Summer is for: Blowing bubbles!

Summer is for:
Blowing bubbles!

I spent a lot of time in the park today so it reminded me of one of my favorite, sunny, Sunday, summer afternoons ever at the park with my best friend, Kelsey. I think that first photo is from the summer after I graduated High School. :) I have yet to blow some bubbles! Michael and I were pros at bubble blowing last summer.!


xo, Linds

Gucci

Today is a very sad day. This afternoon, my beta fish, Gucci, passed away. I noticed he was not looking too well yesterday evening. I don't know what happened. I suppose these things just happen. I know to many people, it's just a fish and they think I should just flush him and move on. I disagree with this. I still need to go through some sort of grieving process. I care deeply for my pets and regardless of how close you can actually become with a fish, it still hurts. It brings up a lot of serious emotions, thoughts, and feelings about losing the ones I love, people or animals. It is something that is truly out of your hands. It can happen at any time, without warning. It's something I find actually terrifying. I ponder about these types of things now more than I think I ever have. I guess I'm all grown up and have finally realized and even saw first hand how fragile life can be and how much a person can impact your life. It's a really hard subject to wrap my head around. It can be confusing and unfair and downright painful. What can you really do though? Stay strong, for yourself, and for those around you, and let the good memories and feelings continue to be shared and live on as time lets you reflect and heal. Most importantly, maybe, let every living thing around you know how much they mean to you and how special they are. I know, it's all easier said than done. There really is no good advice on this topic. Some of us probably understand more than others, but it's something that effects us all and it's simply just an aspect of life you most overcome or come to terms with. I apologize for the venting but I feel like it's crucial to let your emotions out and I wanted to let it be known about this wonderful pet I had the blessing of taking care of.. Gucci. I'm going to spend some time with some family this evening.

Take care, everyone and don't forget to take some time out of your busy day to count your blessings.

xo, Linds

Littles Pet Shop family update

It's been a while.... This is kind of a cuteness overload. Be prepared. Here's the newest additions to our LPS family....

 Thank you, Kelsey. You're the sweetest!!!!!
She brought me three new friends home from her trip to Florida!
Yep, that makes my third ferret. I'm so happy about it!

I finally got the limited edition Kiwi bird from sending in all my LPS stickers.
The Armadillo... well, a bit of an impulse buy, but I don't regret it!

 The most recent to come home with me.. The anteater.
He came with a cute green leaf bed and 2 little black ants!

Here's a mostly accurate photo of what LPSland is looking like over here these days!

xo, Linds

Summer is for: Freeze pops!

Okay, let me start off by saying, Summer is probably my least favorite season of them all. I am not at all a fan of the heat and I think sweating is just all around awful. So you could say, I'm going to do a little series of posts dedicated to reminding me of all the positive aspects of summer. It's fun to look back at all the fun summer memories I have had and get me excited and motivated to start making new ones! Enjoy.....

Summer is for:
Freeze pops!

My first best friend, Stephanie, and I sharing freeze pops on my back porch, many years ago. I just recently bought a bag of 'em! So addicting! ;)

xo, Linds

I want to ride my bicycle

I'm up early. I'm going to take Michael to work and then head home to visit my parents for the morning and afternoon with all my little furry friends. (Hans and Dolby had a sleepover with us last night!) It should be a nice time, as always. :)

This morning I'm admiring bicycles.

When I moved to town over a year ago, I dug up my bicycle thinking I'd surely be able to use it as some exercise and to cruise around town. It was a nice idea but I quickly realized this was my childhood bike and I've outgrown it. It was really uncomfortable!

There's so many gorgeous looking bicycles out there today. It's so tempting to buy another! I'm contemplating if it's worth it...




This particular bicycle is by Beg Bicycles. Such good lookin' bikes!

Have a happy Sunday.


xo, Linds

Raccoon x 2

Some things just seem to happen in such a whirlwind around here. So much as I almost forget to mention them, though, they are QUITE important details to my life.

I know I recently introduced you to my sister's baby raccoon. You'd be please to know she is doing fine.. eating more and growing bigger and curious every day. Still as sweet as can be. In fact, she's even got.. a new playmate.

It's not as crazy as it sounds. Okay, maybe it is. My sister now not only has ONE raccoon... she has TWO. The new little bundle of joy is a little boy and he's only a bit older then she is. They get along nicely. Seeing those two together melts my heart, there's no doubt about that.

Just precious! :)

xo, Linds

Finally

The ferrets got the full treatment last night. Bathed, nails clipped, and ears cleaned. Cutest experience ever. A ferret in the tub is just something everyone must see! Unfortunately, it's one of those things that is just too hectic to photograph. That doesn't mean I didn't try, though... ;)

Oh my goodness. Lux just kills me in that last picture! He's lookin' a little crazy with those glowing eyes, but look at those BIG paws. He's my little polar bear!!!

It has been one of thee longest weeks! Like I said, it's been hours upon hours of training at work this week! Sitting in a conference room for 8 hours doesn't seem like hard work, but let me tell you, it is! Today we went back to the cleaning, but then go a call to go out recruiting. You just never know what you're expected to do next. Summer work is crazy like that. It's been exhausting!

I know it's Friday and I should be full of excitement and energy to get the weekend started but that is HARDLY the case around here. I'm not feeling too well this evening. Michael and I laid down for a nap with the ferrets after work. It was cute while it lasted, but it didn't last very long. I caught a couple Z's before Alex called and stopped for a brief visit. A short nap, followed by a short visit. It was a nice 15 minutes of catching up but I understand that things come up and time is precious for everyone. I'm ready to go wake Michael up so he doesn't nap away all evening! We need to get to bed at a regular hour, anyway, because he's got work and I have an appointment bright and early tomorrow morning to go get my tire fixed. There is a screw in it! Talk about bad luck. This feels like the millionth time I had to get my tire patch!

Oh, life....

xo, Linds

Mushroom huntin' & Ferret fun

Michael and I went mushroom hunting in the woods during a spontaneous visit over my parents house. We also took the ferrets out in the backyard to do some exploring off the leash. There would be more shots but most of them didn't turn out very well because I had the wrong lens with me. Oops! :( Nonetheless, I had at good time. I hope to go mushroom pickin' again. I enjoyed it a lot. You never know what tiny little life is out there until you slow down and look sometimes. The ferrets loved it, too. They were so worn out when we got home and slept so soundly throughout the night. They were up at 7AM this morning wanting to play!

Jeff and Laura are over here visiting. So is Hans and Dolb! I made chicken alfredo for dinner and Michael made piergoies. It was delicious! We bathed our ferrets, Laura cut their nails. It's my turn to clean their ears!

xo, Linds

Reader Appreciation Month

Do you see what I see?!

Yes, that is a little advertisement for my blog on the Frekled Nest blog. LA was sweet enough to accept FREE sponsors for her blog for her READER APPRECIATION MONTH in honor of their 5 year anniversary. I'm flattered to have a tiny little snippet of my photography, alongside pictures of such inspiring ladies. I could type until my fingers snap off about it, but basically, in so many words, I just wanted to say that the appreciation is completely and sincerely mutual. Thanks for the opportunity, LA!

I'm going to gather the ferrets and head out to Brownsville to get Michael and go over my parents for dinner. Happy Hump Day! It's been a loooooong week, with 2 days of 8 hours of trainings, and still one more whole 8 hour day to go, then who knows about Friday, but I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend, as always.

xo, Linds

Ferret Playdate

These are a few of my favorite shots from the evening.

Ozzy, Oliver, Meatball, Molly, Lux, Ickabod, Percy, Hans, Jabber, Timmy, Dolby

 

xo, Linds

A day in the life

It seems like I don't ever get to post little things on here about my day to day life. It's always some adventure or some updates on critters. Don't get me wrong, those things are a huge part of my life, but for the most part an average day goes a little something like this....

A typical morning for me starts around 5:45 in the morning, depending on if Michael is working that day or not. The morning routine includes showering, hair drying, breakfast, make-up, getting dressed, generally getting ready and saying my goodbyes to everyone (Michael and all the animals!). Work seems to take the biggest chunk of my day. Regardless of if I like it or not, that's just the way it is, five days a week, 8 to 4:30.

At work we've been doing a whole lot of cleaning. The kids finished up earlier in the month but staff continues to work all summer. Don't get the wrong impression here, summer work is MUCH different the the hectic work that goes on throughout the school year, with the kids and all the paperwork and this and that. We're kind of in limbo right now, waiting for trainings to be scheduled and placement letters to be sent out for next program year. We've been dragging out cleaning for over a week now. All the toys and materials were neatly (or not so neatly) put into the closet. All furniture was wiped down and stacked up and waiting to be hauled out so the floors can be stripped and freshly waxed. The walls were all wiped down and waiting for a fresh coat of paint.




It's really not anything to be complaining about, so I hope that's not what I'm portraying here. It's easy, almost boring work in the summer time. It's kind of sick and disturbing but I love organizing and I love rearranging so it's all right up my alley. I could do it all day. My favorite duty so far? Well, I arranged all of our books in the closet according to the themes we do each month. It was actually, honestly fun to go through all the books and read the titles and flip through and look at all the illustrations. I LOVE children's books. I'm even starting my own little section of kids books I've collected on my bookshelf here at home. The short, simple, sweet little stories with great lessons learned with the bright, vibrant colors and textures and styles and magical pictures, full of so much imagination. Yeah, I'm just a sucker for them all. Completely!


Of course, everyones favorite time of the day.. Lunch break! Ordering out or packing my own, it's a nice break in the middle of the day. It's good to know you're halfway done!

As for after work.. sometimes my journey home include stopping at the Credit Union to visit my mother and sister and pick up something or other and stopping for milk. Real fun, right? Some evenings we get visitors, some days we visit, some days it's grocery shopping. You never know. Today, in particular, I picked up Michael and our friend, Jason, at our house and we headed over to the pet store to pick up a couple of things.

Some days, it's just nice (ummm, probably my favorite thing to do) to come home and put on pajamas and just spend the remainder of the day with Michael and all of our little critters.

I usually make dinner. Nothing ever too fancy. We play with the ferrets, getting them wound up, or sometimes they just entertain us with all their antics and games of chicken in their tunnel. Every once in a while, I get the motivation and energy to cross something off my to-do list. I devote some time to all my daily blog reads and other favorite internet stops. By 9, the ferrets have found their secret sleeping nook, Michael is usually sketching, playing games on the PS3, or watching something on Netflix, and I tuck the bird in for the night by covering his cage and then things just slowly wind down from there. By 10 o'clock, I'm pretty tired, having woke up that early, I try to get myself in bed by 11.

There you have it... That's an average week day in the household. :)

xo, Linds

Dad's Day

I have a handful of old scanned photographs of my parents on my computer. I've been contemplating posting them but I wanted to present them in a particular way and I still haven't figured out how I want to go about sharing such a neat and special thing... But what better occasion then Father's Day? Besides, I don't really have very many recent photos of him or us.

Happy Father's Day, dad. Thank you for the unconditional love and support. You're the coolest, best dad I could ever ask for. I am blessed to have you in my life. I couldn't imagine it any other way. I'm grateful every day for all you do for me. I love you. :)

xo, Linds

Favorite posts

Today, I want to share a lot of cool information and blogs. I feel like I owe it since I have been slacking with the posts lately! Maybe I'm being hard on myself. I've been working a little here and there on several posts. There is always a handful in the works at any given time, but I do still have all kind of ideas buzzing around in my head, as well as photos that needed edited and just generally some tender love and care that my blog deserves as soon as I have time to sit down and solely just devote my time to that! It's been a busy week, though. I was honestly busy every day this week, full of grocery shopping (which is an event in itself!), a ferret playdate, and Father's Day shopping!

So here is something extra special I've been working on and had a lot of fun putting together and looking back on. Some of these particular posts are getting kind of back dated but that's only because I've put off doing this for so long. However, I think you'll get the gist of what I'm trying to do here. Throughout the week or more like, however long it takes me to gather enough, I'm going to start bookmarking or adding some of my favorite blog posts and then create my own little collection of favorite reads. I think it will be a great reference to be able to look back on and just generally fun to share some other blogs I spend so much time admiring.





First and foremost, Elsie and Jeremy's wedding video. It's just as sweet as can be. So super touching for two people I don't honestly know. Nonetheless, I think it captures a very special day so beautifully and perfectly.

Watch it HERE on A Beautiful Mess.









Okay, this post literally gave me chills! Andrea shares some beautifully written words. I do a lot of wondering about the past, the present and the future. The bit about taking photos and trying to perfectly preserve the moments... I just get it.

Definitely worth reading HERE on Hula Seventy.





I am not familiar with Kelly Ann or her blog or photography, but I came across her 'visitor pass' on Freckled Nest and I was pretty impressed. She shared her 4 Favorite Moments as a Photographer. It was a touching reminder of what photography is truly all about.. the passion to capture a particular moment. She inspires me to want to keep my camera with me at all times because like she says 'There are no mistakes in photography.

Read her visitor pass HERE at Freckled Nest.








On a bit of a lighter note, Kaylah finally shared with everyone what she has been up to lately. I'm loving her new designs and I'm excited with what direction and style her little business is headed in. The new packaging makes it all the more tempting, too!

Check out the new designs HERE and the new packaging HERE at The Dainty Squid.








I will gladly take any advice or tips on hair or style from anyone as gorgeous as Jill. I often find myself in the predicament of trying to get the look of what she calls 'sea witch'. Unfortunately, I have thee hardest time not having clean hair and usually end up washing it.. every day. However, I have recently tried misting and tying up my hair for the night or when my hair is starting to lose it's kink and what she suggests does, indeed, work! Okay, I kinda' just have a little girl crush on Jill.

Get her method HERE at Lune Vintage.








xo, Linds

Newt news

Since I have been posting an abundance of pet related posts, I wanted to share a little update on the newts.... Unfortunately, one of the newts I was watching went missing. I don't know how this happened. I thought their little tank was secure but they like climbing around much more than I realized. I'm a little upset and confused by the whole ordeal. As for the other newt, we decided it was time to let him go. It was fun watching them but I knew deep down that he deserved much more than a life inside a 5'' by 5'' tank. I know he was safe from all the dangers of the outside world, but it was only right to take him back to the environment he came from. A week or so ago Kelsey and I went on a little trip to Lick Hollow park. It's right near the base of the mountain here in town. We found a perfect little still pond with lots of rocks and water. I think he'll be happy to get back to a normal life. We said some heartfelt goodbyes but I think I did the right thing.

This evening Michael and I are having our friends Max and Paige over. I'm cooking dinner. It should be a nice time. :)

I WILL get the ferret photos uploaded this weekend! Happy Friday!

xo, Linds