Master Sword

Tomorrow is the start of Fall Break which means a long weekend with Joe home, and I'm so excited!  I'm trying very hard to work through my to-do list for today so that I can fully enjoy the extra time with him.

Míriel is so crazy but she is so fun to photograph.  I'm wondering if I would have time to pull off doing Halloween costumes with her...  I'm also wondering if she would actually be a good model.  It's been two years since I last did costumes, and that was with Haleth who ended up being fairly rotten while wearing her costumes.  Haha!  I think I'll pull out my old list of ideas and see if I think I can do any of them with Míriel.

Elendil is probably too small for Halloween costumes and is a bit harder to photograph anyways since he's pretty shy.  But maybe I could try doing one costume with him.  We'll see if I have time to make anything for Elendil, but I'm guessing that if I am able to do costumes this year, it'll just be Míriel modeling them.

Dining Room Chairs

For the last couple of months, I've been really missing my mother-in-law, Paula.  10 years ago, when we were still grieving the loss of Joe's grandma and adjusting to Joe's new job at Snider, his mother suddenly passed away.  There were about 60 days between the deaths of his grandma and his mom, and they occurred at the same place.  I remember the staff being bewildered and struggling to know what to say to us because they remembered Paula.  She had been there so much as she cared for her mother, and she was so strong through it all.  But that was just the way Paula was.  She was a fiercely strong and caring women.  I miss her so much.  I miss the love, support, and encouragement that seeped out of her onto everyone around her.  I miss the fierceness within her that she used to protect us.  I miss her generous spirit that reached out to those struggling who just needed a hand to get back up again.  I miss the way she made you want to be a better person.  There was so much I wanted to learn from her; so much I wish I could ask her.  I see so much of Paula in her sons, Joe and Quinn.  💗

Paula never knew about my love for hamsters.  I got Tarcil just days before she went to the hospital and I never told her about him as it didn't seem important.  Plus, I knew she hated mice so I kinda assumed she wouldn't have liked hamsters either.  But regardless of that, I know she would have been so encouraging and supportive of this blog.  I'm honestly a bit surprised to realize that I've had this blog for over 10 years now.  My goals were to have a outlet for me to practice being creative with a cute, but not necessarily cooperative model.  I wanted the end result to be cute pictures to bring joy to others.  While I think I've maintained these goals, I do think haven't always been good about pushing myself as much for creative pictures.  And my writing has shifted from superficial fluff just to have something to post to me sharing authentically about my feelings about what's going on in my life.  I don't know who, if anyone, reads my blog posts.  I used to spend a lot of time focusing on the analytics and trying to promote my blogs, but as I've gotten older, I've realized I truly don't care about any of that because the act of writing is cathartic for me.  And so I continue.  Sometimes out of a weird sense of obligation, but mostly because I just enjoy it.  I like creating scenes or figuring out ways to showcase the cuteness of the hamsters, I like taking the pictures, I like editing them, I like writing and journaling about my life, and I like publishing these posts.  For someone who craves control, releasing these posts out to the internet not knowing who will see them is both freeing and therapeutic to me.  

Míriel probably has the biggest personality of any hamster I've ever had.  She can be so loud and demanding.  She definitely loves food, especially treats!

Elendil is my precious boy.  Seeing him just melts my heart.  He's ridiculously cute, especially because of his size.  He's just so dang tiny, and so extremely long.  And then there's his tail that he uses to hold onto my fingers which is just hilarious because his tail is so short.  I love him so much.

Gold Chair

Sometimes I can be grumpy when I first wake up, so I make a point to get up before Joe so he doesn't witness it.  Joe tends to fall back asleep after his alarm so I usually have to wake him up and by then, I'm so happy.  Each day, I'm generally completely optimistic that it'll be such a good day and that I can get all the things done I hope to do, no matter how long the to-do list is and how unrealistic that is.  Let me say that today is no different.  Unfortunately I lack the ability to accurately estimate how long tasks will take so I just assume I can easily do them all in a day.  Spoiler alert: I can't.  So understandably, I'm behind on photography stuff, have a list of household tasks I've not gotten to yet, and have a project for church I'm determined to start and finish today.  And in the midst of all of that, I'm dreaming of art projects I want to do.  But it's still early in the day and I'm still so optimistic I can easily get everything done.  I just need to focus.  That should be easy... right?  

My finger is still not fully healed from Míriel biting me.  The ironic part of this story is that I was having a moment of absolutely loving and doting on Elendil and realized I felt guilty for not doting equally on Míriel.  So I decided to put Elendil back in his home and got treats for Míriel (who I knew was awake as well because she was making an absolute ruckus).  Anyways, I scoped her up and set her on my other arm so I could grab the treats for her and she turned and bit my right index finger really hard.  The blood immediately started dripping so I quickly put her down and ran to the bathroom to tend to my finger.  So yeah, she's still as crazy as ever. 

 Elendil is the sweetest hamster I've ever owned.  I've never felt any fear or apprehension that he would bite me.  He's often awake in the evenings before we go to bed and while I don't think he loves being held, I do think he is associating us with food and treats so he doesn't hide from us nearly as much anymore.  I still am so captivated by how small he is.  Seeing him brings me so much joy!

White Mug

After spending a wonderful summer together with Joe, I've found myself not just missing him, but also remembering his first year teaching at Snider.  He got the job 10 years ago.  He had applied earlier in the summer but not heard back from them and the school year was quickly approaching.  It had been a rough year helping care for his grandma who declined quickly after a bad fall and ultimately passed away at the end of July that year, just a couple days after our second anniversary.  On a whim he decided he wanted to take his resume to the school and see if he could talk to someone in person.  He was hired on the spot.  Either the principal was desperate or she recognized how amazing Joe is.  I'm going with Joe is just that amazing.  💗

I wanted to showcase the size difference between Míriel, my large Syrian hamster, and Elendil, my new tiny Chinese Dwarf hamster.  So I decided to photograph them in the same mug.  I didn't realize that Míriel would barely fit and that Elendil would be so small the only way to see him would be to put the mug on its side, but I made it work.  Miriel had no intention of staying in the mug so I only got a couple shots before she climbed out and left the scene.  Haha!

Elendil's face looks like he could be a mouse, but when you see the rest of him, he clearly isn't.  I couldn't believe how well he did for this first photoshoot.  I generally wait weeks in order to start the taming, gain trust, and most importantly, figure out what treats will help them stay put.  But Elendil is just so chill and calm that I tried this photoshoot after just over a week of owning him.  He's seriously the sweetest hamster I've ever had.

Meet Elendil!

After Glorfindel died, I had an empty aquarium and couldn't find any hamsters within 100 miles to adopt.  I needed to go to Petsmart for bedding and decided to look at the hamsters they had.  I figured if I actually got one, it would be another Syrian hamster.  Instead, I fell in love with this white and grey Chinese Dwarf hamster.  Joe told me later that he knew from the moment I saw this guy that we'd be taking him home based on the squeals I made when I saw the little guy.  Haha!  He is shy, but so incredibly sweet.  He seems to be most comfortable with Joe holding him.  I can't believe how incredibly tiny his is, especially in Joe's hands!  I love him so much!  💙

Joe picked the name Elendil for this little, but incredibly long boy.  The name of course comes from Tolkien's works.  According to LOTR Wiki, Elendil "was a man of Númenor and the father of Isildur and Anárion who led the survivors of its Downfall to the shores of Middle-earth where they founded two Realms in Exile: Arnor and Gondor.  Thus, Elendil became the first King of both realms and held the title of first High King of the Dúnedain, making him supreme overlord of all exiled Númenóreans in the lands east of the Great Sea.  Elendil was killed alongside his friend, the High King Gil-galad, by the Dark Lord Sauron at the Siege of Barad-dûr, in the War of the Last Alliance in the late Second Age."  Elendil was known for being exceptionally tall.  His name means "elf-friend" or "star-lover".

Both Elendil and Miriel appear in Amazon's "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" series.  Joe and I are excited for Season 2!  We'll likely rewatch Season 1 if we can find the time.

Eating a Carrot

The busyness of traveling is over (for now), and I'll admit I absolutely loved being home today, even though I had a lot of work to do.  As much as I love trips with Joe, I really love our home, pets, and my work, and we've been gone a lot recently, so being home felt especially nice.  Joe was back at work today which really made it feel like the summer is over, but he has a little longer until the new school year actually starts.  On our way home from Cincinnati yesterday, Joe joined a meeting and afterwards he asked me if I wanted to go to Indy again.  😅  He's been connecting with various places as potential venues for esports stuff and apparently didn't have this connection set up when we were in Indy last week.  So we may go again soon for him to see the spaces in person.  We shall see.

Míriel has been a tiny bit more calm the last few days, but she's also been intent on flooding her home.  She chewed a hole in 2 different plastic water bottles over the last couple of days.  I'm out of water bottles to give her, so she is down to the two bowls of water she's always had.  She tends to knock over bowls though, but I'm going to give it a couple days to see how she does with them now that they are her only option.  If I absolutely have to, I'll buy a glass bottle that she can't chew a hole in, but I don't want to do that.  She's such a crazy ham.