Honesty Is The Best Policy...

Merisa and I were hovered around the computer viewing some recent pictures.  Images of beloved children, fluffy bunnies, and roaming chickens filled the screen.  Yep, that's right!  Chickens.

As we were gazing like star-struck fans, I pointed out the beautiful images she had captured for an upcoming project.  I was quite proud of her take on things. A whole new perspective of life on the farm. 

I thought she was relishing on my every word...impressed by my vast amount of knowledge.  Who wouldn't want to hear what I was saying?  

Suddenly, she broke her silence and made it known that she had found a grey hair on my head!  I told her that I do NOT have grey hair, and it was merely a reflection caused by the light in the room.

Not convinced, she continued in all seriousness...

"How exactly do you GROW a grey hair?"

With a lot of talent, my dear.  Pure talent!

Oh, how I wish I knew the answer to her question 'cause it seems like someone is pouring Miracle Grow all over my head!  

A Special Birth Day...

As our daughter approaches her NINTH birthday, I took a moment to reflect on that special day.

First of all, I would also like to ask...Where has the time gone?  There was a point in my life when it seemed to take FOREVER to get through a week.  A time when I thought I wouldn't make it through my entire Physiology class without dozing off into a deep slumber.  Now look...my baby girl is turning NINE!  Gasp...sob...sob...whimper...gasp!  Anyway...

Almost nine years ago, a beautiful little girl made me a Mommy and my husband a Daddy.  It was a wonderful day filled with anticipation and anxiety.  I couldn't wait to meet the being that had taken over my body...quite literally! 

See, this little girl wasn't exactly "little" at birth!  She tipped the scales well over the 9 pound mark! When she was born, the doctor called it like he saw it "Look at the size of this baby!  She's big enough to walk!" No wonder it was almost unbearable to stand upright or put on my own shoes...let alone tie them!  And this, people, is why flip-flops were invented.

She was whisked away shortly after birth and the rest of the day was a big blur.  I've yet to decide if my grogginess was due to medication or lack of sleep.  Who knows?

I do know that she was calm and easy-going.  Nothing much phased her.  However, she did have one little request.  See that tiny pink hat she's donning in the pictures above?  She was quite attached to that hat.  Every time we took it off or it just plain fell off she would scream.  Guessing she needed to feel completely smashed in order to feel safe and secure...kind of like how she was prior to this day.

Needless to say, we were thrilled by her arrival!  From that moment on, she was Daddy's girl. We became parents for the first time, which was beyond scary!  It was difficult to believe that people entrusted us to take care of this tiny, helpless, sweet being!  What were they thinking?  I didn't know how to take of an infant nor did I anticipate how many dirty diapers a little human would make in the first week of life! 

Merisa, you are a true blessing!  A beautiful gift from God that is growing up way too quickly! 

We love you each and every day.  You'll always be our baby girl!

I'll leave you with a comment that our birthday girl made the other day...

We were discussing a rabbit and how she was a first time mom.  Gasp!  Those were words I didn't expect to here from my 8-year old!

Merisa said the rabbit didn't know how to take care of her babies.

I told her animals have instincts, and they know how to be a mom.

She continued on explaining things to me and finished her statement in all seriousness with...

"Remember when you had me...you were a first time mom.  YOU HAD NO IDEA WHAT YOU WERE DOING."

Touché, my dear!  TOUCHÉ!

*This girl is always one step ahead of me!

Silent Sunday...

This is a post with no text (okay, just this little blurb since I have a hard time being completely silent!).  I'll let the picture do the talking.

Thoughts For Thursday...

Random comments made by the kiddos...

1.      Merisa and I were talking about when she was born. She said "Wouldn't it be awesome if I was born in 1996? Then, on my real birthday I'd be older than I am now." (I so hope you followed the Merisa logic.) She was upset about being born in the new century. She suddenly became perplexed...then, excited! She shouted…

"I'm so GLAD I wasn't born in the 1900's!"

 Let that one sink in for a moment!

Guess I never thought about the change of the century intensifying the whole age thing! Kids really know how to make someone feel really OLD!

2.      I feel like we're getting a severe case of cabin fever around here! It usually hits me about this time every year. However, it's a bit worse than normal since this is my second winter of being a SAHM. I mean, I'm glad I get to spend so much time with my kids...I wouldn't trade it for anything...but we're running out of things to do. And that's not good when you have a very busy toddler and a squirmy little baby.

Then, I thought that it's probably just me. These kids are fine with being stuck indoors...right? Maybe not.  As we turned into our driveway on our way home from town, Logan busted out of silence and screamed...

"NO HOUSE, MOMMY!!! NO HOUSE! GO, MOMMY! NO HOUSE!"

Guess he's sick of being here, too!

3.      For Valentine's day, Merisa made me a card. It was very sweet and even included a drawing from every kid. How she got the boys to cooperate is beyond me. I'm sure Levi was all "You're putting a small object in my hand. I MUST eat it! I MUST!"

And Logan doesn't think he should EVER do anything on cue. This boy does NOT like being put in the spotlight...can't imagine who he got that from?! Needless to say, I was quite impressed with Merisa's abilities to accomplish this thoughtful gift. Here's the envelope...

Then...I opened the envelope to find this....

Follow by this....

Have I ever mentioned how that girl kills me?! She's just so clever...and honest!

Now You're In The Know...

1)  I turned on my camera in order to find a pretty picture for the blog, and this is what I found instead...

Oh, that girl!  There's always a surprise around every corner!

2)  I went to the store to pick up my pictures that I had printed.  The lady behind the counter asked me if I had copyright permission to print the pictures.  She wanted some sort of proof that I had the rights to the pictures.

I was a bit confused and said I took them myself.

She was like...uhhh, ohhh! We thought you stole them!

I laughed and told her thanks for the compliment! =)

3)  When we decided to take the plunge and move to Crazyville Farms, we inherited this beautiful koi pond complete with a cascading waterfall and live fish!   I know...just another thing destined to parish! It's been a challenge trying to keep Logan from swimming with the "doggies!" (Despite the constant "No, they're FISH," he still refers to them as "doggies.") 

So I was feeling bad for the fish since I knew there were leaves floating in the bottom of the pond.  It was extremely cold out, but I wanted to give them the best chance of survival seeing how decomposing leaves and ice aren't a good recipe for fish during the winter.  So here I was doing my good deed for the day week year...cleaning out the pond while the temperature was barely above freezing.  And guess what happens...

I fell completely into the pond! 

I was soaked!  My shoes were holding at least a gallon of water.  And not to mention, I was frozen... solid!  Really! All this time we were worried that Logan would fall into the watery abyss, but no...it was ME! 

4)  Levi's in the rolling over phase. Ya know...

OH, LOOK MOMMY!  LOOK WHAT I CAN DO ALL BY MYSELF! I CAN DO A REALLY COOL TRICK! ISN'T IT AMAZING?!

Followed by...

WHAT EVIL PERSON PUT ME ON MY BELLY?! I CAN'T MOVE! I CAN'T BREATHE! I'M STUCK!  I'M GOING INTO FULL PANIC MODE!  DON'T LEAVE ME HERE!  WOMAN...HELP ME NOW!

All of five seconds pass, and I return him to his back...only to repeat the said process over and over again for the next 24 hours! Silly boy!

5) I've been meaning to mention that you may want to bookmark this page or you can even "join" the blog by clicking "Join This Site", which is found on the right side of this blog.  That is, if you're an avid reader and can't live a moment without knowing what's going on around here!  For you might be sadden if you can't find our blog anymore! 

Yep, I had that problem.  See, I read certain blogs every morning.  And before I joined sites and/or bookmarked pages, I made the mistake of cleaning my computer.  Got up the next morning, and was all like...WHERE ARE MY BLOGS?!  I DON'T KNOW WHERE THEY WENT!  WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT MY DAILY GOSSIP!  I CAN'T FUNCTION!  It was a sad day, but then I learned to bookmark! 

But really, I know some of you link to the blog from Facebook, and, though, I don't foresee any future problems, you just never know when the links will stop showing up in your FB feeds.  So if you really want to, you can add crazyvillefarms.blogspot.com to your favorites (or join the site) and check back every once and awhile. I'm trying to keep it updated on a regular basis.  And I'd hate for you to miss out on anything! =)

Random Thoughts

So I tend to have these random thoughts on things I should blog, but then decide that there is no way it would be long enough. Ya know, the story would be short and seem pointless.  So I decided to compile a few thoughts together in one post in order to make it a little more blog worthy. Although, I hope I don't ramble too much for I would hate to write a long and boring story! =)  Oh, too bad...it's my blog, and I'll write if I want to...You would write, too, if it happened to you.  (I'm guessing this song is now stuck in your head.  Hope so, cause I'm pretty certain I'll be singing it all day only to hear my daughter say "please do us all a favor and find a new song!")

Sorry, back to my main point(s) appearing in no particular order...

1)  Merisa asked me if she could have some ice cream.  I said sure.  Then, she asked if she could just eat it out of the container.  I asked her why (I've got to stop doing that!).  With pure disgust, she pointed out the obvious by stating...

Since you're having troubles keeping on top of the dishes,
I'm sure there isn't any clean bowls! 

Of course, she just volunteered to be the new dish washer.  Wasn't that so nice of her?! =)

2)  As Christmas nears, the thought of decorating the house with thousands of lights flows through my head.  Every year I wait in anticipation.  I LOVE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!  Let's just say that it's my dream to give Clark Griswold a run for his money.  In case you've forgotten, I'm referring to Chevy Chase's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation!  Oh, yes, one day I will put up enough lights that aliens in outer-space can see our house with ease.  Granted, it annoys my husband, but I enjoy the little bit of tackiness.  So what if you have to pull down the shades in order to sleep at night or start your day at 3:00 am because you think the sun is up...I. LOVE. CHRISTMAS. LIGHTS!  Did I mention that?  So the many boxes of Christmas decorations will be coming down from the attic.  Each strand will be tested to ensure there aren't any problems.  Numerous electrical cords will be stretched across the yard.  And I will spend hours climbing the ladder, attaching the lights, connecting cords...only to figure out that I ran everything in the wrong direction so nothing connects right, and it must be reversed.  Yep, it never fails.  I make things a lot harder than they should be!  Oh, well!  As we say around here, it looks like Christmas puked on our house!  Love it! =)

3)  Speaking of movies, I hope you all have had the privilege of watching A Christmas Story.  Ya know, the "you'll shoot your eye out" movie!  LOOOOOVE IT!  In the story, the little boy is double-dog dared to stick his tongue to the freezing pole.  No one can turn down a double-dog dare, right?  Anyway, a few years ago, kids were waiting for the bus outside of our house.  I didn't pay much attention until I saw a few kids scurrying around looking a bit panicked.  Next thing I knew there was an adult (or two?) running to the bus stop.  I'll spare the details, but let's just say a certain little boy (and no, he didn't belong to me although I'm sure one of mine WILL be testing this theory in the near future!) managed to stick his tongue to the pole only to get it stuck!  I think it shocked everyone...kids and adults, alike.  Maybe I should think twice before letting my dare-devil son watch this movie!  (And I hope it's okay that I shared this story seeing how I left out the names!)  =)

4)  Lastly, thanks for all of the wonderful comments about my blog.  I can't believe how many are actually reading this! I feel like the pressure's on now, but thanks so much for the compliments!

Go Ahead and Cry...

Whenever I lay Levi down, he begins to cry.  I should mention that this little boy wants nothing but all of your undivided attention.  Who cares if it's impossible to wash the dishes with one hand or make supper for the other two children or even, heaven forbid, use the bathroom?!  This little one knows he is irresistibly cute...why would you want to do anything else but hold him? 

So maybe I've contributed to this seeing how he slept next to me in the hospital bed EVERY night.  It's not like I actually had the chance to sleep anyway...ya know, as many times as they came in to take vitals, give pain meds, and push on your already extremely painful belly.  And whose idea was it anyway....let's check to make sure your baby-making-organ is shrinking by pushing around on your abdomen until you can no longer take the severe amount of pain...and cry UNCLE!  Yes, having a c-section doesn't really help.  It's like some form of torture that I've seen Jack Bauer perform on the terrorists. SERIOUSLY!  (And if you haven't watched the show 24, I highly recommend it.) The best part is when you finally think you can take no more, they leave the room and say "get some sleep!"  Really?  I need more pain meds now, and besides, you'll be back to test my endurance in an hour or two.  Okay, I really do respect the medical field and all that they do (it is my love), but it's hard sometimes being the patient. 

So while in the hospital, my sweet baby slept beside me.  Who wants to put their precious little newborn in one of those cold, clear bassinets...or whatever they're called!  And maybe, just maybe, I knew he's my last so he's just a bit on the spoiled side.  Oh, no, I would never do that! =)

Back to my main point.  Little Levi started crying as I placed him on the floor.  I just needed to cut up Logan's food, but guess that wasn't important to him.  So Merisa came over to console her baby brother.  He LOVES it when someone talks to him...he doesn't care what you're saying as long as you say it with a smile.  (Oh, remind me...I must blog about this concept.  Another one of Merisa's great moments!)  Anyway, Levi looked up at his big sister wondering what beautiful sounds she'll make.  I listened in on her sweet conversation only to hear...

"Levi, you can cry all you want.  Just do it in your head so that I don't have to hear it!" 

Priceless! =)

Are You My Mother?

My morning routine consists of getting Merisa ready for school...which can be quite the task as time is not her friend!  This morning right before she walked out the door (or so I thought), I went upstairs and grabbed one sleeping kid.  The idea crept through my mind...what would happen if I left the house without one of the boys?  Would they wake up?  Would they panic? Or would they simply sleep through it all? (My guess is that a tornado would strike unexpectedly.  Tear down our house and carry our babies all the way to Maine...but that's just my thought!)

Anyway, I carried him down the hall, down the stairs, and finally into the van.  Next, I climbed the stairs yet again to grab another sleeping child.  Already exhausted, I kept on task by walking down the hall, down the stairs, and finally ended my long journey by loading the last sleeping child into the van.  This can be quite the chore as I swear it's over a mile between the garage and the boys' bedroom.  No joke!  And I have to do that twice every morning! I always worry about leaving the house without one of the kids (refer to older posts), but somehow everyone makes it into the van...

Or so it's been said.  I closed all the doors, started the van, opened the garage door, and backed out of the garage.  As I drove away, I looked back to make sure the garage door was closing.  And to my wonder, who do I see standing in the garage...MERISA, of course!  Really?!  How is this possible?  The one kid who I thought was getting into the van BEFORE I started loading up the boys.  The one kid who is always telling me "mommy, you forgot to buckle the baby!"  The one kid who tells me that I never made supper for anyone.  Really?  How did I leave the house without HER?!  And I was on the way to her school.  So what would've happened had I driven down the road without her?  My guess is that I would've received a call on my cell.  Wondered who in the world would be calling me so early in the morning.  And then to my astonishment, hear my little girl's voice on the phone saying "Are YOU really my mother?"  Why yes, despite all things logical...yes, I am! =)

When I got home after my eventful morning, I looked over Merisa's school papers from the day before (oh, I really despise ending a sentence with a preposition so I've added this statement to avoid that situation!).  Anyway, I found her spelling test...A+, of course!  The girl CAN spell.  She doesn't get that from me.  Then, I read the teacher's comment followed by hers...

Oh, Merisa!  =)  These teachers' kids.  They think they're SO smart!

Love and Marriage...

Earlier last week, Merisa started the day by asking which finger is your "wedding ring finger".  So I told her and watched her as she turned away to put a ring on her "wedding ring finger".  I said not to show her dad because he wouldn't like that!  In his eyes, she will never be old enough to date...let alone marry!  Shh...don't tell him that she's already eight!

So later that night, she decided she was going to marry daddy.  Then, she realized she couldn't since I'm already married to him...oh, shucks!  (It cracks me up how every little kid wants to marry their parents.  Especially knowing that is the last thing from their mind when they're teenagers.  Heck, most don't even want to be seen in public with their parents...let alone "marry" them!)  Anyway, Merisa decided she'd marry one of her brothers.  She said she'll marry Levi , but definitely NOT Logan!  Being six years apart and having completely different personalities doesn't really help in the "brotherly-sisterly love" department.  I asked her why not Logan, and she proclaimed...

"because he's NOT. MY. SPECIES!" 

Guess we better explain to her that he is human, too! :)

I'll leave you with a picture of her as a flower girl.  I think it was one of her highlights of the summer.  Oh, maybe getting a new baby brother was pretty important, too! :)

*Disclaimer...This photo needs cropped, but I can't figure out how to do that on this blog, and my Photoshop is gone.  Guess that's what happens when you download a 30-day free trial...after 30-days, you can't access the program anymore!  I was just hoping they wouldn't notice!! :)

Green Acres is the place for me...

Ha, Ha!  If you know me at all, you're probably laughing so hard that you fell out of your chair!  I'm not exactly the farm type, and yet, here I sit...living on the farm! 

So every day is a new experience for me.  Things I never experienced before in my life nor did I ever think I ever would.  I'm sure my husband never thought people like me really existed, but here I am! We are the real-life version of "Green Acres". (And if you don't know that show, then I'm even older than I thought I was!)

So this morning, I find my daughter on the porch like this...

Yep, she's holding her new favorite chicken...Sweetie.  She named it today (I guess "it" is really a "her").  It's hard to notice in the picture, but she is also wearing overalls!  She LOVES overalls...and chickens!  I never thought I'd have a farm-loving, overall-wearing daughter.  Where's that girly-girly I always thought I'd have?  ;)

And Logan isn't helping the cause either.  Not only does he love the chickens, he LOVES tractors!  The word "loves" is an understatement, too.  He is so obsessed with tractors.  His tractors are always lined-up across our living room floor.  And DO NOT touch them!  He'll have a total breakdown if you do! 

So the other day, Matt took him for a ride on a REAL tractor...not a lawnmower...which in my book is a "real tractor!"  Let's just say the boy was in awe.  I'm surprised he got off the tractor so easily and without any meltdowns.  I think Matt's opened a can of worms, though...that's all Logan wants to do anymore...ride on daddy's tractor!

Nonetheless...my kids love the farm life.  Who would've thought my kids would be farm kids?! ;)  Oh, did I mention that the chickens scare me to death....that's another story (cause I'm pretty sure they HATE me!).

"Literal Merisa"...

I must say that Merisa is our "literal" child.  Everything she says or does is to the point and literal.  The girl out-smarts us all of the time!  As parents, we tend to think we're smarter (or at least we know better) than our children.  Well, this little girl trumps us all!  No joke! 

Here are a few of our conversations that resulted in us smirking and saying once again "she knows more than us!"

1) We were talking about Logan being easier to watch (at least when we're busy with yard work, etc.) next summer because he wouldn't need as much supervision.  We wouldn't have to worry as much about him getting hurt, running in to the road, etc.  The key word here is "supervision".  She pipes up and yells "That's not FAIR!"  We said "What's not fair?"  She continues by saying "It's not fair that Logan will have SUPER VISION, and I won't!"  It took us a minute, but then we were rolling in laughter!  She didn't see the humor, but she was quite upset that Logan would have a super-power and she wouldn't! 

2) The night before school started we told Merisa she needed to go to bed early so she didn't get a tardy or miss school the next day.  Last year, she went the whole year without getting sick or missing school (except for a small hiccup at the end of the year...another story).  So her goal was to have perfect attendance again this year!  Great goal, but definitely not something I ever achieved!  Heck, I don't think I went a grading period without missing a day...anyway...back to Merisa. :)  We were talking about her getting perfect attendance, and she said she knew how she'd get a perfect record.  We, not thinking about the obvious, asked her how.  She, then, stated that she'd never go to school this year, and she'd have a "perfect record"!  It'd be perfect attendance for never making it to school!  Of course, she's right...just too smart for her own good!

3) One day, Merisa was being bossy to Logan.  She ordered him to stop kicking her.  Now you must know that at the time he was only 8 or 9 months old!  I told her that   he doesn't understand what he's doing so don't get mad at him.  She piped up and said that he's smart and should know better.  I agreed and said he's smart, but then asked her why she thought he was so smart.  (should have seen this one coming...)  She said all babies are smart.  People are the smartest they'll ever be when they're babies, and they just get "stupider" as they get older. I asked her why she thought that.  She continued by saying "Well, just look at all of the stupid things teenagers do!"  Yep, she's right...we do get "stupider" as we get older!  She's A LOT smarter than me!!!

I could go on forever about her reasonings and comments, but I'll save them for later!  Bill Cosby really needs to talk to her!!