Wedding Plans, School, and Cooper

Well, nothing too exciting has happened since Christmas, Mack and I had a great time at home, but were happy to get back to Portland and settled back into our routine. I started school a week before Mack, so he had time to lounge around and do nothing, and when I say 'nothing' I mean it! But he is now starting his second week of school and seems to be enjoying his new classes. I took the GRE (Graduate something Exam) for the second time, and got a much better score (in the 69th percentile). That makes me feel a lot better about my grad school applications, but now I have to just sit and wait to hear from the schools. My classes aren't so fun this semester, they are more the necessities rather than what is actually strongly connected with Speech Language Pathology. I'm taking Advanced Audiology, Neurology, Statistics, and Language Disorders. I'll just be happy to get this term over with and have my responses from the schools I applied to!
Cooper is doing well. He has surgery to get fixed and de-clawed a few days after we got home. We thought the surgery might slow him down a bit but he was still as wild as ever and hardly sat down, which lead to some problems with his paws and he had to go in for a second surgery. But now he is doing really well. He is still trying to figure out why he falls when he leaps onto the window curtains and tries to climb them. But it's kinda funny to watch. It snowed in Portland a few nights ago and we took Cooper out to see his first snowfall. He was absolutely ecstatic. We put him in his sweatshirt he got from Bobbie and Frank for Christmas, and he had lots of fun trying to catch the flakes in his mouth. He has also gotten into some trouble climbing on the shelves above the washer and dryer. He jumps up and then climbs around in the rafters... I got him down and blocked that off... Pictures below.
The wedding is starting to feel real! We booked the venue when we were home for Christmas, the original date we wanted (July, 20) was taken, so we decided to go for July 5th! That's a Friday, and as the date says, the day after the fourth, so I'm having fun with ideas for the the 4th with everyone. There was a bridal fair in Spokane the weekend after we left, so Mom took a friend and booked a DJ and found our (most likely) caterer! As for the big news... I got my dress! Over Christmas Mom, Dad, and his Fiance Roz went to the one bridal store in Spokane that I hadn't been to yet. I had no idea I was going to find THE ONE and really wasn't planning on it at all, but I tried it on, Marcella (the owner and expert seamstress) Made numerous changes-- adding rhinestones, changing the straps, adding an awesome bow-- and that was it! I look like a total movie star and I didn't even want to look at anything else so that's done too! Wow crazy how things work out!