February is here

Well, one month down for 2010. We're getting by and dreaming of warmer, sunnier days. And, unlike our friends out east, we're not getting all that much snow. We might get an inch here or there, but nothing to really blog about. Really, it's just cold. It never seems to get above 40 and sunshine is rarely seen. I can see how people get seasonal affective disorder around here.

School's going alright for me. Ended up making Dean's List for last semester. Should be able to pull that off again this semester. My two harder classes are both on Monday. Photojournalism has been pretty fun. I get to go do fun things like go into the Operating Room and get photos of my honey helping out in a couple of surgeries. Definitely the highlight of my classes so far.

My work has slowed up to just one shift a week, if that. I'm going to have to figure out something for this summer as well, since I won't be able to take classes (they don't offer upper-level classes in the summer session). We are hoping to make a trip back east for a little while in July or August for the hubby to do some elective training and recruiting for the program. I hope to catch up with friends and the beach again.

Not much else going on that's exciting. We put new tires on the Jeep a few weeks back. Honey did a great job shopping around. Sears gave us an unbelievable price on some great Wrangler tires. Turns out it was too good of a price as it was for the wrong tires, but the hubby made them honor the estimate and after having to drive back up to Idaho Falls a couple of weeks later, we got them put on and balanced.

Not too long after that we had to drive 1 1/2 hours away to Twin Falls to get to an official Sprint store to get the hubby's phone traded in for one that actually works. He ended up with a HTC Touch Pro (I think). Not as wonderful as we'd hoped, but it runs all his software without causing the phone to freak out, lock up or melt down. His stupid Treo never could run the software, so this is an improvement. We're finished with Sprint come September. It offers the worst service here in Potato-land and hasn't offered up any must-have phone since the iPhone came out years ago on AT&T, so why bother staying? We'll have to decide whether we go with Verizon or AT&T come fall, but I'm wanting to wait and see if Apple opens up the iPhone to Verizon. Of course I'd like to see Flash work with the iPhone and a better camera on it too. We'll see...

Looking forward, the hubby begins his night float rotation on Monday. That means he reports to work at 7pm and keeps the hospital service running until 7am when the day shift comes back on. So, it seems that I'll see him as he come home to bed around 8am as I get up and going for class and then again after I'm done at 5:30pm for dinner before he heads back up the the hospital. I already know it's going to be crazy for us, but the pups are going to LOVE having someone in bed most of the day to snuggle up with.

We're all looking forward to March. Hubby's sis is coming for a visit for Spring Break and we're hoping to go snowmobiling or something fun up around Yellowstone. But we must survive the next month first. At least I've got the Olympics to watch for a couple of weeks. I love the Olympics. Can't wait!

THAT kind of day...

I know we've all had one of those days, where things happened or we receive a call that leaves us in a foggy blanket for the rest of the day.

As I laid in bed last night I had the thought how I wanted desperately to wake up and :::poof::: it was Monday morning again - that the day I thought had happened didn't. No such luck.

And, truthfully, the day wasn't my worst in my short life. And while it wasn't the worst, I still yearned for a do-over. A mulligan for one day. Again, I want to stress it wasn't a melt-down of a day. It was a mixture of my classes not going as well as I'd hoped they would, receiving NO feedback on my work when I really felt it was necessary, and I was told of the passing of a loved one.

So, on top of it being a really BLAH day, I wished even more I could be home with my family at a time it's needed. But I can't. I'm here in Potato-land.

Not lying, it's been rough. I'm hoping the rest of this week shapes up a little better, but I'm going to go ahead and call this week as a crappy one. And it's Tuesday.

A new year: blah blah blah

So, it's now 2010. Not that it's going to be SO different from 2009. But I guess it will mean us staying put in one place. Last year we traveled all over and moved across a continent.

2010 is going to be us still figuring out where we belong in this Idaho/residency world. I've got a place as a student. Hubby's got work - but we're not really plugged into close friends and church like we had back in Virginia. It's just a far different world than we're use to. It's given me a whole new meaning and better understanding of the term "culture shock." I wasn't created in Potato-land and never dreamed this would be where I lived for even a short period of my life. France? Sure I could SOOO live there. Virginia? Yeah, not too terribly different than life in Texas - just has better beaches AND mountains. New York City? DC? It'd take some adjusting, but I know I'd love the city life and the opportunities it afforded.

Not so many opportunities of city life here in Poky. It's the most puzzling town. It's suppose to be a college town, but there's such a lack of nightlife, ethnic foods, shopping, events, etc. that you'd think the university was nothing more than a local junior college continuing-education branch office.

This is how the people here like it. And it wouldn't be a huge problem if I wasn't enrolled in a Photojournalism class this semester. Our prof wants us to get "street life" and the going-ons of this town this week. Problem is - nothing is going on. I searched Web sites for the local paper, the university and TV stations for MLK Day events. None. This place isn't even culturally diverse enough to merit a community-wide event honoring MLK. Turns out there was a march through campus, but I never saw it advertised. So now I've got just a few days to take 20 pics of the happenings in town and nothing is happening. And it's cold and winter - so nothing is planned to happen. Joy.

But for the most part, life's okay and we're just tooling along as we work our way into a new decade. My goal for 2010 is to be a better blogger. So, here's to a newly updated blog and a new decade.

Still alive

Yes, we're alive. And sadly, I just don't have a lot to say or update. Benjamin works. I go to school and work. It's cold. All the critters are happy and healthy. And we're learning snow is not as fun here as it is Virginia or Texas... no one cancels anything for snow here. We all still go about our lives and don't get snow days. Boo.

However, we did mix things up a little and, thankfully, got out of this miserable little town for my 30th birthday shortly before Thanksgiving. It made me even more thankful for a family willing to help make the trip happen and my 30th far better than sitting in Idaho doing nothing.

But on to the present. I wanted to help get us all into a Christmas spirit, so enjoy our family's latest musical act!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Miscellaneous musings

So I know it's been awhile. I've started a few posts, but scrapped them because there's just not enough to make sense. But I don't want anyone to think I've died. So I post random thoughts:

1.) I hate living in a different town than my husband is. It's not permanent, I know. But I'm miserable nonetheless and so is he. We know we work better together than apart, so the 16th can't come soon enough for us.

2.) We are now living in a place that it snows in the month of September. Holy crap! September in Texas and Virginia can be good beach weather complete with shorts and flip flops. I was driving in snow on September 30. I have a feeling we're grossly under-prepared for this winter. Anyone want to donate to the "we need a snowblower" fund?

3.) I'm really enjoying having my DVR back. It's not my Tivo, but at least I can record something and watch it later - fast forwarding through stupid commercials. Yes, I've become too good for commercials.

4.) I'm also very depressed knowing that Baylor's star quarterback is out for the season. I'm hoping that they can still pull off a win or two, but I know the bowl game we were hoping for is pretty much out the window. I don't have a lack of faith, but have a realistic view after being a Baylor fan for so many years.

5.) I'm missing my Jeep. I've been stuck with the car because we're having worlds of trouble getting it titled here in Idaho and have no sign of getting this resolved. I'm  beyond mad at Chrysler Financial for not dealing with this, especially since we started this process in JUNE!!! If I could climb through the phone and strangle people, there would be far fewer employees at that place. Grrrr.

6.) I'm amazed that the local ABC affiliate is overriding the regular ABC materials this weekend, including college football and NASCAR, to broadcast the semi-annual general LDS conference. That would be like Dallas, Waco or Austin broadcasting the Southern Baptist Convention. I can't imagine the insane reaction the affiliates would receive by doing something like that. Yet here, no one is blinking an eye. I'm telling you, this place is like no other.

7.) School's going well for me. I'm coming to realize I am probably the most disciplined and interested student in all my classes. Doesn't bother me, just makes me the target for stupid punks to ask for notes and my work. Don't worry, I'm not passing it out. I'm mean, if I can manage to go to class and take notes, so can everyone else. I'm also tutoring a Taiwanese girl that tends to be a little more lazy than I'd like to see. But I'm getting paid to teach and re-teach her the same stuff while she refuses to put a whole lot into it. Not my fault if she fails, I can't take the tests for her. She's going to have to study on her own. In the meantime, I kicked some midterm butt today in my hardest class, so that's a nice thing to know going into my weekend.

8.) I'm going tomorrow to go see my sweetie in Boise. We were going to take in a Boise State game on the smurf turf, but shelved that idea when the weather is calling for 40's and rain. I might go if they were playing Baylor, but no blue turf is worth my lips turning blue and pneumonia. Maybe next season we can go make a weekend out of it and stay at a real hotel and not the questionable apartment he's had to live in for over a month now. 

9.) We have a yard! Got our sod installed two weekends ago and are watering the thunder out of it, when it's not snowing. I'm hoping it roots out really well before any long stretches of freeze. We've had some overnight freezing already, but nothing days on end. It's coming, we know. I just want the expensive grass to get down good before it does. 

10.) The critters are doing well. Both went to the groomers today and weren't too happy. But I was forgiven after buying their love with some chicken nuggets. They look very pretty and smell great. That will last maybe two days, three tops.

That's really all I can think of for now. I've put pictures on Facebook if anyone wants to see what else we're up to. Went to some cool waterfalls in the far corner of Yellowstone a couple weekends ago when the honey was home. Check them out and have a great weekend!

9-9-09 = A whole lot of nada

Everyone was making quite a deal of the 09-09-09 date, and yet today's been like most ordinary days for me here.

I'm flying solo now that the hubby's doing his peds training in Boise. I've seen him a  couple times over the past couple weeks and he's due home in a little over a week. In the meantime, I keep busy with school and classwork. I'm really loving what I'm doing and grateful to be back in a college setting. Not that I don't miss my sweetie like crazy, I just like that I now have something to help occupy the hours.

The house continues to be a work in progress - mainly outside. We've installed our own sprinkler system and only need a few tweaks here and there before it's good to go. It works pretty well now, just have a few sprinkler heads that aren't coming to life when the water's turned on. Once that's all done and the yard gets smoothed out, we'll get sod installed and have a real yard. The pups can't wait since they've had to go to the greenbelt and overgrown lots around for their bathroom needs. One day we'll get a fence and some proper-looking flowerbeds, but since it's about to be fall/winter, we're going to wait and see. I'd hate to spend any good amount of money on flowers or such to only see them killed in the first freeze. And seeing how it's getting into the low 40's at night now on a pretty regular basis, I'm going to guess a freeze will be sooner rather than later.

I just got back from a wonderful trip to New York with some of my college friends. I can't get over how much I love that city. I've been maybe 4 or 5 times now and still want to go back over and over. There's too much to see and do - and eat! Oh, the food alone is worth a trip. I'm glad I don't have those kinds of choices here - I'd explode! Pics are up on Facebook for anyone who cares. I'd post some here, but Blogger's being its usual pain-in-the-butt and I'm too tired to fight it more tonight.

Not much else going on to speak of in our world. School for me, work for him - pretty much a switcheroo from where we were a year ago. The pups are doing well and Austin's being a normal crazy cat. I think he's loving the cool weather at night as it seems to give him energy to pounce and run all over the house like a crazed animal.

And that's all for now kids. More when something exciting happens. Or not. There just isn't much exciting in the town.

Here and there

So, we got to Idaho. It was an interesting trip. But we got here Saturday and turned around hit the road again. This time we headed to Texas, stopping in Denver for the night with some great friends, Christine and Mike and their little one, Davis.

We got to Texas just in time to see my little sister get hitched in the same church we got married in 7 years before. Nearly all the family turned out and celebrated with the newlyweds. It was great catching up with everyone and sharing in the fun family occasions. 

I'd love to post some of my photos, but shortly after returning from our Texas adventures my brand-new Macbook decided to forget how to start-up, leaving us no choice but to send it off to Apple for a new hard drive. This resulted in a complete loss of all my files, photos, music. Everything. UGH.

Anyway, after the wedding we took several days and visited the hubby's family near Post. Managed to get some sun out on the lake and the hubby got his fishing in. It was nice to have some downtime after all the hectic scheduling of moving and traveling. 

But even R&R must end, so we left the lake to head back to my family's to see my two little brothers graduate from high school. It was so fun to see them both have their special moment and cross the stage at the same time. That leaves only one more little brother to go, and that's still 5 years away. Again, my pics are gone, but I hope to get them back from my folks down the road since I put them on their computer.

We headed back to Idaho, again staying with the Jenneys, but in their new home a little south of Denver. You know you have good friends when they let you stay with them in the middle of a move! We got into our new zip code with no extra time to spare, moving all our stuff out of our realtor's garage and into our house the very next morning. That left us one day, Sunday, to sort and unpack some before the hubby began his new job Monday at 8 o'clock. Can you see how I haven't had much time for blogging?!?

The weekend after he began his job, we went to Island Park, Idaho for the Residency retreat for all the residency staff and residents. It was nice getting to know the people we'll be with for the next three years. Too bad it was rainy and pretty cool. Tent camping in the rain just isn't nearly as fun. But the pups stuck it out with us and I got to visit Yellowstone National Park for my first time!

With the retreat behind us and the hubby going to work everyday, I was left with the details of getting utilities set up, cars registered in Idaho and the house in order and somewhat decorated in time for his parents to come visit this past week. It's still not 100 percent where we'd like it to be, but we've got to buy shelving and window treatments and little things to really make it a home. All that takes money, so little by little it'll come together.

My job now is job-hunting and getting ready to begin classes in about a month. Of course I've got to still see to the critters and house details. We finally closed on the house yesterday, so (along with the bank) we own our house and can continue making it everything we know it can be. And the best part is we've sent off our amended tax return, giving us the first-time homebuyers tax credit that we can use to make things really happen around here - like installing a yard, sprinkler system, a fence, the air conditioner, etc. 

But, for right now, I'll post a couple of pictures of the inside of house from a couple of weeks ago. We've done a little since then, but nothing overly dramatic.

You say potato

So, in the adventures of the Marcum family, we have now come to July. When I last left you, it was May.

May seems forever ago, but it brought so many changes.

After house hunting, we came home to pack up all our worldly belongings and attempt to come up with a moving strategy. It basically came down to packing everything in a Budget truck (the largest they offer) - including a boat! - and have it tow our Jeep while someone else drives the Neon and follows behind.

But, before we drove away from our beloved home and Virginia, we all watched my wonderful husband become a doctor. All the book knowledge he absorbed and training he tirelessly endured all came to one moment as he walked across the stage in Norfolk's Scope arena and accepted his diploma and hood. For all those years and years of work, he now gets to sign a little 'M.D.' behind his name. It also requires three more years of hands-on training as a medical resident - hence the move to Pocatello.





So, graduation was wonderful and we had a fabulous post-graduation lunch with our amazing friends and families. We we suppose to also have an amazing doctor-themed cake, but the local bakery I contracted with decided to forgo making said cake and produced NOTHING for us. Thank heavens my friend went to pick up the cake that afternoon because if it had been me landing on the lady's doorstep and her telling me they didn't make it, I probably would have killed her, which would not have made for the great celebration we did get to have. Thankfully, our friends (once again) came to the rescue and got a cake made by the local grocery store in time for us all to enjoy after our meal. It might not had a stethoscope on it, but it was wonderful.


And that was Saturday. Sunday was our last Sunday with our friends and family at First Baptist Norfolk. Heart-wrenching is all I can think of to describe it, but remember it fondly. We love our family there and miss it so very much. Still brings tears to my eyes as I write.

Moving on. Sunday evening was more packing and we had many of our friends and even our family (who traveled all the way from Texas) helping. Not a soul was lounging around. Monday was more packing and loading, with a break for one last dinner with our neighbors and East Coast family. As more of our belongings went onto the truck, we shared more hugs and shed more tears and we said our goodbyes.

And so, on Tuesday, May 19, we loaded the final odds and ends, and with my Dad, good friend Ryan, two dogs and a drugged-up cat, we saddled up and started our adventure west.

For those who care to, click here to see the map of our 2,400 mile trip across the U.S.A.

I'd have to say the most enjoyable part of the move was spending lots and lots of quality time with one another, but also documenting the trip for Ryan's two girls with their little stuffed animals Ryan brought along. Pinky and Kitty were quite the hit, and adventures can still be seen on Facebook by clicking here.




We finally made it to Idaho on Saturday, May 23. We ended up unloading all our stuff into our realtor's garage (because our mortgage hadn't been completely ironed out). We didn't want to risk moving our stuff into the garage of the new house and us heading off to Texas for two weeks if we weren't 100 percent sure we'd be moving it into the house when we got back.


So, we put everything in the garage and had one last dinner with Ryan and dad that evening. Ryan left us the next morning, getting home in time to spend Memorial Day with his family, and dad left Monday to get home for my sister's wedding the following Saturday.

So that gets us to Idaho. We ended up leaving out the following Wednesday morning to drive back to Texas for my sister's wedding, my brothers' graduation and some time with the in-laws up in the Panhandle. That'll be another post, but I did want to catch up anyone that might be wondering if we ever made it to Idaho. We did. 

And, yes, there are a lot of potatoes here. The plants are about a foot tall and in bloom. I know all this because there's a farming report on the local radio station every day at lunch. And in case you were wondering, wheat's not doing so great right now.

And the envelope says...

So, Match Day. We had a great time gearing up for the big day. The whole party was a themed shin-dig based on Heros and Villains. And since neither the hubby or I have super-hero physique, we opted to go with some humor and something out of the ordinary.



Meet the sexiest King Arthur and Patsy you'll ever see.

And I'm bragging here. I made these costumes. Sewed them myself and created the sun crest on my Mac on Photoshop and got transfers to iron on. I also made the flag on the backpack (Which was lovingly constructed by the hubby. I don't construct as well as him.), the Holy Grail, a Holy Hand Grenade, the Crown and sewed the chain mail coif for it. I even made the dorky little coif for my head. And even though you can't see it all, on my backpack was the Holy Hand Grenade, a can of Spam and a small shrubbery. It was awesome. We even made the news. Click here to see the link.

But that's not what everyone cares about. We opened our envelope, along with 100-something others, precisely at 1:00 and found out we weren't going back to Texas like we had thought. We matched to the program at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho.

The word shock does not begin to describe how we felt then and still today, five days later. We're getting more and more excited by the day. But it was very hard for us and family, after thinking for so long and so certainly that we'd be heading back to Texas. But God has bigger plans for us and we're getting geared up for a cross-country move and a new adventure in the Northwest.

And before you say "the only thing I know about Idaho is the potatoes," let me fill you in a little on where we'll be.

It's 2 1/2 hours away from Salt Lake City, 2 hours away from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 3 hours away from Yellowstone National Park, 3 hours from Sun Valley ski resort, and within a day or two drive of so many places we can't wait to visit.

But that's still a few months off. Here are more pics from the party last week.

Time for some Ketchup

Okay, so FOREVER doesn't begin to describe how long it's been, I know. I'm reminded frequently by those I love. However, life is flying by us right now so quickly, it turned January into the end of March before I even realized.

So, let me begin by telling everyone how our Holidays and January went. After Alaska, we visited with family for awhile and then headed up to the mountains of Colorado for some much-deserved R&R in a little quiet cabin near Allenspark. With no internet, no cell phone signals, and a nice hot tub for soaking under the stars - it was a wonderful Christmas with just us and the pups.

After a week away from everything, we moved into our home-away-from-home in Fort Collins for a month so Benjamin could do an away rotation in family medicine. It was a great town and a fun place to spend a month. While there, the hubby's parents came for a snowy visit and a wonderful time complete with a dinner sleigh ride. I'll tack on the pics below.

We made it back to Virginia Beach in early February and turned right back around for another trip to Texas. We were able to see some family members while there, but came back pretty quickly so the hubby could resume his rotation here.

Since then we had Valentine's, some Wii nights with friends, and a trip to Florida (which will be another post) and the all-important Match Day.

For those not aware with the process, after we completed all the interviews in January, we had to turn in our list of top choices, ranking them one through eight. That was turned in at the end of February. We then had to wait until last week, on Thursday, until we find out where we matched to. The day of the big reveal is a BIG party with all the 100-something students all opening their letters together at 1:00 on the dot. And we did.

More on that, later. Below are pics from our sleigh ride, clear back in January.

A walk through time

On our way back down to Cheyenne, Wyoming from South Dakota (a couple of days after Wall), we made a point to stop outside of Guernsey to see the a part of the Oregon Trail. At that point, carved into stone cliffs, are ruts from the wagon wheels. Standing in the ruts is really surreal - to know that hundreds of pioneers passed through that very spot and made those visual marks still seen over a hundred years later.

It was a COLD and windy, but definitely worth the brief stop. Here are a couple of pics.















Pretty amazing, huh?

Bumping against a Wall

So, when I last left you, we just finished our trip through the Badlands and its washboard dirt roads. After our brief visit into the Badlands Visitors Center, we took the interstate back into town. On the way back in, we kept driving past signs for Wall Drug in Wall. Now Wall Drug is not your local Walgreens or CVS, it's an entire city block (or more?) of tourist trap. It's claim to fame was offering FREE ice water to travels back in the 40's. Now, sure, there are some interesting things in the mega-mall of stuff (besides the free ice water), but it was just a lot of junk and trinkets from what I could see. But among the stuff are some crazy things - like giant animatronic cattle-drive campfire singers, TONS of mounted dead things, a chapel, and some props for picture taking. We were only there a few minutes since it was closing time, but we did get a few pics...











Since we couldn't eat at the drug store, we went across the street (in the snow!) to eat at the Cactus Cafe Mexican restaurant. The funniest two things there were the fact it offers no Mexican food - except in the summer months (migrant workers/chefs apparently only go up to South Dakota in the summer?) and the menu looked funny.



So that's our trip to Wall.