Spring Adventures

Its been a busy few months around these parts. We've been to a baseball game, visited Chicago, we've been on a camping trip, and last night Jack filled up his little pool, for a pool party.

That's Jack being a Turtle at the Chicago Childrens' Museum.

We're spending the summer trying to cram in as much fun, and seeing as many things around these parts as we can, before we move. Oh, not sure I've said anything on here, but we have verbal orders ( nothing is set in stone till we get the paper ones, sometime in the next few months.) but we are going to New Hampshire for a few months, then off to San Diego. I'm pretty excited! I've never been to California, and all my family is in New Hampshire, it will be nice to get to see them all again, and let Jack do some growing up around the things, and people I grew up with. Anyhow, summer plans... We have a few more camping trips planed. We bought a pop up this year, its an '82 but its in really good shape, and we plan to use it. We are going up to the U.P. and to see Mackinac Island. We are having a HUGE moving sale this summer at some point. I've started gathering all the things we don't use, and cleaning them up and pricing them. Its amazing how much stuff we have. Of coarse there will be trips to the lake to swim, and all the typical summer stuff. On top of all that we are preparing to move. It's going to be an awesome summer.

Looking Forward.

Let me start this post by saying that I love summer. I love it more than any other time of the year. To me it feels like you have more freedom, and there is always something fun to do. I grew up in New England on the coast. Where, despite popular belief, we have three seasons, Snow, Mud, and Summer.

I hated Snow, from a very early age. I never really had that love affair some people do, where they mistakenly believe that the falling snow, and a world blanketed in sparking white is somehow magical. In my house growing up Snow was a four letter word, right up there with the other ones mom used to wash out mine and my brother’s mouth for saying. Snow meant shoveling , and ice, worry about things like frozen pipes, and long very cold days, spent mostly inside the house crowed with eight people. Not to mention the enveloping darkness that consumes New England that time of year, and the enviable, dreaded, Nor Easter.

After the snow comes mud, because well, all that snow has to go some where when the days start to get warmer. My yard, and neighborhood, growing up had terrible drainage and we ended up with a huge lake like puddle in the back yard. If you were to go out in any part of the yard that was not flooded, you ran the risk of loosing your shoes to the mud monster. The mud covered everything, cars, windows, homes, even people… if they dared to venture outside.

Summer time was the only time my mom didn’t mind turning my little brother and I loose in the neighborhood, and surrounding woods, that were our playground. We would build forts and climb trees. We discovered creeks and the marsh and even an abandoned campground out back in the woods. We ran from the guards on top of Rock Mountain, the big pile of granite boulders that the nuclear power plant used in the 60’s to burry waste, back when misguided towns people actually believed the waste was not harmful to the town and its inhabitance. If not for summer those treasured childhood hiding spots would never had been found. Later in my teenage years I would not have had a place to escape to when my father, then later a boy friend turned abusive, mean, and violent, if summer time had not allowed me the chance to explore I never would have found that most secret of spots.


The last week of this month is going to be a busy fun filled week. Not only is it the second ICLW I'll be participating in, but Hub and I have a whole ton of things planned to welcome summer back the right way.

I love living in this area, especially this time of year. There are so many festivals that happen it is pretty impossible to be bored, and the best part is most of them are free! The Strawberry Festival is coming soon, we might not go to the actual festival because of Hub's schedule, but there will be berry picking in mass amounts, followed by freezing and eating loads of amazing fresh strawberries.

The Patriotic festival is Memorial Day weekend, and its biggest feature is FREE concerts on the beach (like actual sand with water less then 100 feet away) by people that I've actually heard of. This year Gary Allan and David Cook are playing and we will be going to both I'm pretty sure I might even buy the special seats that are $10 each, they are up front and they include dinner so maybe... Oh and there fireworks... I heart fireworks...

Plus there are like 5 movies that are coming out that we wont have a chance to see until then. We are HUGE movie people, pretty much if it comes out we see it, unless it looks like complete crap. Plus there is sleep (precious sleep) and life, including work (busy beginning of summer in a condo on the beach work) wrapped up in that mix... I am looking forward to an awesome kick off to summer!

As an aside I feel like if someone poked me with a pin I would fly around the room like on of those cartoon characters as I deflate... I hate that feeling! Anyone have a pin handy…. And a oversize butterfly net to catch me in… TMI I know... I'm sorry!