>>>>>>The Mize Family in Gainsville Fl.

We have made it to Gainesville Florida, our second travel nursing assignment. Our new Florida home is very nice. We are on the third floor, which has it’s ups and downs, literally. We have the best view of the pool and playground areas. Our neighborhood also has 3 beautiful ponds with streaming waterfalls. One of our fist days here we were walking around the pond area and came upon a crane that had gotten string wrapped around it’s beak. So the Mize family went to it's rescue. We made several attempts to catch it and after about an hour of chasing it up and down the shore we finally got it. Heston held down the wings, Trent held it’s feet and Bryson helped me hold it’s beak while Johnny cut off the string. When we finally  succeed and freed the bird of the string the kind polite animal tried to bite us all. We all learned 2 important things about cranes, one, they have very sharp beaks and two, they have teeth in that long slender beak of theirs.

That’s not all the interesting habit that we have found around here. Just last week on a bright sunny day we discovered that the ponds are full of turtles. They line the shore line of the pond to sun bathe. It’s really neat to see. Well the boys kinda tried to sneak up on them in hopes to catch one. The boys quickly learned that Florida turtles are not easy to catch, they are indeed fast! Well during our turtle hunt we almost stepped right on a snake, this quickly put an end to our turtle chase. Florida and reptiles!! YIKES!!!!

The boys have made friends and love hanging out at the basketball court. Here are some pics from around our neighborhood. Let’s play I SPY, can you spy the snake and turtle??

This picture as a turtle in it, can you find it?

Ok, this is the snake picture, look closely!

.........Vicky's car is gone, RIP

While we were in Cordele, Ga my car started making a terrible noise. Johnny took it to a mechanic; which told him that it was the timing belt and it would just be too costly to repair. So we weighed all the options. Do we drive it to Florida and risk the chance of it breaking down on the side of the road. If so we would have to pay a tow truck. Johnny called around to see who would buy the car, for parts or for scrap. The scrap yard offered us the most for it, $10/100 a pound. So sad to say, we took the deal.

March 11, 2010

We laid the car to rest. We cleaned the car clean. Johnny had to pop a hole in the gas tank. When this drained it was like the car was crying. Thanks to Dad for helping with this part.

Then Dad, Johnny and Flash towed the car to the scrap yard.

This video tells the rest of the story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XzbiBR_ycU

This car was the first one that Johnny and I had bought together at a dealership. That day was very stressful. After it was all said and done we felt that we had been had. We made payments on the Ford for four years. Those first four years all we could talk about is what a bad deal we got. Then when the car made it to it's 7th, 8th, and 9th years all we could say was what a good car we had. Well when it made it to its 10th and 11th year we really knew we had gotten a great deal. This car had over 261,000 miles. We have had this car longer than any other . It was truly a diamond in the ruff.

I really loved my car. My favorite feature of the car was the keypad entry. I could never lock my keys in the car. This was great for me.

Well, it had been a good car and now it's gone.  I hope one day we will find one just as good.

Thanks Flash for documenting the sad day!

Favorites and not so Favorites

Now that we are in Florida we are all reflecting back on our time spent at our Nations Capital City. Here we have made a list of the things we loved, hated and remembered. It’s a list of our favorites and not so favorites.




Our favorite way to travel up north, was by Amtrak Train. Only did this once but it beat driving.

Our favorite restaurant was Fuddruckers in China Town. We all enjoyed eating here for dinner. China Town was always all lit up and a happing place.

Our favorite thing to eat was a $5 pizza from Little Ceasers.

Our favorite Smithsonian was the Air and Space Smithsonian located on the National Mall.

Our favorite memorial was the Lincoln Memorial.

Our favorite activity was to go up into the Washington Monument.

Our favorite museum was Crime and Punishment and the Spy Museum.

Our favorite store was the Spy Store.

Our favorite way to get around Washington, Dc was riding the Metro.

Our favorite activity was outdoor ice skating.

Our favorite thing to do was play in the Spark Lab in the American History Museum.

Our most interesting thing we had to go through was security at the Statue of Liberty. They put you in this machine that blows air on you.

Most informative thing to do was attend the ranger talk at the Ford’s Theater.



Our favorite neighboring city was New York City. Our favorite place to go was the Toys R Us store in Times Square. We always enjoyed getting New York pizza to eat while in the city.



During our stay we happened upon a couple of very interesting places that we would have never set out to see. Our first one was the Botanical Gardens in downtown DC. We just stepped in this building to get out of the cold one day and were amazed at the indoor gardens. We also just happened to find the Navy Yard, which was a great place to visit. We were able to tour a Navy Ship, which the boys loved.



Now that you have read all our ‘favorites’, here are some not so favorites.

The boys did not like walking all the way to the Lincoln Memorial. If you visit be sure to park closer. We always parked down on the Mall and took the hike.

We also did not like the naked statues in the art gallery. It would have been nice if they had had them in a designated area where kids were not allowed.

The White House was our least favorite visit. But everyone has to visit that to be able to tell their grandkids that they have been in the White House. Well ,boy do we have a story to tell. To make it short, we learned that you are not suppose to open doors in the White House. No matter how tempting it maybe. We do think we found a secret passage way though. Not a favorite memory but a true tall tell.

Toll roads are a boo!! To get from DC to New York cost a whapping $40 bucks in tolls.

And the last not favorite thing, THERE IS NO DUKES MAYO IN DC. Thanks to Maw-Maw for keeping us stocked all 6 months we were there.





So there it is our list. Hope you enjoyed it. It was our life in Waldorf, MD in a nutshell. Just a few more pointers before you head off. If you are going during winter months buy a pair of snow boots, you will need them!!! Also go ahead and make the purchase of a snow shovel at the beginning of the season, these do get gone.

There is one thing that we have already started missing - THE ICE CREAM TRUCK!!



Here are a few family shots from our first adventure as a travel nurse family.

Georgia

Here we are in Georgia

Johnny has been out of work going on 2 weeks now. We never saw this being a problem when we took on this adventure of travel nursing. But I guess it is something we will think about now. Luck-a-ly Johnny’s dad owns a cow farm and is able to give him some ‘farming’ work. I am in south Georgia visiting and helping out with my family. The boys spent the first week in North Georgia with the Mize Family and will be spending this week with the Jones Family here in South Georgia. We are getting all our visiting in while Johnny is out of work.


While in North GA the boys helped out on the cow farm. (see pictures) They were able to take their ’winter break’ from school work, but not here in South GA. They are back to the books today, fun, fun!!

Here in Cordele, the boys get very excited when it’s time for Korby (their cousin) to get off the bus. They are also begging me to let them jump in the pool. It has been nice and warm here, but the water is still just too cold. We did take a little field trip to the Uncle Remus Museum. The boys really enjoy hearing their Maw-Maw read them the Uncle Remus stories. It was a fun little stop.



We are hoping to hear something this week about an assignment in Florida. If you are considering travel nursing be sure to save up for times like this when you maybe out of work. I’m hoping next blog will be informing you of our next travel destination.