Birthday Blues

This is the worst time of year for me. In 11 days my birthday arrives and with it comes my usual birthday depression. I don't know what it is about my birthday that brings this on, but I seriously get depressed. Maybe I'm expecting a birthday with surprises and fun and always over expect what should happen. So this year I'm going to try and change it. There are many bloggers out there that do a Thursday Thirteen and in the spirit of that theme I'm going to give you 13 great things about my life:

1. I have the greatest wife ever, never have I felt so loved
2. There are five wonderful children in my family
3. I have successfully achieved two college degrees (a first in my family) and have applied those degrees in my career
4. I have been asked if I would coach Soccer again next season
5. I have a stable job that I like and supports my family so my wife can be a stay at home mom
6. I have learned to do things I never thought I would, like change an alternator, build cabinets and an adirondack chair
7. I have taken golf lessons that have tremendously improved my game
8. I'm still a Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres fan (yes you can groan if you want)
9. I had a great childhood growing up on 8 1/2 acres in Western New York
10. I can fluently speak Spanish due to my mission to Chile from 1989 to 1991
11. I have read and understand some of the underlying themes in the Dune series by Frank Herbert
12. I live in the greatest nation in the world no matter who wins the election
13. I could still go from dawn to dusk watching sports and never get tired of it

So there you have it, thirteen reasons why my life is not so bad. I think that I will be reviewing this list often over the next 11 days to keep my spirits up.