Getting back to normal...

This week has felt like a more normal schedule. Back to volunteering again. I took the day off on Thursday to work at Crash's Landing's fall yard sale. It was a very busy day. I was on my feet from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Even though the sale didn't open until 1:00, they still managed to bring in over $2,600 in just six hours! I worked on setting up tables and organizing donated goods for the sale.

This is a huge fundraiser for them. The one they did in May raised over $10,000! That's a lot of junk when you think about how cheap things are priced (and I think today is 1/2 price on most things.) But it all goes to help the Crash's kitties. I am glad that I am now able to put stuff away to donate for these twice a year sales instead of having to put on my own (measily) sale.

Yesterday, I spent a few hours helping C-SNIP to promote spaying/neutering. They had a booth out at the first ever Pooch Party in Wyoming. The purpose of the Pooch Party was to help raise funds for the Wyoming Dog Park. It was a nice time, beautiful day and such a worthwhile cause. It was eye opening to see how many dogs there were not fixed yet! Some people just are unwilling. There seemed to be a definite trend in men not wanting to neuter their male dogs. Hmmm.

But, mostly I think it is a sign of the times, unfortunately, because people need money and want to breed their dogs to try and make money. If you don't believe me, just look at how big the pets for sale section is getting in the classifieds. But who is paying $400, $500 or more for a purebred animal these days, not to mention having to feed and vet it? Wow, you can get such nice animals from shelters for a lot less and actually save a life rather than add to the problem! Not to mention, it is better for the pet's health to be fixed. I think people are just unaware though. They don't realize about 40% of animals in shelters already are purebred and many shelters don't even bother to put out animals that are owner surrendered because they just physically don't have the space. In Michigan, a shelter has to keep a stray for 4-7 days. Yet, people still leave their animals knowing they will be euthanized. It makes no sense to me. God bless C-SNIP--they've done over 43,000 surgeries since 1998. Just think how many offspring that would add up to!

Anyway, there's more educating and awareness to do, not to mention trying to find some extra funds to support them. Donations are obviously down with the economy and people are having to give up their pets because they can't afford them anymore. It's a worst case scenario for many animals these days.

At least one family was at the Pooch Party with an adorable little mix dog that they saved from the pound. Unfortunately, they spent their money on the adoption fee and shots, and could not afford the $250 the vet wanted to fix the dog. So, C-SNIP is going to help them at a cost of only $55--much more reasonable! And if they can't afford that, C-SNIP will let them pay what they can afford. There are bright spots in everything.

Finally, taking time to relax...

We did manage to take a little time out to relax in the backyard with the kitties and enjoy some of the warm weather over the holiday. I didn't get pics of all of them, but here are a few highlights.

Trip to the zoo!

Oh yeah, I also managed to squeeze in a trip to John Ball Zoo while my relatives were here. Yeah, I was an adrenaline junkie--no wonder I've been sick in bed for the last couple of days. Oh well, it was all worth it! Here's some of my favorite pics from the zoo.

My trip to D.C.

My "fake" honeymoon was spent by myself at a work conference just outside of D.C. It was hard to leave so soon after the wedding, but the pain was eased by having my room upgraded to a king size suite--awesome! I made sure to spend adequate time there, but I did manage to get out and see a few sites before I left too. The most surprising site on the river cruise was the National Cathedral which was so beautiful and could be clearly seen, but just not captured on my camera. It was magical. The pentagon was also very cool looking but I couldn't get a pic of it either, though my plane flew right over it when we took off. I was very surprised they allowed that. I'd love to go back and visit again--with my hubby next time, and hopefully take in some of the museums and see more of the city. (oh, the pic of the sculpture was near our hotel on the beach area. It was so cool and enormous!)

A little R & R

While my relatives were still in MI after the wedding, I decided to show them some sights of west MI, so I took them up to Silver Lake to see (and tour) the sand dunes and then we made our way to the beach in Grand Haven--a must see. We had a blast!

Our Big Day

IT'S OFFICIAL!

Sorry, I haven't had time to post. I've been a little busy. The last of my relatives just left this evening. Yep, we've had a full house the whole weekend. Now, I'm leaving for D.C. in the morning for the next 4 days. Wow, happy honeymoon, eh?! Anyway, it's been a whirlwind and I'm exhausted, but everything went great (well, except for my dress breaking before the reception--it still didn't look as bad as the one on my last post), and by then, I really didn't care that much. We still had a perfect day and a lot of fun! I would post a picture but I didn't take any on my own camera--again, a little busy.

On Saturday, we had a family BBQ at our house once we got back from the hotel. It was a lot of fun, even if I burnt a lot of the food. Oops! After dinner (and cake), we opened the rest of our wedding presents, and then we played some games. It was a fun night.

Yesterday, my 2 aunts & 2 cousins and I went all the way to up to Silver Lake. I wanted them to see the sand dunes. We rode on the dune cruiser and that was a blast (literally!). No better way to experience it if you don't have your own dune buggy. We even got to walk along the beach of Lake MI. We made the traditional stop at Whippy Dip for some treats, then ventured to a road side stand for fresh peaches, blueberries and sweet corn. Yum! We furthered on to Grand Haven where the girls wandered all the way out into the Lake while the rest of us sat on the beach with the waves hitting our feet. It was super windy and almost chilly, but we didn't care. We were able to hit a few shops before they closed, then made it home for a BBQ (again).

Today, we visited John Ball Zoo before I had to run 1/2 of the group to the airport. The rest of us spent a few hours at Woodland Mall, then we stopped by to pick up my hubby (ha--how funny to say that!) and we thought we were going to have a nice dinner at Village Inn Pizza Parlor on the way to taking them to the airport. Too bad they forgot to make our pizza and we were there almost an hour! We had to get it boxed as we ran to the car so they wouldn't be late catching their flight. Bummer! It all worked out ok, I think (haven't heard from them so I assume they got out ok).

Now, I'm off to do my own laundry and pack for my own trip. A couple of days of R&R. I won't know what to do with a full day tomorrow by myself. I have a feeling the king bed and room service are going to get a lot of use!

Damn paparazzi must have got me while I was giving my dress a test run around GR earlier this week!

Engagement pic

I think our announcement is going to be in this Sunday's paper. That's what they tell me anyway. Hopefully the pic looks ok--apparently they didn't like that it was a horizontal shot rather than vertical so they were going to "fix it". Hopefully we don't look like coneheads or something!

More pics from the shower...

Thought I should include the ones who put this all together for me...Jinnifer, Lorie and Kim and the moms. THANK YOU!!!