Waterwalk

The weather was beautiful today and Charlotte needed excercise in the worst way possible so we combined the two and had a little fun.

Our first stop was the Dog park. Where we made a new
friend. This is Lola the great dane, they ran and ran and ran

Dog Parks in Louisville are run by a private group and you
have to get a key to get in and the paper work is a pain
but after seeing her sleep all evening it was well worth it.

We've had rain all week and so theres a lot of mud... and
thats where she laid when she got the chance.

The Ohio river creates the northern boarder of Kentucky.
Which means theres lots of waterfront to explore. 

Lets be honest I don't know why there
was so much fog on the river but it was
SO awesome and made for some great pictures.

Unlike home where there isn't enough water to float anything
the Ohio is a shipping waterway... can't swim here either.

Charlotte had a ball meeting lots of different people

Downtown Louisville... yes that is the KFC Yum Center... thats
what its called.. the yum center. :)



Because everyone in the south needs
a porch swing these are all along the
riverwalk... anyone want to come share
one with me.?

 



My GPS is trying to kill me

Don’t get me wrong. I love to travel. I love the feeling of being anonymous in a new city. I love discovering the little family restaurants and the parks tucked away in areas of town. However there are days I HATE the driving.

Now it might have something to do with the fact that I had driven 11 hours by myself with only a dog and the radio to keep me sane. But Friday when we got to Louisville I struggled… A LOT. All I wanted was dinner.

If only it were that simple

Normally I would say that a GPS is one of the greatest inventions ever. However Simon (the GPS) has been trying to kill me since we got to Louisville. When I plugged in the address to the restaurant I immediately noticed an unusual route appeared. Instead of taking me down the street and turning left across traffic at a light and directly to the restaurant. Simon had me touring the side streets. But what do I know? Maybe you can’t turn there and maybe the restaurant is tucked away somewhere…  

It’s not.

After I finally made my turn onto the side street I got the feeling something was wrong… I was literally going in a circle and the only thing around me were car dealerships. But what do I know I’d never been to the restaurant before so I kept going only to find myself in the wrong lane with no hope of getting into the correct one. So instead of causing trouble I turned right onto the main road figuring it would be easy enough to turn around at a light.

If only it were that simple.

The problem is that this area of town has four lanes of bumper to bumper traffic on a Friday night. After finally maneuvering my way in to the left lane (2 miles later) I turned at a light into the Olive Garden parking lot and turning around I promptly got stuck. It would have been easy if I had just needed to get back on the road in the right lane… but I didn’t.  I needed in the middle. Because the only option from the right lane was to get back interstate 64 heading toward Kansas. 

Long LONG story short… I blocked the intersection. Witnessed a few ‘what is this idiot doing’ looks and after sitting in a long line of cars, in the middle of the intersection, at the LONGEST RED LIGHT EVER finally got to pull forward and 10 minutes later into the restaurant.

Welcome to Louisville.

On a lighter note, if you ever find yourself in Louisville at US 64 and Hurstborne Parkway craving really good Indian Food, check out Shalimar…   

Goodbyes

I know... this is long overdue. Somehow that stress of getting ready for the move got to me. So much to catch up on! Lots has happened in the last 3 weeks.

First I had to say goodbye. And after 5 years in Wichita there were A LOT of goodbyes. And I think that I cried every single time.

December 27th was my last day at Wesley. After 5 years at the hospital and 3 1/2 in the Peds ER it was definitally bittersweet. If you know me at all you know it was time for a change and I am so excited about the new opportunities in traveling nursing. However you never think about the emotional cost of change. And I find that you also tend to greatly underestimate how deeply you grow to care about people. These are just a few of my favorite people from work. They're amazing...

For my going away celebration Misty (who doesn't cook) made
this amazing mix of white chocolate and honeycombs.



What you can't see is that instead of coating it and laying
it out on wax paper to dry she poured it all into the bowl....
 

So we let Shelly break it apart... with a pie server.

It helped... kind of. :)


 

And if I thought it was hard to say good bye to my work family, it was really hard to say good bye to my family and friends. However I'm seriously thinking that I need to leave more often, its amazing how loved you feel when so many people you care about come to hang out with you and the drop of a hat.

Bright and early Thursday morning (ok it was closer to afternoon) after a breakfast date with two my favorite people in the world we hit the road... thankfully it was an uneventful trip. For those of you concerned Charlotte did great in the car and in the hotel... she only woke me up once during the night (at 5am!). We made it in to Louisville around 3pm eastern time on Friday without any major problems.

Ask Jori or I about the ham servings
in a breakfast at the Beacon.

Of course I hit traffic the instant I
pulled out of riverside. Dumb Geese

Snow and Trees in Illinois... two
things we don't have a lot of in Kansas

Charlotte in her TINY space in the car

It seemed like a horrible waste
to leave my basil plant to die
in my house... but then I left it in the
car over night and killed it anyway

Welcome to Kentucky

Welcome to Louisville! (this is literally 20
seconds after you cross the bridge)

Of course that's not where the story ends... I've only been here for 3 days and there's plenty to tell.. but more on that later.




Heros

They say statistically that only five percent of the patients who come to a pediatric emergency room have true life threatening events. Which means for the most part that my job is taking care of non-critical patients, blowing bubbles and giving out slushies. But don't get me wrong that doesn't mean we don't see very sick kids. In fact in the course of my day I see kids fighting illness and circumstance that no child should every have to. And every time that I meet one of these patients they amaze me.

The other night I had the pleasure of taking care of a patient who despite feeling miserable made me laugh all night... As they were leaving the ER, after finishing a blue slushy, we had what might be one of my favorite exchanges with a patient ever.

Krista: Hey, you need to stop in the bathroom and look in the mirror, you have blue teeth.
Abigail (our child life specialist): Its a new style.
Patient (laughing as she yelled down the hallway): Hey, every thing's in style when you have cancer!

On the off chance that she'll ever read this let me just say one simple thing... You are my hero.

On a completely unrelated topic, the job change and the big move seem to be rushing at me like a freight train. Charlotte and I leave Wichita on the 3rd to head for a three month assignment in Louisville, Kentucky. I'll be working at Kosair Children's hospital in their ER and can't wait!  I got my housing information today and it makes it all seem so much more real. Check out our new (temporary) home.... Visitors Welcome!

A little background...

    They tell you that as a nurse you will eventually find your "niche." Its that place where you really connect with your patients, love the type of nursing that you do and want to do it for the rest of your life. I always knew that I wanted to either work with kids or in the emergency department. I just didn't know how God saw that working out eventually. 

     When I first graduated from nursing school I took a job on an adult oncology (cancer) unit with the idea of getting my feet with in Oncology and eventually transfering to pediatrics (kids). It was NOT what I expected at all and a year later I was moving back to Kansas looking again.  This time I got a little luckier and took a job on a pediatric unit at a hospital close to where I grew up. I quickly found that Pediatric was my thing but it wasn't until I started floating to the pediatric ER at our hospital that I realized exactly what finding your niche feels like. 

    Pretty soon I was going to work with the hope of being floated to the ER and that's when I realized it was time to make the switch. Best career decision EVER.  Apparently three year olds love me and I'm pretty good at thinking on my feet

    Well its time for a new adventure and after years of working up the courage I am finally taking the leap and trying traveling nursing. In three weeks I will be in a new city, living in a new apartment, sitting in a new hospital wanting to poke my eyes out in hospital orientation.