We've got an update on our travel adventures! We, that is, I, have a contract! We're headed to Virginia. I'll be working at Winchester Medical Center in Winchester, VA. My start date is July 25, and that's my first day of orientation.
Suddenly everything is happening so fast! It was like, wait wait wait... and now-- we're trying to pack up our house, sell it, and prep for a cross country move in just three short weeks! It's crazy.
Why Virginia? Well, every job I was submitted for in AK, I never heard anything. So my recruiter asked for second choices. I got called and hired the day they submitted me. We hope with one assignment under my belt, that it'll help. AK is actually pretty popular for travel nursing, so they can be a bit more choosy and like nurses with previous travel experience. So hopefully next time we try, we'll have more success.
Also, the hospital I'll be working for uses a charting system called EPIC, which is very widely used all over the nation. Hopefully this will make me more appealing as well!
It's so surreal, that is all actually happening! That we're really going on this crazy hairbrained adventure. I bounce between excited and nervous every hour I feel like. "I don't know if I'm elated or gassy, but I'm somewhere in that zone..." -Frozen. Like that.
I'm going to try to keep up my blogging even during all the crazy packing and moving business! Ack! There's so much to do! I don't know how we'll ever get there, but we have to, so we will!
Saturday, June 25, 2016
Friday, June 3, 2016
A Change in the Wind, Says I
This October, I will have worked for Intermountain Healthcare for 11 years. I started as a tech in Med/Surg ICU at LDS hospital and then about a year later worked in Shock/Trauma ICU as well. Then when Intermountain Medical Center opened and became the new Trauma I center instead of LDSH, I moved there to continue to be a Tech in Shock/Trauma ICU. Then when I became a nurse, I continued on. For the entirety of my nursing career, I've been in STICU. I've since become a preceptor and a charge nurse and have moved up in seniority significantly in my time there. I'm one of the few left that remember "the old unit" and the many many staff members we've had over the years. I'm almost a veteran. And sometimes I look at myself and think, "is this all I'm ever going to do? Is this where I'll always be? Will I be the next Gene', or Pam, or Karen who are nearing retirement and spent their entire nursing careers in Shock/Trauma?" (They are some of my favorite nurses. Crabby old ladies who have so many stories to tell!)
Ryan and I are not really big changers. If it's not broke, don't fix it. That's who we are. We get settled and without realizing it, 10 years have passed and here we are in the same jobs we were in at the start of our marriage. Not to say nothing has changed. We bought a house, we've had two kids, we go out of town nearly every month. We find ways to mix it up a bit.
Well, starting in April, I got a bee in my bonnet that wouldn't go away. I had some co-workers do some travel nursing to Hawaii and it was like, "oh yeah! Travel nursing! I remember that! I wanted to do that when I became a nurse!" But since houses and jobs and children, just never did. I got the idea that maybe, just maybe, we could do it. All of us, as a family, pick up and travel with me as the breadwinner travel nursing. I mentioned it to Ryan, and was amazed that he got excited about it! It's a HUGE change. Almost a complete 180 from where we are. But I know, if we don't do it now, we will stay exactly as we are until our children are gone.
So we've taken the plunge! I've yet to get a contract with a hospital, but my start date is Aug. 1, and I've already been submitted for a job in Anchorage, AK. I'm signed up with two travel agencies and have recruiters looking for jobs for me. I've got a nursing license in AK now, and have started the process for California, and Hawaii. We've got our house lined up with a realtor who has paperwork signed so that when we say 'go!' Our house is on the market! It's exciting and crazy and scary and so unknown still! Aaaaaahhhh!!
Why? Why are we doing it? Lots of reasons.
1. The housing market is such that we can make a good chunk of change on our house and pay off all our debt. (Just a car, a motorcycle, and some student loans at this point.)
2. The kids are young enough that we can do it. Malcolm will be kindergarten age, and so it'll be easy to homeschool if we need to.
3. We've always wanted to live in AK, HI, and CA, but never could find a fathomable way to ever make it work, and wouldn't ever want it to be permanent. They're all expensive places to live and to move to. Without the help of a travel agency paying for housing and travel, how could it happen?
4. We have only two kids, and have really not felt the need to get pregnant. Elliot is over two years old, and though I feel like there might still be one more, I just don't feel like I did with my other two. There's no hastening to have a baby in my heart.
5. I feel like I'm finally fairly proficient at ICU nursing, and since working in a unit with such a varied patient population and a trauma I center in a respected hospital, I think I could do it. I think I could work in another ICU without a ton of orientation and actually do it.
6. A nurses schedule leaves 4 days off a week. 4 days together as a family is much much more than we get right now. With me working weekends, we often get only two full days every two weeks with all of us together. Think of the family bonds? Think of the fun we could have on those days off exploring new places?
7. It could also be an opportunity for Ryan to change jobs when we come home. Also, Laura and I have wanted to live close for forever. But I couldn't see a reason to ever move from our present spot. Especially with the housing market. Sure we could make money on our house, but could we find anything worth buying afterward? We hope in a few years that it'll turn around and we'll be able to either build or buy our forever home, back her in Utah, within 20 minutes or less of my sister.
8. Laura and I's travel blog. What a way to expand it! With new areas to explore and write about!
So... there you have it. Our crazy crazy plan to mix things up and go on an adventure!
We hope to go to AK first, to extend a usual 13 week contract into 26, and be able to spend the holidays with Ryan's family and a full 6 months together while Kevin and Lisa are up in AK too. It's something we've never thought could be possible! To have all the Greens together! Even if only temporary, it's still better than 10 days or so every year.
Then we hope to fly off to paradise and live in Hawaii. Because, why not? Someone wants to pay me to live and work in HI? Why would you say no?
Then we'd like to spend time in Southern California, hopefully near Disneyland. I've always dreamed of having small children and living close to Disneyland. So we could have passes, much like our Aquarium pass, and just go for the afternoon, for date night, for whatever! With no pressure to get it all in in a few days. Some would think it crazy, but I'd LOVE it. Plus, beaches and nice weather! Once again, why not?
We'd also like to spend a few months on the east coast. My utah license also works in 25 other states and we could go to Virginia, or Rhode Island, or Pennsylvania. Then we could be close to all the sights around there we've never seen. We could take trips to NYC, DC, the Appalacian mountains, Boston, etc etc. all things that would take a lot of money and time to fully explore if we didn't live there.
We plan to be gone from Utah for about 2 years. We hope to spend an extra contract in AK too, so we'll be up there twice. Hopefully next summer we'll be spending in AK. And save the colder months for the warmer areas.
Whew! It feels good to get all this written down! I was worried I'd slack off and never get it written. I plan to keep this blog as a play by play sort of record of our adventures and lives. The C&C blog includes a lot of what we do, but it's more important that it's nice to read and entertaining. This blog reads more like a journal. Anyhoo! That's the plan, and I'll try my very best to update it as we go!
Ryan and I are not really big changers. If it's not broke, don't fix it. That's who we are. We get settled and without realizing it, 10 years have passed and here we are in the same jobs we were in at the start of our marriage. Not to say nothing has changed. We bought a house, we've had two kids, we go out of town nearly every month. We find ways to mix it up a bit.
Well, starting in April, I got a bee in my bonnet that wouldn't go away. I had some co-workers do some travel nursing to Hawaii and it was like, "oh yeah! Travel nursing! I remember that! I wanted to do that when I became a nurse!" But since houses and jobs and children, just never did. I got the idea that maybe, just maybe, we could do it. All of us, as a family, pick up and travel with me as the breadwinner travel nursing. I mentioned it to Ryan, and was amazed that he got excited about it! It's a HUGE change. Almost a complete 180 from where we are. But I know, if we don't do it now, we will stay exactly as we are until our children are gone.
So we've taken the plunge! I've yet to get a contract with a hospital, but my start date is Aug. 1, and I've already been submitted for a job in Anchorage, AK. I'm signed up with two travel agencies and have recruiters looking for jobs for me. I've got a nursing license in AK now, and have started the process for California, and Hawaii. We've got our house lined up with a realtor who has paperwork signed so that when we say 'go!' Our house is on the market! It's exciting and crazy and scary and so unknown still! Aaaaaahhhh!!
Why? Why are we doing it? Lots of reasons.
1. The housing market is such that we can make a good chunk of change on our house and pay off all our debt. (Just a car, a motorcycle, and some student loans at this point.)
2. The kids are young enough that we can do it. Malcolm will be kindergarten age, and so it'll be easy to homeschool if we need to.
3. We've always wanted to live in AK, HI, and CA, but never could find a fathomable way to ever make it work, and wouldn't ever want it to be permanent. They're all expensive places to live and to move to. Without the help of a travel agency paying for housing and travel, how could it happen?
4. We have only two kids, and have really not felt the need to get pregnant. Elliot is over two years old, and though I feel like there might still be one more, I just don't feel like I did with my other two. There's no hastening to have a baby in my heart.
5. I feel like I'm finally fairly proficient at ICU nursing, and since working in a unit with such a varied patient population and a trauma I center in a respected hospital, I think I could do it. I think I could work in another ICU without a ton of orientation and actually do it.
6. A nurses schedule leaves 4 days off a week. 4 days together as a family is much much more than we get right now. With me working weekends, we often get only two full days every two weeks with all of us together. Think of the family bonds? Think of the fun we could have on those days off exploring new places?
7. It could also be an opportunity for Ryan to change jobs when we come home. Also, Laura and I have wanted to live close for forever. But I couldn't see a reason to ever move from our present spot. Especially with the housing market. Sure we could make money on our house, but could we find anything worth buying afterward? We hope in a few years that it'll turn around and we'll be able to either build or buy our forever home, back her in Utah, within 20 minutes or less of my sister.
8. Laura and I's travel blog. What a way to expand it! With new areas to explore and write about!
So... there you have it. Our crazy crazy plan to mix things up and go on an adventure!
We hope to go to AK first, to extend a usual 13 week contract into 26, and be able to spend the holidays with Ryan's family and a full 6 months together while Kevin and Lisa are up in AK too. It's something we've never thought could be possible! To have all the Greens together! Even if only temporary, it's still better than 10 days or so every year.
Then we hope to fly off to paradise and live in Hawaii. Because, why not? Someone wants to pay me to live and work in HI? Why would you say no?
Then we'd like to spend time in Southern California, hopefully near Disneyland. I've always dreamed of having small children and living close to Disneyland. So we could have passes, much like our Aquarium pass, and just go for the afternoon, for date night, for whatever! With no pressure to get it all in in a few days. Some would think it crazy, but I'd LOVE it. Plus, beaches and nice weather! Once again, why not?
We'd also like to spend a few months on the east coast. My utah license also works in 25 other states and we could go to Virginia, or Rhode Island, or Pennsylvania. Then we could be close to all the sights around there we've never seen. We could take trips to NYC, DC, the Appalacian mountains, Boston, etc etc. all things that would take a lot of money and time to fully explore if we didn't live there.
We plan to be gone from Utah for about 2 years. We hope to spend an extra contract in AK too, so we'll be up there twice. Hopefully next summer we'll be spending in AK. And save the colder months for the warmer areas.
Whew! It feels good to get all this written down! I was worried I'd slack off and never get it written. I plan to keep this blog as a play by play sort of record of our adventures and lives. The C&C blog includes a lot of what we do, but it's more important that it's nice to read and entertaining. This blog reads more like a journal. Anyhoo! That's the plan, and I'll try my very best to update it as we go!
Thursday, June 2, 2016
What We Do
I kept thinking of what I could write about on this old neglected blog. I post so much to other social media, I don't get the hankering to blog. Especially because other ways are shorter and smaller and easier. However, the things I need to keep track of, like journaling, are getting sorely neglected.
So I thought it would be fun to do a post about sort of a Day In The Life. Because for the past several months, we've had a total consistent routine. Thanks to preschool, life has taken on a real usual. Which isn't a problem, just a thing. So here's our schedule, up until last week, when preschool ended.
7:30 ish: Elliot wakes up and comes into our room with her little sleepy smiling face. She says something like "I wake up!" or "eat-a a-beckfass" (eat breakfast?). She'll often have to wait around until I or Ryan are ready to actually get our butts out of bed. Every other morning, Ryan is usually just getting back from playing basketball with some guys he knows from... uh, basketball. I think he was originally invited by a ward member who plays.
8 am: After getting Elliot a bowl of cereal (where she gets the bowl from the cupboard herself, and picks out her spoon.) Then I head down to wake Malcolm, who would sleep until 9 easy, if left to himself. I usually wake him by getting him undressed from his pjs and then dressed into clothes before he ever opens his eyes. He just flops around giggling like a rag doll until I've got his clothes on. It's also a nice time for some sleepy Malcolm snuggles and back scratches.
8:40: the mad dash and "where are your shoes? put them on!" and "Where is your backpack?" "Get in the car!" Because I am a slow morning person, I'll always wait until last minute to stop laying on the bed or the couch and get some clothes on and maybe a hat or something to look reasonable at the preschool drop off. I used to get up earlier, in the fall when preschool started, and I'd get dressed and ready and have more time in the morning. But the winter gets dark, and the tiredness is too much to overcome when it's like that. And then bad habits form, and here we are in the light mornings again, with mom still lazying about until last minute!
8:50: Preschool drop off. Where I have to sign Malcolm in, so it's not just a drop off. He worries about enough hugs and kisses before I go, and I have to make sure that Elliot says good bye and that we both wave with our hand and not just say it. (He's such a funny kid. He also must have adequate amounts of goodbyes from Daddy before he leaves for work before preschool. He needs hugs and good byes and Malcolm has to watch him go from the front window or out side.)
9:15: After some breakfast for me, it's about now that I start my workout. I workout at home with videos on DailyBurn.com. Elliot watches, and climbs all over me, and asks at every pause of the workout if it's time to watch Daniel Tiger yet. When it's done, I turn on Daniel Tiger for Elliot, and have one episode's worth of time to take a shower, or get ready, or nap. Because sometimes, right after working out I just want to pass out for a minute.
10-11:50: Preschool is over at 11:50, so between my workout and then is a lot of variable time. Sometimes I clean, sometimes I run errands while I have just Elliot to tote around with me, sometimes we just read books and play and then I get ready for the day. Then we go get Malcolm from school.
12-1:30: Ryan comes home for lunch every day for about 35 minutes. So we all eat together, and then there's ten thousand more goodbye hugs, and then the kids just play, or fight, or whatever until Elliot's nap around 1:30. Sometimes we run other errands, but we're usually home.
2-4: Malcolm does his online preschool program, and then gets to have other screen time. Which is either TV, movies, or Kindle time. He usually opts to play games on his Kindle. This is when I get most of my housework done, or blog on Crayonsandcairns, or watch TV or do social media, or whatever. Mommy's free time!
4:30: This is the witching hour. Now that it's warm, I make the kids go outside, but it'll soon get too hot and be peak heat time at this time of day. I'm usually trying to make dinner, and the kids are just crazy! They're getting hungry, so they're slightly cranky, but if I feed them, they'll not eat dinner. Hence, the Witching Hour. Sometimes we'll go out during this time, if dinner is easy. But usually I'm starting to get worn out, so I don't have the patience or energy to play with the kids. It's a vary varied time of day in what is going on.
5:45-6:45: Ryan will come home, we'll eat dinner, we'll spend it prompting Elliot to remain in her seat, and stop climbing on daddy, and come back to the table, and just one more bite! While Malcolm will mostly just sit and drink all his milk and if he likes dinner, will eat it, if not, then we're doing the bite counting and prompting thing with him too. Eventually it's just Ryan and I at the table while the kids are bouncing back and forth from the living room or the hall and back to the table for a few more bites. Then it's dishes-- done by Ryan-- and then it's more variable time when we'll maybe go do something, maybe watch a movie as a family, maybe take a walk or whatever we feel like. On night when I work, I leave before dishes are done to make it to work on time.
8 pm: Bed time for kids. This is a pretty set routine, interrupted only by the constant prompts to "please come here and get your pajamas on!" "What are you doing? Why are you not dressed yet? Put your jammies on!" "come here, brush your teeth! Stop running around!" "Do you want a story? it's not going to happen if you're not listening!" Etc. etc. etc. Then story, family prayer, and bed with all the required hugs, head bonks, kisses, and for Elliot--Ten thousand stuffed animals, books, and things to sleep with in her bed.
10pm: Is usually when Ry and I finally crash. We usually spend the evenings after kids have gone to bed just hanging out. I always have big plans to get one last thing done, but my energy is sapped and it's all I can do to even stay awake, let alone do more than read or watch TV with Ryan.
Obviously, not every day is the same exactly, especially because preschool was only Mon-Thur. Fridays we usually did some sort of an outing during the preschool time.
Now that preschool is over, I don't know what our new routine will be. Probably much the same, but without the preschool part. And lots more fighting siblings...
We spent the first week of Summer on the road, on a big family camping trip with my extended family. We drove almost 1100 miles and saw and did a TON! It was so fun, and I'll write all about it very soon.
But this trip was also sort of the signal for things to come. It was always, "After Mesa Verde" is when things are supposed to start happening. When "Go" time fast approaches. What am I talking about? Well, that'll just have to wait until my next post.
So I thought it would be fun to do a post about sort of a Day In The Life. Because for the past several months, we've had a total consistent routine. Thanks to preschool, life has taken on a real usual. Which isn't a problem, just a thing. So here's our schedule, up until last week, when preschool ended.
7:30 ish: Elliot wakes up and comes into our room with her little sleepy smiling face. She says something like "I wake up!" or "eat-a a-beckfass" (eat breakfast?). She'll often have to wait around until I or Ryan are ready to actually get our butts out of bed. Every other morning, Ryan is usually just getting back from playing basketball with some guys he knows from... uh, basketball. I think he was originally invited by a ward member who plays.
8 am: After getting Elliot a bowl of cereal (where she gets the bowl from the cupboard herself, and picks out her spoon.) Then I head down to wake Malcolm, who would sleep until 9 easy, if left to himself. I usually wake him by getting him undressed from his pjs and then dressed into clothes before he ever opens his eyes. He just flops around giggling like a rag doll until I've got his clothes on. It's also a nice time for some sleepy Malcolm snuggles and back scratches.
8:40: the mad dash and "where are your shoes? put them on!" and "Where is your backpack?" "Get in the car!" Because I am a slow morning person, I'll always wait until last minute to stop laying on the bed or the couch and get some clothes on and maybe a hat or something to look reasonable at the preschool drop off. I used to get up earlier, in the fall when preschool started, and I'd get dressed and ready and have more time in the morning. But the winter gets dark, and the tiredness is too much to overcome when it's like that. And then bad habits form, and here we are in the light mornings again, with mom still lazying about until last minute!
8:50: Preschool drop off. Where I have to sign Malcolm in, so it's not just a drop off. He worries about enough hugs and kisses before I go, and I have to make sure that Elliot says good bye and that we both wave with our hand and not just say it. (He's such a funny kid. He also must have adequate amounts of goodbyes from Daddy before he leaves for work before preschool. He needs hugs and good byes and Malcolm has to watch him go from the front window or out side.)
9:15: After some breakfast for me, it's about now that I start my workout. I workout at home with videos on DailyBurn.com. Elliot watches, and climbs all over me, and asks at every pause of the workout if it's time to watch Daniel Tiger yet. When it's done, I turn on Daniel Tiger for Elliot, and have one episode's worth of time to take a shower, or get ready, or nap. Because sometimes, right after working out I just want to pass out for a minute.
10-11:50: Preschool is over at 11:50, so between my workout and then is a lot of variable time. Sometimes I clean, sometimes I run errands while I have just Elliot to tote around with me, sometimes we just read books and play and then I get ready for the day. Then we go get Malcolm from school.
12-1:30: Ryan comes home for lunch every day for about 35 minutes. So we all eat together, and then there's ten thousand more goodbye hugs, and then the kids just play, or fight, or whatever until Elliot's nap around 1:30. Sometimes we run other errands, but we're usually home.
2-4: Malcolm does his online preschool program, and then gets to have other screen time. Which is either TV, movies, or Kindle time. He usually opts to play games on his Kindle. This is when I get most of my housework done, or blog on Crayonsandcairns, or watch TV or do social media, or whatever. Mommy's free time!
4:30: This is the witching hour. Now that it's warm, I make the kids go outside, but it'll soon get too hot and be peak heat time at this time of day. I'm usually trying to make dinner, and the kids are just crazy! They're getting hungry, so they're slightly cranky, but if I feed them, they'll not eat dinner. Hence, the Witching Hour. Sometimes we'll go out during this time, if dinner is easy. But usually I'm starting to get worn out, so I don't have the patience or energy to play with the kids. It's a vary varied time of day in what is going on.
5:45-6:45: Ryan will come home, we'll eat dinner, we'll spend it prompting Elliot to remain in her seat, and stop climbing on daddy, and come back to the table, and just one more bite! While Malcolm will mostly just sit and drink all his milk and if he likes dinner, will eat it, if not, then we're doing the bite counting and prompting thing with him too. Eventually it's just Ryan and I at the table while the kids are bouncing back and forth from the living room or the hall and back to the table for a few more bites. Then it's dishes-- done by Ryan-- and then it's more variable time when we'll maybe go do something, maybe watch a movie as a family, maybe take a walk or whatever we feel like. On night when I work, I leave before dishes are done to make it to work on time.
8 pm: Bed time for kids. This is a pretty set routine, interrupted only by the constant prompts to "please come here and get your pajamas on!" "What are you doing? Why are you not dressed yet? Put your jammies on!" "come here, brush your teeth! Stop running around!" "Do you want a story? it's not going to happen if you're not listening!" Etc. etc. etc. Then story, family prayer, and bed with all the required hugs, head bonks, kisses, and for Elliot--Ten thousand stuffed animals, books, and things to sleep with in her bed.
10pm: Is usually when Ry and I finally crash. We usually spend the evenings after kids have gone to bed just hanging out. I always have big plans to get one last thing done, but my energy is sapped and it's all I can do to even stay awake, let alone do more than read or watch TV with Ryan.
Obviously, not every day is the same exactly, especially because preschool was only Mon-Thur. Fridays we usually did some sort of an outing during the preschool time.
Now that preschool is over, I don't know what our new routine will be. Probably much the same, but without the preschool part. And lots more fighting siblings...
We spent the first week of Summer on the road, on a big family camping trip with my extended family. We drove almost 1100 miles and saw and did a TON! It was so fun, and I'll write all about it very soon.
But this trip was also sort of the signal for things to come. It was always, "After Mesa Verde" is when things are supposed to start happening. When "Go" time fast approaches. What am I talking about? Well, that'll just have to wait until my next post.
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