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 The day started off with the kids showing me how they like to get Bart, my grandpa’s dog, to sing.  Bart is a bit camera shy so everytime I would try to record the beautiful singing she would stop.  After singing and breakfast of oatmeal we took Bart on a walk through an abandoned lot while discussing what we should do for the day.  Chad and the kids had not left the house in three days since I had the car all day and were eager to go do something.  I, on the other hand, had been gone all day for the last three days and didn’t really want to do anything.  Chad is a pretty social guy and didn’t want to go out by himself as a break from the kids he wanted us all to go.  We enjoyed the abandoned lot, discovering a grapefruit tree, tangerines, a few comquat trees as well as a few very orange looking lemons that kind of baffled us.  The kids proudly packed they’re pockets full of a variety of citrus fruit.  The lot has an old grove with many of the trees all dried up and dead due to lack of water but the few living trees are loaded.  We let Bart off leash a bit.  It really was a fun family jaunt.  

    
      

  

  

    

 After our walk we thought we might run to the store as there was a few things we needed to get.  We all piled into the car…shopping wasn’t really the kind of outing we wanted to do…visiting Coronado Beach was.  I had heard several seeks ago about the ship wreck remains uncovered by the recent El Niño storms on the beach of Coronado island.  We decided to take the slow scenic route through Carlsbad avoiding I-5.  It was lunchtime and we were in the process of making dinner plans with our travel nurse friends who just happened to be in San Diego today as well.  Chad parked the car and we walked up the sidewalk to descover the place he had chosen was a sushi place. The first two weeks at an assignment we have to pay everything out of savings.  There is no paycheck and generally a lot of cost involved.  Traveling across the country, setting up housing, hotels and food.  We are lucky here to be staying with family (a first for us.) but still it was a long trip across the country and with the mission trip to Honduras the week before we have had half log out normal income this last month.  Chad and I both had some cash we had saved up.  Chad bought lunch out of his cash and I bought dinner out of my cash it worked out pretty well.  Chad picked out a few kind that looked good and we all shared.  It was the perfect amount.  

    
 The drive was gorgeous.  We people watched and enjoyed the sun.  I just love the plants in this area too. So beautiful. We arived at the beach an hour after low tide and you could see bits of the ship remains, but with out a bathing suit it was too deep of surf to go out exploring.   

 Hannah sticking her hands through our hug to photo bomb us.

  
   Eve enjoyed climbing on all the rocks.  

     

    
 The kids played for 3-4 hours making ropes out of seaweed, burying eachother and climbing on the piles of rocks, sand, and cement.  

    
   
    Family picture in from of the historic Hotel Del Coronado built in 1888 and visited by many presidents, and other famous people in it’s 125 years. 
     
    
    
   We left the beach just befor sunset to meet up with Greg and Belinda Luther at Slater 50/50 for dinner.  Belinda will always hold a special place in my heart as I met her when she was a travel nurse working at Silverton Family Birth Center…my home hospital/unit.  She has been there the whole time to answer many of my questions and point me in the direction of people who could answer my questions.  Dinner was lovely.  It is hard to go wrong with the bacon everything me up at Slater 50/50.  It was a little too loud for visiting, but we managed.    Eve was over tired and unable to control her body.  The fun grandparents that Greg and Belinda are, Eve made quick friends and sat with them for the last little bit.  With her it is a struggle mosttimes.  Are we too strict, or too lenient?  It is hard to know.

My instructions were to report to work at 0545 at the House Supervisor’s office.  GPS said one hour and 10 minutes as the estimated time of my commute, but it was a road I had not yet driven.  I left the house at 0415 the drive was nice, but all in the dark.  Even with the anticipation I found myself feeling sleepy.  I found the House Supervisor easy enough and made it back to my floor in plenty of time for report.  It looks like the base staffing is two nurses at a time and a lot of the nurses do postpartum/nursery only so chances are that most of my days will be filled with labor and outpatients.  The best suprise of the day was to find out I would actually be on day shift.  I do like night shift, but I had no idea how I was going to do the commute on night shift, so this was a major answer to prayer.  My head was pounding most of the day.  Ibuprofen was not cutting it at all.  After work I stopped at Wendy’s and grabbed a frosty and fries before heading west.  I pulled into the driveway at 1959. Threw off my clothes and dove into bed.  The next two days were better, I both packed more food and carried more ibuprofen.  I’m sure my stress level was also less as well as feeling more used to the early hours.  I got in a few outpatients and one postpartum discharge, but no deliveries or baby admissions so I’m sure I will be asking a lot of questions of my buddy for weeks to come.  

Getting settled this time has mostly consisted of spending time with family, no need to look up churches or figure out where the closest grocery stores are most of those things we were already oriented to.  The kids already had made friends with the neighbor kids last time we lived in the area.  I had a name badge being overnighted to me as well as a n Amazon order of the correct color of uniforms otherwise a few days of family and rest were in order.  Below Hannah, Marissa and I made hotchocolate with peeps marshmallows one night.  Uncle Richard, Grandpa and Marissa made carne asada tacos for dinner. After which we enjoyed the minion movie together.  
    Grandpa told the kids they could have all the lemons they want off of the lemon tree which has lead to glass after glass of lemonade followed by a lemonade stand.

   
     

   During the lemonade stand Eve decided to slip through the gate and managed to pick the skinniest spot (she fits easily through most of the gaps) and got her head stuck.  Poor thing was balling and crying out for help. This happens to be the part where the FedEx delivery girl showed up with my name badge, go figure. I tried many times to get either her head back through the opening or the rest of her body through to the outside neither of which was working at all.  I sent a picture to Chad who was thirty miles away at the store.  He promptly called me back thinking he was going to have to rush home to rescue Eve.  I was starting to think that we weren’t going to be able to get her out with out cutting the bars.  Then, Chad had the brilliant idea of wrapping a rope around the bar entrapping Eve and the bar next to it then sticking a stick in it and twisting the bar until there was enough leverage to open up the bars enough to get her out.  Getting a rope and pipe out of the garage I had Eve out in just a few minutes, it totally worked.  She was a little stunned and relieved to still have her ears after all of those attempts to free her.   

    Sunday was Valentine’s Day so after church we decided to celebrate by going to the beach in Oceanside not too far away.  There were a few dining options all expensive, we decided on Joe’s Crab Shack all five sharing two crab boil pots.  It was good, and that made it within our budget.
   
   The building above is Joe’s Crab Shack it had a lovely view.  
  After lunch we played at the beach for a short time.  I was being cautious about the time as I wanted quiet time to mentally prepare for this first week of work.  
   

  Thursday 2/11/16 we crossed the boarder into California stopping shortly at Joshua Tree National Park to stretch our legs.  We would have liked to look around more (and we will go back), but the kids were chomping at the bit to see Grandpa and didn’t want us to stop for any reason.  We would be passing my new hospital so we got off the freeway and took that detour.  Finding the maternity ward entry and checking out the view from there…awesome.  
    
 San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital. It took some practice to say it right and luckily I did get it down before my first day at work.  Grandpa texted that he was at Uncle Richards house so we adjusted our destination on GPS and updated him with our estimated time of arrival.  He let us know that he was standing out in the street awaiting our coming. Seriously, you’ve gotta love this guy.  We were over ten minutes out and who knows how long he had been out there.  Way to make us feel loved.  Sure enough when we arived he was out front standing in the street leaning on his car watching down the road.  I am such a lucky girl to have him as my grandfather, so so blessed.  It was about 1:00pm out car was thrashed from a weeks worth of driving and let’s face it…we practically live in our car.  The kids needed to get some energy out so with in the hour they had found their swimming suites and despite the not so warm temperatures in the pool (the temperature outside was fabulous but the pool temp was probably in the low 70’s) the kids were in swimming and playing with the dogs.  We visited and watched them play.  Sending a picture to Uncle Richard to encourage him to come home to us sooner.  

     

 We went for a short walk after the kids got out of the pool.  The kids ran ahead of us.  Uncle Richard had a meeting and would be in later, so we talked about heading to Grandpa’s house and unloading the car.  Grandpa who had committed to staying and having dinner with Richard was sad that we would leave, hopeful that we would stay with him to wait so we abliged him in that request.  Really I was only thinking about leaving because I though the kids still restlessness was possibly bothering him, but obviously it was not.  We made pizza dinner plans and had our order already filled out to submit online the minute we got the text that Uncle Richard was headed home from work (45 minutes- one hour away).  We submitted it and the pizza beat him to the house by maybe five minutes probably less.  Marissa joined us for dinner and we visited.  It was getting late Eve fell asleep in my arms.  We decided there was no way the car would get unloaded today.  Getting into Grandpa’s house around 10:00pm after getting up at 05:40 and such a long journey.  We were tired and all just found beds and crashed. 

 

Ok, I know Alaska is bigger but having driven from one corner to the next today I can tell you it is a long ways across the state of Texas.  

This morning we were up and on our way early.  Ok we weren’t really on our way.  I was so blessed to have coffee with a fellow nurse that I went to school with at NNU.  We were a small class and practically lived together the last two years of college (nursing is a pretty intense program, you get to know your classmates well).  With similar interests in labor and delivery as well as midwifery It was good to meet up for coffee this morning in Houston before getting on the road.  After our coffee date we got on the freeway and turned our noses west.  We had friends who we were visiting in El Paso and we didn’t want to get into town too late. The scenery gradually changed throughout the day.  I was waiting for the ugly, boring desert, but it never came.  I loved seeing the trees slow to a stop, the Yucca start up.  The prickly pear a pleantiful as well as the change in altitude and topography.  The flat forever/slow rise in altitude gave way to buttes and plateaus.  It all made me miss Monument valley.  I love that place. San Antonio was nice, it appeared nice at least.  We would have loved to check out the Alamo and look around some, but if we have learned anything on this trip it is that the people we visit are way more important than the places we see.  The kids did well and we made good time, Texas was amazing and yes I thought it all was beautiful.  We are getting so much closer to California.

Be warned, there will be way too many pictures in this post… 

Eve loved helping Alfredo play his game, he was very good with the kids.    I had to send a picture of breakfast to my mother to brag about my delicious home cooked meal…maybe that wasn’t very nice of me…..I just noticed our Gizelle photo bomber…ha ha I love it.
 One of Irma and Gizelle’s favorite things to do is go to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  Today they had taken the day off of work and we were blessed to get to join them.  

We checked out the bug/butterfly exhibit first.  

    

 This clock is made for a home owner in the Houston area and is on exhibit at the museum until construction of their house is completed. The bug sings and random intervals.  

    
    
    
    Cockroaches…our friends from Hawaii!
  

   
    
   
    
    
    
   There were pineapples growing in the exhibit.  

 There was an emplyee there who showed us butterflies laying eggs and there was one larvae.  The yellow dots are the eggs.  On the second picture down you can see a cocoon.  

    
    
    
    
   
    
    
     

    
 The first exhibit of the main museum was on alternative energy sources. We got to take a pretend elevator to the bottom of an oil well (that is a very Texas thing to do). 

   
   

    
       There was a large dinousour exhibit that was fun.                             They might be related…

     There was a large crystal and gem collection as well as a shell collection exhibit.          The part of the museum on Texas, it’s native plants and animals as well as the biomes present here. The animals calls were recorded and would go off as you passed them as well as some of them moved.  Eve was not a big fan of that.       We spent so much time on the main floor that we almost had to rush through the second floor and basement and we didn’t make it to the third floor at all.  I don’t regret it though.  It was fun to just take our time especially with the butterflies.             The backpacks above from the gift shop were awesome.  Gizelle picked a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner…the pho was awesome and the Vietnamese coffee is also a do again.  Good pick Gizelle!          After dinner the kids had a movie date in Gizelle’s apartment watching Sleeping Beauty.  They stayed awake through the whole movie and we all rooted Prince Philip on.  I do not remember his sword and shield standing for that of the biblical armor of God.  We said our goodbyes to everyone except Irma as we planned on being up and leaving just before Irma left for work in the morning. 
 

This leg of our trip was shorter as we had reserved some time this morning for church.  We have some aquantences who live in Shreveport (they were out of town today) but recommended a church that was only two miles from our hotel.  We thought about walking to church since we were ready way early for the early service and ended up going back to our room for a half hour and I think that I might have even fallen back asleep.  When we arived I was quite glad that we had not.  In our travel clothes we were underdressed as it was, I think I would have felt fairly embarrassed to have walked in too 😬.  Everyone was very nice.  The people at the welcome desk directed us to the kids department where they were also very helpful and non judgmental about our being underdressed (all the churches we have attended have been so casual I didn’t even foresee this).  The kids loved their Sundayschool classes.  We enjoyed the service as well, we haven’t been to a Pentecostal survice since Hawaii.  I am pretty solid on the Old Testament since whenever I sit down to read through the bible I generally make it through the Old Testament or at least the first 5 books then peter out.  This time I’m in Mark and so I am close to the sections addressing the Holy Spirit.  I have to be honest, I don’t know what I believe there.  After church the person behind us had noticed that we were new and talked to us for quite a while asking us about our selves and eventually asking if she can be praying for us, to which we agreed.  We gathered our troops, used the bathroom and got on the road.  We were very shortly into west Texas.   

 I know we will get to the dessert portion of Texas as we cross the state later on but the drive from Shreveport to Huston was green, forest and cleared farms.  So beautiful.  We were texting with our friends in Huston and making plans for game food.  Making a quick stop at a grocery store before getting to their house for bacon, jalapeños and cream cheese for bacon wrapped jalapeños.  We found Irma and Alfedo’s house and they met us at the door.  It had only been two months since I have seen Aunt Irma, but I have not seen Alfredo since I was about two years old and do not remember him.  Fred (Alfredo JR.) was there to welcome us as well we haven’t seen him since Eve was born.  Litteraly, he was visiting my parents when she was born and was over to our house with in a few hours hanging out with us for the next few days.   

 We started working on the pepper poppers and before we knew it Gizelle was back from the store with drinks and we got to love on her as well.  Texas is so far from Oregon, we are greatful for a chance to visit them on their turf this time as we drive across the country. Even better, we have an extra day to spend with them.   As we waited for the game to start the kids put up their hammocks in the front yard and had Gizelle try them out.  

 Then we stacked them two high.  

    
 Once the game started we each picked a color to root for, I think we all knew Denver would win, but really we just wanted a good game.  It seemed like the number of turnovers was crazy high, but the company was good.   

 Fred put in Kung fu Panda for the kids as they go bored of the game in the middle.  Way to go Manning on your 200th career win. 

Leaving Nashville yesterday morning we tuned the I heart radio app to the Grand Ole’ Opry channel as a way of enjoying our location and scenery better.  We hadn’t decided if we were going to visit Shiloh National Battlefield or not since it was an hour out of our way and it was a longer day of driving that we had planned.  When we got to the sign we decided to go ahead and go for it.  It had been recommended by a co-homeschooler who was from Tennessee and we wanted to make at least one stop in Tennessee that would pay tribute to it’s history and uniqueness.  Shiloh is a pretty big park and the GPS instead of taking us to the visitors center directed is to the middle of the park.  Their had been no signs for the visitor’s center so we followed the GPS until we discovered that we were following the driving tour and with no pamphlet of information to explain each station.  We changed the GPS and set it for the visitor’s center to which was at this point six miles away.  Hannah and Eve decided to do the JR ranger program so we spent about an hour helping them complete their workbooks in the museum as then bought patches at the library.   

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
We had to get going our ETA for our motel for the night was already 9:00pm. The roads from Shiloh to Memphis were scenic and we dipped down south a bit enjoying the northern most part of Mississippi jumping back up to Tennessee at Memphis.  Graceland was only about a mile out of our way.  I had been there before as a highschooler, it seemed a lot different.  Much less green, but I’m sure that is due to it being winter.  The house seemed a lot smaller and further away.  We didn’t go inside the gates we just passed on the road.  We are too young to be huge Elvis fans, but it is still cool to see.  

   The one thing that was the same is the amazing rock wall with probably millions of signatures all over it of fans who had made pilgrimages here and signed the wall. You can’t see that detail in the picture, you can barely see it driving by, you can really see it well if you take a stroll down the sidewalk right in front.  Arkansas was next, the landscape was fairly green and beautiful, Little Rock seemed to go on forever, and we were sad we couldn’t stop at Hot Springs National Park.  Stopping finally at our hotel in Shreveport Luisiana.  I had to look up the population because the amount of lights was pretty impressive.  200,000 people, I don’t expect it to have more than 50,000.  We checked in, found our room and were out, for it had been a long day.