26 July 2011

A Lot Can Happen in 60 Days. With a lot of Pictures.

So yes. In response to my last post (in MAY, for crying out loud), I did graduate from nursing school.


My adorable niece sent her congrats.


I took a hiatus from all things facebook/twitter/internet/life to study for my boards. I passed my boards. I'm officially an RN.


I started my new job as a medical oncology nurse and began the New Grad Residency program at the hospital. It was pretty cool. My preceptor was great. She taught me more in a month than I learned in an entire semester of nursing school.

Then, if graduation/boards/new job training wasn't enough going on in my life, my husband, my dear, sweet husband, decides to accept a new baseball coaching position in Hattiesburg, MS.

Roughly 536 miles away.

Did you all know that M was born and raised on the coast in Gulfport, MS? Yes. When I first met him, he had the sweetest little southern accent that was quickly decimated by the Missouri Ozarks twang that surrounded us. (He still teases me about my Yankee ability to put a "y" or "ie" sound in the middle of any word. Hi comes out as Hiiiieeee. Oil is oy-el. Etc.) He hates snow and ice, and I think the last couple winters of nothing but ice storms and snow days brought him to his breaking point. This position was just something he couldn't turn down - bigger school in a big city? With restaurants and movie theatres and a mall? And a Target?

Yes please.

So, I gave my notice at work, we packed up the house, and we moved. I've now been in Hattiesburg for one week. It's been a little bit of culture shock for this Midwestern Girl - namely, just now stinkin' nice everyone is. I'm not used to complete strangers coming up to me in the store to see if they can help me reach something on the very top shelf. If that happened in St. Louis, you make sure you have your mace handy. Actually, I wouldn't know, because no one ever took the time to stop to offer to help me before.

However, I'm sorry. I cannot put my groceries into something called a buggy - it's a shopping cart. A buggy is something you put a baby in to walk it around the block. I'm not throwing groceries on top of a baby.

I love where we live. We decided to rent our first year here just to scope out the area before we buy a house. Our apartment is sweet. All credit goes to M - he came down before we moved to look at several different apartments and secured this one for us. It is beautiful. Pool, fitness center, gated, and the best part - we are about five steps away from the Longleaf Trace, a 41 mile paved walking/jogging/biking trail. We get to have our dogs, and our apartment has it's own private entrance. Love.

See the lamppost in the middle of the picture? The door with the overhang right to the right of it is our front door:



View from the kitchen window:


My book nook! Knuke loves it.


Walking the dogs on the Trace.


Yes. We live two hours from NOLA. We also live one hour from the beach if you drive south towards Gulfport.


My new place of employment as of August 1. I'll be a post-surg RN.



I would show more pictures of the inside of the apartment, but we sold our furniture before we left Missouri, and Haverty's is supposed to be here today to deliver the new goods. If it's anything like waiting for the cable guy, I'm not going to hold my breath.

On a final note, southern humidity and my hair are not compatible. I look like I have the frizzy, puffy hair of my middle school days - not a good look for me. I really don't want to re-live that awkward time in my life, so any suggestions of anti-humidity/smoothing hair products would be greatly appreciated.

Today I love: Folgers Chocolate Truffle coffee and air conditioning.