Moving to Greenville

Rodney and I made another really important decision for our future (other than to get married). I received a letter last week from ECU offering a position for me on the alternate list. This is a good thing as it is not a rejection. They have favorly reviewed my application but need to have space to open up for a position for me possibly.

I debated it for a little bit as I was unsure if I should accept the position on the alternate list. After much discussion (and crying) we decided that I would accept the position and thus, now we will move to Greenville on a leap of faith. This leap of faith is huge as Rodney will need to apply for a job in the Greenville area, we have yet a place to live, and I do not have a secure medical school position, thus leaving me with the possibility of needing to find a job as well.

We are both pretty scared and would appreciate any and all prayers for us to find a job, for me to get into medical school, and for us to find reasonably priced housing. We are actually considering consulting with a financial advisor in these important decisions, especially our future finances.

I am sad to be moving away from the Raleigh area. I have grown up here all my life. I have a stable and wonderful church families. My friends are here. My family is here. I have a potential full time job (or at least part-time job security). I have an EMS system that I love working with. We're just leaving so much behind.

It has crossed my mind recently that perhaps God wants us to take this leap of faith. I wonder why I just couldn't have been plain rejected from med school again. We see the opportunities in Greenville despite the insecurity, but I just wish I could see the security in moving there. I wish I could understand what God's will for us is there.

In the upcoming weeks before the wedding, we have a lot more that has been added to our plate. We have to house hunt and job hunt. I am going to submit an early decision application to ECU for next year's entering class in case it doesn't work out for me this year. I'm hoping that them see us having moved to Greenville and my alternate status this year may give me a leg up. We'll see about that. Rodney is going to contact some publishing companies and apply for a couple band positions in the Greenville area.

For now, it is just the leap of faith. Thanks to everyone who has supported me through prayers, encouragement, cards, etc. I appreciate it dearly.

Wedding Shower

I have never had that much attention given to me before. But, it was fun. Thanks to everyone who gave presents to us to help us start out a new life!!!

Code 3

I always thought it would be a thrill to be one of those people who drove some sort of vehicle with its lights and sirens. Actually, it is quite nerve racking. My adrenaline rose out of pure nervousness rather than thrill. You just don't know what erratic moves people are going to make to seemingly get out of your way. Plus, my personal insurance can go up if I wreck the ambulance.

Well, the other day, just as we left Rex Hospital (which is out of our district anyways), a call came in for a house fire. Mind you, I am driving the ambulance and I have never driven Code 3 before (with lights and sirens). My partner Chasidy looks at me and says that we can take this call. She calls central and tells them it's ours and then looks at me and says, " We're going hot." Never once did I question my ability to drive this ambulance before, but I was like, "Me?? Are you asking me to drive hot? Surely you want me to pull over and let you drive." Of course this whole conversation is going on in my head as I reach over and turn on the lights and Chasidy turns on the sirens.

Now, most people on their first "hot" run go too slow. I actually made really good time. I think I made ten miles through highway and neighborhoods in 7 minutes. That's actually awesome for a first timer. I only freaked Chasidy out once, but that was because she couldn't read my mind and anticipate that I wasn't going to pull out in front of some moving cars and I, of course, wasn't. It's actually pretty scary riding in the passenger seat of a Code 3 run.

Well, after all that hussle and bussle, we get to the call hot and the house fire isn't all that hot. It was adrenaline rushing, and I am proud of myself for the way I handled the ambulance going Code 3.

We did chase the police and fire trucks to another house fire call right after that one and it was more unimpressive than the first. I didn't drive that time, but it was fun having a police and fire escort.

It's a girl! Wait...

He's a girl.... I mean I think they are all girls. This is a good thing. This means no aggressive future breeding issues.

After some research by Rodney and some follow-up research by me, we've determined that Riley and Rivers are girls, not boys. We confirmed that Tammy was indeed a girl as well. This leaves us at a quandary. Rivers is ok for a girl's name, so we left the little red-eared slider her name. However, Riley is not a girl name (though I know someone who knows a girl named Riley), at least I don't like it as a girl's name. So, we've renamed Riley, Bree. Rodney and I like it, so that's the way it is going to stay. I actually decided on Bree because it sounds pretty and I was reading about Bree, the desperate housewife on that show, and I thought it sounded good for a turtle.

It's actually good that it's Bree and not another R name. I kept mixing up the R names even though I knew which was which. Bre is a type of cheese and since cheese is usually yellow (stereotypically), Bree can be a play on Bre, too.

Anyways, it is now the future family of Tamara, Rodney, Tammy, Bree, and Rivers. Hopefully, we can add Maxwell (a dog) to that list soon.

Turtles

The Adoption is complete. Rodney and I now have two more "children." We already had one by the name of Tammy. She is an Eastern Painted Turtle. Now we have two more turtles.

We adopted them from a friend of a friend (thanks, Frank!). I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew I was going to go look at 2 turtles. When I got there, it was instant love.

You see, turtles are my favorite animal. Let me tell you the story of Tammy:

One day, in third grade, I came to the bus stop and there was a neighborhood kid, Keylan, holding a cup. The curiosity got the best of me, as it does every third grader, and I asked what was in the cup. He showed it to me and there was a tiny little turtle in the bottom. I told him that it was so cute and that I wanted to take care of it. Little did I know that the $0.50 I was about to spend would be an investment for at least the next 14 years!

I carried the turtle to school with me and my teacher, Mrs. Jarman, thought it was the cutest thing that I had brought a pet to school. Of course, I couldn't keep her at my desk while class was going on, so she put the cup on the window sill.

I brought the turtle home and showed it to Mom, and she about had an internal cow. She got worried because she thought that if it died (because it was so little), I would be heart broken and scarred for life. Thankfully that didn't happen. We put the little turtle in a pie dish for the time being. Thomas and I, the next day, tried to make a habitat for her in a jar he had, but ended up breaking the jar. Thus, Mom finally went out and bought her a real bowl. We probably didn't get her a ten gallon tank until about 6 years ago and that is what she has been in until yesterday.

You're probably thinking I named my turtle after myself. That is actually not the case. There is a book, of which I still have a copy, named "Tammy the Sea Turtle Saves Lives." This was who I ended up naming my turtle after.

Now, back to the new "children" that we have attained. One of the turtles is a yellow-bellied slider named "Riley." He is actually almost the same size as Tammy (she's still a little bit bigger) but he is almost 12 years younger than her. The other one is a red-eared slider named "Rivers." He is sooo cute! He is about the size of a half-dollar coin (maybe a teensy bit bigger) and about a year old.

We decided to keep the names that they came with. They also came with a 20-gallon tank and lots of accessories. We slowly integrated Tammy in with the other two, seeing how she would respond to them being that she has been alone for the past 14 years. Everything seems to be good between all of them, so she has now joined Riley and Rivers in the big tank. We even upgraded some accessories in the tank to include an aquarium heater and another floating platform as well as another filter (the tank came with two more).

Hopefully, soon, I'll post some real pictures of them here so that you can check them out. Or, you can just come by my house and visit!

This is what Riley looks like.

This is what Rivers looks like.

This is what Tammy looks like.