Opening ceremony... Inauguration madness

So Last Sunday I dragged Matt out for an afternoon to go downtown and be among the crowds. There was an opening ceremony and concert at the Lincoln Memorial. It was fun being amongst the crowds and chaos. You could barely walk across the street from the masses of people. I am sure Tuesday was much worse, we did not venture out on Inauguration day!
These first pictures were of the parade route down Pennsylvania Ave.

Above is Constitution Ave that was closed off for the event. See the rows of port a potty's, it is odd seeing them lined up among the memorials. There were hundreds of them scattered throughout downtown. I guess they would be a neccessity with that many people! I timed it so that I did not have to use any of them though.




Here we are joining in the flocks of people across the White House lawn making our way over to the memorials.

Everyone huddled around the Washington monument. It is at the top of the hill, so it offered a straight view down to the Lincoln memorial.

Security nightmare!!

Denzel Washington, woohoo...

Bruce Springstein, with an awesome gospel choir.

Tom Hanks giving some anecdote about Lincoln and today's America... It was just okay, I guess I was hoping for more from him. He was probably told what to say anyway, I'm sure. We really didn't see much of the concert. We watched the Obama's and Biden's come out and saw just the first few people. It would have been great to see Stevie Wonder, but I really didn't know when he would be coming so we went on.


There were screens posted all the way down the National Mall up to the Capitol. Lots of people. I was thankful to run into a street vendor selling hand warmers! We also bought a button from real live hippies (at least that they claimed). Feeling like we "know" the area we shot down out of the crowds to the Old Post Office to use adequate bathrooms, grab a bite and another souvenier for a few friends, then headed onto the metro a good hour before the festivities let out, to avoid the crowds at the metro.
Overall a good experience to witness and have a memory of.

On the road again...

Leaving Kansas City bright and early, I just liked this picture of the skyline at sunrise. The Appalachian mts in West Virginia. It was a beautiful drive with the snow and such. I dreamt about moving and becoming a hill person...Matthew was not having as much fun as he was trying to stay on the road (he did a very good job too! he actaully drove the whole way this time.. we stopped overnight this time)


Yea our new condo!! It is really nice and is very comfortable. When we moved in I freaked out when my agency calls to say that they forgot to get the electricity connected and that we would have to go to a hotel until after the inaguration when the electric company could come out!! LUCKILY after a huge fiasco and some extra phone calls we got it worked out and they came out that day to get it going. whew... I did not want to live out of bags anymore and with the inaguration the whole city is going to be a mess, I just wanted to be home.




So we are moved in and are really enjoying this place! It is an awesome location, Sunday we just walked across the street to the metro, so easy. And I am only 1 mile from work. The building is very nice with a lot of extra amenities and a great workout room. All the cardio machines have individual TV's on them, you just bring in your headphones and have your own TV! My agency is also renting a TV for us in apology for the electricity fiasco, so that will be coming next week and will be an added bonus!


Our condo is so well insulated, we don't have our heater on and it stays 70 to 75 degrees in here! Even on the cold nights we have been having, crazy. Our gas fireplace is nice too. Matt (he is bound to be a great handyman) got the fireplace working when our landlord told us it has been broken for a while. One of the best perks about this place is we get the best internet signal we have ever had with our wireless air card, we can watch live streaming video for the first time. We watched the inaguration on it today and it worked great.

We have a bright green bathroom... right next to our washer and dryer, yea. Last time we had awful issues with laundry facilities...



So we are settling in, things are going good. I start work tomorrow night. After having a month off it will be difficult getting back into the swing of things again. It won't take long though. Take care and God bless America!

Pictures from our Christmas break!!

We were able to go home for a month over the Hollidays and it was a blessed time!! Here are some of our pictures, a random smattering. We weren't very good at taking pictures so there are many people we visited that we didn't get pictures with, which is a bummer.

Here is a beautiful snow/ice storm of Kansas, I really like Kansas, It will always feel like home to me!

Pictures from Daniel's wedding, it was a happy Day for all of us!

(Daniel and Robyn in particular, hehe)

It was a perfect winter wedding with a beautiful snow just before the wedding.

Matt at Christmas Eve at my grandparents with Buddy the grandparent's dog!
My Grandpa Shearer
Meggie with Buddy


This picture was taken a week before we left to come home, these are our friends Scott and Cheryl in Virginia. They are great and we are thankful for their friendship!

Over the break we spent the night babysitting Kaiden. He was the best kid to watch! Hopefully Jess and Kevin will be so blessed with another laidback child coming up in August...

This has to be the coolest toy ever, your own ball pit! I really want one...

New Year's Eve playing the Wii with my Dad!

Meggie and I decorated a gingerbread house, she is taking the pictures while I am putting on the finishing touches.


The Diliberto clan, good times!

Updates...

Hey just wanted to give everyone an update. We have been in Kansas visiting family and friends, it has been a wonderful visit. Matt's brother was married this holliday as well. We have been very blessed with lots of quality time with everyone, and we are very happy to have had this time at home.

Through this time we have been searching for our next assignment and through it all God seems to be sending us back to Virginia, actually to the same hospital! I will be working on a new pulmonary unit that is just opening this month. This time of year is very slow in the travel nursing market and with the economy things have been exceptionally slow. For each assignment I had been applying for, so many travellers have been applying and it has been very competitive. So we are going back to the DC area and will enjoy the next 13 weeks and will take a new perspective for our time there. The area is great to visit, but not to live! The traffic and congestion is not quite our style, but we may find something different about our experience this time.

So if anyone wants to visit DC we will be there until April 18th and can offer free housing! We are pretty darn close to the metro and may be within walking distance this time (we are still working on where we will be living this time). I hear the cherry blossoms in DC are great in the spring!

God bless and Happy New Year!!