YES!!!!

I had a job interview today ...and it went REALLY well! :-) I don't know yet if I actually got the job or not, but cross your fingers for me that I will. It is an bookkeeping/administrative assistant position. I can pretty much work as many hours as I want, and later I could possibily do some work from home. I'll keep you posted. :) Did I mention that I bought a new outfit for the interview? Well I did...and I looked wicked cute-so I will probably get the job just because of that :-)

A long post...for a L-O-N-G Drive.

Sam and I just drove cross country, for those of you who want to know what it was like-here are all of the juicy details.

Day 1 Saturday April 14th

8:00 am-- departed Quincy, Massachusetts ...HOORRAY!!! :-)


1:00 pm-- arrived in Palmyra, New York. Drove to the top of Hill Comorah, got a tour of the Smith Home, went for a walk in the Sarced Grove, and drove past the Palmyra Temple.

4:30 pm--Arrived at Niagra Falls, near prospect point. Then we walked over to Terrapin Point where we could see the Horseshoe Falls. We didn't cross over to Canada so we didn't have the greatest view, but it still looked...big. I expected it to be much louder-maybe it is if you are at the bottom, in a boat.

7:13 pm Crossed the Pennsylvania border
8:00 pm Stopped for the night just outside of Cleveland, Ohio

Day 1 totals: 690 miles, 10 hours driving time

Day 2 Sunday April 15th

8:30 am Departed from Cleveland, started driving
2:00 pm Pit stop in Indiana

Drove through Illinois (the only sign that I missed) :-(

6:15pm Drove through St. Louis, Missouri-saw the Gateway Arch and the Cardinals stadium (and Sam was tempted to stop and watch the game)


10:00 pm Stopped for the night in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We really enjoyed this sunset as it was the first one we have seen in a long time-I decided to include that for all of my Boston friends in case they have forgotten what one looks like...that and because since it was dark the picture of the Oklahoma sign didn't turn out. We decided this is one city that we could live in. We liked the look of the town, and the people there were very nice ("people" meaning the front desk attendants at the hotel, and the cashiers at the gas station)

Day 2 totals: 14 hours driving, 1000 miles

Day 3, Monday April 17

7:00 am Started our day out early-since we decided to push though all the way back to Phoenix today.

12:15 pm Pit stop in Amarillo, Texas When I walked into the gas station I was asked "So, how can we rip you off today?" ....huh? I guess southern hospitality stopped at the border.
1:00 pm Entered New Mexico and drove through their blasted construction. The barricades being in the photo were on accident-but totally fitting, as they are what we remember most about this state. Many times we were forced to slow down to 45 mph (UGH! I know!-sooooo slow!) for pointless construction. FYI -If you see a sign warning you of a "safety corridor" and that the fines for speeding are doubled--watch out for black police vans (with traffic cameras) hiding just over hills--too bad for them we picked up on their plot and thwarted all their efforts to make a few bucks off of us...not that we were speeding Mom and Dad ;-)

"The grass may not be greener on the other side...

but the sun is definitely brighter in Arizona." --amber

8:00 pm Pit stop in Flagstaff, Arizona but we did NOT get gas...because Sam was so impressed with our gas milage, he wanted to prove that we could make it to Phoenix on this tank.
10:15 pm We arrived in the outskirts of Phoenix (Sam wins-yea.)
10:45 pm Gas light comes on, and I insist we stop for gas in 15 minutes from home--despite Sam's tantrum. (Man, he gets grumpy when he has to drive for 3 days straight!) :-) I love you Sam. :-)

11:00 pm (I am not sure in which time zone) We pull into Sam's parents' driveway
11:05 pm We were in bed, mad that we were not already asleep.

Day 3 Totals: 1000 miles, 16 hours of driving, 400 miles on one tank of gas

"I am never going to drive that far
again...EVER!" ---Sam

5 things we miss about Boston:

1. Our friends
2. The tap water (don't laugh-we're being serious. It was cold out of the tap and it actually tasted good)
3. Having someone to call when we are up late. (at 9, 10 or 11pm in boston I could still call my sister, my mom, or my friends in Arizona, or my friends in California) The kids are usually asleep and the cell phone minutes are unlimited. Bummer. (however...now all my boston friends can call me late at night :-)
4. Ridiculous street signs- (thickly settled, Wait for green light) Annoying at first, but the source of so much entertainment
5. Evening tv shows starting at 8pm They start at 7pm here, and I am still putting Rachel to sleep, but at 8pm I could sit and watch them in peace.
   
   

6 things we love about Arizona :

1. Driving on smoothly paved roads
2. Grandmas and Grandpas (it's not so much about free babysitting, as it is about them BEGGING to babysit :-)
3. Predictable Freeway onramps (no more being able to see the freeway but have no idea how to get on it)
4. Street signs!! enough said :-)
5. Great Mexican food
6. Warm Sunshine in April (go figure)

Happy Easter!

I hope you all are havng a great Easter. We went to a easter egg hunt yesterday at a park near my parents' house. Rachel had fun being there with her cousins, but I would just like to say, What is the deal with hiding empty easter eggs??? The hunt was an interesteing one-where all the eggs where spead out in plain sight on the grass, then each kid filled up their basket with eggs, and then at the end they turned in their basket full of empty eggs for a treat bag. I guess the end result was the same, and most of these poor kids were too young to know any different-but I really just don't see how finding an empty easter egg is suppsed to be fun? :-)

We walked to church today, since the church is just down the street. And we had fun dressing in these spring outfits , which we would have done in boston anyway, the only difference is that we don't feel out of place doing it here since te weather is warm. :-) When I sat down in church I looked around the chapel...and I missed seeing all of my friends faces. It is hard to feel motivated to go to church since one of the reasons I loving going so much was because I would get to see all of my friends (especially the Quincy Gang) ;-)

On an ending note. Here is a classic Rachel story to make you laugh. We were at the airport flying to Arizona, and Rachel said to me, "Mom! I know what we can do while we wait for our plane! We can play I spy! And, the first person to say, 'I Spy ...a plane CRASHING into a building...WINS!" as a side note-she thinks that the planes that are parked at the gate look like they are crashing.

Adios Boston :-) :-(

Well, Rachel and I flew to Arizona last night-and Sam is comming tonight. We have officially made the trek back west. Rachel did pretty well on the flight, and was not even grumpy when I woke her up to tell her that she had to walk down to baggage claim since I had too many bags to carry...so much so that when we got home (at 2:30 boston time) she was still not tired and she took forever to fall asleep. Then, she woke up at 5 am (phoenix time) ...but God bless living with grandma who came and got her and brought her downstairs to play so mommy could sleep a few more hours. I am begining to like this part of the arragement already. :-)

We had a fun weekend staying with friends. Saturday night we stayed with Josh and Lindy in Connetticut. Rachel absolutely loves their cats and was so sad to have to say good-bye to them. They took us to New York for one last hurrah. It was our last chance to make our family and friends back in Arizona jealous about everything that we were doing on the exciting east coast. I made sure to send a text message to my mom that we were eating roasted almonds at central park. I sent one to my sister telling her that we were at the Museum of Natural History looking at dinasaur bones. Then one to my brother telling him that we were watching the Phoenix Suns game while eating dinner at the ESPN Zone in Times Square. Then topped it off with one to my dad about the car fire we saw on the way home-since he loves being in that kind of action. It made me think of all the other things I will miss about living in Boston, and I will try to make a list of those in my next entry.

Sunday and Monday night we stayed with Kim and Chris. As you can see-Chris and Sam were quite happy with the arrangement.