The Ebers

Yes, it has been 9 months since I have updated our blog...but that should indicate just how crazy things have been!!!

Back in February, one of my very very dearest friends who I have known basically all my life got married!! Yay for Whitty! I was so blessed to be a part of the festivities and ceremony. It is so hard to believe that both of us are married and how time really has flown. The week was filled with parties, teas, and dinners. I can't believe how creative Miss Mona and Mr. Johnny were to have little "Mississippi" bags as favors. They were really neat...except for the Rebel Ale. :)

Eric started his first collegiate baseball season in February. He was a volunteer assistant basically meaning that he didn't get paid to coach, but did get a salary teaching a few classes (while you can be impressed, weight lifting is an actual college class). In amongst the season, we did try to squeeze in just a few family occasions including Maddalyn's baptism in Illinois and Easter in Jackson. Looking back, I get exhausted just thinking about it but it is pretty amazing what all we were able to do. But it would explain how I was able to put so many miles on my brand new Tahoe! That's right, I traded in the Big Yellow Banana for a beautiful 2011 "Taupe" Chevrolet Tahoe. It's been nice experiencing the 6 months of perks that come with it. It was a little sad especially since the Xterra was something that Daddy and I went and did together.

Spring in Martin was enjoyable....The actual travelling was not. I'll just say that me and the Tennessee highway system are not dear friends. But it was worth it to see the first collegiate team that Eric was associated with....go to their FIRST EVER conference tournament and have a really good season. They didn't make it far into the post-season which did make moving Eric's stuff back down to Starkville very interesting. But Eric and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the people in Martin and will always remember the experience fondly.

While I finished up my Graduate Assistantship in December with Dr. Huston at MSU-CVM, I did not officially graduate with my Master's degree until the spring. Basically, I did my research last Fall and then wrote my Thesis this Spring. I have to say that it is THE most time consuming piece I have ever written, which is understandable. The multiple edits, re-writes, and the recalculating statistics as well as defending my thesis and following the library's exact requirements were extremely frustrating, it is worth it to have a research project with my name on it that helped me obtain a degree to further pursue my passion in public health. I am officially Kathleen Leech Ebers, BS, DVM, MS. Since December, I have been working at Banfield the Pet Hospital, the clinic where I did some relief work last fall. I have gone from one weekend a month last fall to two days a week up to four days a week! I think that if I requested, I could have more days. Basically, there was a point this past spring where Eric wasn't sure if the Graduate Assistant position at UT-Martin would be available and we weren't sure where we would be this fall....so we decided for me to take the part-time work at Banfield so that I wasn't switching jobs every few months based on where we moved next. It has been a blessing considering the work situation as well as I get to see my niece, nephew, mom, and sister once a week.

With the craziness of the spring and the stress of finishing up school, it was really nice for Momma to take us to the beach for Mother's Day...I'm really starting to enjoy these beach trips. We took the kite this time and unsuccessfully flew it. The wind really wasn't that good and the kite was one of those weird trick ones that Clay got like years ago and is the only one we still have.

My birthday ended up actually being like a birth-week! It was pretty exciting. With my birthday being on a Saturday and Eric's team having home games, I decided to visit him in New York. Because I wouldn't be there, Momma decided to take the crew out to eat that Monday night. I chose Cock of the Walk which was alright, but I have to be honest and say I'm not really sure if they have a new cook or whatever but it wasn't as good as I remembered it has been. We did presents that night where I then received the lovely puppy dog cake below from my sister and niece. Katie Margaret saw it and thought of me...I'm scared. Momma and I went out to lunch one day that week too. I actually flew to New York on my birthday so I actually spent the day of my birthday with complete strangers moreso than people I knew. That night at the game, the whole stadium sang Happy Birthday to me and Power Pup gave me flowers. Eric did end up taking me to Toronto a few days later which is a blog all of it's own. When I got back, we had birthday cake at our monthly staff meeting at work.

As usual, the 4th is always a kind of last minute, let's see what we feel like kind of holiday. But it's kinda nice because Clay and Lauren came to visit!!! Lauren has a new job so we weren't really sure she would be able to since she hasn't accumulated her days off, but she was able to come. We enjoyed "payying" in the pool, cooking out, and just relaxing at the house.