My best Father’s day ever

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soupornuts is moving!!! In order to have more control over my blog (how it looks, plugins, etc.) I have decided to move soupornuts.wordpress.com to soupornuts.com. When you come to soupornuts.com, you will see my new postings along with updated and edited versions of most of my old articles. Don’t panic if the site looks different the first couple of times you visit. I am trying different themes to see which I prefer.

I had a great Father’s day. Probably the best ever.

• My wife and two daughters cooked me the most fantastic breakfast of bacon, eggs and cinnamon rolls.
• I was able to go see my father and spend some quality time with him.
• I was able to visit my father-in-law and let him know how much we all care about him. (on Saturday)
• I took my wife and girls to see the new “Nancy Drew” movie. We all enjoyed it.
• We went for an ice cream cone and then sat outside to eat it.
• I received some “special” news just before the day ended. I’ll let you know more later.

Everything was absolutely the greatest – except for one thing. When we were getting into our vehicle after the movie, I saw a scene between a father and son that literally broke my heart.

The situation was obvious. A son, who no longer lives with his father, had come to see him and spend Father’s day with him. It was apparent that the day had come to an end. I witnessed the son making sure that his dad had the card and gift he had brought for his dad. All the while, the son was crying and hugging his dad. I guess the son was about 9–10 years old. You could tell that the father was miserable with the situation as well. The scene ended with the son getting into a truck with his mother and her friend while the father left in another car. I almost cried.

I have come to realize that I am truly blessed.

• I have a loving and devoted wife who makes sure to let me know how special I am in her eyes.
• I have two daughters who think that I hung the moon.

Thank you God for my wonderful life.

Tags: Father’s+day

Filly update plus pictures.

The article will begin below this paragraph

soupornuts is moving!!! In order to have more control over my blog (how it looks, plugins, etc.) I have decided to move soupornuts.wordpress.com to soupornuts.com. When you come to soupornuts.com, you will see my new postings along with updated and edited versions of most of my old articles. Don’t panic if the site looks different the first couple of times you visit. I am trying different themes to see which I prefer.

O.K. here are the latest pictures or our orphaned philly and her companion, Pedro. Dakota’s name was changed to Buttercup by my two daughters. She is now one month old. She is currently taking in about 48 ounces of foal lac every 3–4 hours and starting to make some progress with milk pellets.

This is Pedro. He is a three year old, miniature donkey. He is very friendly and has been a good companion so far. Everybody has taken a liking to him. He is very gentle as long as you are not a dog. He doesn’t like dogs.

Tags: horses, family

The power of a kind word

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soupornuts is moving!!! In order to have more control over my blog (how it looks, plugins, etc.) I have decided to move soupornuts.wordpress.com to soupornuts.com. When you come to soupornuts.com, you will see my new postings along with updated and edited versions of most of my old articles. Don’t panic if the site looks different the first couple of times you visit. I am trying different themes to see which I prefer.

This past Sunday (Mother’s Day), my wife, my daughters, and I went in search of a digital camera. Having done a little research on our own, we had narrowed our choices down to a couple of manufacturers and models. The decision was made to make a purchase this weekend. We went to a couple of retailers who specialize in the camera trade and began to ask questions. Much to our surprise, we found the best, most knowledgeable, most helpful and friendliest representatives at Best Buy. We were so impressed with the two representatives that helped us that after we had completed our purchase, I asked to see the store manager.

I approached the store manager, introduced myself and told him how happy we were with the individuals who had assisted us in our purchasing decision. The manager thanked me, encouraged me to go online and fill out a survey and to note the names of the representatives on a submission form and then he took out his personal business card and told me to present it the next time I was in the store for a ten percent discount on any purchase.

Wow! That was not what I expected or wanted, but it made an impression with me.

After leaving Best Buy, we headed over to Outback because that’s where my wife wanted to eat. The parking lot was full and people were milling around the front doors. I knew immediately we were in for a wait, I just didn’t have any idea how long it would be. I approached the matre’d and he immediately informed me that the approximate waiting time for a table would be 70 -80 minutes. My wife noticed that there were a couple of empty tables in the bar area and we asked the matre’d about them. He said they were available on a “first come, first serve” basis. After a quick consult, we headed to one of the tables.

There was an empty beer bottle and a wet rag on the table. I quickly wiped the table down and put both the bottle and rag near the edge of the table. A few minutes later, a very harried waitress showed up and began apologizing for the dirty table and her tardiness. I said, “Stop, for just a minute.” She looked at me questioningly and I said, “we all want to wish you a happy Mother’s Day.” Her eyes lit up, her face beamed and she literally gushed appreciation.

To make a long story shorter, our food was excellent. Our service was quick and our waitress was very attentive. As if all this was not enough, while my wife and daughters were gone to the restroom and as I waited for our check, our waitress returned with a big bowl of ice cream, chocolate syrup, whip cream and a cherry. Gratis. Free. On the house.

I realize that desert did not represent a huge outlay to Outback, but the smiles of delight on the faces of my daughters were priceless. And to think that it all hinged on taking the time to genuinely say a few words of kindness.

Both of these instances illustrate that people appreciate being appreciated. It was a great opportunity to teach my children the power of a kind word.

Tags: powerofkindness, a+kind+word, kindness

Call your Momma

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soupornuts is moving!!! In order to have more control over my blog (how it looks, plugins, etc.) I have decided to move soupornuts.wordpress.com to soupornuts.com. When you come to soupornuts.com, you will see my new postings along with updated and edited versions of most of my old articles. Don’t panic if the site looks different the first couple of times you visit. I am trying different themes to see which I prefer. 

Today is Mother’s Day and mothers everywhere are remembering the day, hour, minute and second that each of their children entered the world. Our mothers brought us into this world, fed us, clothed us, hugged us, loved us, taught us, disciplined us, nurtured us, read to us, chauffeured us, waited for us, worried about us, advised us, helped us, loaned us money, preached to us, cried with us, cried for us, cried about us, coddled us, pushed us, held us, comforted us, sang to us, rocked us and much, much more.

Regardless of how you feel about your mother, you would not be here without her and you would not be you without her. One half of your genes are derived from her. Yes, you are one half of your mother. Whether we like to admit it or not, we are what and who we are because of or in spite of our mothers.

Stop whatever you are doing and call or go and visit your mother today. If you have children then you can relate to the message that I am trying to get across. Call her. Tell her you love her and that she is special. One day you won’t have the opportunity. Don’t live to regret missed chances.

Remember, you did not come with a handbook. She did the best she could and she will always love you.

Tags: Mother’s+day, Mom, Mama, Family

Filly update – new name + pictures

The article will begin below this paragraph

soupornuts is moving!!! In order to have more control over my blog (how it looks, plugins, etc.) I have decided to move soupornuts.wordpress.com to soupornuts.com. When you come to soupornuts.com, you will see my new postings along with updated and edited versions of most of my old articles. Don’t panic if the site looks different the first couple of times you visit. I am trying different themes to see which I prefer. 

O.K. here is my attempt to share some pictures of our new filly with everyone. I’d like to take the time to thank everyone who responded to our call for help. As I’ve known for some time, the horse community is a very giving and tight knit group.

In these pictures she is at about five days old. My daughters have tentatively named her “Dakota”, but the discussion and final decision is still ongoing.

We were able to locate and purchase a miniature donkey this past Thursday. My trailer was in disrepair, but a good friend of my father’s allowed us to borrow his. We brought “Pedro” home and he is getting acclimated. Sorry, no pictures of Pedro yet.

Dakota is now nine days old and is getting stronger by the day. At the last feeding today, she inhaled 56 ounces of Foal lac.

Pedro and Dakota seem to be getting along fine. Pedro is about three years old and lets Dakota know he is the boss, but Dakota just trots off in no real hurry.

Special Thanks to: Walking Horse Fanatic, MiKael, defrostindoors

Tags: thanks

Filly update

O.K. here’s the scoop. So far, so good, but this is really a lot of work. I never imagined how much time a newborn foal could take.

My wife, parents and I spent all day Saturday partitioning a section of one of our paddocks to accommodate our newborn. Then we went around and around baby-proofing it. We also put her dam into the paddock to see if we could get them to bond. No such luck. Although Rosie, (the dam) would tolerate her, she would not allow the filly to nurse. I left them together all day, but again, no bonding seemed to occur.

I returned Rosie to the connecting pasture Sunday and am continuing to monitor them to see if there is any progress. So far, nothing. This concerns me as I know that this filly’s social development will be hindered without contact and exposure to her dam.

My daughters are having great fun. They are beginning to listen to me and are starting to understand how to act and handle yourself around horses. Before now, it has gone in one ear and out the other.

My wife is becoming very attached to this baby and has expressed her concern about her chances. My thoughts are that the longer she goes without taxing her immune system, the better her chances for survival. I am currently updating my opinion of her survival to 70-30%.

Any helpful thoughts or ideas would be welcome.

It’s all about perspective, but this little horse has a chance

We live on a small horse farm. Currently we have a tentative fourteen horses on fifty-three acres. I say tentative because we have just had a female foal born (yesterday) and it seems that the mare has no interest in nursing her baby. Right now, I think that the foals chances are about 65-35% that she will survive.

My wife and I knew that this mare was due to foal any day, but we had been planning a camping trip that coincided with my oldest daughter’s spring break and my youngest daughter’s birthday. Not being able to force this mare to foal, we took off on our camping trip Wednesday morning with the hopes that this birth would be uneventful. However, as with most things you take for granted, this was not to be the case.

I received an urgent message from my father on my cell phone last night around 8:00 p.m. saying that there were problems with the foal and I needed to call him right away. To make a long story short, we loaded up all the camping gear that we could stow quickly, left the rest for my wife’s parents to take care of for us and we started our three and one half hour ride home. Thanks Nana and Poppa.

Driving through the curvy mountain roads at night resulted in my youngest daughter having a bout of nausea accompanied by some minor throwing up. But other than that, our trip home was quick and uneventful. We arrived home a 12:30 a.m., not really sure what we would find.

Thankfully, my parents had found some canned goat’s milk at Kroger, mixed it with water and following the vet’s instructions, had been administering it to the filly (what a female foal is called) every 2 hours via a feeding tube inserted down her nostril and into her stomach. This is standard procedure to make sure the filly is getting nourishment until she develops a suckling response.

We arrived and got the rundown from my parents on the vet’s thoughts and feeding instructions and went to take a look at our new addition. She is a very large, light brown and white paint foal. My wife, daughters and I are thrilled and overwhelmed. This little horse is going to require around-the-clock care.

We went inside our home and slept a couple of hours and then went to the barn to give the filly our first feeding. Using a baby’s bottle, we were able to get her to suckle just a little and we poured the rest down her feeding tube. This was around 3:00 a.m.

At her next feeding (5:00 a.m.), we discovered that the filly had pulled out her feeding tube. This is something that my wife noticed immediately. I don’t know if it was because of her motherly instincts or the fact that she is a speech pathologist and deals with feeding tubes and swallowing issues daily. She asked me if I felt comfortable reinserting the feeding tube and I responded, “No, I’m afraid that I might put it into her lung without realizing it.) So, we began to try to bottle feed her in earnest. I guess she was ready, because she has begun to suck it down pretty well. It’s a lot of extra effort and it’s time consuming, is it worth it?

It is all a matter of perspective. You could see it from the point of view that:

1. Sure, it’s going to cost a lot of money. ( additional vet bills, additional supplies, additional medicines, etc)
2. Yes, it’s going to take a lot of time. ( Around-the-clock feeding and care, ensuring a safe and protective environment)
3. She might die and devastate your kids since they will have bonded with her.

Or, you could see it from the perspective of:

1. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for our family to bond around the care of a nearly helpless and beautiful animal.
2. It’s a chance for my daughters to understand and develop the qualities of selflessness and sacrifice.
3. It’s an opportunity for us all to become more nurturing and understanding.

Yes, it really is a matter of your perspective. I choose to believe that this filly is going to live and that it is a gift from God to my daughters. I believe that my daughters will grow and develop qualities that may have otherwise taken years to acquire simply because this filly needs us. I’ll keep you posted.

Daddy’s girls for now

Having two daughters can be quite a bit of fun. With the first child, you want to experience every new thing that occurs. When the second one comes along some of those unique pleasures get pushed to the side. Case in point: My oldest daughter is six and I have been asking her from the time she could talk, “What are you going to be when you grow up?” There have been a myriad of answers. From “a doctor” to a “dog walker” and everything in between.

Recently, I realized that I had never asked my younger daughter who is approaching four, what she wanted to be when she grows up. However, I was able to remedy this situation recently. I dropped my older daughter off at school and on the way home asked my younger daughter, “what do you want to be when you grow up”? With only a moments hesitation, she replied, “a vegenarian”. I said, “Don’t you mean a veterinarian”? She told me “no, a vegenarian”, but gave me no explanation. I left it at that until today. We had a little quiet time – just the two of us and I asked her if she still wanted to be a vegenarian. She quickly told me, “no, I’m going to be a country music girl.”

I got no further explanation, but I really didn’t want one. It was just nice to share a daddy -daughter moment. Soon she’ll be to busy to tell me what she’s going to be and all I’ll have are these little memories. No, it really doesn’t matter what she wants to be as long as she wants to be with Daddy.