For My Gals at FBC

Here's how my first day of orientation went (sorry for all of you non nurses who won't understand most of this) -5 scheduled c/s -1st case scheduled 0730, into OR at 0815, response from preceptor..."you do what you can do" wow, can you imagine saying that to a surgeon at Salem? -Doing 5th scheduled case at 1800 -PACU ratio 2:1 -no birth buddies -no lunch -no breaks -no tech in or -2 anesthesiologist in whole hospital (now how do you get epidurals for all 450 deliveries they do?) -All orders on the computer, which went down, and I still don't have a password -one of the nights I'm scheduled still needing 9 RNs to get to core So this was basically my day, and I have a horrible headache. I'm sure it will be better once I can figure out how to do everything. But the best thing...NO MEDICATION BARCODES!!!! Love you all and really truly miss all of you

Urgent Prayer for Kaeli

Many of you received an email asking for prayer for Kaeli from us. For those of you who did not and would like to, please join us in prayer for this precious little girl. Kaeli is the daughter of our pastor in Oregon at Grace Chapel, and has been battling leukemia for a year. Tonight, Kaeli is in the hospital very, very ill and the church is asking to come along side them in prayer. To learn more about Kaeli and her story visit www.kaeliallison.com We know that Kaeli is in the Lord's arms and trust that He knows what's best.

Attempting a Normal Life

Today is the first day that Chris is going to work, so he left about 1 1/2 hours early just in case traffic was awful. We have no idea what to expect around here in terms of the freeways. The traffic here is unbelievable!!! There's a major highway that makes a circle around the city (called the Perimeter) that is between 6 and 7 lanes at all times, then there's 2 other major freeways that form an x through the perimeter and out that are 5 lanes each. Not to mention the countless other "little" freeways off of that. I thought Portland was big when I-5 hit 4 lanes. And traffic stops for no reason around here. Yesterday we were stopped on the freeway because people were stopping for a person on the side of the road cutting down a tree...ugh. This weekend was quite busy trying to get our life together. we had 2 days to get Chris a car. He really wanted a Jeep, but that was not panning out well in our time frame, so we started looking at other options. We found a car we liked and the person told us he lived about an hour and twenty minutes south of Atlanta. We thought, no big deal, we've spent the last 10 days driving, we can do it. Well...an hour and a half turned out to be over 100 miles!!! But we ended up getting the car and now Chris has a Volkswagen GTI. I'm hoping he won't get any tickets. And in the midst of all of the driving around to find a car, Caitlin decided to meet up with somebody to purchase a CRICUT!!! For all you scrapbookers and card makers out there, you know how cool this thing is. So I'm really excited to play with it. And last night was the first night that we began looking for a church. We found ourselves at a church called Veritas, which is just a few miles away from our apartment. It is a very small start up church. The crazy thing about it was that there was a couple there who I knew from home. She worked with me at Salem Hospital and they moved out her a few months ago for her husband to go to Physician Assistant school at Emory University. It was really nice to see a familiar face. We think that we'll continue to check a few other churches out, but everybody was really nice and it's comforting to know that it would be a good place to be. Anyways, today is my day to attempt to make our house like a home. We're still waiting on most of our stuff to get here, so frozen lasagna will have to suffice for dinner. Sorry that there's no pictures this time.

Day 10 Move in Day

Today started getting up in Chattanooga, TN at 4am!!! We had to have my car to the Honda dealership at 7:30. After spending an hour at the dealership, they determined that there was a cable vibrating against a part under the hood. So for only $65 the nice man made the blender like noise go away and he replaced my headlight and...I have a/c in my car again. One thing that we've noticed here is that everybody is really nice, and they all talk to you. So this is our apartment below. It's on the 3rd floor so moving this morning was very hot and disgusting, but now I'm sitting here with the a/c on way too cold and hoping to not have to go outside again until November. Annie, it sounds like you had a terrible day, and I have to hear the story about the nose. And tell Leah, that she is a superstar for being in charge of that unit. I don't think I could do it.

Day 9 There goes the AC

Today we drove from Mount Vernon, Illinois to Chatanooga, Tennessee. We stopped in Nashville for about 15 minutes (thanks to our dog), and saw a little bit of the Grand Ole Opry. The good thing is that Nashville in only 4 1/2 hours from Atlanta, so we plan on coming back for a mini vacation. These were the most beautiful and colorful butterflies I have ever seen. I want to plant these flowers on our deck in Atlanta so I can butterflies also. The only problem, I suck and gardening and have no idea what these flowers are...mom, can you help?And now for the real fun of the day. My car has been making this blender type noise, off and on for a little while, but really it wasn't that bad, so we didn't think much about it. Today however we discovered (as the noise was becoming more and more frequent) that it was connected with the air conditioning system. We connected this after last summers incident of an exploded air conditioner, ruined heating system, and a $3000 repair. Thanks, to Honda America for footing some of the bill. So needless to say, we think that if we continue to run the A/C the same part will explode. So...to help save the A/C system, we turned off the A/C and opened the windows. We drove 80 miles with no A/C in 100 degree weather - NOT FUN. We are taking the car to the Honda dealer in Atlanta tomorrow morning for diagnostics. Please keep us in your prayers that they can find the problem and that it will be a cheap and easy fix. Also, that Chris can quickly find a car so we can have transportation. Praise the Lord though, that the Honda dealership will give us a complimentary rental car. We love you all and miss you.

Day 8 Kansas City to Mount Vernon, Illinois

We stopped in St. Louis to see the arch on our way into Illinois. We had great plans to see lots of St. Louis, but Gunnar had other plans. In this heat, he only lasts about 15 minutes outside until he drops his tail and pulls on his leash until he lays down. In case you're not checking the weather here, it is 98 degrees with about 70 percent humidity. This is weather we've never experienced, and it will take some time getting used too. We were going to stay in St. Louis, but decided to add a few hours to our trip and went to Mount Vernon, Illinois. There really is nothing there, but a few restaraunts. We had our first experience at a Cracker Barrel. I had been told about them, but had never been. For those of you who don't know what they are, they are basically a homecooking restaraunt, with this cute general store, where you can buy old fashioned toys and candy. They're everywhere down here. The other thing that is everywhere down here some sort of bug that we don't know what it is. When we walk out of our hotel room, we can hear this high pitched screaming type of noise (we actually thought it was the power lines), but it's bugs in the trees, how gross!

Day 7 Colorado Springs to Kansas City Missouri

Today was our longest day of driving . We left Colorado very early and it took about 10 hours to get to Kansas City, Missouri. The drive was very boring, but prettier than Idaho. We didn't take any detours and see anything though. We chose to avoid the Largest Prairie Dog , 5 legged cow, and 2 headed rattlesnake exhibit. I'm sure it would have been thrilling.

dad this one's for you

For those of you who already wrote our address down in pen in your address book, Caitlin will take full responsibility for your need for whiteout. Our address is actually 4310 Jefferson Square Court Decatur, Georgia 30030. I actually googlemapped it and it is 0.8 miles from the hospital I'll be working at. Thank the Lord...I loved you all at Salem, but I was getting a little tired of the 30 mile commute. We love you all and love when you leave us comments:)

Day 6 The Garden of the Gods

This is the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This is by far the most beautiful thing we've seen on our trip. The park is amazing and breathtaking. We also now have an address: 4310 Jefferson Square Court Decatur, GA 30030

Day 5 Denver

Well, so far our trip is going well. We haven't had any car problems or disasters (other than the ER Vet), praise God! We are staying at the lovely Motel 6 along the way because they allow the dog. Gunnar continues to hate the car and his sedative (called Ace) only works so well. It makes him a little glassy eyed and tired, but he still hates the car. We spent a day in Denver. After scouring the visit Denver magazines, we had a whole day mapped out of things to see and do. The first included walking around the LODO (Lower Downtown) district and then a trip to the CityPark and to the State Capitol....but...1 1/2 hours into walking LODO Gunnar laid down on the sidewalk and wouldn't move because it was sooo hot. So much for sightseeing in Denver. Here's some photos of what we did see.

So Chris got this funny thing called a lomo camera (he calls it a toy camera though), and we took the film to get developed in Denver and this is what he got.

Day 4 Jackson to Denver

this was the view from the front door of our room in Jackson, doesn't it look like bison climbing the hill. each night there was a lightning storm and it looked like this hill kept getting hit on the other side. I think they have lightning storms every night, and they are cool.this was funny, thank you Wyoming have you ever heard of Taco Johns? we sat in this drive thru for about 20 minutes and we were the third car, this is me being frustrated...and my Quesadilla wasnt even fully melted.We decided to go to denver instead of colorado springs, its a good thing too because it was easy to find the ER Vet... so the bad news of the day is that Gunnar was meeting another dog at a bathroom stop in Wamsutter, Wy population 65, yes thats right 65. While he was sniffin noses the other dog snapped and bit and gripped gunnars face. she drew blood and he bit his own tounge. this was at noon, we didnt get him to this ER Vet until 6pm. no stitches but now we can call him scarface.

Day 3 Yellowstone

So last night we were updating our blog for the past two days from an internet cafe in Jackson, WY but the cafe was closed so we were parked in front of it late at night. Our signal was weak and we didnt trust the Wyoming locals not to come at us with shotguns so we left before we could finish our Yellowstone post. They say int he summer the best time to see wildlife is in the morning and the evening. we only saw bison a couple times near the road and some elk type deer things really far away from the road.

The springs and geysers are the coolest part of Yellowstone, here we are at a part where they were steaming so much we could barely see the boardwalk we were on.

Caitlin took this photo of me taking photos over this amazing ledge. there is something so beautiful and so dangerous about this place. It took my breath away a few times.

it rained hardcore right before faithful blew and everyone went running and screaming over to the lodge to get out of the rain, it was pretty funny, i was running like a sissy because i had my camera.

oops, more bison, sorry

our two favorite signs in all of Yellowstone and Teton nat'l forest

Day 2 Yoda is Our CoPilot

So when Chris was in high school, he had this plastic yoda on his dashboard and two years ago, our friend Stu found this one at a garage sale and has kept it for us all these years. We figure who better to guide us than "the force"

Very early in the morning after leaving Boise, we realized that Idaho is one of the most boring and ugliest places we have ever seen (sorry to any of you who enjoy Idaho). So we chose to take this detour (a four hour detour). Along the way we saw windmills, a cool thing called the Balanced Rock, Shoshone falls, and corn, corn, and more corn.

Sorry there isn't more to see, but Idaho is really boring