Dear Family and Friends,
This year has been One of Those Years. Cards are a nice idea, e-cards even nicer... but with so many folks to contact and no happy medium: we present our blogged update. Maybe we'll be the beginning of a trend that will become cliche! Who knows? At least this way we can link you to anything you might have missed! And you can read more about anything you're interested in - and skip over the rest.
Our last somewhat-annual e-mail update probably included getting married, having some receptions, a honeymoon with the first Western Spindalis nesting record for North America, fetching rings in Santa Fe, and other things like jobs and stuff.
This year's update is somewhat similar:
It started in January, involving me leaving a job, Matt losing a ring (it was a sacrifice to the Laredo banks of the Rio Grande for the Amazon Kingfisher), a nice variety of birds added to our shared life list - really good birds - and sending out tons of job applications.
In February and March, we were building snow dogs in the front yard then gathering four generations on my side of the family. We also celebrated our first anniversary, and got lots of appreciative honks on our way to San Antonio for the Baylor Women's Basketball Final Four games.
By April we had taken adorable photos of Anakin in bluebonnets, got certified to clean oiled wildlife the week of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, and had waited to hear back after interviews.
May brought a trip to NW Missouri to visit Matt's grandparents because we'd missed Thanksgiving, our first shared trip to the Trans-Pecos region, a growing fondness for the Marfa lights and some darn nifty wildlife *cough*
I'm not sure where June went. It must have happened because I donated my hair in June. Most of it must have been sorting photos from the Trans-Pecos adventures in May and packing for our impending sense of employment (see Aplomado Falcon Hack Site Attendant post). Our consolation for losing June? There are a metric sh*t ton (tonne?) of photos from our summer Aplomado gig.
July: First there were the boxes of falcons and then there were faces of falcons... and more fond of long walks at sunset and we started to grow fond of the region. Then we found a place to rent. Much of September was spent fixing it up and moving from Waco to Marathon. House repairs being on-going, of course.
As of October 1st, we're both working at the Marathon Motel & RV Park (mostly grounds & housekeeping, respectively) and have been blogging overtime at our new blog: Big Bend - Texas Nature, a work in progress.
We did spend Thanksgiving in Missouri this year with our niece and nephew (and the rest of Matt's side of the family, too)... and that pretty much catches us up to the current saga of a Tufted Flycatcher that is stirring up interest in the area.
Whew. If you're still awake, congratulations! We're looking forward to settling in 'out here' where the pace of life is relaxed and the NPR station gives traffic reports in single digits... and there are only two radio stations. Pretty nice.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
So wait, you need to tell us more about the kingfisher and the ring! When I first read it I thought the bird took it.
ReplyDeleteIf only! It was cold and Matt's ring was somewhat loose, so the banks of the Rio Grande now have a ring - and we have memories of the Amazon Kingfisher. Not as fun a story, eh? =)
ReplyDeleteNice eCard. Sorry about the ring, but the kingfisher was worth it. I regretted not having time to go see it. I look forward to many more annual eCards.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's because I lived through this year of M&H's adventures, but it seemed somewhat short to me. Maybe it's just because it's 6am and I'm only 6 sips into my latte, and I did sleep through some of it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carolyn! Maybe we'll add a photo to this once we actually all sit down for a family photo again ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe kingfisher was definitely icing on our North America birding - I think your yard is much better birding than that river bank, if it's any consolation.
Collins, the novel will come out just as soon as you write it ;-) You can fill in the notable gaps and we'll even provide anecdotes!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the latte, hopefully you've had your second one by now... =)
This is wonderful, Heidi. Thank you for sharing. Keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteAll the best to you and Matt for 2011!!
An absolutely great read! A pleasure to have met both of you and really enjoy your blogs!
ReplyDeleteLaura B
What a super idea! I've loved catching up on your year this way. Thanks for loving us enough to share- you guys have such an awesome life :)
ReplyDeleteBirdbug (Candy??), Laura & Bonnie - we're glad to share our adventures this way (it saves a lot of trees!) and thank you for sharing your thoughts; I was somewhat bracing for the "what? no family photo??" comments, but it looks like we're off the hook for that as well ;-)
ReplyDeleteHugs!