Apr. 30 (Day 120) - Where's Anya

Since it was Friday, Doreen and Liz were here to clean.  I could not find Anya in the office at all.  How do you lose an eighteen pound cat in a 12ft by 12ft space with no real funiture.  It ends up she was hiding behind the TV.  I didn't think there was enough room back there.  I uncovered her enough for a photo.  I think she was scared of the vacuum cleaner.

Apr. 29 (Day 119) - Sibling always Share

I decided to see if the little kittens would try some canned food.  I thought maybe it wouldn't be as messy as the formula.  I thought the little ones could share off the same plate so I wouldn't go through them so fast.  Wrong and wrong!  The darker girl was trying to shoulder her orange brother right off the plate.  Luckily he's bigger so she just ended up sliding the whole plate.  It's so funny to watch.

Apr. 28 (Day 118) - Kittens in the Kitchen

The plan was that the kittens would be in a cage in the office with Anya.  Right away that didn't work.  Anya sat across the room and just growled, she was one unhappy girl.  I thought they would be okay since they were in the cage but darned if some of the little devils couldn't climb up the side of the cage and squeeze through holes in the top.  So I had to relocate them to the kitchen.  Here they are in action.

Apr. 27 (Day 117) - Bottle Feeding failure

The two little kittens are supposed to be bottle fed.  I tried and just couldn't get it to work.  I even tried syringe feeing which has worked in the past, but they would have none of it.  Their favorite method to get kitten formula is straight out of a little tupperware lid.

This is what a little kitten looks like when drinking formula.  Yuck!

Apr. 26 (Day 116) - We have kittens again!

We went and got our 2nd batch of kittens for the year.  I picked up 3 male kittens from 3 different litters.  No sooner had I gotten home when there was a call that someone had caught the sister of one of them.  So four kittens are now at our house.  Ollie has to check them all out good before they're allowed to roam.

Apr. 25 (Day 115) - A Little Scary

I'll admit that sometimes Anya is a little scary.  She's so big and I can never tell what she's thinking.  She's a pretty cat but I'm not sure how long it will take to get her a new home.

And Mark surprised me by saying the painters would be arriving in the morning, to start painting the last 5 rooms in the how.  So we had to quickly start picking out colors.

Apr. 24 (Day 114) - Surprise

My Mark took Kevin to his tournament in Kalamazoo, so I went along to Diane's surprise 50th birthday party.  It was a lot of fun.  The funniest part of the night was before it even started.  Diane's old high school friend took her to the spa as her "distraction."  About the time they were expected back, Mark (her husband) gets a call  saying their car had been towed and they need a lift home.  Everyone thought that was so funny.  Here a picture of the Mueller's and one of the boy's little cousins.

Apr. 23 (Day 113) - Sleep Over

Cassie had a few girls spend the night tonight.  They pulled out the bow and arrows for the first time in a long time.  Probably because Kevin got a new target at Christmas.  I think they had a lot of fun.  Here are Cassie and Andrea shooting at the target on the hill.  Courtney freaked out when she learned that the arrow were real and could actually go throw somebody, even thought they were just practice arrows.

Apr. 21 (Day 111) - First Rainbow of the Year

We had a late afternoon show.  It go dark pretty quick and started to clear up right away.  Mark called me and told me to look out in front of the house.  There was a pretty rainbow.  I got a picture right as it was starting to fade.

Apr. 20 (Day 110) - Let's Take Aim

Mark and I attended another YPO event.  Last minute for me because the carpool situation worked out at the end.  It was on self protection and guns.  We went to a presentation where they talked about the new gun legislation and how to get a concealed weapons permit.  They had a police office show ways you can defend yourself is somebody has a gun.  And then they had a demonstration with a trained protection dog.  We then got to shoot different guns in the gun range.

Here is Olga, she takes all her command in German.  She gets loaned out to the police but she does belong to a family and she plays with their kids and other pets.

Here is the target where I was shooting.  I think the head shots were all mine. Yikes!

Mark shooting an AK-16, I think.  He like it because it had a sight on it.

Mark with a revolver.  I really like this picture.

I only shot about 8 rounds off on one gun.  I was that comfortable and didn't realize until I tried to fill out our event evaluation that I was still shaking a half hour later.  It was scary that they had all those people in the same room with guns when they didn't know what they were doing.  But, it was a really good event and I'm glad that I went.

Apr. 19 (Day 109) - What was I thinking

When an email came out last Thursday asking if someone would host the Track team dinner, I said that I would do it.  I was told to expect 45 girls and I would be supplies all the food.  Umm, ok.  Do they not realized what a production that is.  I had one mom agree to make a bowl of salad to help.

I actually didn't even start shopping until noon.  A bunch of Gorton's trays of pasta, garlic bread from the Picnic basket, and  a big cake did the trick.  I was so proud that I didn't stress myself out like usual.  But I was lucky that less than 30 girls showed up, because man those girls can eat.  I had part of a tray of lasagna left an that was it.

Here's everyone singing Happy Birthday to Grecia.  Sorry, but I don't really want to post all their faces since I don't know their families. :)

Apr. 18 (108) - Bottle Feeding for Dummies

I just can't seem to bottle feed kittens.  So today I went to a class.  Shari ran through everything you need to know to take care of you kitten, 1 day to 3 weeks old.  She had some cute 2 week old kittens there.  I should have practice but didn't get a chance.  I might have to go back again and try because it's still not working for me.

Apr. 16 (106) - A Swarm of Girls

Not too much exciting happened today.  But at one point this huge SUV limo pulled down our street.  A swarm of little girls came pouring out and ran up to our neighbors house.  They were there for about 3 minutes and then all took off again.  Now that's a birthday party!

Apr. 15 (Day 105) - Need pictures of the other camera

will edit later.

Apr. 14 (Day 104) - Busy People are Happy People, Right?

So Mark left yesterday again for a pseudo business trip and our schedule tonight was packed.  We had track, volleyball, cleaning cats at Petmart, volunteer party at the Humane Society, freshman registration at the high school for Kevin, and ticket to hear the author, Scott Turow.

Why do the things you really want to do always happen at the same time?  So I juggles just about everything and chucked volleyball out the window.  I got friends to take Kevin to registration, Alana's friend who drives took her to clean the cat cages, I went but really missed most of my party, and met Cassie at the Village Theater to hear Scott Turow speak.

All in all, it worked out pretty well.  If you don't know Scott Turow wrote Presumed Innocent (and many other good books).  But you may know that one because it was made into a movie with Harrison Ford and some other well known actors.  Scott Turow is a practicing lawyer as well as an author and Cassie and I really enjoyed seeing him.  I didn't get the best shot since I didn't want to use a flash, but here he is.

Apr. 13 (Day 103) - I'll have to get back to you on this

Not sure if I have a picture for today.

Apr. 12 (Day 102) - Anya

While on vacation I got an email that a cat had been in the shelter for 240 days.  She was not very happy anymore and really needed a place to chill.  So even thought I had laundry and things to be doing, I went and picked up Anya.  She's a really pretty Maine Coon cat whose about 10 years old.  Her owner gave her up after having her for 9 years.  I have no idea why.

Apr. 11 (Day 101) - No Free Tickets for Us

We headed home today.  I was all ready to get booted off our flight and get some free plane tickets.  I knew they were overbooked because we couldn't even get seat assignments for the girls and I.  Sure enough, they were offering $600 vouchers for anyone willing to stay behind.  But nobody was willing to do it.  Especially once they found out that we were upgraded to First Class for the second flight of our trip.  I don't know why it happened since we didn't pay for it or have any sort of special tickets.

None of the teens had ever had ever flown first class and there was no way they were gonna miss that.  Here's Paul and Kevin in First Class.  They watched movies and played games on the little TVs in the headrest in front of them.

Poor Alana!  She fell asleep and didn't find out you could use the little TVs until we landed in Detroit.  She says we now have to fly her first class again.  Sure, babe, we'll get right on it. :)

Apr. 10 (Day 100) - Just Us Detroiters

Laura, Sarah and Allie left about 6am this morning.  Laura said she almost woke them at 3am because she was up and they all regretted that she didn't.  It took then something like 21 hours to get to Louisville when it was only about 15 hours on the way down.  That a whole other long store.

Here in Bonita Springs, we tried to play tennis today, but it just didn't work out.  We didn't have rackets and they only place that had rackets closed at 2pm.  Which we found out at about 2pm.  So Mark and I took Paul, Kevin, and Alana to another putt putt golf place.  The said it was a lot better than the first one they went to.  Here they are waiting for Mark and I.

And of course, the all important score tallying.

I can't even remember who won although it was probably Mark.  I just know it wasn't me.

Cassie was supposed to be working on her AP bio, but of course got distracted again.  Which means she just sat addicted to her computer again.  That caused a huge argument between Mark, her, and I.

Apr. 9 (Day 99) - Sea Kayaks Do Over

So we decided we'd get up really early to get out on the first sea kayaks at 8am.   But of course we woke up and it was raining with some thundershowers.  We decided to let the teens sleep a little extra and when it looked like the storms were going to pass we headed out.  We timed it perfectly so that after the 40 minute drive to Sanibel it was just cloudy when we arrived and nobody was at the kayak place yet.

We all paired up since Laura stayed behind because her ankles were still so swollen.   There was Paul and Kevin, of course.

And surprisingly Alana and Cassie chose to go out together.  And they headed straight out paddling perfectly in unison.  Go figure!

Mark and I were together, but I didn't take our picture.  And lastly, Sarah and Allie.

They had a little route through the mangrove that was really neat but pretty narrow in places.  We were either cracking up or bickering over how to paddle together.  It was all pretty fun.  Quit a few kayaks ran into the trees or each other.  And I have to say it was the first time I've ever heard Paul and Kevin argue. Even that was making me laugh.

There were tons of birds.  The two best things we saw was this baby bird, whose mother was trying to get it to fly.

and the heron that was fishing.  It would jump around in circles and then stab down at the fish.  I was filming it but stopped right before it caught it's fish.  Ugh!  Luckily Sarah caught it on her camera.

We headed back out of the mangrove just as a whole tour was heading in.  It was pretty funny trying to navigate around them in the narrow parts.  And it was funny to hear them all arguing as they went by.

Apr. 8 (Day 98) - R & R

After our really long day yesterday we decided to take it easy.  I think the boys just hung around the pool all day.  Cassie sat with her head in facebook.  The rest of us went up the street to the Beach club.  It was nice because we had lawn chairs and they brought us some drinks.  Allie and Alana were having fun in the inner tubes.  There was actually a little bit of waves since it was windy out.

Apr. 7 (Day 97) - The Everglades

It was a really long day but pretty fun.  We did our day long everglades tour.  We had a tour guide named, "fill in later", that warned us he would talk from beginning to end and he wasn't joking.  We spent many hours traveling from place to place and he would just talk about the roads, the environment, whatever was on his mind.  He was pretty funny and not too loud so you could rest if you wanted, which was nice.

Our first stop was a boardwalk into a wet area.  X said it was normally all dry but the weather had been so bad this winter it was still wet, so the alligator could move around more and we wouldn't see them here.  Not to worry, there were plenty to see later.  We got to see the strangler fig trees that will complete wrap the cypress tree and a large eagles nest.

We then headed to everglade city and to the National Parks boat tour.  We saw so many different animals.  Here is the osprey with her two babies.  She squawked at then until they ducked down in the nest.

We then saw a manatee.  Or rather it's nose, but I didn't get a picture.  Someone else saw something in the water and it turned out to be a raccoon.  The are the only mammals that can survive out in the mangroves because they've learned to like the dew off the leaves in the morning.  The poor little guy thought we were gonna run him over.

We saw four or five dolphin playing in the water and they followed the boat for a while.  The teens were as enthusiastic as ever.  Especially when they ran out of gas in one engine and it took a bit longer to head back to the dock.

Next we drove through the Everglades on the one main road.  There's a man made canal that has alligators just about everywhere you look.  We stopped a few times for some photos.   Eventually even Paul and Kevin would get out.  Still looking really excited.

Our final stop was for our fan boat ride.  We had to wait a while but they had lizards and birds and even a baby alligator to see while we were waiting.  Cassie was the only one that held it.  I was surprised they didn't have it's mouth banded because I wouldn't want that thing to bite me.

On the fan boat we so tons of alligators.  The said there were 3,000-4,000 in just that lake.  It was pretty loud but we had muffler type headphones on.  It was a lot of fun be we didn't go as fast as I thought we would.

We had to unexpected things happen on the trip.  At the end we saw a bald eagle.  It was a young one that hadn't turned white yet.  It was pretty neat to see.  During the middle of the trip we went around the corner and saw this...

Seriously, can anyone say "Lake Placid."

Apr. 6 (Day 96) - Comedy of Errors

We headed off at 9:30am this morning for Sanibel Island.  We were hoping to go sea kayaking but traffic was pretty bad and it took over an hour to get there.  By that time there was at least an hour wait.  We decided to head to the beach instead, but it took almost another hour to find a beach with parking.  We did see some really neat houses on Captiva Island but were so glad to get out of the car.

When we made it to the beach it was actually more sandy then we expected and we were really bummed.  Mark and I walked down the beach and found where there were a lot more shells thankfully.  I walked down with Allie and Sarah and found a bunch more, while the rest went to eat.  We were all in a much better mood, but decided to head home before getting stuck in traffic headed off the island.

There was more swimming in the house pool, a great dinner made by Laura, and Mark took a bunch of the teens putt-putt golfing (Allie won).  What started off so badly ended up being a pretty good day.

I took this picture right before the Sanibel toll booth.  You can just see the bird in his nest.

Apr. 5 (Day 95) - Lover's Key State Park

Since we arrived so late we slept in and then headed to the beach at Lover's Key State Park around 1:00pm.  It was a little disappointing that it was so shelly you couldn't build a sand castle.  But the boys made do with burying themselves in the sand.  Allie and Alana floated on some rafts in the cold water and Cassie laid on the beach by the broken umbrella trying to read for school.   It was really hot on the beach and the sun was so bright, we only stayed a few hours.

Laura walked through the park but said you couldn't see much of the water because of all the foliage.  On the way out we stopped at the spot where the manatee are usually found but there weren't any.

Apr. 4 (Day 94) - On our Way

Everyone was arriving in Florida at different times.  I dropped Mark, Kevin, and Paul off at the airport at 7:15am.  There arrived at noon and went to play golf before anyone else arrived.  Sarah, Laura, and Allie  stopped at the Tampa zoo at lunch and then planned to arrive by car by 5:00pm.  And the girls and I had a 7:30pm flight arriving around 10:30pm.  We saw a great sunset on the plane.

Apr. 3 (Day 93) - Hair cut and Shopping

I went and got my hair cut by Carol this morning.  We've been going to her salon for about 13 years and she's such a great woman.

The rest of the day was shopping for the trip and getting packed.  Unfortunately Cassie chose to start doing laundry for the trip at 9pm at night when we had to be packed by morning.  So it was another night of not enough sleep.

Apr. 2 (Day 92) - Yep, I did it again

Okay, I didn't get a great picture, but I think I really did break my toe again.  I really cannot believe I'm that much of a klutz.

Apr. 1 (Day 91) - Goodbye Sunshine

Cassie was home again.  We both just lounged around not feeling great.  My one job for the day was to get a picture of the sunset.  It was beautiful and sunny all day.  The temperature was near 70 degrees.  But no luck on the sunset.  It had to get cloudy right around that time.

I ran my foot into the ottoman in the kitchen this morning.  Do other people break two toes in 3 weeks time?  Somehow, I don't think so.