ping pong and chocolate fondue

Well hello there.  No, we haven't died.  Stuff just happened.  Stuff like finals and the holidays and working 40+ hours a week and pinterest.  That kind of stuff.  But I'm back for a quick update on life... bullet point style.  Because its easy and seems to lower the chances of random rambling.... which I seem to be doing already.

Since last time...

• Joe finished his first quarter of PT school.  Hooray!  He survived finals (okay, so maybe "survived" has a bit of a negative tone to it.  I think "aced" would be a little more appropriate...) and even had a little free time to spend playing pool and ping pong at the Institute building.    

• Meanwhile, due to an interesting turn of events (a definite answer to prayers no less), I went from working 16-18 hours a week to working a full 40.  Its been extremely busy and slightly stressful, but I'm enjoying it a lot.  Sure, I miss my sleeping in and having plenty of time for exercising, cooking, sewing, and reading... but it will be really nice to have some extra income and get more experience.

• In the midst of all the busy, we enjoyed a nice set of holidays.  Joe was off school for an entire month... but I only got a week and a half.  We spent a day or two up in Sandpoint, ID with my family while they went snowboarding/skiiing at Schweitzer.  Its beautiful up there, and we had a fun time exploring the town, reading, and hanging out at the lodge.  Then it was off to Richland for Christmas, where we spent a week playing games, eating way too much, sleeping tons, and trying out my family's new ping pong table.  Which I'm pretty horrible at... but it was a lot of fun anyway ( :

Our very first real size Christmas tree!  Last year we had a table-top tree ( :  Luckily my parents had an extra, so we enjoyed having our little apartment feel a lot more Christmassy!

• A few days after Christmas we celebrated our TWO YEAR anniversary!  Crazy how time flies.  Joe surprised me with a trip to Coeur D'Alene, ID for a night on the town.  Let me tell you in pictures... 

We went to dinner at a great place right off the lake called the Bonsai Bistro.  I'm still a little upset that there were no bonsai trees to be found in the entire restaurant.  But they did have a pond with real fish and turtles in the middle.  Maybe a better name would be the turtle pond bistro?  Haha it was delicious though!

You can see the view of the dock right behind Joe...

Then we walked down the pier and saw all the Christmas lights they still had up.  We were both pretty impressed with how pretty they were, especially reflecting off the lake like they were. None of the pictures I have really do them any justice.

Along our walk down the dock, we even met the Grinch!  Haha we saw him inside a shop locking a door or something and he totally looked like he was stealing stuff... like the true Grinch.  We got a good laugh, and then he started towards us and Joe asked him for a picture.  He obliged, and then stalked off saying "Have a horrible night!"  It was great.

Then after walking through downtown a little bit, we headed for home.  Joe locked me up in the bedroom while he readied his next surprise... chocolate fondue!  He bought a little fondue fountain and had it all set up with lots of fruit and yummies to dip in it.  I loved it.  So much so that we pulled it out for New Years a few days later too. 

Two years down, and we are more in love than ever ( :