Settling into Summertime

Over the last 3 weeks we have tried to get settled and I started the routine of going to work. We are still experiencing a lot of newness as expected. New city to navigate, meeting people, trying churches, and learning a new job. We also got out of the hotel and into our rental townhome. It has more space than our Seattle apartment which is good but we left most boxes in the garage and didn't put together beds in hopes of buying a place before the end of the year. 

There is a nice area in between the townhomes for the kids to play and meet the neighbors as well as ride our bikes to a close playground

I am officially a licensed pharmacist in Ohio. If you are a pharmacist moving to OH, good news is for reciprocity you do not have to take the MPJE law exam but rather just go sit in Columbus at the Board of Pharmacy and listen to a lecture for 3 hours. Super nice. 

Michael and Katie sent me beautiful flowers on my first day at work. I think I mentioned it before but Cleveland Clinic is a large adult facility with a children's hospital inside. Thankfully I am only doing pediatric medication safety for the children's hospital (120 beds, outpatient/rehab clinics and 2 separate NICUs at regional centers).... my boss is over medication safety for the entire organization which seems overhwhelming.  Pediatric Medication Safety is also a new job for the organization which makes people excited I am there (so they can give me work I think) and also good as hopefully there are fewer expectations to meet. Anyway if you don't know much about the Cleveland Clinic, they have 11 regional hospitals plus one in Nevada, Florida,  London and Abu Dhabi and continuing to acquire more! The main campus in Cleveland, where I am, is 136 acres so it has its own zip code and police department. I get lost frequently or end up walking far unintentionally. My office is in one building, my supervisor is in another (main pharmacy for entire enterprise) and the children's hospital and clinics are in another! But you should've seen my excitement when my boss showed me my cubicle. My career goal has always been to have a cubicle. Shoot for the stars, right? 

its still a little bare but getting there

There is still an array of thoughts and emotions depending on the day.... feeling excited about new job, then discouraged about house buying/not knowing where to live, confused on areas of town or church options, surprised at the kindness of new people inviting us in to their homes, missing friends, being served by sweet neighbors we just met, watching the kids race to get outside to play with other kids but also asking to move back to Seattle.... so many changes for us all. We also had an unexpected job opportunity for Wes at the girl's school, Westside Christian Academy. Please pray for this to work if it is suppose to and transitions. I am still trying to figure out how I feel about our first child going to day care, especially since it would be Levi :) 

Cleveland Clinic children's inspired park that the kids enjoyed close to my orientation at work

community swimming pool

 I am also adjusting to suburb life. Very few people live in Cleveland city limits. Downtown, Ohio City and maybe Tremont are safe neighborhoods in Cleveland city limits to live but mostly non-kid people are found in these urban areas. Other than that everyone lives outside of Cleveland zip codes. We are looking to buy in one of the suburbs on the westside of town. The west side of town gets a lot less snow than the east side so that is a plus and you can get closer to the lake. West side will still get inches of snow but from what I have heard the east will get feet. My work is just east of downtown but the kids school is on the westside so we are hoping to live in-between but closer to their school.

Suburb life means spending too much at Target, driving to parks and ice cream instead of walking (I'm adjusting to this slowly) 

There is a national park south of Cleveland, Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We drove there one Saturday. The waterfall and farm were neat. We also took the train ride which I wouldn't pay to do again but the kids liked it.

We did get a little urban fill at the Cleveland Flea one Saturday. Vegan donuts. Vintage nicknacks. Plants. Crowds. We left with an old school desk :) 

 Sadie turned 5 this month as well. She is a light to my life and I enjoy being challenged and amazed by our conversations. We had celebrated her birthday with her cousins at Michael's last month but she  got spoiled on July 17th some more.... donuts, dinner, milkshakes, and a birthday pins she wore all day! Thank you family and friends for the wishes and cards for Sadie! 

Grami also came up the week of Sadie birthday to visit. Papa was in Poland for the week so she decided to fly up and visit Cleveland for the first time! We took her to some of the places we have found... mainly the lake or to get ice cream :) 

As a great lake, Lake Erie, behaves like an ocean. 

Being able to see the sunset was something I did miss in Seattle. The Seattle mountain and water views were pretty but the sun always set behind them. It was nice to stop at Huntington Park by our townhome on the way home one night and see the cotton candy sky with the sun on the horizon of the  lake. 

We are getting used to Cleveland more and more. Learning our way around and meeting people when we can. Please pray for house search, adult and kid friends, and church family. Thanks!