St. Louis Zoo

Chase and I celebrated my birthday by a trip to the St. Louis. We started at the zoo...here are some pictures from our adventure there:

Next we went to the art museum! My favorite painting:

Hot Air Balloon Festival

As we were exiting the art museum, we noticed people spread out on picnic blankets all over the hillside, clearly waiting for something. So we asked a lady what was going on, and we found out that it was the day of the hot air balloon race! What a perfect end to our St. Louis outing! I LOVE hot air balloons.

The first balloon to rise was the massive energizer bunny. He landed not very far from wear he went up though... The first balloon of a hot air balloon race determines the target the other balloons aim for. The balloon that drops its sand bag closet to the target wins the "race." Yesterday's race was very short b/c there wasn't much of a carrying wind so the balloons landed at the first safe place. Luckily most of the other balloons stayed in the air much longer than the bunny.

Of course, Chase wasn't planning on the hot air balloon race when he planned this trip. Little to my knowledge, he had planned a surprise birthday party back at the apartment for 7pm. We ended up getting back at 9:10! I was 2 hours late for my own party! Lucky for me, we were able to get a hold of my friends in time to warn them to just come at 9. Half of them have a key to my apartment so they just let themselves in and didn't wait in the storm. So we ended the day with cake and icecream laughing about how stubborn I am..and how easily distracted I am by colorful, floating envelopes of hot air. Just for your information, the main bulk of a hot air balloon is called the envelope, the base of the envelope is called the skirt (it works like a sail and catches the wind), and of course the part you ride in is called the basket. The basket is generally made of wicker b/c it's light and sturdy and when the balloon lands, wicker is flexible enough that it cushions the impact of hitting the ground. Hot air balloons float based on the simple principle of hot air rises. The heated air in the envelope is less dense than the air outside...so it floats! They are really pretty amazing inventions, and I find them fascinating. I have hundreds of pictures of them now, but I can't post them all here :)

Isn't my husband awesome!? He planned a great day, and then was flexible enough to delay the party just so we could enjoy the balloons. My friends are awesome too for being so patient with me!

Peace and love! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ME!!

Small Hound Meets Trees and Small Human

I was out going "potty" one day when I suddenly looked up. Did you know that trees grow over your head? So I jumped and I jumped to try to capture a leaf!

Walking is now my favorite part of the day! Isn't grass great? I think it's like "Facebook" for dogs - I get the scoop on all the locals!

Over the weekend, foster-mom took me to a fundraiser for Pets need People. I was on TV, but still no one wants me...Anyway, I discovered that people come in little sizes!! The little people smell different, and once I realized that this one was a little person...I licked him in the face (with his mom's permission)!! Baaaaoooo! It's so nice to have a face so close to lick.

It was such a busy day, I promptly dozed off in foster mom's lap on the way home.


As for life at home, I'm almost completely used to the pattern of living with my foster parents. I sleep the whole night through without a peep, and patiently wait in my crate for foster-mom to get my leash for the morning walk. Then all 3 of us dogs go potty outside. Foster-mom just gets so happy and pets me so much when I go potty outside, I guess it's worth holding it for! Then we go in and eat. Then I play for awhile with my favorite toy. Then I go in my crate and snuggle down on foster-mom's old t-shirts. Foster-mom comes back around 2 and we go outside for awhile. I play inside...I go back to sleep in my crate while mom stares at these things called books (are those toys?) or her computer screen (for hours)... This all repeats a couple more times (plus dinner) before bed time. Sometimes, I can't resist barking at some strange noises, but foster mom squirts me with water..so I'm learning to not bray at the neighbors... BAOOOO....

Enjoying Everyday Life

As September rolls in, the colors of fall begin to creep in as well. Chase and I go to a local nature preserve almost every weekend. This is also an opportune time to look for migrating species of birds. Eagle Bluffs never ceases to amaze me. This place inspires me to take time out of the busy week and admire the creativity of our God. How beautiful is this planet we're so blessed to inhabit. Even when the week is stressful and busy, there are always little reminders of His creativity and love for us - flowers on the side of the road, a beautiful sunset, the bray of a happy beagle finding something interesting (although my neighbors may disagree on that last one). Here are some pictures of our latest excursion to share with you.


Flowers on the side of the road.

green heron

Sunset with Blue Herons. Can you believe how many there? This was incredible beautiful live. The herons were constantly, slowly moving. Occationaly a new heron would fly in to join his companions.

This semester hasn't been bad so far. I've had my first 2 tests and I passed. Life has been pretty good since I added the word "no" to my vocabulary and learned to make good use of the delete button in my inbox. Do I want to join this club? no. Will I be an officer? no. Will I attend this lunch meeting to hear about your dog food? no. It's liberating. I refuse to be guilted into doing something that doesn't facilitate accomplishing my goals. What are my goals? I strive to always value and bless my husband and family, to become a good veterinarian for dogs and cats, to ENJOY living each day developing my creativity, and to let God be the cord that binds all aspects of my life together. In the past I've gotten distracted by "fun" clubs and unecessary responsibilities that I put on myself. So today...I'm saying no. I'm joyfully embracing the less than A+ GPA, and letting go of unreasonable and unhealthy expectations on myself. I enjoy cooking for Chase and keeping my apartment neat. I love painting and meeting new people through trading cards, and I love photographing every day life that we sometimes forget (or neglect) to notice. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with doing the things I enjoy! To celebrate the day (because it was beautiful), I planned 2 fulls meals with fresh veggies and fresh meat, and I bought myself flowers just so I could enjoy them in my kitchen window. So go do something that makes you happy today, and remember to thank God for all the many blessings (even the ones you pass bay without noticing) we recieve each day.


Peace and love to all of you! Roosevelt/Nestle will be updating soon :)

Tuesday Morning

Can't you relate to this little girl? She looks pretty grumpy to me! Actually this is a fine morning, and I'm happy to be awake and enjoying a cup of coffee before rushing off to class. The little hummingbird in this picture sits on the tomato lattice and gaurds the hummingbird feeder from other hummers. What a selfish little thing! Although..I suppose I guard my resources every bit as much as she does- especially my time.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life" Matthew 6: 25-27

Over the long weekend, I was able to get some painting done (and let the dogs run all over the apartment since all my neighbors were gone).

I went on an African Art painting spree - I finished 5 paintings similar to this one, but this one is my favorite. They seem to be fairly popular at ATCsforAll, so I might make a few more since I enjoyed making them so much. They are simple to make as well. I simply masked out the sun, did an orange/yellow wash for the background, painted the brown ground, painted the clothing, and used a liner brush to paint the people. On subsequent paintings, I let the people dry and then went back and added shadows to the ground and clothing. Last I removed the masking fluid and painted some light yellow around the perimeter of the sun. Quite fun and relaxing.

I did this one for my latest swap. I'm trying to break myself of the habit of outlining everything!

This last painting may or may not be for my swap. I have to decide if it fits the theme of COLORFUL Hot Air Balloons. I'll see if anyone sends in cards that could be swapped for it :)

Friday features the first test of this instructional block. So goals for this week...

• keep up with house work (less distraction for studying)
• read bible daily
• Complete Week 1 of 10k training.
• KEEP UP with STUDYING!

Those are lofty goals for me, but I think they are doable. Leave some encouragement if you drop by!

Peace and Love to all!

**edit: Chase informs me that that is male juvenile Ruby Throated Hummingbird as indicated by the one little reddish dot on his throat. Whether male or female, it's one grumpy-looking bird!

Butterflies!

Chase and I recently went hiking at 3 Creeks. Chase didn't have much luck finding birds, but I enjoyed taking pictures of all the butterflies. So today I dug out the bug book Uncle Bo bought us and here's what I came up with. Whatever they are, I think they are beautiful, and I might try painting them someday.


Red-spotted Purple - Limenitis arthemis astyanax

Gorgone Checkerspot - Cylosyne gorgone I think?

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - Papilio glaucus

Hackberry Emperor - Asterocampa celtis

Small Hound Meets Big, Scary World: Dog Park Fail

Well, it's me again - the lovable beagle-mix who needs a home. Last night I rested wonderfully! I didn't feel the need to howl at foster-mom for putting me in a crate or anything. The crates not so bad..it's good for sleeping in. Anyway - when I woke up, foster-mom and the other 2 dogs all went on a nice walk in the beautiful morning sunlight. I like grass now! It has lots of good smells! Baaooo! After that we all came back and us dogs all took a nap!

Around lunch time, foster-mom put me and Ruby in the car. I'm not sure I like the car..after all I've only ever been in one on one other occasion! Well when we finally got to this "dog park" thing, we went in. Foster-mom let me go off leash! I was a little nervous about it... I was sniffing this humongous-darkish-flat-shiny surfaced-wet thing when all of a sudden a large dog (much larger than me) bounds up to me! In my surprise, I stumbled head first into the thing (mom called it a "pond"). I flailed my legs and gave the beagle-cry. Before I realized it, I had flailed my way into the middle of the pond. I thought I was going to die. I fought for my life! Suddenly something grabbed me, and I was so frightened, I snapped at it. But it carried me to dry land, and to my surprise it was foster-mom! She had saved me from the "pond." I stayed glued to her side for the rest of the time at the "dog park." It wasn't much fun, so we left really fast after that. I'm so relieved to be back in the apartment...I'm going right back to sleep!

Colorful Hot Air Balloons

http://www.atcsforall.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16585

If you're an artist - join my latest swap: "Colorful Hot Air Balloons"

What a beautiful morning! I'm sitting in the den enjoying the sun and a light breeze through the screen door. Occasionally a hummingbird alights on the feeder or the lattice of my tomato plant. It's very peaceful so I think I'll get some studying done.

Small Hound Meets Big World

Hello Everybody!

My nickname is Nestle, but foster-mom says that probably won't be my forever name. I was born 7 months ago in a laboratory. My daddy carries a gene that causes a shaky disease....er....Barkingson's [Parkinson's] like disease (or something like that). Not sure why they call it Barkingson's - not sure what so bad about barking sons, but it must be bad.. Anyway, whatever it is the scientists said I don't have it nor did any of my 5 siblings - must be those fine beagle genes from my mama! So the scientists began the search for a forever home since they couldn't use me and they wanted the best thing for me. All my siblings have found their forever homes (see Will and Lauren's blog for my brother, Marcel's story. He's a Texas hound now!), but I'm still left...

Today was a crazy day. I thought the lab was all there was, but boy was I surprised. Today foster mom came. She's come to visit me a couple of times, and I always love her visits because I get to go out in the hall and PLAY!! Baoooooooo!!! Oh, here's a picture of me from June...





But when foster-mom came to see me today, she put this funny thing around my neck. She called it a "leash" but I think she must have meant leach... I don't care for it all that much. Then she picked me up and took me out of the lab! Did you know there's a whole world out there? And there's this stuff called "grass." It smells funny and it tickles my paws. I don't really like walking on it, but foster-mom promises me that someday I'll love grass.. What's so good about grass? After I met grass, foster-mom gave me a bath. She said I won the prize at most challenging to bathe...it was not fun, but winning a prize is good right?

This is me today! I'm a bit nervous in this picture. Foster-mom says I gained 10 pounds since my June..that makes me 26 pounds. Foster-mom says that I'm "pudgy." That means cute, right?

Foster-mom really likes me, and I determined to give this BIG world a chance, but right now everything is so new! If you know anyone at all that would like to be my forever-family, please tell foster mom. Although she loves me very much, she just can't keep me!

Yeargh!

This weekend Chase and I visited Branson with my family. The only show we saw was Noah. The set was amazing and the trained animals were fun to watch.

We also played miniature golf at the Pirate course. Fun times!

Don't you love his pirate face?

My family is a huge blessing to me. I'm very grateful for all of them!

Summer Adventures

Each morning I wake up to the sound of puppies whining to be let out of their crates. So I crawl out of bed, wash my face and get dressed for the day. After leashing all the puppies, we make our way out the door trying not to get tangled in the mess of leashes. Sometimes I make 2 trips. I come back and get the coffee started (or Chase starts the coffee). While the dogs play musical dog bowls, while Chase and I eat breakfast. Then the dogs chase each other around like wild animals for an hour..we go outside again. Then it's my favorite part of the day: puppy nap time. During this peaceful time, I read, paint, watch television, clean the house - whatever strikes my fancy. My favorite shows are Clean House and Warehouse 13. Clean House features incredibly messy homes filled to the brim with clutter and keepsakes that are cleaned up and redecorated using proceeds from a yard sale...that is if the folks will let go of all that junk! It's so easy to get caught up in the American attitude of consumerism - until we hold on to things until they are suffocating us! I feel sorry for the folks on the show because most of them have lost someone important, and they've attached memories and feelings to the junk in their house. They struggle to let it go because to do so would mean they are letting go of the person they lost. So Niecy Nash, in her high heels and colorful suit, gives the owners a firm scolding and challenges them to separate their feelings from the inanimate objects, and honor their lost ones in another way. Meanwhile, Trish, Matt, Mark, and the team clean up the house, organize a yard sale, and redecorate. I love seeing the homes transformed from "foolish to fabulous" and feel inspired to clean up my own foolishness and mayhem. Aaaah...blessed organization! Warehouse 13 is just a fun syfy show.

My summer reading so far has just been 2 books - Francine River's The Scarlet Thread and Jerusha Clark's The Life You Crave; the Promise of Discernment.

Here's the description of The Scarlet Thread:

"The story of two women, centuries apart, who are joined through a tattered
journal as they contend with God, husbands - and even themselves – until
they fall into the arms of the one who loves them unconditionally. When Sierra
discovers the handcrafted quilt and journal of her ancestor Mary Catherine
Murray, she finds that their lives are amazingly similar. Though the women are
separated by time and circumstance and Mary Catherine endured the hardships of
life on the Oregon Trail, many of the issues and problems they face are
remarkably similar. By following Mary Catherine’s example, Sierra learns
to surrender to God's sovereignty and unconditional love."


Of course it is an amazing book just as I would expect from that author! The book deals with destructive forces within a marriage - the challenges of maintaining a marriage with the social pressures to achieve more - and trusting God in all things. It's a fabulous book, and I recommend it whole heartedly!

Jerusha Clark's book is more of a challenging read. I take time process and comprehend what she writes. It's a very good book as well...and who couldn't use a little more discernment in their lives? I know I could...



Anyway, I'm off to organize, clean, or work on some other little summer project! Peace and love to all!

Dogs!

They are just so cute! Marcel and his brother, Hershey love to snuggle and play together. I'm happy to see them going to new owners, but I'm going to be sad they are separated! They are just such good buddies.