Washington

Well, It is so wonderful to be back in The Wash! I have missed the mountains and the trees! Its just too beautiful of a place, and I am very attached to Sequim. The drive up was.. interesting.. but we made it safely. However it took FOREVER to get out of California! and we arrived in Medford Oregon at 4 in the freaking morning! what a long day that was! and we didn't arrive in Sequim until 11 at night.. but it was smooth riding all the way! We slept for a day, then we went Christmas Tree Hunting up Palo Alto, came home with a beauty! It was nice to see the snow again! Then I went and spent some quality time with my old friends, and still have to find the time to visit others. I have never been this popular with people calling and texting me all the time wanting me to come visit. Feels nice! We will be spending Christmas Eve at my mom's place, then going to Nathan's family's place, then maybe to Canada, then back to Sequim. We will have Christmas with Nathans dad before we leave, and then with Nathan's mom when we get back! Then Nathan heads off to Texas, :( I am not ready to be apart. I wish I had more time with him. Santa paid us a visit and placed a few presents under the tree.
Mid january, I will be taking a trip to China, to visit my dad and do some sightseeing. I wish Nathan could come, but I am very excited to go! It will be a good time.

I must say I have really enjoyed seeing more Nature here. It is nice. Ill post some pictures of our escapades.

English can be Confusing

I was stumbling across the internet and came across this! The Author definitely has a point!

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England.
We take English for granted,
but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly,
boxing rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

Doesn't it seem crazy that
you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends
and get rid of all but one of them,
what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables,
what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks
who grew up speaking English
should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people
recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
in which your house can burn up as it burns down,
in which you fill in a form by filling it out,
and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And, in closing, if Father is Pop,
how come Mother's not Mop?


Anonymous

Our Future!

It has finally happened! Nathan received his orders!!!! What a happy day indeed! So, Nathan's last day in California ( mine as well) is December 16th, immediately after his graduation, we head over to the housing office, turn in our keys and then head up to Washington! WOOOOOO! We get to spend Christmas with our families, we plan on going Tree Hunting up in the woods, then we will do a little bit of touring. We plan on going to Seattle, maybe up to Canada... We will see how far we get with our time! On January 3rd, Nathan is supposed to report to Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas. Then, on June 15th, he must report to Hurlburt Field in Florida! about 30 miles away from Pensacola. We are so very relieved to know where we are heading! Now, I can start applying for schools and hope that I get accepted! Other than that, we are just rushing around to get everything packed up. It seems the more we pack, the messier the house gets. It is driving me nuts because I keep finding more and more stuff! I dont know why we have so much stuff, Nathan just wants to save everything. I want to dump everything, I dont think all of our stuff will fit in the storage unit. He is convinved it all will. We will see how that works out. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Nathan and I spent the day together, packing all of our junk. I decided to make a yummy lunch! So I cooked up some lamb, made my stuffed mushrooms, roasted some asparagus and also some garlic! It was a yummy meal! I miss you all!

Camping

Well, Nathan and I celebrated our veterans day by escaping from reality for a few days and headed up into the Los Padres National Forest and camped. To begin the day, we woke up bright and early, packed up what goodies we had at home, then ran off to Target to buy those we didn't.. A tent is a necessity when camping in November :) The drive was beautiful! I couldn't believe the weather! It was November, and I was wearing a tank top and shorts! We drove down the Big Sur Coast, about an hour and a half drive, and then turned left onto the Nacimiento Ferguson Road. Well we almost didn't turn because I saw the sign, but didn't see the road, It was a tiny road that disappeared into the woods, thank goodness I was going slow enough to realize there actually was a road there. If not we would have cruised on down the coast. So I turn onto this road and we just start cruising, we are beginning to worry that we might not get a spot because of the holiday weekend, but either way it was a beautiful drive. The fall foliage was in "bloom" and it was very colourful, we drove down this windy road leading us into the middle of nowhere until we see a sign that says In less than 3 miles you will be entering the Fort Hunter Ligget Army Base, uh oh! I knew that the camp site was before the base, so then I begin to think we passed it. I keep cruising trying to figure out if i should turn around and then THERE IT IS! A BIG SIGN THAT SAYS "Ponderosa Camp-ground" We pull in, and hunt for the perfect spot... the first place we stop has 3 camp-sites, one down by the water, one up on top of the hill and one by the cars. We chose the one up above, and what a great choice it was, close to the water, but private enough that you couldn't see it from the road, the rest of them you could. from that moment on we were in our own little la-la land. We let echo run loose since there was NOBODY ELSE in the whole campground! Set up camp and built a fire, then I started wood hunting...and couldn't find much.. WHAT KIND OF FOREST DOESN'T HAVE WOOD LAYING ABOUT?? that was odd, we did manage to find enough twigs :P and we did bring some of our own wood. We built up a fire and had a blast. We barely spoke any English, keeping the majority of the conversation going in Spanish! woo hoo!! We had some fish for dinner, and of course SMORES! That night we head off to bed at 8 (i know shockingly early but we were pooped and night fell around 5:30 ish ) and about 3 hrs in we are both freeeeezing! We don our huge snow jackets and hats and everything else we had and were still cold! In the morning around 6:30 we  build up the fire and melt the icicles off our faces (not really but it felt that way) so we decide to drive into fort Hunter after breaky and buy more firewood and some blankies. Well, fort hunter...really isn't a fort, it is a training ground and only has about 250 people who live and work there.. so much for finding a commissary and PX... Next stop, King City, Well that was a bust too, we are now about 25 miles away from the camp ground, well Nathan didn't want to stay until we found more warmth, so we head onto greenfield... We go to Safeway and buy more food, and they had wood on sale woo hoo!!! and then stopped into rite aid hoping they had blankets..nada, on our way out we see this bin, and it is full of these fleece throws for 2 bucks a piece, we buy 8! Well sure enough that was plenty to keep us warm :) YAY! So we are huddles around the fire about to put it out when we hear this loud cracking sound coming from the area behind the tent! then we hear some deep snuffling. Echo then stands up and does the deepest GRRRRRRR I have ever heard in my life, and keeps this up for about 30 minutes.. I am freaking out but trying not to and I run and grab a bunch of twigs and build the fire back up, Nathan starts talking REALLY LOUD! and eventually the noises go away and echo calms down. What ever it was, it sounded HUGE! But we made it through the night without getting eaten by some mystery animal :) We then packed up and came home and enjoyed a day lounging about and doing a bit of cleaning! It was a great weekend! I will add pictures to this later. (since i am currently at work and do not have any with me :( )

The Countdown Begins!

Well everyone, we are very quickly approaching our final month here in Monterey! Nathan is set to graduate from the DLI on December 16th! I can't believe it! but this also means that we need to get out butts into gear and pack all of our stuff up and get it into a  storage unit. I began by packing up all of my books, I have about 6 boxes packed up! We packed up a bit of our Kitchen stuff, and today I am thinking about doing massive loads of laundry and packing up all the clothes that we haven't been wearing into a couple of suitcases. Then, the next step is to get a storage unit and to start filling it up, Unfortunately we cannot pack up the desks until Nathan is all done with class, so we may just wait on the storage unit until everything is all packed up and we can spend a day or two moving stuff in to it. I am also very excited because by the time we move, we may have two working vehicles!!! The Chef here at the Inn, used to be an auto mechanic, so he volunteered to come take a peek at my Volkswagen and see what he can do. So, he will be looking at parts and finding them pretty cheap, and installing it all for me. Then we get to go junk yard hopping to find a new fuel tank since mine has a leak. then the vehicle will be as good as new! I am excited!!!! These next couple of months will be quite expensive, but well worth it! Nathan and I are hoping to be visiting Washington for Christmas, we will let you know more, when we know more! All in all things have been great! Echo is happy! I think he is excited to go back to Washington for a little bit!
We Miss you all!!

Toofers!

Oh so I almost forgot to tell you all! I am back to being Toofers for the time being! Once again, the cap on my front tooth has decided to fall off. Leaving me with a crooked smile and half a tooth. Also, this makes it really hard for me to eat like a normal human being, since I can't bite down on anything. Hopefully my dental insurance will kick in sometime soon and I can get this fixed. Also, unfortunately when I try to talk somewhat fast, I do get a lisp! Drives me crazy!!!
For those of you who don't know. let me recap how this tooth has added interesting stories into my inventory. (This is the fourth time since i was 10 ish )
The first time, I was 10, I invited a friend over to my house and we went to the pool. This pool was really awesome because it had a slide that went into it. Of course, me being the daredevil that I was, decided to go down the slide head first. Now this slide had a bump in it, making the ride more fun. I remembered what mommy taught me, to tuck my head in that way i wouldn't end up with a nose full of water, so I did just that. However, I did it too soon, so when i went over that bump, my face smacked into slide and I lost half a tooth that day. The cool thing was that I didn't even notice, the bad thing, everyone else did and we rushed home to tell my mom.... who wasn't that happy, but we went to the dentist and fixed it up and life was good. About 5 years later, i was at a friends house and we were both on the computer.. she had a wireless keyboard so we were passing the keyboard back and forth, well i turned around to say something at the same time that she passed me the keyboard, and POP! there goes the cap. (I tell people I tried to eat a keyboard when they ask). The third time, I was helping Nathan install a doggy door. I was placing it into the hole I cut into the wall and then i knocked one corner in, and when i went to smack the other corner in the first one popped out and hit me in the face! This final time, was caused my a taquito... a soft taquito! it was a sad day indeed. Oh well

~Farmer's Market~

So, Nathan has been hard at work taking his mock DLPT exams, this week. I decided it would be great to get him out of the house for a few hours and enjoy some family time. Since it was Tuesday, the Farmers Market was happening! They close off one of the main streets in downtown Monterey and put up a ton of stalls that sell everything imaginable. From tap root beer, to fresh veggies, to jams and honey, even masks and hats! It was very cool to wander about! next week I will definitely bring my camera! So first off, we just wandered up and down the street window shopping, Then Nathan decided that he would like to eat dinner here, well sure, why not, he has been working hard. Of course, we stopped to get a Gyro place, again, not as good as the Döners we had in Germany, but not horrible either. Then we got some Frozen Yogurt! Yum Yum. After that we decided to tackle the vegetables. Over all we spent about 10 dollars on vegetables.. We bought lettuce, baby tomatoes, pears, zucchini, broccoli, and these green onions the size of my arm! As we were leaving Nathan stopped to buy me some flowers. They even had lilies in them :) I truly am a spoiled girl :)  (sorry about the small pictures, they were taken on my cellphone :) ) 

The Flowers :) 

Look at the size of those!

Ups and Downs!

What a week! It has been so crazy here for all of us! Nathan took 3 exams this last week, I worked extra shifts at the Inn, by the time Sunday rolled around I felt like I hadn't seem my husband for a long time!However! This week I did manage to get some more exploring done! After work one morning, I called up my friend Cassandra and asked if she wanted to do anything. We decided to go explore. So we packed up her adorable 1 year old son, my camera and we headed out to the Fort Ord Dunes State Park, where we had a leisurely stroll, our goal was to reach the bunkers, but we didn't realize how far away they were from the parking area! How deceiving that was! But Ty got his thrills while we were out there, he stopped to inspect every patch of grass in the path, also met a couple of  adorable puppies. and got to push his own stroller around for a bit. It was nice to get out of the house and get some social interactions.
Sunday, I got to spend some quality time with the hubby. It was a perfect Washington day! We decided to take echo for a jog, it was sprinkling and there was a little bit of wind. we get going, got maybe 7 minutes in until we hit this hill, it was never ending, so our jog quickly transformed itself into a hike in the rain! We spent a good hour frolicking around, Echo was having a blast! By the time we got back to the car, we were both soaked to the bone, Echo smelled like a wet dog and we were all happy as clams! It was awesome to get that much needed family time! Then, i decided to empty the dishwasher, and lo and behold, it had flooded! Opening the door allowed water to gush out on to the kitchen floor, (well at least that is clean now ) and the dishes were covered in soap scum and there is still 3 inches of water at the bottom, and the dishes were piling up on the counter. So last night I washed a bunch of dishes by hand, and today i have to pull everything out of the dishwasher so I can call maintenance and have them come take a peek. I would peek, but I have no Idea what is wrong.
Since, we will be having strangers wandering about our house, it has provoked some massive housecleaning! That is all that is new in the house of the Needhams! Hope everything is well :)

Cleaning Fairy

So, when I was younger, I used to blame my messy room on the fact that the "Cleaning Fairy" forgot to come by. Well it seems like this time, it definitely stopped by this house because I have been WANTING to clean! Which is shocking in itself. I spent a good half the day working on our living room. not just shove everything away so it looks nice, but an actual deep cleaning .I even cleaned under the cushions of our couch! One thing I don't like about living so close to the coast is all the sand. It gets EVERYWHERE! that mixed with echo's hair, I was shocked at the quantity i swept up! Good riddance it is out of the house! Tomorrow I will probably take care of the kitchen and tackle our bedroom and then this house will be spick and span!

Also, today i finally tried out the Otter Sports Center... it is an okay gym, definitely no UW IMA, but it was okay. I will be using it after work to get some cardio done. I don't seem motivated enough to run about outside :P but something is better than nothing right?

Girl Friday Agency

Well, with the slow season quickly approaching I have already noticed a decline in the amount of hours I am working. Which is very unfortunate, however it gave me the opportunity to find another part time job. Lindsay told me about this agency that hires you to "work behind the scenes" for busy professionals and families.. We do the easy every day things that they can't seem to fit into their busy schedule. So I decided to apply, the very next day I heard back from the agency and scheduled the interview. Now this business is such a smart idea, it just makes so much sense! I mean when you are working hard to excel in a particular career who has time to do grocery shopping, or send out Christmas letters or dust the living room and file the receipts from utility bills! The very next day after my interview... I got a call at 8 in the morning asking if I could work that day! So now, I am a personal assistant for a very busy single mother. Thursday's I go in and help her with the basic filing, organizing , and in putting information into her PDA. Then on Friday's I will be helping here with the light cleaning. She gets all her laundry done at a Wash-n-Fold type place. I pick up the wash, put it all away, vacuum the house, mop the kitchen, clean up any plates from breakfast, give the place a good wipe down. Help organize the apartment since they are just closing on a Condo and will be moving soon. And man is this woman busy! She wakes up at 5 every morning, and starts with the conference calls.. she works for cisco systems as well as manages her own business! She spends lots of time on the phone and on her computer. She had a 3 hr conference call this morning about something I couldn't understand. She is always on the move doing something, having something planned. She has a 17 year old son who is currently going to Monterey Peninsula College, and working on an art degree as well as a science degree, he wants to go into medicine. Smart kid! I feel like I could learn a lot from this woman.
Heck, she already taught me how to use Quicken! What a life saver!!! Nathan and I decided to purchase the software that way we could manage our money more effectively. We got it today! I know what I will be doing when I get home from work today :D

Nathan, the lucky boy gets a four day weekend, and I get to work all weekend.. Go Figure! But, I am so thankful for the extra 10 hrs I racked in this week thanks to the Girl Friday Agency (http://girlfridayagencies.com/) If anyone wants to go take a peek ( gosh that sounds like an escort service..but it is not!) Oh and today was pay day! woo hoo! so far its been a good day all around.. unlike yesterday.

I came home on tuesday to find that the brand new bag of chocolate Halloween candy we bought on the floor. I pick it up to put it away and realize that its... only half full... well that's weird..But Nathan does eat candy quite quickly so i figured I would wait until he comes home and ask him about the candy... I find out that Nathan didn't eat any of that chocolate because he ate an ENTIRE box of Turtles by himself. Which means, Echo ate the chocolate. OH DEAR!!!! Yesterday morning, he was acting really really really weird.. and so i run and grab the leash, hook it on him, run into the bedroom to find some shoes..and i hear this odd sound from the hallway. I look out the door and it looked like Echo's butt had exploded. There was diarrhoea EVERYWHERE in that hallway... I was not a happy puppy mommy. So i got to spend the next hour cleaning up the mess, and then disinfecting everything and then i had to head off to work my new job! What a long day that was.. Luckily.. I seemed to make Nathan's class's day by sending him a text that read "Echo's ass exploded in the hallway". I wasn't laughing..but they got a good laugh :P But he is back to being his perky self now that all the chocolate is out of his system. He also puked up all the wrappers in his Kennel.. we found that this morning. What a special puppy Echo is.

Sorry if that was too much information for some of you, but I had to share the story
Take care!

Absolute Randomness

So I've been having the urge to blog, but I have yet to be able to zone in on a topic. So instead I figured that I would babble on a bit and hopefully find something interesting to tell all of you. The past few weeks I have discovered Zumba! I have become an addict! It is this aerobic dance class that really gets your heart pumping, and you work out to some awesome music and it has dance influences from all over! A little bit of Salsa, some hip hop, some.. I'm not sure what you would classify it as, and even some Indian. I have been going with Lindsay and Amanda and it is such a blast! I love it. I come home drenched in sweat, but honestly I feel soo good!!!!! And our instructor is a hoot! He really pushes us to work out hard, and sometimes the facial expressions on that man's face just make me giggle. But honestly, I think he has a pretty good job..gets to work out, and watch all these women attempt to dance, shaking their booties. I bet he really enjoys that.

Oh! On a brighter note, Nathan has been playing soccer on base, and his team was the runner up, or as he said it "the best loser's". Now he is going to continue playing soccer and play for the off base team which is like a "select" team of sorts. And he is super excited!

Sadly, my work has been giving me less hours!  which makes things kind of tough financially. On top of which they have me working the weekends! during the evening! so I have even less of a social life than I did working at the Big Sur Lodge! It is kind of irritating how I asked to work mornings and preferably not on the weekends and that's exactly what i have been put on to work! Oh Well!  I've been trying to find another part time job that might make things a little easier on us. I also have to whip my butt into shape when it comes to cleaning! With Nathan and I moving soon, things have to get done so we can pack it all up. I am having this internal debate. I want to live with Nathan in Texas, but its just so hard to try to finance that move ourselves! So instead we are thinking that I will just move back to Sequim and find a job, that way we will be making more money and not have to pay for rent and just keep all of our stuff in storage. Also I think that would be good for Mr. Echo. In the mean time, we are trying to make the decision on where I will be living while he is in Tech school in Texas. Just thinking about living apart makes me miss him! But I know that in the end it will make us stronger!

Well it looks like I got something down :) I didn't want to write out a novel so I figured I would stop there. I will keep you more up to date with everything else going on :) Happy October everyone!

The Warmth of September

Well, according to most people the summer is coming to an end, however for us here in Monterey it feels like summer has just begun. The sun has peeked out from behind the usual blanket of fog and it feels wonderful! Nathan as usual has been studying really really hard, and its paying off! He is one of the top students in his class and I couldn't be prouder! I found a new job, which means I am no longer working in Big Sur. I do miss the beauty of the Big Sur area, however, I most certainly do not miss the long drive to work! Now I am currently working in a quaint Bed and Breakfast in Carmel-by-the-Sea called The Cobblestone Inn. Its a cute 20 unit building, all the rooms have fireplaces and the breakfasts smell absolutely wonderful. (I am not able to eat it because I am not a guest!)
Nathan's mom has been visiting us for the last week and it has been wonderful having her! I have finally been able to get some time off and go to many of the main attractions here in Monterey and the area that I have not been able to do for quite a while! We went out the Fisherman's Wharf, and Cannery Row, of course we stopped into the Monterey Bay Aquarium! Which was so cool! I have to say that my favourite part was seeing the Jellyfish! They were so AWESOME!  Then last night, we spent the night in San Francisco, well technically we spent the night in San Mateo. (Yay for priceline where you can bid for rooms, we got two king size rooms for 120 total ) Not a bad deal at all. We spent the evening perusing the downtown area. We went to Ghiradelli Square, (every time we went into a shop we got free chocolate samples... YUMMY!) Nathan and I both got a hot chocolate there.. it was the Sea Salt Caramel Hot Chocolate and was one of the richest, most delicious chocolate beverages I have had. Then we continued down to the Fisherman's Wharf there and enjoyed some really cool jazz and other music done by street performers that were quite impressive.  The very first day Marian was here ( Nathan's Mum) we went down to Carmel Beach with Echo. What a sight! Echo was free to run and play as he wished, then towards the end of our walk, down by the golf course, we looked out into the bay and we saw the cutest sea otter eating its meal just feet from the surf! Luckily, Echo was too busy sniffing the sand to notice. Then further down we saw some harbour seals hunting for their breakfast as well. Coasting over the water were about 4 pelicans that were on the search for food, it was so majestic to see them soar up and then plunge into the ocean and pop back up swallowing a fish. At the very last moment we noticed a fin in the water, my heart skipped a beat thinking that it was a shark, but then we saw it resurface with the grace and elegance of a dolphin as it raced through the water. What a majestic sight to behold. I only wished that I had brought my camera down to the beach that day. Oh the joys of nature.
On another note, Nathan and I decided that I will be joining him during his 4-5 month long training in Texas, which means during Nathans break, we will be packing up and moving all of our stuff to San Angelo, Texas! I am excited! However, this will be a pricy endeavor that is not covered by the military :( But it will be very much worth it in the end :D

We hope everyone is doing well!
Love,
Monica and Nathan

Yay for Good Samaritans!!

So today started out to be a horrible crazy day! I woke up late, had to rush around to get ready for work, had to make sure I fed and took Echo out. Once in my car I realized that I had no gas! Which is not a good thing with an hour long commute. So I head out to the gas station and hurry to fill up my tank. In my hurry, I placed my wallet on top of my car so that I could fill up the pump and then proceeded to put the nozzle away, grab my receipt, jump in the car and zoom off to work. When I finally get to work, I am following my routine, put on uniform shirt, grab cellphone, keys, clock-in card and wallet... WALLET?? WHERE IS MY WALLET?!? I tear my car apart look absolutely every where for it and can't find it. Go into work freaking out and walk into a hurricane of paper and people shouting. So I turn around and head back to the car where I disassemble the whole thing again looking for my wallet. Then it hits me! I put in on top of my car at the gas station. *GREEEEAT* Just what I need, to lose my wallet and not know where in the world it fell off my car.  So I go back into work, explain to my boss what happened, track down the phone number for the gas station. I call, and nada, can't find the wallet anywhere. The sweet lady recommends that I cancel all my cards, she is sure its a goner.
I however am not going to give up hope so quickly. I call up a friend and ask her to run down to the gas station and check for me to see if she can find it anywhere. (Thanks Lindsay! ) Again, nada. So I'm starting to feel really really really down in the dumps when I realize that my social security card and my stamps are in my wallet ( at this point I think that I am freaking out more about the stupid stamps than anything else... don't know why..but I was). At this point, I just decide to call Nathan, let him know what happened and pout for the rest of the day. I was working a late shift at the Lodge, so there really was nothing I could do in terms of going anywhere and looking for the wallet myself. I prepare myself to have a rough day, nothing seemed to be going right at work, everyone was really tense, and I couldn't handle much more drama as it was. So I decide to randomly check my email. There I found an email from Nathan that says I should call Frank (my father-in-law about my wallet).... Frank? what in the world would he know about my wallet? So I decide to call him up and find out what this was all about. It turns out, I was carrying a check in my wallet from Frank, that happened to have his telephone number on it. So the wonderful person who had picked up my wallet at the gas station called him to say he had found my wallet. Frank then continued to give me this persons name and phone number.
I give "Dan" a call and it turns out he had pulled into the gas station and seen my wallet laying there, found the only phone number in there and given it a call. Dan was so sweet that he said he would even deliver the wallet to me. He drove over to my house and put the wallet in the mail slot in the front door. So when I came home tonight, there it was!! My wallet and everything. When I opened it up all my cash was in there , including the check, all my stamps and cards. I felt such a rush of relief. Most of all I am soooo thankful for all the good Samaritans there are in this world! This man saved me a lot of unnecessary stress! So kudos to Dan for being so awesome!!!!!

For Our Friends and Family

Hey Everyone!
I know that we have been horrible about keeping in touch, so we decided that it would be best if we started a blog that way you could all have a window into the secluded lives of the Needham's! We have all been really busy lately. Nathan has been studying like crazy! I have been working like crazy! And both of us have been going crazy trying to keep up with Echo's shedding. Who knew that the hair is never ending!!!

When we moved to California we were very nervous! We didn't know what to expect and it turns out things are better than we could have hoped! We have met some really cool couples that we really enjoy spending time with.  It is so beautiful here! It is nice to be a hop, skip and jump away from the ocean. And the sunsets here are breathtakingly beautiful. I was fortunate enough to find a job in Big Sur, California. The only downside of the job is that it's a 1 hour drive down there. But again, the drive is so beautiful it makes the distance and time worth it. Big Sur is this 90 mile stretch of the coastline that is gorgeous, I have yet to see a coastline as breathtaking as this one.

 It is wonderful working in Big Sur, where you are surrounded by nothing more than natural beauty. Woods full of redwoods, pines, ferns, waterfalls and rivers! It is a little like Sequim, and no matter what the weather is around Big Sur, in Big Sur it is always gorgeous! If you are ever in California, Big Sur is a must see! We also went to Pfeiffer Beach which is full of these really cool rock formations that the waves crash through! Definitely a must see for sunset! On the drive down from Monterey, right before the Bixby Bridge on the left hand side is the "Old Coast Road" if you have a SUV or Jeep, I would recommend taking this drive down and come back up on the highway! It makes the trip a little longer, and quite a bit bumpier but the views from inland and BREATHTAKING!!! You come out on top of the El Sur Ranch and the view is AMAZING! Again! A must-do if you have the time and car!

Echo is loving it here! He gets to spend so much time with us as compared to before! Nathan leaves early in the morning for school, then I leave about mid-day for work and a couple hours later, Nathan is home. Echo's favorite thing to do here is to go down to Carmel and play at the beach. The beach there is very pet friendly and you will always find some kind of pooch frolicking around playing in the surf. Echo and I spent a good two hours there yesterday and then took a stroll through Carmel ( most shops in Carmel are pet friendly). Echo is still afraid of the waves, but its learning to enjoy them! From Carmel Beach you get a glimpse of the Pebble Beach golf course as well as more of that beautiful coastline! The cypress trees are also really cool.

Well thats the latest in the life of the Needham's! We plan on doing something new every weekend. Not sure what the plans are for this weekend, however if we do anything cool! We will let you know!
Toodles for now!
Love,
Nathan and Monica