Tales From the Farm, Part 4: In the Name of Love and Popularity

Well folks, this is it. The last edition of Tales From the Farm. I'm sure you're really disappointed about that ;-) I had fully intended to write about my childhood dog, Pip, in this one....but then I changed my mind and decided to write about some of the unique "challenges" one has to deal with on the farm. Since I'm not writing about Pip, you'll just have to trust me that Pip was A LEGEND. By now, you understand how much crazy went down on our farm. But Pip really upped the ante. I'm sure he's up in canine heaven right now with his wet, stinky, muddy fur, chasing down happy, squealing children and "love-mauling" them. Quite a specimen. Moving on....

In childhood, growing up on a farm is just flat-out fun. I've stated this multiple times. But, as a teenager, things start to get a little tricky. You realize that most other kids didn't grow up like you did and there are times when you feel kind of like a weirdo (which, in my case, is completely accurate). Although I can look back now and get a good laugh at some of the situations I found myself in as a teenager, back then it just wasn't funny....AT. ALL. Allow me to illustrate...

I think it was the summer after my freshman year of high school...so I would have been 15. A girlfriend of mine (my age) and a guy friend of ours (a couple of years older and therefore much cooler) were coming over to pick me up to go to a movie or something. I decided to sit out on our screened-in porch to wait for them. After just a few seconds, I noticed a HORRIFIC stench. I immediately knew it was a dead animal (a well-honed skill from growing up on the farm....impressive, I know) but could not figure out where it was coming from. I went outside and walked around the perimeter of the house, but I didn't see anything. When I went back inside the porch area, however, the smell was noticeably stronger. So, I started looking under and behind all the furniture on the porch but didn't see anything....until I got to a little storage bench that doubled as a seat. There was a suspicious-looking, wadded-up cloth sitting on top of it and it appeared to be moving. When I got up close, I noticed there tiny, white worms crawling on top of it. Some people call those maggots.

I immediately starting freaking out not only because there were maggots....MAGGOTS on our porch, but my friends were going to be there any second and believe me, it was going to be a frosty day in Hades before I was going to let them witness that. I didn't bother to look at what was in the cloth because there was NO WAY I was going to get that close to the maggots. I just needed to get it out of there ASAP. My parents weren't home and my brother was out running around in the woods somewhere with a friend of his, so I was on my own. I decided the only way to get the dead animal off the porch without getting maggots on myself was to drag the entire piece of furniture to the dumpster that was about a tenth of a mile away. And I had to do it FAST.

So, I put on some oven mitts to ensure my skin would never make contact with the maggots and I dragged that bench all the way to the dumpster. Then I ran back to the house as fast as I could to spray air freshener on the porch and perfume on myself. And when my friends showed up, I high-tailed it out to the car before they could even get out. Crisis averted. Barely. Later that night, when I was explaining to my family why the bench was missing, my brother said "Oh yeah, that was a bird that Joey and I shot with my BB gun. I forgot I put it there, sorry." How one forgets where they left their dead animal is beyond me, but then again...I'm not an 11 year old boy.

A few short years later, I met the love of my life (yes, Greg) during the second semester of my sophomore year of college. After the semester ended, I moved back to my mom and dad's house for the summer. Greg lived about an hour away, so we were still able to hang out over the summer. One evening, he was coming over to my mom and dad's house for the first time so I was making sure the house was spotless and that everything looked "normal". After all, we were in a very delicate stage of our relationship. We had been dating for about 6 months, so he knew a lot about me and where/how I grew up, but he hadn't yet experienced the true "crazy" of the farm. Just when I thought the house was acceptable for Greg's viewing, I remembered it.....Kyle the Pig.

Kyle was a concrete statue of a pig that was there to greet visitors at the front door. I could elaborate on why we had such a thing, but really, what's the point? I hated that thing. And don't ask why we named it Kyle, because I have no idea. I begged my parents to move Kyle into the barn so Greg wouldn't see it, but they refused. So I said "Fine, I'll move it myself." They kind of snickered and said "Go ahead", knowing I wouldn't be able to since it was concrete and all. But, folks, where there's a will there's a way. I ROLLED that concrete pig across the yard, all the way to the back of the barn where it couldn't be seen. I was not going to allow my love life to be jeopardized by a concrete pig. End of story. Yes, eventually, Greg was introduced to Kyle and now, after almost 13 years of marriage, he is fully aware of ALL THE CRAZY. I would even say it has rubbed off on him a bit. God bless him.

I have several other stories like these, but the time has come for Tales from the Farm to mosey off into the sunset. It has been fun for me to share these stories with you. I was very blessed to have the childhood I did. And it has been nice to go back there for a while. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did :-)

Have a great week!

Brooke

One Mother of a Weekend

Hey there! Hope all you moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend! Mine was so much fun!! We had beautiful weather all weekend, so we spent most of it outside. Ben was on cloud nine to have both mommy AND daddy playing outside with him at the same time.

On Saturday, we walked to our neighborhood park and spent an hour or so. Then, we came home and Greg did some yard work while Ben "helped". This is code for: Ben put on Greg's gardening gloves and played in the mulch with some digging tools.....and then kept trying to run into the water from the hose when Greg was watering the plants.

Then we brought out the water table which always provides endless entertainment (thanks Gigi and Grampy)....

We decided to have my Mother's Day meal on Saturday night since we knew everything on Sunday would be a mad house. We decided on Chili's (of course). Very delish. Then, I went for an evening run and was quickly reminded that running in 50-something degree weather and 80-something degree weather are NOT the same. I was drenched! But, a run is a run and it felt good!

On Sunday we went back to the park, only we decided to go to a different park that required us to bike there. I have the bike trailer on my bike since I'm the one who uses it with Ben during the day in the spring/summer months. Greg always feels embarrassed when we bike somewhere as a family and I'm the one pulling Ben in the trailer, but it's a hassle to keep changing it back and forth. He got over it real quick when we went out and there were close to 30 mph winds with gusts close to 40. UGH!! The bike trailer acts like parachute of sorts because the front is mesh. Not pleasant. But we had a GREAT time at the park, so it was worth it :-)

Ben and Daddy swinging....

Cooperating with Mom and taking a break to pose for a pic...

Daddy and Ben.....

Going down the twisty "big boy" slide....

Ben growing increasing annoyed with pictures.....

Playing in the tunnel....

It was such a fun weekend. I can't even begin to tell you how blessed I feel to be Ben's mom. And how blessed I am to have such a wonderful mom myself!! AND how blessed I am to have such a loving husband who made sure I had a special Mother's Day!! God is good!!

Here are just a couple more pics of the fun Ben and I have during the day. This first one was a morning where we were just taking a bunch of silly pics. I kept making faces in the pictures and when I would show them to Ben, he would CRACK UP!! I love this one because of his great smile...

And this one was taken after Ben insisted that I wear this "hat" (not really a hat, obviously, but he thinks it is....it's actually a neck massager..) and his spider-man sunglasses. He always gets a kick out of this...

Have a great week everyone! I think I'll be doing my fourth and final installment of "Tales From the Farm" soon. Then I'll have to start thinking of a different fun "series" to do. I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat ;-)

Love,

Brooke

Change... Just not the kind I was expecting.....

Hey all! Hope you're having a wonderful Saturday!!

First of all, I have to talk briefly about my trip to NYC with my best college girlfriends. It was fantastic. I've never been to NYC before and expected to be a little intimidated since it's the biggest city in the U.S. and all, but when I got there, I felt quite comfortable. And after all the sight-seeing we did, I would even go so far as to say I loved it and would totally live there for a couple of years if I could go back in time and do it B.C. (before child). Of course, there's the fact that I would probably have to tie Greg up to get him there and sedate him so he would be unaware of his surroundings for a couple of years. Oh, and I'd also have to be rich because I would prefer to live in Greenwich Village and eat out nightly at the magnificent restaurants they have all over the city. Ummm, and I'd also have to make sure I had proper transportation because me no likey the subway. But other than that, I could TOTALLY live in New York. Did I mention I had a good time? :-) It's actually impossible NOT to have a good time with those girls. Love them. Here are a couple of pics taken at the top of the Empire State Building:

Erin and I....

Emilie and I....

Next topic......change. And this is going to get a little heavy, so be forewarned. If you're looking for a light-hearted, humorous post...you might want to skip this one. It seems like there are two kinds of people in this world: those who are averse to change and those who are addicted to it. I am in the camp of the latter. I love change. I get bored without it. After going through several moves as a result of Greg's job that has taken us literally from one coast to the other and a couple of states in between, I've grown to rely on change. When things become lackluster; when I start to get that uncomfortable itch to just pack up and run....change is there to take my hand and lead me to the next shiny, new destination where a fresh start awaits. Our moves have kept us in one location for only 2 to 3 years tops. Just long enough to start to get the itch. That is, until now. We've been in Lincoln, NE for just over 4 years now and I'm feeling it. Big time.

It's not that I don't love Lincoln because, surprisingly, I do. Greg and I both do. But that pesky "change bug" has gotten the best of me over the last year or so. And I've kind of allowed it to keep me from living life. You see, a few months after Ben joined our family, I started to build this "perfect world" in my mind where we would move back to Bloomington, IL......where many of our family and friends either reside or live within a 75 mile radius of. I envisioned get-togethers with family and friends, play-dates, driving down to my parents house in the middle of the week just to have lunch and chat, having many available baby-sitters ;-) And just when this perfect scenario seemed to be the only thing that would allow me to be "happy", Greg got an interview....in Bloomington. The timing was perfect. I thought, "this has God's hands all over it!". And I knew he would get the job. Except that he didn't. We were both disappointed, but hoped and prayed that another opportunity would present itself. In the meantime, I have been pouring over real estate sites and day-dreaming about the day we will move there and all the fun that will be had.

In recent days, however, I have become bombarded with messages about "living in the present". The message has come through the radio, on blogs I follow, in a daily devotional I read, on T.V. Seriously...it has become a little much. Only now do I finally realize I've been ignoring all the gifts God has given me and, instead, focusing all my time and energy on my idea of what life "should" be. Ignoring that I have our God-given family of three, this beautiful home we live in, this lovely community we are a part of, the fact that I GET to stay home and raise our son, this beautiful LIFE that God has blessed me with. I have stopped living life in the present and opted to resume living again when I get my perfect world scenario. Oh, yeah, I need change. Just not the kind I was hoping for. The change needs to happen in my heart...in my perspective. I am blessed with more than any one person should have. And it's time I started embracing it. Whew, it's nice to say that!

I decided to write about this because I think it's something we all do from time to time. We get it in our heads that we NEED a certain circumstance, or material object or what have you to be happy. And in doing this, we miss out on life. God-given life filled with precious moments we won't ever get back. Let's stop cheating ourselves. We were created to live an abundant life. To slow down and enjoy each moment as it happens. So let's do it!! Who's with me??

Hope you all have a great, fun-filled weekend! And don't worry....my next post will return to it's regularly-scheduled light-heartedness :-)

Brooke