So, this is fall?

Fall is here! At least that's what people tell me this is. We don't so much have four seasons at home, so I don't really have anything to compare it to! I do know that the weather is gorgeous. It gets cooler than I like at night, but during the day the temperature stays in the mid 60's and the sun shines bright.

On the job front, I finished my orientation in Nashville this Monday and start at MTMC Friday night. I have an orientation period on the floor where I will be working with an experienced RN. I'll be with her for the next three weeks on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. I am a little nervous about my first night, but I am very excited to get started.

Peter has been out of town all week on his semi-annual fishing trip with Tom Theoni. They were joined by several of thier friends and PW got a chance to relax, unwind and work on all of his papers that are due next week. On Wednesday I was feeling a pretty serious case of cabin fever coming on so I decided to go off the mountain for a short hike. I drove into Monteagle and went to the South Cumberland visitor's Center. They had lots of little displays and tons of maps and hiking info. From there I drove about 40 minutes down the road to the Savage Gulf/Stone Door hiking area. I chose the area because I had done it before in Dec with Peter, Eric and Shelley and I knew it was a very easy hike. I also knew there would be a lot of people around so I felt safe by myself. I walked the mile long path to the Savage Gulf overlook. It was beautiful. I learned at the visitor's center that this was the place shown at the end of the TN travel commercial ("Come to Tennessee, We're playing your song!"). But I forgot my camera in the car, so no pictures. I have a feeling I'll be heading back here as the leaves continue to change tho. On the otherside of the parking area is a very short path down to a waterfall. I stopped by my car and grabbed the camera and headed down to the waterfall.

I don't know what it is about water that makes me feel so peaceful, but I could have sat and watched this stream forever!

The path leads to the stream and you can walk out all the way to the edge of the fall. The path then continues to a little deck that gives you a beautiful view of the waterfall.

On Thursday my friends Jim, Carolyn and Stephanie came up from Pensacola to see me. I gave them a full tour of the campus, or movie set as Jenny refers to it. We went to Green's View:

Lake Cheston:

And all of the other pretty places to see. I really like showing off my new town! So, come up and see us...I give a pretty good tour!

Sewanee Fog

So we had heard about the infamous Sewanee Fog, but we had never experienced it until recetly. Let me tell you, it's seriously thick stuff! Sewanee is located ontop of the Cumberland Plateau and fog just settles in here and stays for days! I took a few pictures after I got home from work yesterday just to give you guys an idea, but you really need to see it to believe it! The above picture is the Sewanee Football field. There is a fence around it and of course goals and a scoreboard, but all of that is pretty much invisible in the fog.


Above is the view from mine and Peter's favorite picnic spot Green's View.



And here's the golf course. The fog kind of adds to the Harry Potter, magical feel of the place.

Besides the fog, my other excitement this week was driving 200+ miles roundtrip to Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville every day for orientation. The drive was brutal. I left before 5:15 every morning and arrived any time between 6:40 and 7:55 depending on traffic! The drive home took at least 2 hours everyday, but I made shopping stops in Murfreesboro pretty often to break that up! Nashville is a very cool city and Saint Thomas is HUGE. I was very impressed by the hospital. Mr. Madden, my old CEO at Sacred is there part time now. I saw his office today, but I haven't seen him yet. Maybe Monday...It's my last day of orientation. I'll be working on the floor soon and I am so excited!

Hope everyone is having a great week. Will post more soon.

Exploring the Boro...

On Tuesday Peter and I went to Murfreesboro to celebrate our fourth anniversary. The actual day isn't until Thursday the 8th, but Tuesday worked better for us. I took him to Middle Tennessee Medical Center first so he could see the hospital where I will be working. The current facility is so cute. It's in a beautiful neighborhood, similar to North Hill in Pensacola. It was built in 1927 as a 37 bed not-for-profit hospital and underwent 5 renovations and additions over the next 60 years to become the 220 bed hospital that it currently is.



After driving around the hospital and surrounding neighborhood we drove to Murfreesboro's downtown area. There are lots of little cafes and shops. We stopped into one little place called the Blue Rooster for a cocktail. Maker's Manhattan. Mmm....

For dinner we planned to go to a burger joint in another part of town. On our way there we passed the new location of MTMC. We couldn't get too close because of the construction barriers but it looks awesome! It's going to be a high tech 286 bed facility. I am so excited about being part of this transition.

After we looked around as much as we were able we headed to dinner. Directly across the street from the new hospital location we spotted a Pei Wei! Pei Wei is an Asian bistro operated by P.F. Chang's. It's YUMMY!!! As soon as we saw the sign we forgot about our burger joint plans! Peter had never been to one before but I went with Luke in Orlando and raved about it for weeks afterwards. We had Lettuce wraps and Orange Peel Chicken and Spicy Thai Dynamite. YUM. The whole area was a very cool outdoor mall. We got to do some shopping!!! We went to Marshall's (where I got a pretty amazing winter coat) and Ann Taylor (where I bought some long sleeve tee shirts) and walked all over. There was a Ross, Belk, Victoria's Secret and a Maggie Moo's. There's also a Jason's Deli which PW was thrilled about! It's been way too long since I've been out shopping. We had a blast and I LOVE Murfreesboro. It's a great city and I think I'm really going to enjoy working there.

Another week on the Monutain..

Another busy week and weekend since arriving at Sewanee has come to a close. Tuesday Peter's class was cancelled so we took a walk to Green's View, a scenic overlook about a mile from our house, and had a picnic. It was a little chilly but the sun was shining and the view was gorgeous!

I made the drive to Murfreesboro Thursday to fill out all of my new hire paperwork at MTMC. I had to take a medications-math test and do my drug screening. I was also able to explore the new hospital a bit. It's small, but very clean and nice. The employees I met were all super friendly. I really can't wait to get started! On Friday we officially closed on our house in P'cola. We were thrilled to have that weight lifted, but it was bittersweet. We loved our house, our neighbors, and our people in Pensacola. It is another marker in our separation from the place we have called home for all of our lives together. One of the other seminary spouses, Jen, and I went to Nashville with her 14 month old son Bill. We ate lunch at a BBQ joint and explored Broadway. There were tons of bars and little stores. Think New Orleans but with a country theme. I liked it a lot. We went to Trader Joe's for some groceries and spent a little time driving around the city. I will definitely make a return trip there!

Saturday morning I woke up early to drive to Sevierville, TN to see my mom who was in town visiting her brother. I had a great visit with mom. We shopped and walked around Pigeon Forge, went to my Uncle Cint's restaurant and heard him play guitar and sing at a benefit at a local church. The trip was very short, but it was a lot of fun. While I was hanging with some family PW was at home ordering us a washer and dryer!!! YAY!!!! We have been blessed with a pretty awesome neighbor that lets us use his anytime we want, but having our own is going to be so nice. PW spent the rest of the day studying his behind off. He has a ton of reading to do for school and gets that done much faster when one of us is not at home!

Today has been a lazy Sunday. PW and I just reviewed his Hebrew vocabulary words and he had a nice long chat to catch up with Ken and Andrea. Looking forward to another week in the adventures of a nurse and a seminarian walk into a bar. Stay tuned! :)