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 :)