New Year’s Resolutions 2018

New Year’s Eve is honestly one of my favorite holidays. There’s just something about starting fresh and having a clean slate — plus staying up all night, which I do all the time anyway. My resolutions in the past have always been sort of concrete, like, get all As in school, run a half marathon, do a better strength work out. Last year, my goals were to post one photo a day on Instagram (which I accomplished!), and write a blog post at least once a week (which I didn’t really do after March or so).

My main two resolutions for this year are:

 

Year in Review: 2017

My only “big” New Year’s Resolution for last year was to post a pic every day on Instagram, and write a blog post once a week. I stopped blogging consistently back in March, but surprisingly, I was able to keep up with Instagram. I hoped feeling the need to post a picture every day would help motivate me to go out and experience and do more things, and it did! It helped that I took two bucket list trips this year, which provided me with a TON of new photos to post.

I did a story on Instagram (follow me here!) with some of my 2017 highlights, and I decided to post it here! Enjoy!

That One Time I Got a Spontaneous Free Tattoo

Yep, you heard read that right.

I have four (now five!) tattoos, and most of them have some sort of meaning behind them, even if it is subtle. My feet have scenes of my Texas homeland, and of the Puerto Rican beach from my first solo trip.

But this is my first spontaneous tattoo that’s just for shits-and-giggles (essentially).

Smile Direct Club: Getting Started

I never had braces as a kid. I actually WANTED braces at one point, because all my friends were getting them in middle school. But alas, my dentist said it would be mainly cosmetic, so I never got them.

Fast forward about 15 years.

Now, every time I go to the dentist, he asks me why I never had braces before. Besides the fact that I was in 6th grade with no choice in the matter, and the fact that he himself said they weren’t needed, I’m now almost 30 (gasp) and definitely don’t want traditional metal braces just because my friends have them.

So, I took a leap. I decided to do treatment using Smile Direct Club aligners. I’m not being paid for this, so this is completely unbiased. This seems like a relatively new company, mainly seen on lots of ex-Bachelor contestant Instagrams, so I wanted to provide a review for all the “normal” people out there who just want straight teeth without going broke.

I should finish my initial treatment plan by April, but for now, I thought I’d share a timeline of what it took to get started.

Click through to get the deets!

10 Thoughts after living in Baltimore for 6 Months

Home Chef: a meal kit delivery service review

When Aaron and I first moved in together/before we moved in together and I stopped going home to my apartment for months at a time, we tried out Hello Fresh. Aaron is better at adulting than I am, so at first he would cook most of the meals, but I began to give it a try myself.

Then I started travel nursing and moved away, Aaron went back to clinical residency, and we stopped using the meal kit delivery service for a while. After all, we didn’t even really live in the same city!

When I finished my contract in Baltimore and came home, my mom gave me a code for Home Chef, which we had not tried before… so I figured, why not try it now? I also hadn’t started working quite yet and was planning to stay in San Antonio for a few months at least.

We’ve received three boxes from Home Chef now, so I thought I’d give a little review if anyone is interested in them!

What I Wore in Egypt

Before my trip to Egypt, I was worried about what to wear. I didn’t want to buy completely new clothes just to blend in a more “conservative” country, but I didn’t want to stand out more than I already knew I would as a white, obviously Westerner girl.

I also was planning on only taking my Osprey Farpoint 40, so I needed items that would fit into my carryon!

I thought I did a good job at minimizing my packing, but as usual, I packed a bunch of stuff I never ended up wearing. Here’s a breakdown of my outfits and things I DID wear!

Life updates

So last time we talked, I was halfway through my original contract here in Baltimore and had just signed an extension. Now I’m less than a month away from the end of my extension!

This summer in Baltimore has gone by SO QUICKLY, I can’t believe we are already nearing the end of August.

Click through to read what I’ve been up to the past few months!

Halfway done… sorta

Needless to say, it’s been a while. My first few weeks here were stupid busy and, obviously, I kind of missed a few weekly blog posts. But I did still keep up with my daily Instagram posts, so there’s that!

My friends Janee and Sarah came to visit me the last weekend of March/beginning of April. We hung out in Baltimore for two nights, and explored some areas of town I had yet to venture out to — Fells Point, Inner Harbor and the National Aquarium, and Canton. We had planned to go to Philadelphia for a day, but the person we had booked our housing with turned out to most likely be a scam, so we just decided to stay in Baltimore for the day instead. I think this worked out best for us, as driving to Philadelphia would have ended up with too much time driving and not enough time actually exploring.

Click through for photos and more about Janee and Sarah’s visit to Baltimore, as well as my birthday trip to Rhode Island!

#Maddie2017Challenge: Week 12

She tolerates me 💖

#annoying #maddieinbmore #nursemaddietravels #uninspirational #nothingexcitingtopost #whatevs

Survived my first day shift in my entire nursing career 😱 and my first shift on the unit! AND I even have a locker!! Exciting day in the life of a #travelnurse.

Look what I found in my coat! Apparently I haven’t used it in oh about 3 years or so 😅 #throwbacksaturday #missedpostingyesterday #oops

East Coast Vibez

Flowers blooming, spring has sprung 🌹