The Traveling Kind

SO MUCH has happened in the last three weeks! I finished up at East Tennessee Children's, we packed up and moved to Baltimore, taking a few days to stop and see friends and family, and I started back on 9South at Hopkins. As much as I love bouncing around and going to new places every few months it's still so hard to leave friends. At ETCH I feel like I connected with my coworkers really quickly and really got to enjoy working with them versus being anxious about what I say or do or what they think of me. We also got to reconnect with an old high school friend and it was such a great surprise since we had no idea she had just moved to the area. Wonderworks Ryan and Wesley playing at Wonderworks! All that being said it was SO weird coming back to a city, apartment, and unit that we'd been to before. I LOVED walking into the unit the first day and be greeted by so many familiar faces and big hugs! We already know where our grocery store is and how to get around o...

First and foremost, let me introduce y'all to June Carter Cash Sladek! She's our precious little chewy new angel puppy and we LOVE HER! Pearl's getting to like her too. Pearl is super excited to play with her in the mornings but when it's time to go to bed and June's still biting her ear she gets a little snippy. Ha! *** Our first family outing was to Ijams (pronounced Iams) Nature Center. It's a park on the Tennessee River with lots of beautiful hiking and biking trails. It was June's first hike and long walk on the leash. I have to say she did pretty good but both her and Pearl get pretty darn distracted, they probably added like 30 minutes to the walk. We need to do some leash training with both of them. Tennessee River First full family photo! Boardwalk on the trail along the river *** Turns out one of our high school friends lives 45 minutes away! Wesley came  up for the day and we did a little sightseeing. This photo was taken ...

Well y'all we made it to Knoxville! And they were so kind to welcome us with some severe weather. I haven't had to worry about that since we left Texas the first time and it was pretty scary to say the least. Pearl especially hates bad weather. She shakes so hard it's visible from across the apartment. We really like our new apartment, it feels smaller than our San Antonio place but it comes with other perks like a "resort style" indoor pool and jacuzzi AND a washer/dryer. You never realize how great it is to be able to do your laundry in your apartment until you have to live without.  I would say on average this is about the size unit we're usually placed in. Ryan and I are actually the first people to live in this unit after it was remodeled, so that means new kitchen appliances, new flooring, new granite counters, and a new washer/dryer. It's a little mini one that is the washer AND dryer in the same small machine. It's pretty neat, I haven't se...

Usually in this lovely travel world, I get my new assignment a few weeks before I start. However, with the last couple of assignments I've really lucked out and have snagged TWO assignments at one time. Actually, I accepted a position for July before I even had a clue about where we might go in April. Well, I am super excited to announce that Ryan, Pearl, and I will be spending the rest of spring and early summer in KNOXVILLE  (not to be confused with Nashville),  TENNESSEE ! Ryan and I drove through eastern Tennessee when we were headed to NYC and we absolutely loved the scenery. I will be working in a small-ish PICU at East Tennessee Children's Hospital. I can only imagine how beautiful it will be in the springtime! We're also excited about having another mild summer. Eighty degree summer weather suits me just fine. We're looking forward to take in all Knoxville has to offer, as well as a few places we'll be relatively close to like Nashville and Ashville,...

Wow! Our time here in San Antonio is almost over! I know I say this every post but it really is crazy how fast time goes by. I can't think about it too hard or I'll have  a panic attack. We have really enjoyed being back in Texas and getting to see family and friends. We've spent most of my days off back in good ol' Falls County or hanging out in Converse and getting to know our sweet niece. When I actually lived in Texas I can count on one hand how many times I visited San Antonio, and with each visit I never left a two mile radius. Let me tell you, I LOVE the Riverwalk and that's all I've ever known of SA. San Antonio has so much more to offer! Who knew that SA would have better sushi than Houston? I do now! Let me suggest that if you're planning a trip to San Antonio don't spend more than lunch on the Riverwalk. Head down to the Missions! They are beautiful, you can go inside, and it's free! Walk down the Museum Reach of the Riverwalk, ...

Usually before Ryan and I move to a new place we research the poop out of it. Especially Ryan, he can tell you pretty much every useless piece of information about our new city than you ever wanted to know. However, we really didn't do that with Baltimore. We just knew we needed to be in this general area to be close to a wedding, so we really didn't get that excited about it and didn't know much before we moved here.  I've definitely enjoyed the history in this area the most for sure, but my second favorite thing is the hiking. I had no idea Maryland was so beautiful. The city of Baltimore is so green! There are trees everywhere and it is so hilly. The city itself is beautiful but the Maryland countryside is gorgeous. A coworker of mine got us started hiking here and I'm so glad she did! Thanks Karen! These pictures are from our hike on Monday in Gunpowder Falls State Park. Ryan, Karen and Karen's friend Beth, Scout the Golden Doodle and Pearl ...

Ryan's mom came to town at the end of September and we did all kinds of fun things! We showed her around Baltimore a little and then we spent a three day weekend in Washington DC. I loved seeing all of the monuments I read about in history! We walked down then entire National Mall and saw the Capitol building, Washington Monument, WWII monument, the Lincoln Memorial (uh-mazing) and Reflecting pool, and the Vietnam Memorial. We also visited FOUR museums, the National Botanic Garden, the Arlington National Cemetery and saw Driving Miss Daisy at the Ford Theater. In order to keep this from getting super long and boring I'll just dump my favorite photos from the week. I'll also include photos from our trip to Gettysburg at the end of her stay. The leaves were already starting to change in Pennsylvania so it was absolutely beautiful! I can't wait for it to look that here in Baltimore. The White House! Because of the Copperas Cove guy there was an extra security fenc...