School Girl Crush – Cleveland’s _#1 Naughty Band
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Say Goodbye to City Life
Writing about my personal life, really isn’t something I wanted to do. However, I needed to write something that would work well in a farming magazine. After a lot of thought, I decided to write about how I met my husband and how we almost didn’t have a first date.
It was the beginning of April 2008 and I had just visited with my cousin. We had been talking about how I was getting sick of eating out all the time but didn’t want to cook for myself. The next day, she was at work talking to a patient, who was complaining of almost the exact same thing. She decided to play matchmaker and set us up. Turns out, he and I went to school together and just seemed to miss each other, every time our paths should have crossed. She told me who he was and when I went home and looked in my yearbook, I believe my exact words were “Oh hell no! I am not dating Opie Taylor!” I almost did not call him. After a week of debating and deciding what I should do, I broke down and called. He had been out buying his three-year old daughter a fish and was driving home as we talked. Once he got home, I could hear a rooster crowing. My response to the cock a doodle doo, was “please tell me that was not a rooster crowing.” I informed him I was a city girl and I was not really the country girl type. He informed me it was nice talking to me and we almost hung up. After a few more minutes of talking, we set up our first date. I called my cousin to ask her how much of a “redneck” he was. She lied to me and told me he really wasn’t. To my surprise, he drove a big ol’ pickup truck, wore cowboy boots, and owned a few cowboy hats. All I could think of when he showed up, was at least if the date goes bad, he’s easy on the eyes. After the indoor football game we attended ended, we drove around and talked for a long while. He had asked me about gathering eggs, my response was something along the lines of “sure as long as I get to take my car to the store.” I also found out there wasn’t just one rooster there were five!
Flash forward a few months, I was now watching the chickens run through the yard and taking long walks into the woods to gather sticks for a nighttime bonfire. Maybe it was that I was falling in love with Paul or maybe I was realizing, I’m not the city girl I thought I was. I will never forget one weekend, I was staying over, and his three-year-old daughter was visiting. One of the roosters flapped his wings at her and got aggressive. I decided the bird had to go. I looked at him and said, “I want him gone!” He looked at me and told me he had no idea how to butcher a chicken. That weekend, we bought a book and I learned how to butcher and clean chickens. I look back and find it hard to believe that was so long ago.
I eventually moved in with Paul and we made a home together. For reasons to long to get into, we had to re-home the chickens. Eventually, we ended up getting more birds. I picked out some that I thought were cute and some that would be good egg layers and of course, we had to raise meat birds. Turns out, it’s nice not having to drive my car to the store to get eggs. When Paul finally decided to propose, he used a dozen eggs to pop the question and a man with the last name Chick married us.
We have been married for four years now and have been blessed with another daughter. She is learning what it is to grow up with farm animals in her backyard. It is funny when other children get excited about the animals at a petting zoo. She will politely tell the person running it, that we have most of the animals there at home.
I have turned out to be a bigger farm girl than he could have imagined. We now have over thirty chickens, five ducks, two goats, bunnies, and a bull calf that lives behind our rental house. My hens are like my babies, some of them have names and if it were up to me, would be allowed in the house, after all, Ellie May did it right? We raise the chicks in our basement until they are big enough to go outside with the rest of the gang and fend for themselves. I have taken my goat for a ride in my truck, he got to ride shotgun and I really didn’t seem to mind all of the funny looks I got, once people realized it wasn’t a dog with me.
Yes, this is not what I had planned for my life, however looking back; I would not change it for the world. Well, maybe I would add a few more farm critters.
It was the beginning of April 2008 and I had just visited with my cousin. We had been talking about how I was getting sick of eating out all the time but didn’t want to cook for myself. The next day, she was at work talking to a patient, who was complaining of almost the exact same thing. She decided to play matchmaker and set us up. Turns out, he and I went to school together and just seemed to miss each other, every time our paths should have crossed. She told me who he was and when I went home and looked in my yearbook, I believe my exact words were “Oh hell no! I am not dating Opie Taylor!” I almost did not call him. After a week of debating and deciding what I should do, I broke down and called. He had been out buying his three-year old daughter a fish and was driving home as we talked. Once he got home, I could hear a rooster crowing. My response to the cock a doodle doo, was “please tell me that was not a rooster crowing.” I informed him I was a city girl and I was not really the country girl type. He informed me it was nice talking to me and we almost hung up. After a few more minutes of talking, we set up our first date. I called my cousin to ask her how much of a “redneck” he was. She lied to me and told me he really wasn’t. To my surprise, he drove a big ol’ pickup truck, wore cowboy boots, and owned a few cowboy hats. All I could think of when he showed up, was at least if the date goes bad, he’s easy on the eyes. After the indoor football game we attended ended, we drove around and talked for a long while. He had asked me about gathering eggs, my response was something along the lines of “sure as long as I get to take my car to the store.” I also found out there wasn’t just one rooster there were five!
Flash forward a few months, I was now watching the chickens run through the yard and taking long walks into the woods to gather sticks for a nighttime bonfire. Maybe it was that I was falling in love with Paul or maybe I was realizing, I’m not the city girl I thought I was. I will never forget one weekend, I was staying over, and his three-year-old daughter was visiting. One of the roosters flapped his wings at her and got aggressive. I decided the bird had to go. I looked at him and said, “I want him gone!” He looked at me and told me he had no idea how to butcher a chicken. That weekend, we bought a book and I learned how to butcher and clean chickens. I look back and find it hard to believe that was so long ago.
I eventually moved in with Paul and we made a home together. For reasons to long to get into, we had to re-home the chickens. Eventually, we ended up getting more birds. I picked out some that I thought were cute and some that would be good egg layers and of course, we had to raise meat birds. Turns out, it’s nice not having to drive my car to the store to get eggs. When Paul finally decided to propose, he used a dozen eggs to pop the question and a man with the last name Chick married us.
We have been married for four years now and have been blessed with another daughter. She is learning what it is to grow up with farm animals in her backyard. It is funny when other children get excited about the animals at a petting zoo. She will politely tell the person running it, that we have most of the animals there at home.
I have turned out to be a bigger farm girl than he could have imagined. We now have over thirty chickens, five ducks, two goats, bunnies, and a bull calf that lives behind our rental house. My hens are like my babies, some of them have names and if it were up to me, would be allowed in the house, after all, Ellie May did it right? We raise the chicks in our basement until they are big enough to go outside with the rest of the gang and fend for themselves. I have taken my goat for a ride in my truck, he got to ride shotgun and I really didn’t seem to mind all of the funny looks I got, once people realized it wasn’t a dog with me.
Yes, this is not what I had planned for my life, however looking back; I would not change it for the world. Well, maybe I would add a few more farm critters.