Rainy Day Landscapes & Sunstars

 The weather has been really nasty today. It was dark, rainy and very cold. Then, out of nowhere, it cleared up and the sun started shining. I love nothing more than when the sun shines right after raining, especially in the evening hours. Since I had my Tokina near by, I took it outside to try and capture some decent shots of the yard and the way the sun casted such beautiful shadows. 

The execution wasn't as I expected, but they turned out nicely. I really should have edited them in Lightroom, but that's just too much work, lol.

Here are the pics from early today:

PS: Today is my little brothers 27th birthday! Like excuse me, it seems like he was just 12 last year. :(

This is the yard just before the sun popped out.

Our yard after the rain. I also managed a sunstar.

Smaller sunstar.

I couldn't up the aperture too much for the sunstar because it darkened the foreground too much.

The lighting was still beautiful. I love the Tokina lens.

This would've looked even better in the fall.

This is a great representation of how hilly and uneven our yard it.

Last landscape photo of the yard with a sunstar for the win!

2 Years & 10 Months Later...

     Wow, I don't even know if I remember how to post a blog, if I'm being honest. It's been nearly 3 years since I've posted ANY type of blog! You all know what my last one was about, so you can understand why I haven't been around. It's been a crazy 3 years and a lot has changed, but a lot hasn't. I'm going to touch on some VERY tender subjects, which is why this post will probably take me days to finish. I honestly don't even know if I want to start blogging again, it's just something that popped in my head at the time.

     I guess I should explain everything that happened with my little brother first. There's so much to it, so I'll try and make it as short as possible so that you're not reading for 20 minutes on one subject. Back in January of 2017 my brothers blood sugar got so high that it sent him into diabetic ketoacidosis. He was in a coma for over 2 weeks and in ICU for nearly a month, then got sent to a type of recovery facility for almost 4 months before he was able to go home. He's made leaps and bounds since then, but he's still confined to a hospital bed. Brain injuries can sometimes take years to recover from, if at all, but considering they said opening his eyes was as good as it was going to get, I'd say he's beat the odds.

     The next and hardest subject would be the loss of two of my pets, Milla and Zoe. We lost Milla to a splenic tumor in on June 22nd of last year. The vet called us in the middle of the surgery to remove the tumor to tell us that it was attached to her liver that was most likely already cancerous as well. Since Milla was well over 12, our vet didn't think it was worth it to put her through it, so we had her put to sleep. Then in on November 12th we lost Zoe to FIV and kidney complications. She had severe bronchitis and worsening kidney failure that ultimately took her life. She was 16 1/2, so losing her nearly killed me, considering I had her over half of my life. I don't have skin children, but losing those two was as close as I can get to losing my own babies, which I did.

     The rest of what's happened in the nearly 3 years is pale in comparison. I mean, we have lost some of our sugar gliders as well. I'm fairly certain I mentioned Sadie and Pip, but we've also lost Kira and Fiona as well. We've also re-homed Chloe, Boone and Evie & Oliver and Ellie. We just got overwhelmed with the number of cages we had and decided it was best for not only us, but them as well. Chloe's cage went to live with Doug and Kyan and Oliver and his family went to live with Dee, his breeder. We're down to 5 cages right now, but we're hoping to introduce some of them soon and be down to at least 3 cages. We got Norman neutered a little over a month ago, so we're officially not breeders anymore. We have their last two joeys still, but hopefully we'll be able to find them good homes soon.

     Work wise, the store that I work at switched hands back in March of 2018. It was a change for the better, considering I never have to close alone anymore - even in the winter! It was a scary change at first, but I'm so happy that it happened now. It went from Des Arc General Store to Des Arc Corner Store. My photography has picked up a little. I've done 3 paid gigs this year and a couple other free ones, of course. 90% of my photoshoots are free. Hopefully I can start advertising soon and get more paid shoots, but I'm fine doing whatever for now. I'll make an independent post about some of those shoots later on.

     I don't remember what I blogged about last, so forgive me if I go over things I've already touched on. I believe, at the time, we just had Cersei and Clementine outside. Clem was the little yellow kitten that someone dropped off. Well a little over a year ago, Cersei just disappeared without a trace. We looked for her for the longest time, but she was just gone. Then two years ago or so, there was a stray cat living at the end of our gravel road. She got pregnant I think 3 different times during the year that we fed her and all her kittens. Well a lady from the church at the end of our road ended up taking her home with her because she was giving birth outside the church one night. Well as soon as the kittens were weaned, she dumped the mama cat back off at the end of our road. We were livid! LaVaughn snatched her up one night after church and brought her to live with us. That was over a year ago now and mama cat (now Piper) if very chub, spayed and happy as a clam!

     I'm trying to think of any major changed that's occurred over the last almost 3 years. We haven't done any major travel, changed too much around the house or with the car. The only thing that I think has changed about me is that I wear glasses now. In December of 2017, right before my 30th birthday, I had to have my 2nd molar removed AND have to wear glasses now. What a way to enter my 30s, lol. As far as friends go, we've fallen out of touch with pretty much all of our glider friends. We used to be super close with Doug and Kyan -- I was especially close with Doug. They started trying to adopt almost 2 years ago (I even signed for them), but it's been a constant battle with them and two different boys they tried to adopt. I won't go into specifics, but we basically don't speak to one another anymore, but I'm fine with it now.

     It feels so strange blogging right now, but also feels like I've never stopped. Funny how things can be that way. I feel like since I've stopped blogging that influencers have become a HUGE thing. You can't read a blog or look at Instagram without someone trying to sell something. It honestly makes me kinda sick, so don't ever expect that from me. This is basically my online journal, it always has been. Sure I have Google adsense on the sides, but hell, there's nothing wrong with making .12 every other day, lol.

     And with that, I believe I will close. I can't really think of anything else to write at the moment and feel like I've said enough for one day. Until next time...

-Megan

Indefinite hiatus...

My little brother is currently in a coma fighting for his life. This is an unbelievably huge road block for me. Blogging has taken the back burner in my life for some time now -- this is me turning the burner off completely. Until Jake is home and well, blogging will never happen. When the time comes, I may or may not blog again. As of right now, my heart just isn't anywhere near it.

For those of you who would like to read about his story, you can do so here:

http://gofundme.com/jakes-fight-against-dka

If you can't donate, which I'm not asking you to, would you please share? It would mean so much to me and my family.

Thank you all so much for reading my blog for the last 8 1/2 years. I don't think this is something I'll pick back up anywhere in the near future. I love writing, sharing hundreds of pictures and pointless stories, but for the past several months I've forced myself to keep up with posts. This all happening with my baby brother made things even more clear for me.

For those of you that are interested, you can keep up with my day-to-day life via my Instagram accounts here:

http://instagram.com/madamemagenta

http://instagram.com/sugarexotics

East bound and down...

The day has finally arrived. A day I've been anticipating for over 5 years -- what does this tell you?? I finally got my CREAMINO!!! Getting her standard 100% het sister was just a bonus.

Thank god for friends like Christina. She had to meet someone in Perryville that was adopting a joey from her, so we said we would just meet her there and pick up the girls. Did I mention that she picked them up from the airport for us a few days ago? Well she did. She's also going to ship Evan and Neville for us later this week. See why she's so awesome?

We didn't stand outside of Walmart for very long -- I'm assuming she wanted to get her long drive back to STL over with. I gave her a hug and thanked her for the 1000th time, then we parted ways.

Since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to stop by and see Ty, my mother. I know I've explained this before... Ty is my biological mother, but Judy (Ty's mother) raised me. So there you have it, I have two moms that aren't lesbians. ;) Anyways, she was at work so we stopped by and talked to her for well over an hour. It was nice.

A friend of hers -- someone we used to know years back -- stopped by for a few minutes while we were there. It took her a few seconds and several glances before she realized who we were. She's just as crazy as I remember her being. It made for very awkward conversations. Especially when she tried to hook one of us up with a guy from Piedmont that has seizures. O.o It's okay, though, he hasn't had one for 6 months. << See... AWKWARD!

After we finally left, we had to stop by her house for a quit hello with Jeff and my little brother, Jake. Jeff and my mom have been together for quite some time now. It's nice, he's nice and just all around awesome. Definitely my favorite guy she's ever dated, I love him. He's always so warm and welcoming, it's like I've known him for years.

We talked to them for quite some time, but not nearly as long as her. It wasn't long after we arrived that we left.

So now we're home. The little girls are EXTREMELY crabby. Like they've never been around humans crabby. It's a little depressing, but hopefully they'll loosen up after they're settled in a couple days.

In other gliders related news, Charli's tiny little white joey detached today. I'm not 100% sure what exactly he is, but he's definitely a joey! If he's a leu, that means Charli proved out her 6% het and Tyler his 50%. This little guy doesn't have much fur on him -- he's a tad on the premie side -- so it'll take a few days to decipher exactly what he is.

I bid you adieu, fellow readers. I'm completely and utterly exhausted and need to go do something that doesn't make me even more exhausted...

Love & Peace

-Megan

The last pictures I'll ever take of Neville and Evan... shutter!

Pictures of Ty, Jeff, and Jakes yard:

Their dog (and them!):

He still looks so little!

But also grown up.

That hair needs some serious trimming, though.

And maybe some hot oil.

I just love this dog:

More people time:

More of their beautiful yard and cherry trees:

Group photo time: