What a difference three months can make....

I am 12 weeks into the pregnancy now. We went to the doctor today and got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. I guess there's no denying it now. And yes, as much as it's been talked about and all the test results, etc., I think it is taking a long time for it to sink into our brains that this is really happening. Maybe because I'm constantly hearing that "since you're over 35, this is a high risk pregnancy" that I've just not let myself get my hopes up too high because we just never know what is to come. But actually hearing that heartbeat definitely made it that much more real. Pretty amazing! All I kept thinking was "it's really in there!" haha

The Kit Kat Lounge at Sid's (thanks to Kim for her fabulous painting/design/sewing abilities!)

More Big Sid's pics

Big Sid's

Back in February, I was innocently minding my business at Pet Supplies Plus (I was there to do $5 nail trims for cats/dogs as a fundraiser for Crash's Landing), when Deb from Crash's asked me if I liked to paint (as in interiors). I told her I'd basically painted the entire inside of our house, so yeah, sure. She told me about this project they were undertaking at Big Sid's Sanctuary (an offshoot facility of Crash's which houses approx. 90 cats who have either tested positive for feline leukemia or feline HIV (aka FIV). I'd never been to Sid's before and always pictured it as a dreary, sad place. After my turn at the Humane Society, I'd had enough dealings with death and despair, so I wasn't sure if this was for me.

Then Deb said something that peaked my interest. She asked if I'd ever heard of the famous "cat house", which I had. She said they were doing something similar over at Sid's. If you're not aware of the cat house, you can check it out on Amazon.com here: (http://www.amazon.com/Cats-House-Bob-Walker/dp/0836221834)

Anyway, I decided to check it out. I figured I could stop by and paint for a day or two. I even recruited my friend Kim to come along.....

Well, here we are 5 MONTHS later and after countless hours (regularly going there 2, 3, 4 times a week after work), 35 gallons of paint, countless tubes of caulking and spackle, a handful of us have pulled it off and we are FINALLY finished with our own cat house! An awesome builder in GR donated all of his labor for the project and he built fabulous walkways, steps, passages from one room to another, spiral staircase, cubbies, a giant "cheese", and his ultimate creation--the sky box (an acrylic box suspended from the ceiling in the middle of the upstairs living area.

I was pleasantly surprised throughout this entire experience that this is not the dreary, sad place I expected. Rather, it's homey and loving. The cats seem pleased with all their new items and almost have a rejuvenated sense about them. I also think they appreciated our company as much as we appreciated theirs. Except for a few days when we had to block them off from certain areas, they were free roaming right along with us, and let me say, if you can paint with 90 someodd cats around you, you can pretty much paint anywhere. A few of them found themselves painted right along with the walls from time to time, and embarrassingly, on more than one occassion, even I got my ponytail stuck to more than one freshly painted closet wall, but overall seeing that place go from gaudy crack den to pottery barn chic was really worth it all.

I shot a video on Wednesday night before I left (in the sky box room), but also got some pics of the rest of the rooms which I'll upload. Even though most of these cats will never be adopted out (they can't live with "healthy" cats), it makes my heart happy to know they've got this freshly refurbished place, complete with refinished wood floors, and so many things to play on, explore and occupy them. Still, it was little Christopher who curled up in my lap and went to sleep last night as I did final touchups that reminded me, all they really want is someone to love them. Even though I'm not a Sid's worker, I'll be stopping by from time to time to see my new friends.

I shot this video with my camera and later set it to music. I think it turned out pretty good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7yMuP013J8

Excitement lives at our house

Where does the time go?

Over a month since my last post--what have I been doing anyway?! Working of course, and still plugging away on the painting project at Sid's a couple nights a week. We're almost done, I think! Can't wait to see it all finished...

Have been enjoying all the flowers. The weather this year has been perfect combination to really get some nice growth of my perennials, and I haven't had to water too much thanks to some rain here and there. Mike is getting ready to start building another planter box along the side of our deck. Plan to put shrubs along there, nothing too demanding.

Took a quick overnight trip to Detroit for a Tigers game (they lost) and saw the last of Tiger Stadium. Still pissed off about that. Further proof the inmates are running the asylum over in the D.

Attended a 1st birthday party for my friends', Jen & Mike's little boy, Brady. What a cutie!

Had a fun night out with Kim & Lorie for the 1st annual CSNIP Sip N Snip pub crawl around downtown GR last night. It was fun to visit a few places I haven't been in a long time & help raise more money for a great organization. CSNIP has done over 50,000 low cost spay/neuters to date. Amazing!

Crash's Landing is now #1 in Michigan for the Shelter Challenge run by The Animal Rescue Site! If we can stay there, we'll at least get $1,000 for finishing first in the state, and we may be in line for an extra $1,000 if we win the most votes for a one week period. Of course, first place overall is $25,000. We're #11 in the USA with a month to go of voting. Not too shabby and it's neat there are people all over the world voting for us! If you want to join in, visit www.theanimalrescuesite.com every day and vote for free.

We just passed 10 months of married life and can't believe it's almost been a year already. Not sure what we will do yet to celebrate but have had more than one person suggest we repeat the reception with another party at McFadden's -- ha!

And here I thought the cats would never see anything exciting looking out into the backyard

Now granted, if you'd have blinked, you'd have missed it, but luckily I was able to grab my camera in time to get a few shots. And I'm glad I did because when I went out seconds later (with a rake in hand for protection), it was already gone and I thought perhaps I'd been seeing things. Definitely a first for our yard (well, that I know of anyway!)





I'm sure glad I was on a break from planting flowers in the FRONT yard cuz if I'd seen this coming at me, I think I'd have been a little freaked out!

Help Crash's Win Some Money!

The Animal Rescue Site is once again running its $100,000 Shelter Challenge. Visit www.theanimalrescuesite.com once each day and click (it's free!), then click on the red "VOTE NOW" button and vote for Crash's Landing (search for us under "MI" rescues). It takes less than a minute.

Crash's is currently #2 in Michigan and #21 in the nation! We are moving up the list almost every day. The contest runs through July 26. The shelter with the most votes wins $20,000!!!! There are also $5,000 prizes for the top vote getter in each state, as well as $1,000 winner each week for the most votes total.

We came very close to being #1 in Michigan last time, but we got a late start. This time we are mobilizing and asking everyone we know to help us. It's so simple to do and it is fun to watch us move up the list. Most of all, we can REALLY use that money for good, for the kitties who so deserve it.

Anyone can do it--please help out! Thank you!

Very important day on Monday! UPDATE: VICTORIOUS!!!

I'll be traveling with some friends to Montcalm County on Monday for the big vote day. Anxious, nervous, skeptical. Just hoping it will be a good outcome. Don't know what I'm talking about--check it out here: www.cccmontcalm.org, or on facebook at Concerned Citizens Coalition of Montcalm County. We have over 300 members on the facebook page alone--awesome!!!

UPDATE: Just realized that I never came back to give an update on this! Duh! Well, the commissioners voted 6-3 to not renew the contract, but it doesn't stop until August 1st. VICTORY! At least the rescues are working to try and get as many animals out of there before then. R&R claims this will put them out of business. One can only hope.

Here are some pictures from the rally & meeting.

Big Sid's Sanctuary

These pics show the new construction (walkways, steps, etc.) with the former bright colors. It is getting redone in neutral colors throughout (pecan, chocolate brown & gourd)

Views from San Antonio

More pics from San Antonio

Happy Easter

So, I've decided to come back to my blog. Facebook is ok, but it is more for quickie hi's and bye's to friends and that's about it. Not much real content. And I'll admit, it can be a little weird connecting with people you haven't seen or spoken to in 25 years. Sometimes there's not much to talk about after the initial conversation--probably the reason you haven't seen or spoken to them in 25 years. It can also be a bit depressing to see some people with tons of comments and others, like me, who get very few. It makes me feel like I'm pretty boring when it all boils down to it. Oh well. I like my routine and always seem to feel busy whether I am or not, and most of the time, I'm totally content with what I'm doing and where my life is at these days.

So, what have I been doing since I last posted? Well, the two cute boys are still cute. Leo (the black one) has morphed into a lovey, mellow lap cat. Ludwig for the most part is very lovey but sometimes gets in a funk and tries to take on the other cats. He and Louie are wrestling buddies, which Louie loves! He's been waiting a long time for a cat that will let him bear hug them and not scream and run away. Ludwig just keeps going back for more, bless his little heart. Louie has to be double his weight but he's pretty gentle with him.

I've started helping with a fundraiser for Crash's Landing by working two Saturdays a month at Pet Supplies Plus helping to trim cat/dog nails for $5. Starting in May, we're going to just once a month. Last week we made $172 in just 4 hours so not too shabby! It was at one of these that I got sucked into being on the painting crew for Big Sid's Sanctuary--a part of Crash's but in a separate facility which houses only kitties who have tested positive for Feline Leukemia and/or have Feline HIV. These kitties would normally be put to sleep if they were in a shelter environment because they pose a risk to other kitties, but at Big Sid's they can live harmoniously together and can even be adopted out to homes with no other (or other positive tested) kitties. There are about 89 of these cats living at Sid's now. The building they are in is quite large (a former 3 unit apartment) that is reconverted back to one big space. There is a crew of 8-10 of us who are repainting the entire interior. We've been working a couple of weeks now and have gotten the upstairs living area done and have now started on the main level.

It is very cool in there because they had a contractor go through and make all sorts of steps, ramps, cubby holes, walkways and even cut throughs from room to room for the cats. If you've ever heard of the cat house in Chicago, it is a similar concept (google it). It is very cool and we are having fun finishing off everything. The whole upstairs is hardwood floors that are completely worn, but they are having them refinished and heavily clear coated so they will look brand new. There will be a public open house in June so we have to have everything done by then. It is going to really be something. So, we go there several nights a week right after work until 8 or 9. It's a lot of work but a nice way to contribute and we are really already loving a whole new set of kitties (thank goodness we're not able to take any so there's no temptation! I know, with 9, you'd think I'd be over it).

Other than that, I've also been to San Antonio and back. That was cool and above are some pics. I managed to find a feral cat colony happily existing in the old city shop area and I had some interesting conversations with several shop owners about their efforts to have the cats fixed, which they have gotten most if not all of them. So nice to see that and the cats couldn't have looked more content--I can't blame them with that kind of weather every day! My boss was sick for the entire trip so I had a lot of time to myself to wander and take pictures.

Other than that, I've been taking part in a community-wide effort to try and convince the Montcalm County Commissioners to end a 30 year contract that allows their public animal shelter to give away cats and dogs to a Class B dealer who sells them for experimentation or research. (Montcalm County is northeast of G.R.) It's been a agonizing battle since January 26 and it's going to come to a head on April 27 when a panel that was assembled to seek alternatives makes its presentation to the Commission to end the contract. All of the local news stations have been attending and the hearings have been packed. I'm sure this one will be full and I can only imagine what will happen if the Commission ignores the recommendation. We just received word that the Humane Society of the US has sent a email to all of its members across the country asking people to support the defeat of this contract so we are feeling very grateful and hopeful, but I have to say many on this Commission are a real setback to democracy and seem absolutely clueless. It's definitely been an eye opening view of small town politics at work. If nothing else, it has rallied many people to come together for a very worthwhile cause and many animals are going to benefit because of it.

I have decided not to play softball this year. It was kind of a hard decision but on the other hand, not really. Some reasons are because our team is just not very competitive. We don't seem to have any heavy hitters and I'm tired of getting beat most nights. I know it is a "fun" league but I don't find that fun. Also, the games are sometimes 8 or 9 pm starts and I hate that. (Yeah, I'm old, so what). We also have a hard time fielding a full team much of the weeks and that gets old, having to give up outs or again, have a weak team out there, and this year, they decided we weren't even having matching t-shirts. It was weird enough not having #s on our shirts last year but to have not even matching shirts, that's just stupid. If you look like a mess and play like a mess, well, again, I don't see the fun in that. So, I'm going to try and golf a lot this summer. I haven't golfed the last 2 summers and I miss it. In fact, I think Mike and I are going to hit the driving range next weekend if the weather is nice. Golfing is something we used to do all the time together but since we bought the house, we've hardly gone at all.

It is encouraging to see so many flowers and plants getting ready to bloom. I'm hoping we don't get a hard freeze that ruins everything. I'm looking forward to getting outside tomorrow and cleaning out the rest of the flower beds. I did the front yard a couple weeks ago but have to do the back now. We aren't doing anything for Easter this year. We weren't asked anywhere and so we're just staying home for a change. Having been on the run the last couple of weeks, it will be nice to have a whole day not having to go anywhere. It is nice to have a staycation once in awhile.