Seattle!

I have been here for a week now, which is crazy! I have been at work for the majority of the week-today is my first day off since starting Tuesday.
I am progressively getting lost less, have figured out some off the ways of the streets here and have found a Trader Joes, a gym and today a Target, all pretty close to me. Everyone says the traffic in Seattle is horrible and it isn't awesome, but I think I avoid the worst of it since I drive from West to East to work and avoid downtown. I have yet to go on the (one) interstate that feeds the city.
I have a pretty lake a few miles away to walk around, there is access to a (small) beach near my house and I am sure there is a lot more...I'll get there eventually. In general it is really pretty here, even being in a city!
I want to post more pictures but again, I'll get there eventually.
Today I finally finished unpacking and put some things on the wall and have started to look at some places I want to go explore. It is hard because I want to go out there and check out the area but right now I feel like I am at work constantly :)
Work has been good-the unit is good, very similar to ours with some differences. It is strange to be somewhere different though and I think the hardest thing will be to do some things differently when I know how we do things at Vanderbilt...gonna have to learn to restrain myself probably :) I orient the rest of the week (on nights-eeks!!) and then will be on my own the week after.
Ok that is it for now...going to the gym and then to have dinner with some other travel nurses and watch Downton Abbey :)!!

Last day of travels

Almost there! Our last day Natalie and I decided to detour to the Oregon coast before heading north to Seattle. We looked up a spot and got on our way. I have to say in general we were lucky in finding really awesome places to explore everywhere we went and this was no exception.
We went to Cannon Beach, found an amazing hike to Indian Beach. This was a 2 mike trail through massive evergreen Forrest. There isn't a great way to describe just how huge and amazing the Forrest was. I felt so tiny and so loved by the beauty that god would create for me to enjoy! The hike meandered in the Forrest and would occasionally pop out for an ocean view and then at the end it dumps you on the beach. It was a cold foggy day but still so amazing. This part of the coast has huge rocks out at sea. We wandered there and then headed back. There were signs saying we were in cougar territory but luckily we find see any :)
We made our way to the little beach town, had some amazing fish and then walked a mike down the beach to Haystack Rock. There are these giant starfish and you can climb around the rocks. We both got hit by a wave while exploring.
Then we drove up to my new home in Seattle!

Behind

I am getting so behind in posting about our trip!! The last time I posted we were in Bend. We found a great hike outside of town to do that morning. Hiked to some 100 ft falls in the snow. It was cold but a beautiful cloudless blue sky kind of day. The falls were rushing but at the bottom they formed almost glacier like ice shapes with an aqua hue. Really amazing. We went back into bend for a yummy lunch and coffee and hit the road for Portland. (Btw I love Bend-everyone should visit!)
This part of the drive was the diciest and had potential to not happen. We drove up a mountain pass that leads you right next to Mount Hood. There are lots of signs there telling you to carry chains, whoops:) it was fine, though, I was just the slow tennessee driver everyone passed when they got the chance. We stopped and got out at the lodge at mount hood. It really does feel like you are in Switzerland or somewhere totally different.
Then we made the drive down to Portland. We didn't really do anything in the city other than get lost and go to Powell's the largest bookstore I have ever seen! My relatives live outside the city so we stayed with them.
Here are a few shots.

Salt Lake

Natalie and I drove into Salt Lake City right at sunset yesterday...it was beautiful. If you haven't been there it is basically a city surrounded by huge snow covered mountains. To drive there down I-80 you drive between mountains...there really isn't anyway to describe how beautiful it was.
Salt Lake is a bit of an interesting city...we went downtown for dinner and the place was deserted. We drove past several Mormon monuments :)
Today we took a mostly break day from driving. We had a leisurely morning and went to REI to get advice for the day. We ended up bypassing downhill skiing (I am still wary of hurting my hip) and did cross country skiing. We had an amazing day. We got a recommendation to go to Mill Creek Canyon, so that is what we did. We skiied up 4 miles...it didn't feel like we were going up the whole time but we realized on the way down that we were. Then we headed back down. Cross country skiing down a hill is not the same as downhill skiing...the skis are longer and just awkward and we didn't really know what we were doing, so basically we both fell a lot on the way down. We did get better as we made our way down. It was a really fun day out in this beautiful canyon.
Now we are in Twin Falls, ID. Tomorrow is the last day of long driving...should be 6 or 7 hrs to Bend then we will hang there and in Portland for the weekend and then go up to Seattle.
Honestly I still don't feel like I have left Nashville behind...think it will take having Natalie leaves me and starting the new job to feel like I am really going to be gone for awhile. Still seems very surreal. And this has been such a fun trip that it just feels like vacation...even with all the driving.
A few pictures..

Road trip

We are on day 2 of our road trip. Yesterday I did the majority of the driving so I didn't stop to write.
Yesterday we decided to do a looong day. We drive from nashville to Denver which is about 1189 miles. Yep. Long day. 16 hrs in the car. Having a friend makes the hugest difference. Neither of us felt like we were in the car that long. We stayed with a dear friend of mine in denver and are now back on the road.
The rest of our days will be shorter and filled with more fun. Today we are driving to Salt Lake City and will find something to do around there tomorrow.
So far the weather has been great. We got a little bit of snow last night outside of Denver but no ice on the roads or rain or anything!
I have been re-reading The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom and finished it on my last night in my house. Here is one of my favorite quotes from it. Thought it was fitting in light of this new adventure in life.
"There are no ifs in gods kingdom. His timing is perfect. His will is our hiding place. "
Utah or bust!!

Here we go!!

Wow! There is a lot of emotion going on inside of me. Excitement, apprehension, sadness, anticipation, fear, joy...I have been bouncing from one to the next for the last few days. What I have not felt is doubt...doubt that this is the right decision for my life right now, doubt that I need to step out on my own into a lot of unknowns, doubt that I have made the wrong decision.
I am so very certain that this is what needs to happen and for sound reasons that I can walk through all these emotions and somehow feels some peace. Thankful for this.
The house is packed up and looks really strange without photos and reminders of my life. All that goes with me.
Taking this reminder with me

Quick

Quick post. This is one of my 2 days off left before I leave so plenty of packing, details and spending time with friends to do.
I was listening to Fresh Air on NPR while in the car the other day and the man being interviewed finished his time with Terry Gross by thanking her for the show. His words were, "the show allows people to ask the questions of who are we and where are we going."
And I think those are good life questions. For a long time I think I was afraid to ask myself the questions for fear of the answer involving pain or change or something that seemed scary. I am enjoying being in a season of wondering what the answers to those questions are for this season of life.
Who are we and where are we going

Life

I am nearing on one week to go and am vacillating between thankfulness and excitement and nerves. Today the nerves were winning. Yesterday the awe was winning. I am just trying to take it one day at a time, really one hour. This morning I was wrecked with nerves about details, stuff that really doesn't matter or will be easy to figure out. I had to stop and read some words of truth and continue to speak them to my nervous heart.
Yesterday I was just riding the thankfulness wave. I have been amazed to see how God has worked out so much to make this happen. You know how you say, I hope that God will show me when it is time to fill in the blank? Well I say that, probably because I am a scaredey cat when it comes to change. I have been saying and thinking for 6 months that if change was needed God would make it clear. And he most certainly has. From sending me an amazing counselor to encourage me to listen to my heart, to great friends who have been so supportive of this, to details like having someone to rent my apartment when I didn't even really ask and finding my own housing at the last minute, to finishing my journal right at the end of a chapter of life :). There are just so many ways that God has very clearly shown me it is time for change...You can handle it, I will bring you my peace and I will take care of it.
Trying to remind myself of this in the midst of the details that are hanging in the air and the emotions that are coming out of nowhere....
 Still singing these words from one of our worship songs yesterday to myself:
"Hallelujah, What a Savior!"

Fear

I have been slowly making my way through Chip Dodd's Voice of the Heart. Slow because I could spend days on one paragraph. It is about our emotions or feelings and as I am learning how to walk through those instead of stuff them in the closet, there is a lot of learning for me.
 Fear can motivate you to reach out for help, risk your heart with your need, and trust others for assistance. Fear can help you depend on others for their skill and willingness, and can help you collaborate with others for mutual gain. If you express fear truthfully, you can gain wisdom from the experience.
  Unfortunately, too many of us answer fear by silencing its voice. We run from risk, eliminate trust, hide our dependency and become fretful and controlling about collaboration.. Fear offers the opportunity to trust God and others with our need for help, or it entices us to stay stuck in distrust and self-will.
 

2013

 

My friend sent me this picture today. It feels appropriate for the start of the year, for the beginning of some new paths and new experiences.
2012 was the year that I feel like I re-found myself. Let's be honest, RA knocked the wind out of my sails. It left my scrounging to exist in my world and I found myself partially functioning, though I didn't realize it at the time.
Lots of events converged to help me re-find myself this year...a big part of it was my surgery, the hated time of rest and time to realize I needed to do some serious me work. This led me to counseling, which I think everyone should spend time doing, and not only finally learning how to grieve my RA but also how to walk through my feelings, how to feel and what to do with the feelings, how to not be ashamed of who I am and how to hopefully start walking as God has created me to be. Lots of hard work, but I could not be more thankful for the year that was 2012. Rough patches and all. As all the years past, I could not have made it here without my friends and family.
And now to 2013...a whole 365 days of possibility...of hopefully learning more about who I am and how to live in who I was created to be.
Cheers...