All good things must come to an end....

All good things must come to an end...

I am referring to our travelling adventures.  I am about to finish up my last travel assignment here in Florida.  Patrick has already moved back home!  He has been very productive since arriving back in NC!  The most exciting thing is he has gotten a job at UNC Hospitals in MICU as a tech.  We are both very excited about this.  He will be officially starting his new/permanent job June 14th!  Not only has Patrick been busy with his job hunt, he has also managed to do several home improvements.  We have new shutters, the house has been pressure washed, the porch repainted, a new storm door and the front door has been painted to match the shutters.  The entire inside of the house has been repainted, or pretty much everything except the kitchen/dining room area.  We decided to go with lighter colors this time to open up the house since a lot of our rooms are smaller!  Everything looks awesome!!  Oh yeah, and Patrick's favorite, we had the TV mounted on the wall above the fireplace.  This opens up the living room even more.  We are still awaiting the arrival of our new recliner.  And in the next week or so we are planning on having hardwood laminate put down in the living room and dining room.  I will try and have some pictures when I move back in (in 10 days) of all the home improvements!!! 

I actually went home this past week to interview for permanent positions.  I had 5 interviews in 2 days at 3 different hospitals!  It was so good to be home!  I can't wait to get back there for good.  The interviews went well, I am just waiting on formal offers so I can decide where I want to go.  I interviewed for the ED at Rex, the CVICU, surgical-trauma ICU and PACU at Duke and the CVICU at Wakemed.  So we will see what happens there! I will, hopefully, update soon on my new job!  Until next time...

~m

What a busy Month

April has been such a busy month for us and I have not made one post...so I better catch up now...
The month did not start out on such a good note because I lost my Grandaddy on Easter Sunday :(  So a couple of days later we headed up to NC to be with family and to attend the funeral. 
On the way up we went to the shuttle launch in Cape Canveral.  There are only 3 more launches left and this one was the last night shuttle launch.  Although the launch took place at 6 in the morning it was still dark out.  This was an awesome experience!  We had to be at Kennedy Space Center that morning at 3am...needless to say it was a looong day.  But a great day.  After the launch we toured around the Kennedy Center Complex.  After spending half the day there, we landed in Northern Georgia for the night.  Needless to say we crashed early and were up early the next day to be in Bladen County....oh how I miss home. 
I hate that we had to be home for such a sad occasion, but it was great to be back in NC!  I can't wait til June...we will be back for good!!  We actually got to spend the week at home which was nice and it was hard to leave. The puppies had such a wonderful time running and swimming around on the farm and in the pond.  My babies got to meet Mama's new baby, Cookie Bear,  which was very interesting.  I thought that Cookie Bear would eat Ella, but instead Cookie Bear ran from Ella.  It was the funniest thing.  In the end, I think everyone turned out to be friends! 
Now we are back in FL.  Since returning back, we have made a trip over to the west coast of FL and visited Naples and Fort Mayers.  We LOVE it over there!!  It seems to be more laid back and not quiet so many people.  The beaches were beautiful.  It was an awesome day and we did not want to come back to Dania  
:(  We spent the day at the Naples Zoo, the beach and walked around the outlets.  We had to make a trip to the outlets becuase there was a Vineyard Vines there....and if you know Patrick then enough said!  And if you know me...there was a Coach out there too!! 
Anywhooo....we also made a trip down to Key Largo (this week) and went snorkling at John Pennekamp State Park.  This also made for a wonderful day and we did not want to return back to Dania!
Now for the present we are both working on getting jobs back home....I have had a few phone calls...just gotta line up a couple of days of interviews so I can fly home for that.  Patrick actually has an interview at UNC Hospitals next week so we are praying that something good comes out of that...so I will keep you updated on the job searches...so until next time...

~m

Disney on Ice

The Lion King

So Disney came to Miami on Ice!  I was driving to work one day and noticed this huge billboard with an announcement that Disney on Ice was coming to Ft. Lauderdale and Miami!!!  So as soon as I got off the interstate I was calling Patrick telling him that we HAD to get tickets!!!  Well luckily he agreed!!!  So Disney on Ice was our activity for the week.  The show featured "Cars", "The Little Mermaid" (my favorite!!!), "The Lion King" and "Tinkerbell"!  It was a great show!!! Surprisingly enough after being around hundreds of kids tonight we still haven't ruled out having our own yet (but none anytime soon so don't get too excited).   Well the show was great for me and OK for Patrick...so of course after the show Patrick was hungry so he wanted to go to Le Tub.  Le Tub has been featured on Oprah as the #1 place to eat a burger before you die.  It was a 13 oz.  huge piece of meat that Patrick ate without thinking twice!  So now I guess he can die a peaceful death (in the far far FAR future) knowing that he ate at Le Tub...haha!  We that about wraps it up this week.  It's finally getting really warm here so hopefully I can get out of bed in the morning so we can go enjoy the beach!

The Little Mermaid

Until next time...

~m


ps....Mama we ARE coming home for good on JUNE 5TH so write it down!!!!

The Dangers of Southern Florida....

So Patrick and I have been around the country and back, the past 3 years, and we can offically say that Southern FL has been the scariest/most dangerous place that we have visited.  I say this now, because about three days ago, we decided to take the dogs out to the dog park, and our car ended up getting broken into...scary.  It was actually a really nice park(with a swim area and everything!), but I guess it was in a not so nice area. Our front driver's side window got busted out and Patrick's wallet was stolen.  Luckily we were able to put stops on everything that was in the wallet before it was used!  So I guess the point of this post is to remind everyone to make sure when you get out of your car to take everything with you that has value becuase you never know what can happen!  We were only gone away from the car for about 30 minutes...the dogs had went swimming and we were taking them over to the play area to run and dry off...and that is what we found.  It makes you mad...then sad...then scared....it's so sad that there are people out there that can do something like that to someone else and not feel guilty about it....
So until next time...stay safe!

~m

Diana Down in Dania

So Diana came to visit us this past week!!!  The first night she was here, of course, we took her to Lemongrass and Jaxson's!  Our 2 favorite eateries!
The first full day Diana was here we went to the Miami MetroZoo.  All 3 of us love zoos, and we all 3 agreed that it was the best zoo we have been to!  The BEST part....we got to feed the giraffes!!! That was the most awesome experience ever!  Also before we entered the zoo, the "got milk" people were there, and we got to get our picture taken with a milk mustache!  The secret to the milk mustache...it's not really milk it's a milkshake!
Another fun thing we did, was take Diana to see the cruise boats leave the port on Saturday.  That is something Patrick and I have enjoyed since we have moved so close to the port.  The bad thing about it is we want to go home and book a cruise every time we leave the port!
We are so glad that Diana got the opportunity to come down and visit!  We really wish she could have stayed longer...We miss you girl!  We are looking forward to moving back home!  Until then we will enjoy this warm winter weather!

~m

Still Way Down South...

So Patrick and I are still enjoying FL. It has been so awesome getting to wear shorts and flip-flips in January and February! We haven't done many touristy things since we got here. Mama did visit us for a few days at the end of January. I was so glad that she got to come down for her Birthday! While Mama was here we took her to the Hard Rock Casino (where Anna Nichole died), we went down to the cruise port and saw the cruise boats leave including the largest cruise boat in the world, the Oasis of the Seas! The best thing we did while Mama was here was frequent Jaxson's Ice Cream Parlor!!! It is the best and biggest scoops of Ice Cream you will ever eat! Also for Mama's Birthday we went out on the Palm Beach Princess. It is a little cruise boat that goes out for 6 hours and cruises off the coast and then comes back to the shore. It was fun and I think Mama has decided that she would like to go on a "real" cruise now! So we'll have to see when we can work that out!
Thank goodness, before Mama got here we moved from the Extended Stay into a one bedroom apt! We moved away from the hospital but closer to the beach so it works! I have to drive through traffic to work but, I would rather do that than live in that horrible hotel room! We are loving our new space! We have lots of room so call us if you want to visit!
Another thing we have discovered is Skype! It is awesome! If you have a webcam you should so sign up for it and we can Skype each other! It is like talking on the phone but you can see each other. It is so fun. Patrick and I have been enjoying talking with our parents with Skype! So everyone should download it and we can see each other and chat!
That is about all for now hopefully next time I will have more exciting things to talk about. So until next time...

~m

Back down south...way south!

Now that the holidays are over, and we got used to being home, we have packed up again and are in southern FL (again).  We are in Plantation until April/May.  We came down south to be warm for the winter but as of now it has been COLD!  Well supposedly that is to end this week so I am counting down the days til I can bring out the shorts, skirts and flip-flops.  Until then we are trying to stay warm.  We haven't really done anything exciting just yet but I'll keep you updated when we do.  We were excited to find out that our favorite sushi restaurant has a branch out our way so we have already taken advantage of that!  So if you come to visit us you will get to eat there I am sure at least once!  YUM Lemongrass! We have been down here for a week now and we are still trying to adjust to our housing...so far it's not working out for us and we are looking for another (better) place to stay and hopefully closer to the beach.  So far the hospital seems good, I haven't even been on the unit yet and I still have 3 more days of orientation.  This has been the longest orientation for a travel assignment that I have ever gone through.  But that is cool it's a paycheck.  I am ready to start back on my night shifts!  Until next time...

~m