Playing Catch Up

Curtis writes:

As you can tell we have found it a little difficult keeping up with the blog these days. Rachel is currently in “Computer Camp” and getting ready for next week’s travel camp visiting various Kentucky state parks. The last two weeks for both of us has been work, work, work…this is a very long post as I can be very long winded but hopefully it catches everyone up!

I just finished up one of the longest weeks in my season. After returning from the annual Hardacre summer pool party I jumped right into the Triple-A All-Star Game and festivities here in Louisville.

Rachel and Chip in the pool

We had a Home-Run Derby on the 14th and the actual game on the 16th. It was a very stressful time for everyone on staff as 2 years of planning came down to just three days but everything went extremely well. I was in charge of “holding down the fort” at the office during the three days and hosting/organizing four parties in relation to our events. Luckily, the team had a couple hotel rooms downtown at the Galt House for the staff to crash as we were putting in 14-18 hour days. After all of the festivities were over we headed into 8 straight home games to restart the regular-season. There is an end in sight as there are only 2 homestands left in August! Louisville Slugger Field, home of the 2008 Triple-A All-Star Game

Ophelia is still going strong and is crazy as ever (the fun kind of crazy). She seems to be kicking her cold/eye infection and is negative for feline leukemia. This means she has been getting some “general population” time with our animals. She, Hobo and Gypsy chase and tackle each other until Tyson gets too interested and Ophelia puffs up and runs away. Another week or so and she’ll be spayed and hopefully adopted very soon. We will also be working on getting Shamrock's cats up on PetFinder.com. Currently, only their dogs are on the website and the cats are adopted through local pet stores.

A very regal-looking Ophelia

An update on our first litter: all four have now been adopted. Heidi was the first to go and went to another Shamrock foster’s sister in Florida. Henry was next going with a woman from Louisville. We were getting worried about the remaining two, Helene and Hans, as they were not getting adopted very quickly. But as soon as Rachel and I discussed about taking them back to foster again they were both adopted together to a nice older couple in Louisville. We hope to receive pictures in the future!

Nebu, now Milo, has been adopted by Leslie and Travis (Rachel’s sister and her husband) and seems to be settling in pretty well. They had been looking for a cat for a while and Milo seemed to fit the bill. If it doesn’t work out, we would gladly take him back though!

My fence project has been slowly, emphasis on slowly, moving along. It’s been hard to work on projects at home when we both basically live at work for much of the summer. I hope to get all the posts in this week when Rachel is gone.

The next few weeks will be busy, again, but fun. Tomorrow, Rachel’s cousin, Scott Dubois, is getting married so we will be driving up for the day but returning home that night. We have lined up many visitors in the month of August and hope everyone gets to come down. 1) Leslie will be helping Rachel with her travel camp next week. 2) A couple of my friends, Joe and Jared, are headed down next weekend to visit and go to the Willie Nelson/Dave Matthews Band held here at the stadium. 3) Rachel’s parents are coming in for a week or so and will help with Rachel’s last camp of the summer, “Horse Camp” (I’m sure she’ll blog about that one quite extensively). And, 4) My parents, Kimberly and her boyfriend might make a trip down to catch a game and go over to Holiday World as well.

I’ll be sure to upload some pictures of some of the described events. Our computer has been on the fritz so that could be a while. Thanks for checking in!

Greta, Grace and Ophelia

Before I left for the bike trip, we took in three more foster kittens. Two sisters, named Greta and Grace and another female of about the same age, named Ophelia (she was rescued from someone who tried to drown her). While I was gone, the two sisters struggled with coccidia and despite Curtis' efforts to keep them medicated and hydrated, Grace died on the Saturday night that I returned. Greta was doing alright until Monday night when she wouldn't eat, so we took her to the vet the next morning. They gave her subcutaneous fluid and changed her meds but she didn't regain her appetite and started vomiting later than evening. She didn't make it through the night and we buried her next to her sister. It was so sad and frustrating because they went downhill so fast and we felt so helpless.

Fortunately, Ophelia seems very healthy and will soon be able to be spayed and put up for adoption. She is a very social kitten and cries for us when we leave the room, now that her roommates are gone. Here is a video of the three girls when we first brought them home.

Bike Camp!

Was awesome! We had 9 kids and 4 adults. We biked 110 miles of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath Trail (although it was probably closer to 75 for me because I drove the van one day). We tent camped along the way and then rode the metro into Washington D.C. on the 4th of July to visit a few museums, see some sights and watch the fireworks. Other than being a bit sore, despite padded bike shorts, this was an amazing trip! Here are a few pics, enjoy (I had to remove a few because of work rules...I left one because we're too tiny to see!)

Can you tell I'm super excited to be riding the subway for the first time?

One of the Giant Pandas that make the National Zoo a hot spot for tourists!

Our group (minus Ted who is taking the picture) in front of the Capital Building.

One of the many awesome fireworks during the 4th of July display. We were right at the front of the crowd on the Mall. We could see where they were shooting off the fireworks and they were exploding right over our heads!

Raz (my boss) and I, looking rather exhausted after a looooooooooong day, on an extremely crowded Metro subway in denial about our looooooooooooong drive home in the morning.

Number 4!

During that second week of Art Camp, we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary! Yay us! The traditional gift for the 4th year is flowers/fruits so Curtis got me some beautiful sunflowers, a "gift certificate" to get a new tree for the yard and we made blackberry cobbler later in the week.

Curtis had a ballgame that night but was able to get it off and we had dinner at Roadhouse USA in Scottsburg. Our neighbor (and new friend) owns the restaurant and ended up giving us the meal for free! Gotta' love that!

Art Camp: Week 2

The second week of art camp went really well! The kids finished up their furniture collage pieces and made huge paper mache masks (intended to hang not wear). We had a very successful culminating event in our "Art Gallery Open House". We had a great visitor turnout and the kids were sooo proud of the art they had created. I was very proud of them! Their clay pieces that Dad had helped them with had yet to be fired and we had one casualty on the way to the "gallery" site. I'm hoping none of the others exploded in the kiln today (I'll find out tomorrow)! The kids will meet again for one evening after camps in order to paint their ocarinas and pinch pots. Should be fun! Here are some pics from our event.

The kids made cookies and punch to serve as refreshments. As you can see, we had a great turnout! I think all the parents came, some board members and a few neighbors as well!

Nebu (nay-boo)

This is our most recent foster kitten, Nebu. This is the one Curtis brought home from the IGA. He spent the weekend at the vet because of dehydration, but now he's back home with us and sitting on my lap as I type. He's so beautiful and exotic looking...we named him after the Egyptian symbol for gold! He's very friendly but is still pretty malnourished and needs a lot of TLC (soft food and snuggles). ***Oh, and I was wrong about the mama kitty, Angel. She wasn't pregnant, just porky.***

I love my job....

...but I'm already exhausted after 2 weeks of camps! Week 1 was Clown Camp, which I directed but it was run by our volunteer, Judy, who is a professional clown. It was tons of fun, we learned a lot about clowns and tricks they do and I ended up in clown make-up as well! I was a white-face character clown named "Violet".

JuJu the Clown and Violet

This is us performing at a nursing home on the last day of camp!

This past week was Week 1 of a two week art camp. Dad came down to volunteer during the first week and brought clay and tools so the kids could experience ceramics and they also have a chair deco-page (sp?) project and a quilting/embroidery project and next week a cardboard mask project! At the end of the 2 weeks we're setting up an "Art Gallery" where the kids can display their pieces for friends and family to see!

The following week is Bike Camp...and I'm pretty much just along for the ride. We'll be driving to West Virginia and then biking the C&O trail down to D.C for the 4th of July! All I hope is to go to the zoo and see the fireworks.....and to be able to walk the next week!

After that is Shakespeare Camp, Sugar and Spice (girls) Camp, Computer Camp (eek!), Eastern Kentucky State Park Girls Travel Camp, and Horse Camp (yay!)...and then I'll be done for the summer! One of my small group members put it best when he said "So you're starting the summer clowning around and ending the summer horsing around"!