Blocks are so fun!

My mom bought Tacy these blocks for her birthday and we just got them in a the mail last week.  Tacy loves playing with them to build towers and knock them down.  I found her using blocks a phones and had to record her cute little self.  She cracks me up!

Staying afloat in the Rain

It's starting to feel like fall here and I LOVE it!  The temp has been nice (60-low 80's).  Tacy and I have worn pants and sweatshirts some days.  It's just lovely.  I'm so excited for all of the leaves to start changing colors!  Fall is my favorite season!  I remember being the only kid in kindergarten to draw a picture of fall when we were asked to draw pictures of our favorite season.  Most of the kids drew pictures of the beach, there were a lot of snow, and then there was me.  I felt different but you know, I do love Fall!  Spring is a close second, but I love these cooler seasons (not the crazy extreme ones).  

On that note, I have now been working for 2 weeks.  I have had 2 days of general orientation and one day of computer training for Epic (the electronic medical record/scheduling they all use out here).  General orientation was at Rex Hospital and boring.  Most of it applied to people who actually work at the hospital.  Then the computer training was at this closed down outlet mall (it looked like a regular mall to me but the east coast is a little different than the west obviously).  Anyways, one wing of this mall has been taken over by UNC for all of this Epic training.  It has all been converted into a bunch of computer rooms (making it look nothing like a mall but more a computer prison - there is a guard at the door and you have to have a key to get in and out of the rest of the mall).  The training was mildly helpful, but it mostly applied to things a Family medicine clinic would do (vaccinations etc).  Oh well.  We did have a really long lunch break at which point I did get a key card so I could go out to the center of the mall.  Here I could look down the two creepy vacated/unoccupied wings of the mall.  The last wing was the food court, which amazingly almost all of the food places were open.  Epic must bring in a lot of customers for them to all stay open.  Honestly this mall looked like a good scene for a scary movie.

Work at my clinic has been good, just slow.  The neurosurgeon I work with is really nice and funny in a very sarcastic way.  He does not like people to call him doctor (he told me he thinks titles are very smug) but asks that everyone call him by his first name.  It throws patients off a little.  The Office Manager/Administrative Assistant for my doctor just avoids saying his name because she refuses to call him by his first name.  It makes me laugh but I agree it is weird not to call him Dr.  Afterall, he is a doctor.  Angela is the office manager but also Dr. Herzig's secretary, so we work really closely together.  She is awesome, loves soccer, is from the bay area but now loves NC, so basically we have a lot in common.  She is also a really relaxed manager which makes work much better.  Since Dr. Herzig is a new neurosurgeon, he is still building up his practice so it's a little slow. It has given me good time to get familiar with the system and time to learn how to do things the right way.  I also help Angela with what I can.  However, Tacy got sick again this week and I had to leave work early Wednesday to go pick her up from my friends and take her home.  Because work is slow, this was fine and no coverage was needed for me.  

No worries. I took Tacy to a pediatrician and while it's hard to say for sure what's wrong, the doctor said her lungs sound a little crackly in the left and since she has had a cough for over a week, and with all the kids getting lung infections right now, she started Tacy on Amoxicillin.  Tacy is still sick with her runny nose and a cruddy cough, but she is playing and acting like the crazy toddler which she is again.  So today I went back to work and she went back to playing with our friends.

Tacy loves her daycare arrangement.  She gets to play with friends all day (well at least the 3 year-old), they have a lot of fun toys and activities at their house, and they also go a lot of fun places too.  I'm glad she is happy.  Plus being around older kids might help her with her talking.  She did help clean up toys yesterday while singing "clean up clean up everybody do your share".  She only sings "clean up clean up" but still, that was nice.  

Tacy is now also counting different.  When my mom was out here the 8th - 10th, Tacy counted "1,2,5,6".  Then a few days ago she counted "2,4,6,7".  Yesterday she added five in.  Today she did say 1, 2, 3.  So we are making progress.  She also loves to asks "what's that?"  So I spend a lot of the time telling her what everything is, even when they are things she knows like her toys.  It is most difficult when she asks me while we are driving, so I don't know exactly what she is pointing too.  Yesterday we drove by construction and Tacy kept asking "what's that?" while we passed lots of construction machines.  I threw out the few I know (bulldozer, tractor...haha) and finally had to tell her that I did not know.

Brad is still keeping his head above water with all of his tests and skills assessments.  They have been told that it calms down after October.  So as long as he can make it to his birthday, then it should get easier.  But he really is doing great.  Now he also understands how hard pharmacology is!  

Love

So I had a really eye opening experience during our drive out here to NC.  I guess eye-opening is the best way to put it.  This move across the country, Brad starting a demanding/time consuming master's program, and job hunting has all been hard.  Life has been crazy, chaotic, and stressful.  In terms of finding a job, well, that was depressing for a while.  The east coast is really big on having your BSN (bachelors of nursing).  I just graduated with my associates of nursing.  You pretty much cannot get a job in a hospital without a BSN.  Needless to say, this made job hunting really hard.  

There were a lot of jobs that stated that they "preferred" BSNs, but as long as you received your BSN within 2 years of hire you were ok.  I applied to a lot of these.  I started applying for jobs as soon as Brad got the call he had been accepted, so late June/beginning of July.  After lots of applications and no calls I was getting pretty discouraged.

So when we started our drive to NC, I figured I would just have to go around handing out my resume to places and trying to put myself out there since I was having no luck with online applications for hospitals, nursing homes, and hospice/home health.  Well, while driving through Nashville my phone rang (thank goodness for bluetooth).  I saw on my car screen that it was a 919 area code, so I answered it.  It was a manager for a clinic asking me if I could come in for an interview.  Of course I said yes and scheduled to meet him that Friday (two days later).  

After this call, it just hit me - this whole wave of emotion.  Heavenly Father had not forgotten me.  He heard all of my prayers.  He loves me.  When everything else that had been a worry (getting packed, the drive going well, etc) was relatively taken care of so my biggest worry was my lack of a job, here I was finally getting a call when we were a day away from NC.  Now, I never doubted Heavenly Father's love for me.  It just hit me hard right then that He still was thinking about me and trying to help us.  And it's more than just getting a call for an interview.  Our move went smoothly.  We were moving not just anywhere, but to NC, somewhere I have been wishing to go back to since my family moved away June 1999.  Brad was starting PA school, something we had been praying for for a long time.  I just felt so loved and blessed in that moment after that call.  Driving through Nashville I was holding back the tears and just feeling so grateful for all my many blessings and for the love of my Heavenly Father.  

I have now been offered that job at the clinic I received the call about in Nashville.  It's funny how long of a hiring process it has been (and slightly frustrating), but I am still so grateful for the job, and for receiving that call at that moment that day in Tennessee.  

I just wanted to write this down before I forgot about that strong feeling I had.  I know we have a Heavenly Father.  I know that He loves each and every one of us very much.  I know that He wants the best for us.  I know that I have to try my hardest to be the best I can and put forth my effort to get what I need, but that He is there for me to help with what I cannot do.  I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father.  I am grateful for every moment when I am able to truly feel/acknowledge His great love for me and all of us.

Pinterest fun

So several years ago, when I was working 13 hour days 3 days a week at the pain clinic and had every thursday-sunday off, I was bored.  My best friend then told me about pinterest (which I remember Ted stated was not a good idea haha).  It was fall.  It all came up because I talked about all my free time and how I would love to do crafts, but had no idea what to do.  I love walking into Michael's and JoAnns but seriously, who knows what to get there?!  Well Pinterest changed my world!  I made a lot of fall/halloween crafts right away.  Living with my in-laws, I didn't really ever make any of the recipes I pinned.  Brad started to tease me about pinning things I was never going to make.  

One of my first pinterest crafts

Well no worries, now that we have our own little place and my own kitchen, I have been having fun!  I was again have had time on my hands while waiting for work to start.  So I have made a few desserts (cause really, what is better than dessert?) and a craft.  I will feel better about doing more once I have an income again.  

I already mentioned the delicious lemon cheesecake bars.  I also made these thick, chewy chocolate chip cookies (mine weren't really thick but they were chewy and nice and under-down).  Here is the link if you would like to try: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/05/13/chewy-chocolate-chunk-cookies/.  The cookies were pretty good.  I really want to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, cause some are good, but then store bought can be better...but this one was pretty good.

My other pinterest fun was a Fall leaf glitter garland.  Brad told me that I would be in charge of clean up for all the glitter and has had great fun in making fun of how glittered I am after working on this.  I did all of it in three days I believe (mostly evenings when Tacy was asleep).  I'm happy with how it turned out and now our kitchen finally has a little decoration on our blank wall.  Best part is, it can stay up through Thanksgiving!  here is the link: http://6thstreetdesignschool.blogspot.com/2013/10/diy-falling-leaves-garland.html

I just love Fall!  It always makes me want to get crafty, but I run out of room for new things unless the decoration can hang on the wall.  

My month as a full-time Mom

I have been unemployed for a month.  This month has been crazy and hard.  I love Tacy and spending all this time with her has been great.  But at the same time, I feel like I'm doing nothing productive and am bored.  I have a whole new respect for stay-at-home moms.  This month has made me wonder if I am not that great of a mom because I want to work.  Tacy can drive me crazy, make me laugh, and wear me out.  I struggle to come up with things to do at home because she doesn't always want to learn (not that I'm a great teacher), I'm tired, she's bored, and Tacy just wants to run around and watch Curious George.  She still counts "1, 2, 5, 6".  She still says "blue" when we ask her what color something is.  But she now knows the difference between a spoon and a fork.  Ha ha  

Maybe my problem is that Tacy's whole life I have been going to school and working.  Other than a 2 week break my first year of nursing school where I sleep trained Tacy, I have always been doing something else while being a mom.  So now just being a mom feels slow and very tiring.  Being a mom is definitely a full time job whether you are working a job or not.  And Tacy wore me out the days I wasn't at school or work before.  But now to be with her everyday, boy, she runs me ragged.  It probably doesn't help we are in a new area and still trying to figure out places to go and things to do.  And every other day we don't have the mazda (which has AC).  

I'm not complaining I promise.  It's just a realization I've had that makes me feel like less of a mom.  Maybe all moms feel worn out and wish they could do something else sometimes.  I have only been away from Tacy for a few interviews.  Props to all my friends who do this full time, every day.  

chowing down on corn at the Farmers Market

Other than being worn out, I have been loving cooking/baking again.  Having my own kitchen again is fantastic.  Now I feel I can really try out all the recipes I find on pinterest.  It's exciting.  I actually made these lemon cream cheese bars that are fantastic (if you love lemon).  That was the first time I have ever zested a lemon.  You can go here for the recipe : http://thegirlinspired.com/2014/06/lemon-cream-cheese-cookie-bars/.

Tacy sure does love all my baking too.  We have been to a few fun parks in the area.  We had friends take us to a park in Raleigh that had a train, carousel, and kiddies boats as well as a lake and playgrounds.  Tacy loved it!  She had so much fun riding the choo-choo train and steering her little boat.  Her little friend got scared by both of them.  I thought Tacy would too so I was impressed that she loved them so much.

Tacy also had a run-in with biting ants at the playground in our apartment complex.  The poor kid walked over a small ant hill and they bit her feet all up.  She has 20+ bites on her feet, calf, and one hand.  Thank goodness for benadryl and Beauty and The Beast.

I have had two unofficial job offerings.  One is unofficial because HR has to call me with the amount they will pay and apparently HR is really slow at this).  The other is unofficial because they were waiting to here back from my references because I can be officially hired.  Both are with clinics, so working Monday-friday.  One does work mornings on weekends.  The same one also would have me working at two different locations.  Hopefully I will hear from HR soon so I can make the best decision.  Money would be great.

Brad has his first crazy test week this week with a test Wednesday and Friday.  He has been great at studying every night after Tacy goes to bed (even on weekends).  My friends at Weber are all starting the BSN program today and I'm sad I'm not with them, but I know that it's better that Brad is doing his PA program.  

she always puts her babies on a chair to watch shows with her

Life keeps moving, I keep swimming.  Meanwhile, Tacy and I have grown much closer over this past month and that has been very nice.  I understand her more and I really like that.  So while she has worn me out and there are days I swear we are not having more children, I'm very glad we have her!  Who else would crack me up while she cleans all her animals, runs around with no clothes on, and comes up to me saying "tickle tickle" while laughing her head off.  

she didn't want her picture taken

Cross Country Journey

For being only 2, Tacy has sure been in a lot of states!  Previous to our move she has been in Nevada, California, Idaho, Montana and of course Utah.  Now she has been in another 8 from our move!  13 is pretty good for 2.  For our move we drove through a total of 9 different states.  I figure I better write all this down before I get too busy and forget.

Thursday, July 24th was my very last day at work.  It was surreal and sad.  I worked with so many great people and really loved my job (overall).  One of my managers bought cupcakes from the Sweet Tooth Fairy and boy, I had this amazing blue raspberry one!  Even though not every day was great at work, some days were filled with crazyness, mean patients, rude family, lots of problems...it was a great place.  Not to mention, having so many great co-workers who I became good friends with and really enjoyed working with makes it so much harder to leave.  I did try to convince all of them to move with me.

Friday, Brad and I went to pick up the moving truck in the morning.  Driving in our Mazda, within a few minutes of leaving the house an alarm went off in the car with a warning light stating we had low tire pressure in at least one of the tires.  Great.  Brad pulled over and found a nail in one of our tires.  He filled up the tire with air and decided we were close enough to the place we were picking up the truck to just finish driving there.  Once we arrived, Brad changed out the tire on the Mazda.  As un-fun as this was to happen the day before our move, I was grateful it was the day before and not while moving.  Plus, I now know how to change a tire on our Mazda!  After putting the spare on, Brad then went and got the moving truck.  After we both got back home, Brad then took the Mazda into the dealer and got the holy tire fixed (it actually had two nails in it).  Thankfully that did not take very long.  While Brad was gone, I worked on packing the last minute stuff.  When he came back, I went to work to pick up a paycheck and say by to more co-workers.

After this, Brad and his Dad loaded everything into the moving truck.  I cleaned our place while Brad's mom watched Tacy.  With all of our things packed into the truck, we still had a little room so we took some things with us we hadn't planned on because we thought there would be no room (Brad's grandpa's easy chair and a shoe rack).  Brad's Grandma and Grandpa Taylor came over to give Tacy a birthday gift, give us snacks for our drive, and say goodbye.  That was one of the saddest goodbyes since we cannot be sure that we will see them again.  That night we slept upstairs in Brad's parents house and we got up nice and early to start the drive.  Brad wanted to leave by 5, we left about 5:30.  I actually woke up first, before Brad's alarm and was all ready by the time Brad woke up.  Yup, I was a little anxious.

Our bed on the floor after Brad took apart the frame

The Mazda was the girl car with Tacy, Christine (Brad's sister), and me.  We had our suitcases with clothes for the trip, the portable dvd player and movies for Tacy, food, and toys.  The truck was the boy car with Brad and his dad.  We had walkie talkies so we could talk back and forth.  Day one was the most boring day.  The west sure is dry, yellow, and flat once you get past the Rockies.  We took the lowest pass so we did not have to push the moving truck too hard.  Following behind the truck was not easy because the fastest we ever went was 70 (but usually we topped at 55) and we went as slow as 20 sometimes.  Day one took us from Utah, through Wyoming and into North Platte Nebraska.  A very boring drive.  The most exciting it got was the bird that the truck killed.  We did eat dinner at this little diner in North Platte that had good food for great prices.

Day 2 took us through the rest of Nebraska, down through a corner of Iowa, and down and over to St. Louis Missouri.  I gotta say, I never new corn was such a big product!  We saw lots of corn in Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri (with some still in Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina).  I wanted to take a picture in a corn field, because that was mostly all we saw those first two days.  After so much yellow, it was nice to enter Missouri and finally see green and trees!  St. Louis was beautiful with the old bridges, the St. Louis arch, and the muddy Mississippi river.  Brad loved showing us some of the places downtown from when he had served his mission.  We waved at Busch Stadium.  Tacy learned to say Budweiser (it was only ever said once and hasn't since been repeated).  We stayed at a nice Courtyard Marriott thanks to my uncle Val.

Day 3 we spent the morning at the St. Louis zoo, which is completely free!  We then went to Ted Drewes for frozen custard (and they had the perfect combo for me: reese's and banana!).  After a quick stop at White Castle for the men (way too gross for Christine and I), we dropped Brad's dad off at the St. Louis airport.  Tacy sure misses Papa.  Then we drove south to Jackson, MO where some friends of Brad's from his mission offered us a house to stay in and fed us dinner.  We met a couple different familys that evening.  And boy, the pork steak we ate was the best pork I have ever had in my life!

Day 4 we stayed in Jackson area.  We went to Steak n Shake for lunch, drove around Brad's old area down there, took long naps, and then went to Lambert's for dinner.  Brad has been talking about this place the whole time I have known him.  He was not kidding about the giant portion sizes, the great "extras" they bring around all the time for free and the throwed rolls.  The rolls were both exciting and terrifying because I seriously thought I was going to get hit by a roll.  But those rolls were delicious.  The potatoes and onions were great, the ocra was yummy, and my meatloaf was a loaf!  Tacy loved when they threw the rolls and she loved all the food she ate.  We had so much fun with Clifton and Laura and their kids!  They are such an awesome family!

Day 5 we drove out of Missouri and through some small, zombie looking empty towns of Illinois and Kentucky, then we drove through Tennessee and into Asheville North Carolina.  It got greener and greener the farther east we went and the trees got thicker.  We also enjoyed the Smoky Mountains.  Thank goodness Brad now will say that the Applachains are a mountain range, they are just short (before he always called them hills).  

Day 6 was the conclusion of this long road trip with driving through North Carolina, past Kernersville (where I lived for 7 years and Brad promised we will go visit) and into Cary.  We had one ward member come help us move our stuff in from the truck (thank goodness he came and luckily between Christine, Brad, and Ben that was all the help we needed).  We were blessed to have a sunny day and that it was only in the 70's because we were already sweating pretty good from the humidity.  We seriously had great weather for our whole drive!  Day 6 was Thursday, July 31st.  

Friday, August 1st, we worked on setting up more stuff and arranging furniture.  Then I had an interview in Raleigh.  Then we all drove to UNC Chapel Hill's bookstore and then we went to the Originial Q Shack in Durham.  After eating yummy North Carolina BBQ we drove to RDU and dropped Christine off.  I'm so grateful Christine could go all the way with us and help so much with Tacy.  Tacy sure loves her Aunt Christine.  It started raining pretty good when we drove to UNC and it rained Friday and Saturday.  We are very grateful we moved in Thursday before the rain hit.  We have since gotten even more rain to the point there was flooding Tuesday night.  Brad keeps saying that if Utah and California got all this rain we have gotten since moving here, they would no longer be talking about a drought and empty reservoirs.  

This definitely wasn't the easiest trip/car ride for Tacy.  She had her fussy times.  But she was a trooper.  She got to swim a lot and spend time with family.  Thank goodness for family, technology and pools!  We are happy to finally be here and so grateful that we had a safe journey out here!

We Made It!

Not enough time right now to even begin to talk about the crazy 6 day trip out here to Cary, NC but boy oh boy am I glad it's over and we made it!  While unpacking is not my favorite thing in the world, Brad and I were both pretty excited to unpack our kitchen after 3 years of not using it!  Can I just say that I love our utensils?!  Not to mention many other great kitchen supplies that I have missed.  After living with Brad's parents (which was a great blessing) and now being on our own again, we have found many things that we forgot we got rid of: ie our dish drying rack.  We have already made a few trips to Bed Bath and Beyond.  Now we keep adding to the list of things we have to buy (again).  The things I forgot to check and see if they were stored somewhere.  Oh well.  

Tacy smiling for a selfie with her dolls

Luckily we are very close to shopping complexes and malls.  Finding good grocery stores has been a trick (and by good I mean affordable and decent produce).  Luckily we found a Kroger today.  We still need to check out the good ol Food Lion (that's what my family used when we lived here 15+ years ago).  Harris Teeter is everywhere and they cost a pretty penny.  And gosh, paying almost $4 for a gallon of milk is killing me, so thank goodness Sam's had a gallon for $3.  

Some of the rooms during the unpacking process

We did get yummy peaches at the State Farmer's Market today.  I'm excited to eat those (which is saying something because I used to only eat can peaches - the fuzz bugs me a little).  

We hung up things today in the apartment.  If it were all up to me, I probably wouldn't get to hanging things for at least a few weeks until I had plenty of time of mull over exactly where each picture should go.  Brad on the other hand told me I had 10 minutes before he just started hanging everything.  

We still need to buy a kitchen table and chairs and a computer desk.  In the mean time we are using a card table for the kitchen table with camping chairs.  The computer is sitting on boxes, so sitting at it for a long time is really uncomfortable all cramped on the floor (like when you are studying for the NC driver's handbook).  Oh well, such is life right now. 

selfie to taunt my sister about being at the UNC bookstore

I've applied to what feels like a billion jobs.  I've interviewed with one and was told today that I will get a call back in a few days when the doctor is back from vacation to hopefully meet and interview with him.  We will see. Until then I cannot have a milkshake from Cook Out (which is like 10 steps away from us and everyone says their milkshakes are fantastic and super cheap) until I get a job.  We did submit all the forms for student loans today.  As great as that is, a job would be nice to help pay our other bills...Gotta love the grown up life.

pictures a few days into the unpacking

Tacy is adjusting to all of this.  She has been a bit of a terror since moving, but she is napping again and that has helped.  While hanging pictures she kept getting in the way and actually scratched the wall while trying to mimic me (which was cute to a degree).  So Brad told her to sit on the couch and not move.  She did a pretty good job of it and followed us around the apartment as directed until we were done.  Apparently she listens well when she knows Dad means business.  

tantrum because Mom was taking her picture instead of letting her look at pictures