Photos

I have wedding photos online now at http://s367.photobucket.com/albums/oo116/vtuepker/

Finally!! Just a warning, there are a LOT of photos. Lindsay did a great job! Enjoy!

Summertime Blues

Yep, that's right. I've definitely got the summertime blues. I am HOT, TIRED, and work is NOT my main focus right now. I would much rather be spending my time out at the lake or here planning my WEDDING instead of sweating at Turtle Bay. I have come to realize over the summer that scrubbing bird poop off of everything-including myself-is not as fun as I had thought it might be.... What has inspired this rant you ask? I just pulled a couple of extra days for one of my friendly coworkers and just had my schedule changed so that I am covering some more days for her. I just keep telling myself "Man, that check with those full days of overtime is sure gonna be nice!"

Anyway, now that that is outta my system, everything else is going super well. As far as the wedding...As you probably now, I got the invites sent out! And we've already started to get responses back, hooray!! We chose the flowers (a lovely wildflower-ish coral-ish, blue-ish, white-ish assortment with roses, delphinium, daisies, and all kinds of other beautiful flowers), the cake (white with fudge filling and buttercream frosting in a theme matching the invitations) and my dress is done with its alterations and cleaning! Oh and I also found some lovely shoes (you know me, I'm all about the shoes!) As far as the food...Dubes Deli is leading the pack of places we've tried for catering. Their barbecued pork ribs, teriyaki chicken, and grilled tri-tip are absolutely fantastic. We have one more place to try-The Sausage Factory-but unless their food is simply AMAZING and their attitudes drastically improve, I think Dubes may be the place we get our food from!

I am a little nervous about the week before the wedding though. Somehow I got conned into going to the dentist for a cleaning (gosh, what was I thinking letting people talk me into that??!!) and they found out I needed a crown to finish off my root canal (getting the crown hasn't been so bad yet, of course I've only got a temporary right now and have to go back in three weeks for the permanent), I have two cavities that need attention (naturally they are on opposite sides of my mouth), and I HAVE to have my wisdom teeth removed on October 1st. That is only 10 days before the wedding!! How did I ever let them talk me into this (insurance-we've finally got it!)? Is 10 days enough time to recover from this? They said that because my wisdom teeth haven't broken through my gums yet and since they aren't rooted in my jaw bone yet it should be easy and relatively painfree. I still opted for a heavy dose of vallium though (is one pill really enough??). Wish me luck!

Anyway, have a good Labor Day weekend y'all!

Better Together

Guess what, guess what!!! I'm ENGAGED to be MARRIED!!!! I am SO EXCITED!!!! :D Joe asked me to marry him on July 3 after we were walking back to the house from the river! I, of course, said yes!! AHH!! I am so happy and excited!! And then he asked me again two days later and got down on his knees AND gave me a beautiful diamond ring.
And you know what, I haven't hurt it or my finger yet. :) So when is the big day?? October 11, of this year. Less than two months away!! Oh my gosh, I've got so much stuff to do! Planning a wedding definitely takes more work than what they show in the movies...But you know what, we've got the spot, the invites, and my dress, so it is all good.
I am so happy because I am so much better when we're together. Love ya, Joe.

Turtle Bay

Wow! Exciting news!! Vanessa is now working at Turtle Bay with me as a Wings of Summer Attendant! She has been working for two weeks now and as far as I can tell really likes the job.In fact, she and another coworker already hold the team record for selling the most feedsticks in a day. Congratulations!

Other news regarding Turtle Bay:
Mom and Dad now have an annual membership! So next time everyone visits we all get in for free! They really enjoyed visiting T.B. while Joe was out here.Mom doesn't look too sure about her little parakeet!
This cockatiel, Duchess (but we can't tell, maybe its a duke) really liked Dad.
And the cockatiel affectionately refered to as The Vulture because of her bare head, hit it off with Joe pretty quickly.
The Eastern Rosella's are one of our favorite birds in the aviary. They are so cute!
The butterflies are really beautiful in the Butterfly House right now too. This Julia is supposedly found in Florida, even down in the Keys, but I don't remember seeing it!
And of course the Giant Swallowtails always impress people because of their size. They always make me think of Michelle and breaking dishes though...:)
The Zebra Longwing is another of our prettiest butterflies.I had to include this picture of the star of the animal show Walk on the Wild Side, Stilts, TB's burrowing owl. He's a pretty cool little bird!And of course I had to include a picture of me. :)

Update

Whew! I can't believe it has been nearly two months since I last posted! Crazy! My only excuse is that I have been very busy over the past six or seven weeks, but I will let you be the judge!

First of all, I've got a new job! Hooray! No more Buz's Crab Shack! No more smelling like greasy fish and having to worry about when the mean ol' boss is in! No more being trapped indoors over the summer or working crazy shifts! Yep, I'm really loving my new job as a Wings of Summer Attendant at Turtle Bay. I get to spend all day outdoors interacting with the public, the nearly 400 parakeets, cockatiels, and rosella parrots in the Aviary, and the hundreds of butterflies from around North America in the Butterfly House. Sometimes I do get hot and tired, but oh is it worth it! I am so much happier at Turtle Bay and less depressed. I think it has to do with the amount of sunshine I get and the great people I am working with. It should be a really good summer!

Joe came to visit for two weeks in late April/early May! We ALL had such a great time and can't wait to see him again. Those were definitely some of the fastest two weeks I have ever spent. Even though I started at Turtle Bay five days after he got here, we still did a ton of stuff. We hiked on the BLM, which were starting to dry out but are still lovely, finally made it up to Whiskeytown for a hike around Guardian Rock and some kayaking, climbed to the Crags at Castle Crags (where we saw not only a pileated woodpecker!!! but a BEAR!!!!!) and did some crazy stuff like tour a couple of million dollar homes. I can't believe you've only been gone a week and a half, it seems like so much longer! We can't wait for you to come back out! And about that guy....

Let me see, what else.... Three nights ago we went to an award ceremony because Vanessa recieved second place in non-fiction at a writing contest! Hooray Vanessa, Congratulations!! Glad to see that we have another writer in the family. Now if only I could bring my writing up to par...

Two nights ago we went to the Redding Rodeo!! There's nothing quite like listening to good country music and watching guys trying to get themselves killed by riding broncs and bulls. Gives the women in the family a thrill every time! Seriously though, Mom, Vanessa and I love rodeo and had as much fun this year as we did last year. The Budweiser Clydesdales were back (they are so amazing and well trained) which this year I found slightly amusing since the "Cowboys' beer of choice" is apparantly Coors, according to the ads....You still can't beat the clydesdales though!

And last night Vanessa and I went to Whiskeytown to go swimming. The water was super cold, so we didn't actually get in, although last Tuesday we did go swimming. You've gotta love Whiskeytown when it starts getting into the triple digits and I predict that we'll be spending a lot of time there and at Lassan since I bought a pass this year. Now if only our car were big enough to haul both kayaks and our bikes and still get up the mountains....:)

Whew! I'm so glad that tomorrow is my Friday! I'm looking forward to a little quiet, or at least more time to spend out and about! And in case I don't get on to post again for a while, have a good week y'all!

Poor Beethoven!

My poor betta Beethoven has sure had a stressful three days!
On Wednesday I cleaned his bowl and he had to be caught and put back in his little tupperware container. I was worried about putting him in the fresh water because I didn't know if I'd gotten the right amount of de-chlorinator in. But he is still alive, so that is good!On Thursday I was trying to feed him and lifted the plant up and all the marbles from the plant's base cascaded down into his bowl! Poor dude, his little heart definitely got a workout that morning! And then today on my break I of course had to fix my mistake with the marbles, so I was fishing for marbles in his bowl while he swam frantically around. Poor little fella, at least I know he won't have any blocked arteries or anything after all the near heartattacks I have probably given him! At any rate I don't think he'll have to exercise with his mirror for a couple of days!

Today's Fun

After cold, dreary yesterday, Vanessa and I were more than ready to hit the trails and get out in the sunshine today! Shockingly, we decided not to go to Oakslough Trail (our current favorite for hiking and mountain biking) but instead to find Whiskeytown Falls. Interestingly enough, nobody knew about these falls for forty years. When the land for the park was being purchased in the 1960's park staff came across it, but kept its location a secret because the sellers did not know of the falls' existence. When the then superintendent suddenly passed away and staff members left and were replaced the falls were forgotten and lost. It wasn't until 2005 that Whiskeytown Falls were found again. Apparently there had been rumors about its existence and a few locals even knew where it was, but unless you knew exactly how to get there it was impossible to find.The trail to the falls is actually an old logging road from the 1950s and is rated as moderately difficult. I back that fully! You start out hiking at 2000ft in elevation and climb an additional 700ft on a very up and down single track trail. My lungs were screaming by the time we got to the Falls! And the hike back down definitely exercised my legs!After about a 20 minute hike we reached the falls. At no point on the falls can you see them in their entirety. In fact, the only way to see the entire fall is from the air!Vanessa and I took the trail up the falls, but it only goes about 3/4 of the way up.This is the middle part of the falls. I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but there is ice on those rocks!Vanessa and I had a wonderful time this morning on our hour hike and are now off to do a little bit of shopping at the Outlet Malls and to catch a movie! Hope you all have a good day!

Springtime Activities

With spring so obviously here, we all have had horrible cases of spring fever! Luckily, we've mostly been able to ease it with all the cool things there are to do here!Skipping rocks on the Sacramento River is always fun and I always need the practice! Plus the walk through the woods to get to the good skippin' spots is a definite bonus to this particular activity!
Vanessa and I, particularly Vanessa, are crazy about kite flying! You know those incredibly sunny blue days when the sky is almost too blue and you just have to put a little color up there? Well we've been having quite a few of those days lately!
And of course hiking! Our new favorite place to hike is Oakslough Trail on the BLM Lands, but anywhere is beautiful this time of the year. Just look at all those flowers! And I think you can see Lassen on the horizon.
And of course, skipping rocks! We sometimes enjoy staying out late and scaring ourselves silly on the walk back to the car through the deep woods of Anderson River Park. The last time we did it we heard turkeys gobbling and all kinds of weird things rustling around in the undergrowth. I love the moon in this picture by the way!

I hope your springtime activities have been as much fun as ours and that you are all enjoying the season!

Happy Spring!

Spring is finally officially here! Or has been for a couple of days I should say. I'm a little behind on the times, but I had to share some of my photos of spring here. Everything is astoundingly beautiful and the bird songs are phenomenal! Mom's barrels of pansies, tulips, and daffodills.
My Moth Orchid.
The neighbor's tulip tree.
One of our four types of camellias.
A hyacinth.The orchards.
Wildflowers out on BLM Lands.
Same.


And me in a patch of wild mustard!

Happy Spring and Happy Belated Easter!

New Job

I have a job! I am finally employed!!!!Hooray!!! Yes, I am know a server at Buz's Crab Shack, Redding's nearly world famous version of San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. I started this Friday, of all days to start since it was not only Friday, but Good Friday and the place was hoppin', and worked today. So far it is good, I don't mind it. Anyway, how about a mini tour of the place?
This is the Fish Market, which is attached to the restaurant and a place that I have nothing to do with. Or I don't think I do, they haven't said anything anyway...The people who work there are very nice and smell like fish, just like the rest of us.
And this is where I spend all seven or eight hours of my shift. Cleaning these lovely tables. In fact, I have cleaned this particular one only about a hundred times in the past two days. I'm getting really good at wiping down tables...:) So it isn't a glamour job or anything, but it is a job and is really easy money so I think I'll stick with it for a while! Anyway, I just had to share that exciting news with you!

Happy Birthday Jen!

I hope you have a great day! Love ya!

St. Patrick's Day

May your day be touched by a bit of Irish luck, brightened by a song in your heart, and warmed by the smiles of the people you love!

A Visitor!

Wow, I'm only just finding the time to sit down and write a post about all the excitement we had showing our corner of the world to Joe, who left sunny, warm Key West to come spend a week with us here in northern California.

After he'd been over and met the family, he and I headed off to Burney Falls, over by Mt. Lassen. As usual, it was beautiful and green, even with a bit of snow still on the ground!It always astounds me that not only does the water flow over the top of the falls, but out from various levels too. And most of that water comes from a single spring!The other thing that always gets me about these falls is that they are so HUGE. When I think of waterfalls on the mainland, I think small streams over gentle rocky inclines, not huge dropoffs that have thousands of gallons spilling over every day! But Burney reminds me of falls on Maui, like the one at the end of the Bamboo Forest Trail.After admiring the falls, Joe and I actually ended up hiking to the headwaters spring and beyond. We were expecting a big spring like the one at Meramac Caverns in Missouri (by Raleigh), but the headwaters were just a wide spot in the creek, so we ended up passing it by. We actually were hiking along the creek just off the Pacific Crest Trail for quite a long time. But it was very pretty, as you can see, and worth missing the headwaters on the way upstream, though we did pass by there on the way back!After Burney, we drove home past Lassen and had entertained thoughts of going up to see Manzanita Lake at least, but then we actually got to Lassen and changed our minds. Too much snow!Next day we rode the Sacramento River Trail and had a wonderful time admiring the blossoms, water, and mountains. All those blossoms make me think of Anne Shirley's White Way of Delight!

Then we spent two days on the coast. We went to Samoa Island hoping to see the seals, but they weren't there. The shell collecting was primo though.

And was the water as cold as it looked?Yes!Our favorite town Ferndale was next. It is always beautiful, so very green and rural.Plus it is right on the coastline, so it is the perfect town! Rural and with ocean access, my favorite. Course, it might be kind of hard to scale those cliffs...And of course we had to go see the redwoods. They are so huge, it is mind boggling. Shoot, they live in two climatic zones. Pretty impressive!And we finally got to drive through one! It was quite nerve racking because even with the mirrors pulled in it was a pretty tight fit.I just had to include this picture. The only way he could see out was through a little spot in the windshield, but he sure must've had a great day out muddin'! Before we left for the drive home, we had to stop at our favorite California beach: Clam Beach. Vanessa and I were drooling over these four horses. Not only were they beautiful but exceptionally well trained too because as soon as they got out on the beach the lady just turned them loose and they all followed her. Too cool!It was extremeley cold out there near the water and the shells weren't as good as out at Samoa Point, so Vanessa, Joe and I headed to the dunes, which are completely awesome.They are excellent for chasing each other throughand being goofballs.After only a couple of near death experiences on the drive back from the coast, Joe and I spent the next couple of days driving through the orchards and hiking on BLM land.All in all, we had a really wonderful time. The weather was perfect here in the valley, it was beautiful, and we had a ton of fun. Now we just can't wait for him to visit again!