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!

Our first apartment...

I always get a little sentimental when moving. It's funny how attached we get to things. We have loved our apartment despite its little quirks. :) We started packing up some of our things this past week and today I realized that I never took any pictures of our apartment. I meant to take some when it was nice and clean but now that we've started packing-clean is not going to happen until we get all of the boxes out. So here's some pictures to help us remember our first apartment and all of the memories that we made here!

Our small kitchen-we cooks lots of meals here. Our oven is pretty old and if we want to bake something we have to preheat if for at least a half hour and then bake the food for about double the time called for. :)

The stairs-probably one of our favorite parts of the apartment!

Living room. Don't you love how Shelby is photo bombing the pictures!

The office-please ignore the boxes and mess. We spent lots of hours studying at this desk-especially Shelby.

Downstairs bathroom.

Master bedroom.

Our front door with our little garden surrounding it!

Upstairs bathroom-just tilt your head and you can see it. :) We will miss our little apartment but are excited to make memories at our next one!!!

One year older and wiser too

My 25th year is over! I turned 26 this past week and it's weird to think that I am that age. My actual birthday was just another normal day. Shelby worked and I did homework, then we headed up to the mountains for Cameron's Eagle Scout Project. The night before my birthday, Cameron made me a birthday cake and Shelby put together a birthday party with my family via skype. It was fun to talk to everyone although we missed my dad since he was working late, but I did get to see him on my actual birthday. Here are some pictures from the birthday weekend!

^ The view that I woke up to from our bedroom door on my birthday. Shelby had filled balloons with startbursts (it's like he knows I hate the sound of balloons popping or something! :) and lined the stairs with startbursts.

^ Not the best picture but here's Cameron and the wildlife biologist he worked with to coordinate his Eagle project explaining how the project was going to work. We took sample plots of forest and counted how much bitter brush was in each plot to determine whether or not the forest service needed to plant more for the winter elk to graze on. We were working in an area that was severely burned by a forest fire in 2012.

^ Since we had so many starbursts we decided to roast them over our stove-not quite the same as a fire pit but good enough!

Opening presents from Shelby. Love him!

Thanks to everyone for the birthday cards, texts, wishes, and gifts! You know who you are! :) Happy Friday!

Work in Progress

As you can see, I am slowly getting a new blog design put together! It is going to be a work in progress! Stay tuned for more to come!

Races and big changes coming...

Life has been moving along quickly and we can't believe that it is almost the end of May already! Shelby finished his last semester at CSI. It was one of the busiest, roughest semesters so far mostly because we are learning to find the balance and both of us had a little too much on our plates. We survived though and Shelby's 4.0 GPA is still intact! I am so proud of all his hard work. We have a lot of people make comments to us about how I'm the "sugar momma" but I just have to say that Shelby has paid for all of his schooling through his hard work and diligence. We have been so blessed as far as scholarships. The weekend right after the semester ended we headed to Boise to spend time with family and run in the Idaho Potato Marathon. Shelby ran the half-marathon and I ran the 5K. We are so glad that Casey and Kelsee invited us to run with them! It was fun and everyone ran great.

^Here is Shelby crossing the finish line. Shelby and Casey's races started at 7 am and Kelsee and mine didn't start until 10 so we were able to watch them cross the finish line before we ran off to catch the shuttle to get to our starting point.

My parents and Lila, Cameron, and Curtis also came and watched all of us cross the finish line. It was fun to spend the weekend with them and do fun stuff that we don't normally get to do very often. We also were conveniently in town for Jon and Karlie Truman's wedding so it was nice to be able to go to that. It was in a barn and definitely very Idaho-that's the only way I can think to describe it. :) Also while we were in the Treasure Valley we spent several hours apartment hunting. Yes, it is official we are moving to Boise the middle to end of the summer! Shelby is transferring to BSU to finish his Bachelors degree before we head off to Physical Therapy school. Job and apartment hunting are in full force! We are sad to leave Twin Falls but are excited for our next big adventure. If anyone knows of any good apartments in Boise or open RN positions let us know!!! :)

Easter 2014 in pictures

Saturday morning Shelby ran the Falls to Falls 10.5 mile race. He did amazing coming in 2nd place overall and 1st in his age group! Saturday evening we had dinner with the Hyde's to celebrate Jeremy's birthday. On Easter Sunday we went to church, stopped by Shelby's parent's for a little while,then came home and found our Easter baskets, had an Easter egg hunt, and decorated Easter eggs. We are kids at heart. :)

I am so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and that we could celebrate His Resurrection this weekend. I know that because of Him I will be with my family forever and my weaknesses will be made strong. We hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Life Lately

I haven't been so hot at updating the blog regularly-full time work and school will do that to ya. Here are some pictures of what we've been up to lately!

^ I found this cute frame on sale at the store and decided to buy it and completely repaint it. I love it and it adds a nice touch of color to our living room!

^ We fed the ducks after General Conference on Sunday. It was super windy but we wanted to get out and enjoy the sunshine after sitting so much this weekend.

^ My eyes are closed but you can see all of our little ducky friends. :)

^ Shelby has been running like a mad man training for the half-marathon that he has coming up in May. I have been trying to run also but haven't been quite as successful...let's just say that running is not super enjoyable for me...I'd rather be in a dance studio to get my workout in!

^ We visited baby Myla, Amy, and Jesse a few weeks ago. It was so fun to see them and hold their little one! We wish that they still lived closer so we could try to see them more often. :)

^ During the last part of Spring Break we went to Middleton to visit the Despain's. We played darts and had lots of fun just hanging out. The first part of spring Break was spent with the Hyde's. I had to work the majority of the time but from what I hear they had a blast!

^ Just more evidence that Shelby is running like crazy...his toenails are even falling off! Here's to more warm weather and Spring activities!!!!