My Week 97

July 30th...hmmmm let me think. I have NO idea what I did that day.  It's been too long.  I do know my Sugar was still at Grandma's house, and I played around with my fish eye lens a bit.  Other than that....I have absolutely NO idea.

July 31st I met my Dad in a town half way between them and me to gather up my Sugar Booger Bear.  ♥  oh how much I missed my girl.  On the way home we dropped by a lighthouse to see if I could get a shot of it with my fish eye.  This is not how I pictured it, as the fence around it kept me from getting as close as I wanted.  Darn it.

August 1st I had to work, but Sugar was thrilled to go back to daycare.  She loves her daycare provider soooooooooooo much, and the other kids are great.  Work was....well work, but I managed to take a moment to stop by my favorite weeds spot to get a few shots in.  This has to be my favorite Queen Anne's Lace shot yet.  I adore the yummy bokeh.

August 2nd was work and daycare yet again.  Sugar Bear managed to outgrow ALL of her shoes in the past two weeks.  I had a bit of time to run by a local store to find some cool All Stars on clearance. 

August 3rd I took my girl to the pool again. We are really enjoying this fabulous pool being do close to us. She loves being in the water, and her confidence has grown so much this summer. Today she didn't have a friend there with her, so she made a few friends, and spent a good deal of time alone. I caught her chillin' in the baby section of the pool. Can't say I blame her.....the babies are fun to watch. At one point....she almost fell asleep.  It must have been so relaxing. 

I spent the 2.5 hours watching and reading my book. It was so very relaxing. Summer days.....gotta love them. 

August 4th was a great day at home.  There was time for the baby bunnies, some four wheel riding, and some reading for me.  It was nearly perfect. 




August 5th we had a quiet day at home today. My little Sugar Bear took this time to paint a cute little wooden rat. I always enjoy watching her work on things like this. I love the concentration on her face. It is the moments like that that I love to capture. Life.....the simple things. One of the many things I will miss so much when she is grown and on her own. 

My week 96

Okay folks....there has been a minor error along this "my week" journey this past year, and I somehow neglected to post a week back in March or April ish. ( I forget now.  I discovered it last week and have already forgotten which one I didn't post.  yes....I have major memory issues....let's not talk about it.)  Anyhow, I might go back and shove it in there, but the numbers will all be off, and I'm not sure I'm in the mood to fix it.  So I am skipping a title of "My week 95" and putting this one down at 96, as that is correct.  I am 8 short weeks from my two year mark  in this project.  If you add "The Kitty Project" in, I'll will have been shooting a photo a day for 3 years.  WOWZA! 

I haven't been blogging much, but I do try to keep up.  I have started posting over at Blipfoto if you are interested in checking it out.  Sometimes the photo I choose for there isn't the same as the photo I will eventually put in the "my week" collage. 

Here is the link to my Blip Journal:  http://www.blipfoto.com/Livingandloving

Now to get caught up on this project. 

July 23rd we were deep into our camping adventure, and it couldn't have been more fun.  I would hobble down to the river, sit under a tree and watch the kiddos play.  Sugar Bear had a major blast trying to stand up on the inflatable rafts.  So fun to watch her work so hard.  The crashes were pretty spectacular too.

July 24th brought more fun in the sun...in the river.  I jsut don't think my girl could get enough of these summer days.  Her swimming improved sooooooooooo much this summer between the local pool and the river.  I am not posting a picture of it, but 9 times out of 10 if you looked in the river all you saw was her little bum cheeks skim the water.  It's amazing she didn't get a sunburn on her tushie.  She loves to be under the water with her goggles, but her little bum sticks up.  So funny.

July 25th was a repeat of the days before.  When Sugar isn't swimming, she is fishing.  On goes the sun hat, and out she goes with the fishing pole to the best fishing spots.  I was grateful that someone was always around to help her out with the fishing, as I do not fish. I'm not sure why...but this is one of my favorite camping photos I took.  I just love it.  So peaceful.

July 26th was...guess what? more camping.  This time I am sharing a photo of the girls playing a game where this little sticks create a web to hold marbles, and then each kiddo takes turns pulling out a stick and hoping that no marbles fall.  Sugar loves this game.

July 27th was our last complete day of camping.  It was lovely indeed.  I just had to nab a shot of this little girls in silhouette.  I got one like this a few years ago.  Here they are spelling out the word "LOVE".  So cute.

July 28th was spent packing up camp. Oh how that is NOT our favorite part of camping.  It takes hours.  ack.  We then took one last swim, and heading out in our separate ways.  Sugar opted to stay a few days with Grandma and Grandpa, so I headed home alone.  I was shocked to see how much her chia pet grew.  I am not the best chia owner.  I can never get it to look like the one on the box.  I has bald spots, and it gets all leggy right away.  What am I don't wrong?

July 29th was a super relaxing day at home, and I had another surprise to behold.  The baby bunnies grew by leaps and bounds.  Their eyes opened while we were away, and they are not used to us.  We have lots of work to get them ready for new families. 

My Week 91

June 25th we were still up at my parent's farm visiting family.  It was finally feeling a bit like summer.  Grandma likes to play card games with her grandkids....and of course they love it.  This set of "Go Fish" cards were mine as a kid.

June 26th we headed on home to take care of our pets while The Hubby went Shrimping.  Shrimp season isn't as good as last year, but it is keeping him busy.  We spent some time outside with our male bunny, Mace.  He loves his run around time. 

June 27th sent me to work (boo hoo), and Sugar to day care.  Nothing really amazing or interesting happened.  I snapped this shot of Sugar Bear and her buddy H-boy.  They have been friends since she was 2.  I'm not sure why....but something about this shot makes me feel worried.  tee hee

June 28th was super duper awesome.  My nieces called and invited us to join them to a local pool that has been recently renovated.  We'd been meaning to get over there, but hadn't made it happen. Well....it was AWESOME!  Sugar had a blast.  I love this shot of the water dumping on them.  Sugar Bear is in there somewhere.  :)

June 29th was a fairly busy day at home.  I made the wise move to mow the lawn, as it was way too tall, and we only had a brief break from all the rain we'd been having.

June 30th found me with a MAJOR case of the sweet teeth.  I NEEDED to make a goody, and boy oh boy did it.  I made my favorite Blackberry pie bars, but used half Blackberries and half Blueberries.  I called them my "black and blue bars."  I should have called them my "add 3 inches to my bum bars!"  oh my granny!

July 1st was doomy and gloomy outside, so Sugar and I spent the day inside together.  I taught her how to play "Slap Jack!"  She loved it.  You can't tell that she is an aggressive player, can you?

A giggling Good time!

"Do you have any idea how lucky you are, Sugar Bear? Most children don't have LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of baby bunnies to play with each day." ~The Hubby





Oh....I think she knows! ♥



It is written all over her beautiful face.




It's erupting from her laughing lips.




It's taking over her entire soul.




She is lucky, and she knows it. She doesn't waste it. She cherishes it.




It's hard not to be uncontrollably joyful when you have two fat and sassy little bunnies squirming around in your sweatshirt.



It overcomes you....and infects those around you.



Until they can hardly imagine being anywhere else than right there....right then...capturing these real...true...amazing moments.





♥ Life is Good! We are Living and Loving Every Minute of it! ♥

My Week 30

April 24th was Easter Sunday.....and somehow (I do know how) I deleted all the photos I took of Sugar Bear with her Easter Basket, and during her egg hunt. Yup....lovely, but surprisingly....I've handled it fairly well. They are gone, and that's all there is to it. I have the memories in my head, and that will have to do. Happily, I do still have the photos I took my Sugar Bear and her cousins in their new hot tub on Easter afternoon. They had a blast, and it was wonderful to capture some shots of the joy.

April 25th found me accidentally trying to starve myself. Seriously, folks....feeding myself and my family has become such a hardship lately. Yes, we can afford the food.....I just can't find the time to shop for it....or produce a nice dinner. I'm so very tired by the time I get home, I can hardly find the motivation to cook. I do get a second wind about 10pm each night...but it does me no good. Dinner is FAR over by then. This shot was taken of my Arby's roastbeef sandwich at lunch time. I had forgotten to bring a lunch to work......yet again. sigh....

April 26th was full of meetings and workshops. This particular day was a beginning of a "planning process" for our 2011-2012 work year. It is a very worth while process, but it can be a bit daunting, and I don't really do my best thinking in the afternoon. I grabbed this shot during a break. I was in great need of a H2O pick me up.

April 27th rained....yet again....and I just didn't find anything inspiring in that day what so ever. I was busy with both work, and preparing for the carnival at Sugar' school. It wasn't until I got home at the end of my day that I realized I hadn't nabbed a shot for the day. So Ivy posed for me, and we called it good.

April 28th made me smile. Ages ago, The Hubby had taken apart an old pair of binoculars, and given Sugar Bear the prisims and the eye pieces to experiment with. Sugar wanted to take one of the eye pieces to school for show and tell, so she did. That night on the way home, I kept cracking up when she put it up to her eye. I just had to get a shot of it. tee hee...silly girl.

April 29th finally arrived. The day we'd been looking forward to. School Carnival night. A great time was had by all, and Sugar Bear just loved the big slide. :)

April 30th was a quite Saturday at home. I love those. I know the baby bunnies show up often lately, but seriously, our life really seems to revolve around the bunnies, and our pup. ♥ This is Sugar and Moe. She is convinced that Moe is a boy and that he loves her so much that he wants to marry her. What a goonie girl she is. Gosh I love her.....and apparently....so does Moe.

52 Weeks of ME- Week Eighteen

Theme of the week:

Rule of Thirds

If you aren't familiar with the photography "Rule of Thirds" you can go to the tutorial I did AGES and AGES ago. You'll surely get a kick out of how young Sugar Bear is in it. :)

I really didn't have a plan this week, and quite literally just nabbed this shot when I had the time, but I do like how it turned out. One of these days, I'll actually wear some makeup. At least put a little bit of lip gloss on. It just isn't me to wear that stuff, so I think it is pretty telling that in the past 18 weeks, I haven't taken a photo of myself done up. I do think I've been in this shirt once, if not TWICE before. ummm....yeah...it is pretty realistic as well. I tend to wear the same clothes over and over. I'm a lazy dresser.

I have to share a bit about these little bunnies. They are the offspring of our precious OSHEE Minoshee! We are over the top excited about these little honey bunnies. WE added a male Holland Lop to our mix this spring, and these two babies are purebred Holland Lop, and we can't wait to see how they turn out. So far, they are a crack up. Compared to our other baby bunnies, the are really quite chubby little bun buns, and I love it. Their fur is short, and silky. I can't wait for their ears to lop over. ♥ Sadly, there were 5 in the litter and only these two survived. We are quick smitten with them.

Be sure to head on over to visit Jessie and Cara to see all the fabulous ladies taking part in this cool project.

Little Life....in gentle hands

This photo just melts my heart. For me, not only does it showcase the beauty of children and animals together, it really defines so much of Sugar's personality. She is such a gentle soul.

All in all, I can't ever get enough of my little Sugar Bear's hands doing things....anything, really. I'm actually thinking of doing another project inspired by hands. :) We'll see!

Hoppy Easter!

We've got Easter Bunnies....yes we do!

We've got Easter Bunnies....how about YOU?

We've got Easter Bunny butts......TOO!

Tee hee!

Happy Easter, Everyone! ♥

My Week 28

April 10th I just had to document the most recent milestone for Sugar Bear. While I was away last week, Grandma taught The Sugar how to tie her shoes, and SHE.IS.SO.PROUD!!!! Like seriously PROUD.PROUD.PROUD. She beams when she does it. It does my heart good! ♥

April 11th my little honey bunny had to accompany me to an evening presentation I was doing for work. She spent half the time listening to what I was talking about (oral health for infants and toddlers), and the other half drawing me the most heartfelt picture of a rainbow. She knows I've been hating on all the rain we've been getting, and wanted to brighten my day...and boy did she. ♥

April 12th we couldn't wait to get home and check on the baby bunnies. You can't let more than a day go by without giving them so love or you'll miss their entire babyhood. These little buggers grow like weeds. This is "Lovers". Sugar named it that because he/she is so very snuggly. I crack up when she says, "Come here lovers. Give me some love." ♥

April 13th caught me continuing to try to focus on signs of Spring. I know I'm not the only one to say this.....but gosh darn it...."That Groundhog LIED!"

April 14th wasn't a typical Thursday. We had a potluck at work on a Thursday....A THURSDAY! We were shaking it up people. The theme this month was "ballpark food". tee hee...it was definitely interesting. I brought cotton candy...but only because everyone else took my other ideas. Lucky for Sugar Bear.....there was lots left for her. She loves cotton candy. ♥

April 15th was a fun day. Sugar didn't have school....and I had to travel a bit for work, so she joined me, and we had a wonderful "girls day!" It couldn't have been better. We played a game on the drive where we yelled out "flowers" every time we saw some. We are DESPERATE for flowers around her. We were out of control and giggling the whole way. This tree was so stunning. I just had to take some pics even though I have taken so many similar pics over the years. JUST.COULDN'T.RESIST. ♥

April 16th was a relaxing day at home....minus the vicious cold I came down with, and the injured hand I acquired the day before. Yup...minus those two things...It was pretty awesome. I took this quick snap of my neighbor's kitty cats. Sugar and I were in charge of feeding them for a few days. I was so glad to have the opportunity to do my friend a favor. She has done so much for me over the years.

Whew...so I'm all caught up on this project. Yes, I hurt my hand....my right hand...and it is killing me. It hurts to type...it REALLY hurts to mouse.....and that has held me back this week.

Easter Bunny

Some BUNNY loves a BUNNY

A while back, one of our bunnies got sick. Not just ANY bunny....our favorite bunny. Oh I know we are not supposed to have favorites, but it is completely impossible NOT to love this bunny more than any other. She is a treasure.




Ocean, or as we almost always call her, Oh-sheeee, or often, Oh-shee Poh-shee Min Oh-shee, is Sugar Bear's bunny. She picked her out at a bunny show, and beyond a shadow of a doubt, our girl has good taste. She knew Oh-shee was the bun buns for her, and I'm glad I listened. Oh-shee is a delight. There is just so much to love about her. She is sweet, and funny, and chubby, and lovey.....and her fur is thick, and soft, and her ears are loppy, and long...and she often looks grumpy but she isn't. sigh.....♥.




So you can imagine that the meer thought of our girl not being healthy is enough to send this household into a frenzy. Everything seemed to be fine....until one day, I went to put hay in her cage, and she just didn't seem herself, so I picked her up...and oh my heavens...she was skinny. I couldn't tell just by looking at her, but once I felt her...I knew she had lost a lot of weight. Oh how my WORRY kicked on, and I took her inside for some TLC, and worry.....and ummm....watching. She was not really eating much, and she was not ummm....doing her business nearly at all. :( I may have spent an enormous amount of time that weekend googling rabbit ailments. I may have driven myself bonkers. Oh yes, maybe I did. Sunday night, The Hubby proclaimed that he would take our girl to the vet on Monday morning.....and he did.

Turns out....they didn't think there was anything wrong with her...but The Hubby insisted, and they pumped her full of fluid, saying that this would flush her system, and sent them home. oh...and charged $90, can't forget that, now can we? She spent a good deal of the rest of that day...and the next.... "doing her business", and she started eating more, and more and more. We kept her inside for about a week all together, and now she is back in her hutch outside, and doing well. I can not tell you how relieved we all are. :) We knew that we loved our Oh-sheee, but until this happened, we just didn't know how much. A lot....yes.....a lot.



This has pushed back our breeding plans a bit, and now we will not have baby bunnies ready to sell by Easter, but that is okay. We have our Ohshhhhhhaposhhhhhh. and we are happy. And so is she....even though...she doesn't look like it. She is smiling on the inside. ♥

Christmas Bun Buns

You might remember that our dear Miss Loppy, once thought to be a boy bunny.......had a batch of SEVEN bunnies this fall. The only thing better than THREE baby bunnies.....is SEVEN baby bunnies. Oh the joy of raising these little honeys. ♥

Like the last set, they grew oh so very fast, and it was a delight to see them go from tiny little fragile beings to these fluffy little puff balls.

Recently, we took them to our local grange to be sold. I just didn't have the time to try to sell them myself, so I hoped they could do as good of a job as they did the last time, and they sure did.

Within 4 days, all of them had gone to wonderful homes. All to regular customers. What a blessing. So good to know that they will be cherished and well cared for.

It isn't hard to see why they were snapped up so quickly, huh? Who wouldn't want one of these little darlings under the tree?

Unlike that last time, we did not have more baby bunnies waiting at home for Sugar to love on, so it was a bit harder for her to give them up. Especially her favorite one. sigh.....oh the lessons she is learning.

She held on tight, and asked me more than once if we could please just keep her, but I had to hold firm. We already have 5 bunnies, and do not need more. It wasn't easy on either of us, but I like to believe that in some sort of way it was GOOD for us.

There was one thing that made it just a tiny bit easier though. My friend ended up grabbing this one up, and took her home. She is well loved, and we can come visit if we want to. It has been over a week, and Sugar hasn't asked about her, so I think she has settled into the idea of her having a new and loving home. It really helped knowing that other little children will now have a bunny to love.

Oh.....and of course I promised that we'd have more baby bunnies this spring. That is something we all can look forward to. In the mean time.....we like to think that many folks are enjoying their fuzzy little Christmas bun buns! ♥