Fall has begun and GECKOS have arrived!!

It is officially fall.  What a wonderful time of the year.  Except that in Memphis, the pretty leaves of fall last for about a grand total of a week and then go away - oh yeah and this "week" hasn't started yet.  Haha.  I recently decided that I want to make wreaths to decorate for the seasons.  It's an easy way to make your apartment more welcoming and not have to have lots of nick nacs around the inside.  Our space is rather small to begin with, so I like the idea.  I had never made a wreath before, but a girl in my class made one for her undergrad's football season, and did it a very easy, introductory way!  She told me to go to Hobby Lobby (only my favorite store), and buy a pre-made wreath ($5) and then purchase the accessories and put it together.  I did this and man was it affordable and EASY!  I just choose the accessories for the wreath that I liked the best and stuck them through the spaces in the twigs :) 

There it is!  Hanging on a nail outside our door :) 

I bought a second premade wreath (from the floral section, by the way), and got christmas decor to stick inside it.  Then I can have a running two wreaths that I just go to hobby lobby to buy decorative pieces for it and switch them out :)  Fun, easy, and great for me the beginner who has not much time or money!! 

The second big update... we got GECKOS!  The type of gecko we got is a crested gecko, also known as an eyelash gecko.  They get the name from literally having eye lashes, however, not the hair-like ones that humans have, but still!  I named mine Luka ("Loo-kah"), after a peruvian fruit called lucama.  It has a yellowish color and was my favorite ice cream flavor when I studied abroad, so I decided it was a good and unique name.  I have no idea the gender of our geckos yet because they're difficult to sex when they are young.  So if mine turns out to be a boy, Luka will just have to be a manly name as well ;)

Tyler has not decided what to name his.  There is a pattern on his back that kinda looks like an "S," so he's thinking of having the name start with an S; however, he hasn't decided anything final.  One of my fellow classmates suggested a name like Latisse - hahaha.  Only a fellow eye nerd would think of that ;) 

 We know that they're 8-10 weeks old, so we decided that they're August babies and gave them the birthday of August 14th :)  We ordered them from a website called Pangea (http://www.pangeareptile.com/store/).  We knew that the shipping would make them a little more expensive, but totally worth it because (1) we got a little more say in what patterns we liked (2) cooler patterns were available (all the pet stores around here just had plain ones) and (3) we could buy them young.  A lot of the crested geckos in the pet stores were already older, and if I'm paying $50 for a pet, I kinda want it's entire 10-15 year lifespan! 

Here are some pictures we've taken.

Luka... (s)he loves climbing on the glass!

Luka again :)

Tyler's gecko to name peaking out from the leaves

Picture taken at 1:00 am while studying for my Pediatric Optometry test.  They're more active at night because they are nocturnal, though fairly active during the day, too. So cute to watch them scurrying around.  And they're getting to know each other --> They'll be friends! :)  [Luka on left]

Just can't express how adorable these baby geckos are!!! 

Tyler's gecko likes hanging on this plant.  They're seriously like gymnasts :)

And Luka loves this side of the glass haha.  These guys are such characters - so fun to watch :)

I will try to keep more pictures of the geckos coming!!

School is school - lots more work and new skills this semester, so not good.  And classes are in the afternoon, which tremendously shortens my day!  I'm still making it though :-D  And speaking of learning about eyes... the eyelash geckos have THE COOLEST eyes.  My goal is to get a good close-up picture that really captures this. 

Until next time - we'll be sitting by the gecko tank haha