In celebration of college football...

The start of college football is kind of a big deal around here.  That is what happens when you marry someone who is a sports fanatic. :)  Shelby loves college football and loves Boise State, so now that he is a student at BSU, he is so so excited to watch and go to all of their games!  So in celebration of the first week of school at BSU and the first big college football game for BSU, we made a wreath to show our school spirit.  I found some different ideas and put them all together to make my own wreath. 

It's actually super easy!  All you have to do is gather a total of 6, 4-yard spools of thick ribbon of whatever colors you want, a foam wreath (our's is 12 inches), and some straight pins.  We got 3 orange and 3 blue.  Cut the ribbon into 4 inch pieces.  Next, fold the ribbon (similar to a breast cancer awareness ribbon style), stick a pin in the middle and pin it to the wreath!  Keep alternating the colors and positions of the ribbon until the wreath is covered.  Ours looked a little weird at first but once we started filling out the wreath with more ribbon it started looking great!

And now you have a fun, easy, and cute wreath!  

Our new favorite thing to do

One great thing about where we live is that we have easy access to the greenbelt in our area.  This path goes for miles and goes right along the river which is super pretty!  We had been talking about getting me a bike since before we moved so that we could go on bike rides together but never really had a good enough reason to buy one.  Now that we have such great biking trails and paths we knew that we just needed to break down and buy a bike.  And guess what...we love it!  It is so much fun now that we both have bikes! 

We typically try to go on a bike ride every night as much as possible and it is such great exercise!

^^One weekend for date night we rode to BSU and back which was about 11 miles round trip.  Thank goodness my legs are finally getting used to biking so much!

^ ^Trying to stretch my legs out after riding for so long. 

^^ Shelby is a pro and has been riding his bike to school everyday-even in the rain. :)  It's going to work great until the winter comes!

^^ We love the scenery that the greenbelt has to offer!

^^ Love this guy and our bike rides! 

If you're ever in Boise check out the greenbelt!  There is a nature center, the discovery center, and so much more right by the greenbelt.

Happy Wednesday!

Sunday Inspiration!

Happy Sunday!  

On being a Nurse

 On one of my last days working on the Surgical floor at SLMV I got off a few hours early.  Since I was already in my scrubs I had Shelby take some pictures in front of the hospital so that I could remember my first job as an RN.  I learned so much at this job and met so many amazing people.  I miss my co-workers there so much!  Good co-workers can be hard to come by.

 I already knew that being a nurse was hard work, but I did not realize how mentally and emotionally exhausting it would be.  12 hour shifts are long and often times turn into 13 and 14 hour shifts depending on the patients and how the day flows!  There were some days where I cried a little before going to work because I felt guilty missing a family thing, church, or leaving Shelby for so long (I don't know how people do it when they have kids!).  

Now don't get me wrong, I love being a nurse.  Everything is worth it when you know that you have made an impact on someone's life.  Making my patients smile despite all that they are going through makes it worth it.
 I remember the night that I decided to go into Nursing.  It was the summer after my freshman year in college.  I have always wanted to teach dance and wanted to study something related to that but it didn't feel right to change my major to something dance related.  I realized that Heavenly Father wanted me to follow a different path than I originally had planned.

I am so grateful that Heavenly Father's plans were bigger than mine and while I am still trying to figure out why I am supposed to be a Nurse I know that this is what I am supposed to be doing.
God is good!

Three years later...according to my phone!

We decided that it is time to retire my phone!  I have had the same phone for over three years and considering how many times it has been dropped that is a long time!  :)  I decided to upload all of the pictures from my phone from the past three years to the blog so that I can remember how blessed I have been the last three years and all of the random good times that I've had with my phone.  So in no particular order and with lots of randomness I give you life from the last three years according to my phone!

^ So grateful for the amazing friends that I made in Nursing school!  Malorie hiding out during one of our study sessions. :)

^ Sitting in the doctor's office with a rash when I was supposed to be at my NCLEX study class.  Now we know that I am allergic to some antibiotics and getting mono three weeks before your wedding is not very fun.

^ Running my first 5k-almost to the finish line!

^ Curtis & Calvin would sometimes stop to visit us on their way home from college.  Gotta love our frisbee golf games!

^Mom and I with our pillows that we made over Spring Break (I think it was Spring Break?)

^ Newborn baby Briggs-that little guy sure has grown!

Shopping trip with Lila^

^ A lovely gift from Amy & Jesse :)

^ From when Shelby and I were dating.  See below pictures to see what was inside of the balloons.

^ Creative love notes!  That's just one thing that makes Shelby so great!

^ Catching the bouquet at Amy & Jesse's wedding reception.

^ Oregon Coast trip 2012

^ Birthday party with friends from college.

^ We got heart attacked while we were at Institute one night-we love our friends and are glad they're as silly as we are! ^

^ The cat lady...

^ Arizona trip 2012 ^

^ I may be weird, but I get so excited when I see license plates from New York out here!  Part of my heart is still in New York and will forever be.  When Shelby and I started dating I was so glad that he understood my excitement at something as simple as license plates! Note: He gets excited over Florida ones :)

^ Lila after getting her ears pierced. ^

Fun in the kitchen!

^ Traditional pumpkin soup around Halloween time ^

^ Cam loves taking my phone and "selfie bombing" it.  There were multiple pictures on my phone from Cam-sneaky, sneaky! :)

^Pictures taken just a few days after returning home from my mission in New York.  Lila looks more than excited to have me home!

^ First job as an RN! ^

^ More of Shelby's shenanigans. ^

^ This picture looks a little weird...Calvin attempting to give me a pedicure... ^

P.S.  Check out the new icons on my sidebar!  Credit goes to www.craftiments.com.  Check out the website for lots of fun DIY craft and sewing ideas!

Adjusting to change...

We finally have internet in our apartment! The last few weeks we have been bumming off of other people's internet and wifi areas in order to get homework and other necessary things done. The biggest news from the past few weeks-we made it to Boise! We are settled in to our new apartment and spent lots of time our first week here familiarizing (or in my case re-familiarizing)ourselves with the Boise area. It's amazing how much I have forgotten about the freeway, roads, etc after not having lived here for 8 years. I told Shelby to make several wrong turns when I thought that I was confident that I knew where we were going...oh well! :) As far as work, I was able to transfer within the same healthcare system that I was working for in Twin Falls. I still have a position as an RN just on a different floor in a different hospital. Even though I still work for the same company I had the "opportunity" :) to attend New Employee Orientation. It is amazing how different every hospital is run even within the same healthcare system! Charting is completely different, some policies are completely different, and I'm not going to lie, even though the Boise area is bigger, a lot of things done in their hospitals here are super old school...more old school than Twin Falls! Just putting that out there-no offense anyone. Needless to say, I have been missing my old job-especially my co-workers! I was so blessed to have a wonderful manager and co-workers. I worked in an environment where everyone was willing to step up and help each other out when needed. I can only hope that my new co-workers are just as great as my last ones! Love the Surgical floor in Twin Falls! Obviously adjusting to new things is not my strong point...and I get attached to people...more on that in the next blog post... Shelby starts school in three weeks and has been on the hunt for a part time job that will work well with his class schedule. He was blessed to be able to get into all of the classes that he needed for this semester! He was on the waitlist for two classes that he really, really needed to take in order graduate in the time frame that we are hoping and he got into both of them! Yay! We were able to move to Boise so that we could be here for the last two weeks that Lindsey and Brenen were here visiting from Virginia. We were able to spend time with them and go on a few camping trips and adventures with them. And now on to picture over load of what we've been up to throughout the last two months!

^ We celebrated our first anniversary on June 8th with cheesecake, sparkling cider, and speaking in sacrament meeting at church. :) A few weeks later we spent a night at the Anniversary Inn which was super fun! We stayed in the Lighthouse Room and had fun just relaxing with each other.

^ Brenen, Lindsey, and Briggs flew into Boise the third weekend in June to spend five weeks with family. While we were at the baggage claim getting their suitcases I bent down to Briggs' level to officially meet my first nephew on the Despain side. He got the biggest smile on his face and started giggling. So either I look really funny or he was excited to see me...or maybe it was just because he thought I was his mom since we look very similar. Either way I got a little teary because we have missed this cute little guy and his parents!

^First tomato from our garden! The tomato plant broke on the move to Boise but we were able to get a few more off of it.

^ This picture has a lot of memories in it-THAT IS A PEN-not a pregnancy test... Anyways, that little pen was given to me on my first day in the mission field. Sister Andersen, my trainer, gave it to me. I carried that little pen with me all over New York. As we were packing we were cleaning out our office and testing all of our pens to see if they worked or not. My precious mission pen finally died and I was so sad! We ended up throwing it away but I had Shelby take one last picture of me with my favorite pen for memories sake.

Cow Appreciation Day! We took a quick trip to Utah with my parents for the Despain Family Reunion. We knew that it was Cow Appreciation Day at Chik fil a so we got our cow costumes on as best we knew how and all got free meals. We wish that everyday was Cow Appreciation Day! It was fun to spend some one on one time with my parents since we don;t get to do that very often.

^Another picture from packing-clogging shoes. I desperately have been trying to find a way that I could fit a dance class into my schedule this coming school year. Still working on figuring out how to make it work but hopefully I can find a way. If anyone has any great ideas let me know!!!

Here is our 26 ft long Uhaul. We ordered a 14 ft but ended up getting upgraded to this one for free. That thing was huge!

^ A double yoke egg-it's the little things that we get excited about around here. :)

^ Yep, we are definitely back in the Treasure Valley and sometimes evenings are spent in Middleton helping Cameron get pigs back in their pens. Shelby was the "pig whisperer." Have a happy Tuesday!