Emily and I have had a lot of people asking for an update on our lives in Virginia. So, I’ve decided to write a little post on how it’s going in the state that’s “for lovers.”
Emily and I have lived in the South (Georgia and South Carolina) and the North (Michigan.) We knew we didn’t want to return to Georgia. It is way too hot down there. Summer starts in mid February and the heat doesn’t relent until December. To top off the heat, the humidity is brutal. I would start to sweat once I stepped out of the shower, and I wouldn’t stop until I took another one. There was just no escape from the heat in Georgia, and Michigan was exactly opposite. The bitter cold of a Michigan winter would start to bite in October, with winter’s teeth sinking into my bones through January and February. I’ve seen it snow in May, and I have pictures of my family in jackets in June. So, when it was time to leave Michigan, we had an idea of what we wanted. Weather wise, we both like all four seasons. We wanted a place where we would get some snow, some heat, and a lot of the beautiful days that fall in between. On top of the seasons, Emily and I wanted to stay in the East. We considered California and Oregon, but they felt too far from family. Emily and I both have a considerable amount of family in Georgia. Our third desire was for fairly quick access to mountains and the ocean, with mountains being more important. Add this all together, and Virginia became an obvious place for us. Within Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley was appealing. The Shenandoah National Park is basically in our front yard, and there is a nice river for canoeing and kayaking. And so, we moved to Front Royal, Va.
The move, of course, was stressful. Any time you relocate a family there will be a lot of stress. India and Oscar still talk about friends they left in Michigan, and they bring up things we use to do but probably won’t be able to do again (like going to Glenn Arbor). But, all in all, the kids have settled in nicely. They have made new friends and they enjoy their new school and daycare. India and Oscar are about to go to their first dance, a Valentine’s Dance. We hike a lot, and the kids love it. We’ve been to the top of mountains and to the bottom of waterfalls. The kids can be hard to get on the trail, but once we get out there, they run and play. If you are ever in this area, I would recommend Little Stoney Man and White Oak Canyon trails if you only have a few days to hike. In the summer we splashed in the river a good bit. This coming summer we’re planning to take the kids down the river in tubes for the first time. Even more exciting than tubing the river, this summer will be Calvin’s first trip to the ocean. India and Oscar have both been to the ocean, but not in over four years.
This is a little aside, but I thought it bared mention; Emily and I first moved to Virginia in late June. In late spring and early summer the fireflies light up the woods every night. It was so beautiful. We would sit on our porch after it had gotten dark, and just watch the show the fireflies were putting on. It was an amazing display, an intricate ballet of light. Emily described the fireflies like being in a stadium with thousands for flash bulbs going off all around you. It is truly amazing.
Not only are we enjoying all the outdoor activities Virginia has to offer us. We are both enjoying our new jobs. We work together at the same veterinary clinic. Emily is one of nine doctors working there (the clinic has two locations.) And, she is not nearly as stressed or over stretched as she was in Michigan. The pace of our new clinic is much more manageable. Although it is a busy clinic, we are very well staffed with a lot of support for the doctors. To top it off, there’s also a black clinic cat named Dan. He and Tater (the Pol Vet clinic cat) are both amputees, although Tater is missing a leg and Dan is only missing half a tail. The clinic we work at now is small animal only, and Emily will admit that she misses the large animal side of things. She misses her cows and especially her calvings and foalings. Instead of doing a little bit of everything like I did at Pol Vet, I, for the most part, work as a doctor’s assistant. I’m assigned one doctor to help through out the day. In general, things are really good for Emily and me at work right now. As an added bonus, a lot of the people at the clinic have children that are roughly the same age as ours. So, our kids have a lot of other kids to play with at work gatherings.
The only thing that’s not so great is that Emily is picking up emergency shifts at a local veterinary emergency clinic so we can pay the mortgage on our Michigan house. Actually, as I write this, she’s at her second job. But her shifts at the ER are not nearly as bad as the on-call she used to do. She only works a weekend or a few week days a month, and when she’s done, she’s done. There is no worry about being called back in. All in all, we are super happy in Virginia. The mountains, the water, the work life balance, it’s all what we wanted. It is what we were looking and hoping for.
I’m trying to talk Emily into doing a vlog for a Q&A post. She’s not all that keen on it, but I’m trying. Vlog or no vlog, my next post will be a q&a. So, last chance to ask any questions. And, as always, thanks for reading.
