The major update... make sure you have some time!

Okay, hopefully I will be able to post some pictures in here as well... but I haven't tried that yet, so who knows if it will really work. If not, hopefully you have facebook or myspace, because I will try and post all the pics there in the next couple of days.

Okay... so, the last day of driving (Saturday, August 30) was horrible. I left Las Cruces really early and I was exhausted an hour into the drive. My body was so tired of being in the car and my eyes were definitely tired of being in the middle of nowhere with not much to look at. It was raining off and on the whole last day... including a HORRIBLE storm where I couldn't even really see b/c it was raining so hard, but I had to keep driving b/c there was nowhere to pull over, and the storm was moving east to west and I was driving south at the time (so if I would've pulled over, I would've just been sitting in the rain until the storm was over). Anyway, I am going to try and post some pics now of along the way... we'll see if this works.

This is what my trailer looked like before I left... pretty full huh! Remember this for later!

Bre took this as I was pulling out of the Donaldson's... on my way to officially get on the road!

This is the sunset as I see it in my side view mirror... I took these every day!

How slow I was going up the hill... if you know me at all, you know that this killed me!

Joshua trees... I didn't know what they were until I went to the gas station and saw them on a post card on how they look when they aren't dead! :)

When it's 100 degrees outside and you don't want your food to melt you have to be clever. So, I bought an ice chest and ice for my water...but the brown thing is full of food... so I used my sun shades from my windshield... and it worked great! I actually put my hand over it and felt how hot it was and then underneath, and it was a good 15 -20 degrees cooler under there! I was pretty proud of myself!

Self portrait while driving... yeah, I know! I'm pretty talented! :)

What most of my drive looked like!

Getting passed by semi's and everything else was also part of my experience... I felt like I was standing still!

My backseat and back area were pretty packed too! :)

This is the Colorado River.. just before the AZ border... very pretty!

AZ border... officially out of CA :(

Another thing that passed my time was finding shapes in the clouds... do you see the duck?

A huge storm to the side of me, that I'm hoping I don't get to experience... luckily I didn't! :)

The maximum speed I could go and not have the trailer fishtail! Again.. if you know me... :)

Day two sunset from the side view mirror... absolutely gorgeous! God paints so well!

What it looked like out the front window!

I stayed with Hillary and Alissa at NAU in Flagstaff (Thanks again girls!) I got to spend time with them and Greg as well! So fun to get to see them their first week of college. Cutest dorm room ever! And nice to have friendly faces and hugs along my long journey out to TX!

See picture below to see if this sign is telling the truth!

Um... yeah... not so much!

How cool would it be to live in Pie Town?! I'm sure in it's prime, it was a nice town, but it is pretty run down there... I'm pretty sure that about 5 people are left.

Self portrait for the day

Um... it's raining

Okay... so the GPS took me off of I40 and onto something else even more in the middle of nowhere, and I was pretty upset... until I came upon on the satellites used in the movie Contact, and others as well I guess. This is the only time I actually pulled off the road to take pics. This is the information sign and below is one of the many pics I took of the satellites. The pictures don't do it justice.

I kept thinking..... now if I could only get a cell signal with one of those! :)

Um, yeah... pretty sure that is going to be ugly when I get to it!

Sunset in the side view mirror

I saw this star a few miles away... officially entering Texas... they are proud of their stars, and the shape of their state... you see them everywhere! Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard, so the windshield wiper is also in the pic.

Yes He does! A little smile from God along the highway! San Antonio is an hour and a half away from Round Rock... so this sign gave me some hope!
10 brand new ambulances passing me
Um... apparently the mountains have flat tops here... I guess it makes it easier to put the windmills on them!
Last sunset on the side view mirror!
Entering Austin! No flash... so this is what the freeway lights and tail lights look like... pretty cool I think! Pulling into Steph and Greg's driveway!!!! I made it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Giant bear hug to Greg... Steph had the camera!
Proof that I drove pretty darn good... and that I finished packing the trailer correctly... no shifting :)
Even on the top!
Brady putting on my Texas license plates for me! Such the little helper!!!!

Okay, so that took FOREVER to do all those pictures.. blogspot sure doesn't make it easy... you would think that when you do the pictures that they would go where the cursor is... but NOOOOO... they go to the top of your post and then you have to drag them... and then it adds all this extra space you have to go back and fix and delete when you are done! So, I hope you enjoyed those pics... just some out of the over 150 that I took along the way!

Anyway... I got here Saturday night. Sunday I unpacked a little over half the trailer by myself while the Hahns went to church. When they got home they helped me unload the furniture and heavy awkward stuff into the garage... because they were racing in the Austin Nike Human Race 10K (I will have to post pics on this separately, maybe in a couple days, after I forget what a pain it is) anyway... it was 100 degrees at the start of the race. Both Steph and Greg ran in it, I had the kids. We cheered, sprayed the runners, and I took pictures. The cool thing was that Lance Armstrong and Matthew McConahottie were in the race too! I got some great pics of Lance, but didn't see Matthew until he was literally right next to me (I'm talking inches away from me) and so I only have a picture of the back of his head, and then the back of him running away (better than nothing!). Monday was Labor Day which meant BBQ and pool time! Tuesday I unpacked some, and then went around and picked up some waitress applications. Wednesday morning I went for my "official" Camp Fire interview (we had only talked on the phone) and training. Then that afternoon I "subbed" for a different school than the one I will be working with. So, I had only been in Round Rock for 4 days when I started my first job! God is so amazing! Thursday I turned in a few applications, and tried to turn in my sub paperwork, but I didn't have my SS Card, so I had to come back on Friday for that. Friday I turned in my sub paperwork, and some more waitressing applications. Saturday I did some more unpacking (including Steph and I getting the rest of the stuff out of the garage so that the Armada could have it's home back), did some laundry, went and picked up a few more applications. And then Saturday night we got a babysitter (mom down the street) to come and watch the kids (they were already put to bed) and Steph, Greg and I went downtown to The Marq. The Marq is Brad Womack's bar (formally The Bachelor, he owns it with his brothers and a friend) and last time I was here Steph and I went there and actually met him. The bar is upscale and actually nice for people our age. We had a lot of fun, but unfortunately Brad wasn't there this time. :( Oh, well! Sunday I tried out my first church. It's called Celebration, and it was GINORMOUS! I found it because Paula Phillips' sister and her family go there. It makes Grace look tiny. I will be trying out other churches as well, but if this is the church I choose, I will definitely get involved in a small group bible study. The nice thing is that they do have a singles group for 30 and over! Today is Monday (well not really anymore, b/c it is now 1:39am my time) but today I went to Cheesecake Factory to turn in an app, and they are supposed to have a manager talk to you on the spot, but there was only one manager on duty so I was told to call tomorrow. Well, I was all dressed up and so I called Steph to see if there were any other restaurants in that area that I should try (b/c obvioulsy I don't know where anything is... I am relying on Steph and the GPS) and she said Iron Cactus and North something. Well, they happened to be right next to each other. So, I go into Iron Cactus first and ask if they are hiring. The hostess told me that they weren't hiring at that location but were for another location. So I asked her if I could go ahead and have an application and that way I could have it filled out when I went there. She told me to go ahead and fill it out there b/c the GM was actually there today and maybe he could talk to me when I was done. This is about 3:30 pm. So, I fill out my application and then tell her I am done. A manager comes and talks to me. Then he said, let me go get the GM so he can talk to you. He comes back 5 minutes later (around 4pm) and says, "Okay, change of plans. Can you start training tonight?" My eyes must've popped out of my head because he said, "If you can't, that's okay, we can figure something else out" (this is how he told me I had the job!) Anyway, I said, "Um, yeah, that's fine, but do I need to go home and change?" (I was in a skirt) and he said no, but that everyone else would be in all black b/c they had orientation yesterday, so I would probably stick out a little. (of-course, I was okay with that!)

So... Praise God! I have a waitressing job for the Iron Cactus... here's the website if you want to check it out : http://ironcactus.com I (along with everyone else in my training group) will be opening the Hill Country Galleria site. We are training this week and next, and then we will have the 3 practice nights from Sept. 22-24th and will officially open to the public following that! I am so excited. It's a great menu, and the managers are really nice and the people I met so far seem to be too!

Okay, I am super tired and have a lot to do tomorrow. Please know that once my insane schedule starts of 3 jobs (subbing, Camp Fire, and waitress) that I won't be able to blog as much, but I will do my best.

Love and miss you all! Please keep in touch!!!!