My Take on The Hunger Games

OK so a blog is a place where you can post your personal opinion about stuff without people getting offended, right? I considered posting on Facebook, but then everyone is kinda sorta forced to read it...here, it is only the people who CHOOSE to stick around and read it. :) Therefore, if you disagree, that's totally fine, but remember...you chose to read it :)

So....the Hunger Games....I had all intentions of boycotting it like I did the Harry Potter Series and the Twilight Series. Basically, I boycotted based on principle. When something makes such a HUGE cultural hit that includes screaming girls and choosing "teams" based on hot guys and magic that isn't related to God's supernaturalness, I just couldn't really relate enough to join the American craze to get involved. I'm sure they were wonderfully entertaining and even had social commentary that was possibly redeeming and deep...not saying that there was anything wrong with any of it or seeing any of it, I just couldn't do it. So, I had kind of the same opinion about the Hunger Games, and yet from everything I kept hearing about it, it wasn't really in the same category as the other two mentioned because it wasn't based on teenage love and it wasn't supernatural...it was something seemingly much deeper and much more sadistic...kids killing kids. When it gets to stuff like that that is controversial on a religious or societal level, I have more interest because I know that I cannot intelligently discuss, agree, or disagree on any points without having seen it first. Kind of like when The Da Vinci Code came through. There was so much discussion about it that I couldn't join in without me seeing it so I went...I am halfway using that excuse for the Hunger Games. The other half was sheer curiosity and the fact that we were invited by people we like to hang out with and Italian food was on the itinerary for the evening. :)

Sooooo.....when the movie was over, I was left with 3 things...I was intellectually stimulated, totally disturbed, and completely disgusted. To be honest, I am AMAZED at how America has reacted to this movie. Now I do understand that the book was probably much better as most books are...there was probably TONS more depth to the booths and take away concepts; however, I think for those who read the book and had the development time of working through the story and creating the scenes in their head, they were probably less shocked by the depravation and shocking events of the movie, but I think that is just called desensitized. Were there redeeming concepts that can be pulled from the books and applied to modern day society? I'm sure the answer is a resounding yes. However, as I was watching the movie, I was thinking "Are you kidding me??! There are kids in this theater? And their parents brought them?!!" I am typically not very negative Nancy about movies because I know the general purpose of them is to entertain and the average American takes them at face value and its your own fault if the movie is bad or disturbing, but I had to know what was so addicting about this movie for America, and I feel like there IS something different about this movie compared to the other action packed shoot 'em up kind of movies. This movie was on a different level in a weird way. It has become a new acceptable level of American screenplay entertainment. The bar has been raised.

As the blood bath occurred at the cornucopia of weapons and when beautiful, innocent little Rue gets stabbed through the stomach with a javelin, and when hallucinative bees left a girl mangled and unrecognizable and when the girl attacks Katniss with knives and when the boy is being eaten alive by monster dogs, I couldn't even watch those parts....and America thinks this is the greatest thing since sliced bread........???

I've been told that our society isn't too far removed from these occurrences. Kids can watch the news every day and see death and destruction. Sex slaves and starvation and acid torture occur worldwide....all of which I agree to - insanity is occurring worldwide. We live in a depraved and evil infiltrated world. However, I'm not sure how admitting that or recognizing that gives any justification of America soaking in the drama or depravity of a fictional story that they are spending money to see. If evil is already forcing its way in, why choose to open the doors and swim in it...or much less choose to allow your kids to be infiltrated by it? Yes children can see it on the news and hear it on the streets, but that's real stuff...why choose to be entertained by it? If that is a legitimate argument that kids are exposed to it daily, let's put cannibalism, torture, and porn into our moviews for 13 year olds and call it reality brought to the big screen. At least on the news, its portrayed as bad.

After the movie, Derrick & I talked through it and I've had a lot of time to think about it today, and I will admit there were redeeming themes in the movie. True love, self sacrifice, unconditional love, intelligent survival techniques, and a few more...and looking back, it is intriguing to think through and generally entertaining on a morbid level, but in general, I left the movie feeling depressed and oppressed. I think two things will come from this movie...the possibly very redeeming result might be that I think there will be a group of kids who recognize important concepts in the movie such as bullying, ganging up, cruelty, and will be able to apply those things to their lives and become compassionate and kind and rooters of the underdog. The fact that Katniss was the heroine and she won the non-traditional way of not having to kill except for those presented as evil was a good thing...maybe kids will learn from it. I think there will be another group of kids who are already vulnerable because of the awful things they have to go through at home and at school who become even more depressed and disturbed who end up bringing guns and knives to school strategically trying to figure out how to kill people. That MIGHT be extreme, but when they happen, don't ask me why when another Columbine or Virginia Tech occurs.

If I had a kid who was 17 or 18ish who I knew was intellectually and emotionally mature enough to work through the movie and come to intelligent conclusions, then of course it'd be their decision to watch it....but I'm sorry, I think that the parents who are TAKING their 11-15 year old kids to watch it are CRAZY! You think a 12 year old is mature enough to correctly handle blood shed and control and manipulation of children who are forced to put on a face for society in order to increase their odds of survival and then train to kill for the sole purpose of not being killed.

In general, I just think that somehow America was psychologically brainwashed into thinking that this twisted, depraved story line was so awesome because all the rest of America thought so....kind of the same way the kids had to mentally flip flop from innocent children to kill or be killed survivalists. The human psyche is quite fickle and can be convinced of anything.

Another thing, I keep hearing that this movie is redeeming because its "anti big government"....maybe. I don't know where the next 2 book story lines go so I can't judge yet, but I have a feeling that it may be anti big government in a very Socialist or Marxist way. The definitely distinct line has been drawn between the upper class, mindlessly entertained, over the top fashionista, Capitol folks and the poverty stricken, hard working, oppressed 'American.' The social commentary may shuffle out constructively, but I have a feeling it won't.

I have asked several people who have watched the movie if they liked it...I've gotten the same response several times. "Yeah, it was good...it followed the book really well." ........."and??" I think to myself.....anything else? That's all you got from the movie was that it followed the book pretty well. What about ALL of the other discussable world view points?

Anyway, that's just my take. Take it or leave it. No harm done if you liked the movie...although if you did, I'd love it if you left a comment to explain why so I can understand the craze a bit better.

For now, I'm pretty disgusted.

Easter Weekend 2012

Easter weekend 2012 was so wonderful! We headed up Hwy 77 to I-35 for the 5 hour drive to Boyd...it sometimes amazes me how often we actually make this drive, but its always worth it. We arrived Thursday night in time to go to bed and slept in on Friday. Most of the day Friday we just hung out with Derrick's brother, Austin playing video games and basketball and 4 wheeling and playing with the new border collie pup, Hondo. Mostly just a day of relaxing.

On Saturday, we got up at a decent hour and headed to Bowie which is about 45 minutes away for Bowie Trade Days which is basically a mini-Canton. Several acres of booths with livestock, poultry, crafts, junk, furniture, food, etc etc. After coming off of Warrenton/Round Top weekend, we just expected to wander and not buy. The Ratliffs were trying to find some semi-grown ducks to use to help train Hondo. Well we stumbled across a trailer FULL of dog beds, some of which I recognized as Kong brand from Petsmart even though the tags had been removed. We asked the guy how much and he said "$20." Heck yes! We bought two...a dark red and chocolate brown one for our dogs. We then wandered on and came across a really cute cap for me. Then, we found this guy who was making furniture out of barnwood. They only wanted $15 for a beautiful bedside table. We bought 2! Then we found a guy with fruit trees and plants and he sold us 4 thornless blackberry plants for $4 each....we scored!! All of that for < $100! Then Derrick's parents treated us to a hamburger (for me), corn dog (for Derrick), and fresh squeezed lemonade. I definitely got my first farmer's tan of the summer, darn it! But it was a totally fun and relaxing day.

Saturday evening, Logan and Kelly came in from Houston and Linda cooked homemade pizza and lasagna and garlic bread for everyone which was delish. We then settled in to watch "We Bought a Zoo" which was really good and heartwarming!

Sunday morning, the alarm went off dark and early. 6am we were up and running preparing for the sunrise service hosted on the Ratliff property. Linda had been up since 3 baking biscuits and making sausage and gravy and setting up tables and chairs etc etc so I can't complain about 6! We lit the bonfire on the hill about 6:30 and waited for everyone to arrive. The service was short but sweet and then the eating continued....the service is also understood as a breakfast potluck and oh my goodness were there cinnamon rolls and sausage rolls and biscuits and gravy and fruit and juice and hot chocolate and so much more! Logan & Austin played biscuit football after everyone left and we got some great pics of some of my favorite people in the whole wide world.

Pre-Service

This pic is kinda scary lookin, but for some reason I really like it :)

Biscuit football!

Post-Service. Love these guys!

We then went home and napped til it was time to get up and get cleaned up for Nanny's Easter. And the food continued........ugh! It was all so awesome! For lunch we had, BBQ brisket, chicken, ham, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, corn, baked potatoes, biscuits, and then like 6 different dessert options...and of course candy. Wow! I got full typing all of that again. All of the grandkiddos were there and the kids got to hunt Easter eggs...well kind of. Somehow a boiled egg had gotten dumped into the plastic egg bag last year and it ruined all of the eggs! So they ended up hunting candy and one prize egg each :)

All cleaned up and napped up

The stinky eggs haha!

Nanny's crew! All the grandkids & great grandkids!

Easter Eggs!

Austin's prize egg!

A little cameo shout out to Hondo! The Ratliffs new border collie pup!

Nada Profound...just March

So I don't have anything profound to say in this posting...just thought I'd share some of our March going ons. Last Friday night, we had a fun night out at a place we call Comanche Hill. The property belongs to my uncle now, but it was the place we always had Easter growing up. I remember we always went to church and wore our Easter best. We then were so excited to head out to Comanche Hill to have glazed ham and my grandmother always had fun fun activities for all the grandkiddos including bubbles, pinatas, confetti eggs, Easter egg hunts, and so much more. I have GREAT memories from those Easter celebrations. My brother, Jason, owns and operates a company called Texas Precious Metals (www.texmetals.com) and his business partner, Tarek, lives in Argentina. Tarek and his family had the opportunity to come to the states for a month and we hosted his family out at Comanche Hill for a yummy shrimp boil (well for me yummy = the sausage, corn, and potatoes...icky shrimp!). We brought skeet shooting stuff and four wheeler and bubbles and built a campfire for stories and memories. Tarek's lil ones, Marianna and Sebastian, are SO cute!

Say hi to my parents!

The mighty men with great smiles - Tarek, Greg, & Jason

Cutie patootie Marianna cheesin with our yummy dinner

Fellowship!

Pretty girl....oh yeah, and a pretty sunset :)

Then this past Wednesday, we had the opportunity to see Blake Shelton at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo...which is weird because I'm watching Blake coach on The Voice right now. ha. Anyway, that trip was a colossal failure. We left at 4:30 thinking we'd get there around 6:30....wrong! We got into the arena at 8:30 because of horrible, terrible, horrendous, awful TRAFFIC! 4 hours in the car and we arrived at the very end of the calf scramble, which is the end of the rodeo :( They then set up the stage and Blake Shelton performed for an hour or so, which was great...and then we walked around the carnival for a little while and then drove home...and got stuck in traffic for about an hour trying to get out of the Reliant Stadium area....so, we drove 7.5 hours for a one hour concert. Probably not worth it...but at least we have that memory :)

Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo - Blake Shelton's stage

You'll be my honeysuckle
I'll be your honey bee!

Hali & Jason

I hate buying overly expensive food...but I told D that we had to get one cotton candy!
I was obviously very excited about it :)

HUGE carney!

How did Skye make it to the rodeo??

Nice fella offered to take our pic

This past weekend, we went to the Belmont Social Club in boondocks Belmont, Texas for dinner. Its an old restored BBQ joint that and they play live music on weekends and we got to spend some quality time with my Uncle Doug, Aunt Laura, Jason, & Hali. We then went back to their lakehouse to play Rummikub and Monopoly and make s'more in the fireplace since it was rainy rainy all day.
The next day, we headed down to Rockport and ate at Hammerheads and Moondogs.

We had a very relaxing overnight stay and got to hang out with my parents and watch "Forever Strong." We had never heard of this movie, but found it in redbox and it looked good....it was SO good! I truly believe that every father and every coach should see this movie. It was so inspiring.
Next day we slept late and my parents cooked us all a yummy brunch and then we headed home to get some work done.

Like I said, nothing profound...just our past couple weeks in a nutshell :)

Change is the Only Constant in Life

So today was a new day in the Ratliff family as Derrick started a new job this morning. This is kind of a brag blog on my husband, so please excuse my pride :) Yet again in his life, he was pursued by someone (fairly randomly) and offered a wonderful job. What a blessing! He's never actually applied for a job in his life...he's always been offered them while he was employed by someone else. To me, that just speaks of his character and competence.

He has been co-marketing manager with me for Ranch Hand Truck Accessories for a while now which has been awesome as we get to see each other all day every day. We worked together, shared projects, lived day by day. With the TV show added on top of that, needless to say, we spent A LOT of time together. Now he has vacated my office and his desk is so empty and sad looking, but he's got big opportunity ahead of him which we're excited about.

He has taken a sales position with Kaselco which is an industrial wastewater treatment company. http://www.kaselco.com/ Currently, its a world above and beyond my knowledge, although I'm sure I'll learn a lot about it in the coming months. Basically, the company technology is based on the concept of electrocoagulation, which is an electro-chemical process that simultaneously removes heavy metals, suspended solids, emulsified organics, and many other contaminants from water using electricity rather than expensive chemcial reagents. He will start off with the company LEARNING (a lot) and helping them develop some marketing platforms and when ready, will be launched into the sales world and will be doing quite a bit of traveling. He is now leaving home before I wake up, no longer sharing an office or lunch with me, and returning home after I get home...so its definitely a culture change in the Ratliff household. However, we have figured out lately that the only constant in life is change, and we are embracing that concept as we welcome change. We get bored with the status quo quite easily, and we know there will be much more change in our lives, sooner than later, before it is all said and done.

So, that is the skinny on our current lives. The TV show is wrapping up...we can taste and feel the freedom that that will provide, and Derrick will be eagerly diving headfirst into his new gig. I will be home alone in my Ranch Hand office continuing the work set before me, spreading the Ranch Hand brand nationwide, which has been rewarding and quite engaging. Lots to be done, which is a good thing, as I like to be busy!

So for now, here's to change for Derrick! Prayers are appreciated for him...I'm so very proud of him!

The Weekend Report

So to follow up on my last sappy love letter blog, I figured everyone would want to know how our weekend went. :) In one word...awesome! Derrick planned a wonderful weekend for us and for the first time in SO long, our goal was exclusively to have fun! We didn't have anything we needed to do hanging over our heads which was a wonderful feeling. The TV show is about 80% done, so we are finally starting to feel the relief of the stress of that that has lived with us for almost a year. 

We got to Fort Worth about 10:30pm on Friday night and pulled in to a beautiful hotel Derrick had booked for us. 

We got checked in and then headed down to the stockyards to get the lay of the land to figure out what we wanted to do the next day. The next morning, we headed out at about 10 and got to see all that the Fort Worth stockyards has to offer. Unfortunately, it was raining the whole day and got pretty darn chilly, but it was still fun. We ate at Riscky's BBQ and saw all of the cute shops as well as the 11:30am cattle drive. Derrick loves Texas history and his dad and granddad both actually sold livestock at the stockyards when they were operating auctions so it was pretty special for D. I LOVED the beautiful furniture store and rustic features everywhere...totally our style!

Standing on the railroad tracks that has held many a train with many an animal.

The biggest longhorns you've ever seen!

Yummy lunch! 

So many cute shops! This was the Candy Barrel...we didn't buy anything, just liked the barrels :)

 After we saw everything there was to see at the stockyards, we headed to Braums to burn an hour so we ate ice cream and talked. We then went to the movie theaters to stay warm & cozy while it rained away. We saw This Means War...which on a moral level, I cannot recommend, but it was pretty darn funny. 

Yes, my ice cream was blue. It was birthday cake :)

After the movie, we checked into our new hotel and then headed back to the stockyards to Billy Bob's because Derrick had bought two awesome tickets to the sold out Band Perry concert!!! It was SO good and such a neat place and we watched the nightly bull riding before the concert. So much history there and so many Texans! :) One of the most well known dance halls in the world!

Such a great concert! Favorite songs were their rendition of Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone and If I Die Young.

After a late night at Billy Bob's, we slept late the next morning and then drove the 45 minutes west to Granbury to spend the day with our incredible friends, Trent & Kelley. It has been WAY too long since we have last seen them and we finally got the chance. I LOVE those friendships that pick up right where they left off. Trent and Derrick were roommates for 3 years in college and we have so many great memories with them. They are a special, special couple whom we love so much and are so very grateful for. We spent the night in their beautiful home and we got the tour of Granbury and of their schools. Trent is a football and baseball coach and 10th grade history teacher and Kelley teaches 3rd grade. Seeing where they live and what they do was so much fun. Then they introduced us to a neato restaurant called Babe's where you order your meat (smoked chicken, fried chicken, pot roast, chicken fried steak, or friend catfish) and then they bring family style bowls of mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and the best darn biscuits you've ever tasted and you pass them around and then just ask for more when your table needs more. There was tons of meat and the sides were unlimited and they were SO good. It was such a cute place and a brilliant concept for a restaurant! 

Coach Phillips...I love that!

Trent & Kelley in Trent's element. They had beautiful facilities! Go Pirates :)

We had Monday off of work for President's Day which was really odd for our company, but we didn't get anything for New Years so they dropped a holiday randomly into the year. It was actually kind of nice because there really aren't any holidays between Christmas and Easter so a day off in February was nice. That made our weekend even better as we got to fit in a day with the Phillips without worrying about anything. They did have school on Monday though, so making ourselves going to bed amidst great conversation was a hard thing to do! 

Thank you to my sweet husband for making the weekend possible. It was wonderful!

Love is...My Husband

So a lot has been going on in our lives that has caused a lot of stress and turmoil. Just lots of upcoming change and the stresses that go along with growing pains. We had a rough night last night with some tears and comforting, but went to bed together knowing we loved each other and that good and exciting things were ahead. This morning, I woke up and Derrick handed me a cute Charlie Brown card and a Russell Stover candy heart and I thought it was the fairly typical lil Valentine surprise, but no, no...that was just the beginning. After the sweet and loving note he wrote to me, there was a Clue.

Clue 1: You are so beautiful and hot and you really light my fire.
        (sorry if too much info but important to the story) :-D
He told me it was a clue to another clue upon which I made my way to our fireplace, which has been a favorite thing for us lately during the cooler weather. Inside, buried in the ash was an oddly shaped piece of wood with the following...

Clue 2: With you, I always feel safe and confident and you always have my combination.
To which I responded by making our way to our safe which contains our valuables...glad I remembered our combination! :)

Clue 3: I love how you always have my back as we drive down the road of life from that first drive we took on our wedding night.

See below for a little flashback to our wedding night....and upon the steering wheel of Derrick's 1950 Chevy truck I found the next one.

Clue 4: I love how I know you will be with me in this window of time we have together and how that makes me feel. Knowing that is all that really matters to me. 

And in the window sill of our living room, I found...

Clue 5: Now you have all the parts to I love you. Put them together and with Google's help you'll see where we are going! 

Now, embarrassingly, I actually had a really hard time putting the puzzle together :) but to my defense, one of the pieces was upside down which was really confounding haha.

And wah-lah!

He sawed out the heart and then cut it into pieces

And upon turning it over....Valentines Surprise!

On the back, was "2520 Rodeo Plaza 76164" which upon googling is Billy Bob's Dance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas, where he bought front row seats for The Band Perry for this weekend along with an amazing hotel in downtown Forth Worth!! Wooooooohoooooooooo! I can' wait!!

Today is mine and Derrick's 10th celebrated Valentines together....whoa!! A friend pointed out to me today that 10 years is a DECADE (yikes...that's what getting old must feel like :) We had our first Valentines in Temple, Texas, at Pignetti's Italian restaurant, which is where Derrick chose to take me back to the night he proposed to me....Again, a flashback...

December 2006

There are many skeptical people around Valentines Day, which is understandable considering the amount of pain and lost love in the world...but I know in my heart that true love exists and that men like my husband do exist...and I love him for being him and for loving me unconditionally. 

1 Corinthians 13:4-7  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 

To top off my Valentines blog post, I'd like to share a poem that my Dad showed to me today that he found in a collection of poems written by my great-grandmother, "Honey." She wrote this for my grandparent's 25th wedding anniversary in 1977, but I think its appropriate for any couple who shares love like ours...


"Two Birds"
I saw two wild birds flying
At dawn, across the sky;
I heard their voices mingled
In a solitary cry,
And though the dome of heaven
Stretched endlessly and blue,
And the sky was wide about them,
Still wing to wing they flew.
Then as their forms diminished,
And in distance disappeared,
I knew that they were not alone,
And knew not lonely fear.

At eve, I saw them coming,
On the waves of darkness tide.
Like white winged ships they beat their way,
Still flying side by side.
And when their wings were folded,
And their wandering forms at rest,
I heard their drowsy chirping,
In their warm and cozy nest.
And then I thought, my dear, if I
Could take your hand in mine,
And lead you through the ways of life,
'Twere happiness divine.
Your face would be my guiding light
To cheer my each endeavor,
I'd know no fear or failure then,
If we were but together.
And when at last our tasks were done,
And we were safe at home,
In cottage small or castle hall,
I'd never be alone.
And tho I drooped from weariness,
I could not seek my rest,
Until I felt you nestling
Close against my breast.
And if some day, my feet should stray
To heavens golden strand,
I would not care to enter there,
Unless I held your hand.

-Mary Elizabeth Welhausen aka Honey
         my great grandmother

Why are they called Wisdom Teeth?

February...whenever I think of February I think of pink and red. Amazing how a month can get a total stereotype. Although I suppose December lives with red and green and November with orange and brown and July with red and blue. I love holidays! Although in our lives, one February day received the red and green crown as we got to have Christmas in February. Our Goddaughters who we talk and blog about often had some Christmas presents awaiting them which they were supposed to get before Christmas, but due to a terrible outbreak of hospitalizing stomach viruses in the Mader household, they got postponed. Then other plans fell through and we weren't all able to be together until February 4th...so being the great momma that Brittany is, she pulled out the mini Christmas tree and the Christmas jammies and baked cinnamon rolls and found the Santa Claus hats and we had ourselves a very merry Christmas morning :)

We got the girls a super cute growth chart for their room as well as box of 100 cookie cutters. The girls are learning their alphabet and numbers and animal noises and such so we figured they'd start out being played with on the living room floor (and scattered all over momma's house) and then someday turn into a fun activity with play-doh and then cookie baking. Who doesn't need cookie cutters! :)

Such a cute pic of my favorite girls

Derrick & sweet Karis

Daddy Ian couldn't believe the Hippopotamus made another appearance before the next December. :-D "Again" "Again" is the girl's favorite words in reference to this singing hippo haha

The girls kept referring to their new growth chart as "book!" "book!" That's one almighty big book :)

cooke cutters to spread out all over the house!

We had a fun time with the Mader crew and then got home in time for the Super Bowl.

Then I had a wisdom tooth extraction consultation on Monday. I've been putting this off for a very long time but really needed to go as my 4 wisdom teeth all came in more or less greyed out and dead. One of them chipped off a quadrant of tooth while eating lunch and I knew I needed to take care of them. Well lo and behold, the doc had an opening for extraction on Thursday so I decided to go for it. I have never been sedated so I was a little bit nervous just because you never know once you go down if you'll come back up, but I tell you what...if that was a way to die, it'd be the way to go. I remember her giving a shot into the IV thingy and her telling me it was to make my mouth and tongue really dry so they didn't have to deal with spit (jiminy Christmas did that stuff work! when I woke up, my mouth was the Sahara desert!). Then she gave me another telling me it would keep me from getting nauseous. Then she gave me another telling me it would make me sleepy and my vision would get a little blurry. I told her I'd never been sedated so what should I expect and she said it would just hit me. Well I remember watching the heartbeat monitor and it getting a little bit blurry, and then I don't remember ANYTHING else. They woke me up at some point and I assumed it was to tell me the doctor was coming in...no, no. It was to tell me I was ready to go home. What?! Whoa!! That is so weird to me that I fell asleep and the doctor came in and cut out my teeth and messed around in my mouth for a while and stuffed gauze into my mouth, etc and I had NO idea. I then stumbled down the hallway where my sweet mom was there to take me home. I remember opening an eye twice on the way home but totally slept the rest of the way. Then I remember Derrick being on our doorstep to greet me which made me very happy as I didn't know he'd be home nor did I know what time it was. I then stumbled into bed and slept the afternoon away.

Derrick came and checked on me often and the first snack I got was vanilla pudding. I was thinking this whole wisdom tooth thing would be a good calorie intake inhibitor but I think I was wrong. Your body is still hungry, but you can't eat normal things. So instead you eat ice cream, pudding, macaroni and cheese, juice, etc lol....which probably all has way more calories than normal food! Plus, when you have a sweet aunt like I do who brought me Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream, how can you help but eat it!!

Anyway, its now Friday afternoon and I'm home laying low. I had some vacation days I had to burn before Feburary 22nd or else I'd lose them...what a great way to burn vacation hours! :) So, we'll see if we make it out anywhere this weekend....I have a feeling I'll be totally bored by the end of the weekend :) Totally not used to 4 days at home in a row.

But since I have 4 days at home in a row, you get to read about boring ol wisdom teeth extractions :)....why are they called wisdom teeth anyway? Glad you asked! According to deardoctor.com:


Third molars have been referred to as “teeth of wisdom” since the Seventeenth Century and simply “wisdom teeth” since the Nineteenth Century. The third molars generally appear much later than other teeth, usually between the ages of 17 and 25 when a person reaches adulthood. It is generally thought among linguists that they are called wisdom teeth because they appear so late, at an age when a person matures into adulthood and is “wiser” than when other teeth have erupted.

Lately, science has added some credence to the idea that the third molar does indeed erupt when a person is “wiser”. Recent research has shown the brain continues to grow and develop right on through adolescence: in fact, most researchers believe the brain does not reach full maturity until the age of 25. Perhaps, then, our ancestors weren't so far off the mark — that the eruption of “wisdom teeth” is a sign that the carefree days of childhood have given way to the responsibilities of adulthood.

You learn something new every day!