The last semester

This is Bruce writing the posting for the end of the year. Normally I don't write much on here and I apologize. But there is exciting news to discuss about 2016. Next week, in 2016 I start a paid internship at a local women's health clinic. This is exciting for several reasons. The first being that this will be the last semester of my undergrad. Second, that getting this internship set up has taken months and caused me a lot of stress trying to find one. Having this internship set up has been a huge sigh of relief to me.

What's special is that I'm actually one of the very few HCA students at ISU to receive a paid internship. So to receive that opportunity is something I am very grateful for. I am very lucky to have received the education I have from ISU and I am eager to get to work in my field and apply what I have learned.

Happenings

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Bruce and I enjoyed spending this Christmas at home together with our crazy pups.  It was great to spend the whole day together, which is something we don't get to do too often with our work, school, and church obligations

My parents came for a quick visit yesterday, and as were were talking about the aforementioned pups, my mom said that I should put some of their antics on the blog.

We also discussed the fact that Bruce and I were very glad that the dogs hadn't really destroyed many things.  Murphy is definitely the destructive chewer of the two (Cooper chews a lot, but only on approved toys).

That is, they hadn't destroyed much until...today.

This is our impression of what happened when Bruce and I left for church.

The joys of puppy-ownership...

A look in the rear view mirror

Merry Christmas (almost)!

I decided to carry the tradition of making a "Year in Review" for our little family (we'll see how long I actually keep this going).

We hope you enjoy!

A New Addition!

Not that kind of addition...

Our house has a new friend of the furry persuasion...

Meet Murphy!

He is a beagle mix, and he is super adorable.

At first we were unsure about how he and Cooper would get along, but we soon learned that there was absolutely nothing at all to worry about, and the two pups became fast friends.  They play, nap, and just love spending time together.

Here's to the great balancing act of owning two active puppies!

Gearing Up

We have been experiencing iconic Seattle-type fall weather recently here in Idaho.  It has been gloomy and rainy for the last week or so, and it reminds me of my childhood like no other.  While I have enjoyed the earlier bit of Autumn, where the air is crisp and the leaves are crunchy, there is just something about it being cold and rainy that speaks to me...and makes me want to wrap up in a blanket and stare out the window all day.

We've got some busy times coming up this Autumn, which should be fun.

My baby brother is getting married in two weeks.  Bruce is halfway through the school semester, and I just began my studies for my Master's degree this week!  The holidays are swiftly coming upon us as well, so our little house is terribly busy right now.

But we wouldn't have it any other way.

Sun Valley: The Non-Conference Part

Bruce had a Healthcare Administration conference in Sun Valley this past week, so, seeing this as a perfect excuse for a mini-vacation, I took off work for a couple days, and I went with him on his trip!

So we sent the pup to the kennel for a few days, and on Sunday, we started making our way up toward Sun Valley.  We got to see the early morning sunrise, traversed through Craters of the Moon, and saw vast expanses of nothingness, until suddenly, we found ourselves in a beautiful valley with lush green grass, colorful trees, and towering hillsides.  We knew we had to be getting close.

And sure enough, within 20 minutes, we were in Sun Valley.  That area is completely gorgeous, and we both decided that when we are rich and famous (yeah, right!), we are totally going to have a vacation home in the area.

Bruce spent the bulk of the next 2 days in meetings and conferences, which gave me all sorts of time to explore the area on my own.

I went for a few walks in the wooded areas in Ketchum, wandered through the Sawtooth National Forest, drove into Hailey, went to the Sawtooth Botanical Gardens, took pictures, and enjoyed being away from work for a few days.

Here are some pictures of the beautiful things we saw while there!

Cooper the Wonder Pup!

We put up with a lot from our silly little pup.

So, it seems only fair that he put up with some of our antics as well...

...like putting him in people clothes!

he doesn't seem to mind this one too much.  Probably because he's BatDog.

We also put him in a little red hoodie, which he was less than thrilled about.  But he looked adorable.

Yes, it is a little silly that we treat him like a doll, but I guess that's what happens when you don't have kids.

Facebook Free...sort of

About a month and a half ago, I made a decision that has made a big change on my attitude, at least as far as social media goes.

I was getting so sick and tired of all the crap that was bombarding me online.  The rants, the asinine comments from people, and the ignorance and bigotry that keep seeping in through my Facebook newsfeed.

So, I stopped "following" everyone and everything.

And it has been glorious!

I don't have to see any of the things that drive me nuts, but I can still get notifications, and decide if I wan to check things out or not.  Now that is true freedom.

Epic Summer Recap

So...in case you're wondering, we are still alive.

The break in posts wasn't intentional.  We've been busy off and on since we moved to Pocatello in the middle of May.  And eventually, I plum forgot about this little place.

So, I shall briefly recap our time since May, and hopefully I can get back into the swing of things!

MAY

• The hubs and I moved from Idaho Falls to Pocatello in the middle of the month
• Bruce got called to be the 11 year old Scout leader in our ward (once a scout leader, always a scout leader)
• Cooper graduated from puppy training (but he's still a puppy, and always requires more training)
• We experienced some crazy thunder storms.  The weather here is intense.
• We started work on improving the yard in front of our house...it's a big project.
• Bought a new car

JUNE

• Got the swamp cooler set-up in the house, so we wouldn't melt all summer!
• Locked ourselves out of our car, walked home 3 miles in our bathing suits, only to be locked out of the house...an epic sunburn ensued.
• I graduated!
• We celebrated our 1 year anniversary at Lagoon for the weekend.
• Replaced the old 1950's stove with one that actually cooks things evenly!
• Went to Utah for my niece's baptism and birthday
• Caught a kitten at my in-laws, and was able to find it a good home.
• Had a vertigo relapse
• Bruce got a job as a male caregiver

JULY

• Cooper got neutered and had to wear the Cone of Shame
• Went to Utah for the wedding of Bruce's best friend Joey
• Spent time in Idaho Falls with Bruce's family
• Took Cooper to a lake...determined he doesn't like waves
• Discovered that dog parks are amazing, and now we go almost daily with the pup

AUGUST

• Bruce started his first semester of his last year of his undergraduate degree
• I got a promotion at work
• I took a brief break from the cooking blog.  And Facebook.
• Started getting dental work done...no bueno.
• The Scholes Family Reunion in Lava Hot Springs was a success
• Bruce was super sick (temps around 102) for a week
• I spent a week in Utah at WGU's Academic Meetings

That is a little bit of what has been keeping us busy.  Hopefully we, or rather, I will be better about keeping this updated in the future.

Farewell

Tonight one of my dear friends hosted a small "Going Away" party for Bruce and I with some of our friends.

It was nice to sit and chat with these people that I have come to know and love so much, and hopefully, we will stay in contact, this is, after all, the digital age, and there is a myriad of ways to stay connected, so there is hope!

Even though we have only been here a year, it has felt like home, and it will be sad to leave.  Hopefully we can meet some wonderful new friends where we are going too.

Sugar-Free

Bruce and I are cutting out sweets and added refined sugar from our diets for the month of May.  I have gone sugar-free before, so I'm not overly concerned about the shift.  But I must say that starting the sugar-free journey in the midst of a move is actually not a bad idea, since most of the food is already out of the house.

Here we go!

Boxen

And so it begins...

Boxes are slowly starting to take over the hallway.

It is taking me a lot longer to pack everything than usual, though I am not sure why.  I just can't seem to get the motivation to keep up the steam of packing.

But since we only have about 2 weeks until we move, I really do need to get these things taken care of.

Yays and Nays: April Edition

This week's edition of "yays and nays" is brought to you by the letter "C".

As in; crazy, cookies, cars and crabgrass.

This list is likely to include things that occurred within the past 2(ish) weeks or so...but I could be wrong...I'm just the one making the list.

Yays:

We got Cooper's name tag engraved with his name and our phone number, just in case the little rascal decides to play hide-n-seek...without our knowledge.

Bruce got his leaky tire repaired for free!  We like free...

We got an awesome apartment that we applied for, and are actually excited about moving now!

I passed my last class with flying colors (just my capstone to go!)

Bruce got a B+ on one of his exams, which is always a fun feat.

We went on our first picnic together this past Saturday (not sure how we've never done that before)

We also walked around the Greenbelt on Sunday before dinner, savoring the awesome weather we've been having.

We had John, Annake and Jack over for dinner tonight, a spur of the moment deal that was fun.

Nays:

Registration for Bruce's Fall Semester turned out to be a pain in the patella...seriously annoying.

I have had a lot of pretty bad work drama...it's not fully resolved yet, but something is in the works.

We turned out to be the catalyst for Jack getting a ferocious cut on his finger this evening...little fingers bleed a lot!

We both bawled our eyes out while watching "Up" this week...not our finest moment.

We haven't figured out how to get Cooper to effectively stop biting...

As always the Yays outweigh the Nays, which is always a good thing.  We're alive, happy, and moving on to good things.

Yet Again...

I have this nasty habit of moving each and every year.  So I was super excited when Bruce and I decided that we would likely be staying right where we are until he is done with school and finds a good job in his field.

Except... that didn't really pan out.

As much as neither one of us want to, we have decided that the best decision for our little family is to move to Pocatello until he is done with school, since his remaining classes need to be taken at certain times and days, requiring excess travel and expense if we were to stay here in Idaho Falls.

Living in Pocatello is something that we both have little desire to do, and we will miss the friends we have made here in our ward, but we know that we will succeed and that we'll do great as long as we're together.

Now if we can just find a pet-friendly apartment!  Which is turning out to be tougher than it seems!

Cooper

Bruce and I have been talking about getting a dog for a long time.  We both agreed that we would get one once we settled into a house somewhere.

Except...

One of us got antsy.  And decided she wanted a puppy now.

So...last week, we got a puppy!

And he is adorable.  A feisty little Australian Shepherd/Labrador mix who has taken our hearts by storm.

He's just so cute!

Alaska!

Bruce and I took a trip to Alaska over his spring break at the end of March.  It was actually a spur of the moment decision that we made one night in February, and ended up buying tickets that very night.

We were able to stay with Bruce's sister and her husband at their home in Anchorage.  It was fun getting to know them better, since they have lived in Alaska for as long as I have known my hubby, which doesn't allow for a ton of "getting to know you" time.

Bruce and I were able to hike a glacier.

We even saw a moose right next to our car on our way home from the glacier! (He declined a photo-op)

We hiked Blueberry Hill, which had a nice view of Anchorage and the inlet.  Bruce got to see the ocean for the first time too!  One of the days, we walked around downtown Anchorage and went down to the inlet and saw all the huge chunks of ice flowing through the water, which was really cool.

Ashley and Wilson took us to Girdwood, which has the rainforest (yep!  A rainforest in Alaska)

It reminded me so much of where I grew up!  It was crazy!  I haven't seen moss like that in forever!  It was rainy, muddy, and beautiful.

Bruce and I both ended up sick while on our trip, but it didn't dampen the fun that we had.  So glad we were able to go!

26

I am finally in my final term for school.

If I had been as diligent as I should have been, I would have graduated about a year ago, but someone got lazy and distracted and terribly behind.  That would be ME.

I am working through my courses, praying that I can get everything done that I need to, while also working full-time, serving in a fairly demanding church calling and another minor calling, trying to keep a clean house, and staying on top of all the other commitments that I have.

I am taking a break from my other blog so that I can focus more on the classes I have and not get distracted an overwhelmed by having too much to do each day.  I thrive on having breaks from my studying, without them, I fall asleep or zone out, which doesn't really do me any good.

My term ends at the end of April, so I just need to make it til then (well, make it, and get all my work done).  Did I mention that I am taking 26 credits?  No?  Weird...

My brain is tired.

Dragging

My work day started out much like normal; checking e-mails, evaluating student transcripts, assigning out degree verifications, completing continuing graduate information, etc...

I thought the day was going by very quickly, and knew that the work day was almost over...until I looked at the clock and saw that it wasn't even 10:00am.  WHAT?!

Of course, after realizing that it was still so early in the day, the remainder of it took for.ev.er.  It was soooo long!  And I wanted to pull my hair out, it was so mind numbingly slow.

But, what can you do but suffer through it?

Dusting

It's not so much "snowing" today, as it is "dusting".

Really, you can't even see the "snow" falling, but you wind up with this layer of white all over everything in a matter of seconds.

On another note, Bruce and I were watching a movie last night when I distinctly heard a car crash...except there was no car crash in the movie.

We set out to investigate and discovered that a car had crashed on the road outside our apartment, get this, because they were racing their friends...  RACING!  On the icy roads in January!  Hopefully these morons learned their lesson...and if not, hopefully their parents put them in their place when they see that they blew a tire during their antics

...idiots.

The Grind

I really enjoyed having a long weekend to just relax and deal with as few responsibilities as humanly possible.  Or, rather, deal with the things that I normally don't have time to get to or forget to do amid the craziness that reigns supreme in the Scholes abode.

This week is busy with work, school, scouts (for Bruce), relief society visits, blogging, going to the cannery, homework, cleaning, cooking, meetings, and studying.  Not to mention finding time to do pesky things like showering and folding laundry.

Growing up is totally overrated.

Except for the whole living with my husband part...I kinda dig that.

Bruce's Post-Birthday Post

It was Bruce's birthday on Wednesday!

The handsome part of our duo turned 26 this week, and to celebrate, we rested.  Exciting, I know, but Bruce is/was in pain from getting crowns put in, so the poor guy has been on pain medication, and I have had a cold that seems to only get worse as time goes on.  So I took the day off of work so we could spend it together and recoup.

I did make him a special birthday breakfast of peanut butter and chocolate chip pancakes with peanut butter syrup (yeah, basically sugar overload first thing in the morning...), so that has to count for something, right?

We sat down and watch some "Person of Interest" (our current "watch it together" show), and Bruce fell asleep a couple times, which, I really envied.

He had received some of his birthday presents early (the 3rd season of Person of Interest, and a fancy-schmancy shaving kit), but he also got the 3rd season of Regular Show, which is a cartoon show he really enjoys.  So, that together with some lemon blueberry cookies, completed his low-key recovery birthday.

Maybe next year we'll both be feeling good at the same time and we can be a bit more exciting!

On Hold

With my job, we have busy seasons and we have slow seasons.  Our slow season kicks in around November, and goes through the winter until about March or so.

Well, this slow season (aka: right now), we also have upcoming changes for students starting after February 1st.  Which means, we can't work on students who are starting later than that, even if we have their documents in hand...which makes this slow season exceptionally slow...

Our system refreshes every 2 hours, and we all sit there, refreshing our screens like crazy, praying for something work-related to do!  But often, we are left wanting...

So, we answer phone calls, do laundry, organize our desks, wash the dishes, and stare at our computer screens until the next system refresh.

I Cwan't Spweek, whey dwugged my wower jaw.

Earlier this week on Wednesday I had to go get two temporary crowns put in on my back two bottom molars. I had never had crowns before. So not knowing how long they take I said schedule them at the same time. It took 3 hours of my in a chair. I had no concept of time besides the amount of tv I had watched. They gave me six injections of Novocaine in those three hours. Three each on both of my lower sides. I could feel nothing on my lower jaw and my tongue was numb.

So when I came home to Lisa I couldn't even speak very well. She was very supportive while she laughed as I had to speech slowly when words were less than audible.

She drove me to Walgreens and we dropped off my prescription for my drugs.
Two hours later and they still wouldn't be done for another two hours so we took the prescription and ran to a different one that filled it in 10 minutes.

All in all it was a funny experience, not to mention how doozy I was on oxy the first night.

Recap

Oh heavens!

We've (I've) been so bad about blogging since Christmas.  I've had good intentions, but it just never actually happened.  So here are some of the recent goings on...

Christmas!  Bruce and I spent our first Christmas as a married couple together, and it was so nice to just relax and start our own traditions.  Then we went to his parents' house for dinner and family presents, which was a lot of fun.

New Year!  We are not big party people, so New Years Eve for us consisted of a pizza, sparkling flavored water, and "Person of Interest".  We kissed at midnight, and then fell asleep.  We're highly exciting folks!

We took down all our Christmas stuff (with the exception of the Christmas lights in the windows and around my office), and I decided it was time for us to rearrange our living room furniture.  Bruce was very patient with me and my ever-changing layout schemes.  I really like our set-up now, it is much more open and easier to maneuver.

Last weekend we took our gingerbread house out and shot it with a shotgun, it was pretty crazy to see it just basically disappear into a haze of ginger-flavored dust.

Bruce had a guys' night last night, and I had a girls' night.  They played video games and ate stuff, we ate stuff and chatted, and for me, it was great to get to know some women better, I have a difficult time actually taking the time to make friends, so it was nice to get a group together to take the pressure off.

Well, now that the recap is over, maybe I'll be good again (or at least better than I have been).