November and no snow…

What do you do when it’s November 20th and there is no snow on the ground when we normally have feet of snow by now. Well, if you’re us you plant horseradish root and let the chickens free range.

Yep, we’re pretty exciting, right?

My Little Redneck…

This has been the first weekend we haven’t had anything to do in a long time. L Bird had to work so it’s just me and A Bird for the morning, which always leads to a trip to Michael’s Crafts. So we loaded up and headed into town, but on the way to Michael’s I realized that I am raising a little redneck.

I know it is all because of my choice in music. I’m pretty eclectic when it comes to music, I listen to everything. I like jazz, blues, R & B, hip-hop, rap, pop music, classic rock, everything, but what I listen to the most is country music. It is the only thing I play in the car if A Bird is with me. I like the rough and rowdy, blue collar feel to country music and I think it is the least offensive music genre for little kids without listening to Barney or Clifford The Big Red Dog sing-a-long cd’s.

This morning as we were driving and singing to the radio, I noticed which songs A Bird was singing the loudest to and knew the most words to. I was a little surprised to listen to her belt out the words to “One More Drinking Song” and “Am I the only one?” Basically both songs are about drinking beer and having a good time. She knows every damn word of these two, then the other ones she belts out are anything by Sugarland, Miranda Lambert, or Carrie Underwood. If it’s a woman scorn/revenge song she knows the whole thing.

In between songs she tells me that she wants to go see a concert with any of the above mentioned ladies, then in the next breath she tells me that when she grows up she is going to be a singer on the stage and sing new Carrie Underwood songs that she made up. So I encourage her and turn it up and let her sing her heart out. I notice how she tries to copy the tone and inflection of the words and if she doesn’t know the words she lustily sings her own words which can lead to some pretty interesting verses.

So here’s to my little redneck, may all her country dreams come true.

Thankful...

I have been thinking a lot lately about all that I have to be thankful for. It’s November, so Thanksgiving is coming and today is Veterans Day so everyone around me has been saying what they are thankful for, which is cool. I think that we should be more thankful/grateful all year round, not just when we remember to be because some month rolls around and the Hallmark companies remind us to be. I am just as guilty of falling into the everyday life trap of being too busy to actually slow down and count my blessings until November myself, but I am going to try to change that.


First, I would like to say thank you to the veterans and active military. It’s because of you that we have all of the rights we have in this great country, so from the bottom of my heart Thank You!

I have so much to be thankful for. I am thankful that I have a wonderfully large and loving family. I am thankful that I have a job that I love when so many people are out of work. I am thankful that I have a roof over my head, I can pay my bills, and that I can come home to a clean, warm home where a loving wife, daughter and assorted menagerie of pets await me.

But what I am most thankful for is the two birds that grace the branches of my life, L Bird and A Bird. I have always been thankful that they bless my life, but sometimes it is just in the back of my head and it gets buried with stress form the day to day stuff that happens in life. What brought it to the forefront of my brain today was a blog post I read. I routinely read Edenland, I find Eden incredibly interesting and real, she pulls no punches and her blog is very enjoyable. While reading her blog, it led me to The Spohrs Are Multiplying. Her latest post was about her daughter who would have turned 4 today, if she hadn’t passed away, you can read that post here. Reading her post brought me to tears thinking about all of the what ifs that could have happened to A Bird and how we would deal with a devastating loss like that.

I can really identify with some of the things she says. She talks about how she always wanted to kids, but it was low on her priority list and she just assumed it would be easy and how it turned out not to be “easy”. I felt the same way, I have always known that I wanted to have children since I was a teenager. I have always wanted to be a dad and pass my name and my knowledge on to my children, but I always figured when the time came to have kids it would happen and be a piece of cake. I couldn’t have been more wrong, L Bird and I tried for 3 years and went through numerous infertility treatments before we had A Bird. After all of the testing that we went through it turned out that I am 99% the problem of our infertility and that lays a whole lot of internal guilt and stress on me daily, but we were blessed enough to have been given a miracle and got A Bird.

I am eternally grateful to God that He blessed us with A Bird, she is the most amazing little girl I could have ever asked for. L Bird and I would love to have another child and A Bird would love to have a brother or sister, but the chances of that are slim and we would need another miracle. I am grateful that I had the chance for one child when I know that there are people out there struggling with infertility that will never have the chance to have a child, but it doesn’t make the pain or want in our hearts any less.

I am grateful or L Bird too, she keeps me grounded. I know that I rarely speak about feelings or anything that bothers me, but when I do she is always there to listen. We have faced many challenges and struggles but we have faced them together for which I am grateful.

I know this post is a little rambling and jumping from one thing to the next, but it is what has been weighing on my heart. Finally, thank you for reading and offering your comments and advice.

Thank You.

The Young & The Tired…

L Bird took a couple of pictures of our pups in the sun, so I thought I would share.

Linus has grown from this:

To this hulking bunch of young, restless and full of energy:

Then there is the old lady, Roxy:

Roxy was only a year old here, just look at how reddish she was:

Then here is the old lady only twelve years lady. Time catches us all…

She is no longer red, she has gone all white. Her ears are going, she can’t hear that well and I’m not too sure about her eyesight. But she’s a tough old bird and the best dog I have ever owned.

Trick or Treating With A Bird…

So yesterday was Halloween and we took A Bird out to go trick or treating. Now Halloween is always kind of a big production since we had A Bird. It’s a big deal, because every year my Dad and Stepmom come down and walk around with us. Halloween is my Stepmother’s favorite holiday, she is a kook about it. If you walk into her office at work, the exact quote is “It looks like Halloween threw up in here!” There is literally no wall space that doesn’t have a decoration on it. So because we don’t  go out there for Easter or Thanksgiving, they get Halloween and they are cool with that. This year was even bigger, my Dad, Stepmom, and my sister came down to hang out, walk around trick or treating, and hand out candy.

But anyway, on with the night. This year A Bird wanted to be a witch, and when everyone asked her if she was a good witch or a bad witch, she always said she was a bad witch.

I don’t know about you, but she looks like a pretty darn cute, good witch to me. That is how she looked before we went outside, but because we live in glorious upstate New York, and it is tradition to wear your winter coat over your costume or freeze, this is what she looked like when we started.

OK, OK it wasn’t her winter coat, and there was no snow on the ground, but it was chilly. We made it around our town in just under an hour, and A Bird was incredibly satisfied with her candy haul. That pink pumpkin was filled to the brim. We headed home, flipped on our porch light and managed to empty our own bowl of candy into the waiting bags of good little trick or treaters.

When we got home, my Dad and I had a nice big slice of L Bird’s amazing apple pie, the ladies took turns handing out candy, and A Bird dumped out her candy in the floor in front of her and decided what she wanted that night. I guess, sometimes we are candy nazis because we only let her have a few pieces, then put the rest up to piece out at a later date. Finally, the candy was all handed out, my family said their goodbyes and A Bird went to bed high on sugar and memories of another great Halloween.  I hope you had a great Halloween too!!