Some Favorite Wildlife Shots

These are some of my pictures from our trip West. 


This one was taken at the Grizzly and Wolf Learning Center.  I think it's amazing...Did you spot the wolf?



While we were driving one day...it started hailing.  The stinging as hail hit the bison drove them to nearly stampede!  They were all tossing their heads as they ran very close to the line of cars trying to get by.

 

This is a bear we saw while driving. 


This is an ermine (short tailed weasel) who popped out of the ground while we were enjoying a picnic.  Isn't he cute?  I read that ground squirrels are a favorite food so no wonder he liked picnic tables since the squirrels will practically come up to you hoping for a bite of picnic food.  Of course, no one in my family feeds wild animals since that encourages unnatural behavior...but we were still happy to see this little guy.


So you might be wondering how my first day went... In summary, it was a good day.  I might post on it later :)

WOYWW and Close Encounters of the Moosey Kind

WOW!!  I'm actually in town and not completely swamped!  And what do you know...from here on out, Wendesdays are a short day at work :) So maybe I'll get to play more often!   What's on Your Workspace Wednesday is really fun - you can play too if you go to The Stamping Ground.  :)    They are even swapping ATCs this week...but I've had no inspiration for ATCs lately and I'm avoiding mail-art until I get settled at the new house. 




This week I have my art journal and an altered book on my desk - along with an assortment of art supplies including isopropyl alcohol and plastic wrap :)

Ugh....and this is what I see if I turn around from my desk.  We'll be moving to a house in 2 weeks - our very first house.  It's going to feel so good moving out of an apartment..  Real job...real house....real bills?  Are we adults yet?.... nah.




Here's the first page of my altered book.    I'm debating if I want to stick with the pink and purple all the way through or not.  It's already starting to drive me nuts so I might add some more warm colors to the subsequent pages.

This is a picture from vacation.  We were just going around a bend on a trail we were hiking when we nearly walked right into this moose.  I'm glad we were paying attention - Moose can be dangerous!   I thought Ellen's expression captured how we all felt.  Of course we were delighted to see such a creature, but all wild animals should be given a great deal of respect ...and distance.


Peace and Love, y'all

Creative Days Off

I have a couple of days before work begins (real work...as in my first real job ever), and I'm using those days to create art (and...clean and pack up the apartment).

I've been somewhat following along with Altered Book Lover's altered journal series, but this is the first lesson I've really been able to complete.   :)  Sort of a lesson 8 and 9 combo:


http://alteredbooklover.blogspot.com/2012/05/lesson-9-backgrounds-and-collage.html


This all started because I got distracted by colors in Taste of Home magazines I was looking through for meal ideas... 

Here's my analogous color scheme background...plus the syran wrap technique described in lesson 9 :)

Ah!  Dry!  Didn't that turn out neat?

Add my wheel, scraps from making the wheel, and some paint...and ta da!...There's an art journal page :)


Thanks for looking!


Peace and Love, y'all!

Lamp (Week 22)

I actually got around to painting this week!  So here's my entry for the draw sketch doodle challenge!  :)
 

Highlights of our trip West

The month of May has flown by and so much has happened since I last updated!  So I'll cover the highlights...

• Chimichanga is a boy chinchilla.   He still doesn't let me perform a full exam, but he's definitely a boy.  I'm just glad I didn't find out by adding another "female" chinchilla to the cage. :)

• Chase and I found a house to purchase!  It's a cute little starter home with 1 more bedroom than we have here in the apartment.  My favorite room is the bonus/family/sun room.  It's got lots of good lighting and laminate flooring...so it's going to be the craft room/office/pet room.  I can't wait to have an easy to clean area around the chinchilla!  That bonus room really frees us to use all 3 bedrooms as bedrooms...now we just need inhabitants for the other 2 bedrooms!  My 2 dogs are going to love the back yard (and so are we).

• I won some awards!  I'm one of Mizzou's 3 internal medicine award recipients (ie...I'm an internal medicine nerd).  That one comes with a year subscription to a journal that I can wait to read! I also received a cash prize for small animal community medicine.  I'm super excited about the cash...since we're a touch (ie...completely and utterly) on the broke side.   My dream job didn't come cheap...8 years of college....150K of educational debt.  AND we just bought a house...so money is a big issue in my brain right now.  

• I graduated, and I am licensed and ready to start my new job on Friday.   I just have a couple more loose ends to take care of.

We just got back from another epic family vacation... 2 weeks of exploring the west.  We visited the Black Hills, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons...  Here are some photos

   

Mammoth Site (in the Black Hills) - this is a paleontological dig site that is available for tours.   It was a sink hole with sides too steep for mammoths to get out...once they stumbled in for a drink of water.  Over time it filled in and HUNDREDS of mammoths were preserved.    It was awesome!  Some of them are still laying in the position they died in - trying to escape the pool.  Even though this wasn't a national park...it was well worth seeing.  We'll definitely go back someday.  They've only dug about 20 feet...and have 60 feet to go.  How many more mammoths will they unearth? 

Grand Tetons.

One of Yellowstone's 1000s of thermal features.  

Devil's Tower - we didn't get to go up and check for aliens.  ;)



Peace and Love, y'all!

Tomorrow....

This is the last night without a D.V.M. after my name.   I'm not sure I'm ready to say goodbye to vet school...I've met such wonderful people...such great friends...


Pella, Iowa.

Pie throw

Update of Spring

So where in the world have I been?  Well, I got a job!  I'll be working here in Columbia as a small animal (including exotic animals) veterinarian.  :)  Just 2 weeks until graduation!    I found a great place work.  The staff is wonderful, and the other veterinarian will be a wonderful mentor as I transition from student to doctor.   In other news...since I signed a contract, Chase and I are on the hunt for our first home.  Requirements:  bigger kitchen than my apartment kitchen, fenced back yard (with some bird habitat for Chase), 2 car garage, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms...and a tiled (or soon to be tiled) pet room.   We're hoping to move in June or July! 


I just got back from a quick trip to Florida with my parents.  We had a great time, but I'm worn out after a total of 4 days of driving for 2 days on the beach!   So today I'm trying to rest up and get some stuff done in the house. 
 

Here's the newest addition to our family.  Chimichanga ("Chimi") the Chinchilla is sleeping in her red tent, but I just finished getting her cage all set up with new toys and bedding.  I can't wait until she wakes up tonight to check it all out!

Peace and Love, y'all.

Branson - Celebrating friendship

This weekend, my friends and I vacationed in Branson.  On the way down, I stopped in Jef city and took state boards (PASSED!).  We made bath salts at the resort, visited the butterfly palace....




Rode the historic Branson train through the Ozark foothills....

watched the Dixie Stampede and played Pirate Mini-Golf...

and rode all the coasters at Silver Dollar City!

Now it's back to real life... Tomorrow I find out about a job!


Peace and Love, y'all!

Update etc

The first batch of graduation announcements went off today :) I have to buy more stamps for the remainder.

 I've been finished with my "formal" education for two weeks and I'm doing working interviews now. I'd say the first one went really well. I'm in the middle of the second one now. Time will tell what the future holds! Pray that God will provide the RIGHT job for me and make that choice clear. 

As graduation approaches, my emotions are very mixed. I'm sad to think the close friends I made during my four years of vet school will all be scattering all over the country. I'll miss them, but I'm happy for them as they pursue the next step accomplishing their dreams. As the same time, I'm nervous but thrilled to be practicing as a veterinarian. I still have a lot to learn, but I truly believe that I will be a good veterinarian...and I will help many, many animals and their owners in my lifetime. How blessed am I to get to do what I love! This phase of my life is full of unknowns, but I will trust in God's plan for my life. 

Peace and love, y'all.

Saving the World

A couple of Sundays, the message at The Crossing was about work and ministry and it really struck a chord with me.  God has given me such a blessing in that he has placed me in my DREAM JOB!  I've always known and always worked toward the goal of becoming a veterinarian.  I feel that this my calling - what I was uniquely designed to do.  As I get closer to getting to live that goal out, I feel a calling to do more than just help the animals.  I also want to help the children - the children who need a safe haven.  My husband and I can provide the discipline, love, and hope the children need.  We will be their advocates, mentors, teachers, ...foster parents.   We're out to change the world!  I realized that my heart seeks to help those without a voice and those whose voices are not heard - the children and the animals. 

Your work is your ministry.  Even just cleaning your yard and doing a job well done. Do it as if for the Lord!  Engage culture restoratively.  Making people happy and flourish in your workplace.  Your calling as a Christian, is to make the world a better place.

One of my favorite inspirational stories is the starfish story (adapted from The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley).  You should do a quick internet search for it (it's posted many, many places), because it's worth reading :)

Hayao Miyazaki

Chase and I saw the newest Studio Ghibli film this weekend: The Secret Life of Arrietty.  Just like their other films, this one did not disappoint.  The world of Arrietty was stunningly beautiful and the story while simple was thought provoking.  So I made some Hayao Miyazaki films and make this week's Draw Sketch Doodle challenge to be inspired by a movie!

http://drawsketchdoodle.blogspot.com/

Wish me luck on my interview tomorrow.

Fun in Ophthalmology

I'm currently in an ophthalmology elective and having a blast.  Instead of a test this time through, I'm supposed to present a topic.  Since I'm not so big into presentations...I got permission to make a game!  I still haven't thought of a clever title, but I have all the cards made and the game pieces.  I hope my clinicians like them since they are the caricaturized characters.  I think the premise will be the ophthalmology department has forgotten everything!  Help them remember what different colors on the cornea mean!

Step 1...draw out your characters on paper then trace them onto Shrinky dink.  Then flip the shrinky-dink over and paint them (I used acrylic)

Next: Bake them and watch them shrink and twist...and then hopefully straighten out...Or not.  This one was a flop, and I had to redo it.

Step 3.  I sprayed the one side with fixative to protect the paint and then I let that dry.  Next I hot glued the pieces onto half marbles :)

 
Here are 2 examples of the cake pops I made for food day (on ophthalmology).


Peace and Love,y'all.


Be sure to pop on over to Draw! Sketch! Doodle! to play along and sketch a caricature this week! 

WOYWW and Ruby the Little Idiot

Happy WOYWW! Join us at Julia's blog if you love looking at the work spaces of other crafters.



So here's my workspace this week :)  I'm working on a journal page.  I've been trying to make videos of my workspace as I work on my journal and post them to YouTube, but my camera isn't working well! It stops recording the middle...and I don't notice until the end!  Ooops...

And here's the other part of my desk.... It has a package of batteries on it that I CAUGHT MY DOG TRYING TO EAT!!  The little idiot.... So I went back to school (I'm in vet school) and took some x-rays to see if she was successful in devouring one.  NO batteries!  PHEW!  Haha...wouldn't it have been funny if I was the student on call today? 

 

Adoption and Fostering

Lately, Chase and I have been talking seriously about adopting/fostering children.  Just as God adopted us into his family, we feel a call to bring children into ours.  So this year we decided to start the training process to begin fostering children.  It will probably take all year just to complete the training, and after that we'll probably start with offering respite care.  However, someday in the future...we want to adopt a sibling group of older children...the children so often over looked by those who want a baby.  God has placed it on our hearts, and I hope you enjoy seeing our journey into this :) There are going to be many challenges and many tears, but with God's help...I think this will be one of the most worthwhile endeavors we will undertake.   We have so much love to share with those children.  We may not be the richest family or have our own house, but we have love in abundance. 

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
   is God in his holy dwelling.
 God sets the lonely in families,
   he leads out the prisoners with singing;
   but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

Psalms 68:5-6

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13: 12

http://youtu.be/aCF8t4C_PGQ

http://youtu.be/Z1hzBbQD4-Q

WOYWW

Phew! I managed to post my pictures before arriving at school.  :)  So what's on my desk this week? 

I'm just about ready to do the next page in my art journal.  It will depict this part of Genesis 1:

24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.


I just haven't decided what animals! I'm thinking all fluffy white sheep...maybe with colorful scarves or hats! 

And for those of you who visited by last week...I made it quite a bit further on my scarf....but look what my BAD DOG did to my yarn!  I'm not sure how she can mistake a skein of yarn for a colorful squirrel, but she's convinced my yarn must die.  She got the innards out of this one...so now I'll have to roll it up into a ball before continuing. 

 

Peace and Love, y'all!!!

Days until Graduation: 114

Joy and celebrate

I did this painting as a part of Strathmore's online class.  It's massive (when you're used to working in ATC size).  It's 18 x 24 inches!  What am I going to do with it?  It's not my usual style so I can't really say I'd like to hang it up somewhere! Maybe I'll cut it up into pieces and use those for more art!  Maybe I'll paint something on top of it!  I dunno.  Ideas?

I'm enjoying the class quite a bit as it encourages me to loosen up with art.  This was made by placing random objects (ie, stencils) on the page...then spraying acrylic paint onto the page.   Then I added a yellow wash to the whole page. Next up - random doodling with warm colors, followed by inking and adding the white.    :)  But seriously...what the heck does one do with a painting such as this? 

In other news...I got a pretty important piece of mail today.  I was shopping with friends at the mall when we started hearing rumors that NAVLE scores were arriving with the mail.  So I called Chase...and it was there.


I PASSED!   So some celebratory self-portraits after a nice dinner at Babbo's were taken to commemorate the event.