News From The Nolens, 2012

“Nothing important happened this year.”
King George III may (or may not) have famously written in his journal on July 4, 1773, “Nothing important happened today.” If you were waiting for our 2011 Christmas letter it was never written, because in Karis’ words, “Nothing important happened this year.” Since you are reading this newsletter, you can be assured at least one important thing happened in 2012 – and after reading this newsletter you can judge for yourself what it was.

“Their teacher quit, their sub quit, the next sub quit, so they were stuck with me.”
In the Fall of 2011, Joshua became a permanent substitute in Biology at Martinsburg High School, or as he tells people, “Their teacher quit, their sub quit, the next sub quit, so they were stuck with me.” He continued in this position in the Spring of 2012, teaching five periods of Biology and one of Physical Science.

“I finally have a clinical I love!”
Karis continued at Shepherd University with her third semester of nursing classes, she had clinical rotations in the ER, ICU, telemetry, pediatrics and labor & delivery. After working her first day in labor & delivery Karis exclaimed, “I finally have a clinical I love!”

“The lowest paid professional athletes.”
For the Summer of 2012, Joshua decided to work as a white water raft guide on the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. In the words of Joshua’s boss, “Raft guides are the lowest paid professional athletes.” But Joshua had a fun summer!

“We built a house!”
During the summer, we also had a lot of adventures: some of our friends and family got married, Joshua went to Maine, we both went to Lake George, and we led a youth mission trip from our church to Dunlow, WV to build a house. After an exhausting week and few scary moments, we can look back and say, “We built a house!”

“So what are you going to do with your degree?”
All good summers must come to an end, and this one ended with Karis and Joshua returning to school. However, unlike the past three years, Joshua did not only return to school as a teacher, he also returned as a student. Joshua was tired of answering the question, “So what are you going to do with your degree?” Now he is pursing a Masters in Environmental Biology from Hood College in nearby Frederick, Md. Unfortunately, he now hears “So what are you going to do with that degree?”

“Future Chief of Nursing”
This Fall, Karis had a preceptorship in a special care nursery at a local hospital; she loved working with “sick babies.” On December 14, she graduated from her BSN program and one of her professors called her a “future chief of nursing,” another professor said she hoped Karis came back to teach at Shepherd in a few years. Then, less than a week later, she was offered (and she accepted) a job at Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, MD. Joshua and the rest of her family are extremely proud of all her hard work.