On the road to Connecticut by way of Yonkers

I'm sitting at a McDonald's in Woodstock, VA listening to the sounds of two of my grandchildren playing with their mom in the play area. It's around 8pm and we're really far behind on the schedule that we had set for the day. My daughter, Zipporah, and I are on our way up to see my mom in CT. I only get to see her once a year, and I try to plan the trip to spend her birthday with her. Normally I do the 12 hour (one way) drive by myself, but this time I'm blessed to have one of my children and two grandchildren with me.

We're hauling a heavy load, including a bunch of stuff strapped to the roof of my overburdened Kia Sephia. We left Roanoke at 4pm and had to stop three times because of the roof load. Finally gave in and bought a couple big ratchet straps and now the load is fine. Kia Sephias are not meant to have stuff strapped on top...hence no built in luggage racks. I snagged the one bar from on top of Troy's truck and stuck it on top of my car. Everything's lashed to it.

Our destination tonight is Aleena and Ali's in Yonkers...an 8 hour, 400-ish mile drive. We've done only 140 or so miles of that. Still a looong drive yet. The kids have been good, and since the roof issue has been fixed it's been an enjoyable ride.

We'll be posting more soon. We've got lots of stuff on the itinerary including a sunset stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge.

A Short Update

Don't laugh, it will be short! I haven't posted anything since January so I want to give a quick rundown on What's Up With The Birds...

Troy is running for House of Delegates in Virginia's District 11 (Roanoke City & the City of Vinton).

Rachael completed her CNA training and is awaiting her State Boards this month.

Jed's working for the US Census Bureau.

Zipporah's first real music video, "No, No, No," was completed a couple months ago. You can find it on YouTube by searching for "Zipporah Bird music video".

I'm preparing for my next mission trip to Uganda July 28-August 17, 2009.

All five of my grandbabies are wonderful and a blessing.

South of Sanity plays at Icthus Fest in Kentucky on June 13th, 2009 and will be in a big Battle of the Bands in Knoxville, TN the last week of May.

More later!

Special Olympics Benefit

Well, I don't have much time, but I wanted to write a short (I hear you laughing, stop that! LOL!!!) post about the Special Olympics Benefit Concert that I attended on August 30th. The band that my daughter, Zipporah Bird, sings with, Ryze, performed for the 3 hours in Covington, VA and most of the proceeds went to help sponsor the Special Olympics athletes in that area.



I had the opportunity to go with them and take some photographs and home video (surprise, surprise!) So I wanted to share one of the videos with you.



It was a great concert, and I danced for almost 2 hours with one of the Special Olympics athletes named Jimmy. Outside of dancing during Praise and Worship at church, I hadn't danced in 26 years, so it was a lot of fun.



I want to encourage everyone to check out the Special Olympics group in your area and help support these very special athletes!