I hate Michigan

grrrrr This state drives me absofreakinglutely insane. If you've never been to Michigan, you probably have no idea what "Michigan Turn" means. I have a hard time explaining it without a lot of really bad words, so I searched for it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_left If that page makes any sense to you, congratulations! You could go to Michigan. The funny thing is, the intersection on the bottom of the page is the one I was in today. Really. Grand Haven at 31 and Robbins Rd. What that picture doesn't show is that a bit farther down on Robbins Rd. is a turn into Meijer. I had to go to the Meijer gas station for a mystery shop today. I had to go to the bank ATM first, which is a bit farther down Robbins. So I executed the Michigan turn. Hey, I've been living here nearly a year. I can read road signs. Still don't understand the people that do that left turn when they have a red light, but hey. It's Michigan. When I came back, I figured I could just turn left onto the road to Meijer. No. I couldn't. Prohibited.

So I got to go through the intersection again. And since you can't turn left onto 31, that meant not only sitting at the red light to go through the intersection, but then to do a U-turn in the car dealership parking lot and wait for traffic to clear out so I could get back onto the road. That was 1 full red light. Then I sat there through a second red light waiting in line for the intersection. You'll be happy to know that you can actually go straight through the intersection. That meant I got to avoid the Michigan turn that time. Of course, by the time I got up to the intersection (seriously, I was like 5 car lengths away from the intersection) I was first in line to sit and wait for red light number THREE. I did manage to get through. Finally.

Then I headed home. I was already going ot be almost a half hour late picking the kids up from a birthday party. The mom had said it kind of ended at 4, but they'd be there so the kids were welcome to stay longer if I had more errands to do. But still, I did want to get them near 4. So, going through Grand Haven, there was quite a bit of traffic. Then it stopped. Dead stopped. Why? Oh, because of the freaking DRAWBRIDGE! Seriously. Not only did I get stuck in the intersection from HELL for over 15 minutes, I got to wait another 20ish for the drawbridge.

Thankfully, the parents didn't mind, they just kind of laughed.

Next time I hope to move to a normal state. Maybe Arkansas.

Pictures

The restart worked, so I can upload pictures. Yay! Here are a few of Emmie:

She's quite the active little thing. She and Cadence were playing with a little plastic ball this morning. It was so cute. Cadence was looking at it and then Emmie would intercept it and bat it across the room. Cadence was getting a bit upset with her. lol

And just because I have the memory card in and the uploading is working, I'll put a few more in here:

Cadence was helping me with the flashlight. It's so dark in our living room, I was using it for some backlighting while I recorded with our camcorder (which I love except for the fact that there's no light on it.)

Here's the kids on the S.S. Badger coming back from Wisconsin last week. Tevin screamed bloody murder when we got on the boat. Samantha had decided to ask "what happens if the boat sinks?" on the way to the boat. Tevin was convinced that the boat was going to sink. I had to drag him up the stairs kicking and screaming. He was screaming "the boat's going to sink! We're all going to die! I don't wanna die!" Yeah, that was fun. By the time we took off, though, he had met Devin. She's the childrens' director. She promised to read them stories and showed him where the playroom was. I am so thankful for her. I don't think I could have handled 4 hours of him screaming and miserable. Now he wants to go back on it.

I'm going backwards chronologically, so now I'm back to the zoo in Oshkosh the day before we left. This is the face Cadence made every time she saw an animal. I believe this was at the Elk exhibit.

This is us on the island (actually a peninsula) by my parents' house. Somewhere on a memory card I have pictures of the eagles that live there, but I don't know where that card is. Cadence is getting way too big to be in the Snugli, but it's impossible to bring a stroller on the island and we'd sent the back carrier home with Matt.

And this is my artistic masterpiece. We got Cadence's 1 year pictures done and Matt wanted a 10x13 because we have that of the other 2. When we were at Ikea (I *heart* Ikea) I got a huge frame that would fit all of them in it. It's not perfect, but a trip to Hobby Lobby for an 84 cent posterboard completed the look.

I'm in love

I never imagined I'd say this, but I am completely in love with this little black kitten. She's really playful but also SO loveable. We have been letting her run around the living room when we're in here. She still goes in her cage if we're sleeping/gone/not in the room, but otherwise we have been keeping her out to run around. Casey and she are getting used to each other. There's not nearly as much sniffing and hissing. She even pounced Casey for the first time today. heehee When she wants to relax, she jumps up by us and settles in. Right now she's purring on my chest. I had to take a break from typing because she wanted to be pet, but now she's nearly asleep so I'm allowed to do something else. It's so adorable to watch her and Cadence play together. They get along so well and Cadence really is very gentle with her.

I would add some pictures, but the site and/or my computer are not allowing me. Maybe tomorrow after a restart.

And my other love is another fluffy little kitten. We decided that since Sam is being very "mine mine mine" about Emmie, we'd get the other 2 a kitten too. *If* we found one that we liked. Well, I went to see the lady with the other rescue yesterday and fell in love. She is the sweetest 10 week old little Maine Coon. She was kind of the runt of the litter and wasn't eating, so she's been coddled quite a bit. The owner said she figures she'll be ready in a week or so, and if we want her then we can get her. I'm calling back next Wednesday. I'm so excited to be getting another little fluffball. A long haired one with color. :) I hope they play together nice. I think they both have kind of the same temperment and have both been quite extensively handled by humans. Shasta's gonna be even more upset, but I'm sure she'll get over it. I didn't even see her today. She hung out in the front room all day. Not the first time she's done that and I'm sure it won't be the last.

The kids are sleeping out in the living room tonight. I just hope Emmie doesn't keep them awake all night with her mewing. When the movie's done and it's quiet she'll probably calm down. I hope to be finished sanding the basement by then, but if that's to happen I should probably start.

Warning: Interaction may be hazardous to your sanity

Some people really should have a warning sign on them. For example, the old witch at the Humane Society. We went back on Monday to look at Bernie the St. Bernard. We brought Casey to see if they'd get along. They did, by the way. Beautifully. Bernie wanted to play, Casey wanted to sniff the whole yard and let all other dogs know that he had been there. But for the most part Casey ignored him. There was no aggression, not that I expected any. Puppies are generally pretty trusting, and Casey's never met a dog he didn't like. So, we put in an application for him.

I was a bit concerned that they would deny us based on us surrendering Baxter. I explained in great detail the circumstances surrounding the surrender. In the end, though, that didn't matter. I called later in the day and was told that she wouldn't give him to us because...get this...we live in the city. She wants him to go to someone on a country lot with "lots of room for him." I had done extensive research, as I do with most things. I had found out that since St. Bernards aren't overly active indoors, they will do fine in even an apartment with a small yard. This is providing that their owners take them for long walks at LEAST 2-3 times a week. Basically, by looking for a country home, this idiot at the Humane Society is looking for someone who will stick him outside and figure that's enough exercise for him. They won't walk him and he will end up with severe health problems. Not to mention that he is sitting at the Humane Society getting older. He's not being housebroken or socialized. He's sitting in his own filth on concrete being "cared for" by a complete idiot, a few people without personalities, and possibly 1 or 2 volunteers with a brain. Unfortunately, I believe at least one of those brains works primarily in the cat room.

So, yeah. No dog for us. I have no desire to look for another one right now. Someday I will be able to get my dream dog. Until then, we will have our 1 dog and 2 cats. Yep, 2 cats. After we found out that we couldn't get Bernie, Sam and I went in search of a kitten. Since I will not be getting an animal from the Humane Society run by the moron, we went to Petco and PetSmart, where some local rescues have cats. We didn't really find any that appealed to us there, but we did get the number of a vet clinic that had a little black kitten. Her (cat) mom had abandoned her and her brother when they were born and she has been hand raised and bottle fed since she was a day old. She's a sweetheart. We filled out the application and the girl who raised her (Tiffany) said she'd call our vet in the morning to make sure our pets are up to date on their shots and stuff and then if we wanted her the next day we could have her.

We got a call yesterday and were told we could have her if we wanted. I checked with Sam to make sure she was 100% sure this was the kitten she wanted. She said yes, so we went to get her. Emmie now resides in the big dog crate in our living room. She's not a big fan of Casey. Shasta doesn't like her. At all. She avoids the living room and if she does decide to come in here, she stands at the doorway and hisses, growls, and screams. I really hope that gets better.

Now I'm trying to decide if I want to explore the option of getting a second kitten. Sam's being kind of bratty, not letting Tevin do anything with "HER kitten". Maybe if we got a second kitten then a) they would play together and leave Shasta alone once we release them from the cage and b) Tevin and Cadence could have "their" kitten. We'll see. Another rescue finally called me back yesterday while we were gone getting Emmie. Maybe I'll call her back and see if she has any tiny kittens. Preferrably not black. It's hard to see the little stinker when she's hiding.

Our trip to the Humane Society

So, a few weeks ago Sam's dog Baxter ran away for the second time. The first time was 2 days before we left for Europe. We got him back that time. This time, however, we didn't intercept the people who found him before they took him to animal control. I had to go to animal control to get him back. However, they wanted $130! $45 to get him back and then EIGHTY FIVE DOLLARS for a "late licensing fee". I had NO idea we had to license our dogs. I looked for info when we moved here and couldn't find anything. Since in Wisconsin it's all dictated by municipalities, I checked with the township that we live in. There was absolutely nothing, so I assumed that we didn't have to. Well, apparently the county dictates it here. And if you don't license them before March, there is a $75 late fee.

Now, if it had been Casey, I would have shelled out the money without blinking an eye. But Baxter...couldn't do it. He had been getting progressively worse. He's deaf and has cataracts. He loved the kids, at least the 2 older ones. Whenever Cadence got anywhere near him, he got very aggressive. I tried to work with him, but he wasn't budging on the matter. Fine one second then enter Cadence and he was baring teeth and nipping. We obviously watch her closely when she's around any of the animals, but we can not have a dog that hates her, doesn't respect us on the matter, and is pretty untrainable.

So, we surrendered him. I cried for a full half hour before making the final decision. I was so upset. Not because I would miss him (I'm so embarrassed to admit that I was happy to have him gone. I hope he found a good family) but because he was Samantha's dog. She was SOOOO upset. I called Matt, and my brother, and my mom...I just needed validation that I was doing the right thing, I guess. In the end I haven't regretted it. In the phone call to my mom, though, she told Sam that we'd get her a kitten.

We were getting ready to go to Wisconsin for 3 weeks, so we told her we'd look when we got back. While in Wisconsin, I was still doing research, though. I found some cute kittens at the Harbor Humane Society about a half hour south of here. I put in an application on Thursday and then called to see if they'd gotten it and if we could come see kittens this weekend. I was told that they were denying our application because we had surrendered an animal in the last year. I was really upset. Did they not care WHY we surrendered him? He was threatening our baby. We tried to work though it. It didn't work. They put me through to someone that I could appeal the decision with. Her voicemail said "...I'll call you back when I have the time." Um, yeah. I didn't see that call coming back soon but left the message anyway.

Yesterday we came back to Michigan. This morning I woke up and decided that I would take a trip to our local Humane Society. We had visited them just before going to Wisconsin and they had some really cute kittens that weren't quite ready. I found out that those kittens hadn't made it. :( There was another adorable little fluffy orange guy that I really liked, though. Not love, but enough to call Matt and tell him to bring the kids. They came over and nobody seemed really enthused about him. He was very loud and frisky and not Siamese, which apparently is a deal-breaker for Matt. Sicne I don't particularly want a Siamese, I was worried we'd never get through that problem. We decided to just keep looking. There are a lot of places to adopt kittens. I actually had e-mailed someone from Craigslist Thursday about her kittens and hadn't heard back.

So we were leaving. To get to and from the cat room, you have to walk through the very stinky, sad, LOUD room of barking dogs. I hadn't even looked at the dogs on my way through and really wasn't this time. Then I glanced over and saw HIM.

HE is a St. Bernard puppy. OMG! He is about 11 weeks old and aDORABLE! I expected Matt to say "yeah, good for you. He's going to be huge." But, after 10 years he still has some surprises in him. He was as impressed as me. He bent over to say hi. This is the sweetest puppy in the world. Really. He's so calm and the only time he barked was when Matt stopped petting him and he wanted him to continue. lol His intake form said he's good with kids. What the HELL was this little (um, yeah, not so little I guess) guy doing at the Humane Society? We asked the lady about him and he said his owners gave him up because they just didn't want him. Say what? Okay, so he needs to be housebroken. He was 7 weeks when he came in. What 7 week old *is* housebroken? Really. It took us probably 2-3 weeks to fully potty train Casey. And that was working with him all the time.

They were closing down for the day, but we asked when they open on Monday. 11am. Okay, we'll be there. She said we could come in Monday and play with him in the yard and then if we wanted we could fill out an application. We'd know by the end of Monday if it was approved.

Matt and I obsessed over this dog all. day. long. Every time one of us was quiet, the other knew what we were thinking about. At one point I said "so what would you name him?" Matt laughed and said I was going to think it was sick. I told him to just say it. "Bernie." I burst out laughing. That is exactly what my mind had been calling him. Bernie the kitty. haha

Matt is currently cleaning like mad to make room for him. We still have the crate set up from when Chico the Chihuahua came to visit us awhile back. We were talking about whether St. Bernards do "fetch" earlier and magically Cadence found a tennis ball and started throwing it. Fate? hmmm

All things happen for a reason, yes? We went looking for a kitten and found a SAINT BERNARD. This is the one dog I always said I *will* own. A puppy. At the Humane Society. That we wouldn't have even been visiting had it not been for the mean Humane Society lady rejecting our application and not calling back. And an extra bit of irony? The lady with the kittens on Craigslist e-mailed me back this afternoon. Had she e-mailed yesterday or this morning, I probably wouldn't have even gone to the Humane Society.

So, yeah. On our trip to the humane society we found the dog of my dreams. Bernie the Kitty. Now I just hope they approve us and we get him. I'm in love already. :)