i like to pride myself on having pretty decent taste in music. my husband would tend to disagree with me on this because where we fit together so nicely in many ways, we clash a lot in our taste in music.

he thinks the term "singer-songwriter" is a derogatory one, and i hold it in the highest esteem. he tends to think that a song is "good" only when it "has contrast," which I believe means it starts off softly, has a huge climax that is meant to bring you to tears, and either ends on a high note, or ends softly again). i think that is the mark of a cheesy song.

i've been working on him lately to like my most favorite singer-songwriter, Martin Sexton, and he actually does like a large percentage of his music. likewise, i have learend to really appreciate some good musical theatre; Side Show being among my favorites. and i have to admit that i'm extremely partial to music that kenny writes. i think it pretty much rocks and i wish more people could hear it.

speaking of music that rocks (and i mean this in a different way than how i describe kenny's works), i was a big-hair-band junkie in the 80s. and i find, time to time, that i miss the cheesy big hair band ballads. these ballads could bring you to tears in two verses or less. that's brilliant song-writing. or just a really good formula created by someone who made a bunch of money selling it to big-haired rockers.

yesterday, i was in the car and Ozzy Osbourne's "Road to Nowhere" came on the station that happened to be on in the car. i am slightly embarassed to say that it was an enjoyable listen. it brought me back to memories of the nights listening to the the "top 8 at 8" on B94 in junior high and high school and watching MTV's top ten videos where I'd hope that songs like "Home Sweet Home" (Motley Crue), "Never Say Goodbye" (Bon Jovi), or "Love Bites" (Def Leppard) would be in the top two or three.

i am the first to admit that these songs can border on "cheesy." But who can resist a good passionate 80s ballad sung by men with permed mullets that stay in place by a half a can of aqua net?

i can't wait to unpack my "Styx Greatest Hits" cd just so i can listen to "Babe" or the best song, "Don't Let it End." Unfortunately all my real big hair rocker music was in LP format, and we donated our LPs to the Goodwill (the one in Monroeville on Business 22 if you're interested!). So no listening to Stryper, Cinderella, or Ratt anytime soon (I used to draw the Stryper and Ratt logo on papers during school. Oddly enough, they're quite similar).

If you have big hair bands in your past, please share with me titles of your favorite "monster ballad."

when rowan gets to play on the computer (his favorite is a sesame street counting game hosted by count von count) he tells everyone that he's working. if you walk past him when he's busily counting balloons or sleeping puppies, he tells you, "rowan's working." i love his little hand working the mouse - he's really good at it!
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the boys' fascination with the washer and dryer continue. Really, all I do around here is eat bon-bons while my boys do all my laundry for me!
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for mother's day, kenny (or rowan and sawyer and the baby) bought me Hit by a Farm.

i love the subtitle of this book: "How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn."

despite my desire to live in the country and perhaps even raise animals other than cats and dogs (as a side note: anyone want to adopt two grown cats?) some days, i tend to be a worrier when it comes to country, or farm living.

we don't technically live on a farm. but we could turn our new yard into one if we wanted to. we have a great old barn that could stock some cattle, a few horses and some sheep and goats. we have plenty of land for a few of these animals, and we really, really want to raise chickens.

and i still find something to worry about living out here: what if our well runs out of water? what if our septic system starts to bubble up into our lawn? what if there really are bear that decide to make our land their new home even though it's so totally out of their nature to do something like that? what if a big hawk mistakes one of my children for a rabbit or something?

yes, these are really silly things to worry about. i think this is one of the reasons kenny bought me the book (although he told me he bought it because it came highly recommended by garrison keillor who happens to be one of my favorite authors).

so far, it's a great read. it's written by a woman who never had a desire to live in a small town, let alone become a farmer. but she did it because her partner wanted to farm. that's dedication. i'm learning a lot about farming sheep, chicken, and goats. and growing grapes for wine. although it takes place in minnesota, there is a lot i see in the characters that remind me of kenny and i: like how they absolutely fall in love with chickens. you who live in the city might think i'm a bit crazy for thinking chickens are beautiful and fascinating animals, but i'm finding i'm not the only one.

did you know chickens have belly buttons????? incredible.

When you go and buy a nice, white farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, I very strongly recommend you stay away from renting Capote or reading his "nonfiction novel," In Cold Blood.

It'll really freak you out.

one of the first things i tried to figure out when we moved into this house was which day garbage collection was. when i asked around, i learned that we had to "order collection service," which means that we couldn't just put the garbage bags out for collection the night before the trucks came. nobody would pick it up unless we had a contract with a private hauler.

so i did some internet searches for "_______ county waste management" and found the phone number for the coordinator of waste management. she gave me three phone numbers of private garbage haulers to call and "shop around" before i made my decision. i decided to go with "waste management" (a unique name!) since they were offering the lowest prices.

i learned that a residential home can choose to throw out one, two, three, ten, or an unlimited amount of 30-lb bags per week. i chose the 2-bag-a-week package at $15.95 a month. i was glad to hear they also offered curbside recycling for no additional cost (however, this company doesn't provide recyling bins. i had to get in touch with my township to get the recyling bin). if, by chance, we found one week that we had more than 2 bags of garbage, we'd have to call ahead to let them know how many extra bags we had for them to pick up, and we would be charged $2 per bag.

this is a far cry from the "put any and everything on the curb on a weekly basis and don't worry about cost since we're already paying for it in our taxes" city collection we were used to!

at first i was really annoyed. because it forced me to be conscious about what i was throwing out. the city's collection policy allowed me to be really lazy. i am the first to admit that i threw away a lot that could have been recycled simply because our curbside didn't recycle certain items. i always recycled milk jugs and bottles, but everything else, including paper, went right into the trash.

i'm not annoyed anymore. we have a great new system in place, and i feel as though we're not contributing to the growing landfills. we are recycling everything that can be recycled either curbside or hauling it with us when we visit "the big city of pittsburgh" to construction junction. we will burn the majority of the garbage that can be safely burned in a burn barrel. we've started a composting system and will set up our brand-new earth machine composter this week. and we throw the rest out.

our first week, we hauled several garbage bags to my parents house to be picked up. we had a lot of garbage from the move, and it was ripening quickly.

tonight, we put out two 30-lb bags for pickup tomorrow, but most of it was from bathroom demolition (wallpaper, smalll drywall pieces, leftover materials used for installation, etc). the remainder was basically diapers and food that can't be composted. i'm looking forward to changing our contract to 1-bag-a-week once the system is really underway!

once the garbage collection was figured out, my only job was to figure out where the township building was so i could pick up the recyling bin. our neighbors had no idea what i was talking about because they obviously don't recycle. i made some more phone calls and finally figured out that our township building was only 2 miles from the house. so i drove out and picked up my bin. the township secretary asked me if i just wanted one bin and i asked, "can i get more than one?" her answer: "i don't recycle, so i don't know what the rules are." i've already admitted that i'm not the best recycler, but i've never really "met" anyone who didn't recycle - even milk jugs and glass bottles! i asked for two bins. hopefully our hauler will take the contents of both bins on recycling week.

and hopefully soon, recycling pick-up will be weekly as more people decide more of their garbage can be recycled and composted. (hint, hint).

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rowan has recently discovered that kenny and i aren't just "mama and dada." out of the blue one day, he yelled, "hey, kenny!" but instead of what we probably should have done as responsible, teaching parents in correcting him...we laughed. which prompted him then to say, "liz!" again, more laughter and even less responsible parenting.

since he was a day old, we've been calling rowan "monkey." it's just a nickname that fit from the beginning. recently in the car, he was waiting for an upcoming green light to change yellow (one of his current favorite games) and it didn't change yellow until we had driven through it, so i apologized to him, "sorry monkey! maybe the next light!" usually he repeats what i say: "sorry monkey...next light!" but this time, there was silence. a minute later he said, "mama, i'm not a monkey. i'm a boy." i never told him that. he deduced it on his own.

am i always going to be amazed at what and how quickly my kids will learn?

i guess irresponsible parenting doesn't always influence a child's ability to learn. although he does call us by our first names at least twice a day.

the house is finally beginning to take shape. except for all the now half-empty boxes everywhere, and our bedroom is nowhere near ready to welcome an infant into, we're definitely getting there!

i am trying to put together a blog post in my mind of things that are different out here than to living in the city. of course there are the obvious things, but there are also not-so-obvious things (like how many phone calls you have to make to figure out who will pick up your garbage!).

it's been two full weeks that we've been sleeping here (except for the one night this past weekend we slept in the "city" at my parents' house) and we find that we sleep much better now. it's much darker and much more quiet here than in our pittsburgh house. we did live on a corner and our bedroom window was a scant 40 feet from the street lamp that lit up our room all night long. we had to install a night light in the hallway here just to be able to make our way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. it's a welcome change...this darkness and quiet.

finally, a few images from our moving-in week...

our "for sale" sign.
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the boys loved the futon mattress on the floor in the living room (that had been stored for months and months under our bed) that we never put away after my brother and his wife stayed with us. they also enjoyed all their last meals in our old house on the living room floor after we gave away our old table and chairs.
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they loved the moving truck...all that dancing room!
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some "during" pictures of the bathroom. the first picture is of the bulkhead that we got rid of, and the second is the demo of the wood paneling and wallpaper surrounding the tub. for a while, the tub stays - these types of tubs are far too much work to get rid of!
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