It snowed here all day Sunday. We ended up getting  around six inches and we got another inch Monday,  although by around four a lot of it had melted.  These are a few of the pictures I got  first thing Monday morning. I also took a roll of pictures on my film camera.

 The pond in front of my house, always looks amazing in the snow.

 This is a farm near ours that I think looked pretty awesome in this picture.

 I love old buildings that look like they could fall down any day now. You can't see it that well in the picture but this barn is leaning as if it could just fall on it's side any minute.

 This lovely little church is in Fults, the closest town to my house, not that it really has more than a post office and church.

 I think that the distant factory (if that's what it is) in this picture is actually  across the Mississippi river and in Missouri . I love everything about this picture.

Living on top of these bluffs is a bit like living in the mountains, it's lovely. I took this in the bottoms (the area below the bluff). I think the bluffs are beautiful this time of the year.

 I took this and the next two photos at the local cemetery.

         This is my favorite picture of the day.

This head stone was perfectly covered in snow.

I hope y'all have an awesome Tuesday.  Is any one else getting worse weather now than they had when it was actually winter?

Spring Goals 2013

In honor of spring officially beginning, despite the insane Illinois weather not reflecting that at all, I thought I would share my spring goal list with you guys.  My general rules for goal lists are that they push either my natural tendencies or a rut that I've fallen into.  The goal should be reasonable, rather then something I know won't happen.  The only other rule I consider to be very important is that no goal requires a lot of money and that most are free or under twenty dollars this helps me insure that my goals  achievable . So without further rambling here's my list.

Read 8 Books:  Reading 20 books is on my 2013 goal list though it would be awesome to exceed that.  Since I tend to read the most in the spring and Summer I thought I'd try to read about half of my goal during spring. 

Plant my Flower garden: I always enjoy having a flower garden and since I didn't plant one last year I decided that it would be a perfect goal.

Press Some Flowers: I haven't pressed any flowers since I was about ten and I've been really wanting to again so as soon as my flowers start blooming I plan to press some.

Start a Scrap Book: I've been talking about this for years, there has always been some reason for not doing this sooner but this year I'm set on doing this even if I fail. 

Take an art Class: The woman I've taken classes from for years moved to long island a few months ago.  I have actually managed to be successful in finding a place that has a wide range of beginning -advanced classes for reasonable prices.  I'm planning to start taking classes there in April. 

Start a Blog: Well I have managed to do this and I'm at the end of week one I just have no idea of what people actually think of this blog or if anyone is reading it for that matter.  I'm changing my goal from starting a blog to having people actually read my blog. 

Finish getting my Driving Hours: Here in Illinois you must have 50 hours of driving and at least 10 of those must be at night, before you can get your license.   It has been surprisingly hard to get the night hours and after talking to other people this seems pretty common, though I think a large part of my problem has been having other people drive when I could.

Volunteer at the Animal Shelter: I will be turning 16 in less than a month which is the age you have to be in Illinois to volunteer at the Animal shelter.   I'll have my driver’s license then to so it'll be way easier to get there.

Go to Five Local Places I've Never Been To: There is a ton of awesome stuff to do within a four to five hours from my house and after six years of living in this area off and on, we just haven't done much of it.

 I would love to know your opinion and some of your goals have an amazing weekend!

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Pictures From my Trip to the Zoo

My mom and I decided to make a trip over to the zoo yesterday, it was a perfect day for it, not too crowded and surprisingly warm.  A nice reprieve from the miserable "winter" weather and being trapped indoors all the time.  I'm so happy that we went over yesterday because it's snowing today, not the perfect first day of spring I was hoping for. 

I thought these penguins swimming together were so sweet.

An owl in the bird house that "posed" perfectly for me.

My favorite picture of the day.

These guys gave us a great show. they were one of the more entertaining animals.

I wish this picture showed how beautiful these toucans are they looked fake they are so pretty.

This fellow was simply majestic standing so perfectly in the sun.

I was really excited that she was up and moving as all the other big cats were bathing in the sun.

These zebras were so full of life it was wonderful getting to watch them run and play.

He was the first animal we saw when we got there.

My First Post

Hello world, I'm Lauren.
This is my first blog post (that's pretty clear though).I'm planing to "talk" about my immediate plans for the blog , things I plan to regularly blog about until I have a better picture of where this is going.

photography)  I plan to have loads of photo posts including:a photo an hour once a month, random ones of my animals, cemeteries and anything else that strikes my fancy.

animals)  I have a dog(Grace), a fish(Buddy) and a horse(Spice). Though don't let that list fool you there  are way more animals in my life then just that, between our farm animals,strays,the seemingly hundreds of cats that reside here. You'll be seeing all of this a lot and "hearing" some stories about them that I think are worth sharing.

my recovery)  I'll probably only post about this once a month or so. I tend to be pretty open about this subject because I know that sharing my story is important  I've had depressive tendencies and anxiety problems for many years . Helping others with anything from depression to loss and grief ,is one of my main goals in life. I hope that my story helps at least one person.

daily life) I'll be sharing monthly or bimonthly updates about my ever changing life.

literature/film)  I'll be sharing what I've been reading and watching along with a short review.

Art/crafting)  I enjoy all types of art and crafting. I plan to share what is going on in that part of my life and maybe some tutorials.