He has Arrived!

So Shawn finally made it to Edinburgh! I am so happy he is here. I luckily had only one lecture today so I was able to meet him at the airport, and again the airline has misplaced one of his bags. It seems like whenever one of us flies through Manchester we always have something go wrong. So we both hate that airport and hope that we never have to go there again. At least there was no snow this time. Anyways since he didn't sleep on his flight over he is passed out which gives me time to finish my work. Only 2 days left of classes before winter break YAY! We are staying in Edinburgh during the break so it will be very different not being with my family this year. I am planning on cooking Christmas dinner so hopefully I don't burn the food. It will be my first time cooking a turkey so I will have to have a backup meal planned just in case lol. Anyways time to get back to work.

Becoming the Crazy Cat Lady

Over the last year my friends and Shawn especially have been calling me the crazy cat lady and I admit to being a little bit crazy lol. As a child I had one cat who is currently 13 years old. His name is Mitshu and we got him as a stray kitten on Thanksgiving of 1998 at my cousins house in Miami. He's still a my parents house and is an awesome cat!

Mitshu and I this summer...as you can tell he really missed me

Here's a pic from four years ago he's just a big white fur ball of love

I didn't become the crazy cat lady though until I moved to a small town south of Edinburgh this past spring. One of my neighbors has four cats and I became kind of obsessed with the two friendly ones, but especially crazy about the one I named Big Head. He's not neutered so he has the characteristic large head of a tomcat which is where I got his name from. He's probably one of the most friendly cats I have ever met and just has the best personality. So I became obsessed with taking pictures of my new furry friends and this is when I went from a person who likes cats to slowly becoming the crazy cat lady.

If you couldn't tell from some of my older post, I really love photography so it's something I am trying to learn more about and when I get my digital SLR for Christmas you will see a lot more post about photography. So Here's a few of my favorite shots from my iphone of my neighbor's cat otherwise known as Big Head to me:

Close up color adjusted w/an iphone app

As you can see he is a great model

So silly and playful

Eye closeup and color slightly adjusted by an iphone app

Then about 2 months ago Shawn suggested I adopt a cat so I can have some company. I wasn't sure about it especially since Shawn's slightly allergic to cats, but after thinking about it I decided it would be a good idea. My friends and I went to three different cat shelters and out of the three I have to say the Lothian Cat Rescue was the best shelter and where I found my new cat. The rescue is located just outside of the city surrounded by farmland and is just such a beautiful and nice place for the cats. Some cats are even allowed outside and roam free around the rescue. I was first planning on getting a short haired male cat but when I met this semi-long haired little girl cat I fell in love. Shawn and I decided to name her Philly (Shawn's a big Phillies fan). Since bringing her home she has been nothing but a blessing. She's so sweet and loves to cuddle and sleeps in my bed every night. I am not sure what's going to happen next week when Shawn comes since he may kick her out of the bed lol. She's also has her quirks and will get the crazies and go running out of the room and sliding down the hallway. She's also very playful and just loves attention in general. Let's just say i'm in love with this cat, and I treat her like my child so maybe I am a crazy cat lady. At least I am crazy and happy and she seems to be happy as well. Here are some pictures of Philly:

She has the cutest upside down heart around her nose

Enjoying the view

One of her favorite hiding places

Close up of her little heart nose

Such a gorgeous fluffy cat

As you can see she is very comfortable in her new home

Exciting News...well for me

Over the last four months that I've been here, my husband and I have been trying to get his dependent visa so he could move here. The process was so slow and horrible. Firstly, the visa laws changed this summer so basically bachelor students (Level 6) and under could not bring their spouses over. I think this new rule is very unfair for students who are doing a full degree in the UK. I understand if you are studying for a year or less, but if you are doing a four year degree I think you should be able to bring you spouse over. So this new rule caused many issues since unlike American vet schools a veterinary degree here is considered a bachelors and not a doctorate degree.

Since I knew about this new rule, I spoke with the University's International Office to see if Shawn would still be able to come live here. They were very helpful and said that the degree is considered higher than a level 6 so getting the visa shouldn't be a problem. A week later the International office sent Shawn a letter just stating that the vet degree was of a higher level so that he could send it in with his visa application as evidence. Shawn sent his visa out then about a week later he got an email saying his visa was denied because the vet degree was a level 6! Let's just say I was very angry and upset since he was suppose to leave a week after he got that email. So I contacted the International office again and told them the situation which lead to about 3 weeks of me bugging the office trying to get any information about whats going on with the New York Consulate. Once Shawn's visa was denied he only had 28 days to appeal the decision so you can see why I had to keep calling to get information especially since he had changed his flight once before and then had to cancel his flight all together. Then we finally got information from the office saying that the consulate now recognized that the vet degree is an exception to the rule so they said to direct the appeal to one of the managers and then the waiting began. We weren't sure how long the appeal process would be since online it said it could take 2-4 months which would mean I would have to spend Christmas alone in Edinburgh. But luckily after about 2 weeks Shawn got the email saying he won his appeal and would be getting a visa! YAY!!! So now he will be arriving in Edinburgh on the 14th!

I am such a happy girl right now. The last 4 months were pretty rough for me so this news definitely turned that around real quick. Especially after he got denied. I just was not able to focus on school and just did not really care about doing work and studying. At least now when he comes over he will make me do work lol. He's really good at keeping me focused and on task. It also helps that he's a good cook so I don't have to worry about cooking for the most part. I am a very lucky girl to have such a good husband who cooks, cleans, and is just always there for me. I am just very excited for his arrival and to spend our first Christmas together! I am hoping for a white Christmas as well since I have never had one before since I always spend Christmas in Miami with my family. Yay excited!!!!!!

Photos of Lambing

My Favorite Picture I took from lambing

I totally forgot to tell you guys about lambing during Easter break 2011. I spent 2 weeks in Staffordshire, England (about a 5hr drive from Edinburgh). It was a lot of work but it was definitely worth all the effort. The days were from about 7am-6pm w/breaks for breakfast and lunch. My friend Cristina and I went together and had an amazing time. The farm also had beef cattle, horses, a few chickens and ducks, and a pig. The farm was beautiful and I loved the family. They were all amazing and treated us as if we were family. We had the tastiest food and I gorged myself on the homemade meals. I never was a breakfast person but while lambing I fell in love with the standard meal of toast, baked beans, and poached eggs. Not to mention the days we had poached duck eggs which are the best eggs ever!

My last meal at the farm yum!

While lambing I also got to help out with a calving! The calf was huge and took forever to get out even with two guys pulling. Now the actually lambing was great as well! Getting to actually help the ewes give birth to there lambs was an amazing thing. We did everything from feeding the sheep, tail docking and castration w/rubber rings, moving the sheep, and delivering lambs. So here are some pictures from my sheep EMS. Hope you enjoy!

Silly Newborn

One of their pretty horses

Newborn's Cute Nose

Garden flowers

Typical Oldtime Lamber Pose

Playing on mommy

Juvenile Bird that couldn't fly that became my friend

Butterfly

Mom's love for her lamb

Beautiful mane

Loved that tree

Enjoying a meal

Delivering a lamb!

Tending to the new lamb

That cat's awesome

Giant single lamb

Helping out with my first calving

The calf the next day!

Ewe giving birth

Such great views

Egg basically with no hard shell so fun and squishy

Older lambs out with their mothers

New Goals

So I know I have not been that great of a blogger over the last year, but I have a new goal which is to sit down at least 3 times a week and blog about anything and everything. Since I send most of my time when I am not in class on the internet, I decided I should try and be more productive and blog since I can de-stress and just talk about random and interesting things that are happening in my life. So with that goal in mind I will start again and hopefully this time I will keep up with it.

So to recap of my life from Dec 2010-Sept 2011, Shawn and I got engaged in early December and decided we would get married during the summer. We got married on July 23rd on Clearwater Beach, FL and it was amazing! It was so much fun even though it was stressful before the ceremony since no one knew what we were doing, but once I started walking down the aisle things were perfect. Well not everything was perfect lol. Since I was not expecting to be walking through the sand for the ceremony my dress was a little too long. I was literally kicking my dress up while i was walking as if I was doing the can-can, which caused me to be laughing the whole time my dad walked me down the aisle.

Officially Husband and Wife!

Saying hello to the dove as I wait to be handed mine

After the ceremony we released some doves which was really fun and then were lucky to get some photos in before it started the rain. The wedding and ceremony was all outdoors and we had a tent for the reception. So while it rained we put the tent sides down and it only rained for a small amount of time. The rain stopped just in time for the sunset so we were able to get some really nice shots.

Another thing that went wrong was Shawn lost his wedding ring sometime during the reception. I didn't let this ruin the night and just laughed about it. Luckily one of the DJs found the ring later so all was resolved, and it saved us from getting out the metal detectors and hunting for it in the sand. I guess rain on your wedding day is lucky!

As for the rest of the summer, I spent most of June doing EMS. I did 1 week at the Swine Unit at the University of Florida, which was great. I got to handle the pigs and help out with processing piglets and artificial insemination. Processing the piglets included iron injections, needle teeth clipping, tail docking, castrating male piglets, and also ear notching for IDing. I got first hand experience in all of the processing except for the ear noting since the ID numbering system can be confusing. I was very hesitant when performing these procedures at first since these procedures do not require anesthesia or pain meds since the piglets were very young. After a certain number of days, these procedures have to be performed by a veterinarian. Also I know most of you probably see these procedures as being cruel, but for the most part especially the teeth clipping and tail docking these are necessary in order to prevent the animals from injuring each other. The procedure I did not really like to do were the castrations. I just felt bad for the piggies more than anything , although after the procedure they acted as if nothing happened. I also got to help out with artificially inseminating(AI) the the gilts and sows. There really wasn't much to it. You would push on the lower back of the pig, and if she would stand to be mounted then you knew she was in heat and should AI her. To AI the pigs you have a long tube with a rubber corkscrew tip(make sure it's lubed!) and while pushing down on her lower back you insert the tube making sure to turn the tube clockwise. The corkscrew tip will lock into the pig's cervix and then you can squeeze the bottle with the semen into the tube. Then you will turn the tube in the opposite direction to unscrew it and take it out, and thats basically it! Pretty simple at least in comparison to other animals.

In June, I also did 2 weeks of EMS at Zooville USA. Zooville is a small non-profit zoo and education center and I highly recommend it if you live in the Tampa, FL area. Since I really enjoy exotics and wildlife this EMS was amazing. I learned about husbandry and got to feed all the animals which was also fun. Each animal definitely has their own personality and it was great seeing how they react to you and different situations. Also while I was there they received 3 new animals which were 2 young beavers and a blind, albino skunk. These three guys were great since I got to go into the enclosures and handle them. I especially enjoyed the beavers since they just wanted to sit on your lap and eat.

Bucky my little beaver that I fell in love with. I can't image

them getting to about 50lbs full grown

Beaver enjoying some celery by the pool

Ollie the albino skunk

Asian Palm Civet

Ring Tailed Lemur

Clouded Leopard

Cougar enjoying his new toy

There is such a variety of animals at the zoo, even animals I have never heard of such as the civets and genets so it was nice to be able to learn about these animals. I also got to be with the animals for most of the day so I got to see the animals' behavior more than if I just visited a zoo. Also this place has wonderful people who run the zoo and who care for the animals. Everyone is willing to answer questions and were very knowledgable about the animals. I will definitely be visiting the zoo when I go back to FL in the summer. I am very excited to see how everyone is doing and to see how big the beavers have gotten.

So after all the EMS and the wedding I had 2 weeks left in Florida and headed back to Edinburgh early. I had 4 more weeks of EMS to complete before school started which included 2 weeks of both Dairy and Horse. My 2 weeks of Dairy I did at Langhill my school's dairy farm. It was really nice since firstly we did not have to do morning milkings so our days were 9am-5pmish. I also liked that they knew what information we needed for our reports so they were very willing to answer questions and point us in the right direction. We did a lot of random work in the morning such as painting the calf shed, bedding the calving sheds, weds we followed the veterinarian who did ultrasounds for pregnancy checks, sometimes we moved cows from pastures, and just whatever needed to be done. Then the afternoon mainly consisted of the afternoon milking which would start by bringing the cows in from the fields and across the street. It was always fun stopping traffic so the cows can cross. Milking took about two hours and was pretty tiring especially when you are dodging the poo and urine lol. Everyone eventually ended up at some point with poop on their face, luckily we all stayed relatively clean. Also the cows were just starting to calve so there were a couple of calves on the unit which of course was adorable.

After the cows, I spent two weeks at a livery stable near the college. They have about 20 horses and was a lot of labor. The daily routine starting at 8am with the AM feed, then change rugs and turnout, muck out stalls, pick up poop from fields, AM and PM food prep, fill and hang up hay nets, lunch 12:30-1:30pm, work with youngsters or other jobs that need to be done, 3:30pm bring horses in and pick feet and change rugs, PM Feed, 5pm finish. I had the hardest time with mucking out the stalls, and was very sore for the first week. At least I got a good arm workout out of it. I got some crucial horse handling skills such as placing a halter on, leading the horse, picking up a horse's feet to be cleaned/examined, and grooming as well. Since we are tested on animal handling in our veterinary course, the EMS work is really worthwhile especially if you have a good placement that lets you have hands on practice rather than just observing.

Foal

Can see arthur's seat from the pastures

Me in the eye of a horse

After horses I had the weekend off and then 2nd year began. The summer went by so fast since I had wedding planning and EMS to keep me busy. I now have completed 10 wks of EMS and only have 2 weeks to go(1 week of poultry and 1 week of small mammals). I have until the end of spring break to finish my last two weeks so now I just need to find places which is the hard part.