Our sweet parakeet...

Our sweet parakeet, CeeLo Green, passed away today. 😭😭😭

We've gotta replace our HVAC unit and that's not cheap.

So... We've gotta replace our HVAC unit and that's not cheap. Apparently there are holes rusted into it and it's not safe. The repair guy said that it could be blowing carbon monoxide into the house. That might explain some of our headaches and tiredness... or not. My parakeet is ok and I'm guessing he would be more sensitive to that than we would. I have been far more seriously exposed to carbon monoxide before so if it has been an issue it's been thankfully relatively mild.

We had a problem with the unit cooling over the summer and a different repair guy asked us if we had enemies (yes, dead serious - it was so hard not to laugh at him) because he claims it was sabotaged. That was really goofy and we're not using him anymore. He didn't repair the HVAC at my old house and then he came at us with that theory at our house (which he also couldn't fix) and that was the last time I called him. 😂😂😂

In any case our new repair man makes valid, logical points and has shown us the damage. Since our unit has been here since 1997 it's decently old and definitely rusted through and if he says it's dangerous then I believe him. (A little Googling also confirmed what he said.) It's had trouble heating and cooling. I don't think we have many choices at this point despite money being tight because I'm not working yet. 😕

Anyway, our new unit will be installed as soon as the weather permits. That could have been today, but the rain hasn't let up. I'm pretty bummed because the low tomorrow is 23°F. Maybe it won't take long to get it put in and working. I've been ok without heat so far, but this wet + lower temperatures is not good, especially for my bones. I guess I'm just grateful we can handle it. I know that many people aren't so lucky. 🙁

Going through old stuff...

Going through old stuff and found a diary post about my chicken. Yes, when I was 9 my best friend was a chicken and I loved her so much. I 100% WILL share my life with another chicken one day. They are really more awesome than people give them credit for. 💕

SugarBaby (my one-eyed hen)...

SugarBaby (my one-eyed hen) used to do this to me. ❤️❤️❤️

Today, I'm home catching up on things.

I ran a ton of errands yesterday.  Today, I'm home catching up on things.

Leon has been a butthole lately; he's been messing with our parakeet so now CeeLo Green is going to live in my bedroom.  We're listening to a parakeet-calming mix of music on YouTube right now.  He looks very thoughtful and interested; I've even got my blinds open so he can have some sun.  Hoping my new little roomie adjusts to sharing my space soon.  😊

I'm off to make a list of things to do so I can start checking it off.  I hope you all are having a nice Wednesday!  ❤

Current Mood: Trying to keep myself from spiraling downward.

Current Mood:  Trying to keep myself from spiraling downward.

Yesterday morning one of our parakeets suddenly didn't look so great.  He seemed fine the day before, but yesterday morning he was puffy and tired-looking when we got up.  He was dead within the hour.  I don't know what happened.  Rest in Peace, Sapphire. 🙁

Then that thing with the fence happened.  There is some damage to be dealt with, but it could have been much worse.  Shaun stood it back up last night.  Thankfully, Faith and Nappy don't seem to look for places to get out of the fence, so that's a relief.  I don't feel like I have to worry about them too much before it's repaired properly this weekend.

This morning as I was feeding Koopa I decided to look for Peach.  Sometimes those little horned lizards bury themselves for days, so I wasn't immediately concerned that I hadn't seen her in a day or two.  Well, I carefully dug and dug in all of the places where they usually hide and I didn't find her.  I moved the water dish... and she was there.  Dead.  I don't know if she burrowed under and couldn't get out, or if she was sick and hid away to die.  She also seemed to be doing fine previous to this.  Rest in Peace, little lizard.  I will miss you.  🙁

So my stomach is upset and I don't feel so great.  Could be my meds.  Or it could be stress.  But I'm trying to get myself together and get to work because missing out on money isn't going to help anything at all.

Wish me luck.  I'm really glad it's the weekend.  😕

This weekend has been a mixed bag.

This weekend has been a mixed bag.  I spent too much time being so stressed out over everything that I needed to do that I didn't do anything, which sucked.  That's a very negative loop to be stuck in.  🙁  Making things worse - I took my Methotrexate on Thursday which makes me really tired and brain-foggy so basically nothing got done on Thursday or Friday.  I did very little homework on Saturday, but made a lot of progress on my Trig today (Sunday), even though I had to stop for a nap.  I didn't touch Biology at all, but I did work on History since I have a test coming up Tuesday.

Highlight of the weekend was seeing some friends that don't live close to me anymore.  Low point of the weekend was that one of our parakeets died today despite all of my efforts to nurse her and make her better.  Rest in Peace, Sky.  ❤

I promised Booka a bath since he's chewed up a raw spot above his tail despite his Prednisone.  So I'm about to get off here, wash a dog, then wash myself, and call it a night.  I've got an ass-ton of notifications piled up again, but I can't check them all tonight.  Maybe tomorrow.  I hope the weekend went a little easier on y'all.

Interesting. I have 3 parakeets.

Interesting.  I have 3 parakeets.  I just witnessed one barfing into one of the other parakeets mouth.  Yuck.

I Googled it and it means they like each other.  At least it's a sweet gesture.  LOL

Apparently, they can just bob their heads and barf on command.  I learn something new every day!

You're welcome, Internet.  😃

I have to write a paper on problems with drama.

I have to write a paper on problems with drama.  As in plays and stuff.  And I'm just not feeling it.  I haven't been, and I'm getting nowhere.  BOO.

On a happier note:  One of my parakeets is just cracking me up.  Cerulean LOVES the swing that goes in all directions.  That li'l mofo will swing so hard!  He swings ferociously.  He swings like it's his JOB.  LOL  I don't think I've ever had a parakeet that swings so much.  I'm gonna have to try to catch that on video one day.  But not today.  I have work to do.  😕

Oh my gosh, the feels. That chicken just made me cry.

Oh my gosh, the feels.  That chicken just made me cry.

I went to the side door to let my awesome Emma J. go potty, and there were chickens out there (not mine, I'm guessing they belong to one of my neighbors).  I asked her to please not chase them, so we sat and watched them scratch for a while.  Emma is the best girl.  BEST.

Anyway, as we sat there watching the chickens scratch, I noticed one doing something odd.  Something familiar.  Something a little crooked.  And then I just wanted to catch her and hug her.  SUGARBABY!

I fucking miss my chicken so hard right now.  If you don't understand, then here you go.

And forgive my blog.  It is horribly out of date, and old, and lots of photos are missing.  I plan to fix that one of these days.

Ooh, another parakeet egg!

Ooh, another parakeet egg!  I read to expect as much.  I just think it's pretty cool.  🙂

I just found a parakeet egg!

I just found a parakeet egg! What do I do?

I am eating bananas in dark chocolate for breakfast.

I am eating bananas in dark chocolate for breakfast.  Yes - breakfast at 2:30 pm.  Anyway, I think I will hook up the parakeet and g-pigs today.  Maybe cut my grass if I have some time left.  Shelby:  I haven't forgotten our meeting, but I don't have a working car right now.  😳  I'm going to have to find a ride to bum!

I am pretty bummed.

I am pretty bummed. Our yellow parakeet vanished out of his closed cage some time either late last night or early this morning. We couldn't find a trace of him anywhere earlier today, but we came home and found 2 or 3 small feathers in the dog room, and 1 outside - no body or anything. I'm just going to hope that he flew away and is now free. 🙁

I have had a busy day.

I have had a busy day. Me and Shaun moved the g-pigs to a bigger cage and the parakeets to a palace!  They've got a cage taller than me now! It was my old ferret cage - two stories with ramps. Take all the ramps and dividers out and two little birdies have room to FLY! 😃 Unfortunately, my little cripple seems to not be able to. Maybe with space to exercise and time...

R.I.P. Lily

So yesterday Lily was acting a little weird. I didn't think too much of it because honestly - she's a strange bird... always has been. Well, when I noticed her in the bottom of her cage again I opened the door to touch her and she didn't move. Normally she is not ok with being touched. So I called AMC who told me to call Birmingham who told me to call Auburn... no one had anyone who knew anything about birds in the emergency office. I fell asleep waiting for the Auburn clinic to call back and when I woke up this morning Lily was dead. And no they did not call. *sigh*

Honestly, one of the worst things is knowing that one of my babies are in pain and that I'm helpless in the situation... so I guess I'm relieved to know that she's not suffering, at least. I'm sad, though... I'm gonna miss her. She was something else. I really liked her silly ass.

chicken

I saw a picture of a baby chicken today and it made me want one. I like baby chickens. They are so sweet. 😊 I grew up with chickens... my dad fought them. (I never saw him do it, though; I just knew that he did). I know (now) that it's illegal, but back then I didn't. I was a kid.

Anyhoo, he kept females to mate with his big manly males so that he could raise more big manly fighting chickens. Well, sometimes the baby chicks, or "biddies," as he'd call them would get separated from the mama hen and since there were usually a few with chicks and we didn't know where it came from I'd take it in. I would hold it and love it. I'd walk with it in the grass and show it bugs to eat. I'd sneak it in the house and nap with it. They would always nestle up under my neck because it was warm, I guess. There down is SO soft against your skin. And let me tell ya - there's nothing sweeter than the little content chirps of a baby chicken. 😍

Sometimes due to all of the chickens in the yard owls and hawks would come around looking for a snack. My dad would always run out with a shot gun to scare it off or kill it, whichever he could manage. One afternoon after such an event occurred the night before I was outside helping dad feed the chickens and such and he said he might have to kill one - that he thought an owl had hurt it bad enough that it wouldn't live. I cried and begged him not to. He said, "Well baby, look at it's eye. She can't see to take care of herself."

Sure enough her eye was just gone among a miscellaneous other few minor-looking injuries. I pleaded with him to let me keep her. And he did. So I named her SugarBaby. I hand-fed her and nursed her until she seemed much better. She ended up being able to walk and stuff, though sometimes a little crooked. She could even find her own food; it just often took her a few tries to pick up what she was going for. She lived pretty much like a normal chicken by the time I was done with her, though. 😀

Before it was all over with we became good friends. She would even come when I called her name. Every day after school she'd wait at the bottom of the driveway for me to get off the bus. If I didn't have too much in my arms I'd just carry her back up the hill and pet her. When me and my mom went anywhere and came back she'd chase the car back up the driveway (clucking and flapping her wings the whole time) and wait for us to get out. Needless to say I was very sad when she finally died. I miss her crazy one-eyed self.

THE END

It's Monday & I'm pooped.

Well, I hope to keep this one kind of short so I'll just get to it. Thursday I had to pick up Shadow from school because he was sick and that's pretty much lasted until now. Over the weekend he seemed to get better with a little TLC and Tylenol so I sent him to school today and ended up having to go get him again. 😐 I took him to the doctor and he had a temp of 102.8°F and strep throat. 😕

He had to get a shot. Ya know he's 6 years old, but that still doesn't stop me from getting all teary-eyed when they have to do that. It sucks. 🙁 Also I felt really bad for him already because one day this weekend I closed the car door on his head. He knows not to get out of his seat belt until he's told to do so and we were in a parking lot about to get out and a car was trying to park right by me so I closed the door... Unfortunately, Shadow had decided to stand up and stick his head out right about then. I didn't see him until it was too late. 😭

He has a bruise and that's all. I felt terrible (and will probably have nightmares for a while), but that's just one more reason why kids should listen to their parents. I probably could've killed him if I'd closed it harder and I told him so. I don't think he'll be doing that again. I truly hope not.

Anyway, since he was sick this weekend he slept a lot. So I had time to get one more room sort of situated. It's the front room - the room you walk into when you come in the front door. We have a lot of the animals in there and I think it looks pretty nice. It could still use a little work, but it's fine for now. So... that leaves 3 rooms to finish. They will probably not be completed anytime soon.

On to the pics.

This is our porch type area. I like it out there. 😄

If you look to the left after you walk in this is what you'll see. (It's where the gliders and the parakeet live).

If you keep looking around you'll see Shadow's desk (complete with a hedgehog on top )(who, btw, is rather cuddly - or at least tries to be). 😍

The chameleons' fancy setup.

And finally: the mantle with a bunch of random stuff on it such as: the Matrix box-thing, a lamp, and a shark fin and hand print that Shadow made, and his cap & gown pic. SO cute!! 😁

And that's pretty much that room. It's not perfect, but it's better than being crammed full of ugly boxes and stuff. I'm pleased... at least for now. 😄 And exhausted so I'ma go. LOVE!!!

Like a cow in a bull shop.

Since this one may be a little lengthy I'll break it up into sections. ('Cause I'm nice like that).

Sugar Babies - part I
For anyone who's curious the little darlings are getting along fairly well. Yorda did not look at all happy to have the screeching little Ico anywhere near her, especially not stuck in the same cage with her. (FYI, they make a severely strange sound when they are not happy). They were both very standoff-ish when first introduced... he did not want to come out of his pouch and she didn't want to go near it. So we ended up dumping them both out. (Hey, they had to meet somehow - right?) Anyhoo, Ico huddled up in the bottom of the cage (obviously uncomfortable in his new surroundings), and Yorda ran up the side of the cage and got behind him... and then on him. And there she stayed for a good few hours grooming him, sniffing him, crawling all over him, not letting him get out of her reach for even a second (and believe me, he tried)... She seems a bit clingy, but she's been alone since we've had her... they're pretty social creatures and I had a feeling she was getting lonely. I couldn't handle that - I felt really bad for her. *sigh* Anyway, when I woke up the next morning they were cuddled up asleep in the same pouch looking extremely cute... and that is that.

Sugar Babies - part II
Ico is doing ok... not doing as well adjusting as I would have expected him to, but Yorda could be stressing him out. I dunno. He's very moody and not so much tame, although in the pet store he was the friendliest li'l fella in there. And he's very vocal about his feelings... by that I mean we get to hear his weird sound pretty often. You don't even have to be near him for him to start. He doesn't want to be held and he'll actually lunge at you and try to bite when you attempt to pick him up. I honestly think he's stressed and not handling the change from pet store to home very well. He's a good bit younger than Yorda was when we got her so that may be a factor. But I'm gonna be patient with the little guy... I think things will turn out fine.

On another note we've been wearing them out in the pouch pretty frequently and Yorda's sneaky little ass got out in the car the other day. Nick got peed on and bitten or scratched or something, but things could have been a lot worse considering that we had the windows down. I'm very thankful that she didn't jump out. Also, I'm not sure which one of them did it, but Nick has the cutest little paw-shaped scratch on his arm. You can see where all of the tiny claws dug in and pulled. I think it's adorable, but Nick doesn't seem too happy about it. I should take a picture of that. I think I will.

Lily
This is pretty sad. No, she's not dead, but she did get hurt. I was putting something new in her cage the other day and she got out. She hasn't had her wings clipped in a long time and she's not at all tame so she flew around the house smashing into stuff for a while before finally landing beak-first on the hard kitchen floor. It bled a little and we were all very concerned, but I think she's gonna be just fine. I talked to one of the awesome ladies at Critters and she said she the same thing. I'm just keeping a close eye on her to make sure that she acts normal... well - normal for Lily. (That bird is crazy, I swear). But she's been eating and grooming herself and even playing a little so that's a good thing.

And finally...
THE END

Pet Pics!!!

So I'm finally putting up some pictures. This will probably take up several entries since I'm so far behind. Oh well - it's getting done. Now look at them and tell me how cute they all are! 😁

This is Lily, our parakeet. I've had her for a while; the neighbors gave her to us because she's so loud (but she's not that bad, really) and does weird things sometimes. She's a little crazy (seriously, I think she's insane)... but I love her anyway. 😍

These are the gerbils we got a while back. The blonde one is Toad and the darker one is Testiclees. Toad belongs to Shadow, (hence the weird name), and Testiclees... well... if you saw him from behind you'd understand. 😜

This is Sabembermoff. He belongs to Nick, but I thought I'd put him up anyway. He glows neon green under a black light. He is the AWESOME! (And I think he needs a hug). 😁

And now a couple of pictures of Yorda (the newest addition to the family). The first one is her eating yogurt off my finger; the second is her and Nick (it's my favorite so I saved it for last). 😍

So there's all of the creatures I currently live with. It's kind of like I have a mini-zoo going on, but it's cool. They're all awesome to have around. I'll be posting more pictures soon now that I've figured out what I'm doing. Well, I hope everyone likes my pics! :)