Something you haven't heard of yet, but you need to..

So here is my "Welcome to Facebook!" post for a brand new page called Rooted in Dust
This is a musical project that's just been started by a very talented, and aspiring young musician named Jordan Nickerson (age 19)
Jordan writes his own songs (music and lyrics) and has just started sharing his work with the online community.
Seriously. You need to check out his page. Now this page has just been started, so give him some time to get his feet on the ground, and in the meantime make sure you listen to his song Worth which has recently been posted.

Psst..click on this link here for his page> Rooted in Dust or this one for a direct link to his song > Worth

I talked briefly with Jordan about his goals for his music. He explained how he wanted his music to not only be original, but to convey a thought-provoking message. He wants to get people thinking about their own lives, and the role that God plays in each and every part of them. It's his goal through his music to get people thinking about how "Man is small, and God is big. Without Him we are just foolish children wandering around blindly."
Jordan stated to me "I want my music to convey something deep, relevant, and important."

So you should all go "like" his Facebook page. Show him some encouragement, and feel free to share his page with your friends as well.
I think it's safe to say that we can be expecting some pretty awesome music from this kid. I can definitely see him going somewhere with this amazing gift he has.

Possibly the Dumbest Hummingbird in the World

We've never had a problem like this before. Every year, we hang up a hummingbird feeder by our front door. We also tend to leave our front door open in the summer, as our house is not air conditioned so it's nice to have the fresh air flowing in. We've never before had any problem with this.
This year however, on four or five separate occasions, one specific hummingbird has flown right past the feeder and into the house! That's a problem. He just zooms around our cathedral ceiling with absolutely no chance of reaching him. A couple of times he's flown out of the window in the loft, but this bird really isn't the brightest thing.

So the other day, he flew in and after flying around for a while he got tired (and probably exhausted from heat) and landed. We caught him and brought him outside, but he refused to fly away.

My mom held him to the sugar water so that he could get some hydration.

He drank for a while...and then he died. Very sad.

Or so we thought...

We put him on a wood box outside just on the off chance that he was still alive..and when we came back to check on him, he was gone.

Then the next day my mom found this blog post sharing a story of a similar incident. Apparently this is a thing?

So we decided that that's probably what happened to our hummingbird friend. Our suspicions were confirmed when a few days later the EXACT SAME BIRD was stuck in our house again. Clearly not the brightest animal.

Father's Day Post

So I'm going to get a little personal for a second...

This is my daddy..

Harold Charles Larkin. He was born in 1924, and lived a long and happy life to the age of 86. He was in World War 2, raised two families, built the house that I grew up in, and never stopped enjoying life.

When people find out how old my dad was, they're almost always surprised. Growing up, people always thought I was his granddaughter. When I was little, my dad would take me places, and people would say "oh, how cute..is this your granddaughter?" and he would always start laughing, and correct them "Nope. She's my daughter." *cue awkward glances* I didn't realize it was weird. Once the neighbor boy told everyone in school that I didn't have a father. I yelled at him for saying it, but thinking back on it, I guess it was just an honest mistake. 

Growing up with a much older father was definitely a unique experience, and while I probably missed out on certain aspects of a typical father-child relationship, I wouldn't have changed a thing. Everyone who met my daddy loved him. He was such a young soul, that you almost forgot his real age...and he seriously knew everyone. We couldn't go anywhere without him running into someone he knew.

I'm an old soul, and for that I blame him. We used to listen to old records, and watch The Lawrence Welk Show. Because of him I'm familiar with old comedians like Red Skelton,  and all of Bob Hope's "Road to.." movies. Not to mention the fact that my dad's idea of a bedtime lullaby was this Irish drinking song which he would sing to me every night when I was little.

He was definitely a unique person, and I miss him more and more every day. It definitely makes me sad to think about the fact that my children will never get to meet him. But let me tell you..he was a great dad...and he raised his kids to be great people, and great parents themselves.

Me, and all my brothers

Even though I know that my brothers all miss him more than anything today, they all have reason to celebrate on this day. They're all either fathers themselves, or they will be fathers someday. Some of them are even grandfathers. So no matter what, this will be their day. As the only girl, it's hard for me to enjoy this day. I don't have my father with me anymore, nor will I ever be a father. So no matter how much I celebrate the other fathers in my life (brothers, uncles etc,) Father's Day will always be more of a burden than anything for me. 

But with that thought aside, I really do want to wish the sincerest Happy Father's Day to my brothers. They really are great dads, just like our daddy was, and they deserve to be celebrated today.

A few things that I love..

1. I love reconnecting with old friends. I got a message today from someone that I was really close with in college, but haven't been in touch with in a couple of years...and it really kind of made my day.

2. I love making other people happy.

Back Story:
There's an older couple who stay at our hotel quite frequently. They called a couple of days ago to let us know that they were coming this evening, and while I was on the phone with them, they mentioned to me that they were actually getting married today. Now they're really the nicest people, so I figured we should probably do something special for them since it's their wedding day and all.

So I made them a little gift basket to give them at check in. (Note: this act was slightly selfish, as I am constantly trying to find excuses to do anything wedding related)

(ignore all the stuff on the counter behind it)

(In case you're wondering why there's a dog bone, it's because they have an adorable little, extremely well behaved dog that just follows them everywhere they go)

But whether the act was selfish or not, it made them smile. So mission accomplished.

3, 4, and 5.

THIS

hahahaha my new phone case. Let me explain.

I've already mentioned my weird obsession with phone cases...and considering the number of cats I have, I'm sure you can figure out that I love them too...but the third thing that I have a secret love for...animal puns. hahah I literally laugh every time..no matter how stupid..I just can't help it. I mean seriously now..try not to laugh.

aaahahahaha it never gets old!

And now something I don't love: Slicing open my baby toe. yeah. That just happened. I was going to post a picture, but it's far too gruesome

P.S. Shout out to my cyber stalkers. You know who you are ;)

Mother-daughter Day

Today was definitely a no-makeup kind of day.

(Check out those raccoon eyes haha)

I woke up at noon. I blame the rainy weather.

But today was actually a really lovely day. I spent the day with my mom. We had a really nice lunch at a local pizza place (Avanti's)
Check out this hot delicious, cheesy, saucy Country Sweet Calzone.

YUM.

We stopped for a quick shop at the grocery store, and then we went around to a couple of little greenhouses at the side of the road. Between my me and my mom, we have a very serious plant buying problem. We just can't get enough of them! There's always another and another and another that catch our eye, and clearly we must have them all. So in the end, we came home with quite a few plants

Most of them are being planted in the gardens either at my mom's house, or at the Old House, but with some of the smaller ones, and a couple of rocks as well, I made a little mini garden, of which I am very fond.

Cute right?

And then we did a little scrap-booking with some old-timey family photos.

So..pretty decent day, considering how short it has been for me. (I've only been awake a little over 7 hours)

But now I'm going to curl up and watch a movie with miss Riley.

My (soon-to-be) Unhealthy Obsession

The iPhone 4. White. Uncased.

Such a rare and beautiful sight.
If I could keep my iPhone in perfect condition without having a case on it. I would. Trust me, I tried for a while...but after dropping/unintentionally throwing my phone across the floor for the 4th or 5th time, I decided that I had tempted fate for too long. Clearly I had been lucky up to this point, and my clumsiness was bound to catch up with me sooner or later.

So while on vacation at Disney World, my  mom bought me a vintage style Mickey Mouse iPhone case.

..and that started it.  It opened me up to a whole new world of personal expression and iPhone protection. lol.  I decided that if I can't have my sleek, simple, uncased iPhone, then I'm going to protect it in style. I've since developed a weird obsession with iPhone cases. While I've only actually bought two, other than the one above, I'm constantly looking at them online, trying to find the next perfect case.
So far, in addition to my Mickey Mouse case, I have this rubber whale case

Complete with adorable little anchor detail on the front..

And my most recent purchase, and current iPhone covering...

The Tardis. Love it.

Now obviously, I could be spending my money on much worse things...so it's not the most unhealthy obsession that I could have...but here's the thing that makes it bad.
Have you ever actually tried to get an iPhone case off of an iPhone? It is not always an easy task! The rubber ones-no problem...but the hard cases? I cannot explain to you the rage that fills me when struggling to un-case this ridiculously slippery and tricky piece of technology.

Maybe it's just me. I don't know. But no matter. It's obviously not enough to keep me from feeding my addiction.

Glorious Return

So it's been almost 6 months since my last post. Wow..that's a problem. I can't say that I'll never let it happen again, but I've definitely decided to make an effort at posting more often. So let's see if I can update you on everything that's happened in my life since my last post.

Nothing.

Haha just kidding. Things have happened...just nothing according to my plan. Here's how things really went.

I still live with my momma. My house is yet to be finished, but some progress has been made.
Still working a lot..and I still enjoy my job, for the most part.
Got my heart broken
Wanted desperately to run away to South Dakota and climb rocks in the Bad Lands.
Didn't get to climb rocks
Attempted to feel better by dying my hair (as you're supposed to when you've been dumped)
My hair came out almost the exact same color as it was before (not satisfying)
Work, sleep, work, sleep, work
Said goodbye to one of my oldest friends, as she goes off to travel the world
Work, sleep, work, sleep, work
and now I have two days off in a row and literally don't know what to do with myself.

I need some hobbies.
This morning I attempted to entertain myself by taking this very pretty, yet slightly outdated hand-me-down skirt that my friend gave me..

And turned it into a cute, slightly outdated dress.

 Not my best work, but considering that I didn't do any actual measuring, marking, or pinning, and I basically just guessed...I think it turned out pretty good...also it only took about 4 minutes.

So I still have about 9 or 10 more hours in my day...what to do next...

I think I'm going to make a lasagna. I've been craving it.