Becoming Foster Parents

So today Matt and I finally got to go to our orientation for volunteering at Wayside Waifs as foster parents.  We had thought about doing this for quite some time, both while we were still living in Bloomington and when we first moved to Kansas City in our apartment.  It seemed way to complicated to do it while renting but now that we have our own place we can finally get it started.


We thought it would be a good idea to be foster parent and use it kind of as a dry run to owning a dog.  Matt is mostly concerned about the time it takes to care for a dog since we both usually work full time.  I still don't have a full time job yet but I'm sure one will come up soon so we definitely need to see if our schedule will allow us to adopt a pet and give it a forever home.  I would hate to jump right into dog ownership and then find out it's not for us and feel terrible about having to return the dog.

front main entrance

I wanted to do fostering not only because it give animals a better chance at find a home, but because I want to become a "Foster Flunkie" as I have learned it's called.  These are people who end up adopting the dog they are fostering.  I think fostering is a great way to really get to know a dog and see in real life what they will be like in your home, without the commitment of adopting first.   I hate to say it, but the only thing I am worried about owning a dog is weather or not I will be able to not freak out about the small scratched the dogs claws will inevitable leave.  Considering how much I freaked about the scratches Erick left on the guest bedroom floor when he moved out it will be a hard task but hopefully I will overcome.  I have read up on making sure the nails are filed round (no just trimmed) every week to help with it. 



foyer and welcome desk

I also saw they cool things you can put on their nails, which are smooth plastic caps you glue on after trimming the nails.Online it says they should stay on for 4-6 weeks (so long as the dog doesn't figure out how to chew them off) and you can get them on Ebay for like $1.45 for a full set, and free shipping.  I would like to give these a try, but I'll have to ask Wayside if it's ok if I use them.  They seem to get good reviews.  The only downside is the dogs chewing them off sometimes, but that's not something the product can really help.  Here's to hoping they can save my floors.

We had our meeting at 6pm at the shelter.  I have never been and I have to say I was amazed at the facilities.  I thought Vanderburg Humane Society in Evansville was awesome, but this place is like a castle version of a shelter.  They have tons of indoor kennels with glass doors instead of chain link so people can't touch each dog and possibly spread illness.  Cats have nice big cages and special cat rooms and even a sun room.  One thing I loved the most is they have an insane amount of training available for people.  They really don't want their volunteers to feel lost so they have classes in everything from basic dog walk to bully breed classes and dogs who are shy and fearful.

I learned that they are also hiring for quite a few positions within, so I have applied for any I might qualify for.   I would love to work there.  They really seem to value good communication and honesty at least with their volunteers and hopefully the same goes for their employees.

Our next meeting is this Saturday for the foster animal class and hopefully not long after that we can get our first little cutie to take home.

The Venue

Pioneer Playhouse: Where Stars are Made

The date is officially set for September 28th, 2013.   I decided to have the wedding at Pioneer Playhouse back home in Danville, KY.  This place has some wonderful memories that go with it.  Even though it doesn't seem that fancy, it was a place I loved to spend my summer nights volunteering as an assistant in the dinning hall, passing out programs, helping in the gift shop whatever they needed.  I would rather have my wedding some place that feel a part of me and my past than some big fancy hotel or other venue where I've never been.  Plus we save a lot of money by having it since all they charge for a whole day rental is $500.  Most places want at least $1k if not more.  Plus we can come in advance to decorate with no extra charge, and that have both an outdoor area and indoor in case it rains.  Only thing more I could ask for is that they were a little less rustic looking, but from all the stuff I've seen on Pinterest rustic weddings are totally popular right now.  I just wish I could find some photos of the past wedding to show you how nice it can look.  Apparently not many people like to post them, but I know they have a lot of them.  I originally wanted to have it on Sept 22nd, but that weekend was already taken and the one before that.  I guess a lot of people are realizing it's a nice inexpensive place that hold lots of people.

Stage of Pioneer Playhouse.  I don't think we can have the wedding ceremony there, too bad:)

All of Pioneer Playhouse.  It has a little western town replica for people to explore as well as the dinning area and indoor area.  I thought abut having the ceremony under the big tree if possible. 

The Rings

There seems to be a lot of rings going involved with getting married the engagement ring, both wedding bands, plus I got Matt and special ring when we were in Ireland.  Most important first:

The Engagement Ring

My engagement ring is kind of a family heirloom.  It belonged to my dad mom, so my grandmother on his side.  She died before I was born so sadly I never got to meet her, but if I did my dad always said she would have spoiled me to death.  He said she always wanted a grand daughter, so when she died she left her engagement ring to go to the first girl born into the family.  I was the only girl in our family so I win : ) 

It's a vintage looking ring, with a thin 18k yellow gold band, with a larger stone in the middle and 12 smaller stones going around it.  I'd like to give it to the first girl born into our family as well, which is one reason why I'm wanting a girl for my first child.  I like the idea of giving a ring to the girl instead of the boy.  That way you don't have to worry about your son marrying someone and then getting divorced and never getting the family ring back.  Plus when it comes time to get engaged if the boy who wants to ask your daughter wants a free ring instead of shelling out big bucks for one, he has to come ask permission : ) Which is exactly what Matt did. 

When Matt first proposed I could only get the ring to stay on my index finger since it was too big. My grandmothers hand must have been much bigger than mine.

 
Matt's "Engagement" Ring

I knew I already wanted to by a special ring for Matt when we were in Ireland as his Christmas gift, but now since we got engaged there I kind of consider it to be his engagement ring.  He wears it on his ring finger like one, and people actually thought we eloped and already got married when they saw him wearing it.  It's a claddagh ring, almost like mine, expect his is a band with the design engraved into it.  It's not super fancy since we couldn't afford and really nice ring like I would have liked, but it's the thought that counts.  I got my claddagh ring when I was last in Ireland and it was only $10 and it still looks wonderful.  One day I would like to get us real gold ones, and I'd like for him to have one like looks like a bigger version of mine, which is traditional for men to wear. 

Brides Wedding Band

I feel like I'm pretty lucky because both of my rings come from someone in my family.  Not only do I get to save some money by not having to buy a new one, it feel much more special to have a thing be passed down in the family.  My wedding band come from my other grandmother, my mom's mom (I call her Neenaw).  She gave me her wedding band from when she was married to my Pop, who died quite a while back.  I did have it altered a bit though.  It was quite a wide band, measuring 8mm, which actually made it way too small on my finger and made it feel like the engagement ring would fall off.  I had it pretty much cut in half, I believe taken down to 4mm.  This actually made it fit my finger perfectly without more altering.  It still looks like a larger band, more like one a man might wear, but I like it that way.  It makes it look more unique even though it's just a simple gold band.  Plus it's a nice opposite look to the engagement ring, with its super thin band.  I'll add a picture soon to show you what I mean.   So in the end I get my whole ring set from both side of my family.  Now I just hope I can pass my rings down to someone so they can keep being enjoyed.

Grooms Wedding Band

We actually just got Matts ring like a month before the wedding :S  We wanted to go with a yellow gold band to match mine, but it is next to impossible to find one from a real jewlers for less than $600.  Even just a plain one.  We decided where it comes from really doesn't matter, it's what it represents.  So...we went with Walmart.  They actually had a pretty decent looking 14kt 6mm yellow gold band for only $269.  We have a winner :)

Almost Time to go Home Too: Jan 1st-3rd

January 1st, 2013: Happy Friggin New Year

Today was lovely.  Saying both sarcastically and sincerely.  You know that cold I said I started to get last night?  Well it reared it's ugly head all day today.  I layed in bed until about 2pm filled with exhaustion and body aches.  Only reason I got up was because Matt went out to go get something for lunch.  Since it is New Years day and it's an official bank holiday in France pretty much everything was closed, except good old Chinese food.  Thankfully their New Year comes later, so you can always count on them to be open. 

I tried not to eat too much in case nausea came with this cold, but all seemed well.  We watched Doctor Who for a bit around 4 I ended up falling back asleep again until dinner time.  The studio we were staying in may be small, but at least the bed and blankets we super comfy.  I wanted to steal her comforter so bad.  Thankfully by dinner time I was feeling a bit better, enough to go with Matt to find something for dinner.  There ended up actually being a grocery store open so we got a few more things for breakfast the next day.  We opted just to go with Chinese food again since we still had a little left over from lunch as well.  We stopped by a different place and got some yummy poulet au caramel (caramel chicken, kinda like sesame chicken) and beouf basilic (Basil Beef, tastes kinda like Thai curry). 

It was actually kind of nice to just have a day to chill and cooperate from traveling.  We wanted to go see the Eiffel tower and La Defense today but Matt didn't want to go without me and I was in no shape so he said he was fine with just relaxing.  vacationing is hard work.  Next one Matt and I take will be our honeymoon and we are just heading to the beach.  We're just going to sit back, enjoy the sun and sand, maybe go to a spa, go snorkeling, do whatever we want without a care in the world.  and to make thing even easier hopefully I'll be able to work with a travel agency to book everything for us so I don't even have to plan everything. 

January 2nd, 2013: Fly Away Home

Today is the Day.  Matt flys back to the US.  Then soon I'll be doing the same.  We made sure to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport since we had to take the metro.  I considered taking a shuttle from one of the train stations like I have heard of but when Matt looked it up they were all ridiculously expensive.  Plus when I thought about it they would probably take longer since they have to deal with traffic and the RER only stops for about 15 seconds at maybe 15 stops total all the way up to Charles de Gaulle.

The only downside to taking the RER is we had to lug all our suite cases up and down stairs, which was so much fun.  I had Matt take one of my suite cases home full of a bunch of stuff I could live without for 10 days.  I figured it would make it easier on me when I have to go back so I will only have to drag around 2 suit cases instead of 3, one of which being really massive.  I had him take my biggest one so I was just left with the medium and carry-on sized one and my back pack.  I wish I had jammed more stuff into because after I repacked both bags at the hotel we probably could have gotten more into them.  but then they might have been over weight so maybe it's ok.  It took him probably over an hour to get through check in since he couldn't do it online and for some reason people weren't using the kiosks they had.  Leave it to the French to make everything harder than it need be.  I'm glad we got there 3 hours early or else he might have missed his plane.  I'll need to remember that when it's time for me to leave.

Last time I was in CDG I got through the line tout suite because my tachycardia was happening and the French were freaking out.  They pushed me to the front and didn't even care my bag was over weight, then let me may down in the back room of the check in area.  They didn't want to let me on the plane since they thought I would die or something.  No one tends to listen when I say I'll be fine.  It's like they don;t trust me when I say I've had it ever since I was in 5th grade, I know what I'm doing.  One the plus side I got a whole isle to myself and a wheel chair to the plane.  Maybe I should drink strong french coffee before getting to the airport again.

We said our goodbyes, which were much shorter this time since I'm coming home soon.  honestly if I wasn't coming home I would have ruled Matt's trip here kind of lame and would have been even more sad things didn't go as planned hardly ever.  But since I'll be some soon I can handle it more.  Then Matt will be stuck with me forever.

January 3rd, 2013

Wow, I have never been so bored in all my life.  Cabin fever is a real thing because I have it.  even though I can go do stuff, there is nothing to do back in Orleans, and I feel so lonely now that Matt is gone.  It was nice having some me time when I first got home, but now I'm just sad.  I really can not wait until people start getting back to the foyer so I can have some interactions with people.

Only person back so far is Dalia and we had dinner together which was nice.  I always think I'm more of a loner, until I'm really alone.  Then it's just sad.  I don't have many friends in KC, but Matt is always there which makes it better.  When he is gone on business I realize I need to find more friends so I don't get depressed.  I'm very happy I have friends here and I'm sad to have to leave them.  I wish I could bring them all back to KC with me.  I wanna invite them all to my wedding but I know no one will make it, since half of them live across the pond.  I think I'll still mail over a save the date card to everyone.

 I'm actually quite glad to be going home and I'm glad I decided to.  While I'm sad I have to say good bye to all my new friends, and won't get to go to any more cool places, I think I will be happier, and my stress will be lower.  Now I won't freak out as much about saving up money for the wedding and if things go wrong with the house (so long as they are smallish things:) since we will have 2 incomes.  Its going to be a long wait though.  Still 9 more days until I leave.

I Love Comments : )

Attention all readers.  I have been blogging for a bit and have yet to get any comments on my posts.  Tell me what you think, either about my experiences, recipes (espeically if you tried them), advice, anything. First one to leave one will win my undying gratitude and maybe a response back :P  Happy Reading

Mary

More New Years Eve Photos

Only shot I got of Notre Dame since the line was so long

 

Daunting view down the stairs you climb to the top of the Arc de Triumph.  Over 250.

Eiffel Tower from Arc de Triumph

 

Champs Elysee from Arc

 

Grave of the unknown soldier and eternal flame.  The flame has only gone out twice, once by a Mexican peeing on it and once by Austrailans roasting sausage over it.

 

Blurry photo of the both of us at Montmatre on NYE

 

 

 

Bonne Annee...Kinda: New Years Eve

Warning, This post contains a lot of ranting about the incompetency of Paris.

Well, how to begin...my New Year in Paris was...unexpected.  I knew there would be a crap ton of people, I knew things would probably close early, I knew lines would be crazy, but figured I could pass them up with my Pass Education for the most part like in Versailles.  What I wasn't expecting was how much all these thing I knew would happen would annoy me to no end.  Oh and that friggin Pass Education doesn't let you cut lines, super lame.  Especially since we bought Matt the Paris pass just so we could cut lines.  I learned that no matter how much I prepare myself for utter chaos, doesn't mean I will be able to tolerate it.  I also learned that when I comes to New Years, I'm staying at home where it's warm and dry and watching other people freeze their asses off as the ball drops in New York. 

Dec 31st: New Years Eve

We decided to start the day off a bit late since Matt wasn't feeling good, and we had already gone to bed at like 10:30 the night before.  We got up around 10am and then took our time getting ready and went to the store for breakfast stuff (yay pain au chocolate and OJ, Matt's favorite).  We wanted to take a guided tour of Notre Dame our Free Europe Tour guide had told us about.  It said they were on Mondays at 12:30 so we hit the metro around 11:30 to get there in time.  Once we got there we were first horrified at how long the line was to get into the church alone.  Thankfully I later found out it goes very quickly so no big.  But then we found out our tour guide was wrong and the tours were not on Monday at all, but on Wednesdays at 2:00 (1st irksome thing of the day)  We ended deciding to skip going to the top of Notre Dame since the line was so long.  Maybe a good thing, because we would have been more pissed to find out once we got inside the cathedral, the line for the tower was actually on the other side outside the church.  And this line I also later found out was just as long as the second, only it moved at a snails pace.  So maybe avoiding that was a good thing. 

Instead we went to the Arc de Triumph to see the view from there since it was in Matt's Paris Pass.  Once we got there we were excited to finally get to skip a ticket line, yay!....Not so yay.  Matt got to skip but for some stupid reason I had to go wait in line just to get a free ticket with my Pass Education.  I only had to wait about 15 mins, but I was still baffled at how troublesome and just pointless the French have to make some things.  I understand they may want to keep track of how many free pass they give away, but why not instead just have someone, I don't know, take tally at the entrance?  Very simple, makes sense, gets the same job done but makes people happy.  But oh no, we can't have that.  Making things simple is just not the French way.  Thing must always be complex and full of silly rules.  (2nd irksome thing of the day)

Anyway, I wait, we go up, see the view for all of 10 mins (totally not worth 9.50 euros, btw).  Then we decide to get lunch before going to the Organgerie Museum (not about Oranges, it has impressionist art, mainly Monet's Water Lillies).  I wanted Matt to try Quick since I actually like it a bit more than McDonald's, at least in France.  First off in Paris they have the name completely wrong.  It is no Quick.  It is quite non-quick actually.  How about instead we call it Slow, Very Slow.  Because that's what it was.  I really want to know why Paris restaurants are jam packed at all hours.  we had lunch at about 2:30 and there was still a hoard of people in the place.  I placed our order on the cool kiosks they have to hopefully makes things faster.  Nope, they have no clue what they are doing when fill orders.  McDonald's would wipe the floor with these people.  You would think they would fill orders in the order they get them right?  Nope.  They just do whatevs, a sandwich here, a drink here, some fries here, all at a slow very French pace.  Then the woman filling orders as the gaul to get huffy when people are pissed it was taking so long.  I ended up waiting for about 30 mins in line for 2 sandwiches, drinks and fries.  Redic.  Then my sandwich ended up being cold and she gave us no ketchup so the burger wasn't as good as usual.  I spent most the meal eating in anger and ranting, which a French woman overheard and then asked if we were American.  Yes French Lady, I am American, and today I am embodying a stereotype of them by complaining about how much things suck and how much better we do it in the US...BECAUSE WE DO.  When it comes to customer service and getting shit done, we reign supreme above France.  Deal with it. (3rd irksome thing of the day)

After lunch I made the terrible decision of walking down the Champs Elysee instead of taking the metro to the museum and was accosted by crowds of people which I was already too pissed off with to deal with.  It took about 30 mins just to cross about 6 blocks.  Once at the museum I was at last happy to see the guy at the first line would let me through the fast lane with my Pass Education, just for getting in the museum.  I guess they actually monitor how many people go in to make sure to doesn't get crowded since there were people waiting behind a rope.  That I'm cool with and understand.  Don't need people so squished in you risk hitting a painting.  However I was not cool with the snooty French hag in the museum ordering we to get in line for my free ticket, refusing to say a word of English to me.  I tried saying the guy up front said I could get through with just this but she barked back, no I'm telling you you have to get in line like everyone else.  I tried explaining again but then just finally yelled " will someone please just speak English to me?!"  I  was tired of translating crap and never understand half of what I hear and just wanted someone to talk to me.  To this the woman replied as I walked away (in French of course)  This is France you're not in the United States anymore, to which I turned around and replied in English a phrase everyone knows "Blah Blah Blah!"  I really wanted to say it's snobby French bitches like you that gives the rest of the country a bad name.  That and I really wanted to push her down the stairs she was standing by, but I refrained.  I got my friggin free ticket, and Matt waited for me once again, there by defeating half the purpose of his Paris Pass, and gave the woman a death stair as I passed her again, still refraining from pushing her.  (4th irksome thing of the day)  Oh, and nothing was in English in the museum and I was too annoyed to read in French, fml

By this time I had had it and was fed up with Paris.  I couldn't even enjoy the art in the place, thought the Monet Water Lillies were cool.  Much bigger than I pictured.  I felt like the whole day had been a waste and it was all due to my terrible temper (but also due to the stupid rules.  Gotta blame the French somehow, right?).  It was already about 4:30 so we just decided to call it a day before I killed someone.  Thankfully we had a nice plan for dinner which ended up working out.  We bought a nice roasted chicken and some potatoes, then a king cake and ice cream for dessert.  Plus I also had the Christmas wine I bought back in Orleans at the Food and Wine expo.  We ate in our hotel after I had a nap to cool down.  I think the stress what getting to my immune system because my light cold I got from Matt started to feel worse.  We ate dinner and watched Doctor Who, and wore little paper crown hats as we ate king cake.  The chicken and potatoes were amazing, I must learn the secret behind the French roasted chicken.  Even the Foyer in Orleans makes an amazing one so they've gotta put crack in it or something.  Slowly the even started to get better.  We were so comfy after dinner we almost didn't want to go out for New Years to see what was up.  But my stubbornness to do something different this year over took me and we went out...in the rain...and cold...bad idea. 

Fun crown hats came with our Gallette du Roi

Wonderful dessert and Doctor Who

 

Matt got the little guy in the cake, he looks so happy about almost choking on it

We left around 10:30.  My one umbrella I had was shot so we pretty much got soaked.  I wanted to go to Montmatre since I read the view was best from there and you could see the whole city.  you might be able to, if there were everyone else in the way of your view.  We hiked all the steps to the top by Sacre Coeur, then spent about 20 mins just trying to find a good stop.  Pretty much every decent spot I could see was taken and none of them had a view of the Eiffel Tower.  Too many trees or stands left over from the Christmas market where in the way.  We ended up opting for a tight place on the steps going up to the church, which wasn't too bad.  no one could see much so we were all in the same boat, then some in a boat filled mostly with booze.  It was actually quite hard to tell when midnight actually happened.  People kept going in random uproars and I just ended up going by my watch.  which was probably a bit off.  I prefer the count down ball in NYC.  Finally we just said happy New Year and had our New Years kiss. 





Mass mob of people out that night

 

                                                 Matt at Sacre Coeur after midnight

Everyone seemed to have brought their own champagne.  We just had little horns we bought at the store.  There actually were little things of fireworks around the city we could see and a few random ones up where we were by random people.  The Eiffel Tower doesn't do much more than it's normal twinkling light show from what I heard.  All in all I was a bit unspectacular if you just for got about the fact you were in Paris.  If it were any other city everyone would have considered it tres lame.  Though maybe it was a super magical night to those who were just drunk enough to vaguely remember it.  We stayed after midnight for about 20 mins to let the hoards go down a little.  Sadly the drunk people must walk slow because we caught up to all them in the metro and it took about 5 trains before we could actually get one.  Once we literally crammed ourselves into the metro car, I finally learned what it must feel like to be clothes in a suite case, getting pushed back and forth, back and forth.

While waiting for the train is when I really started to feel the cold coming on even more.  My legs were aching and I couldn't get warm even though we were out of the rain.  I felt soaked to the bone even though I knew my coat wasn't that wet.  The overall crappy feeling that comes with the start of a cold washed over me.  Once we finally got back to the hotel I just jumped into bed and tried to warm up, which seemed to take forever.  I took NyQuil and Matt made me some tea and, God love him, he rubbed my feet to make them warmer.  I feel asleep around 2am and sadly the feeling of crapiness didn't end there.