Another Big Announcement!

Drumroll........

Macie is very excited to spend the winter in warmer weather!

It is official! I have officially accepted a new position in Claremont, CA, a suburb east of Los Angeles. I have signed a six month contract so we will be in that area through April. I will be the lead SLP, splitting my day between a public school and a pediatric outpatient clinic, and primarily working with kids with autism. It is quite a big difference from what I am doing now, but I am excited about the challenge and to get to learn a new kind of therapy! Since I have little experience with autism and that was about 2 years ago, I am very thankful to have a mother-in-law who is also a SLP and who worked primarily with autism for many years, and for unlimited online CEU's!

My last day at my current assignment is September the 27th, and I won't start the new assignment until October 7th. It will be nice to have a little break between assignments. Claremont is in a great location. It is obviously close to LA and all the attractions and things to do there, close to the mountains and lots of state parks, it's only 2.5 hours from San Diego, and 3.5 hours from Las Vegas. It really is the perfect location! It's really incredible to have booked an assignment this early, usually you sign about 30 days or less before starting. I am glad to have the more than 2 months to prepare! I am seriously thankful for my recruiter, Amy, and the rest of the Advanced Medical team for getting me this opportunity! I was told about the position Friday, Amy called me yesterday morning saying the company wanted me to interview, I interviewed yesterday night (I seriously spent all day/evening staring at my phone, waiting for it to ring. I knew the minute I left the room it would ring, so I sat there and stared at it), the company extended an offer right after the interview, and I accepted today! It's really incredible how everything fell into place. I wasn't expecting to dign a new contract for at least another month! God is good.

We are really excited for this next adventure!

We went out to Outback Steakhouse tonight to celebrate, and even Macie got in on the celebration with a new squeaky toy (you can turn the squeaker on and off, how cool is that?), which she is currently in the process of completely destroying. Next up on the list is buying a new SUV and finding housing! Oh, and lots and lots of studying!

Cheers!

It's Official!

We have our next assignment! My current assignment ends August 16th. So take your guess:

Will we be.....
A) California
B) Alaska
C) Washington
D) Staying where we are

If you guessed D, you are correct! We decided to extend my current contract in Kerrville for another 6 weeks, so we will be in San Antonio until the end of September. It will give us a little more time to get all our licenses and stuff switched to Texas, as well as buy our new vehicle (We love our Altima, Bruce Wayne, but he doesn't have much room or AWD). I really love the placement and my patients so I am excited about getting to spend more time with them.

Even though we are here in Texas another six weeks, we are still thinking about our next assignment which will more than likely be in California! We are excited to be in Cali for the winter, where we can go up into the mountains and snowboard but don't have to live in winter weather. Win!

We are very excited about whatever is next!

Weekend Recap

This weekend was very eventful! On Friday night we went to a very nice dinner at Maggiano's which was delicious. If you order a certain type of pasta they give you an entire meal to go so with one dinner we basically fed ourselves all weekend. Did I mention the food was amazing? On Saturday morning we woke up early and headed out to Enchanted Rock State Park out past Fredericksburg, so about an hour away. When you're driving you don't see the rock until you are really close. It really does look like a huge rock just dropped out of the sky and landed there. It is so pretty! Climbing up it was a little weird because you really are just walking up the face of a rock, there's really not a trail. Once you get to the top the views are breathtaking!

 Just sitting on top of a giant rock, NBD

 The coolest/weirdest thing about the rock was you kept expecting to walk to the edge, but there wasn't one, it just kept gradually curving down.

The rock next to the big rock is ironically called Little Rock

I could've stayed at the top all day. The weather was absolutely perfect and there was a nice breeze at the top.  This hike has been one of my favorite things we have gotten to do on this assignment.

Next on the list was a visit to the James Avery headquarters in Kerrville. In you aren't familiar with James Avery, it's a really awesome jewelry store. I was able to get the matching earrings to a bracelet that Braden had bought for me when we were dating. We even got to see the employees making some pieces for their fall collection.

Our last stop on this outing was to Stonehenge! Just outside of Kerrville there is a Stonehenge replica complete with some Easter Island Moai heads. It was everything I was hoping it would be.

 Saturday night, Braden and I went to another San Antonio Scorpions soccer game. It was much cooler than the first game and was a really fun evening although they lost. The cheerleaders weren't as exciting this time, though maybe that's because they weren't wearing kilts.

Braden hasn't quite mastered the selfie

On Sunday, one of Braden's good friends from college was in Austin so we were able to drive over and meet a group of friends at an Irish pub in downtown Austin called Fado's. It was a really cool bar with really good food and we had a great time seeing friends!

It was a very fun and busy weekend! 

#travelingslpproblems

Being a traveling therapist or "traveler" as we are often called is a lot of fun but during my short period of time as a traveler I have noticed a unique set of "problems" or "issues" we travelers face. So without further ado, here are my top 10 traveling therapist problems:

10. You are often awakened in the middle of the night or early in the morning by the pitter-patter of little feet..No, not your own kids, but the kids running down the hallways of the hotel. Added bonus is the parents yelling after them to be quiet

9. You stop thinking about length of time as months or years, but weeks, and relate time in regards to the length of a 13 week assignment, i.e. "Six weeks? That's less than half an assignment!"

8. The majority of the wardrobe you have with you is comprised of scrubs

7. You are often more tired on Monday's than you are on Friday's because weekends aren't for resting and catching up on your sleep anymore but for going and exploring different things in your location. It kind of feels like a vacation with a few days of work in between.

6. When thinking about buying something, you no longer think, "Can I afford this?" But instead think "Can I fit this in my car?"

5. You make very gourmet frozen meals with the one sauce pan you have. I have a friend who is really hard core and makes her meals on a hot plate.

4. You have to explain your job. A lot. And answer all the same questions with just about everyone: "so you live in a hotel?" "How long will you be here?" "Where are you going next?" "What is it you do?" Etc.

3. You never know what to say when people ask where you're from/where you live.

2. You have a minor panic attack when someone asks you for your address and you don't know if they want your permanent address or your temporary address so you launch into a long story about how you are a traveling therapist and will only be here for a certain amount of time so do you want my local or permanent address? I've gotten some weird looks on this one.

1. You spend a lot of your free time applying for new state licenses for your future assignments!

"There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind" -CS Lewis

Sew What?

I have been really into sewing recently, and I have gotten to make some really fun projects. My sewing machine isn't exactly something practical to fit in the car with us when we are traveling but I didn't want to put it in our POD, so it has been hanging out at my parent's house. I got it back a few weeks ago because I had some projects I needed to get done and I have enjoyed getting to sew again. Here are some of my favorite things I have gotten to make:

A swimsuit cover-up!

 State love pillows for my friend Hannah

Decorative pillows. This is a Bible verse from Ruth which is really appropriate for all our traveling!

This is one of my favorite things to make for all my preggo friends! It is a "taggie" blanket which is supposed to be fun for the baby to chew on all the ribbons. I really love getting to pick out all the fabrics and ribbons.

Excuse the terrible selfie, but this is my most recent project, a super fun and bright headband! It didn't take long at all and really livens up my scrubs. I got a lot of compliments on it at work, except for one patient who told me I looked like a clown. It's a great, simple project for leftover fabric.

I also made the skirt that I was wearing when we went to the races (see previous post: Friday Night at the Races) which was the most challenging I have attempted so far. I am always on the look out for more fun projects, in other words I am on Pinterest a lot. I especially love sewing things for other people! It's really something I have a lot of fun with, although I have a complete inability to cut in a straight line (even when I mark it!) which can get pretty frustrating when I am cutting fabric. I am definitely going to miss my sewing machine once we travel to our next location! 

I am so excited that tomorrow is Friday! Today was one of those weeks that felt really long, and I am definitely ready for the weekend. Not sure what we will be doing this weekend! Hope you have a great end of your week!

Port Aransas, TX

This past weekend was so much fun! We were able to go down to the Texas coast to Port Aransas. This was the location of many family vacations when I was growing up and I was so excited to get to go back after so many years and get to show Braden. My dad's entire family was there so it was fun getting to see so much family.

Friday night after dinner everyone went out to the beach and flew kites. The sunset was really pretty! The next morning we went and walked the jetty, which is what helps form the channel into Corpus Christie. I remember walking the jetty as a little girl! It was fun except being really scared that I was going to get hooked by one of the people fishing. That seriously is a big fear of mine.

The rest of the weekend was spent going shopping at these cute little boutiques, tacky tourist stores (of course we had to get tacky Port Aransas tank tops), and hanging out at the beach and the pool. This creepy guy gave me a live sand dollar, which was really cool- they have these little hair like things on them that suck on you. On Saturday, the big to-do was this huge oil rig went through the channel out into the gulf. The size was impressive and apparently it cost 30 billion dollars. Wow.

It was a really great weekend and so much fun hanging out with family. In other news, I got my California license in the mail, and Alaska should be here soon too! Can't wait to find out where we will be next!

Cuteness Overload

Somehow this post got deleted after I posted it.. Sorry if you were looking for it. The original post was in a lot more detail, but I'll do my best for a little recap.  Last weekend we went to Dallas for our nephew's first birthday party. Macie loves riding in the car and gets lots of nose prints on our windows. Friday night we got to Dallas late so we just hung out with family.

Saturday it was our super cute nephew's birthday party. We had so much fun! We got him his first soccer ball (gotta start them young!)

JT loves Uncle Braden! He also loved his cake after some initial tears. After the party I drove out to Ft Worth to hang out with my good friend Hannah. We went to the Stockyards and to the Ft Worth Water Gardens. It was so great to catch up with her!

After hanging out with Hannah, I went back to the place where JT's party was for dinner. JT did have an accident on me, but then we made up sharing a package of Goldfish. We have the cutest nephew!

 

The drive home took almost 7 hours when it should've only taken 4.5. But we did get to see this beautiful sunset!