Full Time Baby!

If you've been keeping up with me then you know that I recently accepted a part time position at Alamance Regional Hospital. The day they called and offered me the position, I looked on the internet to see if there was anything else around that was full time and ended up applying to Wake Forest Baptist Hospital. Before actually starting work at ARMC, I had an interview at WF for a full time position. After being out of work for several months now, having one part time position and an interview for a full time position was an overflow of answered prayers at once. 

I started at ARMC for my training and after all that was finished I got word from WF that I got the full time position! Alamance is excited for me and is still going to keep me on the roster in case something were to open up full time there. I'm very excited about this opportunity and THRILLED to get back to work full time and with benefits! Thanks to all who continued to pray! 

Plastic Bag Problems

I was listening to the radio the other morning and they were talking about how California banned the use of plastic bags. They quoted a statistic from the governor of California that blew my mind: "One plastic bag is used for twenty minutes and then lays in a landfill for 1,000 years." WOAH. 

I've seen people that use the recycled bags but never really thought about doing it myself until now. I was all on board about trying to do my part to save the environment that I went out and bought two reusable bags to start off with. Here's where I'm suppose to tell you that I've been doing my part and I love them and will never go back to using plastic.... WRONG. 

I hate to admit this but I'm an environmentalist failure. After purchasing those reusable bags, I have forgotten every time to take them with me inside a store! 

However, I am going to try and better myself and remember. The point of this blog was to make the 5 readers that I have aware of this problem and try to do better themselves. 

Happy Tuesday Folks! 

I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable.  -Jeremiah 2:7 

Balloon Festival

Last year my friend Angie informed me of a balloon festival that was in Statesville. I've seen pictures of some hot air balloon festivals before and thought it would be neat to go to, so I dragged Wade and his parents with me. It was a great experience and we had a lot of fun. They had vendors and fried foods kinda like a small festival, but the best part was seeing the balloons. I'd never seen one before and you were able to get up close. For a small fortune you could take a ride in one of the balloons when they took off. On Saturday night, they had a balloon lighting and they would all light up at the same time. 

This year we plan on going back. In fact, it's this coming weekend. I'm looking forward to it! If you've got nothing to do, come out! 

Williams Wedding

There are some people that enter your life and make a lasting impression on you. Matt Williams is one of those people and I'm so grateful to be able to call him a friend. We met at church and over the years our friendship grew. Eventually college and jobs came and we grew distant, but yet we continued to stay in contact. Over the years though, we've done a lot together, things I'll never forget. When I had the crazy idea to go skydiving, Matt was right along side me saying it was a great idea. When I asked if he'd run in my first 5K, he was there. He's always down for whatever and I love that about him. 

When I got an invitation in the mail for his wedding, of course I was going. 

The wedding was absolutely beautiful with an old country feel to it. It was held at their future farm in Matthews, NC. Lots of people were there and the I got to catch up with some few old friends from church. I hate I didn't take many pictures, but I did manage to find some on Instagram to share with you. 

"A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need" -Proverbs 17:17

Poking Hearts

If ya'll haven't seen this video, you MUST. I find myself watching it randomly through out the week and love it more and more with every view. 

Happy Hump Day!

Work Hard, Play Hard

I started my new job two weeks ago and have been very busy, therefore I've neglected blogging. It happens. The good news is I absolutely LOVE my job. That's all there is to it. I love my co-workers, the atmosphere, the fact that we get off early on Fridays, EVERYTHING. I just don't love the fact that I didn't get full time. I've been working the past two weeks, and I'll work on Monday and Tuesday of next week, and then it's back to Biscuitville until they need me again. Unless something changes and I get full time somewhere else, I'll be working every Thursday starting in November and then be full time for three months when one of the therapists goes on maternity leave. 

Before I started work, we made a last minute trip to Florida to get away and have some fun. One of our favorite places to visit is Clearwater, FL. It's just wonderful. Adam and Lily accompanied us and we had a marvelous time. We chilled on the beach and went to the Clearwater Aquarime and saw Winter and Hope from the new movie, Dolphin Tale 2. It was a very relaxing and fun time, other than the fact that I got attacked by seagulls. Literally, attacked. They saw Lily and me eating sandwhiches on the beach and swarmed us. When they got away with half my sandwhich, I went to eating pringles. A stealthy sneaky bird suddenly flew in from behind and grabbed the pringle out of my hand, catching my finger in the process. I was dumbfounded and pissed! 

I got to hold Winters Tale! 

Clearwater Sunsets are the absolute BEST. They never disappoint. 

The last day we were in Clearwater, we rented paddle boards. I've tried one before in the Bahamas and thought that everyone else would like them as well. It was hilarious to watch everyone try to brave standing up and balancing on them, they look easier than they really are. We took Wades camera out in the ocean to get photos. Being that it was an underwater camera and was attached to a floating strap, I thought it'd be fine. Wrong. The camera had a "quick release" button from the floating strap. Somehow in the process of Wade falling down and getting back up on his board, the button got pressed and we were left with an empty floating strap and a lost camera. :(   We were really bummed about the camera and the lost photos from the day. We did at least get a few from my camera. 

A trip to Clearwater isn't complete unless we stop in Weeki Wachee for a day on the way back. We love to kayak this river. It's extremely easy and not to mention EXTREMELY GORGEOUS. Most times you can see manatees swimming in the river, we weren't so lucky this time though- no manatees. 

Can't wait to go back! 

Adventures to the Zoo

Since my mom pretty much stays cooped up inside most of the time, I wanted to take her out and do something she would enjoy. Being that the NC Zoo has had a lot of new additions, I thought that would be a great place to take her. There were six in our group, Momma, Wade, his mother, Cindy, Wades uncle, Jason, Lily, and myself. Recently they had four baby lion cubs (that aren't fully on  exhibit yet but do make special appearances), along with the baby gorillas and cougar cubs. Not to mention that last Saturday was absolutely gorgeous! 

Our good friend, Angie, works at the zoo and reserved momma a motorized wheelchair so that getting around would be easier. The great thing about the zoo is that it's very handicap/stroller friendly. The down side to the zoo on a beautiful Saturday is there are TONS of people and children. Momma did great in the wheelchair, but my nerves were shot the entire time thinking she was going to accidentally run into someone or someone would run into her. Thankfully there were no causalities, well until later...

We had a great time though, I've never see the animals so active. The otters were putting on a show for everyone along with the ocelot and baby gorillas. Did I mention that I could watch the baby gorillas for hours?! Talk about cuteness overload! Saturday was very enjoyable and everyone had a wonderful time. Here's a few photos from the day. 

Now about that causality I was mentioning earlier....

As we were leaving, we took the bus back to the North America side. Here's a little fun fact I learned: The NC Zoo is the largest walking zoo in the world! That's crazy. Being that it's the only zoo I've ever been to, since it's basically in my back yard, I had no idea how it compared to other zoos. I guess we're top notch when it comes to our animals.

Now that I'm through with that tangent..... we had to wait until a handicap bus came so it could load momma. Once we finally got back to the North America side, the bus driver was climbing up the back of the bus to unload her when his foot slipped off the back bumper and his other leg hit the metal door framing on his way down. He was injured pretty badly, so much so he wasn't able to stand and I thought he may have broken it. Other zoo employees came to his rescue minutes later but we did hear that the ambulance came and took him to the hospital. Fortunately it was just bruised very badly, but at least it wasn't broken. 

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.  -Genesis 1:24