The Future...

Today I had a chance to visit the grounds of the future Sibley Medical Office Building (MOB). It's a very exciting time for everyone involved. Sibley will be undergoing so many changes in the next 7 years, all for the better. June 1, 2009 was really the day things started, as the Dalecarlia entrance to Sibley was closed to begin construction on the MOB and the 5 story parking garage. The goal of the MOB is to offer doctoral services close to the future new hospital to include general internal medicine, orthopedics and ortho surgery, obgyn services and more. The MOB building will be 5 stories tall, with the first floor housing the retail facilities of a pharmacy, a gift shop and an Einstein Bagel location. Sibley hopes to complete this construction by late fall 2010, just a little over a year from now! Once the MOB and garage are completed and occupied Sibley will begin the demolition and reconstruction of the Cancer Center, then it's onto the task of building the new Sibley Memorial Hospital. The NEW hospital will be a LEED certified building with 328 state of the art private rooms. Mr. Price, Senior VP for Real Estate & Construction is overseeing this project, and says the entire project (MOB, Garage, Cancer Center, new Auditorium, new Hospital, landscaping) should be completed in approximately 7 years. I hope I can stick it out to see the end...and more!!!

Check out the live webcam to see how the construction's coming along!!

Congrats Julia...

Last night Jill, Andy, Summer, Michelle, Julia and I headed out to Nick's Bar & Grill in Alexandria to celebrate Julia's upcoming nuptials to her fiance Eric. We started the evening off with a country line dancing lesson where we learned 3 different dances from our instructor Shawn. Then we sat down for some dinner - a wide array of mostly fried foods - then on to more dancing and a little Karaoke. Jill even got to dance with her favorite old man - who apparently is always there, and quite a good partner. It was a great night with fun and friends, some of whom I haven't seen since our small group split off months ago. Congratulations and best wishes to Julia and Eric!

4 Year Anniversary...

Congratulations to me!!!! Today (all be it a Saturday) is my 4 year anniversary of working at Sibley Memorial Hospital. For those of you who have known me since high school, I'm sure you are shocked. In my teenage years I probably held more than 20 different jobs ranging from my first job at Salem Avalanche Baseball Stadium, to the Sun Station to a variety of shoe stores (to fulfill my shoe buying fetish/addiction via a discount), to Heronimus, O'Charley's...the list goes on and on... My parents (specifically my dad) always worried that this trend might continue and that I would never hold a job for more than a year. Also, my dad hated doing my taxes, as I usually had 4-6 W-2's each tax season :) sorry daddy! Upon graduating from Roanoke College I got my first job mainly for it's location - close to Mike. It was with O'Charley's, with whom I had worked for 2 years on and off as a server, but was now in Fredericksburg as the Office Manager; handling payroll, hr functions, wc and actual restaurant duties. I couldn't get out of there quick enough.

So when Sarah Miller, a friend of Mike's from MWC called and said she was going back to school to be a nurse and wanted to know if I would be interested in applying for her position as an HR Assistant at Sibley - I was completely overwhelmed with joy. Granted, I still had to interview for the position, but was confident that I could do the job. I applied, got called for an interview and bought a new suit. The day of the interview (a Monday) I got in my car, started driving to DC, unfortunately, I got terribly lost, had a tearful breakdown for lack of being able to get a hold of anyone in HR (Monday's were there staff meeting days - and the phone kept going to voicemail), had to call my dad so he could provide directions via the phone while I was driving (in Upper Marlboro, MD) and then finally made it about 45 minutes late for my interview. Fortunately, Queenie and the rest of the staff were kind enough to see me even though I was late. About 3 days later I got a call with an offer to be the HR Assistant and accepted. YAY!!!

I started about 2 weeks later, after moving up to Alexandria. How great is that....I went to Roanoke studying Business Administration/Sociology/Healthcare Administration and landed a job doing (almost) exactly what I wanted to do, knowing I had room to advance to the career of my dreams!!! I worked as the HR Assistant for almost 1 year before being promoted to the position of Workers' Compensation Specialist, and then about 1 year later was promoted again to Workers' Compensation & Benefit Specialist, and that's where I've been ever since.

Words cannot describe how much I love working at Sibley....most days. There is the occasional day (or week in May) where I am overly stressed, but still for the most part look forward to coming to work. The people at Sibley are like family to me. I find peace knowing that I can walk through the hospital and know most people (mainly day shift) by name. Everyone smiles and says hello, and are always willing to help. Yes, there are a few exceptions (just like everywhere else) where you may encounter a rude person here or there, but for the most part, it's wonderful. I'm so proud to say I work at Sibley and can't wait to see what the future has in store for me!

Merrills in Town...

This weekend was a blast, Mike's parents came into town, as well as his little sister Lauren. Everyone arrived Friday night around 8:00 and we headed out to dinner at TGI Fridays, mainly because it was close to Mike's parent's hotel. We started with a round of drinks and some apps, had a delicious dinner then called it a night around 10:30. Saturday morning I was up bright and early, for some unknown reason. So at 8am I was baking chocolate chip cookies. Then onto cooking an unplanned brunch of steak, eggs, bacon, potato casserole, and fresh fruit. The family arrived around 11 and we gorged ourselves. Then it was onto National Harbor where we visited with the outdoor vendors, Mike's mom bought Lauren and I some great earrings. Then we wandered into Stonewall Kitchen (heaven), Godiva - where I signed up for the Chocolate Club (even though I'm not a huge chocolate person, but it was still delicious, then a little afternoon happy hour at Rosa Mexicano. We thought about heading into see a Wolf Trap show - The Temptations & The Four Tops...but we were already a bit tired so instead we decided to eat some more...so we freshened up a bit, and headed into the city for dinner at Buca di Beppo where we continue to eat ridiculous amounts of food and then headed home about 11, where most of us passed out either in recliners, loveseats or couches. I don't even remember Mike's parents leaving, I only remember waking up Sunday morning wandering where everyone went. Sunday we all met up at about 11 and went to check out a couple of houses then lunched at Chili's...then onto check out more houses in Alexandria, Falls Church and Springfield. Mike dropped me off at 3, and I said goodbye to his family, and then they apparently went onto check out some major row houses in Old Town just for the fun of it....one of them, was a 2 bedroom 1.5 bath listed for 1.2 million dollars - SERIOUSLY????? who buys that? Like I said, it was a great weekend, but I think I really gained about 10 pounds. So back to the gym and eating healthy tomorrow :)

Happy 2nd Birthday...

PETER!!!!

Time sure does fly.

Happy Birthday...

Drunk Freshman Kelly!!!!!!

A Celebration of Hillers...

Tonight a group of us met up at Spider Kelly's in Arlington to have a celebration for Hillers' birthday. We arrived a little late due to traffic, but made it in time to buy Hiller's a drink, eat some delicious three day chicken that's marinated in cumin and garlic then fire roasted in a hot oven. We also shared a delicious side item called "cardiac mac-n-cheese" - it was amazing. It was nice to catchup with everyone, Hillers, Michelle, Hillers' dad, Erik, Danny, Kaity, Jen, Phil, Kristen, Rob, Dave and Katy (sorry if I left anyone out). I had never been there before...but the food and cocktail menu were unique and descriptive...can't wait to go back.

Happy Birthday Hillers!

Happy 6 Year Wedding Anniversary...

April & Scott

and


Erik & Megan