the final countdown::

2.5 more work days until my retirement. 

now thats its nearing-- 

im getting a little sad. 

my job sucks-- but at the same time it is incredible. 

i see things no 20-something kid should see, i cry with patients, i cry after i get yelled at and harassed BY patients, i get frustrated with the health system, i do cpr and save someone's life, i do cpr and witness a patient's last breath. 

if you want to see a real life roller coaster come follow me for 12 hours in the ER. its definitely life changing-- and after my 2 years of working in the ER im definitely a different- but better nurse and person. 

in case you were unaware our hospital is in a low income underserved area. our patient population is very poor people who don't have insurance, healthcare or money to take care of themselves. its a frustrating job. but at times its incredibly rewarding. 

and.... im going to miss that. 

plus a few of my coworkers are pretty amazing people. 

and im going to miss them. 

so. the countdown ticks away-- and next tuesday i say goodbye to my first 'real career' and continue on my journey to my next career. hmm. i wonder how many i'll have before i'm 30! haha. 

in other countdowns: 1 month until we move!!!

the office is totally packed. 

a lot of platters and unused dishes/items are packed. 

sheets/towels/unused items packed. 

did i mention the office is totally packed? 100's of books. ew. 

oh and multiple more loads were taken to goodwill. 

so its going well.  

off to class tomorrow. 

woo. 

love & peace

bort

espanol.

hola.

so im in spanish this summer.
i was quite worried-- due to my lack of spanish speaking in oh say 5 years. the last spanish i took was sophomore year of college--- luckily i know some pretty decent splangish and do a fair job of communicating with my patients at work. today i had my first clase de espanol. i was a bit worried (preocupado) but. luckily. i knew everything we talked about today in class. i knew the verbs & the vocabulary. thannnkkkk goodness. i am fairly certain i know more spanish than most of the class--- but don't get me wrong. im going to have to study a lot! i don't know ANNYYY medical spanish. we didn't cover any of that today. so that part is going to be tricky. luckily i have a good foundation. and a HUGE desire to speak fluently.

it should be an interesting summer no doubt. 4 classes. moving. driving to durham from canton every wednesday. 2 days of clinical rotations each week. while getting settled in a new house. and running two races. oh and my brother gets married. annnnd my grandma turns 80 and we are having a big throw weekend long throw down. ((the last two things im pumped about. they will be super awesome. and im really excited about moving)) but oh geeze. its gonna be a doooozy. oh yeah. and i have a job. i go back to work tomorrow. but.... only 6 more full days of work before my retirement. thats going to be marvelous. one less thing to worry about!

welp. adios.
 amor y paz.
d

filled up.

wellllll. we are back from colorado. 

after an INCREDIBLE week with my husband- that FLEW by-- we are home to hot and sunny north carolina. 

we had an incredible time hiking- playing in snow- touring breweries- exploring new towns- went to a meadery (honey wine. mm)- walked a million miles- stayed at an INCREDIBLE bed & breakfast, saw ginormous mountains- saw more snow that i dreamed- laughed- played- and enjoyed life. 

but now--- today--- back to school for me. 

i sat down and went through all my syllabi and am getting caught up on work from last week. 

i got seriously organized though-- and put all my dates in my calendar. 

from an empty month that looks something like this: 

to a month that looks like this: 

full of school, work, meetings, and every assignment in between. 

bring it on. 

(and thats just one month. and doesn't include clinicals every thursday & friday)

july & august look equally as full. 

time for some espanol. 

love & peace--

colorado.

well.
its beautiful here.
we saw the rocky mountains yesterday.
today--- we saw snow. lots of it. in fact since 8am its been snowing and has not stopped.
we went hiking anyway.
around 6 miles! saw some incredible sites. waterfalls snowed over. 20 foot snow drifts. we hiked on a snowy trail that was only 'paved' by other hikers. it was single file. and over the bridges the snow was higher than the rails on the bridge. it was insane.
most incredible snow ive ever seen.
but kinda sucks.
1. you get wet.
2. its cold.
3. there are no incredible views.

tonight we are cuddling up in our cozy cabin.
the snow is falling outside and we have some movies to watch.
should be a lovely cozy night.

love & peace from snowy colorado!

lunch in tajikistan..... or any amaziiiing tea house

on board!

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colorado

we are off..... for a week in colorado.
exploring. hiking. reading. relaxing.

we are so stoked.

hopefully i'll do some posting from my cell phone---

love. peace.
bort

graduation

i know. im a little behind. 

let me tell ya- that closet got me good. 

hahaa

i had great success in cleaning out the office and storage closet. 

by great success i mean an entire jeep load to goodwill, a trash bin (like the giant ones at the side of the road) full of trash and the recycling bin also filled to the top. 

i found things i had not looked at in yearsssss. like some stuff prob 10 years. 

its mostly all gone now and it feels soooo good. 

after the cleaning i swiftly moved into getting ready for ryan's graduation & the family coming. 

     

friday brought on the fam.   

  we have eaten a lot. played a lot. talked so much. and had a fabulous weekend. 

im so glad the macminn's and snider's get along so well. 

its been a lot of fun and i've enjoyed having everyone together. 

they are all coming back by before they head out of town today. 

and then--- ill probably crash. its exhausting having 9 ppl around!! 

oh and of course-- ryan graduated from DUKE divinity last night. it was such a great service. there are lots of pics of his hooding so ill post some. some time. :) 

 COLORADO TRIP TOMORROW!!!

we fly out tomorrow evening/night and will be off to explore and see what we can see. we have an itinerary and we are set. should be awesome!!

welp. hope all is well in your neck of the woods. 

love & peace

bort

progress

moving has its advantages. 

one: you can get rid of TONSSS of crap 

(well. that is if you HAVE tons of crap)

my goodwill pile after going through my closet and 1/3 of the office closet

the current state of the office = a disaster

and the other side:

there is just stuff EVERRRYWHHERRREEEE.

but soon it will all be packed and have a home. 

(possibly a home at goodwill)

anyway. i successfully cleaned out our bedroom today. 

2 closets of clothes. 

1 linen closet. 

and my cedar chest. its a chest ive had my whole life that my grandpa built me. 

its awesome. i keep "special" things in it. 

little did i know that EVERY SINGLE birthday card IVE EVER GOTTEEEENNN was in there. 

along with EVERY softball jersey ive ever worn. and team hat. 

its a bit obnoxious. 

its not cleaned out. 

i have a few very special items (that may not be in 8 years-- but right now they are) and threw an entire bag of trash away. 

so progress indeed. may the work continue through the night!

when i get on a roll i just don't want to stop!!

love & peace

bort

goodwill.

our goodwill pile is growing!

yeah thats some awesome lighting.... but basically its a big pile of crap.
we are finding all sorts of 'gems' that we are getting rid of.
i found a basket full of notes and cards from FRESHMAN year of college!
how have i not gotten rid of that before now?!?
oh my.
its a big clean out of our house.
and its going well.
we have a lonnnng way to go though.
my goal for this week: clean out my closet (today we did ry's) and clean out the spare bedroom's closet ((which is my craft/scrapbooking/picture/christmas/camping/sewing/everything else storage))
now you know why its going to take a week!

ill keep you posted.
love & peace

nothin better than mexican soda on cinco de mayo

movers.

we have begun the process of moving. 

and by that i mean thought about it. 

and i have packed 4 boxes (all things we have no need for in the next 2 months, such as photo albums and our favorite books)

ryan has spent HOURS going through all of his school work from college and seminary sorting it into categories and filing it in a filing cabinet. thats been a HUGE success and achievement. its very organized and now he can reference his materials in an easy way. AND he got rid of TONNNSSSS. so now instead of 12 notebooks, he was one cabinet (a small plastic one) with all of his work organized. its awesome. 

what else... oh. ive packed up my winter clothes. 

and the bigest- we started a goodwill box. as we come across crap we want to get rid of- in the box it goes. 

i have 3 weeks off of school and work and need to do as much as i possibly can in these next few weeks so the move will be easier. 

speaking of easier we are HOPING to hire movers. yes. hire movers. i have contacted one group here in durham and they sent me a "cube sheet" to fill out to give me an estimate of how much it will cost to move. it made me realize that me and ry dont have too much. the things on this sheet were crazy. well some of it. such as:

 organ sm, organ lg, sewing machine, clothes line (isn't that just a rope?), incenerator (what!?@?) generator, iron (really- does this add like a dollar if i do?) plastic crate, sand box (i wonder if they will move the sand also) ash can (really. it says ash can. and its not a typo. trash can is below it. ), and CAT CONDO (prob my fav).

 anyway. we have a moving allowance so we are going to see if our moving allowance will allow us to hire movers. i mean we don't have much- but if i can get someone else to haul our HUGE bookshelves, desks, couches and all our millions of books for us-- heck to the yes. 

so anyway. if it doesn't work out we are just going to throw a moving party and invite our durham friends. hopefully the church will be at our new house ready to greet us to help us unload! but there again.... you just never know. 

FWD:

leftover easter candy. tweetshi. delish.

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peace.

peace. im a fan of it. 

not sure how i feel about all this stuff-- but i am not out celebrating in the streets. something seems horribly wrong with celebrating the killing of a man. he is an awful man. but it just is not something to celebrate like we won the world cup or something. there is still a war. there are still civilians and troops that will die. terrorism is not over. sadly. its good that the leader is no more- but there will just be another leader. we have a long way to go before we become a peaceful nation. i am so grateful for our freedom in this country and the men and women that serve our country to keep it safe and free. i hope that is clear. 

i just am not a fan of the celebration of death and the comments that people say. earlier today mrs clinton said 'taliban you must become peaceful or we will continue to bring you down'. really? 'force' them to be peaceful with guns and fighting? it just makes no sense to me. 

and then another guy said we must be ready for retaliation. they are gonna fight back. but he said it with an excited voice. like he was playing a video game and just beat the first level. time to go on to level two. 

unfortunately this is not a video game. its real life. 

and well--- blogs are places to throw out ideas and thoughts and let the world know how you feel. so thats what im doing. hope you don't mind. 

--------------------

in other news. 

ryan and i are moving. 

have i mentioned that?

to the mountains. to canton, nc in fact. 

ry will be a head pastor of a church!!

we are soooo excited. 

2 more months!!

oh. and. im quitting my job. 

not working anymore. 

im going to be a stay-at-home mom. 

ok. just kidding. 

im going to school full time and not working so i can focus on that. 

its going to keep me busy. 

 ill be going to school online. starting in the fall all of my classes will be done using the internet. pretty awesome stuff. 

and just to clarify- there is no baby. 

welp. i think  that will just about do it. 

love & Peace. 

bort