Update

well, it is still snowing....ALL day, it hasn't stopped! Here is a picture where you can see how deep it is:

IT'S SNOWING!!!!

Last night on the way home from a snowboarding trip with friends we were told that it was supposed to snow 6-12in in Lancaster.....where we live. It never snows down here in our little valley!! I got up this morning at 6am and of course I remembered that there could possibly be snow....but I looked out and saw nothing. Then I chuckled at those meteorologists and went back to bed! At 9am Twiggy and I went outside and this is what we found!!! IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!



To watch the videos you'll need to pause the music at the bottom of this page....then turn it back on if you like the Christmas music :)
Hello from Me



Hello from Nate!
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We found out Twiggy is not a sled dog! I have a video but is taking a long time to put on here...she wouldn't touch the snow for a while. Here is her first attempt at touching it...poking it with her nose "What is this stuff???!"

Twiggy afterwards....it was traumatic for her ;)


Love and miss you all but THIS IS AWESOME!! IT'S SNOWING!!!!

SNOW!

The snow is here! The mountain is open and we were able to go snowboarding the last 2 days :) I'm getting better but man, my legs are burning! We both took a few good falls, Nate's left a mark as usual....mine were embarrassing! While we were up at the top of the mountain I sat on the bench with 2 girls to get our boots strapped in and then they took off before me. Nate also was ahead of me a little ways waiting in the snow. He heard 1 of the girls turn to the other and point to me saying, "Do you know her?" Right as girl #2 turned and looked at me, I caught the front edge of my board and did a belly flop. Yeah, classic! It's never a good sign to slide down the mountain on your belly. That was one of my few face forward falls too and I had an audience :) EVen if she did know me, I think she would have denied it. Nate's involved trying to slide on a rail and instead running into it with his shin.... it was probably pretty embarrassing too cause you are supposed to go on top of it-not into it. Otherwise, it was a fun couple of days without major injury! We hope you will try to come visit us during snow season and take a snowboarding, sledding or tubing trip to the mountain with us! :)



Oh and only about 11 days until we are home for Christmas. We will be home form the 23rd-Jan 5th!! I hope you enjoy this picture of our apartment sized tree :)

Mexico

I don't know how I always end up waiting so long between posts. A lot of times I am waiting on pictures from other people so I can include them in the blog but I never seem to get them soooo I should stop waiting (and start bringing my own camera)
~We were able to go to Mexico! This was my first experience going out of the country and not staying in a tourist region. I was shocked at the poverty! I have seen those sad lil commercials on TV that look like they take place in an Africa tribe but this was right across the border in Mexicali. It was amazing to see the shacks that the people had put together. One thing that really struck me was the animals. The dogs were so incredibly emaciated that the owners would be arrested in the States. Now, that's an odd thing to focus on, you might be thinking.....Well, remember my animal loving background and I think when you compare it to home it really shows the poverty. Here people carry their dogs in purses, have them groomed, nails trimmed, a wide variety of dog food including premium brands, collars, clothes, leashes, dog houses, dog bowls, veterinarians and most of our are FAT! It shows the extreme difference. We followed a church and shadowed their visit and observed how they served the Mexicali church. It was a great learning experience for our team who will be going down again in 2 weeks to serve on their own. The Mexicali church has gone through some amazing growth...they built the church brick by brick. Every time they had the funds, they walked across the street to the brickyard and purchased another one. Also the government just built hundreds of track homes all around the church building which provides them PEOPLE! Their main goal is to get the children's building up before Jan. which is the coldest month. Right now the 45 + children are outside during Sunday service.

Nate was able to practice his soccer skills and Spanish....both need work! The kids LOVED that he was so bad at Spanish and found it amusing to have him try to repeat after them. He has a strange Asian accent when he tries to speak Spanish....puzzling isn't it? Nate did a wonderful job keeping up with all of the 8 year old professional soccer players though despite having a nasty cold. He was able to teach one of the High Schoolers how to play a song in English on guitar. The boy played the guitar and sang in Spanish while we sang in English. He was able to help fix a guitar also :) One of the best parts was worship on Sunday~ as Nate puts it " It's amazing to think of our God listening to us worshipping Him in our language and the Mexicali church worshipping in Spanish" It's all for the glory of the same God. What an incredible bond we have with them even though we cannot communicate to each other! Oh and Nate taught our friend Carlos (about 12 or 13) that his name was Senor Rapido~ Nate's Spanish name and they actually called him by that! My name became "I don't know" Carlos and I could talk some but he always found it funny when I would just look at him strangely and say "I don't know" One thing is for sure, he can now say that perfectly in English!

Overall, it was a great experience to see how we can really serve them. They are so thankful for everything, they are sound in Biblical teaching and really serving the Lord with all they have. I pray that the building goes up soon!!

Extra pictures

You can click the pictures to see them bigger (that's true for all the pictures I post)
Kathy and I dressed as 80's rockers :)


Twiggy and her buddy, Oscar....I posted this because Twiggy looks like she has lazers for eyes.

Pumpkins, Retreats and Horses OH MY!

It's been TOO long since I've updated everyone. It's just been a little harder without our computer...I don't even know the official cause of the crash but we are now the proud owners of a Macbook...this is my first time using it and it's not too hard...it's just different. Nate is considering going back to school and so we figured we should get a reliable computer and if he doesn't go back then we will still have a reliable computer. There are some really cool features of Macs that we liked a lot. Such as these photos we took the


-I can already hear your laughter!

Let's start with October! Here are some pictures of our trip to the HUGE pumpkin patch called Lombardi Ranch.

They have a ton o pumpkins- fat ones, white ones, light orange, bright orange, green and white, squashed ones, sun flowers, hay rides, peting zoo? I might have made up the petting zoo LOL but you get the point.



It was a fun trip with our friends Kyle and Kathy. Kyle is the up and coming pastor for our church. He is still in seminary studying like a mad man. Kathy and I have become really close since we have similar personalities and both substitute. We have free time to get together and bake, sew, and dress like rock stars. Rock stars?

Yes, 80s rock stars. Out church had a womens retreat a few weeks ago with an Back to the Future 80s theme. We stayed in cabins near Mountain High -the local snowboarding location. Is was pretty chilly most of the time. Last year there was already snow on the ground, the 2nd week of November.

Anyways so the retreat was fun...


I was able to meet more of the women in the church. I was really convicted of my time in the word by a few messages and God has been faithful in renewing my desire to be reading and enjoying it! The first night involved some of the women dancing to song from Back to the Future with new lyrics. There was a guitar solo- this is where Kathy and I rocked out with guitar hero guitars in full 80s gear. Later on in the weekend I had a real solo of my own. "Am I a Soldier of the Cross" is an old hymn that one of the ladies wrote music for. It was just me and the keyboard and everyone looking at me....dang! I haven't been nervous to sing in a while because usually everyone is singing with me! It's always fun for me to sing though....this week Nate and I lead worship for Bible study and then Sunday I lead worship with a few others for the high school group.

Nate surprised me for my birthday and took me down below (L.A. area) to Hollywood where surprisingly there is horse ranch. We went horse back riding, just the 2 of us and our guide.

It was a fun ride because I had never done anything like it....it was 1.5 hours through the hills/forest to a Mexican restaurant, eat dinner and then 1.5 hours back through the hills/forest in the dark. I've never ridden in the dark before and it was amazing. There is one point where you are on top of a hill and can look out over L.A., Glendale and I can't remember the 3rd city right now....but it's so peaceful and you just realize how small we are when you see how many people there really are around you! Here is picture of the sunsetting and part of a city in the back. I know my helmet doesn't fit....

It was fun to ride up hills also...don't have those in FL! We saw a coyote on the trail....he was stalking Nate.


We are hopefully going to Mexico next weekend. The church is going on a mission trip in December so Nate, Kyle, Kathy and I are going to go down next week, follow a church and see how they run the show to make sure we are prepared for December. I'm really looking forward to this. If you've ever talked to me about Spanish, you'll know that I would love to fluent and I do have some knowledge of he language. I'm hoping through these trips I will be able to recall some of what I know and communicate with the people. I'm looking forward to meeting the people and helping to serve their church as well. Pray that Nathan's passport shows up soon!

Home Cookin!!!

If you have any delicious recipes for....anything! Send them my way! I like to try to make new things but only if they are yummy. I made this pasta dish the other night and it was so sad cause it tasted like...nothing :(
I'm sure Nate would appreciate it!

When are you coming back? When are you going back?

At this particular moment I'm feeling kinda homesick! I just heard some good news from a friend at home, I talked to Aunt Margie, Christina, Caroline and Alyson this week and I'm sitting here wishing I could be driving around Melbourne making random house visits!! Its especially weird for me not to see my mom or sister~they are the coolest lol Simple things too, like WATER!



Yesterday I took Twigs on a little nature walk with some friends. We went up to the aquaduct which is pretty much the only 'body' of water around here. It was really nice as the sun was setting to look out over the cities and there was a cool breeze coming off the water. Then the moon turned this beautiful orange color that matched the city lights perfectly. It really was gorgeous! I wish I had my camera but the picture above at least shows you what it looks like. I couldn't help but think, wow, in Florida I could be walking along the beach or the river or pretty much any neighborhood and be near water! I miss the ocean and river and being able to go for a boat ride and get away for 30 minutes with just the sound of the wind (and motor). And if you're on Lake Washington, the noise of gator bodies flinging off the bank and into the water as I try to 'air harpoon' them. If you don't know what air harpooning is~you've got to try it! LOL


It seems like the theme of this week has been: When are you coming back? When are you going back? The FL crew wants us home and wonders why in the world it is taking so long. And if we are still coming back. I've heard this phrase, "you are still coming back.....right?" Yes we are but we don't know when. And then there is the other question from the Cali crew...."Do you guys have to go back? Why don't you just stay here?" All of them trying to come up with reasons that we HAVE to stay in Cali. It's really sweet that everyone wants us and I feel very loved! But the true answer is "We don't know!" I wish we did know more but thats the nature of the beast as far as contracted/government jobs.


The good news~we are enjoying ourselves here. We have been given some amazing opportunites to hear speakers that we wouldn't have had otherwise an we've both been growing and learning so much spiritually. Expect us to come back different- in a good way. And the weather here is beautiful! It is clearly fall here....leaves flying around every where which means Twiggy is being trampled by giant rolling leaves while trying to go potty- aw sad! And then there are days that are FREEZING! I took a picture, which I lost with the comp. so just picture this..... our outdoor thermometer marked 40 + me with FL winter clothes = hot chocolate despensing hard hat
This is the kind of thermometer that I need!

Oh and we are expecting to be home for Christmas for about 2 weeks! I'm very excited to come see everyone!

To all the bible study girls: Would ya stop poppin out babies so quickly??? Our kids are going to be infants and your youngest will be driving! LOL Really I'm very excited for everyone who is just starting out or almost about to pop! Miss you girls!

Nate and I have the next couple of days off together so I may update soon with pictures of all 3 of us!
LOVE YOU!!!

Vets and bugs, gross!

This is pretty random but I am a little freaked out by this! After pouring a delicious bowl of Purina One natural dog food for lil Twigs, I realized there was a hole in the bottom of the bag and some crumblets fell out of me. Shrug, no big deal. Wait, are there bugs at the bottom of the pantry? Hmm, they are all dead. I better check the food anyways. As I scruffled open the bag and peered inside I saw nothing but dog food but just to make sure "My Precious" was safe I poured the entire bag into a Walmart bag so I could further examine the contents. SICK! THE FOOD IS MOVING! Little buggies were all over the bottom of the bag and moving the kiblets around. Dumpster and Petsmart run! (No dogs were harmed in the writing of this story)

I've had 2 interviews this week with veterinary offices. The first one was a long and silly interview process which involved an application (weakness, strength, goals blah blah), reading the hand book, a short quiz and an interview in which the self proclaimed 'analytical and OCD' doctor informed me that "If hired, we would have to work on my spelling" Turns out I misspelled 2 words, mind you I was reading and writing for 1:15 minutes. My bad, didn't know that it was a crime to make mistakes. I noticed some other shenanigans (yes, I spell check that) and decided I didn't really want to work there.

Today I interviewed with an Emergency Animal Hospital, they are super flexible with schedules and I can work from 6pm-12am which would keep Nate and I on the same schedule! I'm going on a working interview Monday the 29th. Wow, the 29th marks Nate and I's 9th month of marriage....where does time go? Surely it moved a lot slower when we were apart. I'm also looking into an afterschool progeam called PEAK enrichment-basically you teach fun classes (dance, bugs, lego building) 2 hours a day and a few friends from church are thinking about doing it too.

Please pray for my job search this week, that God would give me clear direction as to where He wants me and I would find a job that I enjoy. Pray for Nate's job also. Although he is not in danger of losing his position, other people are being let go as the project gets closer to being completed and it's creating some jealousy and gossip. If you know Nate, it doesn't bother him which I am thankful for but I still think prayer is order here.

Only about 2.5 months til we visit for Christmas!
Shalane

House Wife

I haven't been getting as many subbing jobs as I anticipated. I don't like having the working days undecided and wondering if I will meet my weekly goal. I can't say that I mind staying at home. Lately, my days have been pretty filled. I've starting getting more involved at church and making closer friendships. These week I am hanging out with a friend pretty much everyday or I have my class on the schedule. With my 24th birthday fast approaching, I've been reflecting on where God wants me. I still feel called to be working with animals or in a medical field yet I am not really sure why I have that passion right now. I applied at a few places today and we'll see what happens. But after looking at my plans for the week, I have to wonder if God just wants me all to himself right now! What if He wants me to use this time in fellowship and as a time to grow even closer to Him? I would hate to miss that opportunity which could be further preparation for my future as a mom or some other stage He has prepared for me. Sigh, I wonder if I'll ever know what I want to be when I grow up!

Although my career path is uncertain, I am really enjoying this season of spending time with friends and meeting new people. I'm getting to know some people in the apartment complex really well and I've had several opportunies to head out on the town and talk to people. I can honestly say that I'm anything but a 'Desperate Housewife'!

I love you all so incredibly much and miss spending time with you! Keep me updated on your lives cause I want to hear from you!

Vacations and Sickness

We are back from the retreat! (OK so we've been back for a while and I'm just slow) Leading worship went really well, Nate had a couple of slip ups with the pick flying out or a missed chord but overall he did a great job, he kept going and it was a lot of fun. Our friends are so supportive that they probably didn't even notice. The retreat was SO much fun! We had some great times of fellowship, we played kickball, had a volleyball championship, ultimate frisbee and even a group venture to the golf driving range-which was surprising fun for everyone. I swing like a tennis player but Nate is a professional, see the videos :) We spent the nights playing a pool game called "scratch" or "scum" which is basically the version of "horse" for pool tables. That game was awesome and involved a couple people being pegged in the leg with the cue ball! Oh and this trip involved pretty much minimal sleep which resulted in Nate and I being sick for a couple days-we're back though! Woohoo! Thank you Caroline for suggesting Tylenol Cold AM/PM which allowed us a solid nights sleep.

Funny: I took the PM and went to sleep before Nate got home. He came into the bedroom ready to give me a hug (normally I hear him come in but not with the meds) I opened my eyes to see a huge man standing next to the bed with his arms out like a monster and I was so out of it that all I could really do, even in my terror, is whimper and roll over. Great, Shalane that would really save your life! If anyone ever wants to attack me without a struggle - that was the moment!

What we have come to realize is that we really do love the people out here. Not to say we don't miss home or love our family and friends at home. This has just been a really good time for us to be challenged by our Christian friends to live the life, actually put into action what we are learning and I have to say I feel like I have grown so incredibly much in the last 3 monthes. We will be sad to leave our church and friends here and are currently trying to figure out a way to get all of you in one place! We are taking a class called E.E. right now and its going well. It basically focuses on knowing the answers to 2 questions and helping people answer those questions or at least think about it. It involves a good amount of homework but it's worth it.

Malia is getting some opportunites right now in Texas with some close friends. She is a nanny and I think she might be LOVING it! We're praying for Texas support of her ministry. Not much else going on right now. I just feel so loved! I'm in love with my Savior, my God, my husband, my family and friends and I'm feeling so much compassion for those around me hurting. The theme for the week is LOVE. Everybody wants it, everyone needs it, no one can give it more perfectly than Christ! I hope that each day I can love people better.
So naturally I must end this with: I LOVE YOU!!!!

Life

Just an update on my job situation. I finally have all my paperwork in to the 2 schools! I have one job set for Sept 3rd (private) and one for Sept 19th (public). The private school said they only have about 5 subs so I should get jobs fairly easily..I just got my ID # today for the public school and I was able to snag a science job. I also completed my 3rd orientation for school number 3 today. Another Christian school-I still have to do my paperwork but we are waiting of references. It is at least progressing. It's been really hard for me to not be contributing to the income. Having my every 2 week paycheck helped to balance out the time between getting Nate's per diem checks. I'm sure I'll be working more soon :) Nate and I have a retreat with bible study coming up over the Labor day weekend. We are going to be leading worship for the first time together-NO Nate is NOT singing unless he sneaks in there in which case I will probably laugh just like he would laugh at me if I were supposed to lead on the guitar :) Oh, my sister is at 40% of her funding and some new opportunites are opening up-Woohoo!

Yosemite

Yosemite was really fun! Nate and I were able to get one hike out of Wayne LOL WE climbed up to a little waterfall first....a lot of the water is gone now because it is the dry season (most of the snow is gone) so we were able to get really close to the first fall and even found our very own! Next we hiked to the top of Vernal falls~without water...I knew it was a bad idea but we really had no idea what we were getting into. It took every minute of the 3 hours that they say it will. First you are going up inclined pavement which burns HAHA then it gets worse...uneven inclined ground followed by the craziest stairs ever, jagged, covered in sand, uneven and STEEP! You'll see that there are no pictures from this part of the jouney because we had to focus on picking up our feet.

When we got close to the waterfall, it was awesome! So incredibly powerful, beautiful sound of the falls, rainbows and even a small lake at the top where people were swimming. We stopped at the top to enjoy the view and grab a drink from the running waterfall. Now, I know not to drink unpurified water (I showed a scary parasite video last year) but I HAD to drink something and plus it was running :) Don't worry, we are still parasite free as far as we know. The water tasted fantastic too~they should bottle that stuff up and sell it for $1.99. We stopped at several places just admiring it's beauty. I have to say that the waterfall was one of the best parts for me.

Bear paws-so all the signs around the parks say, Do not leave food visible in cars. Others say do not leave any food in cars, use bear proof lockers. However, we never saw a bear even playing in the woods...apparently as some time unknown to us, a bear did find our car :) We noticed that there are dusty bear paw prints all over our truck, the bear tried all sides and just couldn't get to our cooler of food.....Lucky us!!

National Parks

If you click the slide show to make it bigger, you can see the captions :) Well, Papa Walters has come and gone. We had a LOT of fun with him here. It was really nice for me when Nate had to work cause there was someone around! We went to Sequioa and Yosemite National parks while he was here and God is truely amazing. I really don't think I could even imagine up trees that big or hiking trails up to waterfalls. I'll tell ya about each of the parks and add some pictures...no, the pictures are not fake! Sequioa-We started off taking a hike up Moro Rock which involved a lot of stairs and ramps, not too bad but it did take the breathe out of you. Plus, we were getting higher and higher-thinner air ya know? It was amazing to look out over the park from the top and ALL 3 of us made it :)

We stopped to have a picnic here which sounds lovely until the bees attacked. Now, Nate and Wayne may tell you different but the bees were all over us! I'm not kidding when I say that I had to keep my food hidden in my hand and sneak it into my mouth less a dagum bee sneak in there and sting my gums. Nate and Wayne thought it was fun to tame the bees and let them fly all over their hands and granola bars-NO THANKS! Next up, REALLY REALLY BIG trees. The large trees are somewhere between 1700-3000 years old. Which means they were here before and during Jesus walking the Earth. Really puts things into perspective. The biggest tree is General Sherman and this is the largest tree in the world based on mass...other trees are wider or taller. Getting to General Sherman wasn't was easy as we thought! It wasn't all that far away but we have to walk back going uphill and we had already completed a hike that day. General Grant was really nice because the trek wasn't so far, it was flat, and less people! Although I did have to rescue Nathan from a tick here....

This video is priceless. Yes, Nate and I are laughing at Wayne (that's what kids do to their parents, duh) but the best part is what he says to me right as he passes me :) LOL

Things here are going well as usual. I got a new hair cut which I'm still getting used to-it's really not very easy to deal with when working out. Nate and I have been making our own adventures, which you'll see one listed below. He likes to play me in games, I really think it's to boost his confidence cause I pretty much have no way of winning. I can't even beat him in checkers! Ok I beat him 2 outta 20 games. And chess, that's out of the question! We were able to go to Pyramid Lake yesterday and get out on the water with jetskis and boating. It was really nice :) We had some friends over for dinner last week which was fun-I got to play hostess for the first time.

Oh! This may not be nearly as exciting to some of you but my good friend Jana (she was a bridemaid in the wedding) had her baby boy this week-Caleb Matthew. Everytime someone around me has a baby I am just so amazed at the whole process. It's crazy the way God designed our bodies to change throughout pregnancy and labor and then go back to (pretty much) normal afterwards. And the babies themselves coming out healthy. It's just remarkable how helpless and innocent they are yet they grow so fast. I've been looking at pictures of my nieces and nephews and they are getting so big and learning so much. I think I'm going to end up being a mushball when I have a baby!

I went to a sub training this week which I am very thankful for! I didn't really think this whole subing thing through. They brought up the point that I may get called in to sub and there might not be lesson plans left for me....WHAT?! What will I do with these kids for a whole day without plans LOL I never even considered that because I figured teachers were like me...If I had to be out, I made sure there were plans no matter how much it hurt to get up and make them. They gave us some suggestions and a sub survival book. I also hooked up with one of my friends from church who subbed last year and she is going to help me get set up. I think I am going to be really nervous the first time I go in. I was so nervous on the first day of school and subing is like the first day everyday!

Alright, time for the softball glove adventure! So Nate and I are practicing throwing and catching in the front 'yard' lol Nate threw a crazy one and it hit the bush right next to me. I grabbed the ball and 15 wasps came zooming out...which sent me fleeing across the parking lot! We decided to go inside not too long after. Nate attempted to toss his glove up to our second floor patio but it hit the rail and fell onto our neightbors patio which is oh so cozy with the wasp infected scary bush! The following is Nate's attempt to rescue the glove from the second floor using our vacuum cleaner and random household objects. I hope you laugh but in person, it made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe to see the utensils flopping around next to the glove :)



Success came with the hangers...the video won't upload, maybe later

Earthquake!!!

Nate and I experienced our first Earthquake today...which is really weird feeling. It was a 5.4 and the epicenter was about 50 miles from us. Nate was on he computer and I was sitting on the floor getting my shoes on. I felt the floor moving and I said, "What is that?" thinking that a truck might have gone by or something in the building. "No, really what the heck is that??" And then we felt the peak of the quake which prompted me to pick up Twiggy and sit under the door frame instead while Nate and are both saying EARTHQUAKE! LOL Yeah, Nate was still at the computer....he says that when he is working on the plane at night his chair is always shaking from the lazer firing so he didn't think too much of it. Then he laughed at me for moving......hey, if that was just the start of a big Earthquake, I would be glad to be where I was! Plus Nate is known for getting injured so it doesn't surprise me that he stayed put :) It wasn't really scary at all, just a weird feeling cause the building is moving so it makes you feel kinda dizzy. Luckily there is not much damage even near the epicenter and I haven't heard of any injuries! Nature always makes me think of God's awesome power-in the same way that the quake is powerful, unexpected and mysterious so is God!

I also have been hired as a substitute teacher :) I will be subing for Bethel Christian School (1-12) Seems to be a really great school, very nice people and appear to be a family. Also hired by the Westside school district (1-8). I hoping that I will be able to have enough job opportunities that I can choose my schedule. I think that if Bethel offered me a full time position, I would consider it just based on the characteristics of the administration and the opportunies it could present for me to grow. We'll see, if God leads me back into full time teaching...it would surely make me laugh!

We are looking forward to a visiter next month-Papa Walters is planning a trip out here :) We are going to check out 2 of the National parks that Nate and I have wanted to visit: Sequioa and Yosemite...I probably spelled those wrong but you know what I mean!

I know that many of you have heard either from myself or from Malia regarding her ministry/career. Please keep her in your prayers. I believe God has confirmed that she IS supposed to be doing this and she is getting more support slowly. Pray for patience and endurance as she really wants to be on campus but is most likely going to have to wait a little longer than initially hoped. Thank you!!

Random Update

Family picture :) This is at a friends house for dinner-he loves Twiggy so we always bring her over to visit him.

We took another trip to the beach last weekend with a group of friends and Twiggs made it too. "IIII wanna soak up the suuuuun" -Thank you Sheryl Crow

So not too much has changed recently but I am officially job hunting. I am looking into substitute teaching here mainly so I have flexibility in my schedule-if I don't want to work one day-I don't! Of course, I'm ready to be contributing to the income. It's nice to hang out at home but sometimes I get bored. On Sunday I taught my first Children's church class and it was pretty fun- the kids are getting to know us better (3rd week) so they are answering questions more.

Story of the week: Nate and I had to run an errand on Saturday night after dark, he had to return a friends keys and I had to go to the store. I was gone about 35 minutes. When I pulled up to the apartment I noticed his car wasn't here, "That's strange he was just supposed to drop off the keys" I thought. I proceeded to gatherer up all the groceries which by the way was just enough that I could make it in one trip-not without setting down the bags to close the trunk though-dang it. As i make my way up the stairs, a thought enters my head....I wonder if he parked somewhere else and is hiding in there, waiting to scare me. In I walk suspiciously and determined not to get scared when I walk into the bathroom or bedroom if he pops out at me. Well, i turn the corner heading into the kitchen and that lil monster is jumping off the kitchen floor.....Oh don't worry, I whacked him and then yelled sassily I KNEW you were in here. It really wasn't very nice to scare your wife, at night, in a new STATE where she spends a lot of time ALONE in the apartment you are crouching in!!!! Best part-he was filming it....I'd include the embarrassing video but it takes so long, you see Nate was filming the whole time I was struggling to gather those groceries so the video has a lot of dead time that I don't know how to edit out. I can say my husband is quite clever and despite his sneakiness, I love him :)

Beach Day

We were able to go to the beach for the forth of July weekend, NGC gave Nate the weekend off. So a friend who is military was able to get us onto the base which is located on the beach. I'm not a surf expert but this spot is wanted by the local surfers...if only they could get on base! It is VERY different from our beaches at home....getting in the water involves a wetsuit in July. I was so cold so I nestled into the rocks to block the wind and pretended I was in Florida :)

One thing that is pretty cool is the sea life even if it comes with danger, great whites AHHHH! There are also seals and dolphins. The seals pop their heads out and check out the surfers or surf along with them....there was a 'totally rad' dolphin there too who decided to ride the wave down and jump through the air before the wave broke-I wish I had that on film.

Here is a video of Nate messing around in a barrel :)

Our Apartment

Here are the pictures of our lil dwelling space :)

This is the bedroom with unique bedding for adults especially newlyweds!

The dining room and kitchen

The living room/computer room with Twiggy sitting on the couch

Today's temperature-YIKES!

California Curbs 7-1-08

Soooooo this is bad. We bought a car for me, a 2001 camry...I drove it twice and then today we went to do the insurance and registration.Get everything done except I we had to show the insurnace place the car so they could see the condition.Nate gets in his car so he can run an errand afterwards and I take the new car.....The insurance place is at the end of the street, make a left and I'm there....When I pull in Nate and the insurance guy are standing in the parking lot, here it comes, I HIT the curb, knock a hubcap off and then run over it , in front of my HUSBAND and the INSURANCE guy......."I'm a safe driver, insure me!" Holy embarrassing! I've never hit anything in my life....My excuse? The curbs in Cali tapper off at the edges wheres in FL they are blunt ends so how the heck was I supposed to know there was a fancy Cali curb sitting there!