Since we got into Flagstaff so late last night we didn't see how gorgeous it was. We woke up this morning with at least a foot of snow on the ground and 3 feet piled up on the side of the roads. The town was surrounded by huge mountains covered with snow (the ones in the pic are called San Francisco peaks). Through some parts on I40 we would go down a hill and see miles and miles of a stretch of the interstate we still had to drive on. I felt like cheering when we finally reached the end of I40. We drove today though every kind of weather and terrain imaginable. We started with snow in Flagstaff and then went on to desert and mountains, then to just desert, then to grassy hills, and then grassy farmland. Southern California is absolutely gorgeous! There are grassy hills everywhere (this was in Barstow). There was an old train tunnel that went through one mountain and then thousands of cows grazing on the hillsides...it looked like a postcard! We are now sitting at a Best Western and finally found some free internet!!! Woohoo! We're about 2 hours south of Sacramento which is where we have to go tomorrow to get our nursing license. After that we'll get into our apartment in Oakland and then its some siteseeing before Mama and Daddy fly back Sat night.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Day 3-"The Never Ending Road"
Day 2-"Snowed In"
Its a good thing we drove so much on Tuesday cause we had an adventure on Wednesday. We started out good, New Mexico was gorgeous. We drove into Albuquerque with no problems. Albuquerque was very mountainous and it even came a small snow shower which just made it more pretty. I also thought it was neat that all there overpasses are a pinky color (there very pretty). About 20 miles west of Albuquerque it started snowing again and then it got to going harder. Within 15 min we could not see 20 feet in front of us and the road was covered with snow! We were traveling behind an 18 wheeler and just kept them in our site but everytime another 18 wheeler would pass us it would stir up the snow and you couldn't see at all! We finally just pulled over on the side of the road and sat for a few min. About 10 min later the snow stopped and even though the road was covered we just started following the 18 wheelers again. A few min later we came to a complete stop. We sat there for 4 hours!!!! Apparently there had been a 15 car pile up just a couple of miles ahead of us due to the snow. We all took turns peeing on the side of the car or peeing in a cup. Me and Toto played in the snow as long as we could stand it but it was about 10 degrees. We made friends with a Canadian man in front of us. He came back and asked us "How long do these snow storms last here?" We said "we're from Alabama and have no idea!" We finally got started again and of course stopped for a drink (our nerves were shot), we made it to Flagstaff by 11:30pm. During all of this we got a call from our recruiter saying we were suppose to be in Oakland by Friday so we kinda freaked out about this too!
Day 1-"Chasing the Sun"
As most of you know me and Laura started our journey to San Fran Monday night after we got off work. We left bham around 9:00 monday night and drove to Memphis. We spent the night in a motel just across the Mississippi River in Arkansas. We woke up Tuesday morning and began driving again. We made such good time, we went through Arkansas, Oklahoma, and then Texas and finally stopped just over the New Mexico border in a town called Temancali (or something like that). We drove a total of about 12 hours. We decided we HATE Oklahoma...there is absolutely NOTHING there! The wind was blowing so bad in Oklahoma...we stopped and tried to get gas but the town was out of power due to the wind blowing a pole down. We also passed these windmill things in Texas...I think these supply power. We felt like the day was forever long because we were driving into the sunset. The sun finally went down around 7:15 that night. We spent this night in a run down Motel 6 that was not very nice but we slept great after a long day of driving.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Last Day of Work
My car before we left...
I'll miss you guys so much!!! Love you all!!! Come visit us!!!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Lunch with Kam
Since I'm leaving soon Kam cooked lunch for me today. If you've never had Kam's cooking you are missing out! Kam is the BEST cook! He had a big spread of sushi (which is my fav) and teriyaki chicken with rice. The best part for dessert we had banana foster...YUMMMM!!! Kam thanks for lunch and I'll miss you soooo much!!!! Love you!!!
Toto Gets A Haircut!!!
I wanted Toto to fit in with those California dogs so we got a MAJOR haircut today! Here he is! I got one today too but mine is not as obvious.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The Girls
Allison, Jennifer, Me
Laura, Michelle, Sarah
Future Cali Girls!!! For those of you who don't know...this is Laura...the girl I'm going to San Fran with. We leave in less than a week and are soooo excited! 
Fondue Fun!!!
waiting for the fun to start...
Jeff eating his salad with the fondue sticks...I'm not sure how much he really liked the fondue experiment
Jerry waiting on the BEST part...CHOCOLATE!!!
me and Laura with the BEST er doctors around...Annalise & Jennifer
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
I got a new car!!!
I bought a new car today...mama and daddy really wanted me in something better before I leave for California. They found this mitsubishi outlander and it was a really good deal! I was more than happy to get rid of the kia. I know its similar to the old one but I love white cars and the smaller SUVs. (I'm cheering in this picture if you can't tell). 
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Snow Day!!!
This was what I woke up to Sat morning and it was coming down HARD! I hate cold weather but snow is kinda fun. This was at about 9:30 that morning by noon it was all gone...oh well it was pretty while it lasted!
me & Megan snapped this pic on our way home Sat...we think its suppose to be a snowman
My Last Weekend out in Bham
So I have another weekend left but I'll be working so this was our last chance to go OUT. We had a blast of course. We started the night wine tasting (where my wine busted), next was Surin (cause there will be no surin in cali) and then Innisfree...our fav place to go!
This is Michelle, Joy, & me eating at Surin
me with my fav guys from high school Lee & Stephen...I don't get to see them that much and I miss them soooo much!!!
me & Stephen
Molly, me, Jenna, & Stephen
And then our #1 pic again...
Saturday, January 19, 2008
My Favorite Wine...I'm not meant to have it
I have been looking for a certain kind of wine for over a year and I finally found it. So after showing it off outside the store and trying to put it back in the bag the bag broke, the wine fell out and busted everywhere (including all over my pants)! They replaced my wine with a similar one (I had gotten the last one) but I was sad.
Friday, January 18, 2008
It finally happened...
my car rolled over to 100,000 miles. I guess I was expecting it to fall apart and die but we made it home. Now if we can just make it to California...
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Notice the California music playing??...
thats to get me in the mood for California!! We accepted a job last night for the Oakland Children's Hospital which is right across the bay from San Francisco. We start on Feb 4 and will leave Birmingham on Jan 30 for our drive cross country! I'm so excited but nervous now too...its real! I've been planning this for months but now I actually have a date and I'm leaving everything I know in Bham to go to a city I've never even been to. We'll be working in an acute care float pool which means I could work on 3 different units in one 12 hour shift but I like this idea...I mean thats why I love the ER...you never know what kind of patients you'll get. Oh and another thing I'm working night shift and I'm a dayshift girl but oh well I'm in California and its only for 3 months. I'll miss you all so much!!! And everybody please come visit!!!
