We are nearing the end of our 2-month road trip. YAY! I wanted to share some of our experiences along the way. Today, I'll talk about 3 things from our month in Lansing, MI.
1. Cooking
We were able to live in a house that the hospital owned that usually serves rotating medical students through the year. We were the only ones there, so we had the house to ourselves.
The house was . . . a house. Not much more to it than that. There was a living space with mismatched furniture, a 70's style kitchen table, and the kitchen itself had a refrigerator and a microwave. No stove, oven, no dishes even! We furnished a make-shift kitchen with the help of Dollar Tree. Luckily we brought a portable grill and a crock pot. My grandparents sent us an electric skillet after hearing our story.
We've become pretty good at coming up with meals that can be created without the help of a normal kitchen. I was even able to remember a no-bake frozen treat to send with AJ on his last day of the rotation. :)
2. WIFI
... or lack of. We had no internet. No TV. In the days of being totally connected, it is quite a shock to be suddenly disconnected from everything for a month. There was internet at the hospital, so once in a while we would walk to the visitor's entrance and hop online for a few minutes. We also went to a bookstore and had some skype dates with our families. :) After it was all said and done, it was really refreshing to be totally disconnected. Because in the disconnect, we reconnected as a family. We spent time together. We took walks. We just enjoyed being together. And that was worth it.
3. Laundry
Many of you know that we use cloth diapers. Well, cloth diapers become a bad idea when you have no laundry. We found out a few days prior to leaving that the only laundry available was a laundromat about a mile from the house. Not fun. Especially when your 4-month old alone creates an amazing amount of laundry every day.
We decided to start with some disposable diapers and see what the situation was. Well, in AJ's first week the doctor's who he worked with heard about the laundry situation and offered the washer/dryer in the basement of the clinic! So much better than going to sit at a laundromat for hours. So, we would load up the car with our laundry, diapers, head over to the clinic, Wes would flirt with the office staff and we would get our laundry done! We only had one car, so I must admit that one day, I loaded Wes up in the stroller, balanced the laundry basket on top and walked to the clinic. I hope we made a few people laugh because I'm sure we looked pretty ridiculous.
In spite of all of the quirks, we really did enjoy our month there. The physician's AJ worked with were incredibly kind and welcoming. We took a lot of walks in the afternoon when AJ would come home from work. We joined the Family Video store - they were running a promotion where new members got 50% off for the first 30 days...and we were only there 30 days. Perfect. (we watched the movie's on our laptop)
Throughout the month, we would smile often thinking, "Someday, these will make great stories." Oh yes. In fact, they already do. :)
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