October: Month in Review

Said goodbye to an awesome friend (and bridesmaid!) before she packed up and moved to Seattle for a new and improved job with Microsoft.

Saw "Legally Blonde: The Musical" with good friends and fellow musical lovers.

Spent a glorious weekend at Pacific Blue with the hubs and the puppy.  Climbed a mountain, had a bonfire, relaxed on the beach, and frolicked in the waves.

Started my new job as an Epic Credentialed Trainer at Providence. 

Had another successful Wine & Dine, after which my friend Katee went into labor and gave birth to baby boy Isaac.  So many milestones happen at Wine & Dine parties! 

Went to the Pumpkin Patch with my mom - her first time - and some other fall-loving buddies. 

Made our very own beer - our first time - with the help of our seasoned beer-making friends, Annie & Aaron.  (Stay tuned for November's sampling of our Apricot Cream Ale.) 

Visited the Davis Graveyard in Milwaukie (5 mins. from our house) and got legitimately spooked out by their homemade gravestones, cemetary abby, and life-sized ghouls.

Watched the Zombie "Thriller" dance at OMSI and mingled with some freaky looking zombies! 

Dressed up in full costume at partied at the Schlyper's for their 1st annual Halloween Monster Mash.  I was a Roman Goddess and Bryann was a Cave Stud. 

Saw the one-night only production of "A Chorus Line" (one of our favorites) at the Schnitz.

Where'd the Sun Go?!?

It's officially fall in Portland.  I actually feel like we skipped fall all together and have blasted straight into winter.  The nice weather lasted for so long into October that I wasn't quite prepared for the cold, rainy weather to come back.  Instead of the usual crisp cold with sun, we're getting frosty morning windows and rain.  The only thing keeping me from feeling like it's the dead of winter is the gorgous leaves on the trees.  I can't wait until the tree in our front yard gets those bright red leaves! 

Bryann is determined to keep the heat off until November, but I complained enough on Tuesday (the house was 59!!!) that he turned the gas pilot light back on and let me turn on the fireplace.  He also, begrudgingly, let me put the flannel sheets on the bed.  :-)  Add and an extra blanket on the bed - on my side only though because somehow, even when it's 50 degrees at night, B still manages to start sweating - and some heat to the house, and I'll be ready to snuggle in for the winter. 

This has been a rough few weeks getting settled back into the swing of working full-time.  B has classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, and I have choir rehearsals on Tuesdays while B goes to board game night, Plus google chat is disabled on my work computer so we really only see or talk to each other for about an hour before we go to bed on those days.  It's been kind of nice though.  We stay up later than usual talking and laughing in bed, trying to go to sleep, but always thinking of one more thing we didn't get to tell the other person during the day.  :-D

We really need to figure out a new meal plan.  B doesn't usually come home between work and school on Mondays and Wednesdays and Tuesday is a huge rush between getting home, eating, and going to our respective events.  We've been getting stuck with no real dinner, and no leftovers for lunch the next day.  I think I've OD'ed on Mac & Cheese (a travesty, I know) and B usually ends up skipping dinner before his class and comes home starving.  We're thinking if we do a big meal on Sunday (or a crockpot if we have evening plans) that could carry over for lunches and dinner on Monday.  Then crockpot for dinner on Tuesday and leftovers for Wednedsay lunch and dinner.  There's a couple slow-cooker blogs I like and can find tasty recipes from, so we're going to try meal planning for all of next week, getting all of next week's groceries this weekend, and see how that goes. 

October has been rough, financially.  I stopped claiming unemployment when I got hired at Providence but that left us with 3 weeks without income this month.  We're trying to cash-flow Bryann's MBA program and not go into any more debt, so our payments for each term are spread out over 3 months.  The anti-lock break system in the truck went out, so that was a huge chunk of our emergency fund, plus it's time for both of our vehicle registration renewals.  Plus my car has started vibrating and we're taking it in next week to get checked out and fixed.  Other than the unforseen vehicle expenses, we've done pretty well with the budget this month, but the rest of this fall is going to continue to be tough.  We're losing John as a roommate so we're thinking of finding someone else to replace him, and keep that supplemental income. 

I know we'll figure it all out.  In spite of our ongoing financial woes, we're really happy.  Even with all the hustle and bustle, this month has been full of fun activities and quality time with loved ones.  I often find myself marveling at how blessed we are. 

Month in review to come next week!

New Beginnings

All that I know of tomorrow is that Providence will rise before the sun

-Jean Baptiste Lacordaire

(I am the most dreadful blogger.  If I leave too much time between posts, I get overwhelmed with all of the things I want to write about, and then I go into overload paralysis.  This is my attempt to break free.. again...)

The last thing I wrote about was that things were looking up on the job front.  When I wrote that post, I had a few interviews in the works but hadn't heard back with an offer yet.  The day before, I had an interview for a trainer position with Providence Health & Services, and that Friday I got a verbal offer for the job!  It took more than a month to get everything settled, and I didn't want to talk about it because I didn't want to jinx it.  (I'm still a 4th grader at heart who believes in the power of jinxing things.)  But over the course of 5 weeks, I got the written offer, went through salary negotiations, completed a background check, a health and drug screening, and a bunch of nire hire paperwork.  And now that I've been working for 5 days, I think it's finally safe to talk about my new job! 

I'm the new Credentialed Trainer in Epic Administration (though I'm not credentialed yet...)  Providence switched to using Epic - an electronic medical records system - with the help of government stimulus funds, and I'm going to be teaching hospital staff - providers, surgeouns, OB's, therapists, and a few other support professionals - how to use the Inpatient application of Epic.  I'm really excited about the switch from K-12 Education to Healthcare and I'm happy that I still get to teach.

I even get an ID badge!  

I started this week with a full day at the Providence Office Park with the generic new employee orientation along with about 100 other new hires from all different departments and backgrounds.  It was an interesting day and I'm glad they start all new employees off with the orientation.  And it was really weird at the same time because I was treated really well.  I know this is probably standard with most businesses, but there was a breakfast buffet, free lunch at the cafe, snacks brought in during the afternoon sessions, and hearing about all the benefits and perks of being an employee just made me feel like Providence really values their staff.  I made some new friends at lunch - just like it was my first day of school - and talked to quite a few people who were returning to Providence after hating their other jobs.  People who'd worked at insurance companies, or even competing hospitals like Kaiser, and were tired of working in the corporate world.  So it was encouraging to hear the stories from people who'd left and came back because they think Providence is such a great place to be.  After my last work environment, this is a breath of fresh air and a relief that the people who work here are happy. 

For the rest of this week, I've been at Providence Milwaukie.  I'm not actually in the hospital, I'm working in a house right behind the hospital that Providence owns, and which they call a satelite office.  My days are a little bizzare for now, and will be for the next few weeks because I don't actually start my training until November 13th.  Intially I was going to start my Epic training on October 1st in Montana, but the hiring process took too long and they couldn't get me onboarded in time to start the program.  But they didn't want to loose me, so they got me started and I'm going to be doing random stuff until I start my training program.  I'm still a little mixed up on who's who and what's what.  I've met a few people working on the Epic project but some of them are private contractors from out of town only here for a few months, and some of them work for Providence but don't live in Portland.  I haven't met my supervisor yet, and I only met the project coordinator briefly on Tuesday because she lives in Renton.  I have a feeling that after my training program is complete, I'm going to be traveling a lot.  :-) 

My "office" aka the living room of an old house

The people that I have met so far have been great, and super helpful.  I don't have a lot of direction and I don't work with any supervisors in the building so there's no one around to tell me what to do.  I've just been trying to be helpful for others on their projects, and in the meanwhile, trying to learn Epic and some medical terminology on my own.  I'm meeting my supervisor and getting hooked up with a CT buddy on Monday so hopefully I'll have some more to write about in the coming weeks.  For now, even though I don't have a lot of direction, I'm really happy with my new position and am looking forward to learning new things and becoming an expert in my field. 

Congratulatory flowers and wine from Bryann  :-)