It's spring! Well, at least it is in SL. I'm excited to put away my SL sweaters, jackets, jeans and bring out my tank tops, shorts and flip flops! The sim I live on has been changed to grass, the snow has melted, and I've put in a pool!

I've been kind of playing with the idea of taking a trip to Heritage lately. While Misty will forever be my adorable child, she's seemed to have other RL priorities lately, and not logging in to SL much anymore. Which is perfectly fine, most of us go through this, and I hope she'll eventually come back to me. But, I'm finding some days difficult, especially around the holiday events (more recently, Easter) without a child around. No one can or will ever "replace" my Misty-child, she's a much better human being than I'll ever be, but I do miss the family RP. 

In other news, I've been really loving the photos that I can take now. A new computer really is amazing for the motivation and capabilities for SL photography. I really love taking the time in perfecting photos, and I really hope that other people enjoy them as much as I do.

I hope that I can continue to improve and get better with my photos, I really want to try actually hand painting elements like shadows, and maybe adding just little tidbits to make the photo really come alive. That takes quite a bit of practice though, and every time I try it, I'm happy with nothing. I won't give up though, I'm going to continue to try! Maybe a couple years from now, I'll look back at the photos I'm doing now, and be able to see how far I've come. Who knows.

Over the course of about three months, I have had a panel up at Heritage. I've been really wanting to adopt a child, and it's been a heartbreaking process. It was the same the first time we adopted, but for some reason, it seemed harder this time. I have been on trials with great children, and met several more. Although it didn't work out with them, I still hoped for the best for them. I had decided, that once this last panel expired, I wasn't going to put up another one.

One night, I was standing at Heritage, when I was IM'ed by a special little girl. I felt that her and I instantly had a connection, which is what I really needed with a little girl. For the next week, we spent more and more time together. We killed zombies, watched a movie, went to Arcade yard sales, and I made her move in my house with me. Pretty much right away, I knew I wanted this adorable girl to be my child. I struggled to not call her my daughter during the trial, to try to hold off asking her to be my family!


When I finally asked her, she said yes with no hesitation! I was so excited! So yesterday, she became my daughter, and a Pennell. Compared to other trials I have had, I've known her a short while, but it already feels like I've known her forever already, in a good way, of course! She changed the way I live my Secondlife already, in just the matter of a week. I wouldn't have it any other way! I adore my new daughter, and hope she sticks around with me for the rest of my SL existence!

Let us talk families today. As I mentioned in my last post, I was setting up a panel at Heritage for my mini-alt, Ennaline. Well, I've been on trial with a particular family for almost three weeks now! As soon as I met them, I knew they were absolutely fabulous, fun, and the exact family that I was looking for! They immediately brought me out of my safe zone, with me being socially awkward and all. I found myself on Skype with them, talking even on my second day of meeting them. Which is RARE for me, as I've only felt comfortable talking on Skype to people I have known for years before hand! Even more shocking, this family is a really large family, which completely surprised me - I felt so comfortable around all of them, pretty much right away. Very unlike me!

The majority of the family, are also fashion bloggers, and they even run a super-adorable family blog! It was pretty much instantly that I knew the family was my type of "people". They included me in their family photos with no hesitation, they blogged about me on their family blog, I was invited along to all the family events, we played Blade and Soul together, and I definitely was treated just as part of the family. Some days, I found it hard to believe that I was still on trial, just because of how comfortable I was with everyone.


I adore all these people, but Kaysa, in particular - my demo-mom - is truly one of the best people I've ever come across in SL. She's incredibly caring, will sit and listen to whatever issue I had, and will listen intently to even some of the stupidest life stories I tell her. She made me try things I've never tried before, like stealing eggs from dinosaurs, and even something as simple as playing mini-golf! She's completely accepting of my big, Sai, which as I understand, is a difficult thing to come by when it comes to SL families. Sai will always be a huge part of my SL, so I was s incredibly happy to have found someone who is completely okay with it! I share so much in common with her in both SL, and even RL, it is mind-boggling.


I've been hoarding all these photos to myself. I kept telling myself it was because I didn't know when the right time was, but in reality, I think the reason I didn't post them was I kept asking myself "What if she doesn't like me as much as I like her?" I would have been way too heartbroken to post about them, and then the adoption didn't work out. So, I kept them all to myself, all the while hoping she liked me too!


Then, this happened. I took photos, but none turned out as gorgeous as Kaysa's. While I was out running about being silly with Nivaya and Nikki, I get called back to my room.My room was completely filled with balloons, and I was instructed to find the "single pink" balloon. Once I did, it teleported me up to a gorgeous skybox, where she asked if I'd be her daughter, officially! She posted her gorgeous photos of the garden on the family blog - Keeping Up with the Dragovars! I was going to blog it myself here, but her's turned out so much better! I'm not even going to lie - I was so happy, I ended up crying in RL. Yep. I asked her to give me a middle name, so on Monday evening, Ennaline became:

I still live! I had a really terrible December in my RL, but now that is over. My RL is somewhat back to normal a bit. We are still trying to look for jobs in a tiny, tiny, town way up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but we are settled into our new place of residence after our emergency cross-country move.

A lot has happened. Yuna has left our family. It's very sad for us, but perhaps it's the best. That's all I think I'm going to say about it for the time being. Since then, I've been working a little bit on my alt. I've decided that I'm going to put a little work into her, maybe take off her mesh head and try to give her a cute face. Then, put up a panel at Heritage for her to find a family.

I think I have succeeded in making her cute! Don't mind the partially un-rezzed bench texture. I totally did not realize it at first. I should have went back and redid the photo, but EH. Laziness at it's finest. But anyway, I've also enrolled her in school as well as ballet classes! This blog will likely become a mix of Ennaline's life as well as Sai's life, because I really enjoy playing on both!


Also, a little bit ago, when Yuna left us, I decided to put up a panel at Heritage. Jeffry logged in with me so that I could make a pose for us and we could take an updated photo for our panel. It turned out really cute, and really adorable. I was REALLY happy with how it came out. We had the panel up for a little while... but then I suddenly wasn't sure if that's what I wanted at this point. I don't think I'm ready to try again just yet. I haven't clicked it in a few days, so I'm pretty sure that it has expired. And that's perfectly okay. We will take our time on this, when we are ready again, we'll know, right? However, I'm not sure if we will every be ready again. For now, I'm completely happy playing on my child alt!

Yesterday, I found some really low land impact photo frames for my house! I was really looking for a "family" orientated type of frame, or shelf, or something that I could use for displaying Yuna's Adoption Certificate, and the photo I took of when she first saw the question of us asking her to join the family. I didn't find one that looked how I wanted, so I made one! But anyway! I'm a huge fan of photos, in both RL and SL. Some memories, you just can't repeat, or get back, and I'm very forgetful! I take a lot of photos! I'm trying to fill my large amounts of frames with some photos of us as a family now, instead of just Jeffry and I.

I know that I referenced to our fall photo several times in the previous post, and it appeared a couple of times on our adoption day. I never really posted it here, as I wanted it to be a complete surprise! Now that the surprise is done and over with, I can post it! It turned out sooooo great, I'm in love with it!

Yuna and I were watching a movie, and I snapped this photo of us! It turned out super cute, and I love this pose/animation that I made for us. Yuna has officially been calling us mommy and daddy, and we've been calling her our daughter! Because it's official now, and I'm super-excited about it still!


I've been experimenting with different mesh heads! I now have several of them, from Genesis, TMP, Logo, and Catwa. I think I'm going to do a blog post REALLY soon about them! However, for now, I am in LOVE with the Logo mesh head, the expressions are soooo much fun! I think I'm going to stick with the Logo head for a while, and made it a little more official by updating my in-world profile with a new photo!


For real, don't I look SO happy? Well, I should be! My life in SL has never been better than it is right now! I have been so blessed in SL, and I have the best family, ever! I feel like I just want to keep this smile on my face all the time!

As my Plurk friends know, Jeffry and I had been planning something for about a week now! I've been posting updates and preview photos on my Plurk, pretty much ever since we decided on it. We decided to ask Yuna to join our family! I went from not having a single clue how we were going to ask her, to a brilliant plan all of a sudden! We had a couple ideas, but nothing seemed good enough. The original idea was to go on a hot air balloon ride, and rez a huge prim on the ground with the question. We'd point it out, and she'd look down to see it. But, then we started brainstorming, and came up with something incredible.

We told her that we were having a laser tag party with some friends, and asked her to come on a little earlier so that we can "test" some things out. We got in the hot air balloon to "test" it. Once we were all in the balloon, it took off in a path. We had several stops along the way, which I had framed photos rezzed (held in the air by balloon clusters), with photos I took from the 2 week trial we did. They were invisible, and when we approached each photo, they appeared. Each stop had said a little blurb about how we felt about her.

The last stop, we got out of the hot air balloon, and walked up to more photo frames, this one held a photo I took of us a few days before. At first, this photo was a crucial part of how we would ask her, and us asking her to be part of the family was kind of the "unveiling" of the photo, as she hadn't seen the finished photo yet. These frames also held "the question."


I was kind of nervous! I mean, what if she didn't like us as much as we liked her? But, she did say yes! I bombarded her with all kinds of things... like the photo texture, and the Heartsdale Family group invite, so she could "officially" move in.


Then afterward, we had a small party! I DJ'ed the music (my first time playing music for someone other than myself!), I wasn't really expecting anyone to come, but the Zanzibar's and the Oleander's came! Both of these families have shown us so much support through this whole adoption process, it really brought tears to my eyes that they came to the adoption party for us, as well!

As I get more comfortable with our trial daughter, Yuna, I've been trying to use her Yuus/Nuuu HUD a little more. I love being able to pick her up and carry her around, it also makes for better photos, too.

Well, last night, we planned to all watch a movie, and I wanted to hold her a during the movie. We tried by using the HUD, but it was a huge fail. I tried holding her before and after sitting, but well.... it didn't work well. Eventually, we just used the HUD to sit, and although we were hovering probably 2-3 meters in the air off of the ottoman, I rezzed some books and we sat on them just so that we could watch a movie together. Even then, it looked absolutely ridiculous. LOL! However, the experience made me want to make my own pose for watching movies, and just general parent/child cuddles.

As I was thinking about doing a pose last night, I also decided to try my hand at an actual animation. Sure, I didn't want or need it to be fancy, just a tiny bit of leg movement so that it's not completely static.

It turned out really well, I really like it! It's subtle, not static, and does exactly what I envisioned in my mind. I've got my alt, Ennaline, with me in the gif, but I'm hoping it will be just as perfect with Yuna, as well! I've raved about Anypose several times on my blog, but this animation, is yet another reason why I LOVE (!) it!

So, lately, we've been spending a lot of time doing a variety of things. A little over a week ago, we messaged a girl who's panel we liked at Heritage Adoptions. We met up, did a couple of things together, before deciding to go on a trial. We have been on a trial for almost a week now, actually, and it's still going great! I blogged a little bit about her when we took her to the sim-warming party, but I didn't mention too much about her, really. Well, this morning, we all agreed to extend the trial a little longer! This was a big thing to me, because, it actually said to me that she's interested in continuing with us, and likes us enough to want to spend more time together! More milestones!

So, we've been doing lot of things together, as Jeffry says: "as a family," but I still worry we are boring people! We took a few days to do PaleoQuest, we've watched a couple of movies, and even visited The Cornfield. It's been fun, doing these things all together! I really hope it continues, and I hope that we can have a very happy outcome at the end of this "extended trial!"

This is where we are now venturing into territory that we are completely unfamiliar with! Other trials we have had did not get this far. Actually, they really didn't even get past a couple of days. So, I'm not sure where to proceed from here, and when we know that we're "ready" to adopt. I'm just thinking that, When we know, we "know" right? Like finding the perfect wedding dress? LOL! I don't know what I would have done without Alicia and her adorable family answering all the questions I have about families/RP, and all their guidance and tips they have given us through the whole adoption process!

So, the Zanzibar's and the Oleander's had their official Sim-Warming party on Wednesday night! Lolita has been working making their sim beautiful for a little while now. It was finally finished, they finished moving in their homes - so of course they held a party for everyone to come, have fun and tour their newly-designed sim!

It really did not disappoint. Their sim is gorgeous, photogenic, and it's really well done. I keep saying that Lolita needs to change her career into sim design! Every sim she's done is absolutely stunning! Anyway, the party was so much fun, we had a great time! Bluebonnet has always held a special place in my heart, as some people who read my blog might know, I used to live there! And, it's also where Jeffry and I shared our first land together. I have always loved Bluebonnet.


We actually invited our current Heritage trial, Yuna, to come with us. I know she's shy, but she really handled the event like a champ. She was lagging a lot, and didn't talk much, but that's okay! I was still really, really happy that she came with us, and met all of our friends as it was the first time anyone else had met her. Milestones!

Eventually, Yuna logged off for the night, and the party continued. Of course, like many of their parties... it turned crazy. Somehow, it turned into a tour of the sim while riding in cars. Me, hearing that Lolita was one of the best drivers of their families, I opted to ride with her. LOL! Jeffry, flat out refused to go driving with us, saying "this doesn't look like a good idea." I probably should have listened to him.


I got a gif a little too late, all the craziness had already happened, but still! I wanted one to remember the night. The cars never rezzed fully for me, but, it was an incredible night of speeding through Bluebonnet, picking up kids who somehow fell out of someone's car, and watching Takeo park his car like a pro. That night, I literally laughed until I cried.

You ever have a whole bunch of stuff to do, but prefer to not do them? That's me, lately. I've been terribly sick for the past month, and it's getting progressively worse. Because of it, I've been really slacking on a lot of things that need to be done. Our sim will host it's first wedding in a couple weeks, and I still have a lot to do. They'll be using our barn for their wedding, and they may want to have a dance party afterwards. So, I've needed to get our dance area done. I've been really not looking forward to it, mainly because I have some uhh..... naughty animations in my Intan Couple Dance Ball, and I didn't want to search through all the animations to find the naughty ones. I don't want to have them out for the wedding, and I also want to keep our sim child friendly, because we are trying to adopt a child.

Anything with that dance ball is a nightmare. I hate updating it, adding dances, configuring it, modifying it to look better, everything. I don't like it. I hate dealing with it. But, well. It needed to be done! I finished the couple's ball, and realized I don't have a solo ball. GAH! I tried many scripts from the this awesome library of scripts, and didn't find one that worked the way I wanted it to. You'd think after majoring in computer programming in college, I'd know a little more about SL scripting. But nope! Never even wanted to learn it. Once, I found myself at the College of Scripting, looked around... and went "NOPE." Too overwhelming for me. Anyway, I ended up buying a full perm ball for L$1 on the marketplace, and modified it quite a bit. It looks presentable, and works just how I want it to. Of course, I needed to test it out.

I spent waaaaayyyy too much time, just dancing. I need to look into setting up another DJ table - this one belongs to Jeffry, and isn't all that attractive looking for the sim. It doesn't quite fit in well. But, he liked the animations in it. So, I gotta do that, put animations in the new DJ table.... Ugh.  feel like I'm going to get all this done, just in time to turn the sim into the fall season. LOL! Speaking of - I think I need to start looking into pumpkins and fall things, because it's getting closer to that time!

I've also been trying to teach myself how to DJ! I want to eventually DJ in a club, so I purchased my own stream to practice on my land. I play a lot of country, which is the music I really enjoy. My husband hates it, so I do it while he's at work! I'll just need to gather my courage up to apply to be a DJ at some country club!

I'm just going to come out and say it: Jeffry and I had decided to adopt a SL child! I suppose I'll do a little background. We moved in together in RL several years ago, and we decided a couple years ago to start trying to have a child in real life. That was over two and a half years ago now. It's been difficult, the hole that still occupies my heart. We made the decision to get a dog last year, and I've chronicled Amelia's life with us so far through my RL blog.  From videos, to our breeder visits, updates on how big she is.... she's been the love of my RL. I complain a lot about her, but she really is a beautiful, smart, incredible dog. Anyway! Even with her, there's still... something missing.

The more I looked into SL adoptions, the more it appealed to me. If I can't have children in my RL, I need to pour my love into a child in SL. So, after talking with Jeffry about it, he agreed, and wanted to go pick out a panel... right then. I, however still had questions. I bombarded the lovely Alicia with questions about their family, the role play involved, and all that. I am still a little nervous about the role play aspect - I would love to do it, but I am not entirely sure what that entails. So, I'm hoping get matched with a lenient child, who is willing to teach us the role play part. Or give us hints on what we need to do. Parenting is not a exact science, right? All parents learn as they go, even adoptive parents.

We took this photo together, before we listed our panel at Heritage Adoptions. This was part of our little "photo shoot" to get a photo of the both of us for our Parent panel. I liked it, and kept this one. We're hoping to find a good match for us, so we can shower our SL child with all the love we can't give in our RL.