the east coast/northeast! really...we will go wherever God wants us to go. nicholas wants to go to alaska and surprisingly there are two jobs available at the same hospital, but i think that's just a lil to far away to go our first time.

we traded our lexus IS 250 in on an expedition! it was soooo hard to leave that car on the lot, but i love the space in the expedition! we had to do something to have more room when we travel. i am somewhat high maintenance! i pack the car out just for a week vacation. i cant imagine how im gonna pack to go somewhere for thirteen weeks!

everyone asks...what are ya'll gonna do with molly. well...dummies...we are going to take her with us! i wouldnt go if we couldnt! she is our baby and we are more attached to her than i ever thought we would be! she is wonderful! heath and i think she is a little "marley". she is hilarious! her favorite thing to do here lately is literally get in the dishwasher and lick the dirty dishes! she loves it! she NEVER gets people food, so we let her do it. it's a treat for her. she also LOVES to play outside! she loves to play with her ball and frisbee. it's a small frisbee...just her size! she also chases every bird, butterfly, and insect that she sees. oh yea...she jumped in the river several weeks ago. i guess she wanted to go for a swim. she's a great lil swimmer. nicholas jumped in and got her though. she's CRAZY, but she's the sweetest, most loving thing you will ever meet.

the other exciting thing coming up is ash par's wedding!! its august 22nd! we are having her bachelorette party in nashville this weekend! it's gonna be lots of fun! i think i've gotten a lil carried away with it! she's gonna be the most beautiful bride ever!

we still absolutely love our house! we love living on the water. we gave up on looking for a boat for now. we decided there's no sense in letting one just sit around while we travel. maybe we can get one when we come back and settle down. it is beautiful here...rain or shine!

i really need to go perform my wife duties such as wash clothes, toilets, etc. i will try to update more often!

newlyweds and paint...

i honestly believe that if you can stay married after painting any part of your house...you can survive anything! although my mom said, "try building a house." i know she's probably right!

the latest happenings in the parden household includes painting and redecorating our master bedroom. we painted our bedroom chocolate and our bathroom green. nicholas probly wanted to kill me before we even started painting because there are wayyyyy to many shades of green to choose from! it all turned out beautifully...i will try to get some pictures up soon! i am doing most of my decorating through pottery barn and flea markets.

i put up green drapes that match the bathroom walls perfectly. my bedding is white and cream with some green and brown accents. we want to use old lanterns and turn them into lamps to put on our nightstands...i would paint them cream. i have added other little touches here and there. there is still work to be done!

we had a yard sale a few weeks ago and it was a huge success! we have sold most of our stuff that we wanted to get rid of! i pretty much got rid of all the fake flowers that were in our house...thank goodness!! i am getting things done slowly but surely! i am having to learn that everything cant be done at once.

we absolutely LOVE our home! i always look forward to going home! we couldnt be more blessed!

im a slacker!!

i havent updated in forever!! i guess life has gotten in the way. another reason is both of our computers are old and wont work half the time. oh yea...the BIGGEST problem is molly wont quit chewing up the chargers! once i think she is out of her puppy phase, she proves me wrong! today i caught her playing with one of my bathing suits...you never know what your gonna find her doing! heath and i think she is like a small version of marley (from marley and me). she is hilarious and crazy, but soooo loving and sweet!

last week was the BEST! my parents, suz and heath, and nicholas and i went to gulf shores for 8 days! it was wonderful! although it was terribly hot! we had a great time playing in the ocean, eating, sleeping, laughing, i could go on forever! my mom says she did things she hasnt done in years such as playing in the massive waves and getting in the swimming pool! it was great to see her and my dad have such a fun, relaxing time! molly and allie went of course and they were both very well behaved! it was molly's first trip to the beach. it sucks that it is against the law to take her to the beach...i know she would've loved it!

i am so blessed to have such an amazing family! i am even more blessed to have a husband who fits in perfectly with them! nicholas and heath are a lot alike and they get along great! we were sad to have to come home on saturday!

its a wonderful life...!!

life couldnt get any better! we are still loving our new house and being able to go fishing whenever we want! wednesday was a great day after a stressful few days! slept late, then fished all afternoon and soaked up some sun!

nicholas' parents and gmom came to visit this past weekend. we had a great time doing nothing. i did cook a lot and visited my gmom but other than that, we didnt do too much!

Ms. MoLLy

is the most precious puppy on the face of the earth! she is growing up way too fast! i never knew we would be so attached to an animal! over the last couple of weeks she has lost 2 teeth, or at least thats all we have found. she has had one hair cut, and already needs another one. she has learned to sit! of course she is still totally potty trained to her puppy pads and to my knowledge has never used the bathroom outside. she is now sleeping in the bed with us because we love her way too much, but if you make her get in her bed she will. she has completely destroyed 2 stuffed animals by ripping their eyeballs off and gutting them. i bought her a rubbery fish toy and when you made him sqeak his tongue would stick out...she tore his tongue off the first day. when she sees herself in a mirror, window, or the tv she goes crazy! she is scared of her shadow and its really funny! she jumps on and off of anything and everything!! it's amazing! there is no way to describe how she jumps...you have to see it for yourself! i guess its cause she has long legs and is as light as a feather! she kind of takes after her mommy. long legs and kind of scrawny. she can stand up like a human forever...she looks like a small child. the cutest thing about her is that one ear stands straight up and one is still floppy. it makes her very unique. every now and then both of them will stand straight up. i am her cuddle buddy and daddy is her crazy play buddy. anytime she wants to lay down or just be a lap dog she is with me! even in the car...whether im driving or riding she is in my lap. she's like her aunt suzy...a car ride puts her to sleep. raw hide is her best friend...she will chew on a piece of raw hide, no matter what shape or form it is, for hours until it is all gone!

when we are sitting in our recliners in the living room watching tv, she stands right in the middle facing us like she is going to put on some sort of show. she will sit there forever just looking back and forth at us. she also loves to watch tv...especially cartoons! its really cute!

she LOVES our new house! she loves to play outside! she chases every bird, bug, butterfly, etc she sees. she loves to go down to the pier with her daddy to fish! luckily she has only jumped off the pier once and it was when the water was low so she didnt drown. she loves her daddy and he adores her more than you could imagine! she loves our neighbors dog buddy. he is a springer spaniel and he loves molly too. he just rolls over on his back and lets molly jump on him. supposedly buddy doesnt like any of the other dogs in the neighborhood.

she loves living close to nana and papa because they babysit her when we work. although we miss her terribly after working 3 nights and not seeing her! she loves going to their house and playing, or i guess a better word would be 'harrassing' their yorkie, allie. i think they spoil her worse than we do. she also loves going to visit her aunt bella. my in-laws westhighland terrier. of course she is about 3 or 4 times bigger than molly, but they play till they drop!! they are fun to watch until they start getting too rough! molly is tougher than she looks!

she will be 6 months old this month! time is flying by way too fast! we will be having her fixed soon! how we are going to keep her calm and from jumping all over the place i have no idea! we will need a tranquilizer!

we love her soooooo much! she is our baby and we treat her like one. she was the best decision ever! she makes us smile constantly. its really hard to discipline her! i cant imagine what its gonna be like when we have kids one day! i guess thats enough molly updates for now. if i think of anything else i will add it on!

life lately........

has been VERY busy and somewhat stressful!! it has been wayyy to long since i last blogged! we finally got our internet working at home, but the charger for my computer doesnt work half the time. hopefully we can get a new one soon! we are actually in excel alabama right now at my in-laws house! it's a nice get-away from all the business and craziness back home. i debated on whether coming or not due to my grandmother being sick.

she has been having a hard time for about the last 2 months now. she cant seem to get back on track and stay on track. it's really hard on my mom, who i wish i could be with 24/7 to help her out. my mom, grandmother, and i are all really close and we all want whats best for each other, but sometimes its hard not to be selfish and want whats best for ourselves! my mom thought she wanted to move maw-maw into her house and take care of her by herself. here's where the selfish part comes in...if she did that, i would practically lose my mom too! it would be a 24 hour a day job and it would be way to gruelling for her to do alone. i think we have decided and finally talked maw-maw into trying assisted living first while she is still capable of doing some things on her own. she is a precious and very grateful lady and she deserves the best care in the world!

it is the HARDEST thing in the world to see someone you love soooooo much be sick, and not be able to take care of themselves. the whole situation is like deja-vu all over again. we took care of my dads parents for 2 years while they were sick until Jesus decided to take them home! it was the hardest, most exhausting, BUT also the most rewarding 2 years of my life. of course it is my nature to want to be with them and do everything for them all of the time. i get that from my mom and dad. the hard part is that i, along with the rest of my family, work. i feel the same way my mom does, i wish i could just quit my job and take care of her, but that is not the right thing for us to do.

it is my wish for her to be able to go into assisted living and really enjoy the remaining years of her life. if she's happy there then we can visit whenever possible, which will probably be all the time, and really enjoy the time we spend with her. we wont be tired from trying to take care of her 24 hours a day. needless to say...the whole situation has been turned over to the Man upstairs and He is in total control! what's best for her and our family will be! i guess thats enough spilling for now! thanx for reading and understanding! please pray we will do the right thing!

home sweet home...

i LOVE home!! i never want to leave my house for anything! the drive to work is tiring but it is sooo worth the drive to go home to a beautiful house and a magnificent view of God's creation! i cant wait to go home every morning when i get off work! wanna know something crazy?? i have ALWAYS hated to clean. i do love for my house to be clean but i just dont like doing it! i have hard core cleaned my house twice in less than 2 weeks. i also do laundry more often! it's amazing! i guess it may wear off after the newness of everything wears off but i hope not. i actually enjoy cleaning our new house and that excites me! nicholas does a great job of helping me too! he is great at keeping the yard mowed and picked up...it looks great! i had never seen him mow grass before last week...he's really cute when he does it! we are having soo much fun!

jamie and jeff came by last sunday...it was great getting to see them! and its exciting that jeff is home for good now! we are ready for company so come see us anytime!

nicholas did very good today! he mowed the grass, cooked dinner, but more importantly he sold 2 bedroom suits, a tv, and a few other things to a guy in birmingham. he made us some money!! we were really excited to get rid of some things! maybe now i can park my car in the garage!!! mom and dad came over for dinner before i went to work. nicholas grilled fish, asparagus, and corn on the cob. it was delicious! mom brought me the cutest planter with gerber daisies in it! flowers make me very happy!

im kinda sad (really jealous) because my mom and dad are going to my sisters tomorrow. she and her husband live in louisiana! i really wish we were going with them. we have to work the beginning of next week and they arent coming back till wednesday.

the reason i havent been updating more frequently is because our internet isnt hooked up yet. hopefully they will come do it soon and i can update more! the last few times (including this time) i have been at work. i guess i should go feed my baby now!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!