Jace's LL.M. Graduation

One day I was reading the The Small Things Blog and Kate's husband was graduating from grad school and she said that she has only known her husband as a student. After I read this I almost shouted, "Amen sista!" because it resonated with me so much. Jace is many things:  husband, friend, counselor, supporter, UK fan, best chocolate-chip-cookie-baker, superb ironer, editor, and the list could go on and on. In addition to all these things, Jace has been a student and has been in school for almost 25 years; when I think of that, some people retire after 25 years of working! On May 16th, his role as a student concluded with his graduation from UF!

Jace's parents came into town for his graduation and we had a wonderful weekend together. I don't think proud described Dana and Rickey that day. They are proud of his hard work, his dedication, and persistence which has led to a wonderful job. I can tell how happy they are as parents knowing that he can provide for himself and is doing what he truly loves.

It was a wonderful day and now that its passed, we are adjusting to life without school. Who knew how much free time we would have together! No more papers, problems, or finals! Can I get a Hallelujah! On August 3, 2013 Kory Wilcoxson married us and said that that day would be the start of the rest of our lives. Yes, that was correct but really May 16th, 2014 was the start to the rest of our lives. Honey, I've been lovin' it ever since!

But in all seriousness, Jace's journey has also been my journey. We have walked this path together and Lord only knows there have been peaks and pits but we did it together, hand-in-hand. At times, I think Jace worries that he has "dragged" me along and some people may think that. I assure him that I would do this all over again and that I wouldn't do this with anyone but him. You see, his dream has been my dream too. I wrote in his graduation card what a blessing it was for me to experience all of this with him. He accomplished his dreams and I got to witness it first-hand. How many people truly accomplish what they set out to do? Jace did, and I got to be in the front row seat!

This journey has shaped our relationship and marriage and the way we communicate. Lord knows I made that boy talk on the phone for years and it is has made an impact on how we handle our differences and just life in general. In addition, we don't take our time for granted because we remember how taxing (pun intended) the distance was on our relationship. Though the journey was long (and I'm sure some people questioned if Jace was ever going to finish school), it really was the biggest blessing for the both of us.

Now that our school days are behind us, we are so excited. We are excited about moving to the Nashville area and just living life sans school. I, for one, am excited to just live life without worrying about finals every December and May! The next graduation I will go to will be our child's Kindergarten graduation and honey, believe me when I say that won't be for a L-O-N-G time.  So until then, we're just going to continue enjoying this crazy journey of ours!

Our trip to IKEA

Last Saturday morning rolled around and we had an easy morning, which was a welcome relief to our usual Saturday mornings of Jace running to school. We drove two hours to Tampa and then there it was, IKEA. Oh, you couldn't miss it the store was so big. When we walked in, we truly were not prepared for the experience we were about to encounter. We arrived a little before 12 and left at 3 PM! A full three hours of shopping, making decisions, and planning.

I came prepared and had brought a pillow from our couch. Our couch is a deep burnt red and is something from Jace's bachelor days. I would love to update the pillows and brought it along to try and match up to the red. We had talked prior to the trip about the things we wanted to look for, mainly a headboard and some pillows. When we walked in IKEA, we let the other customers take the lead and we followed what they did. Everyone was grabbing a big yellow bag. You put the straps of the yellow bag on a cart that doesn't have the buggy part. You also pick up something that looks like a grid, where you write down the price of the item, the item name, the aisle and bin number, and the item ID number. The store is a long maze and you must travel through the entire store; there are no aisles that you walk past or can skip. It is a wonderful marketing strategy-the more you see, the more you want to buy.

We fell victim to this strategy! The first level was furniture. We found a bookcase for Jace and then we rounded the corner and found another set that we loved even more. While looking at the bookcase we found a TV stand that we liked. We have a TV stand now but you know an upgrade is never a bad thing! We hummed and hawed about the TV stand and ultimately decided what we have now works just fine. Our next stop was the bedroom suites and we spent so much time here. We finally decided on our suite but didn't really know which color we liked best. After careful thought and consideration, we made our decision and I wrote down all the information for the suite on the grid. The ticket information said that the bedroom suite was temporarily unavailable but I was hopeful they could ship it. Oh they would ship it all right, to the tune of $250!!! We fell in love with the suite and more importantly, the price, and made up our minds that this is what we wanted but we will have to wait. When we get to Nashville, we might have to do a quick trip to Atlanta to pick it up sometime soon.

After we discovered the bedroom suite was not available, we needed a bite to eat. IKEA has their own cafeteria, complete with trays and all! We ate a quick bite and were so happy to sit down for a minute. We picked back up and headed to the ground level which was accent pieces and smaller items. At this point, we were getting weary and quickly scanned through everything. They had anything from forks, plates, dishtowels, curtains, curtain rods, candles, mirrors, you name it--they had it! Even though I came prepared with the couch pillow, nothing really stood out to us. I noticed that no one else brought something from their home and I was the girl who looked like I was ready to take a nap anywhere with my trusty couch pillow!

When we had come to the end of the ground level the real work began! The ground level opened up into a warehouse-type setting. You had to use your grid and find the aisles and bin number of the item you wanted to purchase. They had flat bed carts for you to use and you had to load up your own items. Jace didn't know he was going to need that much muscle for this shopping trip but I didn't mind seeing his flexed muscles in his Polo! We left IKEA with two new bookshelves and two toys for pup! But y'all I have to tell you we were plum wore out when we got to our car. Before we started shopping, we talked about going to Clearwater and exploring Tampa  but all we wanted to do was get home and lay down. Jace said our IKEA experience was similar to completing our wedding registry and I couldn't agree more. We were constantly thinking, calculating prices, and planning where we were going to put the item.

If you haven't been to IKEA, I would definitely recommend it. It's an experience! It is wonderful if you are on a budget, outfitting a new apartment or dorm room. It also has baby items for all the mommas out there. Now if only our bedroom suite would become available...

It takes so little...

Within approximately 24 hours, Jace will be done with finals for FOREVER!!! Let's just take a minute and relish in this wonderful moment.......

Finals have consumed both of our lives for almost three weeks now and though I have not physically taken an exam, I am living the lifestyle of a student. I visit with Jace when he gets home from the library and several nights we have seen midnight. Then Jace is up bright and early to get to school and I can't exactly fall back asleep after he gets up. Needless to say both Jace and I have had our fair share of cups of coffee these last few weeks. Thank goodness I work from home, if not I might have had to buy more concealer for these dark circles of mine.

Sans final weeks, we unwind on Friday nights with home made Italian food (read spaghetti and frozen meatballs) and a bottle of wine. Well, with finals our date night has been put on hold. However, things resume this week and even though its Monday we are both living for the weekend. It really takes very little to make us happy and we are excited to have something to look forward to for once. This weekend, Florida plays Vandy and we are going to watch at least one game. We thought we had missed out on the season but there are four home games left and thankfully three of them are SEC play. Saturday we are venturing to Tampa, which is about 2-2.5 hours away and heading to IKEA. We have never been to IKEA and are looking for things for the new apartment.

Here is the thing about furniture shopping, we have Dom Pérignon taste on a Natty Light budget. Honey, I have "mentally" bought furniture, arranged accessories, hung pictures, and monogrammed shower curtains. All of this is equally exciting as depressing! I get so excited when I find things I like and then sadly realize that in no way, shape, or form will we be getting it anytime soon! A girl can dream right! Hopefully we will find budget friendly apartment finds at IKEA.

As I write this, I realize how sad all of this sounds. We are going to IKEA and a baseball game and I'm excited like a little girl right before her birthday. However, anything is better than getting excited about a new episode of Dateline and curling up with a real-life murder mystery like I have done for the past three weeks. Though Keith Morrison and I have had a "thriller" time together, I'm ready to do just about anything with Jace Stamper, including going to a ball game and IKEA. It really takes so little to please me...bring on the weekend!