TravelingbeebryantRN & Flicks_withNick

I wanted to give you all a little life update with all things December. We are super enjoying exploring Omaha the last few weeks before we move onto our next assignment.

First let’s discuss work. Yes, I’m still working at Old Navy. I have two shifts left. I was doing ok with folding clothes and helping ship out orders, until they asked me to clean the toilets. That’s when I decided I was ready to go back to work as a nurse. I couldn’t decide if they were kidding, or if they were being serious, if anyone’s wondering… they were being serious. I have no issue doing hard work, but this was something that was a little hard for me.

On the happy note, during my time sending out online orders, I’m able to listen to audio books. This is my first audio book, and I really enjoyed it. I listened to “The In- Between”, by Hadley Vlahlos. You must likely recognize the name from Tik-tok, or because she’s made the New York Times bestsellers list. ( go Hadley!) Hadley is a hospice nurse that writes about death, and dying in such a respectful manner. She makes you think outside the box. She helps readers understand that end-of-life care can teach us just as much about how to live as it does about how we die. I truly recommend this book to anyone, not just my nurse friends. This was a great read or a great

We’ve been doing all these fun craft, and holiday fairs in town the last few weeks. We don’t necessarily buy anything, but like looking around and seeing what locals have to offer. We want to make sure we experience all things Nebraska before we leave. I plan to do a blog about all holiday things in Nebraska. We’ve done some great things so far.

We booked our Alaska flights this week! We are getting so excited. We will start looking at car rentals, and apartments in the next few days. My company helps with travel reimbursement for myself for the flights. In regards to the apartment and car, I have a stipend. Check into my early blogs, if you have questions on stipend!

I wanted to keep you up to date on planning our road trip home. After we made our rough draft, we started booking hotels. We look at the price of hotels, but we also look at where we have rewards (Hilton, IHG, and Marriott). We try to make sure our hotels can be changed within 24 hours in case we hit any type of weather, or change of route. Other positive things include, free parking (especially in cities) and free breakfast (you can take fruit and yogurt for lunch that day too!). We have to pay attention to the parking lot situation, as if it has covered parking, the topper won’t fit in a parking garage. Funny story… our first assignment, and traveling from Portland ME to Spokane Washington, we had a hard time fitting in the garage in Chicago and Washington D.C. We panicked driving through Chicago, calling my dad asking the height of the car and the topper. Of course he didn’t know and had to do some research for us. Sure, he appreciated us at the time. The valet parking guy in Chicago kept insisting that, “no problem, no problem. It’ll fit.” I of course trusted him, and I could see my husband in the back of me, having beads of sweat down his forehead panicking. Finding out, the valet guy never parked the car, he just left it in the front of the entrance of the garage, barely covered under the garage. The car made it. Lesson learned, we now look at the height of parking garages where we stay. After we book hotels, we look at activities we want to do along the way. We consider weather and route changes with activities also, and make sure the plans are flexible. This is a more detailed plan for our route home:

It’s always smart to send your route to someone that’s not traveling with you. Whether it may be your parents, sibling, friend, or neighbor. Next up, jingle date two. Fa La la…