we're MARRIED

So we are finally married! We traveled to Belize for 2 weeks and just got back last Friday. I plan to post the trip highlights in a couple separate posts. This post will include the wedding day. We got married on Wed, OCT 20, 2010 at ~3:30 p.m. at Hamanasi Reosrt, just south of Hopkins, Belize.

After breakfast that morning, Randy and I worked on the ceremony. We had met the minister on Monday evening and worked on the ceremony, but we were both concerned that he didn't get it when we parted. We asked Brent and Beth to each read a short reading on marriage. We cut out about half of Beth's and we got our vows ready.

Later, Randy and his father biked into town while the rest of the family in attendance rode in a van. Patricia and I stayed behind. We were planning to play in the ocean, but by 10:30 the wind was pretty strong and we opted to lounge at the pool instead. By noon, Randy was back and soon after so was the rest of the family. We sat down for lunch immediately and hoped for quick return. That didn't happen and we didn't finish lunch til well after 1:00. By the time Randy and I went our respective ways to get ready for a 3:00 wedding it was after 1:30.

Patricia came over to do my hair and make-up just after 2:00 and Beth soon joined us and took pictures, which proved necessary since the photographer was running late. Eventually my mom wandered in and shortly thereafter so did the photographer. I ended up ducking my head in the shower and scrunching my hair in a towel to achieve the beach curls I desired (P had accidentally straightened my hair and couldn't get it curly again!) and then P pinned it back 1/2 way and tucked a beautiful red flower in it. Unfortunately due to the high winds, it was wrecked almost immediately.

According to Randy, his family was lounging in hammock only 10 mins til go-time! So they hastily dressed in the final minutes, and the minister finally decided to show up right about 3:00 (over an hour late!). I decided to have P walk out, followed by B, and then me and my mom together. Randy was told not to look at me by the minister, which was wierd and very disappointing to me, b/c I kept waiting for him to look at me!

The ceremony was pretty short. We made it through the vows and our first kiss.

Then on to the cutting of our beautiful cake!

And our champagne toast!

We left our families to chill on the beach with champagne, rum punch, and chips and salsa while we completed our photo shoot. We had a ton of fun at a beautiful, laidback, barefoot wedding. Thanks to our families for coming down!!!

Our first stroll down the beach as a married couple.

welcome Gabrielle

We haven't posted in a while because not much was going on. I have resumed the life of a desk biologist and Randy was been getting busy with his project at work. Then last week we wento Texas to visit my family and await the arrival of my 4th niece. Gabrielle Skye was born Set 15! - her birthday is 1 day after her grandma's. All went fine and dandy and she is now closing in on 2 weeks old!

baby in belly

baby out of belly

I also met my new feline niece - a beautiful kitten only a few weeks ago who looks so much like Snowball that I almost took her home with me!

Precious Belle

Besides hanging with the fam, RC and I headed to the coast with our kayaks. We paddled the Lighthouse Lakes trails in the mangroves. It was pretty cool being up close and personal with all the wading birds - great blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, tri-colored herons, reddish egrets, and 1 roseate spoonbill! We spent ~4 hours paddling, by the end we were heading into a strong headwind and we pooped by the time we came ashore.

We also paddled down a 6-mile stretch of the Colorado River through Bastrop, which was really fun and neat to finally really experience the river that was in my childhood backyard. And we hiked around some of my study sites in Austin one day.

All in all a fun and much needed vacation.

Jack and Tiger were extremely happy to see us when we got home and have been rather needy and attached to us, but it is really sweet:)

T-day

RC and I did an 1.5 hr bike ride at Smithville Lake to rev up our appetities for T-day dinner. The trails were pretty sloppy in some areas, but enough of it was good that we got in a good workout. However we were gone from ~9:15-12:00, leaving me little time to prepare 2 big sides! RC went to retrieve his deer stand at Cooley Lake CA. So I was left to fend for myself - homemade green-bean casserole and pecan-crust sweet potatoes - took 2 hr start to finish. We enjoyed dinner over at RC's family. Then we came home to watch UT-TAMU football - unfortunately we were brutally slayed - even McGee playing again didn't help. Better luck next year!

My backyard

Sunday went as I had planned, the weather cooperated and I was able to spend most of the day doing yard work. My main objective was to get my vegetable garden ready for planting. Last year I made a 8'x32' raised bed vegetable garden with the last 4'x8' a strawberry patch, the garden worked out great and Jenn and I had fresh veggies for most of the summer into the fall. Today I started with hand tilling the garden and then planting the cool season crops: spinach, carrots, onions and brochholi. The warmer season peppers, tomatoes, okra and sqaush will come after the 1st of may.
I also was able to trim back all the dead scrub from my three native gardens. I started native gardening about 3 years ago with help from the MO dept of conservation's http://www.grownative.org/ website.
Like alot of people I have a crappy 1/3 acre suburban yard, I have striven to make it an outdoor haven since I moved in. It has been going well with my objective to block out as much of the neighbor's houses and street noise with native shrubs and bushes. The native yard work has worked great as a wildlife haven. We have been able to get over 50 species of bird's in our yard and keep adding new ones every year, this might not seem that great but my subdivision started out as a cow pasture with no habitat or trees. Our best birds have been: Harris' sparrows (one even a male in breeding plumage), Savannah Sparrows, Blue Grossbeaks, Rose-Breasted Grossbeaks, Indigo Buntings and Goldend-Crowned Kinglet. It is actually quite a sight during the spring and summer as you drive down the street, when you get to my house there is usually a swarm of outdoor activity from bugs to birds. I have on multiple occasions seen neighbors walking down the sidewalk to watch the hummingbirds fight around our bushes and feeders. Annually we have a nesting pair of American robins in the front yard and another in the back, each time using the same place for their nests. We also have barn swallows that have nested 4 years running on the floodlights over my driveway, I can't wait but these guys should be home soon. The last two years we have had a pair of house finches in the evergreen bush outside my bedroom window. Last year we finally had blue birds nest in my first prarie garden until a house wren took over and predated their nest. She then used it for herself.
It is one of our joys to sit on the deck and see the multitude of activity in our yard while drinking a glass of wine or beer. Like alot of people we have several rabbits in our yard, these guys tormented our gardens, then it seemed to die down. One night Jenn and i saw a fox run by the yard, only moments later to return carrying a rabbit in its mouth. Right on, fight nature with nature.
Spring is my favorite time of year, I get to hear our resident male cardinal calling for mates each morning and the robins foraging in our mulch for worms. The ruby throated hummers are on there way, put your feeders up now. According to the migration map the scouts are probably here passing through to their northern territories. Remember to not use storebought nectar, make your own using a 4:1 ratio of water to sugar; you don't need red colored nectar to attract hummers and the dye is not natural and doesn't do them any good. Check the migration map on: http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html. We don't have the right yard for it but if you are interested in attracting purple martins check out their migration map here: http://purplemartin.org/scoutreport/.

my nieces Christmas 07

Alexis, age 6


Ava, age 20 months


Josilin, age 4

Yay - I finally have pics of my nieces. I only have to give Randy a camera for Christmas and then "borrow" it to take these photos!

us at Aransas

Randy and I took a day trip to Aransas NWR on the coast of Texas 12/26 to see whooping cranes. Unfortunately, we were not able to find them. We enjoyed the 75 degrees, but not the 30 mph winds, which kept the little birds down. This is us in front of one of the "big trees" - a giant live oak.