I'm Baaaack...

So I've kind of disappeared from the Internet this past week because life decided to become insane all at once. :| Here's an explanation:

This week I've been babysitting a 3-year-old from 8AM-5PM, starting on Monday, ending today. I've been busy keeping up with this energetic little guy and helping him with the things he needs.

Then on Monday my mom went into the hospital because she'd been having trouble with her gall bladder and the pain finally got to be too much. I'll just give you my Facebook updates because those all explain the situation pretty well...

Tuesday, in response to someone asking how my mom was doing: "Not sure. She said she had a rough night and was off food until they did a test this morning. My dad came home to work while they were still doing it at around 9:30-10 and we haven't been able to get a hold of her since. We figure she's either sleeping it off or having another test done."
Tuesday night: "Visited Mom tonight after going to the temple. She said she was doing okay, but starving because they're not letting her eat or drink. The doctors know that they're going to remove the gall bladder, it's just a matter of when they decide to do it. They say that her gall bladder is full of 'sludge' (basically sand) and that it probably backed up, which irritated and freaked out the pancreas. So the pancreas is flipping out and the gall bladder is backed up, so that accounts for all the pain. The problem is that when the pancreas is swollen and irritated, it becomes extremely sensitive; so sensitive that just bumping it in surgery can cause other problems. So the pancreas will have to calm down some before they can remove the gall bladder. Mom is meeting with the surgeon(or doctor) tomorrow and they'll tell her what the plan is."

Wednesday morning: "Just found out that Mom is, indeed, going to have surgery today at 12:30. Please send prayers or thoughts hoping that the surgeon's hands will be guided and all attending to her will be working in full clarity. The prayers we've received already are greatly appreciated, and I know Mom appreciates the support and love she's being shown."
Wednesday night: "Just got home from visiting Mom. The surgery went well and she's doing okay, but in quite a fog from the morphine. She's recovered enough to laugh at Karissa's and my shenanigans, so that's definitely a good sign. :)
The surgeon did find a cyst on one of her ovaries that was about 3 inches. They left it alone because they want her to recuperate and they want to make sure it's not cancerous. They're going to monitor it's growth (or lack thereof) and consult with an OB/GYN and decide on when they're going to remove it. Overall, though, she's doing really well and seems to be healing quickly for having just had surgery."

Thursday afternoon: "Visited Mom a little bit ago; she was sleeping, so I didn't stay long. She's doing better, she's off oxygen and her IV. Still pretty sore and physically drained, I think. But better."

Today: "Found out yesterday that Mom gets to come home today!! So glad she won't have to spend Mother's Day in the hospital. She's meeting with the OB/GYN today to discuss the cyst on her ovary. She said yesterday that she doesn't want it to stay, but she'd certainly rather not have another surgery (this one would have to be more invasive). We all really appreciate all of the prayers that have been sent out for her, and I feel kind of bad for asking for a few more, but I would be incredibly thankful if anyone would be willing to pray that the cyst will be taken care of in the best way possible, whether through surgery or it breaking down & disappearing on its own.
Again, thank you everyone for all of the prayers and well wishes! We all truly appreciate and are thankful for them. :)"

Today, 46 minutes ago: "The OB/GYN has studied the cyst and says that it will probably burst and be absorbed back into the body, and believes that the contents of it are not cancerous or dangerous to her. They'll probably have her go back in for an ultrasound in several weeks to see what it's been doing, but otherwise she gets to come home and recuperate from her surgery. As of now she's just waiting for the hospital doctor to discharge her, and should be home around noon."

So my dad and I are anxiously waiting for her to be discharged while my siblings are at school. This whole experience has been eye-opening for me. I never felt that my mother was in mortal danger, but yesterday I was slammed emotionally with a longing for her to just be home, back to normal, and able to give me a hug and talk to me. It's made me realize how dependent I still am on her emotionally. I'm glad that she'll be home for Mother's Day, and I'm relieved that this experience is ending and we're moving to the recovery stage now. I'm thankful for the things this whole endeavor has taught me, and I'm really thankful for the family and friends who have shown support, given well-wishes, and prayed for her and my family. I'm just overall really happy that everything went well, when it could have taken a turn for the worse at any time.

So just to update you art-wise, I have a bunch of drawings to scan and post, I've just been too busy to get to it (and my mom's computer, the only one the scanner will work with, is with her at the hospital). My family's doing well, and after a low evening yesterday I'm feeling much better. :)

Hobbies, Part 3

In previous posts I talked about my love of drawing and writing.

This time, the topic is reading.

Since I learned to read I've loved it. Reading a good book was the equivalent of playing a really fun game with my sister. I can still remember old copies of picture books that I had read to me quite often. Several of them are still with us, kept in the family room with other books. A few of my favorites I've abducted and keep in my room.

Whenever someone would say that they hated reading, I could never understand why they hated something that was so enjoyable for me. I understand it more now, but it still baffles me. I've always had an easy time reading words, aloud or in my head. As I grew older, I would notice in school that other kids had a difficult time reading words that were so obvious and easy for me; back then it was only irritating (and sometimes still is), especially when other people would read aloud, but as I got older I recognized that reading wasn't super easy for some other people. I still struggle with being patient when people I know struggle reading aloud, it's something that will always bother me, but I know it's not something people really think about (and therefore want to fix), so I never say anything rude about it.

Since I've read so many books throughout my life, I can't post a complete list of favorites, but I will post a short list that iterates some of them.

Childhood Favorites & Children's Books I've Discovered Recently
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble
The Mud Pony by Caron Lee Cohen
The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin
Tonweya and the Eagles by Rosebud Yellow Robe
The Quest for Eloshidii
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Henrietta and the Hat by Mabel Watts
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr.
The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! by Mo Willems

Bluebird by Bob Staake
The Curious Garden by Peter Brown
Mossy by Jan Brett
Exclamation Mark by Amy Rouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld

Middle Grade Books
The Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky
On the Run series by Gordon Korman
Kidnapped series by Gordon Korman
Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi
Pony Pals series
Avalon: Web of Magic series by Rachel Roberts
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
Flush by Carl Hiaasen
Scat by Carl Hiaasen
Chomp by Carl Hiaasen
Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Smile by Raina Telgemeier
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George
The Flame of Olympus by Kate O'Hearn
Wild Wings by Gill Lewis
Secondhand Charm by Julie Berry

YA Books
Dragon Slippers series by Jessica Day George (one of my favorite authors)
The Healing Wars trilogy by Janice Hardy
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
Dragon's Milk by Susan Fletcher
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
From Far Away (manga series) by Kyoko Hikawa
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender
Virals series by Kathy Reichs
Vampirates series by Justin Somper
Flecks of Gold by Alicia Buck
Ice by Sarah Beth Durst
The Moon Riders by Theresa Tomlinson
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George
Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis
Marty and Grace series by Roland Smith
Peak by Roland Smith
First Light by Rebecca Stead
The Last Dog on Earth by Daniel Ehrenhaft
Takeoffs and Landings by Margaret Peterson Haddix
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
Ancient, Strange, and Lovely by Susan Fletcher
Sketchy Behavior by Erynn Mangum
Entwined by Heather Dixon
Blackbringer by Laini Taylor
Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby
Above World series by Jenn Reese
Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John
Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser
The Compound by S. A. Bodeen
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George
Princess of the Silver Woods by Jessica Day George

Non-fiction
The Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet by Neil deGrasse Tyson
The Man Who Listens to Horses by Monty Roberts
Penguin Life: Surviving With Style in the South Atlantic by Andy Rouse
The Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Back the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan
Falling for Eli: How I Lost Heart, Then Gained Hope Through the Love of a Singular Horse by Nancy Shulins
Death from the Skies!: These Are The Ways The World Will End by Phil Plait
Bad Astronomy by Phil Plait

Classics
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brönte
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

So, yeah, this post is really long, kind of boring, but check out at least a couple of the lists. You might find a new favorite book.

April Showers bring May... Snow?

Yep, it's snowing here in the beautiful state of Misery Missouri.

Snow.

That white, cold, fluffy stuff?

Yeah.

In May.

Well into Spring.

See, this is proof, PROOF!, that God has a sense of humor. I can't imagine any other reason as to why it would be snowing in May.

That, or it's just Missouri weather. We have a saying here...

'If you're here and you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. It'll change.'

Hobbies Part 2

Yesterday I posted about my love and history of drawing. Tonight you will be told about my love of writing (whether you want to or not). ;)

As a kid I was always coming up with fantasy stories. I loved mythological creatures and when my sisters, friends and I played (whether with Barbies, toy horses, or without toys at all) I was always coming up with fantastical plots to act out. Once the Disney movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire came out, my sister and I were obsessed and always incorporated some sort of element from the movie into our games.

Despite how much I liked stories and making them up, I didn't really enjoy writing until around fourth grade; I blame this on tedious school assignments given in kindergarten and second grade. I remember one particular assignment in second grade where we had to copy an article about Abraham Lincoln and do it in our best handwriting. That didn't do much of anything to help my love of writing.

I don't remember when exactly I suddenly liked to write stories, but I remember doing a short story for a contest in fourth grade and really enjoying it. After that I think I slowly grew to love writing and did it more often, along with drawing.

In sixth or seventh grade I discovered www.nanowrimo.org, or National Novel Writing Month. Granted I didn't get any of my stories very far up off the ground until ninth grade when I began to take NaNoWriMo more seriously. I knew all of my stories would be novels; there was too much in my head for them not to be. In eighth grade I actually read the story I was most actively working on to my English class (which was awesome, by the way).

After almost a full semester of  ninth grade, my parents and I decided that it would be best for me to be home schooled. This gave me more time to work on my stories and drawings. At that point I was able to work on NaNoWriMo a lot more and was actually able to get close to halfway through, which was a big leap from the previous few years.

Eighth and ninth grade were the peak for my writing travels. After ninth grade the amount of time spent on writing decreased as I focused more on developing my drawing skills. As the years progressed to the present, the time spent on writing continuously dropped until I wasn't writing at all. I think most of this was due to my focus on drawing, plus the writing block I was suffering from almost constantly.

Last year my friend and I did a story for NaNoWriMo together and we won, which was very exciting and fun. :) She has her own blog, you should check it out: http://firefliesandbowties.blogspot.com/

As of now, I haven't been writing at all for quite some time. I tried to start a short story, but I wasn't really into it and sort of gave up on it. For quite a while now I've been meaning to get back into writing and working on my stories. It's just a matter of time and interest, I suppose.

Anyway, this is part two about my hobbies. Part three to come. Hope I'm not boring you.

Hobbies, Part 1

So the other day I posted an introductory post in which I told you about some of my interests.

Well, okay, I didn't really tell you about them, I just posted a long list of things I like. I'm going to break this up into several different posts, just because explaining them all in one post would take forever.

So today I'm going to elaborate more on the things that I like to do... starting with

Drawing

I've been drawing since I was a little kid. I don't remember always drawing before I was in third grade, but my mom tells me that I've been drawing since I could hold a pencil.

When I was in third grade I was pretty into stick figure drawings. Now I know what you're thinking, 'everyone draws stick figures, why were you so into that?' Well I drew stick figures, but I gave the girls skirts and actually gave them stories and had them interact with each other. It was fun.

At that time I was also into horses (I've always been into horses) and so I was always drawing horses. I would also draw people who weren't stick figures, but I think it was mostly stick figures or about even...

Once I hit age 12 I discovered manga/anime and decided I wanted to be able to draw that. Over the next two years my art developed in leaps and bounds as I checked out anime drawing books from the library (and even bought some of my own). Over the years I continued to develop, my own style developing subconsciously as I drew.

At about fourth or fifth grade I stopped drawing horses; I was focusing more on drawing people, so I was drawing them all the time.

Maybe a year and a half ago I started drawing horses again and went on a bit of a people hiatus.

The point of this post was to show you what I've been doing now, but I got kind of off topic...

Anyway, I've been mostly doodling for a while now so there aren't a lot of super cleaned up drawings...

http://fav.me/d612zvh

http://fav.me/d6130f3

http://fav.me/d6130pi

http://fav.me/d6130zd

http://fav.me/d613141

http://fav.me/d61319u

http://fav.me/d6131eb

http://fav.me/d6131kw

Enjoy!

An Introduction of Sorts...

So I suppose, if someone stumbled upon this post, their train of thought would flow something like this:

Oh, look, another blog...

This must be the first post, what with the title...

Okay, so far this introduction isn't all crap...

I wonder if this is just another blog in the sea that is the mighty blogosphere...probably...

All right, so maybe your train of thought doesn't exactly roll like that, but I'm going to just assume that it went something vaguely like that.

So to answer the half-question that is the last statement, yes, technically this is just another blog in the sea that is the mighty blogosphere, but I'm hoping it's not another normal blog in the sea that is the mighty blogosphere.

I suppose I should get on with the introduction, then...

Basic facts about the organism-that-is-me:

Name: Ha, like I'm going to broadcast that to the Internet! For all intents and purposes, I am Darkened Owl to you. Or Owl. Whichever is easier for you to type.
Age: No specific number, but it is somewhere between 15 and 20. Good luck guessing.
Gender: Female. No, I will not be your girlfriend.
Sexual Orientation: You know, five years ago this wouldn't be something people would actively want to know (unless they had a crush on someone, I guess...). Anyway, I'm straight. AND JUST BECAUSE I AM STRAIGHT DOES NOT MEAN THAT I HATE GAYS AND LESBIANS AND BISEXUALS AND TRANSGENDER PEOPLE. Just so we're clear...
Appearance: If you are my friend on Facebook, you know what I look like. If you are not my friend on Facebook, here are a few general descriptors: brunette, pale, brown eyes, short-ish, fairly freckled, is sometimes seen wearing glasses.
Personality: If I seriously tried to describe all aspects of my personality here and now, I don't think I would ever be able to post this post, so again, here are some general descriptors: quiet, friendly, random (sometimes), hyper (sometimes), somewhat OCD, bookish, creative, particular, um...
Likes (a short list in no particular order): Owls, penguins, PIXAR animation studios, snakes, geckos, dogs, birds, art, outer space, the Indian flute, bread, reading, learning, Disney, wolves, whales, horses, trees, water, the ocean, California, the cello, Black Beauty, Alaska, The Black Stallion, Imogen Heap, Linkin Park, Antarctica, Ellie Goulding, Australia, chocolate, New Zealand, Bhutan,Wreck It Ralph, Nepal, blue, leaves, purple, campfires, the harp, cozy places, origami, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, comfortable clothes, green, rivers, making things, learning new skills, drawing, writing, orange, the sky, heirlooms, skeleton keys, Native American culture, fish, eating fish, Italian food, pizza, sushi, ducks, wind, rain, seaweed, seashells, nature, forests, waterfalls, crocheting, Sarah McLachlan, The Piano Guys, Loreena McKennitt..
Dislikes (a short list in no particular order): The Pocahontas movie (because it's historically inaccurate), politics, asparagus, tuna that tastes like seawater and sand, rude people, curse words, when people speak of sex unnecessarily, nude art (it's just weird...), politicians, pushy atheists, rude religious people, cheaply made stuff, cauliflower, when spiders crawl on me, horror movies, the smell of alcohol, smoke (I can feel it making my lungs tighten...seriously), being landlocked, people who discriminate against LGBTs, LGBTs who are rude to straight people for no reason, cats (most of them), cicadas, mosquitoes, steamed spinach

Okay, those were long lists... to wrap this abridged autobiography up, I'm just going to list a few more facts about myself...

I live in the USA, I'm the oldest of 4 children, my parents are happily married, my family has 2 crazy mutts, I gave my sister a frog and she killed it with soap, I'm home schooled, all three of my siblings have a fear of bees (I don't), I'm nocturnal, I am severely annoyed by Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, and Ke$ha (and I'm not afraid to say it), space fascinates me, if I could give myself some crazy physical feature, I would give myself working wings, James Patterson ruined the Maximum Ride series.

Okay, so that last one wasn't really about me, but I'm severely annoyed by it.

One other thing you should know is that I have two mascots/muses that pop up everywhere. They're best friends, both male, and species that I came up with on my own...sort of.

So, without further delay, meet

Trevor the Feather Snake and Ridley the Owl Quail!!

Trevor the Feather Snake, Ridley the Owl Quail, and art ©DarkenedOwl