Coming to an End

Now that we have moved I am sorry to say my posts won't be nearly as entertaining. But can I just express my thoughts about not living at the "Budget Suites of America?"

Looking forward to:

Not having a phone number that anyone can get from the number on my door. On one occasion someone called to shoot the breeze and finally said, "So are you going to buy a car from me or what? I asked who it was and he said, "Don't you have a jeep?" Nope, sure don't. 

Another time someone called up and Brittany answered the phone. They asked her if they could talk to her mom (she does sound young but she is clearly not Claire) to which she responded, "This is the mom." Then they guy, which was the same one that so kindly signed to me to make sure I could understand said, "Your honda was in neutral and just rolled back into the parking lot." Thanks bud but our car is a Toyota and has no sun roof...or tinted windows...or...well, you get the picture.

Not seeing the cat lady for known reasons and not moving cat poop away from my front door.

Not seeing "Big Mama" with the grill for front teeth at the swimming pool. Don't get me wrong she was really nice but it got really old listening to her call herself big mama for hours. 

"Please listen to Big Mama. Big Mama needs to buy a bathing suit. Big Mama needs to go to the apartment for a minute. Big Mama needs you to do this...Big Mama Big Mama." Is that wearing on anyone else? Claire was a little confused and would ask, "Why is she calling herself Big Mama?"

Not seeing everyone and their dog out for a smoke break and holding my breath as I walk past and worrying about the girls.

Not having the smell of smoke in our clothes.

Having a washer and dryer in my house.

Not having the girls pick up bottle caps that say "Bud Light" that they think are treasures that I found in Hallie's mouth. Can I throw up now?

Those among MANY other things....

Word.

And Here They Are!

1. I saw ring worm for the first time at the swimming pool. If you had ring worm would you go to a public swmimming pool? Seriously, who does that? The only thing I can figure is the lady didn't know they had it. Who knows. All I know is that we high tailed it out of there as soon as I realized what it was. NASTY!!! I know the chlorine kills it but not the surface places that it touches. It made me itch just saying the name but luckily none of us got it. WHEW!!
2. Claire had gone swimming for a long time and the life jacket had rubbed her armpits raw. She was miserable so I put 3 bandiads in her armpits to help with the friction. After I took the bandaids off a few days later she was bright red in any spot the adhesive had touched. It looked horrible and drove her nuts. Poor girl.
3. There are, believe it or not, 5 holes on my bedroom door and 3 on the other. 8 holes!!! I wonder what each story is behind them, although I probably don't want to know! Man does it scream white trash though!
4. The cat lady wanted to know what size of bra to get...okay not really. She asked me if I wanted a cat. Um...Absolutely not. I told her we can't have them.
Although maybe I should have brought Cali the little kitten. :) She would have loved that but I don't know that Emily would have been very happy with me! ;)

It was fun reading all your comments. Loved the ones about the cat lady asking for a bra.
Good times.

EAR UPDATE:
I went to the ENT yesterday and guess what? My hearing improved 20 decibals in my right ear (was at 30) and 10 decibals in the left (it was 15)!!!! I am so excited. The doctor hadn't been super optomostic about getting much improvement but there you have it! Wahoo!

Take a Guess!

I finally have pictures to post of our posh pad here but they won't load for some reason. So instead I thought I would ask you a few questions to see if you can guess the answer.

1. Where was I when I saw ring worm for the first time on Thursday?

2. How many patches are there on the 2 bedroom doors in the apartment from people's fists?

3. What did we find out Claire is allergic to?

4. What did the cat lady ask me yesterday?

Can't wait to hear your guesses!

Firsts at the Downtown Deluxe

The other day here I had "first time experiences" here at the downtown deluxe. They all happened in the space of 2 hours.
5. When we were leaving to go pick up Zeb from work there were some guys fighting outside. I could hear them screaming at each other "F this and blah blah if you do this *#$@!" Sweet. I told the girls as we were going out the door to not pay attention to the people yelling at each other outside. Much to my surprise they stopped yelling when we started going to the car. I thought, that must be a coincidence. But as soon as I got in the car the F bombs came flying again. That was the first time someone has ever stopped fighting and screaming swear words for the sake of my children. For that I was very grateful.
4. Just as we were pulling out of the parking lot a guy was about to pull in. I was stopped at a T and he was turning into the lot in front of me. He started at me with the worst daggers I have ever seen. Holy crap. I wasn't even close to hitting him or anything and I have no idea why he was so mad. If I had been a guy he probably would have jumped out and punched me. He was not happy. That was the first time I have ever been stared down, not to mention that it was for no reason at all.
3. Me and the girls went swimming. They were swimming with their life jackets on and Audrey was sleeping in the apartment with Brittany. So I actually got to layout on a lawn chair and relax. As I was relaxing a black guy pokes his head around the gate and says, "Can I strike up a conversation with you?" I totally thought he was selling something. He says, "You're not here with your boyfriend are you." My reply was "No, I am here with my girls and I am texting my husband."
"Oh man, you're married? All the pretty ones are taken."
I muttered something like, "I don't know about that." I mean let's be honest. There I was with frizzy hair and looking like crap and he starts talking all smooth. Oh Brother...give me break. He talks about being beautiful...yeah right but whatever. Anyway, after I told Zeb he was joking with me and said, "Once you go black you ain't never go back!" He is so funny. That is the first time I have EVER been picked up on by a black guy.
2. This older man started talking to me and the girls and he was giving me tips on how to teach them to swim. He gave me some really good tips and it was going well. He then asked why my hair wasn't wet and I told him I don't like to go under the water and that I had just had surgery on my ears. His response? HE STARTED SIGNING TO ME!!!! I was taken by surprise. Here we had been talking for 5 minutes just fine and then he starts signing. Wow. When I told Zeb he was laughing so hard. He then asked, "So does that make you think maybe you sound like you are deaf when you talk." I assured him I don't think that! That was the first time someone has ever talked to me using sign language because they think I know it and need it.
1. I had the experience of seeing the cat ladies breast when we were walking back to the apartment. Very large talk top that is very droopy + not bra on a 60 year old = breast out the side of the shirt. Again, very classy. First time and hopefully the last for that.

2 and 1 were among my favorite. Very comical.
Hope you enjoyed. :)
Just think, if we lived her permanently I would always have interesting and funny things to post on my blog. Tempting.....

P.S. Sorry you had to read my spelling and grammar errors. It takes too long to spell check when you are in the front office with 2 kids trying to post quickly. We had Internet in our apartment for a few days but it is now gone. Bummer.

Downtown Deluxe

I first have to say that we are grateful to be in a place that doesn't cost $3,000 a month and that is so close to downtown. It seriously takes me 10 minutes to drive Zeb to work. That is worth everything right there.

Now, that aside there are some things that aren't so fantastic about our place in the "seedy" part of Dallas (as someone at Zeb's firm put it).

Here they are to name a few:

1. Aaah the smell of cigarettes.  Non smoking my eye. We have spent who knows how much money on air fresheners. They do help with the lingering smell, however, we just ran out so we are smelling it stronger now. So when we you see us again and there is a hint of cigarettes on our clothes...know that we didn't pick up any habits but that it hasn't washed out of our clothes just yet!

2. Stale air. We have the air conditioning unit running around the clock to help with the smoke smell. It is much worse if the air is off. Because it runs all day that means our room is moist and stale. Audrey had spilled something on a shirt and instead of letting it dry first I threw it in the basket. Oops. We soon found out while I was doing laundry that it grew mold. Yum.

3. Black feet. The carpet here feels so gross. After the girls played for a few hours when we first got here I looked at their feet. It looked as if they had walked around Walmart with their shoes off. Sweet. Doesn't that just make you want to take a bath? We ended up buying a huge (8 ft by 10 ft) area rug for the living room. That has made it way better. 

4. The cat lady. We have a lady next to us that is on the end. Being on the end she has a corner that no one else goes by directly. She has filled the entire end with cat food, cats, crates, toys and more. Now I will admit that the cats make for some squeals of delight on Audrey's part but it is hard to see all the crap this lady has on a daily basis. On one occasion we had the opportunity to see the lady herself one morning. 

After we walked past Zeb said, "Did you see that?" 

I said, "No, What?" 

"That lady wasn't wearing a bra. Her breast was hanging out the side of her tank top."

I replied, "Oh I guess I thought that was her shoulder."  

Isn't that classy?

You know, what fun would it be if we didn't have stories to tell? Boring, that's what it would be. It makes living it so much better.

You're Right Lindsey!

Yes, you are right Lindsey! I haven't talked to you..and a lot of others...for a long time so here is an update!

First I must say that it was pretty much a headache to get everything ready to go without my kids to Waco to get the surgery done. My sweet sister in law Carol watched all three girls for me and Emily Tayolr drove me down from Dallas so Zeb could have the car to pick the girls up after work. As you can see it was quite the ordeal to figure everything out once I found out I couldn't drive for 24 hours after the procedure much less be with in enough to take care of my kids. I was planning on taking them to Waco, having someone watch them for a few hours and then drive back to Dallas. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. :)

Anyhow, I went to the surgicenter and Emily walked me up. I got to the admitting desk and told them I was there for a 12:30 surgery. The man then says, "Are you Leah Fish." "Yes," I reply. He proceeds to tell me that they had been trying to contact me and that the Doctor needed to change the surgery to 11:30 and since they couldn't get a hold of me they had to cancel. I looked back at him, said "Oh," and sat down on the chair in front of him and quietly cried. He had no idea what it took to be there, much less how would I get it all together AGAIN!

After I composed myself I got the number to my Doctor's office and called. I told the lady I had a 12:30 surgery scheduled and that they had wanted to change it but I hand't gotten a message or anything. My voice was shaky but I didn't cry. She told me to hold and I waited...then she asked where I was. I told her I was at the surgicenter and I was on hold again. I saw the man that had just given me the horrible news answer the phone. After a few minutes he says to me, "Okay, they're gonna do it. We have 15 minutes to prep you." Hallelujah!

So they prepped me and they did the surgery pronto. It was quick and when they woke me up it was really hard to not want to go back to sleep. Such a weird feeling. My ears only hurt a little and after I was awake for a bit Em came in and we drove home (in Waco). I slept for a few hours and then we went to dinner. Then we decided to go home that night to surprise Zeb and the girls. That was fun to show up at the hotel Friday night instead of Saturday morning.

My hearing isn't fixed but I knew that going into it. It was a surgery to prevent further hearing loss and to try and prevent any further retreaction of my eardrums. I do notice a small change and can hear noises a little better..not voices though. Anyway, everything went great and it's DONE. I don't have to reschedule! :)

We have been so blessed to do this surgery and I am grateful to eveyone who helped me pull it off. I love you all and thank you for your prayers!

Zeb is loving his internship. He really enjoys what he is doing and the poeple he works with. How refreshing! We are having a good time in Dallas and it's nice to be with Zeb again!
We hope you are all having a great start to a fun summer!
Love you all!
Thanks again for all your prayers and concern!

Fish Fam