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Little Boxes

Suburbia summed up in a song. I've heard this song SO many different ways because of a show I watch called "Weeds" about a suburban mother whose husband dies and she resorts to selling marijuana to support her family. It's a pretty interesting show. But defiantly not for children.

Malvina Reynolds - Little Boxes

Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of tickytacky
Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same
There's a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses all went to the university
Where they were put in boxes and they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and there's lawyers, and business executives
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course and drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children and the children go to school
And the children go to summer camp and then to the university
Where they are put in boxes and they come out all the same.

And the boys go into business and marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

So on Wednesday we did the trick or treating thing, it being Halloween and all. Brian went as Spider man, Rhayne as Dora, and Murphy was a Ninja! They were so excited to go. We weren't even sure if we were going to bring them or not because at first Brian was suppose to go to Jackson directly after work, turns out he stayed until almost ten, and this topsy turby decision was also made because I didn't realize we LIVE in a suburban neighborhood. DUH. So, even if he did go I could have managed to bring them by myself, I just couldn't have brought Skylar like I did.



So, after they got their costumes off and pottied, we went...



The older two were so proud of all the booty they collected!


Murphy got scared at a couple of houses and nearly had to be drug up to go by the middle of the outing.


And by the end he had to be carried because he was tired. He did walk most of the way though, it was darling. His basket that he was collecting candy in got too heavy for him, but he'd only let someone carry it for a second, then he got mad thinking we were going to keep it from him or something, so he demanded it back. Silly thing. All in all we had a good experience. We also found out that this neighborhood is pretty neat, but the roads are a little confusing. The kids had a blast and in the end we have so much candy I think we'll be good on that front until next Halloween. When we got back we went through all the candy and pulled it together, then gave them each some, I gave Murphy a piece in his mouth and he bit the crap out of me, caused a couple of blood blisters on my index finger, when I screamed because of it he bit down harder, and eventually I was able to remove my finger from his mouth. Then he gave me his, I'm so cute but shy look so I thought he thought it was funny and when I said as much he started crying and got really upset about it. I held him in my lap for a bit and he seemed really sorry, but I still have a feeling he was faking because of how upset I was about my finger hurting. I guess I'll never know for sure though.

Birmingham Zoo

Sunday is normally Brian's day off so we try to get out and do something as a family on this day each week. This week we chose to go to the zoo. It took an hour and a half to get there, which wasn't too bad considering where we've lived in the past, and it was a pretty nice drive. When we got there the kids were so excited. We had a pretty good time, but Brian and I weren't too impressed. They had your basic animals; Lions, Monkeys, Sea Lions, Snakes and such....they even had a Wilds of Alabama exhibit, that was actually pretty cool because it was kind of like walking through the woods. It just seemed to lack. They had tons of koi ponds, I mean a TON! Why did they need so many? I really couldn't tell you. My main problem with the zoo was that the animals seemed SO unhappy. Look at the Hippo-


He had no pond to laze in, inside there was a small area of water but I doubt he could have submerged himself in it, he just seemed so unhappy! I was talking to him and he perked up as if to tell me I was totally right when I mentioned that he didn't have enough water. I've never been to a zoo and saw hippos that weren't in an area where they could just be completely submerged in the water.

On to the Rhino-


You can SEE his hips! Poor baby. He had next to no room to hang out in, really, nothing. These are animals that live in herds and he was alone. I don't know what they do to him, but he's miserable.

Now lets see our tiger,


He was pretty decently fed, I guess but I've seen privately owned tigers that were fatter than him, and he was so sad. He was prowling the display window prowling it literally! Pacing back and forth looking for a way out. I understand he is captive and its unnatural for them to be and that alone would make them mad, but he was in a small area, no room to play no one to play with for that matter. He was screaming to me, Let me out of here! I want to run and play. I was devastated.

Now, it wasn't all bad mind you. The layout of the zoo was pretty. The exhibits were neat, although the cages in my opinion were VERY small, but I've been spoiled with Audubon in New Orleans, so far the BEST Zoo I've ever encountered. The California Sea Lion was happy as a pig in mud:


He even posed for me. How cute is that?

The giraffes seemed content, but I've yet to see one that wasn't. They just didn't seem to have enough room to me:



The monkeys were lazy and content:



And the meerkats were gorgeous as usual:



They had a petting zoo with goats and sheep.


You know I LOVE goats! I did get really upset around this part of the zoo, however, because not only did they have Pygmy goats, they also had Boar goats. I cried my eyes out because it made me think of Sally and Sandler. I didn't get any pictures of them cause I could barley look at them. I cried for about 10 minutes and it kind of ruined my mood a bit. It was so hard to hold back from boohooing like a baby.

They also had nice Halloween decorations:



They have been having this boo at the zoo thing each weekend, which is kind of cool, we were thinking about staying for that but the kids got moody about the time we finished getting through the whole thing.

Rain Rain go away so my kids can play

My mouth is doing much better now and it only feels a bit bruised at times. I can't wait until that feeling goes away. The kids have been being so full of energy and because of the rain this week I haven't been able to bring them outside to play so they put all of their energy out on getting into stuff and being rotten. I suppose because I've been in moderate pain this week hasn't helped any because when I happen to be in pain I tend to snap at people, I don't normally snap at the children but the other day it felt like I had a head ache in my mouth and ceritan noises, including my daughter's voice, really hurt...so I kept telling her to be quiet and when she wouldn't I snapped at her then I apologized for it but she was upset with me and told me not to be mad at her, poor baby. Brian took her upstairs and played with them for a few hours to help me deal with it. Yesterday when I woke up that sharp pain was gone and didn't come back all day, hopefully today will be the same. I have been icing it when the bruising becomes bothersome which helps a lot. Little Brian has been showing much improvment over the days with his name writing but yesterday he wanted to be lazy and draw his lowercase letters past the middle line on his manuscript page even though he knows he shouldn't. I talked with him about it, and he was honest and told me that he was just being lazy about it, and I explained to him that when we don't put all of our effort into things we do we won't get any where in life and this applies to everything we do, including writing our name. He did really well on the activity sheets I printed out for him, but didn't listen properly when I told him to color the triangle green he instead colored the stars green, he told me he thought I said stars so I suppose it was either his not listeing or just not understanding me...either way I let him slide on it and had him correct it. Rhayne has been getting into all kinds of mischief, yesterday she went into my bedroom and got into the warmer where I keep my wax for my legs, and she decided to wax her own legs...Which caused a big ole mess. I knew she was being too quiet so I ran upstairs to catch her in the act, luckily she didn't get it on her legs just yet and just spilled some of it on the floor and such...which is going to be a pain to get out if I ever can figure out what to get it out with. I tried some olive oil, which is what I use to get it off my skin, but that didn't really do much more than make an oil and wax stain. I'll try some ice or something later on today and if that doesn't work I'll look online for some tips. I've been working on my apocalypse again, and have one more thing unlocked. This time I believe I'm just going to take my time with it, and do one chapter a week or so....not devote all of my time into it may stop me from being as bored of it. I'll also be working on my RKC again in between working on that and I'll also play just for fun in between all of those challenges. I don't want to get bored of them again, so I figure this will be the easiest way to prevent that. So, that's all that's been going on here in my world.

Healing and Getting Results

So today was the first day Brian was suppose to go to work, but he ended up coming home around ten, thank goodness because this morning I wasn't sure how I was going to get through the day without him. He got rained out of work, which really sucks in a way because we need the money now more than ever. We'll manage though. By the end of the day I actually started really feeling better and was actually able to eat dinner with the family, although I ate way slower than everyone else and was only able to get down half of what Murphy ate, which really sucks. I've lost weight, I can feel it and see it when I put on my clothes I really couldn't afford to loose anything but I'm sure once I'm 100% I'll be able to put it back on. I have been having issues with my jaw, it kind of feels like it wants to lock up on me which really hurts, and its the only real pain I've been having since about 2 in the afternoon. My stitches keep feeling like I have something stuck in my teeth and are so annoying I'm stressing out because of it!
In other news, Brian finally wrote his name for me, and did a great job. He got to play with his Legos and his v-smile! I was so proud of him. I went and got an ink cartridge for my printer so now I can print them out some worksheets, Rhayne is doing good with guidance writing her name, she does the work but she won't do it right without the assistance, which is weird. One day at a time, I figure since we just started this a few days ago with her, I'll keep assisting her for another week then I'll let her trace on her own. I finally found some of those thick beginners pencils at Staples. I also bought them some scissors and some glue sticks so we can do some art and crafts, with Christmas coming up it will be a nice opportunity to have them really get in the spirit of things by making some decorations. Last year we made all of our Christmas tree decorations, but I did most of the work because the kids really didn't seem too into it, I believe this year will be a bit different I probably won't be as depressed as I was last year because a lot of stuff was really going wrong then, but now things are settled and *knock on wood* things are really looking up. We won't be able to get to the coast for Thanksgiving like we wanted to because of all this time off of work Brian's been having to take for me, and because of the bills from it, I'm hoping I can talk my mom into coming up here for Thanksgiving, but who knows. I think she's going to be upset about it, I haven't gotten around to telling her because I can never remember to tell her when I have her on the phone-hopefully writing this down here will make me remember to tell her before she reads it because she defiantly be mad at me if she has to read it here first won't she? Well, that's all for today I suppose.

The Day after the Surgery

Man am I swollen! I look like I've been beat up...seriously. I've been following all of the guidelines, so I think I'll be ok. I'm not in too much pain, but that could also be because I've been on top of the pain killers, which if you know me you'd know that I'm not too keen on taking so I'm pretty loopy! I just don't really want my mouth to hurt. I've chewed a bit today, but my mouth is so stiff that I really don't want to push it. I'm also terrified of getting food stuck in the holes, the bottem gums are stiched up, but the top arent. I've been washing my mouth out with salt water rinces after each time I do eat something, and by eat I mean a slim fast shake or yogaurt, I did have a soft cookie today and a bit ago I tried half of a beefy cheesy melty thingie from taco bell that I bought the day before the sugury because I decided I was going to pig out before I couldn't eat for I didn't know how long. I didn't eat it then because I got full, but when I ate it just a bit ago I had to take tiny bites and it took almost an hour to eat it. My mouth also hurts pretty bad from the chewing right now. I still haven't gotten my feeling back in my chin but that was one of the possible side effects of the sugery, so I went into it knowin that could happen. I actually feel like I'm in not nearly the pain I was in a week ago, so I'm happy about that, I'm also happy that I won't have to go through that ever agian. I'll have to wait to schedule my cleanings until the new year as I maxed out my insurance for this sugery, but its really NBD, I figure I'll be wanting to wait until after the holidays and I'm sure its going to be about the time they roll around that I'll actually be up for having any one else bothering with my mouth. I'm hoping that I won't end up loosing too much weight over the healing process, because I really can't afford to loose any more weight. I lost a lot when we were living in the hotels because I was so stressed out. Well, I'll leave you with a chipmunk shot of me:


Peace Out!