Marsh Family

One month!

2011-09-29T15:59:00.003-06:00

As the title indicates, there is exactly one month left from today before our little tyke is due to arrive. Where have the last 8 months gone?!? Some of it did pass pretty slow, but these last couple months have just flown by. We can't wait to finally meet and hold this baby.

This last summer was REALLY hot and it continues to be hot here in Houston. So we're really grateful for days like today when it cools down just a bit due to the rain. And when it rains here, it POURS and there's always plenty of lightning/thunder to go with it. If it's storming at night, we like to drag the bed down onto the floor and go to sleep watching the lightning/thunder through our window. I love it.

So there was a branch activity at church a couple weeks ago, and a couple who own their own photo-booth, let the branch use it for free...it was pretty sweet. There were all sorts of props/hats to choose from and we could choose to do it in color or black/white. Anyway, below is Robby and my attempt at photo-booth pictures:

(Notice Robby's shirt...that night was the BYU-Utah game, so this is us before we were completely depressed after the game. Seriously, what happened that night?!? This is a rhetorical question by the way.)

Here's to a good last month of pregnancy, wish us luck!

Anticipation

2011-09-13T07:25:00.003-06:00

So basically my motivation to write today is that I now have just six and a half weeks left until the official due date of the baby is finally here! October 29th seemed so far away before, but now it is just around the corner. There is so much to do to prepare, but I know it will all fall in place as it should. I'll be able to do final organizing of baby stuff after the last baby shower this Thursday. Some friends are throwing one for me and another expectant mom, Frances, who is actually due the same day as me! (It also happens to be her husband's birthday that day too.)

Last night, Robby and I attended our first official ASL (American Sign Language) class, at a school downtown. I didn't know exactly how the class would play out, but it was interesting. Our teacher is deaf himself, and is AWESOME. At first he went pretty fast with his finger-spelling of words, but it got a little easier as the class went on. Luckily we're not completely starting ASL from scratch in this course, thanks to attending our church branch each Sunday and seeing people sign there every week. I'm excited to actually be able to communicate past hi, how are you, to the deaf members of the branch. The class will go on for 5 more weeks.

For the baby shower this week, my friend putting it on wanted baby pictures of all the parents-to-be. So below are the pictures Robby and I found of us when we were babies. I'm not trying to brag, but I think we're going to have cute kids! The first two are of Robby and the last one is me. Enjoy :)

Update

2011-08-21T16:06:00.003-06:00

So a lot has happened since the last post in FEBRUARY...how sad is that?!?!! Anyway, here's the condensed version of all the goings-on of the Houston Marsh family:

1. We went to Idaho for President's Day weekend with friends, to go snowmobiling.

2. I suspected I was pregnant the whole trip and confirmed I was when I got home...Robby was the fifth person to find out, since he was on a business trip in Prague, Czech Republic.

3. We got called to attend and serve in Houston's Deaf Branch for at least the next 3 years. We'll be (finally) starting a sign language class next month.

4. I held my first piano recital for my students in May, where about 16 kids played 2 songs each. It turned out great!

5. Robby got transferred to another position in ExxonMobil, working on one of the Iraq projects at a contractor's location here in Houston (about an hour drive away). We're keeping our fingers crossed that we're coming that much closer to getting the chance to move overseas in the next few years.

6. Robby was sent to Calgary, Canada for a month business trip, of which he flew me up to be with him for 2 weeks :) We visited Banff National Park (gorgeous!) both weekends I was there and got to explore downtown Calgary a bunch. (And I got to know the Marriott Hotel VERY well.)

7. We went to Maryland for Josh's (Robby's brother) mission homecoming from the Santa Rosa, California mission. As always, it was a blast partying it up with the whole Marsh family together.

8. I visited Utah to see my little brothers and sister who have been with my parents in India for the last 2 years...they had changed so much! I also went to Utah so I could see my Grandma Jackson, who actually passed away while I was there. So I decided to extend my trip to be there for the funeral, and Robby joined me and the family for that. It was a sad/happy occasion...sad, because we all loved being around Grandma (who didn't?!?) and will miss her, but happy because we know she's at peace now and that we'll see her again. It was actually the first funeral I'd ever been to, but it turned out exactly how I know Grandma would have wanted it: cheerful and uplifting. That was the kind of person she always was and will be, I know it.

9. My sisters threw me a baby shower while I was in Utah, which was so much fun.

10. I dragged Robby to a childbirth class last Saturday, which actually didn't turn out to be that bad. (No lamaz/breathing exercises!) It was very informative and I know plenty of ways to try and relax if we're too late for an epidural!

Now we're just anticipating an exciting rest of the year, what with the baby coming, as well as Thanksgiving with Hills/Marshes in Albuquerque, and Christmas with Jacksons/Noorlanders in India! No place like India for a newborn to visit, eh? We're psyched for it though. :D

Will be writing again soon, hopefully. Love you all!

The Latest

2011-02-08T18:29:00.003-07:00

So it's been about a month since our year mark living here in Houston, and we still love it. With time, additions--one by one--have made their way into our home. I've had a blast learning what it means to be a homemaker. (But I know I have a long ways to go, ha!) Below are the frames that I was able to add thanks to a generous Christmas present...now to add pictures in them. I have so many pictures from the Jackson side of the family and not that many from the Marsh side, so this has become my latest project...to evenly represent both sides in these frames. It's been fun seeing new pictures coming in from the Marsh side. Pictures will be posted of the finished product. :)
As for an explanation for the second photo, yes, it was cold enough that there were ICICLES here in Houston all over the place. We were even told that last Friday there was a good chance it would snow. Alas, it didn't happen. But I wasn't surprised! Though it did snow the one day we came here in December of 2009 to go house-hunting, fyi. But it's for the warmer weather most of the year that we love living in Houston, so we're grateful the chances for snow aren't too likely!
Speaking of snow, we are going to meet up with some of Robby's friends and their spouses for some good ole' snowmobiling for President's Day weekend. I've never been, so it should be good! I'm just crossing my fingers that I won't flip one over. Then Robby will be off for his first business trip...to Prague. I so wanted to go with him, until I realized how much a single airline ticket would cost. Oh well, I'm counting on moving overseas sometime with ExxonMobil to travel with Robby.
Life continues to prove interesting and fun. I'm teaching piano lessons to several students, doing daycare, substituting for a couple school districts, and tutoring spanish. Robby is finishing up his first year and a half assignment with his job in the next few months, after which he will be moved to a new position this summer.
We're thinking of all of you, and will update again soon. Happy (early) Valentines Day!!!

SURPRISE! we had triplets

2011-01-23T16:14:00.010-07:00

why do people write blogs? some people use blogs to keep several friendships alive with minimal effort (mass friendshipping). some people use blogs to broadcast their overacheiving successes to the world. some people use blogs (and maybe a more appropriate use) to record a family journal. i really don't fit in any of those categories. i write blogs only at my wife's constant persistance instigated by my mother's request. so mom . . .

SUPRISE! we had triplets

http://www.viddler.com/explore/marshnatj/videos/3/
http://www.viddler.com/explore/marshnatj/videos/1/

nat and robby are pleased to introduce the newest members of our family:

bo, zippy, and skip

Thanksgiving at the Alamo

2010-11-29T19:09:00.006-07:00

that's it! (i am saying that in a sarcastic 25 year old voice as i stared at the alamo). it was about 12 whopping feet tall and was centered smack dab in the middle of downtown san antonio. boy did john wayne have it wrong.

that said, nat and i had a wonderful 3ish day vacation to s.a. here are a few highlights -
1. i played in the ward turkey bowl (ok so that was in houston not s.a. but it's football!!!)
2. sean and haley (nat's cousins) gorged us with a turkey feast
3. we walked the riverwalk which turned into a Christmas (i've got to capitalize "Christ") wonderland as floating floats floated along in a river parade

4. we gorged ourselves at the salt grass steak house

5. nat shopped and shopped and shopped (using gift cards of course)

7. we enjoyed a festive yet brain rattling evening at 6 flags

8. and yes . . . we saw the alamo

but - and on a more serious note - of all the highlights, the spiritual moments were (1)being immersed in blue, red, and yellow rays of sun which cascaded through the stain glass of the awe-inspiring san antonio lds temple and (2) standing in the catholic cathedral which housed a dedicated tomb to the alamo heroes.
Best stated by Clara Driscoll, "that the sacred shrine be saved from the encroachments of commercialism and stand through eternity a monument incomparable to the immortal heroes who died that texas might not perish." (march 2, 1927)

Fall

2010-11-07T12:09:00.003-07:00

Okay, so it has been FOREVER since our last post. Much has happened since then, as it has been quite the eventful summer. But we are going to fast forward a bit and talk about what's going on in recent news here in Houston, Texas.
With Halloween last week, we were able to be a part of our ward Trunk-or-Treat, which was so much fun! The youth were in charge of game booths, which turned out really well. Robby's group of young men came up with a pudding-eating-contest booth, which turned out to be a big hit. They got a pretty steady amount of kids and adults coming through almost the whole time...this was very entertaining to watch, especially the kids that weren't quite sure what to do when we said "go!". Robby (of course) won the round that he competed in against the other young men leaders.
Handing out candy to the kids was fun. Since it was just our ward in this trunk-or-treat, it was expected that some kids would come through at least 2 times. What ended up happening is that some were coming through up to 4 or 5 times! One of our favorites, Zach, tried to fool us by coming through with his head turned the other way while saying, "trick or treat!"...as if that was going to fool us. He ended up getting more candy anyway.
Passing out candy on Halloween night was also fun...the first time Robby and I had passed out candy (last year we kind of bailed on that).
The next couple of weeks will be quite eventful, as I head up to Utah for my best friend's wedding and to see my sister with her new baby boy, Robby will go camping with the Scouts at Galveston beach while I'm gone, and then we're going to San Antonio for Thanksgiving weekend. We're so excited!
I love this time of year and hope that everyone's doing great. We love you!

:)

2010-05-16T16:12:00.002-06:00

Hey all, this is Natalie. I just wanted to express how grateful I feel at this moment for the many blessings that Robby and I have been given in the last few months. Since we moved here to Houston, we have been incredibly blessed with one thing after the other. The ward that we attend is amazing and they sure have made us feel like this is our home; they have extended their friendship and help to us freely. It's awesome to be able to walk down the street and have friends to visit, etc.
I am also grateful for the best husband ever (okay, so I'm biased)! I just feel so blessed to be where I am right now. This is where and with whom I'm meant to be. I know that God loves me and is watching over me. Life is good!
As for any news from here, we're getting ready to paint a good portion of the house. Those of you that know about the last time that I painted walls, wish us luck.
I am not pregnant, but am so excited for Alice/David and Andy/Spencer, who are getting ready to have their babies soon :) We are thinking of you!
We send our love to everyone, and miss you...ya'll have an awesome week!

BYU Graduation

2010-05-02T17:29:00.011-06:00

there is not much to write about here - i could not possibly rehearse the achievements or challenges which lead to our graduation from brigham young and the sad truth is our graduation ceremony consisted of this virtually free photoshot and a graduation dinner at red robin (which we also got for free).

so as an act of formality:

hear ye hear ye, on this the 22nd day of the 4th month of the year 2010, Natalie Jackson Marsh honorably completed all necessary requirements to graduate with a bachelor of science in the field of elementary education from the college of david o mckay college of education, brigham young university. Robert Ashall Marsh Jr. (thanks for the name dad!) has honorably completed all necessary requirements to graduate with a master of science in the field of civil engineering from the ira a fulton college of engineering and technology, brigham young university.

Pictures

2010-04-14T18:01:00.003-06:00

Hello everyone,

Just wanted you to know that we have been posting pictures on the shutterfly website, so if you want to see pictures of our recent happenings, go to: www.robbyandnat.shutterfly.com
We love you all!

NCAA - Duke vs Purdue

2010-03-28T16:03:00.004-06:00

how did i get suckered into writing this blog - you might ask. i was diligently working on my rather lengthy "honey do" list when natalie casually said, "after this we can write on our blog." i acknowledged the comment as a dutiful husband with a casual uh-huh . . . and now she is playing the piano and i am recording our exciting memories -

actually, this one is exciting. on thursday, i was in the car with natalie, and i told her i had some exciting news. "no, not exciting - really exciting - beyond exciting!" a client of mine called earlier that day and under a strictly business cover invited me and my family to join him in box seats for the duke/purdue journey to the final four game.

we didn't want to look like this was the first time we had been in a box seat so we kept the camera away for most of the night (after all this was a business event). but we did capture a few shots so here they are.

this is the first shot of the stadium. natalie took the picture from within the car. i think i need to remind her that i work for ExxonMobil.

here is another view of the stadium. believe it or not, our reserved parking space was closer than this.

here we are in the box - really not the best seats to watch the game. we were kinda far, but the cushioned seats and the food buffet of steak, fish, crab, any type of finger food and beverage made it far worth it.

but the highlight was the icecream cart that came around and built personalized sundaes in cowboy hat bowls. that's right we're in texas and lovin it!

It's Ours!!!

2010-02-15T11:33:00.002-07:00

If I could describe last week using just a few words, it was exciting, interesting, surprising, and fun. Let me explain.

I was driving to school on Monday morning, when upon arriving at a stoplight-intersection, I had to slam on my brakes all of a sudden. A lady two cars in front of me had stopped out of nowhere and alarmed the driver behind her, who along with me didn't stop in time before we all were in a 3-car collision. Luckily none of us were going too fast, but it still scared me because it was my first car accident, and apparently it was for the driver in front of me too. To make a long story short, everyone was fine and the car that suffered the most damage was ours (to the front bumper). Thank goodness we have car insurance, because it would have cost a lot of money to repair all the damages on our car and the other driver's car ourselves! So that was how the week began.

But then Monday made a turn-around for the better, because we were called in to finally close on our house...!!! When we sat down to sign the necessary documents, I was amazed at how much there was to sign! It's amazing how specific some of these forms get...one even had us sign an agreement that if we found any minerals on our property, that we'd hand them over to the people who signed for ownership of this area of land many years ago. Ridiculous, I know. It's OUR property, but apparently that doesn't mean anything when it comes to certain things. Anyway, so ending Monday with our home closing was a bittersweet finish to the day.

On Thursday, my BYU supervisors and the McKay School of Education's Assistant to the Dean, came to visit my classmates' and my school(s), and to take us out to dinner. To all of you potential visitors to us that are reading this, we just might have to take you to this restaurant we were taken to, because it was SO good. It's called Pappasito's, and has the best chicken fajita I've tasted yet. When my supervisors told us about this dinner, they made sure that we invited our spouses too--so don't worry, Robby came to eat free food too!!

To start the weekend, our house sellers came to drop off several pieces of furniture they wanted to give to us, because they moved into an apartment. They would not accept any offers we gave them to pay for the things they brought...amazing people. Thanks to them, and the delivery of Grandpa Boyd's awesome gift (the piano!), our house is now doubly furnished compared to before Saturday, ha. It's great! We feel like there's actually a possibility of filling this house sooner than later...sooner meaning within the next year or so.

Finally, Robby surprised me by actually buying me flowers for Valentine's Day. And then I actually made a successful dish of lasagna! Anything's possible with a recipe.

Below are the pictures from the car crash and then Robby and I in front of our house just before closing :) We love you all and hope you're doing well!

Our Beginning in Houston

2010-01-24T20:04:00.005-07:00

So I always told myself that we'd never live in Texas, but here we are...in Texas! We've been here since the beginning of this month, and things have been quickly moving along. Robby started his job at ExxonMobil this last week, and I've been student-teaching at Magrill Elementary for the past three weeks. For the first two and a half weeks here, we were bumming off of Robby's aunt and uncle, Darci and Will, by staying at their house and eating their food for free. Of course after two weeks, we started to feel guilty we were at their house for so long, so even though we still hadn't (and haven't) closed on our house, we decided to rent and move in anyway. (We're crossing our fingers that we'll close this week.)
When we moved in, the house seemed so much bigger than when we visited it while it was furnished. So here are a few pics of the house. . . Hopefully once we get things unpacked I will write another blog showcasing the house, but for now here is the disarray -

A couple pictures down is our piano. It is still at the retail center. They will move it into our home as soon as we close. Isn't it gorgeous.

The last two pictures are from the afternoon walk that we took today...yes, we live next to a golf course.

Anyway, it's bedtime, so I'm gonna go. We love you all, life is good!

A Merry Christmas and a Soon-To-Be Happy New Year :)

2009-12-26T10:59:00.004-07:00

I just looked at the last time we wrote, and it's been more than 2 months...So we think it's time for an update.

Many developments have occurred since October 10th, including a new job, a new house, and a new location! As of January 1st, Robby and I will be in Houston, Texas, for the next few years. He was given a job offer (after some grueling interviews) from ExxonMobil and has accepted it, as of Thanksgiving time. From Thanksgiving time onward, it was non-stop until the fall semester finally ended. It seemed like Robby's thesis would never come to an end, as his advisor kept giving him more corrections to do. But when his thesis defense was over, his advisor was very nice about helping him get all revisions done on time so that he could actually finish this semester--He finished with 18 hours to spare.

In the middle of all the thesis craziness, we also had to plan a move, so we traveled to Houston on the first weekend in December to go house-hunting. We literally had 1 day and a few hours to find a house we liked, but with the help of our realtor, Cindy Fontana, we found THREE houses that we actually liked. After putting up an offer on two of them, one of the offers went through! We are hoping to close the deal with the sellers to be able to move in by January 15th. Keeping our fingers crossed.

As for right now, Robby and I are in Maryland for Christmas with his family. It's been great--I got to go with Robby and a few of his siblings and his Dad to cut down a Christmas tree at a tree farm just 15 minutes away from their house...the deep snow made it that much more fun, because we had to trudge through almost two feet of it to get out to the field of trees we got our tree from. And then, after working hard to cut down the tree we found, with a chainsaw, we brought it home and put it up right away to decorate. On December 23rd, there was a visit from a friendly neighbor dressed up as Santa Claus who came to give presents to the little ones (and by little ones, I mean that everyone had to sit on his lap). It was a fun visit, and the kids (Robby's sister Jenny's kids) were overwhelmed with excitedness because they got to tell Santa Claus what they wanted before Christmas Eve.

On Christmas morning, havoc came out as the kids released nerfs from their nerf guns that they got...it was funny because Robby's dad, brother, and brother-in-law all joined in on a massive war down in the basement. I remember when my brothers got BB-guns when they were kids, and I think I much prefer nerf guns to BB-guns. Anyway, the rest of Christmas day was nice, especially since the sister missionaries came over for the evening. One of them was from Texas, so we had fun finding out interesting facts from her.

I'll end this now, since it's probably getting a little long. We just want all of you to know that we LOVE you and miss you...Hope you had a Merry Christmas and that you have a Happy New Year!

Nat and Robby

It's ugly, but I did it!

2009-10-10T11:41:00.000-06:00

Hey, everyone!

So since the fall semester has started, things continue to be pretty busy for us. From Robby's thesis, to school projects, to Robby's thesis, to church callings, to soccer games, to job interviews, to Robby's thesis, it's been an interesting semester. But as a lot of you know, Robby thrives on being busy all the time, and he's helping me to continue doing so as well. For my student teaching this November, I've been assigned to teach a SIXTH GRADE class! I'll be at Sprucewood Elementary School in Sandy. I never imagined myself in an older grade, maybe fourth or fifth at the highest. The kind of teaching that I'll get to do there will be way different from the majority of things we've been taught at school to do, that's for sure. So we'll see how it goes.

Robby has had an interview with Exxon Mobil, and he passed! Seeing that Exxon Mobil is the biggest company in the world, it's quite the process before one actually gets a job with them. After this interview, he has a phone interview next Friday. That will then determine if he flies to Houston for a final interview. It's pretty exciting, so we'll see what happens. There are good things happening here in Provo for Robby as well, so even if he does get this job, we're not sure if we want to stay here or go to Houston.

This morning (today is Saturday), Robby and I got up at 6:00am so that we could look at a house in Hobble Creek Canyon that he did the structural design for...he has structurally designed more than 500 buildings/houses and has never seen one up in construction! So it was nice to be up in the canyon around sunrise to see his house. The house is huge, and the owners are from New York, the wife being French--I say this, because it contributes to the fact that their house is like none other up in the canyon, making it stick out like a sore thumb. (Hence the title of this blog entry) But it was interesting and fun to walk around the house with no one else there. Robby really enjoyed it. This lady and her husband actually took an old barn from New York and brought all the pieces here and requested that it be rebuilt inside their house. You can see this below from pictures that we took this morning. Please note that it was REALLY cold, ha.

We hope that all is going well with you guys, and we'll try to update again relatively soon. Love you all! :)

2009-08-22T14:53:00.000-06:00

This week has flown by quickly, and has been a lot of fun, as we've been out here in Maryland staying with Robby's parents and family. I'd visited with Robby this year in May, but alas, I didn't try REAL crabs at the time--which apparently come from Maryland. As you can see in the pictures on the left, we ended up eating real crabs the second night we were here on this trip. Personally I had a lot of fun with a wooden hammer, crushing the crab that I ate. I could only handle one crab, but Robby ended up eating 3 or 4, which isn't a surprise because he has 2 or 3 times more the stomach capacity that I have.

Besides eating crabs, we've done quite a bit of swimming in the Marsh pool too. We also had our second wedding reception of the summer just last night, right here in the Marsh home.

Unfortunately everyone got too occupied talking with guests, so we didn't take any pictures, but it definitely was a fun night! Although there was no music playing, the lightning and thunder storm that went on during almost all the reception kept some entertained. We found out today that a tree just down the road had been knocked down from the lightning/thunderstorm...! I think Robby and I must have been too distracted talking to people, because everyone else said they heard it--crazy!

My oldest brother Billy and his family stayed the night after the reception ended, and h

ung out most of the day today. It was fun to have them here...Christmas will come soon enough for when they can come visit with us here again (hint hint).

It looks like the summer has come and gone, because after we go back home to Provo in a couple days, we start the fall semester just less than a week later...I don't know

if I'm ready for that quite yet. This will be both Robby and my last year at BYU, so it's kind of exciting to be close to done; This will be good year.

More pictures are forthcoming. (The one to the right is from a camping trip that we took with our friends for July 24th weekend.) Later!

parade of home

2009-08-09T12:00:00.000-06:00

. . . TO OUR HOME

ok, i am new to this so be nice, constructive feedback is not encouraged, just sit back and enjoy our "parade of home".

nat and i wanted to give you a tour of our - what has been dubbed - "cozy" home. it is a step up from a basement bat cave but not quite the private island mansion we will have some day (see billy we're on board with you). however, it's ours, and we couldn't be happier!

the following is a typical day at the marsh's:

that's right: a smoking hot girl in a smoking hot car! it's a rough life, and if that's not bad enough - check out the view. our house sits beneath the infamous squaw peak (which is probably the one place in provo nat and i have not been kicked out of past dusk). we are 1 block north east of the stadium. by-the-way, the firework show is perfect from our roof top :)

so now that you're at our brick refuge - come on downstairs and check it out. OOPS, i almost forgot - watch your head. that concrete porch gets me every time. i'm still not sure if those red marks are from the last tenants head. but the porch does have its advantages.

inside is the where nat's life meets mine . . . yup, the dining hall :) natalie is trying to pudge out my stomach, and i don't mind one bit

one thing you'll notice about our "cozy" home is the cultural diversity (mostly thanks to nat). it begins in the kitchen, like this wedding gift platter from trinidad. "lick yours" it reads, so we make sure to always have candy sitting next to it . . . or pretzels (we find that pretzels last longer than candy)

we love or dishes from bed bath and beyond, our table from ikea, our flowers from the front yard, our table cloth from china (thanks spencer and andy), our wine glasses from bishop klein :), and our gourmet eating . . . or something like that

here, we'll zoom out so you can get a better angle . . . aren't you glad we aren't zoomed in on this one. and yes, that is a washer and dryer adorning the kitchen cabinetry.

natalie has begun making homemade bread! enough said . . . it is delicious.

well let's continue the tour. here is a snapshot of the great room. what is a great room? in architecture it is a large open room in a private residence that contains high vaulted ceilings and is used for recreation and relaxation. well before the couches came (YESTERDAY, thanks jon) it felt like a large open room - now it's "cozy" (nice curtains, huh jenny?)

but we do use it for relaxation and recreation. see nat is relaxing as she read a book on recreation -thanks alice and david:)

and here i am, hard at work. the great room has definitely earned its name. (em and nate, that's your picture frame in the top left corner!)

our next stop, just down the hall, takes us to the throne.

i don't think much explanation is needed, but the buddha cloth draped over the door is a nice addition.

and here is nat like a deer in the headlights . . . hey why's your hair not wet?

last stop is the private chambers. i am proud to say, i had nothing to do with bringing animals into the home. but, i do rearrange them every morning when i make the bed.

grandma and grandpa, we love the hand stitched bed spread. it is the perfect finishing touch to our "cozy" home.

we love you all!!!! thanks for helping nat and i start our adventure together!!!!