Boise Babes

We got back to Arizona from Hawaii just in time to hang out with Chad's dad, stepmom, and sister & company for a weekend. They somehow convinced me to go to a Royals spring training baseball game (a hotdog was obviously the bargaining chip), and we played putt putt where Chad made a hole-in-one on the last hole to tie me. It's important to know that I am still the putt-putt champion in this family, though.

Much like every other post, Chad and I packed up our crap, but this time into just the truck and drove to New Mexico. (The Smile Wagon is having great adventures with her new owners!!! They regularly send us Jojo pics.) We stayed with some friends in Albuquerque (hey Dr. Sam and Dr. Erin!!!) who we happened to meet at a July 4th barbecue in Maine the summer before. (Just in case you need this reminder, because I often need this reminder: get out more. Go to events that stretch your comfort zone. You never know who you're going to meet.)

Albuquerque was so cool! Chad worked with Dr. Oscar Quintana, the dad of a colleague/friend from Maine (hey Dr. Lucy!!!), and loved it. He runs a very busy practice and was excited to have some help for a few weeks. I worked at a clinic in Los Alamos and really had to stretch what I think about conventional/Western medicine. It was a great experience.

Again, the generosity of the people we have met along this journey is truly outstanding. We stayed in a cute casita in exchange for dog sitting (and we were welcomed with warm cookies), Chad borrowed a car from the Quintana's, and we were treated to dinner more than once. My cold, dead heart continues to thaw. Plus, we had one of the best salads we've ever had (a dried cherry garnish excuse me?!), got to meet up with pals from Maine who were vacationing in Santa Fe (hey Lexi, Matt & Sohla!!!), and did some cool desert hikes.

Not only did we get to hang out with some dogs, we found out where we matched for residency. WE DID IT, PEOPLE!!! I matched to residency at Full Circle Health in Boise! Waiting to find this out was extremely anxiety-provoking, but mostly for Chad because he's the planner and everything for the next 3 years revolved around this one email.

After Albuquerque, we headed to Utah for my final rotation of the year: wilderness medicine. This course is open to all healthcare workers, so I convinced Chad to join in because why not. We started out with camping in Moab with the whole group where we did hands-on training, and got to check out Canyonlands National Park. We decided to do the following virtual lectures in Salt Lake City while hanging out with some pals (hey Luke & Riley!!!).

After finishing the course, we made our way to Boise for a week of house hunting and job hunting for Chad. After lots of house tours and job interviews, Chad got a full-time job he's excited about, and we bought a house!!! Like a non-moving house structure, not another RV. Can't say it didn't cross our mind though. Be on the lookout for our ~updated address~ if you're interested. If you don't currently get mail from us and want a pen pal (me), let me know. I love sending post cards.

I think we'll start to wrap up the blog by saying that we somehow ended up in South Africa. You're going to have to tune in to the next post for that story though, because it's actually ridiculous. (Like, more ridiculous than us buying an RV and hauling it across the country.) Until next time ❤️