my brother left today for florida, where he will spend the summer working at florida hospital. he has a practicum there, which is required for his nursing degree, and then he’ll spend the rest of the summer working as a nurse tech. a bunch of his classmates are going, and his girlfriend, kristen, is working there also, so they’ll have a lot of fun. the great part is that under florida law, hospitals can’t have out-of-state nursing students working for them without pay, so during his practicum he’ll get paid about half the normal rate, and after his practicum he’ll get the full pay. the hospital also is paying for the apartments the students are staying at. randy and kristen stopped in cartersville this morning on their way for breakfast, and it was fun to spend a little time with them. i rarely see kristen, so it was nice to get to see her again. i like her. she’s really nice, and i can tell how much she likes my brother, which makes me happy.

the downside is that he’ll be gone all summer. randy and i are closer than ryan and i are, so it’ll be tough. joe and i hang out with randy a lot more than ryan. but, it’ll get us used to having him gone since he’s moving to kentucky for three years at the beginning of january. *that* will be hard.

the other bright spot is that now my parents and i are planning a trip to orlando in july. i haven’t been since i was little, and kristen’s mom can get us tickets to disney world and universal studios, so that will be fun. plus, tampa bay is only an hour and a half away, so we’re all going to catch a devil rays game and go to bern’s steak house (which my dad says is fabulous. i hope they have a good salad!) while we’re there. my parents are getting a hotel suite with two bedrooms, and since we’re flying together we’ll share a rental car, so all we’ll really have to pay for are our plane tickets. that’s my kind of vacation.

the last picture of us together before randy left. they’re so much taller than me! i can’t call them my “little” brothers!