Thanksgiving

November 27th 2013

Hello friends and family, 
I haven't been able to write in a few days because I used up all the data on my cell phone plan (just increased it and Wi-Fi will be in our apartment soon). I had the intermountain healthcare orientation on Monday in salt lake city. Everyone was friendly,  they ordered food for all the new staff, they seem to have great benefits and have a list of employee discounts that is over 600 pages long! They are quite a large company in this mountain region. Yesterday I went to the new hospital I'm working at to have orientation there and they told me it was today. When I went in today I was told it had been cancelled. They apologized and gave me a grocery shopping gift card for my troubles. All I can do is go with the flow. Luckily I'm only ten minutes away. This past week has been full of checking things off the to do the list. Scott and I are looking forward to having a somewhat set schedule soon and feeling like we are settled in. 

Today I decided to go meet my new manager and check out the ER since I was already at the hospital. Everyone was very welcoming,  giving smiles and thumbs up when they talked about how much they love working at Park City Medical Center. My manager gave me a complete tour of the entire hospital which was great! I met people from every department. 


Next week I'll be starting in the ER. I will orient for about one month on day shift then have my own assignment starting on evenings and night shifts. 

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! We are missing our family but are looking forward to cooking our first turkey meal together. 

Below I am posting a picture of what I looked like walking into a gas station on the road trip out here. Scott let me walk into a store with this zombie eye mask on my head. It was quite embarrassing when I realized why the cashier was looking at me like I was going to rob the place. I'll have to plot something really good to pay him back for this! 

Stay warm my New Englanders and hope every one has a safe and happy holiday. 

Love,  Heidi

Made it to ski town!

November 23rd 2013

After traveling over 2800 miles from Maine across country, we finally reached our destination to Park City, Utah. We got in at midnight on Thursday. Our apartment is in the Canyons Ski Resort. We are 5 minutes south of a library, whole foods store and many other shopping outlets. We are about 15-20 minutes north from downtown Patk City. We drove down Main Street yesterday and got a P.O. Box set up since we don't receive mail at the apartment. The quaint town has restaurants,  shops,  an old theater and much more. We will be going back today to walk around.

We stopped by my new work place at Park City Medical Center. The hospital is only four years old. It's beautiful. It had two fireplaces in the main lobby area. The food was excellent at the cafeteria (I had quinoa with veggies,  kale and salad). I'm excited to start working there! 

We made a trip into Salt Lake City as well. I needed to get some things done so that I can get my Utah nursing license. It looks like a nice city. We didn't explore too much because we needed to go on a shopping spree for the new apartment and get groceries. The place is looking more and more like "our" apartment. 

No internet at our apartment yet so I'm typing all this on my phone. Hope everyone is doing well. I heard Maine is due for quite the snow storm in a few days... Scott is jealous ;)

Until next time,
Heidi

Mount Rushmore

November 21st 2013

From Chicago we made our way to Blue Earth Minnesota where we saw a Jolly Green Giant near our hotel that we had to go see. We left yesterday and started driving to South Dakota. There was a lot of wind on the ride there and we saw some of the largest wind mills we've ever seen. Along the way we stopped at The Corn Palace in Mitchell South Dakota. We spent the night in Rapid City SD where we got to use the gym to work out which felt great after all the driving we've been doing! We also went in the Jacuzzi and pool they had there. This morning we visited the Mount Rushmore National Monument which was incredible! We read all about the sculptor who created it and the meaning behind it. The museum was great,  a lot of pictures, documents,  etc. I was highly impressed by the piece of art in the mountain-beautiful. We saw four deer on our way out very close to the car. They seemed very calm.  Now we are driving to Utah; there is some snow. We hope to get to our new apartment by mid-night :)

Love,
Heidi and Scott

Chicago pictures

November 19th, 2013

Chicago was a surprisingly clean city. Scott and I took the train into down town area and walked around for about an hour. Saw some architecture,  art in a museum and people ice skating. It was really fun. Then we decided to have our leaky tire checked and they found a huge screw in it. They patched up the leak and we are on the road again!
See pictures of Chicago below:

Making our way to Chicago

November 19th, 2013

Yesterday we drove through Ohio and Indiana. Ohio was basically corn fields and old run down farm houses. Indiana had some farm houses too but more industrial looking with power lines, etc. We stayed at The Carleton of Oak Park in Illinois for the night (about 20 minutes from downtown Chicago). It's a very nice place and is in a cute small town. We caught some of the Patriots game last night and then met up with Scott's friend who lives nearby (they went to Australia together in college).

We went to bed after midnight (1:00am Eastern time), slept in late and then had a nice breakfast at the hotel. We are now heading out on the train to Chicago to explore for a few hours. Hopefully we can find a museum that's free. We will leave early afternoon and make our way towards South Dakota, most likely we'll need to spend the night before we reach it.

All is going well, still have a minor tire air leak that we need to keep putting air in every few hours but it's a slow leak. We will have it taken care of when we reach Utah.

Until the next stop, hope everyone is going well!

Love,
Heidi

Pennsylvania

November 18th, 2013

This morning we left Allentown Pennsylvania to head to Chicago Illinois.  Yesterday there was a tornado that hit near Chicago so we will keep an eye on the weather but as of right now it is blue skies in Western Pennsylvania. It is beautiful here,  there are a lot of rolling hills and farm land to look at.  We stopped at a rest stop in "Snow Shoe" Pennsylvania,  Scott had the good idea of playing frisbee on the lawn. It was great to get out of the car and stretch! I had some left over spaghetti squash with a tomato/meat sauce. We're back on the road again heading towards Ohio on Route 80 and should be in Chicago around dinner time tonight. They are one hour behind Eastern time. So far we are smooth sailing. Had low tire pressure earlier but we filled it back up and are cruising along. 

Until next time, 
Heidi

Organizing, Purging, Packing...repeat

November 16th, 2013

Oh boy what a week full of organizing, purging, and packing. I am thankful for my mother helping me with sorting through all my 'treasures'. Her basement is my storage unit for the next 6 months. So blessed to have this lady in my life.

We are in Acton, ME now at Scott's parents' home for the night. And we will be leaving tomorrow morning to head out West. We originally were going to take Scott's Subaru Outback however my stuff ended up taking up the entire back of Scott's car instead of just half so we will be taking Scott's mom's van. We are all packed and ready to go. It's hard to believe we will be in Utah in just a few days and starting this new journey.

I will keep you updated along the way. Cross country skis, snowshoes, snowboards, and winter gear are waiting in the van to be used soon.

Love you all,
Heidi

Leaving Orr's Island

November 12, 2013

Today I moved out the rest of my 'treasures' from the apartment on Orr's Island. I am thankful my mother was there with me to pack up and clean the place. We made a great team and got so much done. Part of me felt sad to leave because I shared so many wonderful memories there over the past year and 7 months with my boyfriend. I literally went to every room and said thank you for all the good times.

I haven't been able to sleep very well lately because I have so many thoughts racing in my head such as "When will I start going through my stuff?", "I wonder if the security deposit made it to Utah yet?", "Did Scott get snow tires on his car yet?", "I wonder if we can fit a cooler in the car?", "I need to make a copy of my immunization records for the new hospital", "I need navy blue scrubs for my new job", "I really don't like the cold...part of me wishes we were going somewhere warm", "I need to say bye to this person and that person before I leave", etc. My mind is on overdrive right now however as hectic as my thoughts are I am feeling excited and ready for this move. I am so fortunate to be at a place in my life where I can leave everything I'm involved with in Maine and move across the country to begin a new chapter in my life.

I am nervous yet thrilled to start learning how to ski in the soft powder out West. I am looking forward to days off spending time outside snowshoeing, dogsledding, and horseback riding. I am excited to begin working with new people, meeting new friends and learning a new way of doing things in a new Emergency Department. I am looking forward to gazing out of my window to see snow covered mountains surrounding me. I feel happy that my boyfriend will be living out his passion for the entire winter which is skiing. When he talks about skiing and being on the mountains, his face lights up as if he is a little kid on Christmas Day excited to open presents.

I have some plans that I want to explore while I'm out West. I want to take dance lessons, this time around I would like to do ballet and/or contemporary (hip hop classes were fun but didn't come natural to me). I want to do Reiki at a spa at least once a week and dive deeper into energy work. I also plan on going to a yoga studio regularly.

I feel blessed that everything has worked out so perfectly, for example, I landed an ER job in the city I wanted to be in. Although I didn't end up going through a travel agency, I found the perfect position at the perfect place at the perfect time. Scott and I were both offered our jobs "officially" on the same day. We will work 15 minutes away from each other. We also found an apartment where we didn't need to compromise on anything. We have a furnished place that is at the resort Scott will be working at, has a washer/dryer, heated pool year round, parking, and is on the free bus shuttle line. I strongly believe we got exactly what we wanted because we kept believing everything would work out. We acted as though we already had the jobs we wanted and already found the perfect place to live.

Where you are in your life right now is not set in stone, you can remove things from your life that are no longer serving you or you can add things in your life that are missing. It is never to late to follow your dreams. I leave you with this quote that came to me when I was sitting at the dock on Orr's Island..."Change is in the air and I am moving graciously with it".

Until the next pit stop along our road trip, go have a new adventure!

-Heidi