Life is busy

Life has been busy around the Cuoio household the past couple of weeks. And when I say busy I mean school busy and only a little bit of fun for Nate mixed in.
So here is a run down of what has been going on.

*First off, today we celebrate 10 months of marital bliss!

*In February, Nate went to Washington D.C. and University of Virginia for a Federalist Society Conference. It was Nate's 1st time to the Nations Capital. Nate met Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and got his autograph. Nate really enjoyed seeing all the sites in Washington D.C. and listening to Clarence Thomas speak about his childhood and being raised by his grandfather.

University of Idaho students with Clarence Thomas

*For the past month, Nate has been very busy working on a law paper that is worth 50% of his grade. He spent all of his spring break working on it and this week he has spent his days and evenings working on it. Last night he was up until 2:30 working on it. I am so glad it is due tomorrow because I am sick of him working on it and his brain is fried so he needs a break.

*For the past 3 months, I have spent pretty much every moment of every day in Lewiston High School. I am happy to report that this past Friday was my last day of teaching! I will return to the high school for 3 days after spring break this week and then I will be DoNE with student teaching!
Student teaching has been a great experience and I have learned a lot but it has been exhausting and frustrating at times. After this experience I am not sure if I am cutout to be a teacher. I think I might be better off teaching mini sewing and cooking classes out of my home. Then I wont have to make lesson plans and I can teach people who actually want to learn what I am teaching. Doesn't that sound like a good plan?

Here is a picture of Lewiston High School. It was built in 1927 and is very run down.
Photo via.

*As I write this list of what we have been busy with it seems dinky and pathetic. But I tell you we have been busy. I feel like I do not stop from when I rise at 5:30 in the morning to when I crawl into bed at night. School has swamped me. I never thought student teaching would be so time consuming. I thought writing lesson plans would be a breeze...I was wrong. I am so excited for this week. It is my first spring break in 3 years! I am excited to sleep in (if my body will allow it), exercise, relax, and make some descent meals for my husband.

* I cannot end without announcing some great news! I am happy to report that a baby Nielson will be added to the family! My brother, Ryan and his wife Rachel will be adopting a baby boy in August. Our family could not be more excited for them. They are so deserving of this little one and I know they are going to be wonderful parents!

My Husband is Crafty!

Last Tuesday I began student teaching at Lewiston High School. Since Nate's school did not start until yesterday I put him in charge of painting a cupboard we got from some friends that moved.
I let him do whatever he wanted.

Here is the cupboard before:

After:

I think he did a great job!
I think he did a better job than what I would have done.
Since he did such a good job he now has a new project...to fix and paint a bookshelf.
I will post pictures when he has completed it.

A few weeks late...

Christmas break was wonderful as we spent time with family and friends in Poky and Sun Valley. It is so nice having both our families in Pocatello. We were able to spend Christmas Day with both our families. We received some wonderful gifts (games, picture of Christ, shadow box of things from our wedding, cooking utensils, church books, clothes, and a coffee table with some money we got)! These gifts have helped make our apartment more "homey" as we are still trying to put it together.

The day after Christmas we spent a few days in Sun Valley at Grandpa "Nip's" cabin. We had a great time reading, skiing, sitting by the fire, playing games, and walking around Sun Valley.

The only pictures I took over Christmas were on Baldy Mountain. It sure was a BeaUtiFuL DaY in Sun Valley!!

What to blog about?

As I fall asleep at night I think of all the things I could blog about.

I could blog about...

• How I have had crazy dreams lately...
• How my husband has an ulcer and won't go to the doctor...
• How I am baby hungry...
• How it starts to get dark in Moscow at 3:30, meaning the evening seems like eternity...
• How next semester I will be student teaching at Lewiston High School...
• How I almost have one semester left of school...
• How I cannot wait to be in Pocatello for Christmas...
• How I will be getting up at 5:30 starting January 3rd until April 8th...
• How I have some great Christmas homemade gift ideas but they would take months to make and I only have 2 weeks...
• How I will be driving 40 to 50 minutes to get to school next semester
• How I would love to start a cooking blog...
• How 1/4 of the sisters in my ward are pregnant...
• How I have been married for half a year to an amazing guy...
• How Moscow plows the snow to the middle of the street...
• How I miss BYU and my sewing lab...
• How I dream of all the things I could knit when I do not even knit...maybe I should start.
• How I hear all the positives and negatives about being pregnant and the negatives go in one ear and out the other...
• How this semester has been one of the easiest semesters of my college career...

There are probably a million other things I think blogging about but this is the list for now...

Pocatello

It was a busy few days in Pocatello. In between visiting Grandpa Cuoio we were able to play tennis, watch my brother Tanner play football, met my Grandpa Nielson's "girlfriend", went out to eat with Nate's family, went to Brigham City for my Grandpa Nielson's 84th Birthday (which included seeing my brothers and extended family), reminisced about Grandpa Cuoio with Nate's family, and I made carmel apples with my mom.

It was such a great, sad, fun, exhausting weekend. We were able to fit a lot into a small amount of time, which meant not much time for studying. We are now back in Moscow hitting the books...Well Nate is... I am already caught up in my classes.

I am so grateful things worked out the way they did with Nate's classes. I am grateful we were able to go to Pocatello to be with family. Heavenly Father really watches out for us and knows when we need to be with family especially in hard and difficult times.

This is the only picture I got of the trip but I love it! My younger brother is
so cute and I love him! He is also a great quarterback.

Bert Cuoio

This past weekend Nate and I went home to Pocatello to see this good man, Grandpa Cuoio.

Last week Nate's grandpa had a heart attack. Nate ended up not having class on Thursday and Friday so on Wednesday afternoon we headed to Pocatello to see grandpa before he passed away on Saturday at the young age of 97. We are so grateful we were able to spend a couple more hours with him on this earth.

I did not know Grandpa Cuoio very well but from the first time I met him I loved him. He was always very kind and nice to me. Grandpa Cuoio told Nate every time we went to visit that he did well, referring to Nate dating me and then later marrying me. Nate remembers his grandpa always wanted to know how he was doing and what he was up to. His grandpa wanted to make sure he was doing what was right. He was grateful his grandpa cared so much about him and cared about what he was doing in his life.

These past few days I have learned more about Grandpa Cuoio. He really had a love for baseball and played baseball in California and Texas for some major league farm teams. A fun fact is while Grandpa Cuoio was playing baseball in California he met and played with Joe DiMaggio.

Grandpa Cuoio was a great man and will be missed.

Apples

Yesterday we went to WSU to pick apples. We had a great time with our friends the Cahoon's (Brett, Hailey, and Noah). We walked the rows of trees picking, talking and sampling the apples. They were delicious.

It was such a beautiful fall day in Northern Idaho.

Nate thought this branch was amazing...so we had to get a picture with it.

(The Cahoon's)

Nate thinks Noah is the cutest baby and will be one happy dad
if our children look anything like him.

From our apple picking adventure we came home with 22 lbs of apples. The next
few days I will be busy eating apples, making apples sauce, apple pie, and
Nate wants me to try and make apple cider. Hopefully it all goes well!