Rolling along

Life keeps rolling along ofter the death of a family member, it's a balancing act between allowing yourself the time to grieve and jumping back on the horse.  The world doesn't stop because a loved one goes away, and I know he would want me to continue to be active and keep doing the things I'm doing in my life.

Having said that...

Yesterday I had a meeting at my internship to see if I'd be allowed to stay there.  I was rather nervous but it went SUPER well!  Not only do I continue to get to work there threw the fall, but they doubled my shifts! (which is what I wanted) So now I'll be working both Mondays and Wednesdays.  In addition to my current responsibilities of bathing, brushing, and nail trims, their going to teach me register work, and doing some simple dog haircuts as well!  I'm super psyched, and cant wait to go to work tomorrow!

In addition to this, I'm friends with a wonderful couple who is interested in showing one of their Finnish Laphunds, here is an example of the breed.

They are not however interested in going into the ring with Hubba (that's the dog's name, isn't it cute?)  and they asked ME if I'd like to be his handler at dog shows!  I of coarse am SO up for the challenge and I'm going out there on Monday  talk threw the details and work with him for a little bit to see what kind of connection I can get with him but I am VERY hopeful, sense Hubba and I already have a good relationship and I absolutely ADORE this dog.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Love,
Mango Kitty

Pineapples...

On Wednesday morning we got the call that my Vikings grandfather passed away after a long and painful battle with his failing body.  In the end he slipped away while asleep, with his wife at his side.  It's all we could have hoped for for him. 

He was an incredible man, funny, intelligent, and fiercely stubborn.  Even though I've only known him sense I came to Sweden 6 years ago, I am filled with wonderful memories.  The first time I met him he proudly showed off the only English phrase he knew, which was how to order a beer.  Every Christmas he gave me a pineapple.  No one knows why, he just did, and I loved it.  He was always eager to talk American politics, sports, and news.  He openly accepted me, even with all my  problems and quirks.  I cared for him deeply, and I'm going to miss him a lot.  I'm also going to miss the pineapples...

Love,
Mango Kitty

Horses!

Today my contact person took me out to go chill with some Icelandic horses, and it was great!  especially when you consider the fact that I haven't been able to get hands on with a horse in 10 YEARS.  Craziness.  They are so cool, quite small but sooo much personality! 

There was also a miniature horse there, that was all attitude and kept sneaking away to the bags of grain :P

All in all a great way to start the week!
love,
Mango Kitty

The Grand Tour

Sorry for the crappy video quality, here is our new home!!!

All and all we are pleased, plus it's CHEAPER than our last place!

Love,
Mango Kitty

We survived!

        We are officially moved in!  Hazzah!  There's still a few boxes that don't have homes yet, but the vast majority is all put away!  Today our Living Support contact came and took away all the broken down boxes in our storage room, so we have room in our storage room again!  And my wonderful dear friends came with their little boy (who's name is Max by the way :P) and helped hang a bunch of pictures, shelves, curtains and the big metal sun we got from Ima forever ago but have never managed to put it up before :)  I will try to get pictures (or maybe if you're lucky a video!) up tomorrow. 

       The cat's are doing brilliantly,  This move is going sooooo much better than the last one for them!  The first couple of days they were going around growling and hissing at us, each other, and at nothing... But after 3 or 4 days they were PLAYING, they were on the couch TOGETHER, on the cat trees TOGETHER, in bed TOGETHER!!!  Those who remember the chaos of the last move know how amazing this is.  Last time we moved Indi freaked right the fuck out and started attacking Mi-Go, we often had to keep them in separate rooms, and we even had a veterinarian say we would need to get rid of one.  Obviously we didn't, but it took over three months to restore some peace in the home.  NOT the case this time.  She still bitch-slaps him some in the mornings, but really, who is in a good mood first thing in the morning?  Not I!

We are so great-full for all the help we've gotten in this move.  Nils' mom took two days off of work to help with the move, and cleaning the old apartment, his dad helped shuffle boxes on moving day, and his sister even came down for a week to help out! 

All and all we are very happy.  The only issue we've had so far is that our neighbor told Nils that we close our front door too loudly, so we have to close it quieter now lol.  Wonder how much that old man will like our moving in party!!!

Love,
Mango Kitty