Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Change in Photo Posting Format.

I just wanted to post a quick note to let everyone know that I have decided to change the format in which I post my #project365 photos.  Be rest assured that I am still taking photographs daily.  As a matter of fact, that is exactly why I am going to be posting weekly from now on.  I tend to take photographs throughout my day, but the truth is that I am always looking for the next best photo.  So I find myself, not wanting to post anything until my day is done, just in case I come across a better photo for the day.   So rather than stress myself at bedtime, I've decided to do what's best for my body and post weekly to avoid the nightly stress.  I do want to encourage everyone to please share my photos with your friends if you like them.   

I want to thank my followers.  It has helped to know that I hold myself accountable to my readers.   See you soon :) 




As to not disappoint, here's an old photo that has nothing to do with this project...lol 


Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Abraham de Lacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley

is the name of my beautiful male orange tabby cat.   

Almost 7 years ago, I moved into a teeny tiny little cabin with my kids.  Shortly after moving in, I discovered a mouse.  I don't do well with mice.  Have you seen the cartoon that shows the woman in the apron jump on top of the table screaming because there is a mouse.....yeah well that's me...literally, I jumped on the table.  


So now I have a dilemma, I can't stand the thought of using the typical mouse trap and since I just scream and jump, how would I release a mouse from a humane trap.  At that point, I decided to get a kitten.  Mice hate cats.  

I've always wanted to adopt an orange tabby and name him "Abraham de Lacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O' Malley".  

I found my Thomas in the Butler area.  He was only a tiny guy.  This is his story as told to me by the shelter.  Thomas began his life as a feral cat.  His mother, sibling and him would show up at a house that was putting food out for them every day....until one day, it was only Thomas. His mother and sibling were gone and this teeny tiny kitten was left on his own.  The person who had been feeding them could not keep him so she contacted the shelter.  They put him with a  foster home.  The foster mother fostered a lot of cats apparently.  She kept the cages in the garage and once a day would open the door to let sunlight in while she took the cats each out of their cage to clean it and feed and water the cats.  For the couple of minutes a day that he was held, there was also a large dog that would bark while she was doing this.   He had been with the woman a couple of weeks when I found him and adopted him.  

Thomas was scared.  He had only been held a couple of minutes a day while a dog barked at him.  His trust needed to be earned.  

When I first brought him home, I kept him in my room & the little storage sun room off the back of the house.  I slowly earned his trust and then for very small time, introduced my dog, Bagel(the dog love of my life but that's another story).  Bagel loved to bark.  He was a beagle.  Thomas slowly trusted Bagel.  Greg was the next human he trusted because for a while there, I didn't let the kids in my room so that Thomas would have time to adjust.  Slowly, each of the children earned his trust.  

Thomas is amazing.  After everything he has gone through, he has become an integral part of our family.  He trusts us.  Bagel & Thomas became extremely close. So close in fact that my son, Jeremy and his friend Tyler tried to rename Thomas..... Croissant  LOL.    Eventually, our family changed as Roxie joined the family.  Roxie was a puppy so Thomas instinctively knew to avoid her.  Eventually, Bagel passed away.   It wasn't until then that in their grief, Roxie & Thomas soothed each other and became so close that he will climb into her bed and sleep with her.  

Thomas' fear of strangers & dogs has not changed.   Thomas will hide if someone comes over unless he has gotten to know them because they are here often.  There was one time when a co-worker of mine came by with her mother in law's dog.   When Thomas realized there was a strange dog in the house, he ran from room to room trying to get out.  He banged his face into the glass doors upstairs and downstairs, even ran into the bathroom and hit the shower wall where I was able to shut the door behind him and slowly calm him down while my co-worker removed her dog from the house.  It was horrible.  He gave himself a bloody nose and a panic attack.   

Ironically, he was able to get out of the house a couple of times when we lived in the condos.(that's an odd story...creepy neighbor didn't tell me that Bagel started suffering from separation anxiety in his old age and howled while I was at work...but they figured out that my back downstairs slider didn't lock...so they opened the door and let my pets out...happened twice before I figured out what was going on and I put a pole to lock the door in place).  There was a large feral community of cats that lived on the mountain side.  Thomas went right to it, claimed a space and woman(even though he's neutered) and moved right in for a coupe of days till I got him back in with food.  He's tough in that environment.  But in our home, he's precious and loved and coddled.   

When we moved from on our own to the family we have become, there was some adjusting to be done by all.  

Lulu was the Queen of the castle here prior to our arrival.  I had gotten Lulu for Greg a couple years ago.  Greg taught her how to fetch. He doted on her.  She is a fresh little thing.  But this is Thomas' story so I digress.   Needless to say, Lulu didn't want to share her castle with anyone.  She didn't have exposure to any other animals prior to this(see Lulu's story when I write it ;) ) So it took a while to say the least.  As a matter of fact, it's still in the works.  

Turns out that because Thomas doesn't trust easily and Lulu considers him competition for her castle and all that includes, they needed a facilitator cat.  What's a facilitator cat you ask?   Cats can live together in a colony(whether small or large is invalid) but they need to share scent.  If they don't share scent, they would be considered competition.   In nature, a facilitator cat would assist in the sharing of scent.  The cat would rub on each cat creating a unique combo scent that becomes the colony scent.  In nature, Thomas & Lulu would probably never be in the same colony because of their personalities unless there was someone who facilitates the scent making.  I became that cat by petting one and then the other.  Since then, there has been a lot of progress made.  They play now more often.  There have been occasions where they have sat together on the bed(they are still a little tense because each of them of tried to chase the other off the bed either by direct attack or growling.....but they are getting better).  They have each chosen a side of the couch so they share that.  We provided them with scratching posts & towers.  More and more of the house have become neutral territory.  I still have work to do...lol 

Thomas has the softest belly fur it reminds me of a bunny's fur, and he will roll over and expose his belly to be pet.  We have come so far.   His life story mimics Greg & my relationship.   Because of how I had been treated in the past, I came into this scared to death and slowly over time, I am trusting more and more.  Occasionally, I will even roll over and expose my soft belly to Greg for him to love.    







An Inspiration!



I am struggling with what words can I write that will convey why I am sharing this...And the only word that is appropriate is Inspirational!   I hope you enjoy this story about a boy and his dog as much as I did.







Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Posting Delay #project365

I've been making sure to take the photographs I've committed to but as you can tell, I'm running a bit behind posting them.   That being said, I present to you the last 3 days photographs and I hope you enjoy them! 
















Sunday, February 16, 2014

February 15 & 16 Project365

I love the filter that I used on this photograph from yesterday.  



And I enjoyed bringing out my honey's natural handsomeness for today's photo.   He took us out to a very nice dinner tonight to spend some time with my daughter & her boyfriend. 



Friday, February 14, 2014

Valentine's Snow

The storm finally arrived and left us absolutely buried. In some areas, the snow is up to my hip.   Roxie had a tough time going out until Greg cleaned out some space for her.   I had a doctor appointment today.  I got up, took a shower and asked my daughter for some help to clean off the car.   Well I was more than pleasantly surprised that not only did she clean off the car but she did the majority of the work for the next hour to shovel me out of the driveway to get me there.   I can not express how thankful I am to her for helping me.  I would have had to reschedule my appointment otherwise.  Please enjoy the beauty just outside my back door. 


Thursday, February 13, 2014

"Invisible"

I'm posting yesterday's photo a little late.  

Today is the 4th day of pain from the storm that arrived today.  The thing with this invisible illness is that it always reminds me whose in control.   I was sitting resting watching tv to distract myself from how horrible I've been feeling when I noticed that my cheeks are covered in tears that I had no part in creating.   They were just there.   My body's way of acknowledging that no matter how hard I try to ignore how bad it is, my body can not ignore it......I think I need to move somewhere warm 






February 13,2014


So much snow! 



Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Summer Olympics


When I saw Thomas diving it blew my mind! He has decided to start practicing his diving for

 the Summer Olympics! 




:).  



Sunday, February 9, 2014

Saturday, February 8, 2014

2 for the price of 1

I wasn't feeling well at all yesterday.  Now today, I started a new medication for my exhaustion and I was more awake than I've been in months.   Hopefully, this is the start of at least 14 hour days rather than 10 :).  

Enjoy my photos for today and yesterday 








Thursday, February 6, 2014

Is it a beach? Or is it a mountain?

I love how the blue sky pops against the winterized trees.   It reminds me of a winter beach.   But that could also be because I am dreaming of a beautiful beach in a temperate climate to help take away my pains....Ahhh what dreams I have....maybe in a couple of years....




Wednesday, February 5, 2014

"Frosted"

I've Always been fascinated by icicles.   As a kid, we would take our lives in our hands and pull/ knock them off the house  and take the chance that they would fall and land in our eye(at least that's the danger I always pictured) just so we could suck on an icicle and drink the ice cold water.   Later in life, I feared for my children's eyes.   Even later, I just love watching the ight glistening on them.   So many beautiful things are delicate and strong at the same time.  Icicles are one. So when these huge icicles showed up overnight in the middle of the snow storm....I couldn't wait to photograph them.....enjoy "Frosted"! 






My 365


As most of you know, I started my 365 to help me find myself and my self worth again.  This isn't the first time that I have had to find myself.  I think everyone has to rediscover their selves and their self worth throughout their lives.  Maybe not always to the extremes that I have found in my life but I have never been known to do things in a small way (unless it was purposeful and then it really was large disguised as small..lol).  

We all struggle to find ourselves for the first time as a teen.   Unfortunately for me, I stumbled across my ex-husband during that time and pretty quickly, he got in my head and made me feel worthless....the better to beat you with my dear.  Seriously, he needed me doubting myself because he never was nor did he ever feel worthy of my love.  His was a self fulfilling prophecy.  "No one ever stays with me"  Well, yeah, give them enough time, even your favorite punching bag realizes that she deserves better.  Hence my first rediscovery.  

Years passed along with much counseling.  Truthfully, I built my self worth around my ability to fight back from being this mousy little girl who let some disgusting human being(for lack of a better word) convince her that she was less than she was to being a self sufficient mother of 3 who for the most part raised them alone.  I not only ran my household but I ran a successful dental office.   

Well, my disease took that away.  

I'm learning to accept help.  I'm learning to trust, even when it goes against every fiber of my self preservation.   I'm learning that my self preservation is overinflated much as my nervous system is.  She's scared that Greg will leave.  She's scared to depend upon him.  She's scared to trust him.  Well, he's been teaching her that she has nothing to fear from him and I've been having some very serious sit downs with her, trying to shut her up.  Truth of the matter is that it's been almost 7 years.  Have I been hurt at all in those years, well duh yeah, we have to leave room for the fact that I am dealing with a human male. But has he ever intentionally hurt me or hurt me in any way that is unforgivable.....absolutely not!  So it's time to let go of the lessons that men of my past have taught me and time to let the love in. 

It's also time to learn that just because my self-worth is being redefined, it does not mean that I am worth less.  I'm just worth different :)   

So all this self discovery was sparked by a comment someone made randomly on Facebook stating that they can't wait for spring so they don't have to look at the same yards covered in snow.  And then he liked my photo....LOL  Irony at it's best.    


Please enjoy todays offering (which has been delayed in posting due to Greg's light sleeping habits and my compulsion to never post anything incomplete as I know myself and it will most likely never be updated...lol)  

Monday, February 3, 2014

"Patriotic Snow"

I spent most of my day in bed in horrible pain.  The weather combined with a barometric pressure swing that entails going from almost 50 degrees down to currently in the single digits did not do well for my body.   

Putting all that aside , I love taking photographs in the snow.  The short bit out if bed , I spent a total of about an hour today taking photos in the dark early this morning, as the sun rose and then when it was up this afternoon.  Of all the shots I took today, I share my favorite : "Patriotic Snow".  Enjoy! 




Saturday, February 1, 2014

"Upward 1"

I plan on taking this photograph several different ways in the future.  Enjoy!