Disneyland with the Rents in May

My Dad posted these pictures in Picasa about a month or two ago.  It is high time that I share them with you!  Back in May, we went to Disneyland for my Dad's birthday.  Here are a few pictures from that day!

[and yes, looking at these pictures does make me miss my hair. :( I guess it will grow out soon enough!]

We ran into my Dad's old student (he was a college / high school pastor) / family friend and her husband and daughter.  It was so fun to see them!

Dad wanted a pic of he and Mom at the Tiki Room.  I think this turned out quite cute!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

The 3 of us, after Indiana Jones.  We were missing Matthew and Davis :(

Finally got the picture!

This is supposed to be like a pic that Davis and I took, years ago!

Have a great Monday!

Mornings in Mexico

When in Mexico, I somehow manage to get up early on Saturday and have an incredibly pleasant attitude. I am up at the dining hall around 5:30 or 5:45 to help cook breakfast and I greet everyone with a smile. I should really try and get a picture of this (because those who know me, know I am NOT a morning person!). Then we all go about our days, usually building a lofthouse.

But Sunday mornings. Those are a different story entirely. Last Sunday-in-Mexico (or SIM, as I call it), we left the Ranch at 4:30 am. I didn't sleep well the night before, so I was nauseus from the lack of sleep. Needless to say, I was probably a bit cranky until I got some sleep in the car. Usually on a Sunday we just kinda pack up and leave. If we do hang around, I usually look a little something like this:


Hmmm. I have a feeling that I am going to need an attitude check before August.

What I am loving today!

I have never done one of these things I love posts -- so today is a time to start! It all started because I wanted to show off my bright yellow nail polist. Sadly, it's not super bright in the pic. But I hope you enjoy a bit of what is going on in my life!

My nail polish -- and the signs to my craft room / office!

Iron-on Vinyl -- excited to start up my new business!

New crochet books (loving that I sold old textbooks to Amazon for store credit)

One finished blanket, which I love, and one almost finished blanket!

An almost completed Crochet Every Day pattern planning calendar -- not sure why it's crooked!

New dvds (more amazon credit! woo hoo!)

Orange Pumpkins

Red tomatoes

What I am hating today... this is the current temp in my house. Should I run the A/C? haha

What are you loving today? I would love to hear!

Mexico in August

This post has been a long time coming. In fact, the first draft is from June 13th -- which I am leaving below. Matt and I will be living in Mexico for the month of August. My company has graciously given me the time off, and not fired me! Praise the Lord. But yet, pretty intense, I know. What will we be doing? Well we are staying at the Hands of Mercy Ranch outside of Ensenada. [Oh yeah and if you are a creepy house break-in-er stalker, we have people staying at our house --- so don't even think about it] Anywho. We will be living in the Van Nesses house, but possibly in a lofthouse for part of the time.

This will let us know what they do down there during the week and how things work. Matt will probably be doing construction type things around the ranch and I am not entirely sure what I will do. I know I will be hanging out with Jen (she's the full time teacher down there) and Sue and Sara Lee (when they get back). I will probably get some crocheting done and work on my Spanish (looks like it is time for me to create a username on Matthew's Rosetta Stone... ugh!). I also want to do some other things that we have not had time to do when we only go during weekends. I am in need of some yummy ice cream! And I hope we can find those natural hot springs at the beach!

Please be praying for us during August. We are looking for wisdom about the future as well!

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Original Post from June 14th:

So the Van Nesses will possibly be gone for the month of August. Hands of Mercy is thinking about having us move down there for the month. That's huge. And exciting. It would most likely require me leaving my job. That is a major change. I am praying. Trying to hear the Lord. Matt wants to go. I want to go. But is it for selfish reasons? Is it just so that I can get away from my job -- which I do not like at times?

A trip to Lewiston, Idaho (and Clarkston, Washington)

I may be a month late, but at least I am posting pictures, right? Well anywho, last month, my bro's baseball team made it to the NAIA College World Series. Matt and I had a little spare change sitting around (okay fine it was our tax return) and decided to make the trek, this just may have been his last baseball outing -- which is really weird. This trip was a lot of firsts for us, including our first flight further than NorCal together, first rental car, first college baseball world series, etc. My parents went last year, and I think they enjoyed showing us the place. I had every intention of posting my mom's wonderful emails, but was just too pooped to do it. She just needs to start her own blog. It would be good, promise.

Okay, so this is the fab 4. haha Not really, but it was fun sitting in the stands with these 3 wonderful people.
Mama, My Mom, and I at the River. 3 generations. I love it. But don't mind my squinting! haha
Me and my Bro. As always, I am super proud of him. And I miss him! (come visit please!)
Genny & Mom. 2 moms -- in their son's jerseys. How cute, right? I know...
That my lil bro warming up. He doesn't bat tho, so yeah.. haha I stole a few of these pics from my mom, by the way. Thanks mom!
We spent time with my dad's cousin, Brian, his wife Debbie and their son Jimmy from Haiti (they finally got him after the earthquake). They drove 3 hours each way to visit with us! Their daughter just finished playing at the softball world series in Kansas or something.
The 5 of us after the last game (that we saw). Such a wonderful experience!
Me and the hubs in the stands. Aren't we just the cutest ever? haha This makes me miss my long hair though!
See the woodland / river creature in the picture below? I can't remember what we finally decided it was. Some animal thingie.
High fives after a win!

And there you have it. A few pics from our time in Idaho & Washington. It was very spontaneous for us, which is definitely not the norm, but it was wonderful. If you want to see what we ate, check out my post at Newly Wife. Mom, I will try to get these up on Fbook soon, I swear! haha

Home Improvements

Just a few pictures of the house - from day 1. And some major thanks that we owe to people. As I find more pictures of the work days. I will try to post them here. You can see the knife "fooded" to the stove, as the hubs says. And the last picture is our first night in the house -- our bed in the living room, because our room still needed texturing & paint on the ceiling. Oh how much better the house is since then! Thanks to everyone who helped.

Mexico: March 26-28

It seems as if this is the year of Mexico for the Nadalets. We have been down almost every month, it seems, and have no plan of quitting anytime soon. This particular trip was not for any particular "reason," other than Caitlin needed a ride back to the States (she had gone down the week before with another church, and spent a week of her spring break on the ranch). This trip definitely taught us about how Mexico = Flexico. We ended up driving Scott out to the hotel where Praxis was staying on Friday night, before we even made it to the Ranch. We stayed in Carter's lofthouse, near Jen's lofthouse. It was fun to stay down there and feel like "staff."

Saturday morning came and I helped with breakfast and then Matt & I helped lead different builds. I had never led a build in any sort of capacity before, so this was a challenge for me (even though Steve was really leading, Jen was second in command, and then Caitlin and I were kinda helping out where needed). Also, we had 35 people at our site, so it was a bit like herding cats. Matt led with Evan, and they had only 10 people. I know, we should have sent people over, but our group of 35 were all newbies who wanted to stick together. So we finally finished the build around 4 and went into town (the 5 of us) for tacos and ice cream.

Below you can see Evan running down the "sidewalk" to get Danny's attention, as he drove by. He did it and Danny came by to say hi.

Some very inappropriate bunny cookies.

So we met this guy who was building a house with his Romanian Baptist Church from Fresno. He told us about these natural hot springs on the beach and "all you have to do is dig down and hot water flows up and fills the holw." We had a shovel, got some shorts from the Segundas, and went down to the beach. We dug 3 different holes (the last one was like 4 feet deep) and no hot water. I'm sure the locals were laughing at us gringos going on a Mexican snipe hunt. But we got back to the Ranch and the Johnsons and Van Nesses said it was a true story and they are really there. We will have to go back another time, when we have more time and it isn't getting dark soon!

I think this next picture was right after Caitlin accidentally threw sand at Evan.

This picture kind of encapsulates the night. Chaos. And laughing. And I think Evan jumped on Jen's foot. haha

We ran some errands on our way out of town on Sunday, getting cheap medicine, sodas for Jason -- you know, the usual. And ended with Horchata and ice cream!

Another fun weekend. Another good time getting to know Jen better. Another really long drive, for one weekend. But still, ever so worth it!