Mama Needs a Vacation

I haven't wrote in a while. Mostly because I've been really busy and not getting enough sleep. Let's see...where to begin. My bitches. Since we took our fur babies to the vet and had all their shots and vet records taken care of, I submitted them to the Department of Agriculture in Guam. I spoke with the lady Jacqueline a few days after I submitted everything and I must have caught her at the perfect time! Even though there were several files she'd received before mine and was yet to review, she had no one in front of her and she let me stay on the line while she went through our paperwork. I get paid tomorrow (HURRAY!) so I need to get a cashier's check or money order for $130 ($65 each) and send that to them to pay for their entry permits and registration. On the 31st, I'm taking these broads back to the vet to have their blood work drawn up and then I'm overnighting it via Fed Ex to the Kansas State University Veterinary Clinical Sciences Building. They will then send the results to Guam. So the girls are pretty much taken care of. They'll just need a wellness check about 10 days before we leave on that jet plane.

I received my title to my vehicle in the mail and Matty Boo is supposed to take it to [someplace] to start scheduling a date to ship our Explorer. Well, that's been sitting on my dining room table for just over a week now and he hasn't done shit with it. Go figure.

We still need to get online and schedule our pack out date. I was thinking we'd have to ship everything in mid November, but it looks like we should be okay shipping it mid-December. Just need to make time to sit down and fill out all of that paperwork....which seems impossible these days. I work 40+ hours a week. I'm doing PTA. My days off consist of constant house work, cooking, and entertaining &/or doing stuff with our friends (which I don't mind, but it's a lot of work).

This past weekend, I made two crock pots full of chilli, corn bread, and a fruit pizza. We had our friends over to carve pumpkins, eat chili, and play a harsh game of spades. It was fun and totally worth it. Mid-day, before every one arrived, I cleaned my house, went and got my eyebrows threaded, and had a 1 1/2 hour pedicure. Sunday, I took my kids to get their Halloween costumes (I'll surprise you with pics later I promise!) and did a week's worth of laundry and got my house back in order again (that's a never ending process). Saturday I'm going to help set up with the Fall Festival at my daughter's school and I'm going to work our "Sandy Playground" Sand Art booth for most of the day. Then we're heading out to Jamul for my father's neighborhood's Haunted Hayride! Sunday, more laundry and pumpkin carving and hopefully some relaxing.

At work, I'm trying to encourage people to participate in Toys for Tots...in addition to getting their rents in on time and cleaning out the lint from the driers after they use them...wish me luck!

On a side note, I'm planning a mini-trip to Vegas!! The kids and I are driving up after I get off of work the Wednesday before Veterans Day. My little cousin Justice is turning 6 and having a Princess Slumber Party Thursday night. I'll help my Aunt Nikki get ready for a house full of Divas and hang out for the night. Matty and Ricky are flying in Friday night and we're getting a sitter so we can enjoy a night on the town! (Go ahead and translate that to blowing money at the casinos and on strippers, since that's what's gonna happen...just sayin'.) Mama needs a vacation.

Shipping My Bitches

So it looks like I waited a little too long to get started on all the BS for these dogs....Just a tad any way. I now have a better understanding of how this 120-Day Quarantine works so I want to share... 

Because the island of Guam is Rabies-Free and they want to keep it that way, anyone bringing pets to the island is required to quarantine said pet for a period of 120 days. If you get all the pre-qualification things taken care of prior to arrival, then it is possible to have your pet in commercial quarantine for a shorter period of time, but you have to be on top of your shit...and I'm slipping a little bit. 

A lot of the websites I came across recommend contacting the Department of Agriculture about 90 days prior to your move to get started on your check-list. Personally, I would like to have my dog in quarantine for 5 days or less...in which I should have had my blood work to Guam approximately 120 days prior to arrival. What I didn't know until today, is that when I take my bitches to the vet to have their FAVN (rabies) blood work drawn, the sample will have to be sent to some Kansas State University. That University will do the testing and then mail the results directly to Guam...but that takes 2-3 weeks to get there! The FAVN results must have 1.0 I.U. of rabies antibodies. With the Home Quarantine, if we get all of our pre-qualifying things done, our dogs will get to stay with us for the remaining days (until 120 days past the date that Guam receives the results) rather than in a kennel. It's going to save us lots of money!  

Earlier this summer, we took the dogs to make sure they were current on all of their vaccines: distemper, hepatitis/adenovirus, leptospirosis, parainfluenza, parvovirus, and bordatella. Tomorrow Matty is going to take the girls to get microchipped, Buttercup will get her second Rabies vaccine, have them checked for internal & external parasites & treated if needed; and he'll request the vet to type up a letter with some very specific information in it: 

• Name, Breed, Age, Sex, Weight, Color, and Markings of each dog
• Microchip Numbers for each doggie
• Dates of Vaccinations
• Rabies Certificates which Must Include: Manufacturer, Serial/Lot Number, Expiration Date of Vaccine (separate from the rest)
• Legible Signature and Address of the Veterinarian 
• 
  

We'll go back in 10 days to have their blood work drawn and the vet will send it off to Kansas State. FYI: you don't want to do blood work any sooner than 10 days after vaccination so you can allow time for the blood to build up anti-bodies and the Department of Agriculture for Guam does not want you to administer any vaccines after you've done the blood work. 

After Buttercup has received her second rabies vaccination though, we'll want to get our paperwork together to send off to the Department of Agriculture.  They want us to send the following for review: 

• Rabies Certificates (two for each dog)
• Current Immunizations
• Parasitic Information

Once we get clearance, we can make our flight and kennel reservations and mail off for our entry permits. They will email us our entry permit after we scan and email to them our health certificate (which needs to be done no sooner than 10 days prior to their arrival in Guam.  It's going to cost us $60.00 for each permit and $5-15 for each license. 

Tomorrow, we are also going to sit down and finish doing the paperwork required to schedule our pack-out. It feels nice to finally be making some progress on this move. 

On a completely different note, here's another piece of Subway Art that I attempted today: