Big Recap of Significant Events

I probably shouldn't start each blog post off with a recognition that time passes too quickly. Yet, I do. As usual, when life is hopping, there hardly seems time to sit down and write about it. Today I'm going to attempt to recapture some events from the last few months.

Okay, April had Michael traveling like a madman. I went to a fun fund raising event for a local high school with my friend Kelley. We met at Zumba years ago and still attend that class. But now we get together for fun events like game nights.

Then there was Easter. The Grandparents came over for brunch and the girls aren't too old for egg hunting in the back yard. They like their candy.

Someone turned 51 this year and the best kids in the world sent a beautiful, surprise bouquet. Gorgeous flowers. Best kids ever. I do love flowers.

Suddenly it was May. Valerie had her end of the year concerts. Here is a snap of her playing cello in the last concert for her in the advanced orchestra. She also had piano recitals. So much music!

Valerie also wrapped up her senior year at the last FFA Banquet. This is a photo of her officer team before she, as chapter president, passed the baton to the next round.

Spring means prom. Here is Valerie with her friend, Sarah V. (she has multiple friends named Sarah, as does Amira) getting ready to head out for dinner and dancing.

This being her senior year, it was also her last Silver Dollar Fair. Here is Valerie with her friend Madelyn getting her sheep ready to show.

Suddenly graduation was upon us. Here are some grad snaps of Valerie.

Here is Valerie with her friends (left to right): Yang, Isa, Valerie, Hannah, Ruthie. Valerie has gone to school with Hannah and Ruthie since 3rd grade.

Valerie, Raelyn, Ruthie.

Once in a while we hear from Rex. He managed to escape the grind of school and work in Long Beach with the help of Dylan who arranged a weekend on Catalina Island. I hear they had a blast. Dylan is always so good about taking photos and sending them to me.

Spring is also time for kayaking. I went out with my friend Grace on the Forebay for a gorgeous paddle and picnic.

As soon as June hit, Valerie was off to Mendocino with friends for some R&R and photo opportunities.

From left to right we have Jaycee, Sarah K., Sarah V. & Valerie.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it was boysenberry time!

I am like a bear going through the yard, eating as many berries as I save. I've got the freezer loaded and ready for a pie or cobbler or something.

On a different note, sometimes international politics do creep into life at Tifftown. With the trade war affecting business and my job being with an importer, I had to ditch the blue hair in case I needed to look for a job. Phase 1 was to fade the colors. This is Phase 2 where we cover the colors. Phase 3 will be slowly getting it to a more natural hue with natural highlights. It will be a process. It took 10 years for me to get all those colors in. I think Grace wanted to cry and throw up a little bit as she coated them in shades of brown.

Michael has the summer off until August. He and Todd have a morning routine of breakfast, crossword puzzles and reading the paper. It's their happy, quiet time.

Berries aren't the only thing popping at the ranch. We also had a bumper crop of nectarines, peaches, pluots and figs. Don't even get me started on blackberries and mulberries. Well, actually, yes, please get me started! I love all that stuff.

It's been difficult to get photos of Amira. As soon as school was out, she took off for Girl Scout Camp. This was followed by holding a job at Boy Scout Camp as a camp counselor. So, she has been gone since school got out this year. I did get her to send me a photo of herself and some friends. She has been loving the camp. No wifi or internet up there. Just star gazing, hikes in the woods and actual conversations and card games. She's been coming home Saturdays for a short laundry furlough, then back up to the woods.

When July came around, Amira came back to Chico to get her braces off. So I was able to get before and after photos. 

Meanwhile at home we also have a bumper crop of zinnias. I had to pull some out of the garden as they were shading my eggplants. More bouquets of joy from the yard.

While home, Amira and Valerie went thrift shopping. Amira found these glasses at Goodwill and thought this comparison photo of herself to one of me in 7th grade was hysterical. It really is. That girl has an awesome sense of humor. Yes, we all had a laugh (at my expense).

We did have a family road trip down to SoCal to visit Rex. Here we are upon arrival to the Long Beach Pier before reuniting with Rex.

Amira & Valerie checking out the beach.

Finally! All five of us reunited.

We had dinner together next to the pier. These kids are all grown up. We really enjoyed our time together.

The next day we headed down to San Clemente to visit our friends. The first Ridgecrest earthquake rattled a few things that morning, but no big deal. Here are the beach babes.

Here are Kelley & Bogie. Michael went to college with Bogie at UCSC. He's a math teacher down at Laguna Beach. It's been a tradition to squeeze in a visit with their family every July.

Valerie, Rex & Michael getting some vitamin D. Amira is taking a sand nap behind them.

After a big day of fun in the sun, it was time for the big family dinner.

On July 5th Valerie wanted to do something "touristy". So, Rex took us to Hollywood where we walked the walk of fame. We drove back through Beverly Hills to see how the "other half" lives.

Once back in Long Beach, we hung out at Rex's house for a bit. This is the house where he lives with all the international students who attend CSU Long Beach. They have a great front porch with plenty of seating for people watching. Or, you know, checking your phone.

And now, I'll be taking Valerie up to Oregon this week to get the key to her new apartment. She will probably move at the end of next month. She will be starting classes at LBCC in September. Rex should be coming back home temporarily in September when he finishes his program. Amira will have the next several weeks to get her on-line Drivers Ed all set. As soon as school starts (mid-August) she will be taking the written exam to get her permit. Michael also returns to work mid-August. Well, we still have about a month left of summer break. Wahooo!

As Usual

As usual, if things are hopping around here, there is absolutely no time to update the blog. When all is quiet and nothing to report, it seems I have plenty of time to report it.

However, since it has been a month since updating here, I think I can report a few happenings. 

Valerie has continued to engage in her livestock judging team events. Her team came in 2nd place for the 4-H State contest at Davis and will now be representing the state of California at a competition in Kansas City this coming October. ! I hear the sound of more fund raising in our future.

We all managed to hop back to South Carolina for a quick visit in March. We managed to squeeze in a great visit with Cee Cee, Hugh, Cousin Callie and still do some fishing and have some Gator rides. Sadly, due to a phone/camera malfunction, I do not have as many photos of the event as I should.

I have to report that Valerie caught the most fish on that trip (as usual) but no turtles (this time). Honestly, as soon as we got to the pond, she had her hook in the water and was yelling, "I got one!" before the rest of us had gotten onto the dock. Amira and Michael helped remove the fish from the hook and before that first fish was released back into the pond Valerie shouted, "Hey! I got another one!" Amira informed her that it doesn't really count if you're not taking your own fish off the hook. Amira and Michael were wonderful "fish valets". 

After coming home and doing some laundry, Michael and I hopped on another plane to Long Beach to visit Rex and see a sumo wrestling tournament at Long Beach State. 

I am fascinated with the Japanese culture and LOVE sumo! I had always said that if Sumo came to the West Coast I needed to see it. Fortunately Rex was on the case. What a great visit and great show. The venu even sold bento boxes along with sparkling sake. (Sure, you could also get nachos and beer, but why?) Some local Taiko drummers came to open the event. That was fantastic as well. 

Meanwhile, back at home, spring has sprung intermittently between rain storms. Honestly, it has been one wet spring. Just last week I was bombarded by tornado warnings and flash flood warnings back for our neighborhood. Fortunately, neither materialized at my house. But there certainly was a lot of flooding in town. Anyhow, those rainy days we just hunker down with a good book or some Netflix and feed the pets. They are all adorable.

Those crazy turkey hens have been hiding their eggs. Although we have not been able to find the nest, some other critter did. There are a number of broken turkey egg shells strewn across my back yard.

The red buds, quince, forsythia and other flowers of spring all all over the place putting on a show. I just love looking out the windows at the color combinations. Of course the grass will grow up to our hips within one week. So, while beautiful, also overwhelming at times.

On the last day of March my friend Holly and I went up the Feather River Canyon to go hiking and hang out in the hot springs. I couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day. It was about 74 degrees with clear blue skies and barely the whisper of a breeze. As we wound along the gushing Feather River with its sun bleached granite boulders we could see the snow capped peaks around us break into bright green patches of trees with roaring white waterfalls cutting through the hillsides as they cascaded down into the river. We hiked up a trail that constantly switched back and forth over a water fall. We could smell the fresh bay leaves that lined the trails while ferns and moss covered rocks poked out of the hillsides. It was pretty magical. And don't even get me started on the hot springs. They were so warm, effervescent and only a little stinky. One of them was supposed to be chock full of lithium. I soaked in that one and ate some birthday cake that Holly brought. It felt like a little slice of heaven. 

This past weekend was my actual birthday. I got another break in the weather and was able to get some yard work done on Saturday. The kids all pitched in and had these gorgeous flowers delivered. How sweet are they? There was even an adorable card. They know how I love flowers.

Sunday Valerie and I braved a torrential rainstorm as we drove back into Oregon for another College review.

Wait a minute, you say! Isn't that a done deal? I mean, first we were settled on Oregon State. Then we switched it up and Humboldt State was a sure thing. Then maybe OSU. Well, my friends, presently we are possibly settled on Linn-Benton Community College (degree partnership program with OSU). Here's what happened.

As I may have mentioned, Valerie is a very competitive component of an award winning live stock judging team for both 4-H and FFA in the state of California. Well, colleges have livestock judging teams also. (Who knew?!?) And coaches for those teams watch the high schools and try to recruit the best ones to their schools. (Like sports). LBCC (Linn-Benton Community College) has such a program. When we arrived Sunday evening, one of the LBCC coaches met us and took us to dinner to discuss the program and answer any questions we might have.

Monday morning we met him back at his office at LBCC and met the other coach as well. Then we sat in on one of his classes. This was followed by the two coaches giving us a personal tour of the school. When Valerie mentioned maybe wanting to get a job on campus, they took her to the Admin building and introduced her to some people and got her an application for the work study program. They asked her what she wanted to study when she transfered to a University (presumably OSU). When she said, "Environmental Sciences" they took her right up to meet the head biology teacher who printed out a list of classes that would matriculate for that major. Then they gave her a sweatshirt and took us out to lunch. They discussed with her some other names of people who had responded to their "wooing" and also told Valerie about the "pot of money" put aside for top performing students so that part of their tuition could be paid for. Well, it was a very nice visit with lots of personal attention. Valerie is now leaning toward this option and NOT staying in the OSU dorms. She is back to considering rooming in an off-campus apartment with other members of the livestock judging team. Holy cow! I'll keep you all updated.

Today I had a little break in the work flow. So, I took this opportunity to re-cap our busy, busy lives. Next weekend Michael is back off traveling again.

What a difference a day makes

As of the last post here, we learned that following a tour of Humboldt State University that Valerie had decided that she would attend HSU in the fall instead of OSU. I heard that she liked the smaller campus, proximity to the beach and the price. So, I spent the entire last week obsessively making sure that all ducks were in a row to procure housing on campus, test scores and transcripts sent in to meet deadlines, updating vaccination records, making sure that appropriate majors were declared, etc. Poor Valerie. I worked her. (I wouldn't classify myself as a helicopter mom, but I can't help but jump in and assist pushing where there are close deadlines to be met). By the end of the week I felt fairly confident that we were all dialed in. The only thing left to do would be to find a roommate for the dorms, attend an orientation and select classes. What a relief.

What a difference a day makes.

On Saturday Valerie came home from another livestock judging competition at UC Davis where her team placed 2nd place statewide. (Congratulations!) Last year her team placed 3rd in the state and got to go to Denver in January to compete nationally. Well, 2nd place state teams get to go to Kansas City in October. I see more fundraising in our future.

Following this great team success, Valerie had a conversation with her coach where she revealed that she would not be attending college in Oregon or joining a livestock judging team up there. He was helping to arrange a meeting with a livestock judging coach at Linn-Benton Community College (they have a degree partnership program with OSU) where Valerie would potentially receive scholarships and be able to continue livestock judging for the first two years of college. (And, if she continued to do well, she could receive further scholarships for her last two years of college). 

After a further discussion with her coach, she decided that she did want to go to Oregon after all and continue to compete. In fact, it was also revealed to me that perhaps the only reason she wanted to go to Humboldt was because she thought one of her friends would be attending there as well and that maybe they would be roommates. When she found out that her friend would not be able to go to Humboldt, she decided that she didn't like the campus, the town of Arcata or the cold and rainy beach there.

So, Sunday morning I had her logging into the OSU student portal setting herself up there for all the same things we had just done for Humboldt (housing, majors, vaccinations, transcripts, etc.) We are a little ahead of the game with OSU since they are on the quarter system and school starts at the end of September, a full month after Humboldt. Also, we had already had test scores sent to OSU when she originally applied there.

Now we have to plan another trip to Oregon to meet with the livestock judging coach. We'll have some appointments with the music department and possibly the environmental studies department too. But these things will have to take place in April due to our nutty schedule around here. I'll be looking forward to all the Beaver jokes and immature giggling as we go back up there. (Those are my immature giggles and jokes much to Valerie's embarrassment).

In the meantime, we will brace ourselves for the impending jet lag when we spring our clocks forward next weekend. I'm done with this whole springing forward and falling back.

Winter Catching Up

Holy cow! It's been a while. I feel like that's usually how my posts start now. Well, then, a quick re-cap of the winter on this first day of March.

Christmas 2018 was full of family and good times. Christmas Eve was at our house followed by traditional Christmas Day dinner at Susan & John's. Poinsettias, crackers, snowballs, food and family. It was nice to have Rex home after being away at school in Long Beach. And it was nice to see Uncle Dave up from Santa Cruz.

The day after Christmas Amira and I hopped on about 3 planes to go and visit Christina & Sophie in Athens. It had been about 14 years since I'd visited. So, now Amira was nearly  15 years old and Christina's daughter was nearly 14. They had each other to hang with and do the teen thing. We were subjected to incredible Greek hospitality. I tried to warn Amira about the kissing and never ending parade of food. It's really hard to imagine if you haven't experienced it.

Below here are Christina, Sophie, Phillipos (7), Dimitri and a very jet-lagged Amira fresh off the plane in front of round one of food served.

Amira and Myrsini have "phone" in common. The international teen language.

Although Sophie had some major health issues this last year, we were able to climb the Acropolis for a photo opportunity. I was so glad to see her health on the mend.

Here's the entire Acropolis gang. Christina and Sophie and I each climbed with our kids. It's been a dream of ours to get the families together. Although this is only partial, it's a start. And while we are not basking in the summer glow of a Greek Island, we'll take it! What an amazing visit. These are the types of friends that no matter how many years pass, and the physical distance between us, we grow closer.

Below is Amira at the temple of Poseidon. We got to stay and bring in the New Year with our Greek family. What a trip!  Best decision I'd made all year.

Meanwhile, January saw Rex taking a trip with some of his SoCal friends out to Joshua tree. Here is a photo of him and Dylan and some other good friends.

Now, I'd had some wish list things to do in 2019: Kayaking, camping, beaching and getting a cockatiel. In December I had put myself on a wait list for a hand raised baby cockatiel and was told I should see my new feathered friend about June because the list was long and it wasn't really breeding season. 

Much to my surprise, I got a call the day after arriving home from my trip that the baby was here. My friend Grace and I drove down to the Bird Shop in Roseville to find my new feathered buddy. Grace is a cockatiel expert. So, meet Todd. He's awesome. He "helps" me work and he likes to sit on the couch and cuddle in the evenings. We've taught him to whistle "If you're happy and you know it" and also the theme from the Andy Griffith Show.

February came and I had a hankering to be by the ocean. So Michael and the girls and I spent Groundhog weekend in Mendocino. There was a ton of rain forecast. When I woke up Saturday morning I saw this amazing view from our room. The weather really cooperated with us that day. The only time it misted on us was while we were inside a restaurant or hotel. Our entire day of hiking the bluffs and visiting the sea was glorious.

A week after our quick jaunt to the coast was Michael's birthday. My plan was to cook up a turkey dinner (his favorite) while I worked all day. I was actually on a phone call when I felt a presence behind me in my office/laundry room. I turned and squealed a little bit as Rex was standing right behind me. What a fun surprise! He came home to surprise Michael. That's the best unexpected gift really. He stayed part of the week with us. Sadly, Michael had to leave on a trip the very next day. But his actual birthday was pretty special.

Rex got along really well with Todd. Those two are buddies now.

Mr. Whiskers helped Michael celebrate his special day too.

Upon Michael's return from his business trip, it was Amira's 15th birthday. He took her and her friend, Sarah, to a concert in Sacramento to see Panic at the Disco. Big fun.

And because we cannot seem to sit still here, following this, Valerie and I had planned a trip up to Oregon to talk to the livestock judging coach at Linn Benton Community College as well as the Environmental Studies and Music departments at OSU. Since Valerie had also been admitted to Humboldt State University we thought we would drive back over to the coast for a tour of that campus to check it out.

We drove along highway 299 through the burned out canyon courtesy of last summer's Carr Fire. Weather had brought down some incredible landslides that had the highway closed down to just one lane. The drive, however, was absolutely gorgeous winding through canyons, along rivers, through old west towns, varying elevations bringing us rain and some snow until we reached Aracata (home of HSU). We even saw a bald eagle soaring above the river on our drive.

Here's Valerie under a redwood at the HSU campus. She was really enjoying the tour.

Following the campus tour, we went over to Mad River beach. Yes, there was torrential rain the entire time and it was cold. Valerie said she actually preferred the HSU campus to OSU. She likes cold rainy weather. She liked that HSU was a smaller school and it's proximity to the beach. Also, this will be a lot less expensive than paying out of state tuition at OSU. Like that practicality!

As the weather was turning pretty nasty and getting over the mountain passes into Oregon and back was going to be treacherous, we canceled the Oregon portion of the planned trip. Also, she pretty much made up her mind that she was not going to school in Oregon. So, no point in driving up there. We came home and immediately started signing up for dorms at HSU for the fall.

I was able to snag some more photos of Rex from down South. The international students attending Long Beach State University, with whom he lives, had a trip to see the Hollywood sign and take a hike in the hills. Here's Rex enjoying the contrasting sunshine of SoCal while we are swimming up here in the north.

And that's pretty much our winter re-cap. Rex is still down South. I spend my days working in my home office/laundry room and pushing paperwork through to ensure Valerie is fully admitted to HSU. Amira is busy with high school life and friends. She has some Girl Scout adventures planned this weekend. Valerie, as usual, is signed up for way too many activities. Michael is off traveling internationally to support the family at home. 

As March unfolds I'm sure we'll have some more adventures to capture here at Tifftown. Rarely a quiet place.