100 Days of Hapiness: Day 3

Day 3: Coloring

I never stopped coloring. Before the adult coloring craze caught on I bought children's coloring books and crayons or colored pencils or markers and colored with those. I love the adult coloring books and using colored pencils, gel pens, occasionally eye shadow. I've found in the last couple of years when life has been so crazy and hard and I've struggled with depression and anxiety, that coloring really helped. I can get lost in it and relax a little(because let's face it I don't ever completely relax).  Here are some pictures I've colored:

100 Days of Happiness: Day 2

Today is Big Cat Rescue!
Big Cat Rescue Facebook page
Big Cat Rescue websitec
One of the Big Cat Rescue Youtube channe
lBig Cat Rescue's other Youtube page

I've always loved big cats(especially tigers, lions, and cougars) and I love the work this group does. They are an accredited sanctuary in Tampa, Florida. They are one of the biggest in the world for abused and abandoned big cats.

They do amazing things for these cats! They have the best vet care, diet, and great enrichment activities for their big cats to ensure they are comfortable, happy, and healthy. For the vast majority of those cats it's the first time they've had those things in their lives.

I love watching their videos on Youtube and watching them feed the cats live on Facebook Live each evening. I wish I could afford to help them out. But since I can't I'll pass on this group and the amazing things they do!

Here are some of my favorite cats:

Zabu and Cameron

This isn't my picture. It belongs to Big Cat Rescue.

Zabu is a white tiger and Cameron is a lion. They were rescued together and very bonded. Because they were so close BCR didn't want to separate them. So they live together. Zabu is hyper and likes to play and run around. Cameron is a typical sleepy lion but occasionally Zabu cab talk him into playing with her :). You learn more about both of them here:

Zabu
Cameron

Joseph or JoJo the lion

Joseph is big and loud and everything you would think of a lion being! He is has a beautiful thick mane! To learn more about Joseph go here:
Joseph the Lion

Sabre the black leopard

 Sabre is thought to be the oldest leopard  alive. He recently turned 25! He is so beautiful! To learn more about Sabre go here:

Sabre the black leopard

Aspen the Cougar

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Aspen is a cougar. She has quite a personality and is very hyper and playful! If you want to know more about Aspen go here:

Aspen Echo the cougar


That is all for today! Please stop by and check out Big Cat Rescue and learn about this great organization and all of their beautiful animals!

100 Days of Happiness...Melinda style!

I've decided to start a couple of new series on here and the first one is "100 Days of Happiness" but I'm going to put my spin on it a little bit. If you don't know what that is, it's normally done on Facebook with just a picture a short explanation. You can google it for more information. I'll try to keep up with this and do a new one each day(but I make no promises lol). I started this before on Facebook but didn't finish. But I feel the last year has really put things in perspective for me and made me realize I need to make more time for appreciating the good things in life.   The other series I want to do is reviewing movies. I love movies. I'll start that on a different day but if I put it on here I'll be more likely to follow through lol. Let's get started on the 100 Days of Happiness.

Day 1:
My nephews!

They always make me smile and feel so much joy.

Zander is 2. He is feisty, sassy, hyper, dramatic, but he's also very funny, sweet, and loving. He melts my heart everything he laughs or smiles. I love watching him play and learn. He's really talking a lot now and his personality is coming out more and more. He has a sweet tooth like his Tia(me lol). He likes suckers, fruit chews, cake, cookies lol. He loves basket balls and soccer balls and footballs lol. He's a crazy kid but amazing! I'm so glad he's my nephew!

We brought his Mommy a birthday cake and he loved it :)

 Cannon is 11 months old(yesterday actually). He is so sweet and cuddly! He loves Minions. He loves food! He's just a sweet sweet baby boy :). He just recently started crawling and pulling up. I think he had he ability for awhile but he just decided to do it recently lol. He also recently learned to clap and it is adorable! I can't imagine life without him!

So that's a little about my nephews and why they make me happy! I love those little guys like my own! At this point I don't know that I will ever have kids, so I plan to enjoy every minute with these two! It's a constant tug of war of being excited to see them grow and learn and being sad at how fast they are growing. I feel like Cannon's first year of life has gone by 4 or 5 times as fast as Zander's did. Sadly I feel like because the last year has been such a mess we've didn't really get to enjoy his first year of life the way we would have liked to(at least I know I didn't). Hopefully his 2nd year will be better :). I'll be back tomorrow with another day of happiness!

10 baby names I love but would never use

I've been seeing this thing on YouTube where people list 10 names they love but would never use. So I decided to do it on my blog. So let's get started. I'm going to go back and forth between girl and boy names. 

1. Hannah
I love the sound of this name and the way it looks. I've loved it since I was a kid. But it's very popular. There are two in my family already, so yep I'd never use it.

2. Blaire
I know most people associate this as a girls name but I've always liked it as a boys name. Blaire was the middle name of every boy baby doll I had as a kid. However given it's popularity as a girl's name I'd never use it.

3. Emma
Emma was often my go to name for girl dolls. It's pretty and feminine. But I know two people I don't like with daughters named Emma...and I just can't imagine using it now lol.

4. Alexander
Alexander is such a strong masculine name. I love the way it sounds. But my ..oldest nephew is named Zander...so yeah lol.

5. Bella
Love the name but I have a dog named Bella...so yeah lol.

6. Jaden
Jaden is another name I've always liked. But it seems everyone I know has an Aidan, Hayden, Caden, or Jaden. Popularity doesn't usually bother me but this is one name that is too popular even for me!

7. Alexis
I love the name. But my sister had a friend when we were kids named Lexi who was really annoying. Her given name was Alexis. I'd just never be able to think of anything else if I used the name.

8. Camden
I discovered this name a few years ago and fell for it quickly. Apparently everyone else did too because it's become very common since then, for boys and girls. So I'd probably never use it.

9. Abigail
Abigail or Abby is another name I used for my dolls a lot as a kid. Then I went to middle school and met a girl named Abby and that took care of that for me lol.

10. Noah
Noah is a cute name and it's biblical but it's another that is just a little too popular for me.

That was a lot of fun. Maybe one day I'll do names I love and want to use!