Today I learned: Zoo edition

1) Lorikeets are gorgeous and while they might feast on sweet smelling nectar they can be feisty little buggers who demand the sweets.

2) The dolphin dome is awesome and yet terrifying.

3) Some people lock up their strollers like a bike. There are even cutsey little animal themed locks made just for strollers.

4) Who ever had the idea to have photographers at the entrance of the zoo having every one post for pictures and then giving them a card so that they can look at them and have the option to get prints of the pics is a genius. 

5) Baby elephants are stumbling, bumbling piles of adorable.

6) I will always love pressed pennies.

7) Strollers can be used as battering rams.

8) Its fun to watch little kids think they could be faster than a Cheetah

9) My in-laws dog kinda looks like a meerkat with pig ears.

  

Handegg

So living in good ol’ Indiana everybody loves football. Crazy hoosiers. No, let me try that again- most people in the midwest love football. At least most of the people around me. And let me tell you these are hardcore fans.


These are the people who consider superbowl sunday a national holiday. Jerseys are seen anytime you go anywhere in public. And its gets worse closer to that lovely sunday. I have heard of local churches canceling services on that day due to low attendance.


People who make sure they dont have to work that sunday (some even take the day before and the day after off to prep for / recover from the party.) The local walmart carries jerseys of the local NFL team. And these arent just guys - its the girls too. They get their pink versions of their favorite players jersey, a pink hat to match, or wear the regular colors but are sure to tie little ribbons in their hair to match.


I am married to a football fan. His parents are football fans. Superbowl is not just another sunday.It is a sunday of snacks and family and “the big game.” I don't mind superbowl sunday. I usually sit on my computer eating awesome food, half listening to the football chatter. My brothers like football, one particularly more so than the others but they all enjoying watching it.  In college I had a roommate who loved (still does that I am aware of) the colts.


Despite having grown up around all of this, having a crazy football fan for a husband, and awesome in-laws who try their hardest to include me in the football festivities, I must admit - I do not care for football in the least.


Despite the efforts of my roommate, brother, husband, and mother-in-law, I have not been convinced. It is just not something I can get into. I always tell my husband that it just seems silly to me to spend hours watching men in tight pants (wait, that might be why the women like it) violently shove each other around while chasing an oval balloon of pigskin. He hasn't given up and neither has my mother-in-law, the crazy goofballs. And I am sure that this blog post will renew their ambition to convert me once again.


There’s nothing wrong with football. But what it comes down to is this: I cant be a fan of a sport that I cant get excited about or interested in. It just doesnt appeals to me. Then again not many traditional sports do.


I am not beyond trolling people though. I have been known to enthusiastically root for the other team just to pick on people. It’s all in good fun but I honestly couldnt care less.

So to all you football fans - enjoy the upcoming football season. Go ahead and hog the tvs. Its not the worst hobby you could have. 

I leave you with a pic that depicts the thing about football that has always bugged me:

Migraines, dog pee, hugs, ponies, and zombies? a randomness post

What do the aforementioned things have in common? They are the key elements from my day today! I woke up with a migraine decided to go back to bed only to find a puddle of dog pee (not his fault I forgot to leave the door cracked so dad could take him out at 4am). Ugg! 

Not long later I finally got to see my husband after 8 days of being apart. It might seem ridiculous to some how much I missed him but at least I admit it. I really admire the girl's who can go month's with out seeing their guys. I definitely could not  be an army wife. I miss my husbands hugs after a couple of hours. A week was bad enough. 

We went to walmart so Clint could get a few things and my awesome bro-in-law, Dallas, (the self admitted Brony) picked up the My Little Ponies dvd that he had been looking for. I found out later in the day that this crazy boy has written a crazy long fanfic that is something like 40,000 words. So now I must watch all the episodes so I can read this monster. I have watched a handful of episodes and liked it alright but I want to play better attention and see them in the right order. I get the feeling I will like it. (Don't judge it could always be worse.) 

Finishing out the day we spent time with the family and introduced Dallas to The Walking Dead. Zombies are always fun. But I feel so sorry for that poor horse in the first episode. 

Continuing the randomness I leave you all with this which contains more than a shred of truth IMO:

Home

 As much as I love my in-laws (and they are amazing let me tell ya), the past week has been hard on me not only being apart from my husband but just the fact that this is not my home. I love and appreciate my in-laws for letting me stay here but this is not my home. The bed I sleep in is not my  bed. The closet my wedding dress is hanging in is not my closet.
       The fact is right now my home has no physical form. Yes, to an extent home is where the people you love are but it is also a matter of having a place to call your own. A place to make your own memories. A place to be free and comfortable like no other place in this world. A place to sigh. A place to breathe. A place to live and love and laugh.
   To me home has two main forms. The physical building whether it be house or apartment provides the sense of having a place to call one’s own. Home also has the aspect of people. An empty home is not comforting. God didnt design us to be alone. For most it is a husband or wife who help to complete that aspect of home. Which is why I am sure once Clint is around this will feel more like home to me.

I know I will have a home again soon. And I will appreciate it more than I did before.  

Memories

Best described as a combination of rotting fish and industrial cleaning chemicals, the smell of my neighbors meth lab is one I won’t soon forget. Thankfully due to the way the units are set up most of our stuff was unaffected. But our back storage area got it the worst. There were things back there that we just could not chance keeping. I had to throw away things that i really didnt want to - old high school journals, some movie ticket stubs, some things I was keeping for my future daughters, and a handful of other things.


But as we sorted these things with handkerchiefs over our faces I realized something - the memories are still there. I need to quit attaching my memories to things and take the memories for what they are - remembrance of a time past. Just because I dont have those ticket stubs, or old magazines doesnt mean I cant remember the laughs, smiles, and inside jokes.

The Chick-Fil-A Debate

I swore I wouldn't but I recently sat in on an interesting discussion of this topic. So here is my short and sweet (albeit pointed) view on the recent debate broken down in five points.


1) Freedom of speech - Cathy had the right to say what he did and has the right to run his business how he pleases. Just as each individual person has the right to respond (both verbally and otherwise) with their opinions. Would the public really have accepted and moved on from a "No comment"?

2) The Church’s reaction -  There are two parts about the church’s reaction that bugged me.

First of all, it just reinforced the stereotypes that push unbelievers away from the church. This is something I can and will write an entire blog post about. But in short- populations can either prove or disprove the stereotypes and misconceptions about themselves.

Secondly, it seemed to me that it was a knee-jerk reaction. In His time on earth Jesus was a mediator and a peace-maker. He was humble and lived simply. He was not loud or called attention to himself. He spoke up when it was needed but it was always in a spirit of humbleness not in defensive or harsh manner. As christian’s we need to reflect Him. The reaction to me was not humble or a reflection of him.

3) The other side- It is a normal reaction to stand up for one’s self. While I do not believe Cathy meant it in an offensive manner, it is understandable that it was taken as such due to how christian’s do normally act towards homosexuals.

4) The politics - I hate saying this but I question the politician's reactions (both liberal and conservative) in light of the upcoming elections. It seemed to me they reacted as boldly as they did solely for political support.

5) Conclusion - I think both sides have made mistakes in the past week. Christians need to be more humble and realize that reactions like the ones this week do NOT show the love of Christ. Also in debates such as this there are two things I feel people often forget. The first is that BOTH sides have the right not only to their opinion but to vocalize it. The second is that arguments, heated debates and drama rarely get people anywhere, so even though being prepared (and willing) to agree to disagree may be difficult, it is for the best.






I welcome feedback and opinions on this post but drama will not be responded to. I am not trying to start any arguments nor will I respond to anything that is argumentative.

The FAQs

There are a handful of questions that I have been asked many times over the last few weeks. So I’m gonna address them here.

Did you guys know?
No. We had our suspicions that something was wasn’t right but certainly nothing as serious as a meth lab. We couldnt believe that she was dumb enough to cook where she slept. There was some unusual traffic and the fact that they had a rowboat propped against the side of the house what a little weird but not anything we could call the cops over.

Did you smell anything?
Obviously not enough to raise any flags to us. We smelled a lot of cigarette smoke though which bugged us enough. The last day we were there however we discovered that we could smell it in our back storage hall (which makes sense in in lieu of it being one of the closest areas to where they were doing the cooking) It is a smell neither of us will ever forget. We threw out almost everything back there not wanting to risk it.


Did you guys get sick?
Not anything too serious. I know at least for me it was causing some minor issues but they are already clearing up being out of the environment. And like i said before, it affected Gabe worse (or at least more noticeably) than us.

What did the owner of the apartments say?
Not much. They were, of course, upset. It’s not likely they will be able to rent out either of the two units for a while.


Resources and further information:

http://methlabhomes.com/2011/07/how-meth-labs-can-effect-your-health/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=former-meth-lab

http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/hm/methlabfaq.pdf