Kittens!

On August 18, Mr. GV heard Cosette cry out around 3:30 a.m.  And then an hour later we heard the first kitten crying.  Naturally I rushed into the spare room and stayed with her until they were all born.  I wasn't going to miss out on seeing these babies come into this world, not to mention there was always the chance she would have trouble. I had read up on kitty midwifery, just in case.  It was amazing to watch Cosette become a mama, and see all her natural instincts kicking in.  

The second kitten came at 4:55, and the third at 5:58.  The third one was a tougher birth for her.  While it is normal for kittens to be born feet first, his little feet would come peeking out, then disappear, over and over.  I was worried about her ability to push him out but she managed.  He was the biggest and I'm guessing that was the issue.  At 6:45 the fourth was born, and we were done.

Nope.....not done!  Although we had only seen four on ultrasound, at 7:20 Cosette began bearing down again and out popped number five!  

Happy birthday! 

4 days old

Growing

Panther discovers himself in the mirror

We have had so much fun with these kittens.  They are all healthy and loving.  It makes me so sad to think of all the kittens that are born into situations where the mother has to struggle to take care of them, or the babies have to fend for themselves with no mama around.

Grey Bear is the oddball, in terms of coloring.  The rest are all brown/black striped tabby, and he is a grey striped tabby.  He is an absolute beauty.  I assumed he would be the first to be adopted, and he was.  A friend from high school saw him on Facebook and she and her family fell in love with him.  I have received a few pictures and it sounds like all is going well with their new addition.  

The other four?  Well, they are still with us.  Our local no-kill shelter does not have much luck with adopting out cats, so there is a long waiting list.  I have spread the word that these kittens are up for adoption but so far no one is interested in any of the rest.  For the time being, they are find here with us.  I just hate to see them get out of the kitten stage, because I am afraid they will be even harder to adopt out and I don't want them to spend their lives in a shelter.  

For now, I am just enjoying them.  Five cats, four of them 13 weeks old, can be quite a handful, but oh it is so worth it!  

Cosette

In June, my sister who lives in another town told us about a cat that followed her cat home.  She lives in an apartment complex near a large store and there are a lot of stray cats there.  I figure it is a dumping ground for unwanted cats.  

And then the cat started getting bigger......Stray cats don't get overweight for the most part.  Instead they get pregnant.  Which is exactly what this little girl had happened to her.  

We brought her home with us on July 27th.  It was pretty obvious she was pregnant, but I took her to the vet just to confirm.  While there our vet did a free X-Ray "just for fun" as she called it, to see how many fetuses there were.  She saw four, and said she thought the cat would be due in 2-3 weeks.  

We named her Cosette, after one of the main characters in "Les Miserables."  Cosette was an orphan, a little waif with big eyes, and so was our new little mama-to-be, so the name fit.  

With 3 weeks left to go in her pregnancy, she weighed all of 7 pounds.  My sister had, of course, been feeding her, but she still needed some fattening up.  That was no problem, as I put out unlimited dry Kitten Chow and a small can of wet food 2-3 times a day.  

Pretty soon Cosette's sides were sticking out and she developed a pregnant lady waddle.  

She took to laying on her side a lot.  I spent as much time with her in her room as I could, to gain her trust so that I would be able to handle her babies from the beginning.  I also got a thrill out of seeing her belly roll around when the babies became more active towards the end.  

Here is Miss Cozi in Mr. GV's lap, the night before her babies decided to make an appearance.

Next post:  kittens!!

CCHS Tour de Paws

Last fall, Mr. GV got an idea to help out our local humane society.  We had adopted twice through them already and were very impressed by how well the animals were cared for. We attended our first quarterly meeting and put forth the suggestion to them:  How about a charity bicycle ride to raise funds?  They said "Sure!" and so WE DID IT!

This event involved months of planning, loss of sleep (from worrying and from working), asking people for money and supplies (something many of us are not at all comfortable doing), and lots and lots of volunteers.  

But.....we pulled it off!!  In the end we raised almost $5,000 after expenses! Next year our expenses should be even less since we will know better how many  supplies we will need plus there will be items we purchased this year that should last us for many years to come.

The community supported us by many businesses becoming sponsors of cash and supplies, and the bicycling community supported us by coming out to ride, even though the weather report wasn't so good that day!  In the end we had 52 riders, which is fantastic for the first year of an organized bicycle ride.  

Riders get ready for the start

Mr. GV makes a few announcements at the ride start.

J said the prayer, and asked that the riders and volunteers stay safe and that all our animal friends would find a home.  :)

Our last rider in for the day.  He is someone living with  recently-diagnosed muscular dystrophy and did the 100 mile route on his recumbent bike!

An exceptionally happy, extremely tired Mr. and Mrs. GV.

Busy busy

Busy busy around here!  I have so many things to talk about, but I am too busy doing them all to write about them!

The biggest undertaking of them all:  We are in the very last few days of organizing a big event for our local humane society.  It's so exciting and I can't wait to share our end result.  

We also have taken in a few extra boarders---the cute and fuzzy kind.

So between these things, family events, and just normal everyday life, I'm having trouble organizing my thoughts right now.  

In a week or so I hope to be more rested and able to share everything on here.

See you then!

Gone gone gone!

I am constantly amazed how much stuff is in this house.  It never seems to end.  I am grateful for what we do have, of course, and don't want anything to happen to the items we cherish.  But sometimes it is just overwhelming.  

I know a lot of other people can relate.  Some people like to be surrounded by things, and others like a minimalistic look.  I like to think I aspire to be somewhere in between.  I don't have curtains in my house.  We have blinds and shutters, and that's all we need.  Curtains catch dust and pet hair, and that would just be one more thing to clean.  I do have things hanging on the walls, but not lots.  My mother-in-law has, in the past, threatened to buy something to put above my couch.  I happen to like my big, blank wall.  Ha!  

These things left my house last week!  Well, a few of them are still here but they are just bagged up and waiting for me to go to electronic recycling, the library, and the humane society.

 My mom is having a moving sale most likely in the next month or so.  It all depends on when she sells her house.  Meanwhile, my sister and I have been taking lots of things over and storing them in the shop until the sale happens.

Blankets, pillows, couch cover, rug.

A few things for the "free" box--bookmarks, stickers, mug, scoops.  

Items from the bathroom closet.

Sheets, kitchen items, blow dryer, and way too many makeup bags.

These are all my nephew's items, so my sister will be pricing them.

Swim shoes, tea strainers, cookie press.

Things one of my sisters is taking, including a comforter set and bed desk.  

Dead electronics to be recycled.

Items from myself and my sister to take to the humane society.  

Items my other sister is taking.

A few items for the Friends of the Library bookstore.  

So glad these are all going to be out of my house and that there are others that can use them!

Vegan MoFo

I am not participating in Vegan Month of Food (MoFo) this year for a variety of reasons.  One reason is because we are eating a rather boring diet right now.  I could report daily on what we are pulling out of our pantry and freezer and eating, or the fact that Mr. GV is trying to lose a few more pounds and eating a rather monotonous diet, or show you the toppings I put on my baked potato that I eat almost every day. But those tidbits really do sound boring to me, so I can imagine how uninteresting it would be to anyone reading this. 

Instead I'll be continuing with my regular ol' blogging topics, just general life around here!  But I encourage you to check out Vegan MoFo if you are veg or veg-curious!  

What we are not cutting back on

While we are cutting back on expenses around our house, there are a few things we don't intend to cut back on.  Those are the ones that are most important to us:  eating healthy and making sure our non-human animal friends eat healthy. 

For us, eating healthy at home means plant-based, mostly whole foods, organic when possible.  We are not perfect of course!  We have a freezer in our garage that has some processed foods in it, and I admit to eating Boca Chik'n patties sometimes.  We are eating out that freezer slowly though, and not buying near the amount of processed foods we have in the past. When we go out to eat at vegetarian restaurants, often we get dessert and other less healthy foods, although always plant-based. We are trying even harder to eat healthy right now, as we are both trying to lose some weight.  

At least twice a week I shop for produce, which usually includes sweet potatoes, baking potatoes, broccoli, baby carrots, kale, bananas, and oranges. Sometimes we also get apples, grapefruit, cucumber, melon, spinach, celery, avocado, and herbs.  I wouldn't mind being one of those people that goes to the grocery once a week or even once every two weeks, but there's just no way with the amount of fresh produce we eat.  

I want to get back to making my own bread, but I'll be honest with you:  I hate running the oven when it's hot outside.  So for now I'm buying whole wheat bread at the grocery, which costs us nearly $3/loaf.  I know I have flour in the freezer so I really should start making that bread again.

The other item I mentioned that we won't compromise on is taking care of our four-legged friends.  Our dogs eat dog food that we have to order online, and it is not cheap.  But we feel it is the best for them so that will continue to happen.  I also buy them natural dog treats, such as dried sweet potato slices.  I plan to try making those myself, but again, I've got to run the oven for it.  

The cat we have added to the family (more on that in another post) gets food from the grocery store.  Right now she requires a special kind of food, and we supplement it with Newman's Own canned food.

We could put our grocery cash in an envelope and live that way, but so far I am just keeping up with what I spend by writing it on paper.  (I'm an old-fashion paper kind of girl, and not really into spreadsheets.) We don't have a budget yet for a grocery category, but we plan to within the next couple of paychecks.  Right now we're just getting a feel for what we spend.  

Anybody want to pipe in with what they will not compromise on in their budgets?  

Money Talk

(Note:  I have some family members who read this blog.  Don't think that we are going without, or that we are in dire financial straits.  Ya'll know we are fine.)  

So, now that our 20th anniversary road trip is over and paid for (partially out of savings, as we planned) it's time to get serious about saving more money.  Mr. GV makes a good living.  I certainly cannot complain about that.   

Although I don't want to get into specific numbers regarding salary, I do have a breakdown of what percentage of his check actually gets deposited into checking.  

This is what comes out before the money comes to us for our usage:

Taxes 19.2%

Retirement 19%

Savings/Medical FLEX account 8%

Insurances 3.6%

Total=49.8%, so let's call it 50%.  

So that leaves 50% of his income to pay the bills.  The only debt we have is our mortgage.  Our other debts (student and auto loans) have been paid off for several years.  We use credit cards but they are paid in full every month, and have been since we've been married except for two times:  the first few months of our marriage when I was fresh out of college, he was in college, and we had a wedding to pay for AND one month when we moved for his residency, he didn't get paid for 6 weeks, and I had yet to find a job in our new state.

Our standard bills are: mortgage, utilities, phone, trash, Internet, online photo storage, Hulu, Netflix.  

Then you have the variables:  groceries, household items, home repairs, pets, donations, bicycling costs, gifts, auto repairs, clothing, home improvements, post office, restaurants.  

We do just fine.  And then, like any other household, an unexpected expense comes along.  In the last couple of months we spent over $2,000 on car and truck repairs, and over $3,400 on a new heating and air unit.  And we have that money in either short-term savings or long-term (emergency fund.)  The a/c, for instance, came out of the emergency fund. 

Of course I am thrilled that we have saved the money to pay for those items. Thrilled!  But we are also facing the reality that there are several repairs/replacements that need doing around our house and that in the next few years we are probably going to need a new car.  So we would like to build up that savings as much as we can.

Which means going on a tighter budget.  Strike that, it means going on a budget at all, which is something at which we have never been good.  We tend to go on a budget, then fall off the ol' wagon within a couple months.  

So, expect some posts about our money-saving adventures in the near future. I would love to hear how others approach budgeting!

Goodwill and lapel pins

I don't like to buy a lot of souvenirs when I'm traveling, at least not for myself.  I'm not a big collector, although I use to collect a few things when growing up and then as a young adult. (Porcelain masks as a teen, snow globes, Anne Geddes items, snowmen and Santas are the ones I remember.)   I try to buy mostly consumables for others when I'm traveling, with the occasional T-shirt for those who like them (our moms) and kid-oriented things for my nephew.  I figure anything I buy for myself will eventually either have to go into a yard sale or be taken by one of my family members, and I don't want to burden them with things that have no meaning for them.  

But I do like to get a lapel pin from each state or significant museum/landmark that I visit.  And I do enjoy looking back on them after I have them pinned to a hat I keep in my bedroom. 

These are some of the ones I collected on our recent road trip:

Also, while we were in Kalispell, Montana, I had a chance to check out their Goodwill.  It was by far the cleanest, most organized thrift store I have ever seen.  I had a blast looking around.  I came home with these two shirts you see below.  The green one was a blue tag, which was half price that day, so was $3.  The other shirt was $5.99.  The green shirt is really comfortable and I like it a lot, but I LOVE the other one.  

My total at the store was $18.00:

Shirt--3.00

Shirt--5.99

Package of tags for future yard sale--.29

2 pair of decorative socks--1.98

Kids' shirt--3.99

Book--.69

Book--1.99

Donation--.07 (Round up to the nearest dollar.)  

Epic road trip, Days 16 and 17

Our last stop on our epic road trip was the Badlands!  I was feeling a little sick and run down this day, so you don't want to see any pictures of me, I promise.  In most of them I could barely muster a smile.    Ha.  

Mr. GV was enchanted by the Badlands, and I can't blame him.  

The prairie dog town was an adorable sight to see too. I even saw a ferret running around out there (looking for dinner of course.)  

We took this opportunity to unload all our recyclables.  We tried our best to be as eco-friendly as we could on this trip, and wound up carting around our recyclables for a long time.  

Mr. GV took this picture just for my benefit.  I promise you, I was not getting out of the car after that sign!  Not only were there rattlesnake warnings, there were also signs reminding you that prairie dogs carry bubonic plague!!

We stopped off at Whole Foods that evening and stocked up on some food to help us get home.  This was our first time with any of Upton's prepared foods, and wow were they good.  

And here we are.....Day 17 and the last picture from our Epic Road Trip.  We took this in our garage, right before we walked in to see our puppies after a couple weeks away.  We had a great time being together, and the best part of the trip was that we still like each other after that much time together!  Here's to (at least) another 20 years of marriage!  I love you, Mr. GV!!  

Epic road trip, Day 15

Day 15 of our road trip saw us visiting two monuments:  Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore.  

But first, we drove through Upton, Wyoming.  Nothing notable here except apparently if you are looking for the best place EVER, this town is really sure of itself.  

The road on the way to Crazy Horse is pretty much nonexistent in some places, and downright scary to be driving.

I'm going to be completely honest about the Crazy Horse monument:  It is underwhelming.  It is honorable that there is a family and other workers so dedicated to seeing this project through, but there's just not a lot to see in regards to the memorial.  Some day there will be though, and I look forward to visiting again.  

Next it was off to Mt. Rushmore.  We had a great visit there, and were glad to have the chance to visit such an historical landmark.  

We stopped off at Everest Cuisine in Rapid City, South Dakota that evening.  We got the authentic Indian food we had been wanting for a few days.  It was delicious!  The only thing to be careful of, fellow vegans, is getting a truly vegan meal.  The waiter understood we were vegan, and instructed the kitchen to make us vegan bread.  And then the same man brought out sauces to go with our samosas, and we thought we were in the clear.  Mr. GV asked if the green sauce was vegan and our waiter replied that well, there was just a little bit of yogurt in there.  "Just a little bit."  As if that made it OK. That is, of course, infuriating, because he clearly understood what being vegan meant and thought he would just slip it by us.   

I know, being this picky makes me sound like a cranky pants.  But when you have heard great reviews of a restaurant and are told they can accommodate you, it's so disappointing to find out the staff is trying to sneak something past you while you were trusting them.  

Epic road trip, day 14

Sadly, we had to leave Glacier the next morning and drive to Buffalo, Wyoming for our next stop.  But we had what was probably the very best experience of our trip on this day:  Montana Grizzly Encounter.  As a vegan, I am obviously not a fan of animals in captive situations.  However, these bears are rescued bears from bad situations, or ones that were found as orphaned cubs and would not survive in the wild, and being in this rescue situation is the only humane option for them.  They are obviously treated very well and are much loved by their human family, who dedicate their lives to the well being of these bears and  to educating the public about bear safety and what a gift these animals are to our world.  

This is Brutus.  He is the star of the place.  The other bear who comes out at the same time as Brutus, a female named Sheena, decided not to come out of her den that day.  It was raining, and Sheena is not a fan.  I don't mind telling you that I had tears in my eyes as I watched Brutus enjoying his life.     

On a completely different topic, this was a sign as we drove through Montana and Wyoming.  I found it very fitting that the "Gusty Crossing" sign is bent by, I am sure, gusty winds.