The past four months or so have led me here. Here to our new house, my mom to her new one-bedroom apartment, which she loves, and to me quitting my job of four years and making another career change. And time marches on.

M’s house sold in one day but it proved much more difficult to find the right place for us. Although our location is pretty ideal, our new house has a lot of work yet to be done. The giant tree limb that fell on the fence extended that list even more (tree removal, tree trimming, new fence!).

I recently had the opportunity to go back into the educational realm and take a job working with the Physical Therapy department doing student advising at my alma mater and former place of employment. It was a very hard decision to make but I said goodbye to clinical care for a while.

And hello to the educational side of things!

I’m one month into the job and I’m really starting to dig it. It’s been quite the departure from working in a hospital and took me a while to adjust to the pace. For the first few days, I actually felt anxious if I wasn’t doing something productive. Having a side conversation made me feel panicked and a bit guilty. I have since gotten more used to the culture. But I’m also productive as hell.

One of my dear coworkers from the hospital gave me a really cute pen set as a departure gift.

While settling into my new office, I recalled the gift! As I slid the pens out of their plastic sleeve I was smacked by a strong, unpleasant odor. It was indescribable but absolutely foul. My first reaction was to make my new workmate smell them to verify the odor. She recoiled instantly.

My next move was to give the pens a rinse with soap and water in the bathroom, which didn’t seem to help at all. I visited the company’s website to read about any complaints. None. Then I Googled, “Why does my pen smell?” You know, just in case there were other smelly pen-owners out there. What Google thought I meant is not appropriate for this family-friendly blog.

“Why would you Google that?” asked my brand new boss. I made quite the impression. The lesson here was Google less. Some of life’s mysteries are better left unknown.

It’s been resolved since. After emailing the company, they replaced my pens and blamed the smell on the “the printing process.”

I also said goodbye to my childhood home. My first day at the new job was the week the house closed. Here’s our last picture at the old place. All the emotional turmoil that just dragged on seemed to melt away by this moment.

So now my mom is squared away (until we find her a more permanent residence), and M and I are settling into the new house. Molly freaking loves the new place. It’s quiet, no trains. There’s a big backyard and even a couple of carpeted rooms to get some good traction for playtime.

Molly and Miss Piggy #2 (RIP).

The best part of the new job and new digs is the new found time together. I’m now off every weekend (and some sweet holiday breaks), so there’s more time for joint furniture-building:

and times like these:

Big ups to Charles Osgood!

Next, we’ll catch up on travel 2016: my first trip to Geneva, OH: the place I’ll be every 4th of July for the rest of my life and MaxFunCon East!