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!

Happy 17th, Vanessa!

Our Car

I'm finally getting around to putting up a post about our new car! We've had it for nearly a month now and still love it.It is a 2001 Ford Escort SE and is a great little car. We think it is fun to drive and of course the color is very nice! It has nearly 147,000 miles on it, but so long as it keeps running we don't mind that. It gets about 26 miles to the gallon, which is really sweet. The only thing that really bothers us a lot is that you have to crank it a couple of times to get it to start. But it starts every time, eventually, and runs great, so I guess right now it isn't too big a deal.The only other problem we've had is deciding what to call it or if it even needs a name. We were thinking Sugar or Sweet Thang since we got it on Valentine's Day and it is bright red, but we're not so sure. What do you all think? Right now everyone just calls it our car or the kid's car.And of course we both look good behind the wheel, don't you think? :)Have to thank Shelly and Cory here for the cool, real dolphin that makes our car smell so sweet! So thanks!

Today

Today was one of those wierd off the wall days around here. Not really a bad day cause you were able to laugh at yourself for everything you did, but not really your brightest moments either. Usually I like to keep these moments secret and too myself for as long as possible (generally hard to do thanks to my darling sister, Vanessa) but today I just feel like sharing.

So I've been putting out job applications here and there around town ever since I got back. Finally, somebody-Sears-gave me an interview for today at 10a.m. Exciting right? Well, I wasn't so sure about it. It was for a sales position selling things like washing machines and Bowflex and riding mowers all on commission only. So I was kind of like oh goody. Cause that really isn't what I want to do. But I'm desperate and thrilled to pieces to have an interview, finally. So I go and interview, but, shockingly, don't get that job. Which, I'll admit, didn't bum me out too much, and it was really kind of cool because my interviewer is going to give my info to the cashier manager and I should be getting a call for a second interview soon. So keep your fingers crossed for me! Cashiering is a lot better than selling washing machines in my opinion!

So after the interview I decide to go home cause I have a couple of hours to kill. Sadly, I can't get in the door because guess what?! Us kids don't have house keys and Mom was at the gym, therefore the house was locked up tight. Not even a window open! So I sit around for a while and decide well geez, I'm just going to go to the gym and get the house key. So I head to the gym and actually catch Mom as she is leaving, which was great. We had some shopping to do so we both headed over to Safeway. As I am getting out of the car, I'm like "Wow, why is it beeping like that? The lights are off..." and I close the door after locking it like I always do. As soon as the door is closed I immediately realize that my keys are safely locked in the car where NO ONE can get to them! Oh no! The horror and embarassment! Luckily my support crew was manning his phone and was able to get a locksmith's number for me and Mom and Vanessa were right there with me so it wasn't too bad. But how horrible, both car keys locked in the car, I must be getting really blonde out here in this California sunshine!We also went for another hike on BLM land today. It was another beautiful day and there were tons of spring flowers and great views of the Sacramento River, but it was just kind of a blah hike all the same. The first one with the cows was much better. Anyway, what a crazy day! If nothing else at least it wasn't boring!

Yesterday's Hike

Yesterday was another beautiful day here in northern California. They are getting to be more and more frequent, thank goodness! I have to say those cold rainy days don't exactly thrill me. Anyway, it being such a nice day and Vanessa and I feeling mostly healthy (we've been out of action for a week or so with colds), we decided to go on a hike on some Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands we'd come across on a recent back country drive. We were actually super psyched because these lands are quite literally out in the middle of NOWHERE and aren't as popular as Whiskeytown for example cause way fewer people know about them and because they are out in the middle of nowhere. We started our hike on the Oak Slough Trail in the middle of a cattle herd.Cows really are photogenic animals, don't you think? As you can imagine, we were following a cow trail at this point.It made me feel like I was back on the farm in Missouri except everything is so much BIGGER here. There is so much space, it really makes me feel small.The cool thing about BLM lands is that you can leave the trail! So we did and cut across the fields and streams, taking frequent breaks, to the Sacramento River. It is so beautiful and calming just sitting near water. The sounds are so peaceful. It doesn't seem to matter whether it's waves or flowing, it always relaxes me.So we sat here for a while just soaking everything up and drawing in the sand.Eventually we did move on and up, so that we were overlooking the northeastern part of the valley towards Lassen. The views were incredible!Eventually we did turn around and head back. We didn't want to, but we really didn't want to be stuck out there after dark either. So of course we had to hike back through the cows. For some reason they were much friskier three hours later in the day and the calves kept chasing, well Vanessa says chasing, us.These three were particularly persistant and followed us for quite a while. Vanessa doesn't mind potentially poisonous snakes, but get a couple of calves following her and she was like glued to me. Calves are always so cute though. Like this dude.So cute! But then he'll grow up. Anyway, the hike was really great and we had a lot of fun, even with the crazy cows!