I'm Back

So, while Mark's daily travels have become much shorter, mine have become much longer. The beginning of my final year of grad school has begun and with it comes the busiest schedule I think we have had yet. I still travel two days a week to G-boro (45 minutes) for classes and get to carpool with a good friend - until she gets this fab new job she has applied for. I will be sad to lose her company those two days, but I am really hoping she gets this great new opportunity. The other three days of the week I travel with two classmates to Salisbury (45-60 minutes each way, depending on traffic) for my internship at the VA Medical Center. My first semester I will be working with their Community Care Home Telehealth program and I have a fantastic supervisor. I already went on two home visits with her yesterday and really enjoyed the time we had with the clients there. My second semester will be in the Geriatric Psych unit and I am also looking forward to that. So, there will be a great deal of traveling this year as well.....just not out of the States. :( Mark also started a new job this week that he is really excited about and now he only has to travel about ten minutes to work, instead of the 45 he has been driving.

We took an overnight trip to the mountains last weekend to visit some friends, which was nice, and there will be some adventures to some other places this fall, but for now we are trying to settle in to our new routine. I think the animals are sad not to have mommy around during the day anymore, but I am sure they will adjust. :) Stay tuned!

St. Louis Adventures

A little over a week until school is back in session and I had to have one more summer adventure! My friend Tiff just bought a house and she asked me to trek to St. Louis with her to retrieve some things her grandmother had for her for the house. Why not??! We braved the new airport restrictions and hopped a plane Friday morning to the heat of the midwest. Once we found the rental car, our first stop was to see Tiff's grandmother, who runs a junkyard in dodwntown St. Louis. It has been there for fifty years and really should be named a historical landmark. Unfortunately, her neighbors are giving her a hard time and trying to force her to close down. Mark was incredibly jealous to find out where we were going and would have been in pig heaven digging around in all of the tires and other assorted car parts. Maybe next time....





We then went to try and explore the riverfront, down by the arch but traffic was crazy and it took about an hour to move a half mile. I remember the arch from when I was younger and visited it while we lived in the Midwest, but it was much bigger in person than in my memory. We didn't have time to tour, but at least I was able to see part of the riverfront and a bit of the city. Also drove by Cardinals stadium!!



We made it safely back to Grandma's house and went to eat dinner. Nothing particularly St. Louis style, but after a day of airplane peanuts and crackers anything was appealing. We loaded a bunch of goodies in the car for Tiff's new place and settled in for a good night's rest.

By 8:30am Saturday (St. Louis time) we were off on our seven-state tour back to North Carolina and the day actually went by faster than I expected. Had a pile of pancakes at Cracker Barrel, saw the cornfields of Illinois.......and Indiana, the rolling hills of Kentucky......and West Virginia.....and Virginia and made it back home by 10pm. Not bad...











The arch and the King of Beers....




Cornfields of IL













We found Santa in Indiana....

















All in all a great little road trip to end the summer!

Lazy Summer

The Lambs have remained at home in big city Pfafftown the rest of this summer....
The gardens needed attention and so did the animals. We still enjoy the company of our current foster dog, Samara, and are hoping that she finds a new home soon. Anyone need a dog?? My
summer babysitting adventure has come to an end as well. I watched two of the sweetest girls, but I have definitely learned some things about myself and my patience level with children.
I think we will stick to our four-legged pals for the time being.

I begin training for my fall internship for school on Monday and I really can't believe that the summer is coming to an end. Classes will begin again on the 21st and my leisurly schedule will become a thing of the past. We are hoping for a few small trips at the end of the summer, but nothing spectacular.

Stay tuned for the craziness that will begin again soon!